Okay, so I need the call roll.

Yes.

Here.

And here.

Right over here.

Here.

Sending some law.

Welcome everyone to an in-person retreat.

And so it looks like we are going to be starting with is it Diana?

Yeah.

I don't know, Ellie, if you wanted to kick anything off or just go straight to Yeah, just um we're gonna keep it casual tonight.

So if you need to warm up your plate, there's a microwave behind you.

Um Inga or Anthony will maybe give you a wave if you've forgotten to turn your mic on.

Um we're gonna it's not being broadcast tonight, but we're gonna post it tomorrow.

Um if anyone needs to get up during the meeting, there's a restroom in the kitchen, or there's one right downstairs.

And I think that's it.

And thanks for being here, Diana.

Okay.

So I'm Diana Hart, uh city's uh new government affairs manager.

I've been with the city for about two months now and have been diving in with session, so excited to kind of give you a full update on where we are.

I'll start things off with um a little bit of a background on the legislative process, just so everyone's on the same page, and um then we'll kick things over to a review of the Kirkland's 2023 legislative priorities with an emphasis on the components that relate to housing and planning generally, so that's most interesting to you, and then an update on where we stand on those priorities and what we expect this session.

So, starting with our the legislative process, can everyone hear me okay with mask on?

Is that okay?

Okay.

Um, to start with some quick facts to get us all on the same page.

There are 49 districts in the Washington state with two representatives and one senator in each district.

After each national census, the state reevaluates the district borders to ensure that each district roughly represents the same number of residents from um some um acknowledged community groups and political preferences.

The census in 2020 resulted in no new districts in Washington, but did bounce the boundaries around quite a bit and increased each district to represent a total of 157,000 people.

The legislature is part-time.

It only meets for 105 days in odd years.

Well, and um 60 days and even years starting um at the beginning of January.

Which is not a lot of time to get a lot of big things done.

Um they introduce, discuss, and pass policy matters and budgets in those very short windows known as the legislative session, and then outside of those windows is known as interim when they do a lot of stakeholdering work and policy development ideas so that they can be as efficient as possible in those session windows.

Um the legislature sets the budget for all state agencies, which is done through their operating budget, which is sort of similar to the city's general fund.

They have a budget for building construction, so which they call their capital budget, sort of think our CIPs would be probably the closest thing, or the capital improvement plan, and a budget for transportation construction, they call it their transportation budget, probably closest to our like TIP plan for um budget purposes.

Organizations often try to get local construction projects funded through the capital or transportation budgets.

Sometimes you can get really creative and get funding through the operating budget, but not very common.

Um each of these budgets are first adopted in the long 105-day session, and then they're amended in the short 60-day session to reflect any changes that have happened over the year, and then corrected again at the end of the next long session as they're kicking off the next big biennium.

And then there's the extra complications of you've probably heard of transportation packages.

Those are the big revenue bills that are passed every five to ten years that fund a big big project list.

So you'll think I-5 bridge crossing between Washington and Oregon, like millions and billions of dollars of funding available for big projects.

Kirkland is fortunate to be represented by three of the 49 districts.

The first legislative district includes the northern section of Kirkland along with a handful of other North King County and South Snohomish County cities.

That's represented by uh Representative Davina Doer, a former Both City Council member and chair of the local government committee.

Representative Kloba, a former Kirkland City Council member and co-chair of the regulated substances and gaming committee, and by Senator Stanford, Chair of the Business Financial Services, Gaming and Trade, as well as the Senate leadership leads on the tribal tribal nations.

You'll notice a trend that all of our members are chairs, leadership, something important.

So we we're very well represented down in Olympia.

The 45th, which is Central Kirkland, North Redmond, Duvall, and North Samish.

You have Representative Goodman, who's chair of the community safety, justice, and re-entry.

Representative Springer, a former Kirkland City Council member and House Deputy Majority Leader, and Senator Dinkra, the Senate Deputy Majority Leader, and Chair of Law and Justice.

And then 48th.

You have South Kirkland, Bellevue, South Redmond, Medina, Clyde Hill and the Points Communities, represented by Rep Wallen, another former Kirkland City Council member and chair of the Consumer Protection and Business Committee, Representative Slatter, Chair of the Post-Secondary Education and Workforce Committee, and Senator Cooter, the Chair of Housing.

So this may be a refresher for some of you.

I can kind of go through it quickly.

I definitely didn't know how the legislature worked before I had a chance to work there myself, so I figure this would be a good starting point to make sure everyone's sort of on the same page.

When the legislature is in session, they impose deadlines on themselves.

We'll talk a little bit more about that next.

But each piece of legislation or bill must complete a lengthy journey and overcome many hurdles to become law.

This process is probably more aptly referred to as a thousand ways a bills can die instead of how a bill becomes law, because many bills that are introduced don't become law.

As the legislature, as a so a legislature must introduce every bill.