Okay, good morning.

The May 14th meeting of the Governance and Utilities meeting will come to order.

It is 9 35 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, Chair of the Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Vice Chair Warez.

Here.

Councilmember Rivera.

The present.

Councilmember Strauss.

Present.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Here.

Chair, there are four present council members.

And Councilmember Kettle is excused until he gets here.

I know he's on his way.

We're gonna now consider the agenda.

And if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Awesome.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

With that, we're gonna open up the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should be related on two items on today's agenda.

I know we have folks signed up online.

Looks like we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven folks signed up online, and we have more people signing up in chambers.

We'll be one second.

Everyone's gonna get two minutes.

Uh clerk, will you please read the instructions for the public comment?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called on in the order they registered on the council's web page and the sign-up sheet available here in council chambers starting with in-persons first.

If you have not registered to speak, but you would like to, you could sign up before the end of the public comment period or on the council's website.

Link is listed on today's agenda.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item you were addressing.

Speakers will hear chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

If the speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

And we will start with in-person speakers first.

We're getting that list.

And if you are online, we will come to you right after our in-person speakers.

Awesome.

And we'll start with those speakers.

Thank you, Kim.

You're all good.

All right, first we have Jeremy followed by Logan, then we have David, Keith, Jennifer, and then Susan.

Jeremy, welcome.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Chair and Council members.

I'm here to provide comment on CB121190.

Uh, the revision.

We're gonna restart your time.

My I'm sorry, we didn't have the clock up.

My apologies.

Do I need to restate the uh any yes?

No, just you can just start with, yeah, you do a deep dive.

Okay.

Uh wait, let's restart.

And then when he starts talking, when Jeremy starts talking, all right, go all right.

Thank you.

Uh Jeremy Phoebus, a fresh professional engineer, um, licensed the state of Washington with practicing and city of Seattle for almost 30 years now.

I'm here to comment on CB 121190 uh revisions to the proposed revisions to the stormwater code.

Um, right now we're at a pretty um uh meaningful moment like in our uh in our region where there are serious considerations for zoning and land use regulations to provide uh greater affordability and accessibility to housing.

Uh that effort is incomplete without also looking at infrastructure regulations and reform of infrastructure regulations and recognizing the role that they play in housing unaffordability in this region.

Uh in my opinion, the code as presently written and the and the changes as proposed are a missed opportunity at reform uh that they pit uh largely pit the environment and housing in opposition to each other, that those should not be and are not adversaries, but that the opportunities exist to actually provide enhanced environmental benefit without added cost to housing.

Uh the code as proposed um will increase the amount of bioretention required on structures fourfold.

Um, require substantial additional investigation and implementation of infiltration in in our dense glacial soils in this area.

Um all at the cost of housing while legacy pollution um problems are ignored in the public right of way.

Um, so there's a missed opportunity.

I think we can do a lot more.

I provided written comments um as well uh to the council today, and um at your service if you would like to discuss further at any time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Next we have Logan followed by David, Keith, Jennifer, Susan.

Morning, Chair Hollinsworth and uh members of the committee.

Uh my name is Logan Schmidt with the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties commenting on Council Bill 121190.

We want to thank uh SPU and STCI staff for their sustained engagement over the past year and the committee for working through this legislation.

We strongly support the flow control threshold increase.

That is sound policy that reflects the realities of urban infill construction.

We do also recommend raising the standard uh standard drainage review threshold to at least 1200 square feet to align with Seattle's ADU allowance, something we've uh been in conversation with over at SPU as well.

Our most significant ask is this.

We urge the committee to direct the city to open long-term dialogue with the Department of Ecology to develop a stormwater guidance that actually fits Seattle's dense built-out urban context, not framework designed for green field suburban development.

Uh we've submitted written comment with Habitat for Humanity, NAOP, and the Washington Society of Professional Engineers.

Uh, and if there's anything else that you need to uh review and discuss on that, we're we're happy to.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Logan.

Thanks.

We have David welcome, followed by Keith, Jennifer, Susan.

Good morning, counselor.

My name is Dave Gloger and I live in District 5.

I'm here to comment on the proposed challenges to the stormwater code.

The Department of Ecology has prepared a list of recommendations, but for some reason STCI and SPU has proposed to set that is below these minimum standards.

The state recommends that we use trees as they are a natural way to manage stormwater runoff.

SDCI and SPC, SPU have ignored this free tool.

What is not free is all the fines and legal settlements that Seattle has paid because of stormwater runoff.

A simple online search reveals much of this.

In 2023, the city was fined 117,000 by the State Department of Ecology.

In an article in the medium, and in 2024, the city was fined another 71,000.

In legal settlements, this the city paid off Madison Valley two and a half million dollars because of stormwater issues and settled with the Squamish tribe for another two and a half million.

So the city will probably or the departments will tell you, well, we're gonna take care of that.

Well, just three weeks ago, King County announced that they're gonna raise our stormwater rates by 11% next year, and that's probably gonna have double digit increases for the next several years.

So if our stormwater needs to be improved so much, why are we making the stormwater requirements lower?

And yesterday, when I looked at the King County website that shows sewer overflow, it showed two instances of overflow.

This is in the middle of May.

What are we gonna do in the winter?

You can probably guess how many instances we'll have then.

We should make be making our stormwater code stronger to prevent stormwater overflow and these excess expenses like lawsuits and fines and increased utility bills for Seattle residents.

Please fix this faulty code, improve our stormwater.

Thank you, David.

Next we have Keith followed by Jennifer, then Susan, and then we'll jump to you online if you are ready.

Good morning, council.

Good morning.

I'm here to speak on the stormwater code um 121190.

And uh I just want to say that the um equivalency with the state requirements of the code is assumed.

Um, you know, we know that the city has run the changes to the stormwater code through the state uh rubric, so to speak, for equivalency with the requirements, the regulations.

And so that's assumed.

Um, I'm here just uh to speak about the stormwater code being the you know basically the last defense against the um recently approved one Seattle plan and uh what some people think is an inadequate uh environmental impact statement.

So this stormwater code is like one of the last chances or a last line of defense to protect the environmental uh resources of the city.

Um, and one of those in particular would be trees.

Um, and I think that the stormwater code is kind of uh cut it short on the trees as a best management practice.

Um, they they should be ranked higher up on the list and given more consideration and more weight.

Um, and I don't think that the changes to the stormwater code are really speaking to that adequately.

And then uh really just a question: what, and obviously the answer will come later, but what were what was the driver for the change from 2,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet?

Because you know, the 2,000 square feet has been in place since 1979, and uh there was some some motivation, some driver to change that, and I I just don't understand it, and uh, so I guess that's it.

Thanks.

Thank you, Keith.

Uh, next we have Jennifer, followed by Susan.

Welcome, Jennifer.

Thank you so much.

Uh, first, I would like to recognize the magnitude of work that has gone into this update from SPU and Council.

So thank you all so much.

Um as a board member of the American Citation Society of Puget Sound and the Trees and People Coalition.

I am concerned about the unprecedented increases in impervious surfaces between the SEPA thresholds and the comprehensive plan.

I feel that this should be met by unprecedented increases in polluted runoff reductions.

SPU does great work, as I'm sure we will hear more about, and I'm grateful for that.

Uh however, I am concerned about the reduction in uh flow control regulations.

Um I would love to see calculations supporting the statement that these code changes will improve water quality for aquatic life.

And if not, I would propose amending to institute and share performance metrics citywide regarding runoff that can inform policy changes at intervals within the five-year code.

Our environment, I would love to see the environment be out of the construction department, like the city of Snoqualmy, for example.

Uh, they have trees and stormwater in its own department.

Uh, as the world watched J35 Talliqua carry her second deceased daughter on her rostrum for weeks.

CDOC researcher Deborah Giles, Dr.

Giles said we have to try something massively different, even if only on a trial basis.

Puget SoundKeeper found increased mortality in salmon just last year at this 2025 survey.

And the link between impervious surfaces and harm to aquatic life is well documented.

And Seattle being the largest city in the state and the largest city on Puget Sound, we're likely the largest contributor to polluted runoff, and the county recognizes that uh the largest source of pollution in Puget Sound is polluted runoff.

So I think if we want to see any chance at recovery in the endangered salmon and orcas, it would be great to have performance metrics on polluted runoff if possible.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Next we have Susan.

Welcome.

Um good morning, echoing the thanks for um all the effort on the stormwater manual updates because it's a it's a big one.

Uh the flood drought cycle is emblematic of a degraded ecosystem.

In December and February, we had catastrophic flooding and are now faced with another severe drought advisory.

During the flood events, four different friends and neighbors of mine had uh sewer mains burst, costing between 22,000 and $34,000 to repair.

They were not alone.

It's now widely known that our sewer infrastructure is failing and ratepayers are shouldering the cost.

The continued and significant loss of our mature tree canopy is a major factor.

All of those lost trees, once mitigated stormwater flow for free, and that loss is only exacerbated by a heavy increase in impervious surface.

As largest cities situated on Puget Sound, we have a duty and obligation to ensure long-term health for those waters and the marine life that inhabit them.

Combined sewer overflows have now become common.

I have documented more than 15 separate events since December alone, which runs counter to King County's own stated commitment of controlling frequency of no more than one event per year to comply with state and federal law.

So while construction continues on the 700 million dollar sewer upgrade, please implement the Department of Ecology's parametric stormwater guidelines without delay.

In general, I strongly urge SPU to align regulations with stormwater management manual for Western Washington.

Please emphasize performance metrics if it's not possible to produce specifics about how the code changes will help or harm aquatic life or enhance public benefit.

Allow trees to be accurately weighted as stormwater managers as other cities have done to exercise best management practices.

All the data needed to implement this is contained in the Arborist reports.

Please don't rush these critical updates.

I strongly urge you to request an extension without penalty from the Department of Ecology to formulate effective science-based stormwater codes that ensure a healthy, resilient, and more future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we'll go online.

And we first have Ruth, followed by June, and then Ruth Williams.

Please press star six to unmute yourself.

Ruth Dight.

Star 6.

We see you online.

Hello.

Hello.

Hi.

My name is Ruth Site.

I'm with friends of Queen Ann.

I recently heard about these code changes.

I I have I don't know the code changes extensively, but the one uh change that I was made aware of concerns me very much, which is changing the threshold for on-site stormwater retention from 2,000 or 2500 square feet to a proposed 5,000 square feet.

Again, why are we doing this while we're simultaneously increasing density and uh impervious surface area coverage?

I have to ask myself who saves with this change and who pays.

My guess is the developers saves.

And my question is, will his savings be passed on to the consumer?

Um, I believe I know who pays, and that will be us and all the creatures that he just found.

Um, I have one of these retention uh whatever you call it in my backyard, a gravel pit where all my uh storm water from my roof goes and into and uh that was in that was there when we bought the house in 1991, and I really wonder why we are changing a this decades old policy.

Um it just very much concerns me, and somebody else has asked the same question, and I hope you asked the same question as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ruth.

Uh next we have June, followed by Ruth Williams.

Welcome, June.

Star Six, unmute yourself.

Hello.

Uh I'm Julie Who's Bruce, a board member of the Trees and People Coalition.

I want to thank Chair Hollingsworth, the committee, and the staff at SPU for working to make the stormwater code update meet the moment we are in.

There is more to do.

When council approved the comp plan and CB 121093, you approved an unprecedented increase in impervious surfaces throughout Seattle.

You also provided some protection for existing trees, but not nearly enough.

As a result, we need stronger stormwater regulations.

Existing mature trees are the most effective stormwater managers that exist, and they are free with many fewer trees and many more paved surfaces.

Polluted runoff will increase, further endangering salmon and orcas.

Extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent, climate change will be much more likely to overwhelm stormwater management infrastructure.

Please consider an extension without penalty from ecology to improve the code update.

Clean water is worth it.

In addition, please add binding language to the amendments that will go into effect before 2031.

Remove the statement that trees should be, quote, compatible with construction, unquote, when other parts of the code address where to plant trees in relation to construction.

Add temperature changes from the state model code.

Allow trees as stormwater management managers on all property types.

Remove this CPU checklist sentence.

Quote, because much of Seattle has been previously developed in its original habitants significantly altered or eliminated, the potential for threatened or endangered animal species to be present in Seattle is low.

Unquote.

This is simply false.

Reject removal of requirements to slow polluted runoff close to small lakes and underserved areas.

With increased lot coverage, there will be no room for on-site mitigation planter beds, increasing flooding, and combined sewer overflows or CSOs.

The people salmon and orcas, which are an essential part of our ecosystem, deserve clean water.

Thank you.

Thank you, June.

Next we have Ruth Williams, followed by Howard Gill, Irene, Wall, Richard, and David.

Hello.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak today.

My name is Ruth Williams.

I'm speaking on behalf of Thornton Creek Alliance concerning Council Bill 121190.

We also appreciate everyone's time and effort in responding to our concerns.

We have a couple of comments on the proposed amendment.

Amendment one, first comment, exclusions from the definition of stream.

Please be careful not to exclude the condition of an artificially created water course that was created as mitigation for environmental impacts.

And there are a few.

This was already in the code somewhere.

Let's make sure it stays.

Next comment, table ATA, paraphrasing.

Rain gardens cannot be used for projects with areas of 5,000 square feet or more hard surface infiltrating on the project type.

We consulted rain garden expert Roseanne Barnhill, co-owner, co-owner of Dirt Corps, installing multiple rain gardens for larger projects can effectively be run control requirements.

As to amendment two, uh thank you for working to free our waterways of six TPDQ.

And then recital 13, the role of trees in stormwater retention.

As written, this opens the door to delay of another five years or more when there's quite a lot of scholarship on the subject already.

And I have emailed you some resources on that.

And thank you for your consideration today.

Thank you, Ruth.

Next we have Howard Gill followed by Irene Wall.

Council President Hollingsworth, can I ask for clarification before my time starts?

Yeah, we'll pa we'll pause your, we'll restart your time.

Go ahead, Mr.

Carification.

I don't want to buy I don't want to violate rules.

I'm just uh you requested comments only on agenda items, but on the published agenda, does say also within purview of the committee.

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, you can start.

Good morning.

Howard Gale, member of 36th Legislative District Democrats.

I am asking this committee to amend the general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council to include a rule to inhibit or sanction any council member who in their official capacity at a council meeting might target a member or members of the public for appropriate condemnation or embarrassment.

Except in cases where laws or the general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council are violated.

Last Tuesday, Councilmember Strauss did this in calling me out and further did so with unquestionably false claims.

I've documented this in the letter emailed to all council members earlier this morning.

Here I will simply point out that Council Member Strauss' claim that I have, quote, a pattern of behavior targeting a certain pause time, Mr.

Gill.

Stuff that's directly in the purview of this committee and not targeting a council member.

Thank you.

No, this is uh I'm sorry, is my time paused?

Um addressing the need for a change.

We're going to keep running your time.

I've just I made the request.

Go ahead.

Now your time is starting.

And that's what I'm doing.

And the okay.

Council Member Strauss's claims were absurd, and that the record clearly shows in the last 14 months.

I have called out Council Member Kettle 10 times, Council Member Rink five times, Councilmember Solomon, four times, former council member Nelson.

One time, and even Councilmember Strauss himself, two times.

In Tuesday's attack on me, Councilmember Strauss falsely claimed that I impuned the motives of Councilmember Juarez.

Okay, public comment that they imply nothing.

Pause.

That is your second warning, Mr.

Gill.

Purview of the committee, not targeting council members.

You can talk about the reason.

Exactly.

I'm not going to go back and forth with you.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Your time is continued.

Go ahead.

Council Member Strauss' comments were an abuse of power and trust granted to him by the voters and a possible attempt to suppress personality.

We're done.

Thank you.

Next person up, we have it.

This is grossly inappropriate.

Next, we have Irene Wall followed by Richard Ellison and David Haynes.

Okay.

Good morning, Council members.

Uh I cannot possibly articulate as clearly as Jennifer has the concerns about the stormwater code amendments.

But I would say that the amendment concerning consulting tree experts should happen before you approve any code amendments.

And if that requires getting a yet another extension from ecology, so be it.

The increasing uh small lot areas in the city to be redeveloped.

You know, it's interesting how I did a calculation some time ago.

Like half the lots in the city in the neighborhood commercial zones are under 5,000 square feet.

Um, and they're going to be redeveloped too, and many of them include large trees.

Uh, I happen to live on one of those 3200 square foot lot with a hundred-year-old cedar.

You know, I do think that we need to protect the trees, and we need to have a stormwater code that is consistent with the desire to increase our tree canopy, at least preserve it.

Um, and small lakes should be protected too.

I don't know why allowing, you know, increasing the potential for stormwater runoff into Green Lake and Haller Lake is such a great idea.

So please consider the multi-millions of dollars that we've already spent and will spend to deal with CSOs and SSOs in the city and improve our stormwater code to put flow control in everywhere we possibly can.

Thank you.

Thank you, Irene.

Next person we have Richard Ellison, followed by David Haynes.

Hello, I'm Richard Ellison, a retired community college adjunct professor of biology and environmental science, and I live in District 4.

I also have two 800 gallon rain smart water systems installed free by the city of Seattle on my property as the city tries to reduce its stormwater runoff.

The critical impact of trees and canopy to improving water quality and urban stormwater runoff cannot be understated.

Our rural forests play a critical role in statewide flood control.

Urban areas are a major source of toxic pollution to the Puget Sound.

While a local whale and salmon populations are in danger of extinction, and the city glorifies its cultural ties to salmon orcas and native tribes, the salmon populations are crashing and orchids are dying of starvation and pollution impacts.

It needs to wake up to the scientific literature that is dense with research articles on stormwater and trees.

Are you still there, Richard?

You still have urban tree canopies.

I'm sorry.

Urban tree canopies and the role in stormwater management from uh the University of California in 2025.

Urban tree canopies are essential tools in managing stormwater, particularly dense urban areas like those dominated by impermeable services such as pavements and rooftops.

The benefits of urban tree canopies for reducing runoff and improving water quality include pollution filtration.

Trees and the soil around them active.

Natural filters, capturing and breaking down pollutants, such as heavy metals, nutrients, and sediments that would otherwise enter storm drains and waterways, rainfall interception, tree counters intercept rain before it hits the ground, reducing the volume and speed of runoff.

This delays allows more water to evaporate and be absorbed by surrounded vegetation and soils, infiltration enhancement, reduced erosion, stormwater relief, system relief by managing water at its source, urban trees reduce the burden on stormwater infrastructure, lowering risk of system overflow and water treatment costs.

I will send a letter in regarding more information.

But please, it must be done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Richard.

Uh next we have uh David Haynes.

We're gonna have to do two minutes.

You have to reset the time very two minutes again.

Thank you, David.

Is there any way I can convince council that tearing up the side streets that create heat islands and then redevelop with greenery and like detached units would be a little bit more beneficial to community that's worried about like global warming and like all the asphalt and concrete that seems to like radiate most of the heat?

And is there any way you all can realize that doubling the shifts when you're working on infrastructure?

Like if you got a public-private partnership or storm water, and it's like a 700 million dollar project.

Are these guys working eight hours, 10 hours, or do you have two shifts getting the job done and being paid proper?

And to all the people that passive aggressively come into council and want to weaponize their privilege and try to quell future development, whether it's claiming that you got to keep your tree on your lot as they drive through the road, or they want to like increase the cost of development by weaponizing the stormwater, like you all are like emotionally like being ridiculous when you're acting like you're gonna save the orcas and the salmon by purposely denying somebody a better built back home.

You know, it's like I hear all these people that called in and come in here, and it's like, oh, I have my home, and I don't want you to build back better.

I want to drive through your neighborhood, keep tabs on what you're up to, but I never want to take the side roads away.

I just want to weaponize the trees.

I want to weaponize the character of craftsman, Sears Robot housing.

You all are cheating future generations with all of this ignoble small-time landlord conflict of interest that doesn't have the best interest of the whole community who needs a better choice in home without all the side roads.

We could redevelop 21st century first world quality, but there's not even any.

Thank you, Mr.

Haynes.

Is there any uh additional public commenters?

I I want to first uh take this time to thank everyone that came in chambers today uh to give us your comment.

People that have been working behind the scenes and working with uh everyone on codes and everything that's in the agenda today.

Um, just really appreciate your time and then also the people that called in as well.

This is a friendly reminder, everything is friendly around here that uh agenda items, um, public comments have to stay within the purview of agenda items, specifically targeting certain council members outside of those agenda items.

Uh, that is why I um warned uh Mr.

Gale numerous times.

And so just trying to make sure that we uh stay within the purview of this committee.

So just wanted to state that for the record.

Thank you.

Now we're gonna transition into our items uh on the agenda.

Clerk, will you please read agenda item number one and two into the record?

Agenda item one and two, appointment three four nine five and three four nine six appointments of Stan Diddams and Gabrielle Navarro to Seattle Public Utilities customer review Panel for a term ending in July 31st, 2028 for briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

And also, uh, before we get started, Councilmember Kettle has joined us today.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

You joined us because you're part of the committee, so you so thank you.

Uh Bob.

Please introduce yourself and then you can uh start your presentation.

Thank you, General Director Lee.

Or general manager Lee, General Director, General Manager.

Thank you.

Andrew Lee, General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

Justin Chambers' planning and policy advisor for SPU.

Gabriel Navarro, new member.

Hello, I'm Stan Diddams, and I'm here to be appointed to the CRP.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Director Lee.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth and members of the committee.

So the first item we have for you this morning is the appointment of two new members to SPU's customer review panel.

We have Gabrielle Navarro and Stan Diddams.

Gabrielle and Stan represent the customer repanel's strong tradition of community representation and technical expertise.

They also reflect our ongoing work to engage more with neighborhoods and to include voices of youth that have often been historically underrepresented and are most impacted by our city's city's utilities.

At this point, I'll hand it off to Justin Chan, who will do further introductions.

Good morning, Council members.

Justin Chan, again, business planning policy advisor at SPU.

So the customer review panel was formed in 2013 and became became permanent in 2080 and advises the mayor and the city council on our rates and business plan.

And I'll provide a little bit of context about each of our nominees here.

So Gabriel Navarro resides in Capitol Hill, District 3, and is being recommended to fill one of the CRP's newly created young adult seats.

Thank you so much for that.

Dedicate position to design to lift up the perspectives of younger community members.

And we also plan to introduce uh the next young adult nominee at your upcoming committee meeting next month.

Gabriel is a University of Washington master student in infrastructure and planning and management who will actually be graduating pretty soon, right?

And a first-generation Mexican American leader and is a lifelong Washingtonian with deep roots in this region.

His research focuses on decentralized clean energy and utility investments as tools for community resilience and economic equity.

And he currently serves as a local pathways fellow through Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

He's also pursuing a certificate in ecological restoration, bringing environmental stewardship and civic engagement together in his work.

Stan Diddams resides in Green Lake, District 6, and has a retired banker with decades of financial experience at Bank of America, Seafirst, where he managed corporate accounts, including utilities, a life lifetime resident of Seattle.

Stan brings deep financial insight.

He currently serves as the treasurer for refugee immigrant support organization and sits on the Seattle Colleges Foundation Board.

Stan has deep experience balancing fiscal responsibility with equitable service delivery.

So we're grateful for their willingness to serve on the customer review panel.

We look forward to the committee's consideration.

I'd like to now invite our nominees to briefly introduce themselves.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Stan Diddams, and I'm grateful to Mayor Wilson for appointing me to serve on the customer review panel for SPU, subject to approval by the council.

As Justin said, I'm recently retired after a career of more than three decades in banking, mostly with Bank of America here in Seattle.

In that work, I serve middle market companies, led regional banking teams, worked on complex financial solutions, and spent a lot of time helping organizations think carefully about capital strategy, risk, and long-term stewardship of their assets.

I've also tried to make service a consistent part of my life.

I served as director and president for many years with North Seattle College Education Fund and the Foundation for Seattle Colleges, including work to establish the Pacific Tower Health Education Center.

Because I believe deeply in educational access for everyone.

I've also served as a volunteer or board member with organizations focused on refugees, homelessness, churches, and community development, both locally and internationally.

My wife and I and our four kids lived in Shoreline for 23 years, and for the past five and a half years, we've lived in Seattle.

Since retiring in 2022, I've been looking for meaningful ways to serve the city more directly.

This opportunity is especially important to me because Seattle Public Utilities touches the lives of every resident of Seattle through essential services.

I understand the customer review panel's role as helping to bring community perspective to SPU's strategic business plan, its rate path, and key policy decisions with attention to equity, affordability, sustainability, and service to the community.

I hope to bring the panel a combination of financial experience, organizational judgment, community commitment, a passion for justice and willingness to listen carefully.

My desire is simple to help make Seattle a better city and to serve the public well through this role.

I would consider it a privilege to contribute whatever experience I have to the practical and important work of helping Seattle steward its essential public utilities.

And I thank you for your consideration of my appointment.

Thank you, Stan.

Really appreciate that.

And then uh Gabriel, and then we'll have some comments at the end.

Absolutely.

Good morning, Council.

Thank you for the privilege, pleasure, and opportunity to be here.

Uh I also want to give thanks to Seattle Public Utilities for your service to our residents and of course our community that's here and provided comment.

My background spans a few different areas, but uh what I hope to bring to uh the panel and of service is to include more of our communities in our civic engagement process.

I deeply believe that development and our environment don't have to be in conflict with each other, that we can develop sustainably and create synergies uh between ourselves, our neighbors, uh, and the land we live on.

And so that uh value and those kind of goals are what I want to bring to the panel uh through involving different community groups, such as uh people of color, younger people, and people that have been historically excluded from these conversations and types of work.

So I hope to elevate these voices and work in collaboration uh with you all as our city council uh and provide harmonious benefits uh to our entire city.

I think it's possible, and I am not willing to give up, so I'm willing to do the work together and hear uh and be here of service.

So thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Thank you, Stan.

Uh, colleagues.

I want to see if anyone has any questions or comments about the appointments, if any.

Uh Councilmember Kettle.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh uh Hollingsworth, Council President.

Um, really appreciate the uh, you know, it's interesting, uh, you know, looking at the backgrounds and and so forth, you know, a banker.

You know, I've I've been in shoes of sitting on boards or you know, community kind of groups.

And um anytime you have somebody with a banking, you know, okay, this is your treasurer.

Uh, you know, so uh, you know, so you're you're in high demand.

If you weren't here, you would be in high demand in many locations.

But having that background of you know, working with industries that mentions that, you know, your clients over the years, you know, being in the you know, you know, the in business in the industry, you know, in this world as well as helpful giving you an insight, and so uh, I thank you for volunteering because it does take time.

Um, and that and then conversely with Gabriel, Mr.

Navarro, you know, you know, one of the things that uh that caught my attention in your package, and and I said this last night, community.

Too often in the political world, um, we have these short time short-term fixes, short-term kind of approaches.

You know, it's the you know, but out the fire of the day kind of approach.

And you you mentioned the long-term planning piece.

You know, and that's what these communities need, you know, in terms of what who you're looking to represent.

Um, because it looked took a long time to get to where these communities are in terms of not being in, you know, it's like South Park, you know, the water and these different issues.

Um, it's gonna take a long time to overcome that too.

And so that um, so the piece that caught my attention in yours is the long-term planning because we do need to do that.

We we have to have like a strategic long-term approach to our issues because otherwise we're just reacting to the crisis of the day.

And uh, so that's something that caught in your your um your uh your background or and so I appreciate uh both of you uh to uh stepping up and volunteering to support our city.

So uh thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President and Chair, and um I just wanted to thank both of you for your service.

I always say these are volunteer positions and very important ones, and I really appreciate um your dedication and wanting to step into these roles.

Um, and I wanna say Gabriel, gracias porque era ser esto and mucho trabajo y tengo aprecio mucho, and I'm gonna say that you are correct, or not that then I need to validate what you're saying, but I've been doing this for many decades, and um I feel like we're not where we need to be to make sure that our um uh our all places of government are representative of all the people that live in the city and across the country for that matter.

So I really appreciate your words about inclusivity um uh uh both um uh for people of color and also young people.

Um and so I really appreciate um the focus on that.

You both talked about it.

I appreciate the focus on that, and um I very much appreciate your willingness to serve.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome, thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Wars, I believe I'm your vice chair.

Pardon me, I so I believe I'm your vice chair.

Oh, I vice chair Warez.

We like to be have a little humor now and then.

So um, first of all, thank you, madam chair.

Um, I want to thank Stan Diddham's um for stepping up and a particular thank you on the same lines with Mr.

Navarro, Gabriel Navarro.

Um, I was really intrigued with your um commission or your packet that we received on both of your backgrounds, and in particular for you, Mr.

Navarro, um, it's not too often that we see young men like you, first generation Latino graduate pursuing a master's in infrastructure planning and management, and your willingness to uh to serve on the Seattle Public Utilities Customer Review Panel.

I know it's not the sexiest panel to be on, but when folks like you, young men like you, young people like you step up, it really means a lot because it looks like your term or your position is good until July 2028.

Um, and I just thought it was very intriguing, and I was very pleased to read that what they stated about you that you offer insight on system resilience, flooding, and long-term planning, along with the strong commitment to proactive customer engagement and building trust with historically underrepresentative communities.

I don't know if you wrote that or if uh Mr.

Lee wrote that, but um I think this really nails who you are and your commitment to this great city and this community, and along with uh Councilmember Rivera and Council Member Kettle and Madam Chair, thank you so much, both of you, um, for stepping up and agreeing to be and accepting this appointment after we vote on the um Seattle Public Utilities Customer Review Panel.

And again, there's a lot of talk about water and culverts and storm, and it is important, so thank you again.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you, Vice Chair Warez.

Uh, Councilmember Strauss.

Uh thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to take the moment to thank everyone for their volunteer service to the city of Seattle to all the residents in whom we serve.

We know that the work and the expertise that you bring to us is on a volunteer basis.

Just wanted to take a moment to recognize that and recognize you and your service to our city.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Well said, Councilmember Strauss, and well said to the rest of my colleagues.

I don't need to add more because they have said it so eloquently.

Um, thank you, uh uh Stan uh didn't say diddens, Mr.

Diddens, uh, and Gabriel Navarro.

Thank you so much.

So the are you the angel, Gabriel?

That's gonna give divine messages from God to the people.

So you can do that from you know, the heavens above to SPU, which is great.

My favorite angel in the Bible.

All right.

That's my favorite angel too.

Really?

The angel Gabriel with the trumpet.

Okay.

That's my dad's name.

I'm gonna move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 3495 and 3496.

Is there a second?

I'm gonna second.

Awesome.

It's been move and second to confirm appointments.

Are there any comments with the appointees?

Awesome.

Will the clerk please call the role on the confirmation of the appointments?

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Vice Chair Warris.

Hi.

Chair Rivera.

I'm sorry.

Hi.

Councilmember Strauss.

I Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes, five in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries committee's recommendation will uh be sent to the May 19th City Council meeting.

Thank you, Stan.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Really appreciate your time.

Thank you, Justin, and thank you, uh Director Lee as well.

Thank you.

Next, item number three.

Clerk, will you please read it number three into the record?

Agenda item three, appointment three four nine four.

Reappointment of Andrew Lee as General Manager, Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Public Utilities for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Awesome.

Thank you, General Manager Lee.

Um looking forward to uh this process, colleagues.

Uh we had presented uh some questions to Council uh Councilman.

I was gonna say Councilmember Lee, I'm sorry.

To uh director I'm sorry, I don't want to scare you to uh Director Lee, who answered those really well, but would like to uh go to you for opening comments and then we'll start the process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council President Hollingsworth and members of the committee.

I'm humbled and honored to be sitting here with you today in consideration of my reconfirmation as the SPU general manager and CEO.

I want to thank all of you and our prior mayoral administration for placing your trust in me the past four years to lead our drinking water, drainage and wastewater and solid waste utilities.

I also want to thank Mayor Wilson and her team for the confidence to put me forward in this reconfirmation process.

I'm incredibly proud of the work that we've been able to do the past four years as the largest combined water and waste utility in the Pacific Northwest.

We've reliably served safe drinking water to over 1.6 million people in the Greater King County area.

And even with successive years of low snowpack and extremely dry summers, we've managed our drinking water resources responsibly and delivered enough water for both people and fish in our region.

And in a time when many utilities are worrying about forever chemicals like PFAS or PFOA, our water supplies in the Cedar and the TOLT remain free from those harmful chemicals.

Is on track to be substantially complete by the end of 2027.

We also finished our second season of construction for sediment cleanup along the upper reach of the lower DeWamish River this past year.

That effort is addressing years of historical sediment contamination and environmental justice issues along the DeWamish.

And in our solid waste utility, we continue to lead the country in our efforts to achieve zero waste.

Just last week we had the grand opening for a salvage lumber warehouse down in South Downtown that was funded in partnership with a four million dollar EPA grant.

That project will seek to create a circular economy where we are reusing wood for older buildings from older buildings instead of sending it down to a landfill down in Oregon.

What I am most proud of, however, is that we've done all this while being incredibly mindful of affordability and cost.

When you remove the impact of the King County wastewater treatment rates, the six-year average annual rate increases that SPU is responsible for, are in the three and a half percent per year range.

That is very much in line with the cost of living increases for the region.

These achievements are the result of an amazing team and an amazing organization.

We're so fortunate to have one of the most dedicated staff in the region, from the frontline workers who fix our water and sewer pipes to our meter readers, customer service staff, accountants, and our engineers and scientists.

Their dedication, incredible work ethic, and outstanding technical and strategic minds are the reason that we are in such a strong position today as a utility.

We have many challenges and opportunities ahead of us, like the continuing changing climate, significant increases in regional wastewater treatment rates, and the ongoing threat of cybersecurity incidents.

I'm confident, however, that our team will rise to meet those challenges, and I'm excited to provide leadership to this utility as we strive to continue providing the best utility services to our customers.

With that, I want to say thank you again, and I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

Awesome.

Thank you, Director Lee, for that opening statement.

And uh colleagues, I will pause here to see if you all have any questions or comments.

It could be a comment question, Council uh, gosh, Vice Chair Juarez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I just want to thank Director Lee for coming back and staying, and I want to thank the mayor for reappointing Andrew Lee.

And I'm just gonna be a little bit nerdy here because on the stormwater issues and some of the stuff we heard in public comment, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with Director Lee on the stormwater and all the issues, particularly in the Duwam issue with tribal communities.

Um we've worked with you and your staff, tribal leadership regarding the litigation in the culvert case, um, and what happened with United States Supreme Court when they upheld the district court's order that the culverts were affecting salmon and stream and runoff and passage, and your office has always been so great about responding, and also just another shout-out to um I know that you had some references here, and you know, two stellar ones who I work closely with since 2016, and then it was um Mami Hara, uh phenomenal.

We all work triage together on these issues, particularly the water issues, and of course, Mark Olo, who I adore and work well with.

And I don't know if the public sees this.

Thank you for answering the questions.

We went through your um that I think it was like 17 or 20 pages of your questions and your responses.

Um, I won't give you a hard time for going to Stanford, but um I just want to say it's good to see you.

I've always respected the work that you guys have done, and more importantly, um, Mr.

Lee, or Director Lee, I've always appreciated how astute you are and how intelligent and how thoughtful you were when we were like when you were just talking about you know the runoffs and the stormwater and what this means for communities and chemicals in our water, the environment, and also my discussions with tribal leadership, not just on the Duwamish but just statewide.

And um, I'm always proud to say I when I would be in these circles, that um I was on Seattle City Council, and I had the opportunity to work with you.

So I'm very, very happy to see you back, and um uh I will be voting yes for you, of course.

So thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you, Vice Chair Juarez, Councilmember Kettle, followed by Council Member Rivera.

Uh, thank you, Chair.

First, I have to say given Vice Chair's comments and the fact that my wife uh went to the same school.

I just have to say, fear of the tree.

Uh I have to I have to show my support for Stanford.

Um it's a little bit easier now that you know they're not in the same conference as you do, by the way.

Uh um, yes, so fear of the tree.

No, the uh I really appreciate this opportunity.

I appreciate your opening statement.

Um I have three strategic priorities.

Um, one is obviously public safety, and as a district, my the student affairs, all the issues that impact D7 and really the city.

But my third one is the maritime, us as a maritime city, and um, and it's so important in so many different ways.

You know, one of my goals is to ensure that our port is viable a hundred years from now.

Um, but it's also our maritime space, and I'm engaging with the Port of Seattle and other entities on this, the labor unions, and you know, across the board.

It's incredible how big the ecosystem is.

And I bring this up because your role is so important to this.

Um, and I appreciate the work that's been gone and been done.

I appreciate the tour of the Georgetown wet weather treatment facility and and talking about the soto wet treatment facility that we we need to proceed under because we're under consent degree.

The the issues related to other CSOs, um, the work and Ballard at that one, also, you know, going to the waste treatment facility.

You know, the pieces, the efforts that go into that are incredible.

And I I really appreciate the the work that SPU has been doing under your leadership, and you know, with the team that you have to include uh Mr.

Hennessey behind you, but the it's so important and um because this isn't gonna change.

We're gonna remain a port city, we're gonna remain a maritime city.

We natural deep water ports don't happen like this.

And so it's our responsibilities.

It goes back to what's talking about earlier, having that strategic long-term view is so important.

So thank you for your work on that.

Second, and along those lines, and you kind of you spoke to in different ways is climate change.

We have to be ready.

We have to be ready.

You know, I just you know, apologize, Chair, I was a bit late.

I was taking my daughter to a dental appointment first thing in the morning.

And um, a good dental appointment, by the way.

Um, and um you know, 50 years from now, when she's my age, you know, where are we gonna be?

And the decisions that we make today, just like the decisions that were made a century ago have served us well in this area, um, like with the water, uh drinking water and so forth, um, it's crucial.

And so this is the kind of leadership that we need today to ensure that our tomorrow is set, and and you know, if you think of it that way, it's a bit of a heavy burden uh directorly, but uh, but I feel that you're you have the ability to do it um based on the experience of you know working with you over three years, and uh and so I want to thank you for that.

And um, and I'll be blunt too.

I want to thank you, but I also want to thank the mayor to making this call because clearly I haven't agreed with other decisions she's made.

Um, but when I but when she's made a great choice, I just I should also at the same time thank her for this decision.

So it's because it's so important for the reasons that I I spoke to.

Um and uh that's it, Chair.

So thank you for again your service, public service, and your soon to be no doubt continued public service.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Councilmember Cattle.

Councilmember Rivera, fossil followed by Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, one of the benefits after going after two uh of to follow um my two esteemed colleagues is they've said many of the things that I would have said, so I won't reiterate the importance of the role um and the importance of the work, but I will say um a couple things about my personal experience with you um and your lead leadership style.

Um, I very much have appreciated um getting to work with your staff and in particular Martha Newman, who's retiring.

We're so sad to see her go and so happy for her that she said she's going to be enjoying a retirement.

Um, but she staffs me on the Waira 8, which is a salmon recovery um work that the city is engaged in with the region and how important that is, and as part of that, getting to be with you at Bearsheva Park, where you daylighted the creek there in support of salmon recovery and and seeing salmon return to that area.

Um, that is really important work, and and not just that, but the work that you do there with community and stewarding the park and that newly um daylighted creek there's is really important, and I've so appreciated that.

I also very much have appreciated the fact that when there's been legislation coming through committee that I have concerns with, you've personally sat down with me to talk about how this will impact residents, um, like when we were doing cost sharing and I was worried about retirees and impacts, um, you sat with me, and we figured out a way to make an amendment work um in support um of my constituents and our constituents across the city that would be impacted by that um rate increase.

Um, and uh even um you know, more recently when purchasing Toleras and and meeting with constituents to talk about daylighting of the creek there that we're gonna have to do, the city's gonna have to engage in, and you're gonna be doing that work.

And in general, even if I ask you to please meet a constituent, you have done so personally, and I say this because constituents don't always know as um the head of very of a very large utility, um, not only do you have the expertise in all these areas, and you also very much care about constituents individually and ensuring that you have touch points with constituents and being a great partner with us in order to have those touch points with constituents is something that I highly value, in addition to all the work that my colleagues have already um talked about uh today.

So I just want to thank you for that.

I feel like the city's very lucky to have you as our general manager and CEO.

I think that might be your official title, although I always mess it up because I always call you director.

But the the point is you're head of Seattle Public Utilities, and I've so appreciated working with you, and we're in good hands with you at the city, and so I will be supporting you today.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be brief because I have to attend my Sound Transit Committee that started about four minutes ago, and so I just wanted to say uh on the record how much I appreciate General Manager Lee and all of the SPU employees in our city.

Every time I give a compliment to General Manager Lee, he responds that it is because of his team, and that's true leadership number one.

Number two, I think uh we have to rename the brand for SPU to getting it getting the job done for you.

Because uh, out of all of the departments in our city, I can't have a favorite necessarily, but what I can say is that the customer service and the responsiveness that the Seattle Public Utilities Department is above and beyond everyone else, and so just saying it on the record, thank you for your leadership, thank you for your staff doing a great job, and thank you to everyone who works at SPU for getting the job done for Seattleites.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Is that an old hand, Councilmember Rivera?

Yes, okay, awesome.

Um before we take the vote, General Manager Lee.

Just wanted to reiterate exactly what my colleague said.

It's been a pleasure uh working with you for the past two and a half years.

Um, really appreciate all of the answers that you did.

Just really um, I know we submitted a lot of questions, so we appreciate that.

But um, to work with you to understand about our drinking water when I was going through your answers, some of the stuff that was highlighted, talking about drinking water, about the regional approach with King County and wastewater, understanding didn't realize learning how that impacts uh as Seattle uh public utilities and uh ratepayers, and then also the affordability piece.

So very grateful for that.

And um, I know we're getting to time because I want to make sure Councilmember Strauss can get to a sound transit meeting, so uh just really appreciate all of that.

And I don't know how if you have any final comments as well.

No, I just incredibly appreciate the council members' statements and um and your support, and um, and really appreciate the partnership working together with this council.

Also, and besides, we will give you a pass for going to Stanford.

That's okay.

Every time we played basketball and we played Stanford, I don't know if I've said this before, the tree was always drunk on the side, just waving and always had white chucks on.

So that was like the thing I remember about Stanford is a drunk tree in the corner with white chucks on.

So that's what we feared.

Um, but thank you.

But also too, uh besides you being intelligent and all these things, and I think we can all agree on this, you're just a kind human being.

And we do not find that often for people or just kind people, and the basis of you being uh a human and understanding connection and being nice to people, and how you can be the smartest person in the world doesn't really matter.

Um, but if you are not a kind human being, you don't get a lot of stuff done, and I think that's why we've seen the progress at Seattle Public Utilities under your leadership for you just being a kind human being.

And I just wanted to make sure I said that.

So okay, I'm going to move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointment 3494.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved.

Awesome.

It's been moved and second to uh to confirm the appointment.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye, Vice Chair Warez.

Hi, Councilmember Rivera.

Aye, Councilmember Strauss.

I Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes, five in favor, not opposed.

Motion carries committee recommendation to confirm the appointment will be sent to the May 19th City Council meeting.

Thank you, General Manager Lee.

Looking forward to confirming you at our full council meeting as well.

So thank you so much.

Madam Chair.

Vice Chair Warez, yes.

Just briefly before Director Lee's and we go, we bring this to full council.

I just want to follow up on what you said in your leadership about sometimes it's just nice to work with respectful kind people.

And that we don't often see that a lot and have been here almost 10 years in City Hall.

So when you get a director that actually is kind, intelligent, straightforward, honest, and transparent.

It's a real gem and it's a real gain for our city.

And I want again thank um Mr.

Lee for that.

And also Council President, want to thank you for your leadership in that main as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um, I'll read item number four into the record.

It's Council Bill 121202, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the general manager and chief executive officer of Seattle Public Utilities to execute an amendment to the interlocal agreement between SPU and King County Flood Control Zone District for South Park for briefing discussion and possible vote.

You may now present your presentation.

Again, Andrew Lee, General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

Good morning, Chris Hilton, Utility Resilience Advisor at Seattle Public Utilities.

And Brian Goodnight, Council Central Staff.

So two years ago, the council approved an interlocal agreement with King County Flood Control District, allocating to SPU just over two million dollars to reimburse costs related to our flooding response in the South Park neighborhood.

Today we have an amendment to the agreement for your consideration, which would provide an additional two point six million dollars to pay for that work.

This is incredibly important work obviously that we're doing to protect our our community in the South Park neighborhood from flooding.

Chris Hilton is a climate adaptation advisor at SPU, and she'll provide you with more information about this legislation.

Thanks, Andrew.

Uh good morning, Council members.

Thank you for the chance to present to you today.

As Andrew mentioned, I am here to request authorization to amend an interlocal agreement between the city and King County Flood Control District that provides funding for flood prevention in the South Park neighborhood along the lower DeWamish River.

This interlocal agreement is part of the follow-up work related to the DeWamish River overtopping that occurred in 2022.

As you may recall, on December 27th of 2022, the river overtopped its banks due to very high tides, storm surge, and other weather factors.

It flooded 49 homes and businesses in the South Park neighborhood.

In the immediate days following the flood, the city responded, providing mobile water facilities, including toilets, sinks, showers, and laundry for the community, provided emergency housing and recovery support for 20 families.

This recovery involved nearly a year of cleanup and home repair for those 20 families in the South Park neighborhood.

In order to prepare for and hopefully hopefully prevent future events, SPU has worked with the King County Flood Control District and secured their support for these funds that support preparedness through the temporary through temporary input infrastructure that protects the community while the city and SPU and others work on long-term solutions for the lower DeWamish.

The original ILA approved in 2024 provided $2 million to pay for SP SPU's South Park Interim Flood Preparedness Program.

That covered 2022 and 2024 expenses.

And this amendment I'm bringing before you today provides an additional 2.6 million, which will cover our expenses for 2025 and 2026.

What this pays for is construction and maintenance of the interim sandbag wall that protects the neighborhood, the pump and bypass equipment that allows our crews to pump water out of the neighborhood if it does flood, as well as SPU labor for the flood response team, the crew that maintains the wall, and is deployed to and is prepared to deploy the pump system if a flood should occur.

So with that, I have completed my presentation and happy to respond to any questions.

Awesome, thank you.

Uh Brian, anything about this?

Uh no additional comments, yeah.

I think it was covered well.

Thank you.

Awesome, thank you, Brian.

Colleagues, I will pause here to see if there's any questions regarding the King County, the King County Flood Control Zone District for South Park.

I see everyone saying no.

I'll just pause here real quick.

Well, thank you.

Um so currently, I know I serve on the King County Flood District Control Advisory Committee.

I'm learning a lot about water, uh, all these committees about water, which is great.

Um, um I don't see any questions.

That's pretty straightforward.

So I feel comfortable voting on this day.

I had a briefing.

I just want to check with other council members if they feel comfortable voting on this.

Councilmember Kettle?

Chair, yes, thank you.

Uh, I was just you know reviewing this as well.

And um, and this is where, by the way, having like the you know, our tour, our water side tour is really helpful.

You see South Park from the water side, you see the vulnerabilities, and then um, and then also seeing those different areas where because we've this is not the first thing we've done in terms related to South Park and uh the Walmish more generally, and seeing those pieces, um, and then going to the climate change that we talked about earlier.

Um, it's it is really vulnerable.

Is there been any pushback at all?

I mean, this seems to be straightforward, but anything, you know, any questions, you know, second third order effects kind of questions from community or because I don't I'm not seeing anything, and uh so I just wanted to, you know, in terms of outreach and and the like, either from the communities in the neighborhoods affected or more professional, or you know, those groups that follow these things.

Has there been any questions or thoughts related to this project or or in general?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, honestly, this has been in complete partnership with community, and so community is very, very engaged with us both on the short-term action, which is this is primarily a short-term action to cover us until we have a more permanent solution in place, but they've also been engaged with us on the longer term solution, which you know, we are excited to actually present, you know, potentially in the next year or so, some more permanent solutions that we're looking to put in play.

Um, that being said, um again, this is really about providing peace of mind right now for community, and so so the incredible opportunity that this provides to for people to go to sleep easy, you know, when there is a king tie, which happens about four times per year.

Um, it's you can't quantify the benefit of that for community, and so so um we expected these types of events to occur at some point in time, but not in 2022.

And um, and so this is providing that peace of mind until we're able to get something permanent in place.

And yes, community is incredibly supportive of this.

Um, what I will say is that there have been, you know, things that we've had to work out with some of the industrial customers that are located on the waterfront, because if you build a large wall there of sandbags, then um that is gonna potentially impede traffic into and out of those waterfront sites.

Um, but we've been able to work very much hand in hand with those industrial business owners to make sure that they have access outside of those king tide events when we need to fully deploy everything.

Thank you for that.

First thing comes to mind is an ounce of preventions worth of pound of pure.

You know, the more outreach that's done on the front end is so much better related to dealing with the the challenges on the back end, like working constituent affairs.

So thank you for that, and then also highlighting the industrial users piece of this too, because that is something that was also seen in the tour and so forth.

So, uh so thank you for that.

Uh all set, Chair.

Yes.

All right, awesome.

Thank thank you for those.

Thank you for that.

Uh those questions.

Um, and I looked to the left and right and up on the screen, and I feel like council members are pretty confident in voting today.

So I'm gonna move that the committee recommends passage of council bill one two one two oh two.

Is there a second?

Second, thank you.

It's been moved in second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Vice Chair Morris.

Hi.

Councilmember Rivera.

Hi.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Four in favor, not.

Motion carries bill will be sent to the May 19th City Council meeting.

Awesome.

Alright, will the clerk please read?

No, I know we're just going through agenda item number five into the record.

Agenda item five.

Council Bill 121190 and ordinance relating to the 2026 stormwater code update, updating stormwater control requirements.

For briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Awesome, thank you.

The heavyweight fight agenda number five.

Y'all didn't like the fight word, I'm sorry.

The heavy conversation.

Come on.

Okay.

Do it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Awesome, thank you.

Um, we are going to jump right in.

We read item number five into the record.

We have the presentation up.

Um we will jump right into uh the discussion.

Thank you.

Um let's do introduction.

Oh, yeah, introductions again.

I'm sorry.

Andrew Lee, General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

Kevin Burrell, policy manager for Seattle Public Utilities.

And Brian, Council Central staff.

Thank you.

Go ahead and jump in, Chair.

Yes, please, go right ahead.

Sorry.

Thank you.

No problem.

Mr.

Goodnight.

So at the committee's last meeting on April 9th, uh SPU provided a briefing on the contents of this bill, uh, Council Bill 121 190, which would update the city's stormwater code.

Um for today's meeting, um, I'll just briefly provide some high-level background, um, describe two of the significant changes that are contained in the proposed updates, and then describe the two amendments that are attached to the agenda for today.

Um, after that, I'll turn it over to SPU, who we've asked to be here again to recap the public engagement process that they've undertaken for the stormwater code update, and to summarize some of the major themes that they've heard um during that process.

And then, of course, we're obviously all here to answer questions.

Um, so jumping in, um, as you heard at the last meeting, the city stormwater code is intended to protect people, property, and the environment from damage caused by stormwater runoff.

Uh, the city's code and its companion technical document, which is known as the stormwater manual, uh, must comply with state and federal regulations.

In 2024, the Washington State Department of Ecology issued a new stormwater permit to the city, and many of the proposed updates that are contained in the legislation are in response to that permit.

Uh, the council last amended the stormwater code in 2021, which was uh through ordinance one two six three three six uh following the last update to the city's stormwater permit.

Um so in terms of the significant updates, um, in it are um in addition to responding to state requirements, um, it also contains updates to align with the city's updated land use code and city policies around housing development, as well as changes to improve clarity and predictability.

Um, there is a central staff memo that's attached to the agenda and it goes into more detail um regarding changes that are in the legislation, um, and I'll just describe two of those briefly.

Uh the first change would revise the definition for closely related projects, it would move that definition from the technical stormwater manual into the Seattle Municipal Code, and it would create a new definition for common plan of development or sale that is equivalent to the city's permit.

Uh these changes are in uh response to direction from ecology, and their intent is to ensure that the impacts of projects that have shared elements or are being coordinated together, that those impacts are actually considered together rather than being evaluated as separate and distinct projects.

Um the next change uh that I'll describe relates to flow control requirements for small sites, and that was the topic of much of this morning's public comments that you've heard.

Um so the change would soften detention requirements for projects located within small lake basins or capacity constrained systems, which are basically areas of the city that only have ditches and culverts.

Uh so the existing code requires projects that equal or exceed 2,000 square feet of new plus replaced hard surface to comply with certain limits on peak stormwater rates.

The proposed update would raise this threshold to only apply to projects that equal or exceed 5,000 square feet.

Uh the higher threshold would align with changes made in the 2021 stormwater code update that set flow control thresholds for other areas of the city at 5,000 square feet, and it would remain more restrictive than ecology's threshold of 10,000 square feet.

A related change addresses how projects across all, excuse me, projects across the entire city perform on-site stormwater management.

Projects that exceed or equal 1,500 square feet of new plus replaced hard surface are required to provide on-site stormwater best management practices.

The 2026 updates propose to increase the applicable sizes of one of the commonly used methods of on-site management that provides both flow control and stormwater treatment.

These are known as non-infiltrating bioretention facilities, and I will definitely refer you to Kevin for any technical details, but my understanding is that these are basically on-site planter boxes.

Overall, SP believes that taken together the updated sizing requirement and the use of other stormwater management practices provides comparable environmental benefits to the existing requirements on small projects.

Lastly, I'll describe the two amendments that are available today for your consideration, both of which are sponsored by Council President Hollingsworth.

Amendment number one was requested by SPU staff and is intended to correct technical drafting errors that were identified after the introduction of the bill.

These changes include the addition of underlines to propose new code language, removing errant punctuation, and adding a comma.

And then amendment number two would add three new recitals to the bill to highlight the city's advocacy and its future intent or its intent for future updates.

So the first new recital recaps the city's effort in this year's legislative session, state legislative session, for a bill that would have prohibited the sale of tires containing a chemical called 6PPD.

Although the bill did not pass in 2026, the city intends to continue advocating for the prohibition of six PPD and other similarly harmful chemicals in tire sales statewide in future legislative sessions.

The second new recital states that the city will continue to collaborate with leading researchers and academics prior to the next stormwater code update to explore the proper role and function of trees and stormwater management requirements.

And the third new recital states that the city will continue to implement the best available science, incorporate effective stormwater management techniques from other jurisdictions, and consider climate resilience in its efforts to improve environmental protections in future updates.

And that concludes my remarks, and I'm happy to turn it over to uh Kevin if there's no questions.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr.

Goodnight.

I want to see if there are any questions for central staff before we turn it over to SPU and Kevin and Director Lee.

Okay.

Awesome.

Kevin.

Thanks again for having me here this morning.

It's a pleasure to return.

At your request, we're we're back to talk about sort of the uh summary information based on stakeholder engagement process and also go over the response to comments to just give you a flavor of kind of the effort, level of engagement and uh time that we've spent trying to describe all the changes that we've made to the code.

But can I first start with some levity?

I want to thank the folks who have attended here today, spent time taking time around their schedule to join us.

I think based on what I've noted down from the comments, mostly no one is happy, which means that we're probably doing our job really well.

We've found, I think, the right tools to get to the outcomes that we're trying to support across the city, which is managing drainage for clean water and also supporting other policies for the um the city.

So I do want to remind us by stating that the stormwater code is only one tool in our toolbox.

Seattle's stormwater requirements for the better part of 50 years have always been more stringent than the Department of Ecology's.

That will continue to be a true fact after this uh code update is uh adopted.

Also, one thing to highlight here is that we're also investing in our future.

We're nearing the end of planning for a 50-year drainage and wastewater investment plan.

We've worked with the community to help develop a vision which will be the steering body for driving the kinds of investments that we're doing.

As a result of this work, we will see more resilient infrastructure that will adaptively manage rain runoff and also work to mitigate the impacts of climate change over time.

One thing that's really fun to celebrate is that we're rapidly approaching managing a billion gallons of runoff through greenstormwater infrastructure.

The fun part of this story is that Seattle as a leader began this endeavor in using nature-based solutions to address stormwater beginning, I think in the late 90s.

And over time, the first big projects were designed and constructed by the city and also the county.

But today, the stormwater code annually, year after year is managing more and more runoff from our urban landscape than the capital projects alone.

And that trend will continue for years to come.

Another fun fact that I wanted to share more generally is that we do other programmatic initiatives and activities.

Seattle is the leader in western Washington in removing toxics from busy streets through street sweeping.

I just want to clarify that an ancillary benefit of doing street sweeping is it makes the streets beautiful, but that's not what's driving the program.

We're there to remove toxics from the roadways.

So as a result of this work, we sweep over 26,000 miles of roadways every year, over 1,000 tons of debris, including 120 tons of sediments are removed on an annual basis.

Other things to highlight as part of our tools, instead of, in addition to the stormwater code, is where we're adding resilience and community benefits through voluntary retrofit programs.

I think audience members during public common touched on the benefits of what I think they described as the rainwise program, adding rain gardens and cisterns and people's yards.

We have other programs that partner with development to retrofit the rights of way and private property to capture and treat rain through natural systems and so on.

And so we'll continue to do those, which will add benefit and community resilience moving forward.

And then the last two things I'll touch on as far as other tools.

One is a long arc, but it's an important arc of the story.

General Manager Lee talked on finishing our ship canal water quality project here substantially next year.

Since the 1970s, through separation and control projects, citizens of King County, City of Seattle have invested heavily in combined sewer overflow technologies and control.

So as a result of that, Seattle has eliminated roughly 230 billion gallons annually of combined sewer overflows every year.

We have more work to do, but we're nearing the finish line.

Okay, so back to I think the questions that I heard at the last brief at the conclusion of the last briefing.

Kevin, bring, you know, come back and talk to us about your engagement process and the efforts that your team put forward in making sure that you know people were heard.

And so, for granting in context, if you haven't done your homework yet, there isn't a quiz, but the stormwater code and manual represents over a thousand pages of material.

It's a huge lift to work on this every five years.

But the code provides the authority for the city, and the manual provides the technical details for the users of the code.

And it's important to note that everyday users are architects, engineers, and consultants that work on private development projects, right-away projects, and that includes city and agency projects.

Our own staff use this frequently as a tool.

So what does engagement look like?

We just want to leave you with the sense that everyone has a chance to comment and weigh in on these on these public regulations.

So again, the city's permits reissued every five years by the Department of Ecology, and within those five years, we start up a three-year process of collecting input, revising the code and manual, and doing engagement.

But it first starts, as you note in the slide, in 2023 when ecology issues the permit to the public.

This is to get public comment on the new rules that they're promulgating to Seattle, King County, Snowmage County, City of Tacoma, and so on.

So that's the public's first pass at describing what they're concerned about and giving ecology ideas on how to make the document better, which will then be passed on to the to the local jurisdictions.

Following that, ecology issues the permit to Seattle in 2024, for which we then get busy, start writing down our ideas collectively and what we think we need to change and engage the public for their ideas and comments.

And I'll talk about the different kinds of ways that we've done that in the next slide.

Any questions so far?

I'll keep moving.

Yeah, I think we'll save them to the end.

So yeah.

Okay.

So thank you.

Thank you.

So just in terms of like number of touch points, I mentioned early in 2023.

Ecology issues the permit, they do their own roadshow.

There's actually a public comment period, and folks can weigh in with you know any uh ideas or opportunities that they think that could enhance the regulations in Washington in Western Washington.

That's followed by our own initiative, an effort to do public meetings, and so there's been a series of those, including these uh these committee meetings and the councils your consideration now.

So what that look like is over 800 comments from um stakeholders from throughout Western Washington.

Participants in different forums include residents, our environmental partners and NGOs, the development community, engineers, architecture uh firms, and consultants, partner agencies like the Port of Seattle, and of course our sister departments who help us make these codes more effective for all of the um all the city.

The tools that we use are um similar to what we've done with the building department's notices too.

We use listservs bulletins and newsletters, we've hosted workshops, meetings, and listening sessions, and again the focus of a lot of that is about making sure that the code and manual are clear, that the users understand how to get from point A to point B.

If they have clarifying questions on what we mean or how to make it uh better as a throughput document, we also accept by way of email other comments and suggestions and and have had listening sessions with the public to accept our comments, which is what's resulted in a huge uh number of comments.

Staff has spent uh time responding to those.

There's almost 100 pages of responses.

So we've really worked hard to make sure that all comments have been considered, and for those that have made our codes better, we've incorporated them in ways that um fit within the stormwater permit context.

Okay, so maybe just a final point here is that we've summarized, posted the responses on our website, and then we've also addressed the questions from this uh new administration, your offices, as well as the Department of Ecology, which is our partner in this effort.

So, as um Brian mentioned, there's uh a couple of key themes.

I did prepare some slides towards the end at your discretion if you'd want to work through them, but that's again talking about closely related projects and common plan development, um, the question around flow control thresholds and changing those, and then trees as stormwater management.

So the last slide here is about our schedule, and uh we are at the finish line essentially after a couple of years of doing work at the city and then the following year with the department of ecology.

So, as a part of our permit requirements, we need to be have this adopted by and effective by July 1 to meet our regulatory permit.

So, with that I'll take questions, or if you'd want to go into more detail about a couple of the technical issues, I've prepared slides.

Awesome.

Thank you, uh Kevin, for that.

I will pause here because I do see some hands.

We'll start with Vice Chair Warez, followed by Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, I want to just go back to the summary and fiscal note that you prepare, Brian.

So thank you.

I know it's like 13 pages, and then we have a PowerPoint.

And in the summary and fiscal note, it does span six city departments besides SPU, it's SDCI, S.

Seattle Parks and Rec, Seattle City Light, and FAS.

Um, so I'm obviously have Seattle Parks and Seattle City Light in my committee.

So I kind of focused in on the stormwater code and the effects.

So I just had a few questions regarding, and I know that you guys have this in front of you as well.

Um, regarding page seven under Seattle Parks and Rec.

Um, this is and I actually have another question, but this is the one that I'm most concerned about.

Um, under Seattle Parks and Recreation, about future capital or capital projects you talk about as a result of the 2026 stormwater code update, Seattle Parks and Rec may see cost increases in a wide variety of project types.

He lists many, but the one that caught my eye that was a little concerned about as I was looking at this was the construction of new facilities.

So I'm wondering if the construction of new facilities includes or whether these projects are in jeopardy, are the capital projects, such as some of our housing projects that are coming online, and what effects if any are any of these costs offset or have um can be backfilled, if you will.

If I'm using the wrong terminology, please correct me by the Metropolitan Park District money.

That's on page seven.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I think um maybe Kevin and Andrew can jump in also.

Um I don't have detailed information on parks, for instance, but I can say a couple things about it.

So when um capital projects are planned, right?

They work in all the different costs, including stormwater code.

Projects that are in the pipeline right now should be vested under the 2021 stormwater code update, which means those projects um there are there are deadlines and things when they have to start construction.

Um, but those wouldn't have to be revamped in order to meet new requirements.

What would happen is projects going forward um would need to incorporate the 20 be comply with the 2026 stormwater code update.

So I don't have specifics, but they parks as always just like other city departments and other can you know constructors of projects have to comply with whatever um code is in time when their project vests.

Kevin, did I get that close or so?

My focus is this basically.

As you know, we have new community centers coming up at Green Lake and um up here in Lake City Way, and I'm guessing some other parks and um capital projects are gonna be coming up.

So if they're vested um, um in so basically they're safe till after 2026, before if they happen before 2026.

Yeah, if they're already in the permitting pipeline, I I would expect that to be true.

It also noteworthy that the SPR staff didn't identify these specific projects as being impacted by this legislation that's in front of you.

Yeah, um and then the other, just one quick question on page nine again, and on the Seattle City Light, uh Seattle City Light Future Operation, operation and maintenance.

And I know that you listed this, Brian, but I just if you can just touch a little bit on it.

Uh the last sentence again is on ongoing cost or unknown and depend on the level of frequency of maintenance and wastewater treatment necessary.

Will we be getting an update um when if indeed those ongoing costs will be known?

Um I think we could certainly ask for it.

Um both FAS and City Light, and I believe SPU itself and parks even maybe are impacted by this requirement that they collect and treat stormwater from buildings that are washed that have identified PCBs, I believe.

Is that okay?

Better stated than I could have.

Um so I think we certainly could ask the departments to provide updates on either some frequency or during the budget process, we could ask them how much their budgeting for these activities.

I don't um none of the departments in the legislation submitted their estimates of how frequently that occurs or how many buildings are it's applicable to.

Hey Brennan, I also want to thank you because I see you took a page out of my book on page 10 and 11, and you did a lovely chronology.

So thank you for that.

That is all on SPU staff.

Thank you.

I didn't do that.

Oh, SPU staff means that somebody's been listening to me after 10 years.

Thank you.

I just need the dates and the facts and what y'all did and have it written down so the public can see it, link on it, we can see it, go back into 2024 right up until January 2026.

So thank you for that SPU.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Warez.

We have uh was it Councilmember Kettle next, and then Councilmember?

Okay, Council Member Cattle, then Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, thank you for the uh the briefing.

I I miss I was not at the previous um committee meeting for this.

And um, and with the vice chair going first, I want to thank you for your slide numbers uh for the briefings.

That's usually what the vice chair says, so I thought I you know just note that.

Um starting on slide four, uh additional highlights, um, the first bullet.

You know, unfortunately, by the way, I used to be on the regional water quality committee, and I was more in I used to get monthly updates and these meetings and you know from the staff, uh half of the team is behind you.

Um, and so I'm I'm a little bit more removed now that I'm no longer doing that.

And uh so you know things are more public safety for me.

So for example, I know that you know we have a goal of reaching 1,258 officers by the end of the year.

I know we have goals with the fire department, um, but I'm not as up to date on SPU in terms of your assets and your capacity to like removing toxics from uh busy streets through streets uh sweeping.

And I bring this up because before I became a council member, I was a stay-at-home dad and like clockwork.

I live in Ontario, like clockwork every Thursday morning, the street sweep would come by.

Then the pandemic hit and those things happened, and now it's kind of hit and miss.

So my question is, you know, because this is really important, you know, so important is your first bullet on here.

And what is the capacity to really accomplish this goal, and you know, how does it impact the neighborhoods throughout the city, you know, and and your ability to do this, and and you can use my my antidote is actually more than an antidote.

I you know, I see it uh um in terms of the capacity to actually do the street sweeping.

Yeah, I'll take I'll take a good cut at this.

You may have seen a change in service during COVID where a lot of um public agencies, uh municipal utilities were having challenges with workforce.

And so your street sweeping frequency may have changed because of uh our partner uh we partner with SDOT to implement that program, and so that might describe what you've had observed.

Um today, the market is going to increase demand for the kinds of sweepers that local jurisdictions want to buy, because this is one of the best tools to remove pollutants from our urban landscapes.

And ironically, we'll be competing with local jurisdictions.

I would project in the next decade for those same same vehicles to be able to do more of this.

But our partnership with SDOT's been long going.

Um we're gonna be building out more facilities, places where we can store material from those street sweeping, decant them and properly dispose of them to keep growing the program.

And I think we have proposed investment to add to that work plan through our six-year strategic business planning process.

So it's already on our notepads to do more of.

Okay.

That's my benchmark uh is the early Thursday morning.

And uh, and I hope we do that.

I understand the competition because this is not this is across the board, and in the back of my yeah, I was just thinking as you were saying that oh boy, you know, next thing you know, Waymo is gonna come out with a Waymo uh street sweeper.

Uh and because of these these pieces.

Um it's really important too, though, you know, in terms of like the water piece, but as someone who lives in Ontario, I see the effects of the street, you know, the tires primarily on our house.

Um, you know, and and we talk about this in terms of like, you know, the pollution long, you know, transit oriented, you know, um passageway, you know, arterials and so forth.

And it's a uh, you know, it's it's a very important topic, and and I recognize the challenges in terms of having the assets to carry it out, but it is important, not just for like runoff and for the water, but also for the air and and just um what's happening uh you know and adjacent to our streets, and I do think it's probably the more the tires, you know.

It's obvious I I live in a little bit more of an affluent neighborhood.

Um a lot of cars are I mean, there's a million Teslas and other electronic EVs and and so forth.

And uh so you know, I I look at this and I see this, and um, but I'm still concerned based on um you know these other factors and the mitigating action is the street sweep, and I'm not seeing it to the way I saw it before, and so I just encourage you know to whatever we can do to build that capacity.

Um, it's really important.

Again, knowing that there are competition, and you know, everybody you're not the only department facing that challenge.

The other um question that I had it kind of goes to the you know, the the cycle every five years, this process, and one thing I'm noting, like for example, we're making major changes with the comprehensive plan and so forth, and it seems like we do the comprehensive plan, and then the systems can catch up like this, like every five years.

Um I'm a little bit concerned because essentially we're doing a mid-cycle, major mid-cycle change to the comp plan coming up, and so it's you know, I I wonder if that's gonna make it harder to do these storm, for example, the stormwater you know, updates because of essentially a moving goalpost piece, and and and I've gotten input, you know, from people, and as it relates to this briefing, you know, the you know, somebody had reached out to me, says um these regulations help slow um polluted runoff and reduce flooding and sewer overflows and vulnerable and underserved neighborhoods.

Now that Seattle allows over 95% of all lots in the neighborhood residential zone to be covered with hardscape, there's no room left for effective on-site stormwater mitigation like planner beds.

There's a lot, there's different pieces to that, but one of them is we are changing.

You know, we just had a major comp plan change, you know, that we just passed, and what's gonna be the effects of that?

Is that gonna make your job harder, for example?

You know, we don't necessarily know, and a little bit of a concern I have is that now we're gonna go through another, which is not normal, another cycle essentially, and that's gonna change things again, and it's gonna make it hard.

I just say this in a more bigger picture piece.

Um, and so can you speak to that point in terms of trying to catch up or stay apace to all these changes that we're going through?

I'm happy to leave that on this.

Um what I will say is the the code before you has been specifically designed with the comp plan update in mind, and so we recognize that there are changing development patterns in the city, and we've tried to adjust the comp the stormwater code to consider not impeding the growth that is desired in that, but obviously making sure that they're still mitigating for the stormwater impacts that they're creating.

Um this code is required to be updated for consistency with the ecology's stormwater manual every five years, um, but it doesn't prevent us from making sort of mid-cycle changes.

And so one of the issues that was brought up by the master builders um was this idea of the drainage review threshold.

Um currently it's 750 square feet, and um and their desire there is a desire to increase that to allow for additional ADUs and datus in the city.

Um so that is something that we are going to be looking at, right?

And so I know there's a desire to do over-the-counter permitting, for example, for ADUs, a single ADU.

And um, and so that again we can do a mid-cycle evaluation of that and potentially propose a change to that in the mid-cycle.

We don't have to wait another five years to do that.

And so that is generally how we would approach this.

Um that being said, I mean, your your general point is you know, effective stormwater treatment relies on space a lot of times, and so with increased densification, it does get more challenging for us to do effective stormwater management and mitigate impacts.

Um parcel by parcel addressing of stormwater code um requirements is not our only toolkit though, right?

And so, in some cases, we might want to do a regional approach to stormwater treatment, and this code allows for that, and so in that situation, um, for example, an Aurora, we might not necessarily want to require stormwater treatment on every single parcel, um, but we could put in a situation where um where um developers have the opportunity to contribute to a regional solution, that we purchase land, for example, to to create that regional solution, and then each of the developments pay for that.

And so those are the kinds of things that we have flexibility to do with in this code to make sure that we're taking into consideration the the um the the tightening of the land that's occurring through that the new densification in the city.

Do you want to add anything to that?

Maybe more background.

The rules from the state are intended to be adaptive.

In fact, the state permit's been challenged by our partners in the environmental community multiple rounds over the last 25 years and each time the state pollution control hearings board has said we appreciate your input and concerns however ecology is going to continue to adaptively manage runoff from the changing hydrology and runoff from western washington over time and that's what their expectation is so as we talk as a team it's with staff and what when we hear comments today from our kind colleagues in the room it gives us opportunities to incorporate new ideas into the next update develop new studies that will help us um figure out new ways of incorporating trees that don't yet have a framework to fit into that to the permit cycle um and all kinds of other other things but it is meant to be an adaptive manage management strategy as land use changes as well as our system outcomes and performance change too as well as well as climate change and driving kind of our system performance so hopefully I've addressed your your question coming up you know I'm actually happy I asked that question the way I did because I like the answer.

Mr.

Lee I like your answer talking to these different pieces because it kind of goes to the concerns and your answer too also goes to you know this evolving piece and um and it's important in in effect Mr.

Lee you almost created like with your Aurora example your you're you're talking about MHA for stormwater and uh so very interesting.

By the way if we were to square MHA that would do more for building and so forth than a lot of these changes that we're talking about we need to make some movement on that.

Chair I just want to close on one last thing um is on slide nine trees as stormwater management uh I just want to foot stomp that love the trees and can I say because this is what I say all the time what makes Seattle unique different from all the other cities in the country where we have like sim city you know oh we need everything's kind of bland and it's kind of repetitive Seattle is unique for many ways our geography and so forth a lot of local businesses but I always say two things one is our native community the pieces and we've seen this on the waterfront we're gonna see it with Elliott Bay Connections and we're trying to do with Portal Park and Belltown and bringing those aspects in very unique compared to other parts of the country and evergreen trees and so I just want to foot stomp trees the stormwater management and say we need to maintain our heritages because that's what makes Seattle is our evergreen trees I understand that some diversification but we really need uh those uh evergreen trees so thank you chair for that opportunity awesome thank you council member cattle and council member and just so you all know there is a agenda item number six but we are going to push that to our June meeting because I think this warrants a large conversation and making sure people are comfortable and understand what's going on so I know we have a uh we always have a loaded agenda because we meet once a month so just if there's no objection we're gonna move the um I don't even know if I need to say if there's no objection but if any no one has any issues item number six is going to be moved to our next uh our next committee meeting June 11th and that is about um AI was a sly thank you council member rink um and she brought it and so it's a response to uh some AI information so that will be moved to uh June 11th June 12th June 12th 11th June 11th okay awesome so we're gonna say on it this is our last uh agenda item for today uh council member Rivera.

Thank you chair and I'll be brief because I know we're running out of time but I will say and we'll acknowledge that um post the last committee meeting we had in response to some folks that came from public comment I did reach uh or I had requested uh from the days that I'd love a a briefing on how the department responded to that public comment I did get that briefing from the department and I also see that um behind the after slide 10 there is, although they're not number a number of slides that slides that talk about the department's response to the public comment.

Commenters, including um uh I was happy to see information about trees and the acknowledgement of the importance of trees in stormwater um and managing stormwater and um you know, we had uh uh a lot of conversation about that, uh, General manager lee and his staff.

Um, and uh I mean, and you know, in the context of the comp plan, um, I was very appreciative that uh some of my colleagues did support and it did pass uh uh an amendment related to trees that is an important one, and so we do it signals our mine and some other of my colleagues strong support for trees across the city, and I appreciated all that you presented in terms of the acknowledgement of the importance in trees and then what SPU does, including your tree program.

So appreciate all of that.

I only had one question about something a public commenter raised in terms of performance metrics on this work, and if you could talk a little bit about that, uh, because it's not something that we I acknowledge we didn't talk about uh really, and I'm not sure how that um is incorporated into the plans.

I I heard the question, but I think there need to be additional conversation with the audience to talk about exactly what they mean by performance.

Um, well, I'm taking it to mean as we're doing the storm, and I could be wrong, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say my question related to performance metrics because I always think it's important to know how well we're doing is what is the department doing?

You may already be doing this.

I just it hasn't come up in the context of this conversation is how do you track how we're doing how well we're doing on stormwater um uh impacts, you know, mitigating for in the city.

And is there a way, you know, do you have performance metrics that you use in evaluating that?

How do you evaluate how well we're doing in order to determine what more we need to do?

Yeah, I would say the two primary metrics we look at are one related to stormwater alone and the other one related to combined sewer overflows.

Um the combined sewer overflow piece is a little bit simpler.

Um it's the performance metric is no more than one overflow per site per year.

Um we've got I wanna say 83, it might be 82 combined sewer overflows at this point in our city, um, and roughly about two-thirds of those are completely controlled.

So they're down to the one overflow per site per year.

The remainder are still overflowing in excess of that.

Um, the ship canal water quality project that we've talked about will control our I want to say our six most egregious overflowing sites, and that will be by the end of 2027.

And so, and those sites, just to give a number, those sites are overflowing up to 50 times per year, and we're gonna reduce it down to one, and so that's a huge, huge performance gain.

Um, the remainder of our sites overflow, I'm gonna say max ten times per year or less, and so we will have a significant reduction just by that one overflow or that one project.

Um, with respect to um the stormwater side of things, the way we generally measure it is number of kind of acreage um in the city that's going through some sort of stormwater treatment.

Um, and it's either treatment that it might be installed for the stormwater code, but it's also treatment that we've proactively installed at the end of pipe treatment, for example, for roadways or other other sort of um structures, and so um, and I I don't have it off the top of my head what percentage of the city is managed through that.

We do have um some metrics like how many um billions of gallons are we man or millions of gallons are we managing through um green infrastructure, and just last year we had a benchmark of uh managing more than 700 million gallons through green infrastructure.

So we're making significant headway on this, and I could give again follow-up with a little bit more of an idea, but we definitely track performance overall.

Yeah, thank you, General Manager, and I'd love to get a briefing and get more information about this because I know this is something that we all very much care about in the public as well, and and I think that's important, and I know that for instance at South Lake or North Lake Union, um we were under a consent decree um and there was some work there that that was being done because of uh uh sewer overflow into the lake, I believe.

Um, and so are we what you just described something that is a little gives me some pause.

Um, I understand you're managing for that, so I'd love to hear more about that and whether we can expect to be under a consent decree for any of these other sites, or whether we already are, and how we're managing for that.

Yeah, we already are under consent decree, and so that's why we're finishing some of these projects.

Yeah, but the one consent decrees for all the sites, not per site.

Thank you for clarifying.

Okay.

What I will just add is uh Kevin made a point of this earlier that the stormwater code is just one tool that we have to manage water quality and Puget Sound and our lakes and and Lake Washington, et cetera.

Um we've got again a you know uh um I'm gonna say roughly a billion dollar combined sewer overflow program that is, you know, part and parcel of improving water quality.

We have a green stormwater infrastructure program as well.

We've got our codes, we have programs like street sweeping, etc.

And so all of it is um working together in addition to the code, right?

And so so it's not our only tool.

Thank you.

And the bio swells and and some of the other things, and I'll say there were there's a um business in the district that's um put some bio swells in, and you and I were together at an event.

Um, and I I appreciate that, and more of that, please.

If we can partner with our businesses and developers to do more of that, that'd be really great as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

We'll follow up on the other.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember uh Rivera.

I do want to thank um, so first off, this code is very complex.

Let me just lead with that.

Um, and I definitely wanna thank the people that came to public comment today um as well, and the folks that also have sent in their online comments and folks that have said, hey, can you look at this?

And you know, just had different um requests and we're trying to balance all of that uh and also too with like understanding coming up against a certain uh deadline and implementation process and just trying to manage everything.

And so I've learned a lot um and just really appreciate that.

I know I've off uh have two amendments, one as uh Mr.

Gennai talked about.

The first one was a technical change at the request of Seattle Public Utilities, and the second one is adding some recitals to the bill regarding um exploring the role of trees and consideration of best available uh science uh in future stormwater code updates um as well, and six PPQ.

I don't even know what the what what is that fire dust pardon me?

It's the uh byproduct of tire wear, tire wearing.

Thank you.

Alright, we need to put that in there because I was like, what is that?

You said tire.

I know it was tire, but I didn't thank you.

Okay, um, awesome.

But so I know that we had added those and and some people had um requested is it strong enough?

Is it not?

I know there's a middle ground here, um, but I do feel comfortable um moving forward and continuing conversations with folks to see if there's additional information, recitals amendment that we can add um as well.

And so um, because I know that we've I've received some feedback today as well, obviously with public comment and then some people that have emailed some questions.

So uh we'll work with SPU on on that just to make sure that there's an understanding, people know what's going on, and see if we can find some solutions around that.

And I know that you all have been amenable to to that as well.

So I will uh just check with my colleagues if they feel comfortable voting this and then us continuing to work on this before it goes to full council.

I'm looking left, right?

Yes, uh, Councilmember Rivera, go ahead.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, yes, Chair.

I appreciate that um what I'm hearing you say is there's as there have been some comments that that have um we've heard from today, not just in chambers, but in writing passing this out of committee if we need to make changes to for uh to as we bring it to full council, is what I'm understanding you to say.

That's correct.

Yeah, well, that was correct.

That's that is my intent to yes, to I know we like to do the work in the committee, but I also know that there is a certain uh deadline uh to implement these um as well, and so I want to be respectful of that, but I also want to feel very comfortable where I'm at in supporting this and making sure the public knows my position as well, and you know that's that's where I'm I'm at.

Agreed.

Um uh council president.

I I do I I was negligent and not acknowledging and thanking General Manager, General Manager Lee and SPU for giving me that briefing and really addressing the public comments that we heard last time and in general some of the things um that have come up and some of the changes that they made in response to that.

So thank you for doing that.

Um, and yes, okay, awesome.

Thank you, thank you.

Um, so we're gonna have to move these.

Um, I'm gonna have to move the bill first, and then I'm gonna have to move the amendments as well.

So I'm gonna move that committee recommends a passage of council bill one two one one nine zero.

Is there a second?

Second, it's been moved and second, second, oh thank thank you.

That was very loud.

Uh move and second as the bill presented amendment number wait, yes.

Uh it's been moved to amend.

It's been moved and second.

Excuse me, it's been move and second to recommend passage of the bill.

I'm now gonna move to amend the bill as presented on amendment one.

Is there a second?

Second, awesome.

It's been moved and second to amend the bill as presented on amendment one.

Uh central staff, can you please provide an over?

You already talked about it, but can you just quickly just tell us again what it is?

Absolutely.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so uh this bill is just uh or sorry, this amendment amendment number one is just uh technical corrections that were identified by SPU.

So it's just underlining some code, some new code that wasn't underlined in the bill, um, fixing some errand punctuation, removing a superscript that was in there inadvertently, and adding a serial comma.

Okay, awesome.

Are there any questions about amendment number one?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of amendment number one?

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye, Vice Chair Warez.

Aye, Councilmember Rivera.

Aye, Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes, four in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries amendment number one is adopted.

We're now gonna consider amendment number two, and I'm gonna move to amend the bill as presented on amendment number two.

Is there a second?

Second, second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and second to amend the bill as presented on amendment number two, Brian Gnight.

Would you give us a quick overview?

Thank you.

Absolutely, Chair.

Um, so this amendment is the one that adds three new recitals to the bill.

Uh recital four, um, renumbering the rest of the recitals and then adding two at the end, recitals 13 and 14.

Uh the first highlights the city's advocacy to prohibit this chemical and other harmful chemicals in the sale of tires.

Um the second states that um continued collaboration with researchers on the role of trees in stormwater management, and then the third um details consideration of uh the best available science, successful techniques from other jurisdictions, and climate resilience in future stormwater code updates.

Awesome.

Thank and thank you for for that.

And I know that we had uh a lot of we have a lot of people at sending comments regarding us trying to figure out a good solution here.

So um would also pause here to see if any council members have any questions.

Councilmember Rivera.

Just a comment and uh of a note of gratitude to you um uh chair for including these recitals um in this bill.

Uh really uh to me it feels like uh just a doubling down of our what we've been doing, which is advocacy at the state level, and then acknowledging and recital number 13 in particular, appreciate including um the the note about the trees and the continuation of the work on both exploring the role and also how we can um uh do more on trees in order to support this particular stormwater management function.

It's not the only benefit to the trees.

Um and and I know that we do many things, but that is really important as you know to my constituency and to me, so appreciate you adding it in there as continued.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

We're gonna look at thank you.

Yes, ma'am, thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Are there any other comments regarding amendment number two?

No.

Uh clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Vice Chair Rivera.

Sorry.

Aye.

Sorry.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Did you count Vice Chair Warz?

Yes, okay, awesome.

Motion carries the amendment number two is adopted.

Okay, so before we vote on the bill.