City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome you to the June 16th, 2026 meeting of the King County Council. I'm Sarah Perry, Chair of the Council, joined by Vice Chairs Jorge Barron and Reagan Dunn and our Council colleagues today, and this meeting is called to order. We also appreciate the opportunity to have this remote to support all of those working so hard to make the FIFA game and experience throughout Seattle as seamless and to help our colleagues focus on the work at hand and celebrate from where they are. So we appreciate the hybrid opportunity that we have available to us. Thank you all. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We thank these caretakers of this land who've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial, bringing their cultural ways of life and greatly enriching our communities. With that, Claire Kaye, would you please call the roll?

Thank you, Chair Perry. Council Member Balducci? Here. Council Member Marone?

Here.

Council Member Demboski?

Here.

Council Member Dunn?

Here.

Council Member Fain? Here. Council Member Lewis? Here. Council Member Mosqueda?

Here.

Council Member Von Reichbauer.

Here. Here.

Here, Perry.

Here. You have a full quorum. Thank you very much. Next, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Balducci.

Thank you very much. Please rise if you're able or acknowledge if you are remote. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Balducci. Vice Chair Barone, may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the June 9, 2026 Council meeting?

I move approval of the minutes of June 9, 2026.

Thank you. The motion is before us. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All opposed say nay. Minutes are approved. Clerk Hay, are there any additions to the council agenda? I have none. Thank you very much. We'll now turn to the public reading of items into the record and the hearing of public comments. Before we proceed, I want to note that my office has received a request for a one-week courtesy delay on item six, proposed ordinance 2026-0073 concerning the organization of administrative offices and executive departments. As chair, I've granted this request and for this reason will not be taking action on the legislation today unless there's an objection.

I object.

We have one objection. Do we have a second objection? Second. okay we have two objections so we will not be uh holding this as a one-week criticism point of order point of order council and i believe is debatable and subject to a majority vote okay i'd like to uh speak to the uh objection uh please speak to the objection i think that is vice chair dunn thank you um you know a new county executive was elected in november

and won a majority of the votes. And that executive historically is entitled to organize his executive branch in a way, as long as it's consistent with county rules, regulations, and code in a way that he or she sees fit. We've delayed this, I think, for a while now. And as I understand it, the executive has answered more than 50 questions relating to the substance of it. and been open and transparent. I believe we need to move forward on this reorganization in the interest of the public so that the people's government can be organized, led, funded, and put to use within the first year of the executive's tenure. I think further delay doesn't meet the public's interest, and I urge my colleagues to vote to support hearing it today.

Thank you. There was a second.

that council member von reich bauer i had a question can you hear me all right yes um has how long has this been before the council uh good question maybe staff melanie or someone could answer this is ida this is 20 26 0073 correct

Yes. Yes. That was introduced on April 21st, and we're referred to Committee of the Whole. Okay.

So it's been before since April 21st?

It was introduced on April 21st.

And then moved to Committee of the Whole? Correct. And when did it come to Council?

May 26th, Committee of the Whole passed it out of Committee and back to Council.

And so when was it before Council for the first time? I think it's this agenda. This agenda? Yes. Okay, thank you.

May I follow up, Chair?

Please, yeah.

I didn't anticipate the action today, but I will speak to it. As a member of the Committee as a whole, we've all had this before us, And I think Council Member Dunn has raised some valid points here. The county executive's term is like a number of us, a three-year term, not a four-year term until the next reelection. Is that correct as well?

Is it 28 as well?

I'm just confirming that, asking.

I don't know. Does anybody?

Yeah, it's a three-year term.

Yeah, so any delay in giving the executive, and I've had my challenges with the process to date as well, but we can't continue kicking this can. Let's deal with it today and move on. It's been before us since the end of April. It's now almost the end of June, and it's time to act.

Thank you. Other comments? There is nothing.

As the person who requested a courtesy delay, I'd love to speak to the reason for the request.

Okay, go right ahead. And then Council Member Barron, Vice Chair Barron, after Council Member Valdeci.

So the reason for the request for a courtesy delay is because there is a proposal as part of this reorganization. I don't disagree with anything anybody has said. I don't disagree that the executives should have absolute control discretion to organize how they deliver their implementation role, their governance role in whatever way they see fit. There is a proposal in this to do away with the structure of the budget office And the Labor Relations Office. These are two basic functions of government that have always been part of some structure, some governmental structure. You know, we have sort of civil service type structures. They're not exactly the same. And in some cases, they're not at all the same. But we have those structures for a reason. We have organizational structures. existence because different organizations have their different missions. The jail has a mission. The elections office has a mission. The Department of Natural Resources has a mission and parks. And The budget office has its own mission and its own existence. The labor relations department has its own mission and its own existence. This proposal does away with those for the first time that I can recall in all of county history and does away with those in a way that we cannot find a single other jurisdiction that does not have an identified budget office, that does not have an identified labor relations function. And I think that sets us up for some unintended consequences that I think we should consider. I have an amendment before us today. If people want to act today, it just was late breaking and I thought it would bear some more time to really think through and make sure this proposal is given due consideration and that would require just a few more days. By the way, you can't implement THIS ORDINANCE WITHOUT THE CORRESPONDING BUDGET, AND THE BUDGET ISN'T BEFORE US UNTIL NEXT WEEK. SO IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER IN THE SAME EXACT TIME FRAME. WE HAVE CONSIDERED THIS IN DUE DILIGENCE THROUGH COMMITTEE. IT WASN'T HELD UP IN COMMITTEE. IT WAS HEARD DILIGENTLY IN COMMITTEE, AND IT CAME TO COUNCIL ON REGULAR COURSE. IT HAS NOT BEEN DELAYED. AND IT'S REALLY BEEN VERY ROUTINE AND CONSISTENT FOR COUNCIL MEMBERS TO ALLOW OUR COLLEAGUES a few days grace to consider something important. And that's all I'm asking for. I would encourage us to take the extra time to do so. And we're going to pass the reorganization. We're going to pass the budget. We're going to give the executive what he needs to do his job. But I think before we become potentially the first government in the entire country to have no existing budget office or labor relations section, maybe we ought to think about it for a second. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barron, Vice Chair Barron.

Chair, I just wanted, since we're discussing this item, I just wanted to remind everybody that I am recused from this item, and I would just like to ask, I understand that if we're actually voting on this, I have to ask the council to approve a motion to recuse me, but I don't know if that's relevant to this question that is before us, or if it's a only on the actual underlying. So if Monique could help me with that, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you. Monique Cohen on behalf of the council. So the motion before the council right now is to appeal the ruling of the chair at which you're debating that now. So the first vote would be to see whether or not this matter would be heard today. Council Member Barron could cast a vote on that as it's not to the underlying legislation. It's my understanding that he intends to recuse himself from 0073. And at that time, under our rules, a member is only recused from voting if the majority of members, if someone makes a motion to recuse him from, to excuse him from the vote. Otherwise, members wouldn't be marked as excused.

Thank you, Monique. Vice Chairman, would you like to continue?

No, that's fine. I just want to note my recusal. Thank you.

Any other comments? Any other comments? Okay. So, Melanie, is this a voice vote or an aye or a nay? You can start with a voice vote if you'd like. Okay. All those.

Please restate the motion.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Dembowski. So, the question is, the motion is concerning Ordinance 2026-0073. All those in faith. Nope. Help me with this. Somebody help me with this.

The motion is to overrule the chair granting of the one week courtesy delay. The effect of the motion on a yes vote with the effect would be to take it up today and not delay for a week.

Yeah, that's correct. Council Member Belichick is exactly right. It's a motion to overrule the chair.

Okay, so... So I'm stating the motion to overrule the chair. All those in favor of the motion to overrule the chair for the courtesy delay say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. The chair has been overruled. So we will keep it in the agenda for today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

okay well with that uh clerk k will you please read the items into the record thank you item six is proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0073 relating to organization of administrative offices and executive departments item seven is proposed motion number 2026-0081 confirming the appointment of susan mclaughlin as director of the king county department of community and human services Item eight is proposed substitute motion number 2026-0129, confirming the appointment of Cynthia McNabb to the Citizens Elections Oversight Committee as a representative sponsored by a junior taxing district or a city with a population of under 20,000. Item nine is proposed substitute motion number 2026-0130, confirming the appointment of Steve Cho to the Citizens Elections Oversight Committee as a representative of the Korean-speaking community. Item 10 is proposed motion number 2026-0111, acknowledging receipt of a report on maintaining Medicaid retention in King County. And item 11 is proposed motion number 2026-0140, confirming the executive's reappointment of Leah Tischler, who resides in Council District 4, to the King County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, representing a public interest group.

Okay, thank you very much. The council will now take public comment on ordinances and motions on today's agenda for action, items six through 11. Listening to public and taking into consideration the public's thoughts is an important part of our process and one that greatly enhances our deliberations. In order to allow everyone equal time to provide comment, please observe the following chamber rules, limiting comments to two minutes, remaining seated until time for public comment. No audible noise during the meeting. The public comment period may not be used for purpose of assisting a campaign for election to any office, any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition. And in addition, per Council Rule Number 10, disruptive behavior may lead to the commenter being muted or asked to leave the chambers. This again would include standing rather than remaining seated, providing audible noise other than at the podium, and no signs obstructing free passage or view, no signs at the podium, and obviously no use of bullhorns or noisemakers. For online public comment, press star nine on the phone or click the raise hand icon on the Zoom toolbar located at the bottom of the screen to notify the clerk. The clerk will call the names or the last three digits of the phone numbers in order and will unmute each line. At the end of each comment, the clerk will lower the hands. With that, clerk thoughts, please begin by calling names of folks here in person, followed by those hands raised online for public comment.

Thank you, Chair Perry. First name on the list is Kevin Alfimer.

Hello, Council Chair. I'm here to speak on motion 20260081. And I think it's really interesting that at this particular time that you're finally taking the time to finally get a real director. who also made it very clear that what Reagan done yelled out in here and had to apologize that there is fraud. She said there is none. She did a interview on the 27th with Como and stated emphatically there was no fraud as of yet. Also, with Dembowski, even though Dembowski is the one supporting her, I'm very surprised, but she also concurs that there is no fraud, even to him. So, Mrs. Teresa Mascotta is there, and I commend her on proposing this woman, because now what we have... that we didn't have before is a truth. Now what I would like to see is for her to get rid of Amber Green, Jennifer Tanaka, Jessica Caffrey, Jamalia Jones, Danielle Hammond, Tiffany Williams, Valerie Stugmeier, because they're costing the county some money. I spoke with the lawyer for Mr. Fund. who is suing the county right now, Mr. Hudson. I'm sending him over all the documents that he required for me to send him. So I need you guys to understand what's going on. You guys have an opportunity to clean up this mess, especially Reagan's done fake juvenile diversion that now has turned into they gave millions of dollars, it appears, to carry over sin, and that shouldn't have never happened. Thank you. And I look forward in getting us a director for DCHS.

Thank you. Next person on the list is Alex Zimmerman.

Yes, my name Alex Zimmerman.

What is I hear today is making... Mr. Zimmerman, please put the sign down. Please mute or please keep his time running. Mr. Zimmerman, please put the sign down.

I don't hear you.

Okay, keep his time running. Mr. Zimmerman, would you like to leave chambers?

What? My hair not so good. Can you speak to me English?

Is the clerk having difficulty hearing me in the chambers? okay what did you want my sign out where is problem you can hear you on the zoom you can hear us on zoom we'll wait till the sign is placed down and then you're far away you in heaven you know what has been i'm here are you in heaven we can hear you okay you don't my sign i will take sign out no problem His time is still running, is that correct?

It's okay, no problemo. Guys, what is I hear today is make me a shock. I don't understand. I know you, you Nazi Gestapo fascist, you know what is mean, control every county for last 30 year, ever under Martin Luther King. But you talking right now about Zahili acting like a dictator. How can he make a changes when you not approve this? How is this possible? Who are you? A Nazi? I told you about this for 30 years. You are real fascist. You are dictator, don't have analogy in America. You're number one county, fascist county in America. The hell I cannot do indecision without you approve each point. No wholesale pro-approve what is you have this. There's two pages changes and you have all together. You need approve each individually. It's a point. You are real Nazi Gestapo. You are fascist. We were Trump. We were New American Revolution. Stand up, slave, and heavy cow. You are real bandita.

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman.

Next. I don't have any other hands raised, or anybody else in chambers, and I don't have any hands raised.

Okay. Thank you very much. We'll now turn to the action items on today's agenda, beginning with proposed ordinance 2026-0073. Vice Chair Dunn, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0073? So moved. Thank you. The ordinance is before us. Before we proceed, I'd like to note that Sam Porter from Council Central Staff is available to answer any questions. With that, I'd like to ask if there's any discussion from my colleagues.

Chair Perry, there's a motion that requires a recusal of Vice Chair Barone. I just want to make sure I don't miss the proper timing of that motion. You could keep me posted. That'd be great. I'm happy to make the motion.

Yeah, we can go ahead and make that motion now if we'd like.

I move. I'm happy to make it orally. I move to recuse Council Member Barone from vote number. You'll have to help me, Chair.

It's 2026-0073.

2026-0073 to recuse Vice Chair Barone.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, say nay. Thank you. Monique, I saw your hand. Did we move too quickly?

I was just saying that it should be made before the vote, and this is sufficiently before the vote, and it would be to excuse him from voting.

excellent thank you very much so what we did recuse was sufficient that's sufficient if the clerk could note for the record thank you that he'll be excused from that vote thank you uh and then um no discussion i'm hearing on 2026-0073 and i there are amendments sam would you please brief the amendments

Thank you, Chair Perry. There are two amendments in the additional meeting materials packet that was sent out to members. The first amendment is sponsored by Council Member Balducci and would retain the Office of Labor Relations and create the Budget Office in the Executive's Office. And the second amendment is a technical line amendment. It would remove an extraneous word, make corrections to legislative markup, and state clearly that the Department of Executive Services is responsible for developing and administering the inquest attorney selection program. Happy to answer any questions.

Do my colleagues have any questions for Sam before turning to the sponsor?

Yes, Sam, can you... Chair Perry, may I speak?

Please, yes.

Thanks for the recognitions. Sam, can you just briefly underscore where those particular offices are going to be embedded and in what form and shape within the new executive branch?

Sure. So the office... Can I offer it and speak to it before we start debating it?

Oh, okay. That was a question to Sam about the structure of it. Do you want to

I'm more than happy to have the amendments briefed, or excuse me, spoken to by Council Member Baducci. I just want to have staff just give us a quick heads up on how it is currently organized, 30,000 foot view. I think this one requires a little bit more detail.

Fair enough. Is that all right with the chair? Okay. That's great. Thank you. So currently, the Office of Labor Relations is in the Executive's Office, and there is an Office of Performance Strategy and Budget that is also in the Executive's Office. These two offices are proposed for removal in the proposed legislation and the underlying legislation, and so this amendment would reverse the removal. It would retain the Office of Labor Relations as it is now and with a few recommended changes in the underlying legislation to clarify responsibilities. And then the budget office would be kind of a replacement for the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget in this amendment. It would pull out the budget related responsibilities and assign those to the budget office and the performance and strategy responsibilities would be assigned to the executive's office.

And follow up, Vice Chair Dunn, or does that cover?

I think that gives me enough of a thing to work on. Thanks.

I'd like to ask a question.

Yeah. Sam, can you share what the executive office's rationale was for these two particular changes to doing away with the organizational structure of the performance strategy and budget office and doing away with the organizational structure of the labor relations office? What was the reason for doing that?

So I would defer to executive staff on their rationale for removing those two. I believe we have Garrett Holbrook here from the executive's office.

Garrett, would you like to join us and speak to that?

Could you repeat the question for me? Sorry, the audio is a little challenging at the moment.

Sure. Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

The question is, what was the rationale given by the executive to do away with the Office of PSB, the structure? The functions and the people and the jobs stay, but the structure is going away. The Office of Performance Strategy and Budget and the Office of Labor Relations.

Yes, happy to answer that question, Council Member. We believe the structure is largely the same, but the offices that were created in code lacked transparency of how the ultimate reporting structure of the Office of the Executive worked. And in the end, all of those folks ultimately reported through Dwight Dively up to Executive Constantine. In the new structure that we've proposed, we believe it's transparent that all of the FTEs within the Office of the Executive ultimately report to Executive Zahilai. So we're trying to create a structure that maintains the offices and roles that were in place previously, but that reflect the nature of the structure of the office.

Follow-up, Council Member Balducci?

That was an answer to my question. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions specifically for Sam before turning it to the sponsor? Okay. Council Member Balducci, would you like to move it and speak to it?

I'd like to move adoption of Amendment 1. And to speak to it... There's, there is, I believe that of all of the offices that are being restructured in this, there are different types of decisions being made here. When it comes to things like having an office of creative economy, that was clearly a priority of a previous executive. that he wanted to pursue, he created an office and with our approval, staffed it and budgeted it to pursue a priority of his administration. Other offices like the Office of Climate, the Office of Equity and Racial and Social Justice, These are things that are also priorities of the former executive and executives that they chose to structure within the executive's office. The new executive, I think, is doing a few things here. One is has different set of priorities that he has been very clear about. At our Labor Summit, we heard about them. At the State of the County, we heard about them. And this is absolutely the responsibility and the prerogative of the new administration to have their priorities. So the Office of Creative Economy is no longer, you know, sort of one of the top administrative priorities, totally within their obligation and prerogative. Office of equity and racial and social, you know, racial and social justice and regional planning and things like this remain a priority per the executive, but they've been structured differently. So there are new priorities. Some of the changes are new priorities, not going to have an office because this is no longer the priority. Some of them are these remain priorities, but we're structuring them differently. I would suggest to you, colleagues, that having a budget office and a labor relations office are different. These are not priorities of any administration. These are basic and critical functions of government, especially a highly unionized government like ours. Having an organizational structure to them where there is an office, it exists, it exists in code, it exists in org charts, it exists in the budget. And it has a clear head. I just, you know, with all due respect, I don't see how it's transparent, not transparent to say you have an office that's got a head. And the ARG chart shows who the head reports to. I don't know that we have had a problem with transparency of our budget office or our labor relations function. Certainly there's never been any complaints about that. But the reason to have a structure at all, why have departments? Why have a department of adult and juvenile detention? Why not just have it all report as the directors do up through the executive? Why isn't it all just flattened out and reported to the executive? Because these organizations within county government have separate missions. separate drivers, in some cases, separate professional standards and obligations. That is certainly true of the Budget Office and the Labor Relations Office. And to lose that structure, I fear, and I can't prove this, but I fear that it risks losing visibility for the functions. any kind of independence or independent structure from politics. We are a political government. We are also a bureaucratic government. And those two things should be separate. And I think that the budget is one of the areas where we should hope to have leadership and a structure that encourages independence. So they will tell us, the budget director and budget staff will tell us, elected officials, the council, the executive, the judges, any of us, things we need to hear, not just what we want them to say. So I fear that we lose that when we lose this structure. And it may never appear as a problem as long as you have, as we have today, branches of government that are politically aligned. I think the problems start to show up when you have branches of government that are not politically aligned. Nevertheless, it seems like we're walking away from not just even a best practice, a standard practice, a practice with no precedent in this government to do differently. And we went looking because I asked myself, am I like, is this really a thing? Is this something we should be concerned about? Could not find a single other jurisdiction. Now, I asked for a week because I wanted to go look deeper. We didn't have a chance to do a really thorough review, but I didn't have a chance to. So we're arguing this today. couldn't find a single other large jurisdiction or any jurisdiction that doesn't have an organizational entity that is their budget office in some way or that is their labor relations section in some way. The reason the amendment is the way it is is because budget office in King County has taken different forms. There's always been a B in the budget office. It was OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. It was PSB, the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. There's always been the B. In my view, management, performance management, strategy, that is all completely fair game for the executive to want to have within his scope, reporting directly to him without any organizational boundaries around it. Budget strikes me as different. Did a little bit of consulting, again, briefly, and I don't have anything formal to share with you today, but I couldn't find an expert in this field that would say, oh, yeah, that totally works and other people do that. Nobody. Nobody. It feels like we're setting a sea out to sea with an idea, with a very general idea. uh justification and where we're taking a risk of losing really key checks and balances within the government i would propose that there should be more of a thought given to making this level of a change before we do it every single other thing where the priorities are how they are staffed whether we have an office of climate whether we have an office of creative economy totally up to the executive These two areas strike me as too foundational and fundamental for us to do away with their organizational structure without more reassurances that there's a goal we're trying to achieve and that this is the way to achieve it. I would strongly urge that we support this change. And if the executive wants to have more conversation about these two changes, then let's have it. but I don't see any really kind of good rationalization or any study to back up that this is a good and appropriate and safe thing to do. So I would like for us to just take a step back on these two items, and I hope that we will consider doing so. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions or comments for discussion from colleagues? Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Chair. A few weeks ago, I asked a question about if we do this, can we undo that? What I was told was anything we can do with an ordinance, we can undo with an ordinance. We have a new executive, an executive who was elected to run the county. I think we owe it to that executive to give them the opportunity to do that. If we give them the opportunity, we make the changes and they don't work, we have the opportunity to pass an ordinance to return to the organization that we have now. So I would just ask my colleagues to consider that.

Thank you. Council Member Lewis, any other comments or discussion? Sure. Yes, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much. I appreciate what customer Lewis just shared as well. And along the same lines of, um, comes on. We're done at the opening comments. I am very optimistic that we will continue to get additional information along. Councilmember bond, right? Bowers comments, you know, the desire to see additional, um, information has been communicated, and I know that's ongoing. I do really appreciate the sponsor, Council Member Bellucci's interest in making sure specifically that our labour partners' needs are being met. And as I mentioned in the budget briefing that the Council had yesterday, we too had initial concerns when we saw that there was a suggestion to restructure, especially the Labor Relations Office. In doing outreach to conversate in our conversations and the outreach that we did to various labor unions, including the Coalition for County Unions, the clear message that we received back is that there was initial alarm caused by just a little bit of miscommunication, but now the Coalition's position is very clear. The Coalition for County Unions position is that they are supportive of the executive's restructure as proposed. And I just wanted to lift up that feedback because I too had some initial question marks when I saw that. Their feedback was that their partners have all looked at this and confirmed, again, as early as this morning, that there is not a need to try to pull this out as a separate entity from their perspective. And having a seat at the table to voice employee concerns and input is critical, I think, for us to maintain that check and balance that was described in addition to the separate branches of government. So I really appreciate that the unionized workforce has underscored support for the existing proposal and given their direct work within the new structure as being proposed and their support for how communication lines they think could be improved. I'm supportive of the proposal as it came over. So unfortunately, I'm not supportive of the amendments, but really appreciate that the question was raised. Again, similar questions on our end, but we did do the follow-up. And at this point, the Coalition for County Unions does not have concerns about the restructure.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis. Other comments? That would be Council Member Mosqueda. You know, very nice. I'm blending into the background here. Thank you very much. I was enamored with Council Member Lewis's background, so I had that on my mind. Thank you. Okay, seeing no further discussion, let's proceed with the vote. All those in favor of Amendment 1, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Amendment 1 is not adopted. Council Member Demboski, would you please move Amendment 2, and would you like to speak to it?

I believe it's in the nature of a technical amendment. I offer Amendment 2. It was briefed by Sam Porter.

Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, let's proceed with the vote. All those in favor of Amendment 2, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Amendment two is adopted. Colleagues, have any final comments? Clerk Hay, would you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci?

No.

Council Member Barone? Aye. Council Member Don?

Aye.

Council Member Fain? Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Rykbauer.

Aye.

Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes, and Council Member Balducci voting no, and Council Member Barone excused. Thank you.

By our vote, we've adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0073 as amended. Turning now to motion consent agenda, items seven through nine. Vice Chair Barone, would you please move consent agenda item seven through nine?

I move items seven through nine.

Item seven through nine are before us.

Clerk Kaye, will you please call the roll? Thank you. Council Member Balducci? Aye. Council Member Barone?

Aye.

Council Member Dabowsky?

Aye.

Council Member Dunn?

Aye.

Council Member Fain? Aye. Council Member Lewis? Aye. Council Member Mosqueda? Aye. What's the number of on right power?

Aye.

Chair Perry? Aye.

The vote is nine ayes, zero noes. Thank you. Proposed motions number 2026-0081, 0129, and 0130 have been adopted. Turning to item 10, proposed motion 2026-0111 concerning a report on maintaining Medicaid retention in King County. One moment, please. Council Member Moschetta, would you please move proposed motion 2026-0111? So moved. Motion is before us. Before we proceed, I'd like to note that Sam Porter from Council Central Staff is available to answer any questions. Does anyone have any questions for Sam? Okay, Council Member Moschetta, would you like to offer any opening remarks?

Thank you very much, Chair Perry. And I acknowledge colleagues that it's probably an item that we would normally have on consent agenda. But just given all that's under threat right now with Medicaid and federal funding for health care, the Committee of the Health, Housing and Human Services members agreed to put this not on the non-consent list because it's really an opportunity for us to lift up what we are trying to do. to make sure that more of our King County residents get enrolled in Medicaid. The proposed motion acknowledges receipt of the report to maintain Medicaid retention in King County in accordance with the budget proviso in the 2026-2027 biennial budget. I want to thank our colleagues for the conversations and your interest and leadership in that regard last fall. And we had an opportunity to hear this report in the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee on May 26. We heard from the Department of Health and our central staff members about the Public Health Seattle King County's efforts to increase Medicaid enrollment and retention rates, especially important in light of the federal changes. I want to thank the Regional Services Administrator Daphne Pye and Keith Seinfeld from Public Health for joining our Health, Housing and Human Services Committee meeting and really detailing the extraordinary efforts that our public health workforce goes through to help get residents of King County signed up for Medicaid and into any programs that they might be eligible in the marketplace, otherwise known as the exchange, and also searching for any programs that individuals may be eligible for at the state level, like the age blind and disabled program, medically indigent program and others. This is really a testament to the various layers and levels that public health staff go through. to make sure that every individual who is coming into a public health clinic or enrolled and engaged in public health prevention work gets screened for and enrolled in any health coverage option. I was really thankful for the presentation and committee because it helped to dispel the false notion that Public Health Seattle, King County or that are specifically our public health clinics and workers are quote, leaving money on the table. We were able to dispel this myth and really hear about all of the various ways that public health workers are getting people signed up for any insurance program that they are eligible for. Colleagues, that brings money back to the county. That helps to make sure that services are reimbursable. Not only that, it helps reduce the out-of-pocket costs that the county ends up paying for any uncovered health coverage that we end up providing at our public health clinics or later down the road at Harborviews. It is both good for the financial health of the county and good for the population health of the county that we continue to uplift and invest in our public health workforce, our public health clinics and programs that are helping get people enrolled in health insurance. I also want to thank members of the community health clinic system, our federally qualified health centers who have flagged over the course of the last year that they too thought that they were doing a better job than our public health clinic partners in getting people enrolled. And when they heard the public health workforce enrollment success numbers, they actually reached out to me to say, wow, I didn't realize it was that high. We're on par there. And as our public health team actually noted, On the dias last week, we are actually doing a better job of enrolling folks into Medicaid and exchange programs and other health insurance options in our public health Seattle King County system. By way of example, in 2025, the Navigators enrolled almost 13,000 clients in Medicaid, and our community health Navigators in partnership with the community health clinics across the region are literally meeting people where they are at, removing language barriers, and Because of that, we see trusted messengers helping to get people into all of the eligible programs. So with the negative impacts of the big bad bill, HR1, and the looming threat of people losing their health insurance this fall due to their lawfully present immigration status and potentially next year because of the cuts coming to Medicaid with 215,000 King County residents possibly losing their Medicaid insurance. We are doing everything we can to make sure that we are getting people enrolled in programs that they're eligible for now, which again benefits the bottom line at King County and improves population health. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thanks to my colleagues on the Health, Housing, and Human Services Committee for a really robust discussion in our last meeting on this topic.

Thank you very much, Council Member Mosqueda. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments for discussion? Just looking, not seeing any.

Council Member Fain has her hand up, Chair.

Thank you very much, Council Member Fain.

want to thank Councilmember Mesquite again for bringing this forward and not letting it just slide through on consent because it really is important. I hope that folks have an opportunity to review the report and or the staff report. It really started a conversation, a broader conversation during on this work group discussions about how the county should prepare for these pretty significant federal changes and ultimately led to council member, well, I joined on council member Barone's sponsored expenditure restriction plan in the upcoming budget to provide additional support for residents who are losing Medicaid coverage and need help accessing insurance options. And the Public Health Access and Outreach Program team does a tremendous job of proactively getting folks enrolled with insurance so that They aren't trying to do it when they're at the emergency room because they haven't gone to their primary care doctor to proactively get treatment. We're really trying to get ahead of what is coming, and this team does a fantastic job of it. pretty alarming to see some of these changes. And so again, thank you to Council Member Mosqueda for your leadership on this and Council Member Barone for taking some of my questions and really activating into legislation that I'm proud to co-sponsor.

Thank you very much, Council Member Fain. Any other points of discussion, colleagues? Thank you. So before we proceed, any final comments? Councillor Mosqueda? Seeing no further discussion, Claire Kaye, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci? Aye. Council Member Barone?

Aye.

Council Member Dabowsky? Aye. Council Member Dunn?

Aye.

Council Member Fain? Aye. Council Member Lewis? Aye. Council Member Mosqueda? Aye. Council Member von Reifauer? Aye. Aye. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is nine ayes, zero noes.

By our vote, we've adopted proposed motion 2026-00, excuse me, 2026-0100. We'll now turn to reappointment consent agenda item 11. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move consent agenda item 11?

I move agenda item 11.

Clerk Haley, please call the roll. Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Aye. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Demboski. Aye. Council Member Dunn. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reifbauer.

Aye.

Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is nine ayes, zero noes.

By our vote we've adopted proposed motion number 2026-0140. If there's no objection, the published marked agenda together with any changes made in today's meeting will stand approved as the first reading and referral of ordinances and motions items 12 through 19 as listed. Under other business, in accordance with KCC 3.04.080, I'm noting that the Board of Ethics has two council nominated term positions expiring, excuse me, noting that the Board of Ethics has two council-nominated term positions expiring July 31st, 2026, and I'm requesting my colleagues submit nominations to fill the positions. Council members may nominate an individual by sending an email with the completed application forms to my office by Monday, June 22nd. All nominations will be announced at the June 23rd council meeting and forwarded to the executive. Each of your chiefs of staff have also received this information by email. Additionally, regarding item 19, which was introduced by Council Member Fain and referred to the Committee of the Whole, and which relates to the proposed opioid treatment program facility in Kent, I want to share that my intent is to relieve Cal of the legislation next week and take action at the June 23rd Council meeting in order to meet the deadline extension granted by the Department of Health. With that, do my colleagues have any other business for the good of the order? Seeing no further business before us, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.