Metropolitan King County Council - Regular Meeting

meeting of the King County Council. I'm Sarah Perry, Chair of the Council this year, joined by Vice Chairs Jorge Barron and Reagan Dunn and our Council colleagues today. This meeting is called to order. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we are 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. I also want to take a moment to observe a moment of silence for the members of our

Here. We have a full quorum. Thank you very much. Next, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic by which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Turning next to a special item, which is the recognition of the Freedom Plane, documents that forged a nation exhibit at MOHAI. This will be presented by both me and Council Member Barone.

Council Member Barone, are you ready to join me?

I don't have my colors here, so I'm going to go ahead and just start and we'll just share. I'm pleased to co-sponsor this proclamation with Council Member Dunn and supported in the reading of it by Council Member Barone recognizing the National Archives exhibit to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The exhibit is called Freedom Plane, Documents that Forged a Nation, and you can visit it from Let me see. You can visit it from July 30th to August 16th at our very own Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. King County is one of few counties nati

Whereas in 2026, the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking a historic milestone in the nation's ongoing pursuit of liberty, self-governance and democratic ideals and

Whereas the Freedom Plane documents that forged a nation national tour organized in partnership with the National Archives will provide members of the public with a rare opportunity to view foundational historical documents that helped shape the United States and define the principles upon which the nation was established and

Whereas King County has been selected as 1 of only a limited number of host regions nationwide for this extraordinary exhibition, reflecting both the national significance of the tour and the leadership of the Museum of history and industry as a trusted steward of historical education and civic engagement and.

Whereas the Freedom Plane Exhibition will offer residents, students, families, and visitors throughout King County an opportunity to engage directly with the nation's history, deepen their understanding of the American democratic experiment, and reflect on the enduring importance of civic participation, constitutional governance, and the preservation of historical memory and

Whereas at a time when civic understanding and historical literacy remain essential to the strength of democratic institutions, exhibitions that connect communities with the nation's founding history serve an important public purpose and help inspire future generations to participate in civic life. And, oh, no, that's it.

Now, therefore, we, the Metropolitan King County Council, recognize the Freedom Plane, documents that forged a nation, national tour, and celebrate the Museum of History and Industry for bringing this nationally significant exhibition to Seattle and King County during the 250th anniversary of the United States, dated this 28th day of July, 2026, and signed by all members of the King County Council. Thank you very much for joining me in that, Council Member Barone. I'd like to now invite Anthony Long from the Museum of History and Industry to share a few words.

Thank you, Mr. Long, for joining us and for hosting this. And we're proud to be a part of this. Thank you very much. We'll now turn to reading of the items into the record into the hearing of public comments before the clerk reads the items into the record by server own. May I please have a motion to relieve the employment and administration committee of item? 12. Thank you. The motion is before us all those in favor say, aye aye aye. All those opposed say, nay. Nation motion is approved with that clerk Haley please read the items into the record.

Thank you very much. Do we have, we're going to turn now to public comment. Do we have folks in the room or online with us to provide public comment today? We have both. We have both. Okay. We'll now take public comment on those ordinances, motions, proclamations, and recognitions on today's agenda for action and any topics directly related to county business as this is the fourth Tuesday of the month. Listening to public and taking into consideration the public's thoughts is an important part of our process and 1 that greatly enhances our deliberations in order to allow everyone equal time to

Thank you. Was that the timer that I heard? I'm sorry? That is the timer for two minutes. Okay. Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you. The next thing on the list is Mike Rosenberg.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. You each have a packet. Thank you for your testimony. Please take the time to read the packets that I gave to the clerk. Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you. The next name on the list is Michael C. It's very hard to hear the names when they're being called.

This is a statement, not a question and answer opportunity, but you can certainly send emails. Thank you very much for your testimony.

All right. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to speak that didn't have a chance to sign up? Anyone else in the room who would like to make comments that did not have a chance? Anyone seeing anyone?

Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to online testimony.

Okay, thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimonial tool.

Mr. Altimer, are you there? We're not hearing you. Are you muted?

All right. Is there anybody else online that has not had a chance to speak who would like to? If so, please raise your hand. Again, raise your hand. If you haven't had a chance to speak and you would like to, are we seeing anybody raising their hands?

Okay. Thank you so much. Seeing no further requests, I want to thank each and every person who showed up to testify in person and online today. We take your comments and your time very seriously, and it matters a lot to our deliberative process. So thank you very much for being with us today. And with that, we will close the public hearing. Turning next to those ordinances on the agenda for discussion and action, beginning with item 6, which is an ordinance concerning King County Employee Code of Ethics. Council Member von Reitbauer, would you please move ordinance 2026-0126? So moved. Thank y

Yeah, I don't think we need the item brief. We pass this unanimously up here from committee. But just to remind my colleagues, as we continue to improve the functions of King County government, as we continue to reform what we do delivering local services, this is another piece of that. As you all know, we've done some audits and really worked hard to make our grant making process greater accountability moving forward with the tax dollars that we are bestowed by the taxpayers. We've done things recently, like streamline the homeless governance organization, working to make that more efficient,

Thank you very much. Colleagues, are there any questions for staff or comments for the discussion at this moment? Please say, please speak out if you do. Okay, I also understand there's a technical amendment council member done. Would you please move amendment 1?

Sure. Council member Lewis is her hand up.

Oh, thank you. Council member Lewis. Thank you. Vice chair.

Brandy, you want to take a cut at that? And then I'm happy to add in what I know.

Great. Yeah, I think this legislation changes the code. Then once the code is changed, we will encourage both the Board of Ethics as well as the executive to use their appropriate outreach channels to get the information to our employees. Things like our regular trainings will be one method. Newsletters, emails from managers will be another. We'll certainly use the news media to Enhance that, but it's 1 thing to have a rule, but if it's not broadly known, it has no effect. So we look forward to the next steps of this being. That outreach process will, which will since the overwhelming majority

Thank you, Vice Chair Dunn. Great question, Council Member Lewis. Council Member Dembowski has something.

Thank you chair. Just adding to the discussion and maybe April Sanders could supply some precision here, but in the last supplemental budget, we did increase the FTE authority for the executive ethics function and added some additional dollars, presumably to help educate and ensure compliance with this legislation that we knew was coming. I think it was a couple FTEs or just shy of that.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Dembowski, any other questions from my colleagues or staff or comment? Okay, not seeing any. Let's see. So technical amendment has been moved. No, it hasn't yet. I'll move on. Okay, would you please? I think there's amendment two.

I think there's two amendments. So I'm happy to move amendment one.

Amendment 1. Okay. Thank you. Amendment 1 is before us. Would you like to speak to Amendment 1, Vice Chair Dunn?

Just very generally, it's a technical striker, and what it does is it changes the language. Since last meeting or meeting before last, we put language in regarding the Inspector General. This adds and acknowledges the existence of that office, and so it's a technical striker, and I'd urge your support.

Thank you. Any discussions from my colleague on that amendment? If I may?

That's all you. My understanding was what brandy just spoke to was amendment 2 sounds like. Amendment 1 is the technical striker that provides clarity is recommended by the board of ethics and I certainly support that as well. So. It doesn't change my motion for amendment. 1. I just want to make sure that what I'm putting forward is properly labeled within the council council meeting materials.

Very well, then that will be all we'll amend with unless council members have an additional amendment as well.

Okay, all those in favor of amendment 1, say, aye, aye, all those opposing a. Amendment 1 is adopted moving on to the underlying ordinances amended. Do my colleagues have any closing comments before we proceed? Yeah. Council member, I think, followed by council member.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to speak in favor of the ordinance. I will be voting in favor of the ordinance. I think this is a very important change in clarification. It is a key feature of ethics code ordinances in many, many places that individual government employees should not and cannot work on contracts or other projects that financially benefit their relatives or business partners. And so this, in my view, closes an important hole that should have been closed in our code probably long ago, and I'm glad we're doing it now. Just wanted to quickly echo an update from what Councilmember

Thank you Council Member Balducci. Seeing no further discussion, Claire Kaye, will you please- Wait, wait, wait, to close, to close. Oh, sorry about that. Sponsor to close, Vice Chair Dunn.

Thanks very much. And thank you, Chair Perry, for having this in an expedited form today. And I want to thank my colleagues, Council Member Balducci, Lewis, Dabowski, and others for their comments and smithing this and making this better. We have a word of ethics. We should use them, continue to use them and listen to what they they have to say. We may not always agree with them, but they're certainly have very positive input. That's important. We should have a regular update process. I want to thank investigative journalists like Lulu Ramadan and. And David Gutman and others for getting some

Thank you, Vice Chair Dunn. Seeing no further discussion, Claire Kaye, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed substitute ordinance 2026-0126 as amended. Turning next to items 7 and 8, which concern labor agreements. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0189? So moved. Thank you. Proposed ordinance 2026-0189 is before us. Before we proceed with discussion, I'll note that we have Angela Marshall, Labor Relations Interim Director, and John Woodcock, Labor Relations Negotiator from the Executive's Office, available to answer questions. We also have Yusuf El-Hammawi, Union Representative for ProTech17, available as well. But first, I

Thank you very much, Erica. With that, I'd like to ask if there's any discussion from my colleagues. Opening this up so I can see any hands or questions. Okay. Not seeing any questions from my colleagues. Let's proceed with a vote. Claire Kay, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, Claire Kaye. By our vote, we've adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0189. Turning next to Item 8, Proposed Ordinance 2026-0196, Vice Chair Barone, will you please move Proposed Ordinance 2026-0196? So moved. Thank you. The proposed ordinance is before us before we proceed with the discussion. I'll note that we have Maria Williams, president of the director of Teamsters Local 117 and co-chair of the King County Coalition of Unions along with Michael Gonzalez, senior business agent for Teamsters Local 174 and co-chair of the King County Coalition of Unions available to answer any question

Thank you very much, Erica. Do my colleagues have any questions, comments, discussion at this point?

Mr. Chair Perry? Yes. Council Member Lewis, thank you.

Thank you. Council member Lewis. Okay, seeing no further discussion, let's proceed to the vote. Claire. Okay. Will you please call the roll? Thank you.

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0196. Thank you. Turning now to hearing examiner consent agenda items 9 and 10. Clerk Hay, will you please read the items into the record?

Thank you very much. Council Member Fain, will you please move consent agenda items 9 and 10? So moved. Thank you. Consent agenda items 9 and 10 are before us. Clerk Hay, will you please call the roll? Thank you. Council Member Balducci.

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed substitute ordinances 2026-0091 and 0120. Turning next to the motion consent agenda, Vice Chair Barone, will you please move consent agenda item 11?

Consent agenda item is before us. Clerk Haley, will you please call the roll? Thank you.

Thank you. By a vote we've adopted, proposed motion 2026-0115. Turning the final action item on today's agenda, item 12, which is motion approving the job description for the position of Inspector General. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move proposed motion 2026-0197.

Thank you. Proposed motion 2026-0197 is before us. Before we proceed, I will briefly share that the reason we relieved the committee of this item to take action today was to ensure that we could begin the Inspector General recruitment process in earnest. With council recess beginning next week, the Employment and Administration Committee, EAC, will not be meeting again until September. This is where this conversation is usually held. It's important that we begin this process expeditiously so that the Inspector General can begin the crucial work of standing up the infrastructure of the office a

Thank you very much, Chair. And this is the follow-on step following approval of the Office of Inspector General that we did a week or two ago. I wanted to just express deep gratitude to our Council Chief of Staff, Stephanie Sirkovich, for accelerating the process here. We were looking at a couple of months through an EAC process, and she really jumped on it and did a great bit of research looking around the country at inspectors' general positions and scopes of work. And then the draft was shared out and a number of our colleagues provided some suggestions, I think all of which were included

Thank you, Council Member Dembowski, for your sponsorship and leadership on this. Are there any other comments from my colleagues?

Okay, I just want to say, thank you to the member. Thank you. I just want to say, thank you to the sponsor and your office for seeking and incorporating feedback. We provided a couple of thoughts and they show up very beautifully in this current draft and that really makes it easy to move forward quickly. So really appreciate that effort. And I support the, I support the, the, both the proposal and the expeditious nature of the process.

Thank you. Uh, council member, uh, seeing no further, we have, uh, an amendment, which attaches the job description to the motion council member. Please move amendment 1. Thank you. Amendment 1 is before us any discussion from colleagues. Seeing no discussion on an amendment, let's proceed with the vote all those in favor of amendment 1 say aye aye all those opposed say, nay. Amendment 1 is adopted any final closing remarks before we proceed with the final adoption of the underlying motion. Okay, seeing no further discussion, Claire Kaye, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed motion 2026-0197 as amended. 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 13 through 23 as listed. And before we adjourn, I'll note we have a proclamation celebrating India's Independence Day being presented in community by Councilmember von Reichbauer. Additionally, I want to take a brief moment to announce the names of the nominees to fill council-nominated at-large vacancy on the Conservation Futures Ad

Thank you chair Perry and I appreciate you're taking a beginning the meeting with with a moment of silence. I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the horrific incident that took place this weekend industry for at the bio Seattle event in Seattle center. I believe I speak for everybody here when I say that our hearts are with the victims of this tragedy, their families and loved ones, and everyone who has been impacted, and that we're grateful for the prompt actions of first responders, including Seattle Police and Fire Departments and the staff of our own county hospital, Harvey Medica

Thank you very much, Vice Chair Barone. With that, I want to share a quick reminder to the public that the Council will be observing our annual August recess from August 3rd through August 14th. The Council will not be meeting during this time, and our next regularly scheduled Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 18th. 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.