Good morning.

A special meeting of the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 9 32 a.m.

May 29th, 2026.

I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink, Chair of the Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Chair Rink.

Present.

Vice Chair Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Warz.

Here.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

Thank you.

We will now move to approval of today's agenda.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Hello, everyone.

Today in committee we will have three items that include a briefing discussion and vote on the recommendation to confirm the appointment of Dr.

of Dr.

Sandra Valenciano as the director of public health Seattle King County.

For my colleagues in the viewing public, the public health director position is unique in that they must be confirmed by both the Seattle City Council and the King County Council as they report both to the mayor and the county executive.

The King County Council's Committee of the Whole voted to confirm Dr.

Valenciano's appointment earlier this week, so we are headed toward alignment with our government partners.

Additionally, we will have a briefing and discussion on the resolution updating policies for establishing and managing parking and business improvement areas, BIAs.

We will not be voting on this today.

We will vote on the resolution at the next meeting.

BIAs have been a way for our city's small businesses to receive technical assistance, advocate and also build community throughout neighborhoods.

OED will talk about their stakeholder engagement, working with BIA directors, members, and city staff in order to receive feedback and ways to make these citywide policies more clear.

My office has been working with BIAs in conjunction with the OED team who are really excited to present on these changes in order to provide clarity for our local business community.

I also want to thank Teresa, Isaac, Casey, and the rest of the OED team, as well as Kenny Tran from my team and Jasmine Moraja from Central Staff for all of their work on this and their continuous efforts supporting our city's small businesses.

Then we will have a briefing and discussion from our partners at King County regarding the status of the crisis care levy implementation.

As a reminder, the voters of the voters across King County approved this levy in 2023 to address our region's growing behavioral health needs.

I understand that the first crisis care center has been successfully operating in Kirkland for some time now, so I am personally excited to hear more about what will be coming online in Seattle this year, later this year with the Capitol Hill First Hill Area Crisis Care Center.

So thank you to our county partners at DCHS for providing this update to this committee today.

With that, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?

Currently, we have one in-person speaker and one remote speaker.

Thank you so much.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

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

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left on their time.

Speakers mice will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Thank you so much.

Our first in-person speaker is Aaron Goodman.

Good morning.

Is this one?

Good morning.

My name is Aaron Goodman, and I'm the executive director of the Soto Business Improvement Area.

I'm here to provide some context and support for the OED's proposed updates to the citywide BIA policies.

These updates are the result of years of discussion between BIA leaders and city staff, including an intensive review process over the past year.

The goal was to ensure accountability and transparency while also simplifying what can be a cumbersome and complex process for neighborhoods and business districts seeking to build local capacity through formation or renewal of a BIA.

Seattle's BIAs are incredibly diverse.

We each operate under different ordinances, assessment structures, and work plans designed to meet the unique needs of our districts.

This is what makes BIAs so special.

Because of this, updating these policies required nuance to ensure that the changes would support all districts without creating unintended barriers.

And I can tell you that these conversations were thorough and at times spirited.

But that collaboration made the final product stronger.

The result is a policy framework that is easier to understand, easier to navigate, and better aligned with how BIAs actually operate.

The proposed changes reduce unnecessary procedural burdens for routine renewals and minor modifications while preserving appropriate oversight and rate payer input.

These updates also benefit neighborhoods that are in considering forming a BIA in the future.

By clarifying requirements and streamlining processes, the city is making it easier for communities to build local capacity and invest in their districts.

I want to thank OED staff and my fellow BIA leaders for their partnership throughout the process and encourage the committee to support these updates.

Thank you.

Thank you, Aaron.

Hearing that, that was our final in-person speaker.

So now we will be moving to our online speakers.

Clerk, do we have who do we have online for us?

David Haynes.

All right, our first remote speaker is David Haynes.

David, please press star six.

When you hear the prompt, you have been unmuted.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

It's obvious that we never got the honest, forthright diligent oversight of the human services providers.

And now we have a proactive racist who is literally undermining public safety by reaching out beyond their bounds and literally using human services money to pay criminals to relocate if they don't retaliate, paying criminals free rent if they don't rob somebody.

And you all are allowing it because of a bunch of racist protesters who show up at City Council and intimidate you all, causing you to capitulate to the devil's advocates.

The human services department has been weaponized by racists who have an agenda to run interference for BIPOC repeat offenders connected to the criminal underworld while only prioritizing self-destructive, more profitable repeat offenders exempted from jail if they claim drugs made them do it.

The crisis care center is failing miserably to literally break the addiction, as opposed to making a lot of more money, allowing people to repeat their failures because there's a flaw in the system, and you all are purposely allowing it because it's more profitable for your political allies to go through the motions and constantly gouge Medicaid as a pro as opposed to breaking the addiction with the proper approach fully.

You know, when you send some repeat offender who causes a lot of non-1-1 calls to the crisis care center, and then they get all spun out on free narcotics.

They come out to the bus stop in Kirkland, trash the place, get on the 255 bus, headed back to the youth district, and they're wigging out.

They've got this evil demon of introverted frustration that's lashing out in uncontrollable manners on the bus, sketching everybody out.

But yet they got nowhere to go.

But if they do go somewhere, a case manager helping them get an ID to move into more profitable housing is not breaking the addiction.

All right, there are no additional registered speakers.

We will now move on to our items of business.

So moving on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Item one, appointment 3497, appointment of Sandra Valenciano as director of public health Seattle and King County, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Wonderful.

Welcome.

So uh before uh you begin the presentation.

If you can take a moment to introduce yourselves for the record, and then please proceed.

Sure.

For the record, Mark Ellerbrook, I'm the deputy director for city operations in Mayor Wilson's office.

Good morning.

Dr.

Sandra Valenciano, Health Officer and Acting Director for Public Health Seattle and King County.

Great, good morning.

Well, I am with you again, introducing another stupendous person for service, public service in the county and in the city.

And today we have Dr.

Sandra Valenciano, who is the nominee to serve as the director of public health.

I can safely say that she, among the candidates that we have talked with you about, she is clearly highly qualified, among the most qualified, and I'm sure you've had an opportunity to look through her materials that she provided.

So Dr.

Valenciano joined Seattle King County Public Health with a strong record of public service and public health leadership and a deep commitment to equity.

Her qualifications include leading the DeCab County Health Department, the fourth most populous county in Georgia, and demonstrates her readiness to guide a large, complex public health team.

I will quickly go over Dr.

Valenciano's education and experience.

She holds a bachelor's degree from in community health from Brown University, a master's in public health from Tulane, and an MD from Boston University School of Medicine.

She also served and completed a CDC fellowship focused on epidemic intelligence services, both working nationally and internationally in a role with the CDC.

Prior to coming to the city of Seattle, she served, as I mentioned earlier, the director of DeCab County Public Health, serving over 780,000 residents in Georgia and managing a 52 million dollar budget.

She also, while there served as the emergency response efforts as the incident commander for COVID-19, leading testing, vaccination, communications, and operational coordination.

And she's also worked as a street excuse me, strategic planning efforts, developing multi-year strategic plans, strengthening workforce capacity, improved service delivery, and advanced measurable health outcomes.

I also want to direct you, if you had a moment to take a look at um Dr.

Valenciano's extensive resume, which goes on to 13 pages.

It is quite impressive.

I was reading through it this morning, and I came across under the publications section the following publication from 2021.

And it was the effects of a 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on Streptococcus pneumonia, nasopharyngeal carriage among children less than five years old and three years post-COVID or post-um introduction in Mozambique.

And I will tell you that I have no idea what that means.

Other than in a time when science is being questioned, when the validity of caring for others, both nationally and internationally, is under attack every day.

Thank you, Mark.

Good morning, Chair Brink and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

It's truly an honor to be considered for the role of Director of Public Health Seattle and King County.

Public service has always been deeply personal to me.

I grew up in a low-income household with limited access to health care.

Those early experiences taught me that health is about much more than medicine.

It is about the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.

That understanding ultimately led me to pursue a career where I could combine clinical medicine, medicine, science, and systems leadership in service of communities.

Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of serving as a physician, epidemic intelligence service officer, public health leader, and chief executive officer of a large public health agency in DeCab County, Georgia.

Whereas Mark mentioned, I oversaw all of the operations of the health department, including our clinical services, emergency preparedness, epidemiology, environmental health, communications, policy, and a workforce responsible for protecting community health in complex and rapidly changing circumstances.

I must admit I was a little bit crazy to take that role in the midst of a global pandemic.

Colleagues have described my leadership as pragmatic, adaptable, and hands-on.

I believe in leading with science, acting with integrity, making difficult decisions when needed, and building strong teams that can deliver meaningful public health impact.

What excites me most about this opportunity is that public health Seattle and King County is one of the nation's leading public health departments with a long history of innovation, equity-centered work, and community partnership.

My vision is to build on that strong foundation and ensure that public health remains trusted, modern, and responsive in a changing world, especially among what's happening in our country at the federal level.

Over the next several years, I believe our work must focus on a few critical priorities.

First, we must continue to center health equity and anti-racism in our policies, investments, and outcomes, ensuring that communities that have historically been left behind see measurable improvements in health and well-being.

Second, we must strengthen and modernize our public health infrastructure from workforce development and emergency preparedness to data systems and communications so we are ready for future challenges.

Third, we must be disciplined stewards of public resources, ensuring that our clinics programs and services are sustainable, efficient, and delivering the greatest public health value to residents who depend on them.

At the heart of my vision is a simple belief, public health works best when it is science-driven, community-centered, and grounded in trust.

My goal would be to help public health Seattle and King County continue to be a national leader while ensuring that every resident, regardless of background, neighborhood, or circumstance, has the opportunity to live a healthy and thriving life.

Thank you again for the opportunity.

I look forward to our conversation today.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Mr.

Ellerbrook, and thank you, Dr.

Valenciano for being before a committee today.

Colleagues, if you haven't had the chance to work closely yet with Dr.

Valenciano, I will just speak personally as a board of health member this year alongside Vice Chair Foster and a councilmember Juarez.

It has been really incredible to get to know you, Dr.

Valenciano, and see your work through that board and really excited to be voting on your appointment here in committee today.

Colleagues, I'd like to pass it over to you all for what kind of questions you might have for Dr.

Valenciano.

Council President Hollingsburg.

Thank you, Chair Rink, and uh thank you, Mr.

Aylerbrook for being here, and Dr.

Valenciano for being here as well.

Had the chance to meet and connect and talk in one of the things, just really excited for your appointment.

Could you share on the record, Dr.

Valenciano, just uh some of the ways in which when we talked about like you know, visibility in the community and what that means to you, so people know, you know, what public health is, what you do, the programs that you offer, and just being more visible to King County residents, Seattle residents, and what that looks like.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Howlingsworth.

Thank you for the question.

So I have been here for less than a year.

Uh I started in my current role as health officer in August, and during my short time here, I've had the opportunity to engage with a variety of stakeholders throughout our county and outside of our county.

So for starters, when I first started, of course, my priority was to first connect internally with our leadership team, get a very deep understanding of how public health is structured at the county, all of the work that happens within our different divisions, an opportunity to meet with different teams.

I uh went out on a restaurant inspection.

Um I did an EMS right along with our EMS team.

I visited our jail, um, I have visited our most of our public health clinics, and then outside of the internal um work that we do, I've had the opportunity to connect with Washington Department of Health leadership, meeting with Secretary Worsham, as well as as our state health officer and state epidemiologist, making sure that we have strong connections between local public health and state public health.

Um I've had the opportunity of also meeting with all of the CEOs and leadership of our large health systems, including Harbor View Hospital and doing a tour of Harborview.

Um academic medicine is also very important to me.

So actually, I recently in April received my adjunct faculty uh positions and appointments within the division of general internal medicine at the University of Washington as well as in the School of Public Health.

Um I've met with leaders from the Northwest Healthcare Response Network, the King County Medical Society.

I'm a member of the King County Medical Society as well as the Washington State Medical Association.

Um I've connected with our Washington American College of Physicians chapter.

I am a member of that chapter as an internal medicine physician.

Um, trying to see who the list is long.

I have, of course, uh tried to meet with as many of our King County council members as well as Seattle council members, having been appointed in the acting director role, I have uh been a part of the mayor's cabinet and attending cabinet meetings as well as the mayor's emergency executive board meetings.

Um I've tried to make sure that people know who I am, what public health does, that we are visible in the community.

Oh, I forgot to mention, of course, the community engagement.

Um I've uh uh met with our HERCAG, which is our health equity and anti racism community advisory group, as well as our community health improvement plan partners who are uh working on our CHIP plan, um, and then as well as engaging with our strategic plan quarterly updates that we do.

Um, during legislative session, I also testified before the state and house to protect vaccine access for the state of Washington.

Uh so just a number of you know engagement across a variety of stakeholders in our community because public health does not work in a vacuum, right?

Public health works best um through collaboration with a variety of our partners, and that is very important to me, making sure that people know what we do, uh, where we do it, how we do it, and then how can we do things better?

Um, and one of the things that we talked about, uh, Council President Hollingsworth is my desire to making sure that I present to the entire city of Seattle uh council, uh, to ensure that you all are aware of the latest data in terms of the health of King County, um, specifics on uh priority issues for the city of Seattle, as well as a deep understanding of what public health does, because uh that's one of my concerns, and I want to make sure that everybody understands what it the variety of services and programs that public health provides.

Awesome.

And if I may, Chair, just one more question.

Of course, thank you.

Uh uh Dr.

Viesman everywhere, which is amazing, uh, and I love it because that's that the visibility matters in these spaces and connecting the dots and and um just really appreciate that.

The second question I had, super quick.

Um, been here for a year, and so um, no, you know, like you know, just getting your feet set and connecting with people, but has there been uh something where you're like hey, this is a growth edge that we need to um address in our system?

Especially you've been in on you've been in Georgia, you've been in Atlanta, you have on the front lines of COVID-19, like you've done a lot.

Is there something that you've seen in Seattle that in King County, excuse me, that you feel like there's a growth edge that that we need to address uh fairly quickly to just make it functioning and work better?

Thank you for that question.

Um actually, it's funny because one of the things that I noticed in my first early months that I was um here, and kind of you know, after meeting a variety of folks, um, I had asked one of our staff members who works works on our opioid prevention efforts.

Is there a task force that brings together like all of the folks working on opioid related work and substance use work, and then all of the folks that are working on behavioral health and you know our homelessness efforts in the city and the county, etc.

And he said, Oh, that's funny.

We used to have something like that, you know, about 10 years ago.

It was the opiate opiate and heroin addiction task force.

We came up with some recommendations, and that's kind of what led to some of the work that's been done here.

And I said, Oh, you know, that was 10 years ago, it might be time to bring something like this together, right?

And then uh Executive Zahalai was uh elected, and one of his priorities was this breaking the cycle work group, which I am one of the co-chairs of along with my counterpart in DCHS, Dr.

McLaughlin.

Um, and so it was funny because when he asked us for policy ideas, I brought this up and he said, funny you say that.

I'm gonna be putting out an executive order to put everyone together.

Uh so we actually just launched that this week on Wednesday, and brought together, you know, a room full of gosh, over 40 different organizations that do this work surrounding behavioral health, substance use, homelessness, and in part to make sure that A, there's relationship building, but B, that we really work together as opposed to separately and in silos, and finding out like where are there opportunities for us to improve what we're doing and see measurable outcomes in our community, um, and especially for those community members who are most at risk who have just the highest you know vulnerability and maybe experiencing homelessness as well as substance use disorder as well as touch points with the criminal legal justice system, right?

So, really bringing all of those folks into the same room to have these very important conversations and how we might all work together.

That was one of the things that really stood out to me when I first got here, and you know, was really hoping to make sure that we could make some progress and and collaborate.

So I'm glad that that is kicking off.

Um, I would say the other thing that has come up lately, um, or at least since I started, you know, there's been a lot that has been happening at the federal level, and I would say King County and Washington State have had to step up in response to a lot of actions that have um been made without scientific, you know, reasoning or background, and so that has helped to bring us together so that although we're in a decentralized public health system, that King County isn't doing something, and then Snohomish is going to do something different, and then Pierce County is going to do something different.

That doesn't really make sense.

And so we are collaborating and connecting and making sure that we're working together, that our messaging is aligned and that we're aligned with the Washington Department of Health as well as the uh newly established West Coast Health Alliance.

Thank you, Chair.

That's all I had.

I'm just glad to hear I often say the county and the city are two big elephants looking at each other through a straw.

And so it'd be great to get rid of the straw so we can start looking at the whole elephant and figuring out how we work together.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um, and thank you so much, Dr.

V.

I am just so grateful for your leadership and your um expertise that you're bringing to this role.

And as uh Vice Chair of the Board of Health, I've already had the opportunity to see you in action.

And and as council president said, you are truly everywhere.

Um I want to ask one question, specifically about communication.

And I'll say I was so um pleased and just absolutely impressed with how you um both briefed us and helped communicate about the pantavirus and the residents who are impacted here in King County, and provided just um absolute um clarity and professionalism.

And I'm also curious about how we can um following up on joy of the council president's elephant through a straw metaphor there.

I'm also curious about um from your perspective, what we can be doing better to communicate um here on the city side, because while you're in this joint role, you're um housed with the county, and are there things that you would like us to to know as as council members and as partners to help make sure that we are effectively disseminating the information in regards to um public health.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Um, that's a great question.

Um, you know, one of the things that even I've noticed right as as we put out communications, like for example, when we put out our press release about Hontavirus, I told my comm team, oh, make sure we send it to the city of Seattle, right?

It it is this, oh, you know, I'm in a dual role, so making sure that as we're doing things, we are not just communicating within King County or through King County Communications, but also making sure that the city is aware of critical public health updates.

Um, one of the other things that I recently also discussed with my team, um, is uh well, I'm gonna say it because it's gonna happen, but uh coming up with a newsletter that would go out from me to uh our elected council members, not just of the council, but uh King County Council, but also here at City of Seattle.

Um, we're gonna be working on what does that look like?

What kind of updates would be most relevant and helpful for all of you to be aware of uh because I really do rely on all of you as you communicate with your constituents, making sure that any critical things that need to go out in community that you're also sharing with them.

I know sometimes on the King County Council side, we do have um council members who reach out or want information that they can share in their newsletters, so any ways in which we might be able to engage in the same way so that as you send out your communications to your constituents, you're including, you know, maybe a critical public health event that's coming up or a community event that's coming up within your uh districts, that would be really important to me.

It's something that I always want to make sure community is aware of when we are gonna be in community, um, and so any ways in which in which we can collaborate on that, I would definitely appreciate.

We also have um Simon Vila, who's sitting right behind me, who is our um uh liaison to the City of Seattle Council, and so we can definitely work on ways to ensure that any communications from our ends that would need to go through you all to your constituents, we share, and then vice versa, too.

Anything that you want me to know, or there may be times where you're hosting an event and you would want somebody from public health to be there just based on the topic.

I want to make sure that we're engaging in the same manner that we are with King County Council um and City of Seattle Council.

That's fantastic.

Thank you so much, Dr.

V, and thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

Councilmember Saka, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

And first off, thank you, Mr.

Ellerbrook, uh Dr.

Valenciano, uh, appreciate the uh the opportunity recently to connect with you virtually.

Um appreciate your written responses to the questions, including uh, you know, some of my questions around addressing unpermitted street vending uh and kind of timely because today and this this morning's Seattle Times and editorial was released by the Ed board that says Seattle must enforce rules on an unlicensed street food.

And you know, it's a it's an important priority uh of my office, an important priority of the city as well.

Last year during last fall during our annual budget process, we added funding to allow the Seattle Department of Transportation who enforces the is responsible for unpermitted uh activity in the public right-of-way.

Um, you know, we we we funded three positions, like enforcement positions for their jet team that does that critical work.

And we had a briefing in sept committee on this topic a few weeks back, uh, took it taking another a number of other actions, including a slide and report, and we heard a first part of that report and committee and my committee uh recently as well.

Um so this is uh this is a problem.

Uh, you'll be here shared as evidenced by the fact that Councilmember Saka.

There's a uh within the city of Seattle, there's an S dot component.

There's a yeah, can you hear me?

Council Member Saka, I'm afraid you cut out just for a little bit there.

And so if I can ask you to just uh pick up about maybe 30 seconds ago where you were, we want to make sure we captured every everything you said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh Janky internet.

All good.

Well, where I was going is this is a shared responsibility between uh within the city of Seattle, between SDOT, uh OED, other partners as well.

I know the mayor's office right now is coordinating that effort.

Um, but also Seattle King County Public Health with respect to the unlicensed food uh vending aspect.

And you know, I I really appreciate your comments um and and those of uh Mr.

Ellerbrook on the importance of science and following science now more than ever critically important uh and the science is crystal clear uh that you know when when there's no access to sinks or or hand washing stations, um, you know, as evidenced by the fact that you know many of these unpermitted unlicensed vendors don't have uh the risk of food board illnesses increases, and so um, you know, during committee we talked about the importance of education first, uh not education only uh in terms of enforcement, but how will you measure whether education first strategies are effectively improving compliance among permitted unlicensed vendors over time?

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Um I knew you were gonna ask me this question, and I I did see the Seattle Times uh editorial this morning about this.

Uh so thank you for this question.

Um for the entire committee, I wanna make sure that I note that unpermitted food vending is not just a Seattle problem.

It's not a King County problem.

Uh it's something that's happening across our entire state.

Um, it's actually something that's happening all over the United States and where I came from uh DeCap County and you know, Metro Atlanta, we unfortunately were facing the same issues with unpermitted food vending.

Um so it's definitely a just large national problem.

And I will say I sit on the big cities health coalition with the largest metro health departments across the country, and part of what has been discussed lately, we've been having kind of topical sessions about just how different large jurisdictions are addressing this manner um across you know the board.

Um, and a couple of things that I have noted here in King County, um, that is also a little bit different than what was happening, at least in the Metro Atlanta area.

You know, there's kind of these two sets of um unpermitted food vendors.

Um one set is the folks who don't know that there's a process, right, or may not know the process, or there's language barriers, and we want to make sure that we work with them so that there's a pathway to compliance, right?

Making sure that we're providing information that's um uh, you know, in variety of languages, that we assist them with interpretation and that we help them through the process.

Um, and those are, you know, individuals who are just trying to feed their families, right?

And who are um wanting to be a part of the small business community, and then there's another set of unpermitted food vendors um that seem to be a part of a larger, larger organized um uh situation that is not just here in Washington, but seems to be across the West Coast from California, Oregon, and Washington.

Um, and we believe that some of the uh individuals who are working there um are being forced to do that work, right?

And so we don't want to punish the laborer, we want to make sure that we are addressing the owner operator um of these organized um situations.

So as part of a tiered compliance approach, we do start with education and a warning at first.

Um we are gonna be working on uh, you know, if that uh continues to occur after education and warning, then uh confiscating food and again providing education and warning, and the third the third tier of that would be using the misdemeanor authority, which public health does have.

Um, and again, we would not do so to the laborer, but rather to the owner-operator of the unpermitted food vending.

Um our environmental health team actually does a great job of tracking not only our permitted food vendors but also the number of calls and times that we visit unpermitted food vendors.

Um we do have data and happy to share because I had actually asked them this.

I want to see you know, unpermitted food vendoring numbers, like where is it happening the most?

And we do have you know a large amount happening within the city of Seattle.

So they do track that as we implement this tiered approach, we will be tracking, you know, how many people get the first warning and how many of those then do are we getting a second warning?

Um so that will be a part of that process.

Um, but like you said, this is you know, we are a part of the process.

It definitely involves other uh entities in order for us to address this completely.

Um, and our public health environmental health team is a part of the mayor's IDT team interdepartmental team that was convened.

Um so there have been discussions and conversations happening as we collaborate on an approach.

No, thank you for that, and appreciate the the uh additional layer of of detail and nuance uh regarding the tiered approach that you described.

That wasn't something that was uh brought up or or certainly not in depth uh, you know, when we literally just heard this a week or two ago in committee.

So that is an aspect that I look forward to learning more about in terms of our comprehensive overarching strategy and incorporating into our comprehensive overarching strategy going forward uh within the city of Seattle across all departments and uh because it's important and it highlights that education only doesn't work.

So uh really really appreciate that.

Um the the second question is what specific changes?

So you mentioned let me frame it up a little better.

So uh you mentioned the imperative, like this is important economic uh opportunity and and imperative here.

Uh by the way, I know you're new to to newer to the city, and you have this global and national experience and perspective, and we welcome you here.

But if you haven't yet had your uh your first Seattle hot dog uh with cream cheese and onions, go get one.

They're delicious.

Love them, love them myself.

Uh, and and you know, we generally have a we we want to support microentrepreneurs at all at all levels, but we want to make sure they're compliant.

They're compliant with our with our uh licenses and permits, um, and and you know, part of that is education, but not education only.

What specific changes to the permitting process on the public health side, do you believe uh would most effectively reduce barriers for vendors while still maintaining strong public health protections?

Thank you for that question.

Um so I will say our team has done a variety of uh community engagement with a variety of members from our community.

Um we have gone out to community and hosted things in collaboration with you know restaurant community, business community to ensure that uh community members who want to start a small business who want to open up a restaurant are aware and informed of the process.

Um, I will say I think the team has done a really excellent job of trying to make sure that you know the information is available in a variety of languages in terms of specific changes and improvements.

We are always open and uh welcome feedback to the process.

Um, I know that having visited you know restaurants that uh it's complex, it's a complex issue, right?

Um, and it's a complex process.

So anything that we could do to uh inform community about what the process entails, uh we're happy to do so.

Uh we also, the environmental health team um in December 2025 upgraded the permitting system, which is meant to be an easier process for people to be able to submit all their information online directly.

Um, however, we acknowledge that for some community members that may be challenging, and so again, our environmental health team is welcome and open to feedback to improve, make any improvements in the process, as well as assist community members with that process.

And they're they are doing their best to ensure that they are engaging with a variety of community members.

So I'm trying to think, I can't remember the specifics, but we can we can share them with you.

I know that recently our team actually did something in a specific community where they hosted kind of an info session of this is the uh permitting process.

Here are the steps that you can take, and I know that they would be welcome and happy to continue doing that kind of thing in a variety of different areas of the city.

Thank you, Dr.

Valenciano.

Appreciate that.

And as you noted, very complex, uh nuanced system and set of processes right now.

And so uh what I heard you say, which makes a ton of sense.

We need to undertake efforts to simplify streamline, make it more accessible, um, and and I would add to that empower folks, uh, and then education enforcement, whatever it is.

So thank you.

Exploded to be able to support your nomination today.

Uh I look forward to your office's continued robust engagement in the mayor's office's, you know, IDT on this particular particular topic, and look forward to inviting you as part of a uh you know, broader set of stakeholders back to to my committee um later this year to report on progress.

So really appreciate you and uh thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Councilmember Juarez.

Cool.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, I just have a two questions.

Uh, thank you, Dr.

Valenciano, for being here.

Um, so we have your confirmation packet, and it's like 25-26 pages, so thank you for that.

Um, one of the things you mentioned is being prepared for public health emergencies during FIFA.

What does that mean?

Thank you for the question.

Um, so actually, Public Health Seattle and King County has been preparing for FIFA World Cup since before I came here, since January 2025.

Um, you know, public health plays a major role in uh FIFA World Cup preparedness because there are a variety of things that could happen, and from our standpoint, the biggest concerns are of course uh disease outbreak as well as uh whether there might be a heat event, and we may need to consider you know, is it safe for folks to be outside depending on the level of the temperature?

Uh wildfire smoke, and then also a mass casualty event.

The medical examiner's office is within public health at the county, and so these are the big topical areas that our team has been working on and preparing for.

Uh, we have capacity to increase for disease surveillance and investigations in the event of a disease outbreak.

Um we are also getting increased capacity for from uh for the medical examiner's office during the this time in the event of mass of a mass casualty incident.

Um, oh I forgot to mention, of course, given the topic that council member Saka just brought up.

One of the other big concerns that we have actually is that we're gonna see an increase in unpermitted food vending, um, you know, outside of of course the lumen field and the fan sites and all of that.

Um so we are gonna be getting some.

So let me let me just yeah, let me just stop you right there.

So my concern is this you've mentioned casualty event.

What is a mass casualty event in regards to besides people getting food poisoning?

Would you would you consider gun violence a mass casualty event?

Council Member Wars, if I could ask you just to repeat the question, you cut out for just a second there, and I want to make sure we captured all of your questions.

Sorry, um, so you mentioned mass casualty events, and notwithstanding the other list that you mentioned, food poisoning, smoke, all those things.

Would you consider gun violence a mass casualty event that your department would be prepared for?

The definition of mass casualty event uh varies, and it could be anywhere from three to ten decedents.

It all depends on the circumstances that are occurring.

Uh so it it essentially means do we have the capacity in the medical examiner's office to quickly do uh autopsies within the space that we have available if there were an incident of you know extreme gun violence, right?

Uh it could be anywhere from three or more people that would be considered mass casualty incident, and our team would then implement their mass casualty plan.

Um I will also add the State Department of Health also has a massive.

Let me okay.

Let me roll it back.

Let me let me get right to it.

I asked you if you would consider is gun violence considered part of that.

Is is you are you guys prepared for acts of violence, not the corner and all that, but as to be able to respond to that.

Uh well, we have a regional office of gun violence prevention team.

Um, but I will say our regional office of gun violence is a very small team that focuses primarily on South Seattle and South King County.

The work that this team focuses on uh is of course gathering data and surveillance, um, working with uh primarily youth who are most at risk, and then in the event of an incident, our team is available on site to provide support.

We also work with community organizations uh that do violence interruption.

Uh gun violence is an issue that extends beyond public health.

Uh, the role of public health in gun violence is really to uh attempt to prevent incidents in a gun.

Can I stop you there?

Yeah, you keep freezing on me, but that's what you can't.

I get it.

I get I understand all that.

I've been around here a while, Board of Health for about a decade.

So do you consider gun violence um part of public safety, public health?

Well, currently our regional office of gun violence is housed within public health.

Uh gun violence is a public health issue, of course.

Um, but as I mentioned, it is an issue that involves cross-sector collaboration between public health, public safety, our health care system, our schools, our community, our elected officials.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Maris.

Colleagues, any additional questions for our appointee before us today?

Hearing and seeing none, I am going to move forward with a vote on the appointment.

Um I move to recommend confirmation of appointment three four nine seven.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It is moved and seconded to recommend the confirmation of the appointment.

Any final comments?

All right, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to confirm appointment 3497?

Chair Rink.

Yes, Vice Chair Foster.

Yes, Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes, Councilmember Wares.

Hi.

Councilmember Saka.

Okay.

There are five in favor, zero opposed, and zero abstentions.

The committee recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to the June 9th full council meeting.

Congratulations, Dr.

Valenciano.

Thank you for being here today.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh Chair Rink, and thank you, members of the committee.

I look forward to working with you all.

Thank you.

We will now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Overview of resolution updating policies for establishing and managing parking and business improvement areas, BIAs, briefing and discussion.

Wonderful.

And as we are getting our presenters set up, I will just take a moment to frame up this discussion again.

Um just a reminder, colleagues, we will not be voiding on the resolution today.

Instead, we've set time aside to get this briefing on the resolution and to garner an understanding of what it means for our future BIA creation and BIA updates.

At our next committee meeting, we will be voting on the resolution.

This resolution conveys the city's strong recommendations and guidance for uh perspective and existing BIAs.

But are not requirements that will change the operations of any of our current BIAs.

Thanks again to all of our presenters to get things started.

Please state your names into the microphone for the record.

I can kick us off.

Isaac Herwith, Office of Economic Development.

Teresa Barreras, Office of Economic Development.

And Casey Rogers, Office of Economic Development.

Wonderful.

Please proceed.

All right.

Well, good morning.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us today, Council members.

We're excited to be here and present our proposed updates to our BI citywide BIA policies.

We have some exciting improvements to share with you today that we would that we've been working on with our BIA directors.

Um, first of all, we'll just do a quick overview of what BIAs are.

We use the term pretty loosely.

Um BIA or Business Improvement Area, also known as bid or business improvement district uh across the country and actually the world.

Um it really at its core is a funding mechanism for business district revitalization.

So it uh money created in the district goes directly back to an organization that helps support the district itself.

I liken it to uh HOA for a business district or a neighborhood.

Um the money goes back to that organization uh to support programs that include clean and safe, marketing and promotion, business and economic development, um, public space improvements and planning, advocacy, and then of course the administration of the organization itself.

Uh, but moreover, I want to mention that our BIAs here in Seattle are really our key partners on the ground in our neighborhoods.

Um, they're the eyes and the ears in the districts.

We work closely with them on all sorts of different issues of the city.

Um, you know, I I rely on our BIA directors for all sorts of feedback on what's going on in the neighborhood.

I think a good example as of late is the FIFA World Cup.

We've worked really closely with Pioneer Square, Chinatown ID, Soto, uh downtown Seattle organization in helping to prepare for the for the event.

Uh we currently have 11 BIAs citywide from West Seattle, Ballard, uh, Columbia City, etc.

Um, and I just want to mention that we are working in earnest with three new districts on BIA formation.

That's Judkins Park, Finney, Greenwood or Finneywood, and Pike Pine and Capitol Hill.

A little policy background.

Um, so BIAs are actually uh allowed by our state RCW, um, and then our citywide policies guide the both existing and prospective BIAs that are forming.

Um, rate payers are those members of the BIAs that can either be businesses or property owners, and they pay into the annual assessment, and then that's the money that goes back to the neighborhood and supports the organization.

The city manages the program, so Office of Economic Development in coordination with Treasury Services, they're the ones who actually collect the assessment dollars and then redistribute it back to the organization.

The BIA organizations are governed by a ratepayer advisory board that's representative of the ratepayers themselves.

Um, and I just want to mention that the city does have oversight over each of the BIAs.

So we approve the rate payer advisory board themselves, and then on an annual basis, we're approving the BIA work plan, budget, um, and the rate pair advisory board members themselves.

So we have agency and oversight over the organizations.

Um, most BIA ordinances include a sunset date, um, at which point the technically the organization ends, um, and then a new BIA would have to be created, and we'll get into a little bit about what that means more later.

But um a sunset date, I'll just note is not required by state RCW.

It's something that we as a city have um implemented, and you know, we see it as a benefit, a good thing.

It's a natural opportunity uh to reevaluate the structure, the boundaries, um, how the BIA is functioning, etc.

And I'll just mention I know Aaron from Soto BIA gave public comment and talked about this a little bit, but we've worked really closely with our BA directors over the last year, year and a half on these updates.

So we hold quarterly meetings with the BIA directors that serve as an opportunity for us to share kind of city updates and updates from the community, and this has been at the top of the agenda for the last year.

Um some key feedback that we've heard that number one, the citywide policies could really be restructured and refined um to make them easier to understand, both for existing and prospective BIAs.

Secondly, the petition process um and that 60% approval threshold is burdensome and challenging, and it doesn't always make sense for minor changes in a BIA.

And then thirdly, there's interest in clarifying uh the policy on assessing government-owned properties that do benefit from BIA services.

With that, I'll pass it over to Isaac.

Great.

Thank you, Casey.

Uh so I'm just gonna go in a little more detail on some of the key changes that are in the update.

Um and these aren't really so much uh substantive policy changes, but as Casey said, um we got feedback that the policies were kind of difficult to navigate.

Uh they haven't been updated for 10 years, and so they were kind of overdue for a refresh.

And so we made a lot of small changes that kind of makes the whole document look pretty different, make it making it clearer about the BIA responsibilities, all the steps and requirements in the process to form or renew uh a BIA, and more details about the ongoing roles and responsibilities uh for you know monitoring, administering, and all of that for between the BAAs, OED and City Finance.

We also made a lot of other changes like just relatively small things like moving kind of a key term that was just in a glossary farther up into the document, kind of reordering things so that it is kind of more logically structured and just more improved overall for readability, and that I think in particular will help uh lower the barrier and make it easier for prospective BIAs that are looking to form that maybe are it's their first time looking at a document like this.

And then probably the most substantive change that we're proposing is around the renewal.

So as Casey said, renewal isn't really a term that appears in the state law about BIAs, and we've historically required this uh disestablishment re-establishment with the petition process and requiring 60% approval.

Um now we've really delineated when uh as long basically as long as you're not making any significant changes, you can go through the modification process, which is an amendment to the ordinance.

The city would still require outreach to all of the ratepayers and documentation of that outreach and recommend majority support, uh, but it wouldn't have to go through that 60% and formal petition process.

If the BIA is performing or uh suggesting more significant changes, like adding a new area that's not contiguous, or change of more than 10% of their boundaries, changing the services they provide, or changing a benefit zone, then you know those more substantive requirements changes would require the petition disestablishment, reestablishment.

And so uh as you can see in the summary and fiscal note, there are a lot of more detailed items we can go through, but we just wanted to highlight those.

Um, and in summary, we think these are a lot of little things that add up into uh big improvements that the BAA directors are welcoming and we believe will help existing and respective BIAs.

We welcome any questions.

And I think uh Jasmine may have a little bit of follow-up.

Um nothing to add here.

I'm just uh here available to answer any questions.

Um central staff identified no issues um with the proposed changes.

Um, and so yeah.

Wonderful.

Thank you all so much for the presentation.

Colleagues, what questions do you have for our partners at OED?

Right.

If we're still thinking, I'm happy to just kick us off a little bit.

Uh you touched on the point about just the sunset.

Can you just expand a little bit more on um the value of having you know a sunset uh in place and some of your ongoing discussions with BIAs about that?

Yeah, I can chime in here.

So we've noticed that those BIAs that do not have sunset dates oftentimes can languish.

Um so having a date when the BIA ends um is really an opportunity for the organization to, you know, look look at itself and understand have the boundaries shifted, is the assessment formula sort of what we're wanting, um, is the kind of the budget that we're at looking good.

So it's it serves as kind of a natural point for the organization to maybe recalibrate as a word that I would use, um, which is why that um we tend to recommend a sunset date, which can look, you know, it can vary between organizations, um, some would be seven seven years.

I know that 10 years sort of is often once the BIA is up and running, they kind of have every 10-year sunset date.

I don't know if you want to add anything.

Yeah, I would just add uh that the updated policies officially recommend a sunset date, which they didn't previously.

They're not required, but I think paired with reducing the barriers for renewal when it's uh basically just extending the sunset date that that is appropriate.

Great.

Thank you for that.

And I'm wondering if you can walk us through the current petition process, the 60% approval um threshold, and an example of a time where this has been challenging for a BIA.

Sure.

Um so right now to form a new BA, what we require, what's required per state RCW, I should say, is 60% support of the proposed um assessment.

So it's actually of the proposed dollar amount, 60% of what creates that dollar amount is needs to be in support.

And then we'll say that that is certainly challenging.

I think when I say it's challenging, I don't mean that uh 40% of those uh potential rate payers are in dissent.

Oftentimes what's challenging is communicating and getting in touch with uh either the property owner or the prospective rate payer to actually get them to sign in support.

Um, I think is the big probably the biggest barrier that I've seen.

It's hard just to know who to send the petition to sometimes and to get to the right person and for whoever you find to feel comfortable signing in some cases when you have some complex property structures, and just to get people to respond, I think it's not that you have to get to 60% of folks who've responded.

You have to get to actually 60% of the entire BIA you know proposal.

So that is very challenging.

It takes time, and you know, I think apathy can kind of play into this if you know a lot of folks just don't get around to it or they get a very dense packet and they don't understand it.

So it's we're seeing it right now with the folks who are out to petition that it's it is very challenging to get that to that level.

Thank you.

Jasmine?

Yes, I might um also reiterate that this this limit uh this threshold is according to state law, and um I understand that um stakeholders identified that threshold piece as the biggest challenge to establishing a BIA, but really to ease that burden, it would require going to the state.

It's a critical detail.

Thank you, Jasmine, and and thank you all for unpacking that a little bit.

Colleagues, any additional questions.

Apologies is that oh, pardon me.

I forgot to scroll over.

Please proceed.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um, and thank you so much to our presenters.

Um I have just two questions for you.

Um I I really appreciated the comments around the challenges with the um outreach and even just the challenges that small business owners face with the identification of who is in their area for a potential BIA.

I wonder if you can share if that what work OED is doing or what work other departments could possibly do to ease that burden on the identification and the outreach because we know these are our fantastic small business owners who are both owning and operating their businesses and then also taking on this additional really important outreach work.

We do a lot to support the whole process.

We fund consultants to help our local communities to gather that data and identify it does take a lot of time and effort to figure out who's out there and what their contacts are and to and to go out and talk to folks and get input and feedback and develop the proposal in collaboration with all the folks in the neighborhood and based on their priorities and what services they want to see.

So it is just a very um kind of intensive process to do all of that.

And we are we do provide as much resource and service as we can to support that process.

I think we have we often base the BIAs on King County assessment um data, and that can sometimes be challenging to get you know the the latest updates on that data and all of the information.

So, you know, that's something that we are working on and trying to figure out better approaches, but I don't know if you have the other thoughts.

Yeah, I mean I'll just add that um for each BIA formation effort.

So for a new BIA that's looking to form, there's um a group of folks on the ground representative of the community, and there's almost like a networking aspect of it.

You know, who amongst the group knows the property owner of this property versus that property?

So I think that sort of comes naturally with with the effort and and is just a challenge that we that we work to support as Teresa mentioned, and and just sort of is unique to each effort.

Got it.

Thank you so much for that.

And yeah, I know that's something I've heard from folks when they're like, we know who the person is, but we can't figure out quite how to get in touch with them.

So um it's helpful to hear the work that OED is doing with consultants and other things to help get people in touch.

Um one more question.

Um I think this might be a question for Jasmine.

So Jasmine, you mentioned that the 60% is in the the state statute.

Um does the state statute sort of um dictate uh which decisions uh have to be reached at that 60% threshold, or do we have any sort of uh additional flexibility beyond what's um presented in these recommendations today?

Um I believe that 60% threshold is just a threshold to show support for the BIA.

Um so I maybe Isaac it looks like you want to chime in.

Uh I don't I don't quite have the RCW memorized.

There are a couple key changes that specifically say that they do trigger that requiring the 60% threshold, which we uh have reflected in the city the policy citywide policy.

So a change in a benefit zone, changing to the services, uh significant changes in the boundary.

Um those are specifically stated in RCW as requiring that 60% threshold.

Um so we really are only requiring the 60% threshold where it's required by state law.

I'll just add that was exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry, I uh the state law is a little bit has some conflicting language in it, and um, you know, we have worked with our city law department to understand and figure out you know what we can do and where, and I think we landed on um this approach.

I think the prior practices of requiring a new petition process for renewal.

I think we were we realized that that wasn't required in state law that there were some places where we could modify that within state law.

We would like to uh propose some changes to state law to clarify the language and maybe reduce that 60% petition requirement, but we didn't feel comfortable moving forward as a city of establishing a policy at less than 60% at this time.

That is tremendously helpful, and um my office will follow up with some additional questions around those um ideas the department has for um partnering with our folks in Olympia.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

We will be revisiting this item at our next committee meeting.

Wonderful.

Well, I want to thank the Office of Economic Development for your careful work on this, particularly just the focus on how we can also make this language and this process more accessible for folks is just greatly appreciated.

So thank you for your work and thank you for being in committee this morning.

Have a good weekend.

Thank you so much.

Wonderful.

And now we will move on to our final item of business today, colleagues.

Thanks for hanging in there.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

And please note that our presenters will actually be online for this portion of the meeting.

Item three, King County Crisis Care Centre Levy Implementation Update, briefing and discussion.

Wonderful.

And as our presenters are getting going with their presentation and we're switching things out, I'll just take a moment to note for the viewing public that King County holds jurisdiction over the crisis care center implementation.

However, with the Seattle location set to open in 2027, as chair of this committee, I feel it is important to take time to holistically understand the work that's going on and what's being done to address our region's growing behavioral health needs landscape.

So thank you to all the presenters for being with us today.

At this point, I think more members of this meeting are online than in person.

It's just me and the clerk rocking it in chambers today.

So I feel a little left out.

But with that, I'm going to turn it over to our presenters to get things started.

So if you can please go through and introduce yourself by uh stating your name into the record.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Asha Van Ketraman.

I'm the municipal relations and community engagement manager with the King County Department of Community and Human Services.

I'll turn it over to my colleague Katie.

Good morning, Chair.

My name is Katie Rogers.

Pronouns are she her, and I'm the chief of staff at King County's Department of Community and Human Services.

Kelly.

Good morning, Chair.

My name is Kelly Tong.

I use she her pronouns.

I'm the crisis care center's business operations manager.

And Danielle.

Good morning, Danielle Bessemer.

She, her pronouns.

I'm the interim deputy director for the behavioral health and recovery division.

Great.

Um I'll start us off here with our presentation.

So as Chair Rink mentioned, we are here to talk about the Crisis Care Center levy and the implementation status.

So our agenda for this morning will be to talk through the overview of the levy in general, talk a little bit about crisis care centers and the early impacts and successes we've been seeing thus far.

Implementation status of the levy in general, and then we'll dive into the pieces around the Broadway Crisis Care Center planning, and then talk a little bit about community engagement.

So the crisis care centers initiative was approved in 2023, and the entire levy was intended to provide about 1.1 billion dollars over the next nine years.

And we are attempting to fill a gap in this spectrum here.

So we're looking at someone to contact.

Someone to respond.

And then someone to follow up, and that we'll get into as well.

But things like post-crisis follow-up care.

There are there are three purposes to the crisis care center levy.

The paramount purpose is to establish and operate this regional network of five crisis care centers, four that are primarily in one in each of the crisis for north, the east, uh, the south, and then central, um, and then one for uh specifically for youth.

I'll just clarify, all of the the crisis care centers will see youth, but the the youth crisis care center is specifically um for our youth and young adults.

There's a the first supporting purpose is to help restore the number of residential um treatment beds for mental health that we have lost in King County since 2018.

And so to shore those back up.

And then the second supporting purpose is to invest in our invest and strengthen our behavioral health workforce across King County.

I will turn it over to my colleague Kelly to talk about the crisis care center specifically.

Thanks, and good morning again, everyone.

And I apologize if I have to randomly mute myself.

I've caught a cold and have some coughing fits, so I apologize.

So thank you for having us here today.

So I'm gonna just dive into the crisis care center's clinical model and some of the insurance breakdown that we're we're noticing.

With so many people unable to access treatment when they need it, a crisis care center is now a place for someone can where someone can go at any time and regardless their ability to pay for the services that they receive.

So someone can walk in voluntarily or even be dropped out by our first responder and EMS partners.

Next slide, please.

But this graphic really illustrates the way the different ways of how someone can access a crisis care center and the clinical path that they'll fall that they may follow.

So each center has three key clinical components.

And so there's the urgent care, the 23-hour observation, and the crisis stabilization unit.

So together, these services are designed really to provide timely, appropriate and person centered care for people that are experiencing a behavior health crisis.

Starting off at the top left, you're gonna see the front door into care, which is their urgent care unit.

And so adults can walk in 24-7 without an appointment.

And then youth ages four through 17 can also be seen there.

Everyone's gonna be greeted by a, you know, by a peer specialist, and then a clinical team will provide assessments, medication support, and any other services that the individual may identify as their needs.

If the individual's needs cannot be resolved in the urgent care, or if they're experiencing more acute behavioral health symptoms and crises, then they can be transitioned to the 23-hour observation unit, which is represented in that center in the center part of this graphic here.

Um this is also where for our first responders and mobile crisis teams have a dedicated entrance for a direct drop-off.

Um, and so that's really creating a different or sorry, creating a space that's appropriate to like an alternative to an emergency department.

Um, I want to note that youth will not actually be served in the 23 hour observation and stabilization units in the adult facilities.

But once the youth crisis care center is online, then the idea is that the adult facilities will transport the individuals to the UCCC uh for further stabilization from there.

Uh in the 23-hour observation unit, the clinical team will provide rapid stabilization and clinical intervention, and the individual can stay there for up to 23 hours and 59 minutes.

Um and last but not least, the third component uh for any individuals that need more time beyond that initial 23 hours and 59 minutes, but are not requiring inpatient hospitalization, like so they've they've stabilized a bit and not requiring that higher level of care, they can transition to the crisis stabilization unit, which is shown to the right of this graphic here.

Um the CSU is duly licensed, so it's a lice it's licensed as a withdrawal management and as as a reg as a residential treatment facility where they can stay for up to 14 days.

Um, and so here individual receives case management, withdrawal support, site consultation, um, medication management, uh ongoing assistance from peers and care navigators, and you know, the whole really the whole gamut of services is across all of the three components.

Um they're just the the length of stay is really what is kind of changing, and along with the acuity of the symptoms that the individual is presenting with.

Um, and you'll see in kind of that bottom middle is uh so when the clinical team identifies that someone could benefit from continued support after discharging, they can be connected to a post-crisis follow-up program, which is launching later this summer.

We'll share, we'll talk a little bit more about that later through this presentation.

Um, but it's really the importance of just providing that continued care.

Um, each component is provide is planning for discharge as soon as someone arrives, right?

Just because we know this is a short term, it's not meant to be a long-term facility for individuals to remain in.

Uh next slide, please.

Uh as everyone's aware, so Kirkland Connections, our Connections Kirkland is now open and they're accepting youth in their urgent care.

Like I mentioned, adults can walk in 24 7 without an appointment.

Um, youth ages four through 17 can walk in as well or schedule an appointment online.

And that's their hours right now are 11 to 7 p.m.

every day, um, with the idea that we're gonna go to 24 7 for the youth urgent care.

Um, about 50% of all individuals come in voluntarily, and about 40% of those visits stem from a first responder drop-off.

Um, so right now uh the first responder drop off averages around actually the seven to nine minute range from point of entry to handoff to connection staff.

Um, and just like an anecdote uh in 2025, about 26% of individuals seen at Kirkland were returning guests, and so meaning they had a previous visit within the same year or the year prior.

And so some of these returning guests, and sorry, and of these returning guests, 65% returned on their own rather than being brought in by first responders.

And so we're seeing similar patterns in 2026.

But I think this is really telling us that people are feeling safe enough to return in the event of a behavior health crisis.

And I think that's what we want to encourage, right?

We want to encourage people to return if they have behavioral crisis rather than going to an emergency department or calling the police, like being able to come back and receive that the care that they need.

Next slide, please.

Um, so this next slide shows the insurance pair mix uh for Kirkland connections from January 2025 to March 2026.

And so the first slide I just want to note like that's not insurance that is full levy.

Um, it's 100% covered through the levy.

And this is because this is non-service operating cost.

So what this really means is like transportation, pharmacy and laboratory costs, they're not covered by insurance.

And so uh that's what the levy is helping kind of assist and pay for.

Um, and so I want to just note some important kind of some of the asterisk that's noted here.

So the payer information shown is representing the type of insurance that's requested when the operator, when connections submits an authorization for services, but it doesn't mean that the claim was fully or partially paid.

Um, in some cases, there may be more than one payer type, um, like Medicaid Medicare that may be associated with a single authorization.

And so that's why the allocation column doesn't line up to 100% for each unit.

Um, just one important thing I think to really highlight is that we are projecting a positive fund balance over the life of the levy.

And so we are DCHS took a really conservative approach when we estimated Medicaid reimbursement.

Um, and we assume that approximately 40% of the services would be covered by Medicaid.

But in practice, right now what we're seeing is Medicaid is actually reimbursing closer to 55%.

And so this means that we're actually able to increase the amount of Medicaid we expect to cover.

And so then therefore that reduces the levy funding that's needed to support the services.

Next slide, please.

So first responders, including our 12 local police departments, they're already bringing uh people to the Kirkland crisis care center, um, and with referrals coming from across the region, including our Seattle partners.

Um so the data shows that first responder drop offs take on average about the seven to nine minutes range that I mentioned.

Um, and both Kirkland uh and the, sorry, both connections and Kirkland police have highlighted that the quick turnaround really helps make their work easier and um frees them up to respond to the emergencies.

And so um from January 2025 to March 2026, there were actually 7,071 total drop-offs at the crisis care center in Kirkland.

And of those, 460 were made by police or co-responders, and that represents roughly 7% of all of the total drop-offs made for that time period.

Um we anecdotally, we know that Seattle is a police as a frequent referration and the workflow of routing individuals to the center via AMR really appears to be working well for them because we know how far Kirkland can be, especially for our police officers that are based in the Seattle area.

Something else I just want to highlight that I actually just heard a couple of weeks ago is a police captain in Kirkland recently told us that he's pleasantly surprised at how well Kirkland is working and admitted that he was skeptical at first, and he thought the crisis care center might draw more of our unhoused population into the area or even create new challenges for them.

But after seeing the crisis care center in action, he said those concerns haven't played out, and he's glad that the services is in their community and appreciates the support that it's providing them.

Next slide, please.

So this is now more, we're talking less about the crisis care center and more about broader impacts that the levy is supporting across the behavior health system.

And so we're seeing some real results in terms of people getting the care that they need and the system gaining more capacity or gaining new capacity.

So more than three 3,300 people were served over through over 5,400 visits at Connections Kirkland in 2025.

And 95% of individuals in the crisis stabilization unit were able to avoid higher costs or higher level of care.

And across the system, we're just seeing across the broader system, adult and youth crisis teams have conducted more than 5,500 outreaches in 2025, which is double what we saw in 2024.

And so our overdose response work is also making an impact.

People using naloxone from our vending machines, which was levy funded and kind of scattered across King County, have reported that the responded to sorry the many machines have reported responding to nearly 800 overdoses, and more than 15,000 harm reduction supplies have been distributed thus far.

At the 911 level, crisis counselors that are embedded in our South King County call centers have resolved 99% of calls that were diverted to 988.

We're also continuing to invest in our workforce, and nearly 3,700 staff have benefited from wellness and career development supports, helping our agencies retain and strengthen their teams, which is part of that supporting purpose too that Asha was just talking about.

And on the resident residential side, we've invested 35 million.

And finally, our King County designated crisis responders or DCRs are arriving faster and responding to our community referrals in less than in under 11 hours on average.

Our outpatient providers in the King County integrated care network have also reported that they have more availability today and more routine appointments that are open for the community.

Next slide, please.

So now we're gonna go more into the crisis services that's funded through the levy.

And so first and foremost, just we've expanded crisis across crisis services across the county in general.

So this slide gives a quick snapshot of the free like 24-7 types of services that's available to us today.

We'll walk through some of these in more detail, but really the big picture is that people have more places to go and just more ways to get help that don't involve necessarily the emergency department or police.

Next slide, please.

So someone to contact um 988.

So when someone calls or texts 988, there's counselors available to talk and to listen to individuals that need support and find appropriate steps for the next steps for the individual.

And so in King County, the 988 line is around by crisis connections.

And if they're unable to resolve that crisis over the phone, they will then, you know, they'll route to the appropriate teams.

But one of those teams is a mobile crisis team.

Um and mobile crisis teams are now able to respond to our community calls on behalf of DCRs, and that's really freeing up the DCR time to respond to a lot of the folks that are needing that higher level of supports.

Between April and December of 2025, there were 1,834 calls to 911 that were diverted to 988.

And so King County, so we're seeing lots of uh great uh kind of rerouting happening there.

And King County has received over 82,000 calls or texts to crisis connections in 2025 alone.

Next slide, please.

And so, like I said, we're talking about someone to contact now.

This is the someone's response.

Like I mentioned, the mobile crisis teams or mobile response teams.

Um, so these teams are providing response for mental health or substance use crises that's not involving police.

And so they can really respond to anywhere in the county at any time, regardless of where they are, regardless of it's a substance use concern, mental health concern, or even if whether there's criminal activity that's taken place.

So each team is made up of behavioral health specialists and like mental health providers, uh, peers, um, but they're paired together to respond always in teams of two.

Um, and this creates a compassionate and clinically informed response to really meet people where they are in their moment of extreme vulnerability and high level of crisis and meeting that extreme care.

Um, so mobile crisis is offered offers a critical alternative to our 911 system and traditional that law enforcement response.

Um, they're ensuring that our behavioral health crises receive a behavioral health response, and we're really trying to preserve our police and emergency resources for the situations that really require them.

Next slide, please.

Thank you, Kelly.

I'm gonna jump in here for what happens after a crisis.

As we engage with the community and our elected officials and folks surrounding the Broadway site, what we heard most often is what where does someone go after they leave a crisis care center and what happens after a crisis?

So first, 66% of the people who come to a crisis care center have their needs met in the urgent care.

And what Kelly said is true, which is that we are, you know, this is a new uh type of care that is entering into the overall system, and so right now a lot of what we are doing is awareness and engagement around what are the services that are offered, how can people access them?

Can I access them more than once?

I went to the crisis care center and I'm okay now, but I I think I actually need to go back.

We want to continue to make sure that we are communicating clearly that this is a place you can repeat often, and so what we will see and what we are starting to see is that people are returning, as Kelly mentioned.

Um but the centers really are focused on what how can we connect folks to that next layer of care or where that next step is for them in recovery?

And there's ongoing treatment options, community resources and immediate once an immediate crisis has been addressed.

Um, we do the levy does fund transportation assistance and then individualized care coordination so people can return to their home or another supportive environment.

Um, this care is really focused on culturally and linguistic appropriate care, and then getting someone to either outpatient treatment, residential treatment for that longer term stay or other social services.

Next slide.

So post-crisis follow-up teams are a core part of that handoff.

What does it look like for someone to leave a center?

Uh, earlier this year we announced um through our competitive RFP process uh three providers that are going to lead our post-crisis follow-up care, and that is Consejo, Counseling and Referral Services, Purpose Dignity Action, and Sound Behavioral Health.

As Kelly mentioned, we are hoping to stand these up by the end of the summer.

And they are really focused on how can we support a person's specific and ongoing recovery and what do they need as part of their follow-up.

So if someone has received care at a crisis care center, these teams are meant to provide short-term, high-intensity services.

They will last 30 to 90 days and they consist of frequent engagement support from peers with lived experience and an intensive focus on ensuring the appropriate transitions for what those next services and needs will look like for each individual.

And really part of this is to build relationship to really understand where is that next safe location and to have a good sense for what a person is either needing or currently experiencing in their care transition.

Next slide.

So as Kelly and Asha noted, this is the second paramount purpose of the levy, and that is to build back residential treatment beds.

These have been depleting over the years, and it then creates a gap in the system where someone is unable to get that sort of next layer of care where they don't need to be in an emergency room or hospital setting or a crisis care center.

They need they can live more independently, but not yet quite on their own.

So residential treatment provides 24-7 a safe and supportive environment where people can get those additional services to stabilize, and that can look like around the clock clinical support and supervision, therapeutic interventions, and then stabilization.

And a few of the places that have already been named in Brenton and Bashon, we have funded some of those beds, and we are currently looking at the potential of co-locating a 16-bed residential treatment facility at 1145 Broadway, which is the crisis care center in Seattle.

So that conversation is currently in, we are having that discussion.

We're trying to understand what the building needs look like and what the layout could look like.

And for future, we're looking at uh capital funding RFP that will be released this summer, and then we're also going to release an RFP for a provider by the end of the year.

Next slide.

So this is some exciting new data that we have for 2025 that shows who the King County crisis system has served and for what needs.

And what we see here is that most people are reaching out to the crisis lines.

So 85,000 people are served by the crisis lines to get into low barrier programs.

This also touches on some of the CCC data, but the reason I share this slide is to show just to see how much people in Seattle, which we see the most need, are going to the Kirkland site.

And so our future hope will be that we are able to have that quicker response in Seattle where someone can go right in their backyard.

And I will pass it to Kelly on implementation.

Thanks.

So this is the estimated implementation timeline that was laid out in the crisis care centers levy implementation plan.

And so I just want to know, we've actually we've remained largely on track to meet what we've laid out thus far.

And so in 2024, we opened the first procurement to select up to three of the five crisis care center operators.

And then round uh one, sorry, round two opened in January of 2026 to like to select our final CCC operator for the adult facility, which is in the East Crisis Response Zone.

And then lastly, round three to select our youth operator is actually opening today at four o'clock.

And so we're excited that that one's going to be releasing.

And so we're ahead of the IB timeline as far as because we opened the first CCC in 2025 rather than 2026.

And we do anticipate that the Seattle or the broad central CCC will be opening in late 2027.

That's the up-to-day timeline that we have right now.

Let's go to the next slide and then I'll go into a little bit more of the CCC's by crisis response zone.

And so, like I mentioned earlier, so and then like everyone knows.

So in the North Crisis Response Zone, we have uh their Kirkland facility, which is ran by Connections Health Solutions, and they were the first center to open tech as a crisis care center in August of 2025.

I do want to note they were open as of August 2024, but they were not funded through the crisis care center's levy.

Um, when they were awarded uh announced as the operator um uh in uh 2025, they then became funded through the levy in August of 2025.

Um additionally, with the support of the city of Kirkland, the county acquired the facility in May in this month actually, providing long-term stability for that site.

Um, and then for central zone, uh, which will be located at the 1145 Broadway, like Katie mentioned, um, we announced that the operator to run that facility will be Connections Health Solutions once again.

Um, and that was announced in November of 2025, and we're anticipating that facility to open in late 2027.

Um, and then for the South uh Crisis Response Zone in February of 2026, we announced multi-care as the South Crisis Care Center operator.

Um, their proposal did not include an identified site, and so over the coming months, the operators expected to identify and advance viable siting options and engage ourselves jurisdictions uh to build relationships and secure that letter of support uh needed to confirm the feasibility of the selected site.

Um and by the end of 2026, they will be expected to secure site control.

Um, and uh for the East Crisis Response Zone.

Uh, we released our round to CCC procurement in January on January 30th of this year.

Um, and that was the focus for the east side.

And the notification of the award is anticipated in late of uh later this year and kind of towards the end of 2026.

Um, and the siting for the East facility really depends on whether the proposals submitted uh through the procurement um have identified a specific site or not.

And then, like I just mentioned, the youth will be opening today at four.

And I will hand it back to Asha.

All right, so I'll just dive a little bit into where we are on the central uh zone crisis care center planning.

Um, so right now, or as of 2025, as Kelly mentioned, we had selected Connections Health Solution as the operator.

Um, we have purchased the building um to be in King County ownership, and throughout 2025, spent some time doing some really robust community engagement um to make sure that folks were aware of outreach that was available to them in late 2027.

Uh so this year we are excellent community engagement team and connections out solutions has been conducting community engagement in terms of our building timeline.

We are we in the process of or no, we have selected an architect to conduct the work, and they will be doing initial design work over the summer.

Um, we plan to do design and renovations um through the end of the year and then construction um itself in 2027.

I'll dive into the details um surrounding sort of the letter of support that former Mayor Harrell had transmitted last year in a little bit, but um just at a high level, um, one of the things that were that was in that letter of support did include doing a safety assessment and some launch planning, um, and we do plan on kicking off that process with the Seattle Police Department um in the fall of this year.

Um, one of the other items was uh convening this uh community advisory group um to weigh in on public uh safety and disorder issues um that there may be concerns about once the center opens.

And so we have started to convene that group and that work is ongoing.

Uh one of the things that connections as the operator is required to do is to create a good neighbor policy.

Um and this is also one of the items in the letter of support around a good neighbor agreement, but we are in conversations about um what that process looks like.

So we are in uh we are working with the mayor's office as well as connections on what a process will look like, um, both for um us to get to agreement on a draft as well as uh what community engagement will look like on that next year.

Um, as Kelly and Katie mentioned, we are hoping to open the center at the end of 2027.

And at that point, a separate but related community advisory council will be convened, which is intended to be a gathering of providers and folks to ensure that there is that we are lowering the barriers to access and really weigh in on how a lot of that work continues to go and when clients access the center.

There are three hospitals nearby.

There's a lot of public transportation.

It was already a medical center that had a lot of the health care infrastructure that a crisis care center will need.

At this point, we are hoping to make sure that all of the zoning requirements and all the land use requirements are fulfilled.

That work will start in the fall.

And having the ability to acquire a building that was already built as opposed to having to build one from the ground up means that we can open that center earlier and get people the services that they need, rather than having to build it from scratch.

I mentioned a little bit of this already, but design work is going to be happening over the summer, permitting this fall, construction next year, and then hopefully, assuming everything goes smoothly, we will be hoping for a certificate of occupancy, which means we can open at the end of 2027.

And I will pass it back to Katie to talk a little bit about our community engagement work.

Yes.

So over the 2025 and now into 2026 and 2027, we have conducted and will continue to meet with community members.

In 2025, we had over 100 community conversations, presentations, and other events.

These are often people reaching out to us directly saying, can we please get a presentation to understand more?

This is a community conversation that DCHS had set up and can continued walkthroughs and just sort of choiring around the neighborhood.

We also had put posters in communities all around where crisis the crisis care center currently is and where it will be.

So right now we're getting that toolkit out to as many jurisdictions and an online uh as we can so we can just have those basic facts shared amongst everyone.

And then we are doing video tours and PSAs.

We launched one just this month featuring executives ally, and we'll continue to do that with connections health solutions.

So coming up, we've got a number of events.

We do have an ongoing monthly virtual community meeting.

This next one will be on June 10th at 2 p.m.

Uh, and this is where we'll talk about implementation, status updates on our buildings, RFP information, and then when the group suggests an idea, we often will bring in someone to provide some additional education and information.

Uh we are also hosting with GSPA an event on June 3rd.

That is here's how you help someone who's having a crisis.

These are the steps that you can take and get a training on those specific uh ways in which you can help someone.

And then we are hosting a community conversation on July 21st at 5:30 at the site, which will be the future home of the crisis care center, and that will be another place for us to hear directly from community, give an update on where we're at, introduce connections, and that is part of our additional ongoing engagement.

We have been working with a number of community groups to introduce uh connections as the provider so they can get a better sense of who they are and what services they will provide.

Slides.

Oh, great.

Oh, just very quickly um on this previous slide, all of the registration information and the ability to RSVP is either if you're subscribed to the CCC newsletter, it's contained there.

The CCC blog and the DCHS website does have a lot of this information.

So for both you all and members of the public, there are opportunities to make sure that you have all of that information online.

So I'll dive a little bit in here to each of the pieces in this letter of support.

So as I mentioned, well let me back up a little bit part of the implementation plan for the crisis care centers levy was really strongly emphasized coordination with the host jurisdiction in which a crisis care center was going to be located.

And so in the conversations last year about acquiring the about King County acquiring this facility former mayor Harrell had transmitted a letter of support for the site and it did include four conditions to be fulfilled before opening.

The first was conducting a crime prevention through environmental design analysis along with the Sahel Police Department.

In terms of status there we have retained a consultant King County has retained a consultant to do this work.

We've had some an initial meeting with the Seattle police department to talk through just in general things around the crisis care center but we hopefully we'll be kicking off that SEP the SEPTED analysis which includes will include a site walk with the Seattle police department later this summer we're anticipating August but um maybe late July so that work will be ongoing after the initial the site walk is done we will end up with some recommendations about how to improve things that are related to the SEPTA analysis.

So things like sight lines or lighting and those recommendations will be then reviewed by the city and hopefully implemented before opening the second piece of that was of the letter of support conditions was the good neighbor agreement and policy and so we are in the process of working with connections and with the mayor's office on a draft good neighbor agreement.

We are working on what it looks like for community engagement around that agreement to occur.

We're hoping that that will kick off in early 2027 we're hoping for the rest of this year that we are able to work with the city with you all on how to make sure that all of the elements that are in the letter of support are covered and then making sure we're very clear on sort of roles and responsibilities in terms of who is responding to issues when they do come up as between the operator as between City of Seattle and then King County.

The one of the other conditions in the letter was related to launch planning and a safety plan and that work will kick off in this fall.

So we are hoping to start a process that will take into account a lot of the issues that folks are seeing in the Capitol Hill and First Hill neighborhood and figure out how to in the same spirit as the Goodneighbor agreement figure out sort of roles and responsibilities around how to launch successfully and to make sure that all of the conditions are in place for the crisis care center to be to have a successful opening.

Katie just mentioned a lot of our community engagement work that will be ongoing through both up until opening and after opening but at the moment we are in the process of making sure that folks are really educated and clear on what is happening with the crisis care center and the sort of services that are available to folks and then we'll move into a phase that is a little more about how to make sure that we are getting all the right folks like providers like first responders police familiarized with the location and how to do drop offs so sort of that level of engagement and then as we get closer and closer to opening the site itself, making sure that we are really honing in on um awareness outreach education, specifically as laid out in the letter of support in the half mile radius around the center.

So really um making sure that we are judging base with local businesses, institutions, schools, um, everybody in that radius, so they are prepared for opening.

The last item in the letter of support was around convening a community advisory group.

Um, and that work it has kicked off.

Um we have convened um the group of folks that former Mayor Harrell um and the current mayor uh Wilson have confirmed to be in that group.

Um those meetings started back in April, and we will continue to hold monthly meetings, um, to both hear from from those folks about what they are experiencing near the crisis care center, the future crisis care center location, um, and continue work to make sure that um funding that was allocated for this group um to address a lot of the conditions in the letter of support are um allocated and spent um as they uh concur with our proposals.

Um right um just this is some general information here about how to get help in a crisis, but that should wrap up our presentation.

Um, and if you all have any questions, we are of course happy to answer them.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for the presentation today.

Really appreciate it.

Uh colleagues, what questions do you have for our colleagues from DCHS?

Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Cher.

And thank you to everyone uh for presenting and uh congratulations or not congratulations, but good job, Kelly, getting through this with your cough.

Uh, I thought you're fantastic.

So thank you for sticking it out with us.

Um, I wanted to ask a question.

Um, in uh in regards to the Capitol Hill facility opening, and I know there's the SEPTED analysis that's going to happen.

Um, and uh you mentioned the uh the plan to be able to implement those recommendations.

Is there uh resources?

I know we obviously don't have the recommendations in place, but are there dedicated resources uh for those those recommendations when we receive them?

Yeah, so there are a couple um places where funding may be available.

So part of the um impetus around the community advisory group.

So last year um the King County Council allocated three million dollars um to that group to help support the conditions in the letter of support, and so part of the funding from that could go towards the SEPTED, the SEPTED recommendations.

Um there were a couple other potential um buckets of of funding here.

Um I think in last year's or maybe it was the 2026 adopted budget, um, the human services department does have 500,000 of one-time funds, um, which of course that's not our decision about how to spend, but those funds are I think are also available to support um some of the letter of condition, um, some of the conditions in the letter of support.

So there's at least that much that could go towards recommendation, implementation of recommendations.

Thank you so much.

Um that's very helpful.

And then I just wanted to reference an earlier slide, and I I didn't grab the slide number, so I apologize.

But there was a slide that showed the Medicaid, the reimbursement rates, and I was hearing that the reimbursement rates have been more positive than originally anticipated.

And I also know we are preparing for impacts of HB1 and other changes.

So I'm just curious if we expect that reimbursement rate to hold or how the how you're planning for that as you're thinking about sort of the financial um the financial position of the um crisis care center levy in the dollars.

Aha, this is the slide.

The thank you.

Okay, couldn't I?

I didn't.

Um we are analysis of this.

This is also part of a proviso that we need to respond to internally here at DCHS.

Um, so we can circle back with you on that, but that is something that we're currently landscaping right now.

That's fantastic, thank you.

And I wasn't aware there was already a proviso on that.

So thank you for that, Kelly.

And um, maybe when that's prepared, we can just um we'd love to probably receive the same thing.

I think it's something that we're all thinking about as we're thinking about.

I see the you the unanimous head nods, yeah.

Yeah, thinking about being able to plan and forecast out our budget.

So um, I'm so pleased to hear it's more it has been more positive than originally um anticipated.

Um, thank you so much, presenters, and those are my questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster, Council President Hollingsworth.

Thank you, and I'll be quick.

Just thank you all for um being here and presenting.

I know I've worked with you all uh with the crisis care clinic going in district three on Capitol Hill.

We're excited.

Um, and one of the things um and and knowing that you all uh that the model in Kirkland is very different than what I think is being um potentially proposed or the demographic that could be at Capitol Hill first Hill location.

Um, and one of the things that I think uh would be super helpful for the public to understand that um the people that could be brought into the crisis care clinic, um, is like folks, it's like a voluntary thing.

So if I see someone, and mind you, I was up at John Street next to the safe way at 11 p.m.

at night.

I called the crisis care clinic.

I got someone on the phone, and I said, Hey, if there's someone here that would like help, how do I get them to your clinic?

Um, because I ran into somebody I knew that said they needed help.

And um, you know, there's a little gap in that trying to figure out like, do I take them?

Do I call someone to bring them there?

Um, and just explaining for the public, like that model, how that could potentially work if they see someone in crisis that might be on fentanyl, having a health mental breakdown, um, you know, them connecting there, them walking in themselves, or can someone bring them there, you know, and them having to be in a lucid state of mind saying that they can you know accept these services.

So looking forward to that because I know there's going to be a lot of um, you know, opportunity for us to help people that are uh within within, I know it's services all of Seattle, but I know that there is um you know uh a lot of need that are in certain areas of the city.

So might just be a comment, but um, just really appreciate all your help uh on that and looking forward to this getting set up so I can start uh directing people to the crisis care clinic.

Thank you.

Thank you, Consident or Hollingsworth.

One thing I just want to know like this is actually like a real scenario where actually you're gonna help someone in a crisis kind of training.

But uh to your point, I think yes, it is voluntary, especially like that walk-in piece is the person has to willingly go there.

Um I think to what you're speaking to though is if I mean crisis ranges right across the spectrum of like maybe someone is willing to go with you and like they they can they can walk there with you, just in talking, right?

Like that's a great way to go.

And like family case managers will walk in with people as well.

Like that is something that people oftentimes maybe feel better going with someone that they know.

Um, in another case like that, there can be a time that that also may be attempt to call 988 instead of 911 to ask for a co-response team or mobile crisis team to come out to then escort the person to uh the crisis care center facility if they if they need that assistance there.

Thank you, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council President Hollingsworth.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

All right, then I'm going to uh thank our presenters again.

I had questions, but the presentation was so thorough you've answered them.

So I thank you for running through a very thorough presentation and covering a lot of ground and a lot of material.

I know there's a lot of interest in the crisis care levy effort because there is such high need across our community.

So I want to thank you again for the work that you're doing and very eager to see this come online and see how we can be good thought partners and implementation partners in kind of resolving some of these tactical challenges as Council President Hollingsworth raised.

And so thank you again and um I hope you have a good weekend.

Wonderful colleagues, we have reached the end of today's agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Hearing and seeing none, the next Human Services, labor, and Economic development committee is scheduled for June.

Sorry, for Friday, June 5th.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Please take care, everyone.

Have a good weekend.

Thank you.