City Council - Regular Meeting

Awesome, good afternoon. Today is September 14th, 2026. The council briefing meeting will come to order. The time is 2.03 p.m. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rivera and Council Member Rink are excused until they get here. Colleagues, welcome back. I know we had a great recess, and so this is our first council briefing back from recess. We're really excited. We have a ton on the agenda, so I'll keep my comments brief and we'll keep stuff moving. If there's no objection, the minutes of August the 10th, 2026 will be adopted. hearing no objection the minutes are adopted today we have on the agenda four proclamations we have two presentations and one executive session after this council briefing there are also 25 items on the consent cale

Awesome. Thank you, Matt. And for the record, Councilmember Rivera is here. Go ahead, Imani.

And before we go into the presentations, is it possible, because we don't have a visual stuff, but everyone was sent a memo, and I would actually like that. Would you all like that a memo up on the screen, or would you like a link to it so you have it? Colleagues, there's 22 appointments. How many folks do we have here today? Awesome. Okay. And I have a list and everything. Would you all like that? Okay. Well, I'm going to have my team send that to me so you all have it in front of you so we know who you're talking about as well and with the memo from Tal. Okay. Go right ahead. Thank you, Moni.

We cannot, you need to pull it to you and then it should be on. There you go. Hello. Yep, perfect. Okay.

Pull it to you. Get it real close. Yes. Perfect.

Thank you. And for the record, Council Member Rank is here.

And for the record, we have just one second. We have it up online, so people's names so everyone can see, and then you also have the memo in your inbox, colleagues. All right, thank you.

And you can just have them come on up to an interview.

So sorry. You're okay. Well, we can get through the people that are here while you're looking for that up. Is that okay?

Thank you. I believe we have one more, one last one, correct? Awesome.

Awesome. Well, thank you, Imani. Thank you, Matt. I want to thank the 22, the people that are in person, 14 of you all and the 22 total for this program and for you all wanting to volunteer your time to get involved. That is huge that you all are at this point of your life as young adults. I remember when I was your age, I didn't even think about any program like this. But the fact that you are thinking about getting involved in local government and helping us shape our what is important for you because the decisions that we make up here the mayor makes impacts you all the most when we're talk

Thank you. I'll be very brief. First of all, thank you as my eight or nine years being here. Will you speak in the mic? Oh, sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. I've overseen many years of board participation, community, all these different groups, and nine or ten years of doing this. And it's always interesting to see the folks that come forward. So thank you for all the work you do, and thank you for you all participating. wanting to be on these boards and serve, because we all take it seriously. I know you think we don't, but we do. But I'm going to embarrass somebody because I want her to know h

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Juarez. Are there other comments? Big thank you all. I'm just seeing big, big thank you. I don't know if there's any closing comments from Matt or Imani. Oh, there is one from Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President. I just want to say that this is such an important program, the Get Engaged program. It's been around forever and It just speaks to, well, first of all, that folks, again, want to volunteer their time to sit on this program. They sit on these commissions, rather. They care so deeply about this city. I am so appreciative, and I love seeing young people involved, because you guys are the present and the future. And then I want to say I've had the pleasure, he's not here today, but of meeting Jonathan Chavez today. he's reached out to meet with me proactively, and it

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Rivera. Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair, Council President. I feel like I've been goaded to say this, but when I was in your position, I think Ronald Reagan was president, and the Cold War, there still was a Soviet Union. Yes, Council Member Juarez, you and I are together in that. But, you know, it's... But at the same time, after retiring from the Navy and starting anew, I was at the Evans School here locally at UW, and I was volunteering in a similar but different situation. And investing in yourself and investing in this work helps you, but it also helps the organizations that you may be working for. And I think

Thank you, Council Member. I coached there for three years. Thank you, Council Member Kettle. Council Member Rankin.

Thank you, Council President. And unlike Council Member Kettle, I think I just aged out of the Get Engaged program. So thank you. Appreciate that. And I want to thank you all for being here today, for your willingness to serve on our boards. And also thank you for sharing your stories and your why. I'm a firm believer that it is time for our generation to step up and shape our future. And the Get Engaged program really promotes and supports exactly that. And so I know my office, we work with a lot of our boards and commissions in the city. So I just want to not only say thank you, but just say

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Rank. I don't see any further comments. Once again, thank you all. Thank you, Imani and Matt, for being here and for running the program that you all do with the YMCA. We're very, very grateful. And then for you all participating in the program as well. So just really grateful for you all to be here. This will be on our, this will be voted on next Tuesday, I believe. No, this Tuesday, excuse me. This coming Tuesday, we're voting on it. My apologies. Tomorrow. So tomorrow we are voting on your appointments. Yes, this coming Tuesday. Thank you so much. Thank yo

Yeah, no shade. Yeah, okay. Council Member Strauss, we are just jumping into our budget. Thank you. It's all yours. I'd like to hand it off to you, our fearless budget chair.

Wonderful. Let me find my notes after what a fun day we've been having so far. Lost my notes, but what I can tell you, my friends, is that I am excited to be your steward through this budget process. There they are. That was the first bullet point. For those of you that were here last year, you know that I shepherded a process of collaboration, of transparency, of us working together. I do that again. I look to do that again this year. We're gonna find out next week what the mayor has and has not included in this year's budget. Year after year, this council has addressed the structural budget

Awesome, thank you Council Member Strauss. And I will say, you have always been professional, you have always had information ready, you have always been collaborative, so just really appreciate your hard work during this process. So Lish, without further ado, the Council budget process after Lish is finished, I'll point it back to Council Member Strauss and then we'll take questions.

Thank you. I will redirect to Council Member Strauss and then we'll open up questions to other colleagues. Council Member Strauss.

Lish said it better than I could say anything else, so I have nothing to add. Thank you. Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss. Our colleagues, are there any questions regarding, oh, Council Member Foster.

Thank you so much, Council President. Thank you, Budget Chair Strauss and central staff. Really appreciate your work. I just wanted to clarify on the potential for self-balancing amendments. I know this is something the chair spoke to as a possibility a few months back. I think I heard you say still a possibility. So it sounds like we'll be hearing more about that, but not a certainty at this point. Is that correct?

Okay, fantastic. So it sounds like if we are going to need to do self-balancing shortly after that is when we'll hear that. Is that a look to the chair through you, Council President, if that's okay?

Thank you. Yes. May I, Chair? Thank you. Well done with parliamentary procedure. And I will say, I think we added this caveat during the memo drafting phase when we had before the most recent revenue forecast and before we did the supplemental budget where we had this experience where we asked people to find funding sources. We're still reviewing if that was helpful or unhelpful. And so I appreciate this as a provision this year. I'm not sure we will utilize it. It is something that as we go through issue identification, the first and second round, I can't remember what we call it these days.

Thank you so much. And, Council President, if I've got a few... Okay, fantastic. That's very helpful. The only other question I wanted to ask, I heard you say, you know, if there's a department that we feel passionate about presenting, to make sure that we share that information with... Was that with central staff or with the chair?

Fantastic. And I assume there's some, bear with me as my first budget rodeo. Chair, do we have a list of who you're already anticipating or should we just send you our priorities?

Already participating in department presentations? Correct. We have a general list. I think we're finalizing it right now. If there is a department that you are highly interested in, please send it our way. There has, over the last decade plus, been a core group of departments that seem to receive more questions than others. What will also occur, like last year, and we need to reconfirm with the budget director that we do this again this year, Last year for the departments that did not present, they still created PowerPoints for us to review. And so whether they are in chambers answering the q

I won't send you an email that says all of them. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you. Council President, I'd love to ask the chair if he has started to meet with council members about their budget priorities. One question, and then the second question is around how departments will get selected for presentations at budget meetings. Thank you.

answer the second question first about departments, and it is based on the departments that have presented over the past years. It's a similar core group of departments. There's not a lot of change there. As far as meeting, this year is a little bit different than the past years, with Labor Day a week later in the calendar than others. So typically, Council Member Kettle was asking, like, why does it feel so intense right now? And it feels so intense because we have one fewer week between recess and the budget starting. All that to say is we are figuring out if we're going to meet with you Thu

Thank you. And Council President, one more question, and that is, is there anything you can share, maybe not here, but individually with us about what you may know about the budget process? I mean, about the budget itself and what we can expect.

Yeah, I mean, I have some insight. I'm waiting for next week, just like everyone else, to figure out what exactly, where all of the different movements have occurred and what discrete actions have occurred within departments. So I'm waiting to dig really into the details, but happy to chat with you too.

Thank you. Thank you, Council President.

Awesome, thank you Councilmember Rivera. Colleagues, are there any more questions regarding the budget process for the chair or central staff? Awesome. Okay. Well, looking forward to Council Member Strauss.

Yeah. One last thing now that we've had a little bit of discussion for Council Member Foster and Lynn, I will share that we have a six-year look-back document that is really helpful, and I think we should resend that around. This year, we did a better job of having it completed in January or February than And so that looked at last year's budget, that six year look back plus the budget document that we receive helps navigate through where have things shifted over like since the pan just before the pandemic as compared to where we are today, as well as once we enter budget there. are communicat

Thank you, Council Member Strauss. Council Member Rivera, is that an old hand or it is? Old hand, sorry. Okay, no worries. No, no, no, you're good. You're good. I know you're good at the follow-up. Okay. All right, perfect. Thank you, Lish. Thank you, Council Member Strauss for that overview. Thank you, colleagues, for your questions. We're gonna keep plugging along here. Today, we have four proclamations for discussion and signature. I will ask each council member to introduce the proclamation and so we can seek final feedback before our request of roll call. So council members can affix thei

All right. Thank you so much, Council President. I'm really excited to bring forward this proclamation to establish September 15th as Clean Air for Blue Skies Day. And I want to first start off with thanking former State Rep Velma Valoria, who, as many folks know, is a longtime advocate for environmental justice alongside the King County International Airport Community Coalition. Those folks reached out to my office to help bring more attention to air pollution and other aviation-related health impacts to communities, particularly in South Seattle. As we all know, Georgetown and South Park alr

Thank you, Council Member Foster. Are there any comments regarding Clean Air Day for Blue Skies before I call the roll? All right, awesome. We will, can we, oh, I'm sorry, my bad. Council Member Lin.

Thanks so much, and apologies having tech issues with logging on. But just want to thank Council Member Foster for bringing this forward. In addition to South Park and Georgetown, you know, there's schools right above the International Airport there. on Beacon Hill, Maple Elementary, Cleveland. And it's a little bit shocking to know that there's still leaded fuel used in these small planes. And it's still a little unclear how big of an impact that is in terms of how much that's landing on, you know, the dirt and soils and playgrounds near this airport. But certainly, I think it's about time to

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Lynn. Council Member Sacco.

Thank you, Madam Council President. I, too, wanted to thank Council Member Foster for bringing this forward, bringing awareness to this critical issue that impacts two neighborhoods, two specific neighborhoods in my district, South Park and Georgetown. So very important and also very impactful. So thank you again.

Thank you, Council Member Saka. Any additional comments? All right. Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature to fix the proclamation?

Awesome, thank you. We will now move on to our second proclamation. Council Member Rank declares September 25th to be Dolly Parton Day. Council Member Rank.

Thank you, Council President. It is truly bittersweet to bring this proclamation forward today honoring the life and legacy of the one and only Dolly Parton. On August 25th, while council was on recess, our nation lost a true icon with Dolly Parton's passing following a brief battle with cancer. Now, I was in the UK when the news broke, and even on the other side of the world, the shops, cafes were filled with her music celebrating her life. Dolly Parton was many things, a diva, a queer icon, a singer-songwriter, but also a philanthropist. And her children's literacy advocacy with the Imaginat

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Rink. Are there any other colleagues that have any questions regarding the Dolly Parton proclamation? I love it. Thank you, Council Member Rink, for your leadership on this. Looking forward to signing on. Probably the coolest thing that I read, obviously her philanthropy, but she employed thousands of people, you know, in Dolly Parton land and all the good amusement parks. So that was like really, really impressive. The

All right. Will the clerk please call the roll on who would like their signatures affixed to the Dolly Parton Day proclamation?

Awesome. Thank you. We're now going to go to our third proclamation. Council Member Rivera is declaring September 10th through September 19th as Welcoming Week in Seattle. Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues. I'm requesting your signature on a proclamation recognizing September 10th through the 19th as Welcoming Week. Welcoming Week is one that is being recognized by a number of cities across the country. By recognizing Welcoming Week, Seattle's joining 49 other cities across the US in expressing a deep solidarity with immigrants. from all corners of the world. Welcoming Week encourages organizations, cities, and localities to showcase their values through events and initiatives that foster connections and collaboration between immigrants and non-immigrants

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Rivera, for your leadership on this. Very happy to sign. Are there any other comments regarding the proclamation before us as welcoming week, September 10th through September 19th? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? Who would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?

Awesome, thank you. And then last but not least, colleagues, I wanna revisit our proclamation. We declared August 18th to be Lynn Ruth Day. And several council members were excused from the August 18th city council meeting and were unable to sign the proclamation. Ms. Lynn has been with the city for 50 years. Last year was her 50th year working here. She's with the Department of Neighborhoods. and just wanted to give everyone an opportunity. We had a great honoring with her on the 18th, celebrated with a lot of, mostly all the Department of Neighborhood staff and had a party as well. And so ju

Awesome, thank you so much. Sounds like a plan. Colleagues, we're moving through it, and we also have an executive session, so now we are going to move into our final item on the agenda, which will be our discussion of city council actions and council and regional committees. In order of discussion, we'll start with members sitting on my right, and we'll just move down. Colleagues, we do have an executive session today. And so just asking that we are, you all can do what you want to do. You're all, you're elected, but just saying it would be nice if we heard what was just in your committee. Ok

Well, I was just saying USA, USA after the United States beat France in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. So starting with that, Council President, I will just note quickly that I have two Public Safety Committee meetings coming up tomorrow, which will be focused on the RV legislation with our colleague, Councilmember Strauss. And then on the 22nd, which is primarily gonna be a bite of Seattle after action report centered primarily on the Seattle Police Department and looking to look at that holistically. So that's gonna be the second one. And that will also have an RV piece to it too. Ju

I'm proud of you, Council Member Kettle. Thank you for that. Two minutes? Oh, we got a timer down here? Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President. Last week, the Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development Committee voted unanimously on the fair pricing legislation, and that bill is headed to full council not tomorrow, but next Tuesday. We have our final pre-budget Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development Committee meeting this Friday on the 18th, and we will have the following items on the agenda. And we do expect committee to run a bit long. We will have our commercial lease transparency ordinance with any discussion on amendments and possible votes. We have four pieces of SDHR legislation, incl

Thank you, Council Member Rank. That was amazing. Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, Council President. We'll have a Land Use Committee meeting on Wednesday. We have some appointments to the Green New Deal Oversight Board, the Urban Forestry Commission, and the Sweetened Beverage Tax Oversight Board. We have our bill... AMENDING DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS FOR INSTITUTIONS IN MULTI-FAMILY ZONES. WE HAVE A PUBLIC HEARING ON THAT. AND THEN WE HAVE SOME SUB AREA PLANS. WE HAVE THERE ORIGINALLY WERE FOUR SUB AREA PLANS. NORTH GATE, DOWNTOWN. Greater Duwamish and the Ben Mick The downtown we're gonna propose an amendment to remove Downtown because of the growth management hear

Awesome. Good job, Council Member Lynn. We'll pop up to Council Member Saka, and then we'll come back down to Council Member Saka.

All right. Thank you, boys. When you're done eating your snack, make sure you're up there doing your homework. Don't start fighting right now. Working parent struggles are real, folks. But in any event, let me start off just by saying with respect to our committee meeting, We will have one final committee meeting before budget this coming Thursday on the agenda, which is already published. There are exactly four agenda items. One is the Safer Streets package of three ordinances. The other is hearing number one on the mayor's proposed permanent nominee for the Seattle Center director position.

Speaking to the microphone So I'll be brief parks and city light committee the final committee meeting that I will chair will be this Wednesday September 16th We have one item to discuss and vote on the final legislation package for the Lake City Community Center Which I've been working on since 2014 As you recall, this is a two-story full-service community center with 111 new affordable homes on the upper floors through a partnership with Mercy Housing, first of its kind in the city. Very happy about that. The community center costs $38 million. The housing is $86 million, approximately $122

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Juarez. Council Member Strauss.

Thank you. There are no more Finance Native Community and Tribal Governments Committees between now and budget as we have shared that time with the Public Safety Committee for its special meeting tomorrow, which does include the Vehicle Resident Assistance Program. As you heard, it's up tomorrow. Tomorrow's briefing will be a further discussion of the bill and Central Staff Issue ID. We're hoping that amendment concepts can be part of it That does require everyone to release confidentiality so that we can start talking about it in public. Also, I'm noticing that we might have a bunch of duplic

Thank you, Council Member Strauss. Council Member Rivera, and then we'll go to Council Member Foster.

Thank you, Council President. Ditto to what my colleague Council Member Strauss just said, I'll be joining AWC later this month. At our last committee meeting, we had three of the departments that are under the committee, OIRA, DEAL, Department of Education and Early Learning, and the Seattle Public Libraries. Seattle Public Libraries talked about the Seattle Reads book, which this year is True Biz by Sarah Novick. Sarah is the first deaf author that has been part of the Seattle Reads program, and it's really exciting. And our colleague, council member, Oh my gosh, I'm doing it again. Foster r

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Rivera. We'll go to Council Member Foster.

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Council President. Thank you, colleagues. I'm really excited to give some updates. So tomorrow at full council, we will be voting on the confirmation for the new Office of Housing Director, Kelly Larson. Really excited about that. thanks to my colleagues on the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee for unanimously voting Kelly's appointment out of committee. I am really looking forward to confirming her tomorrow. I also want to express my appreciation to Council Member Rink for your bill that we are just so excited about in terms of In terms of providing protect

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Foster. I will end with my committee, Governance and Utilities. This will meet Thursday, September 10th at 2 p.m. So this Thursday, we have four items on the agenda. Council Bill 121292, authorizing Seattle Public Utilities to acquire three parcels of land on Aurora. Also the appointment of Shannon Smith as our Chief Technology Officer of the Information Technology Department. This is first of two committee meetings for briefing and discussion and then the appointment of D as the city auditor for briefing and discussion, which council members are going to get

Council President, just wanted to say thank you for the welcome back note from recess and a little note of appreciation well received. Thank you very much.

Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Strauss. Welcome back to love, y'all. Okay. So I just want to thank y'all. We're the love floor. Well, thank you. What's the love floor? Okay. I love all y'all. All right. Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Okay, yeah, step into fall. Y'all know you like your, you like your cuddle poxies and your north faces. All right, so now we're gonna go right into executive session. Are there any other comments? Thank you. Appreciate y'all. So if there's no further business, we will move into an executive session. Hearing no further business, we're now moving into executive session. As presiding officer, I am announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into the executive session. The purpose of the executive session is discussing... is to discuss pending potential and actual litigation. The cou