Yeah, we could do they don't have the rights for that financially.

So they have to.

Hey, good afternoon.

Today is July 27, 2026.

The council briefing will come to order.

It is 2 03 p.m.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Warz.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Lynn?

Here.

Councilmember Rink.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Here.

Seven present.

Awesome.

And Councilmember Strauss is excused, and so is Councilmember Rink as well.

If there's no objections, the minutes of June 29th, 2026 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Today, colleagues, we have one presentation from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

There are no proclamations.

There are two executive sessions at the end of this meeting.

And there are nine items on the introduction referral calendar.

We are going to begin, and I want to thank uh Director Hashimi and then also Sam Reed from the Office of Intergovernmental Refairs.

Um they will begin their briefing.

Colleagues, just to set them up, and I'm apologize, I didn't, I should invite y'all to the table earlier.

My bad, uh, Director Hashimi, but uh a lot of you have all asked for updates from our intergovernmental uh relations department.

Uh so thank you all, especially Councilmember Kettle.

Um said that wanted more frequency of updates, and so as you all know, we have and Councilmember Strauss is present for the record.

Um, as you all know, um, we have had uh our trig figuring out our flow with council briefings, and there's a ton of legislation that is getting passed through, and so wanted to make sure that we're utilizing our council briefings accordingly.

Uh and this is the one of those meetings where we have our intergovernmental relations department.

So, Director Hashimi, Sam Reed, thank you for joining us.

You all can get started with your presentation.

And colleagues, if you could hold your questions to the end so we can get through it, and then I will call on you for questions.

Director.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President Hollingsworth and Council members.

Thank you for having us today.

I'm Mina Hoshemi, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And I'm Sam Reid, Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Sam joined OIR in late April after serving 10 years at the Department of Neighborhoods, most recently as deputy director, and we are very lucky to have his expertise and his passion now at OAR.

And we're excited to be here today to brief council and the public on our work.

The Office of Intergovernmental Relations, or OIR, represents and advances Seattle's interests across local, regional, tribal, state, federal, and international governments.

We lead the city's intergovernmental advocacy, offering strategic guidance and working closely with the mayor, city council, city attorney, and all city departments to shape policy and funding strategies at every level of a government to ensure the city's interests are represented in critical decision-making venues.

We oversee the development and alignment of the city's federal and state lobbying agendas and strategies to ensure coordinated effective lobbying, and we partner with governments, agencies, and stakeholders to advance shared policy priorities and secure critical funding.

OAR manages key memberships that strengthen Seattle's influence and access to policymakers at the regional national levels, including Association of Washington Cities, Puget Sound Regional Council, the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, and more.

Next slide, please.

As of April 2026, OIR is fully staffed.

In addition to Deputy Director Reed, we are also pleased to welcome government operations and protocols coordinator Patty Camacho.

OAR's work is organized into six lines of business, which you have on the slide here.

I'll just give a brief overview of each of those lines of business as kind of a refresher.

OIR represents the City of Seattle's interests at the national level by managing internal federal priorities and engaging with the congressional delegation, federal agencies, national organization organizations, and other U.S.

cities.

At the state level, OIR supports the City of Seattle's interests with the state's legislature, governor, and agencies through internal coordination, direct lobbying, policy development, funding requests, and strategic advocacy.

We also facilitate the development of the city's state legislative priorities in partnership with the mayor and city council and provide required written and in-person updates throughout the state legislative sessions.

On the regional front, OIR represents and advances Seattle's interests with regional agencies and local governments, including King County, Port of Seattle, Sound Transit, and other regional entities.

We coordinate and provide staffing support for elected officials and departments engaging with regional bodies and work to ensure that the city's positions are clearly communicated, strategically advanced and aligned with city policy in all regional forums.

OIR also advances government to government consultation and coordination between the City of Seattle and federally recognized tribes.

We work to ensure tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are recognized across city projects, policies and programs involving tribal interests, as well as provide staffing and support to elected officials and departments on all issues involving tribal governments and native communities.

We also engage with Seattle's large urban American Indian and Alaskan Native population and partner organizations to strengthen connections to city resources and decision makers.

Internationally, OIR represents and supports Seattle's interests with foreign consulates, international organizations, global delegations, and visiting dignitaries, and we provide staffing and support to elected officials and departments for all international activities, visits, and policy issues, as well as manage Seattle's sister city programs.

Lastly, OIR also facilitates the coordination of the city's public development authorities by working to maintain relationships with the PDAs, building collaborative partnerships, and aligning strategies.

In partnership with the Office of City Finance, we also provide monitoring and oversight to ensure financial transparency, compliance, and strong governance.

Our PDA coordinator position is an investment aimed at ensuring the city has a strong connection to these high-profile tax funded bodies focused on issues as important as affordable housing, historic preservation, cultural space, economic development, commercial space management, and community development.

Well, it's hard to believe that we are already back there, but OIR is hard at work preparing for the 2027 state legislative session, ensuring that Seattle's priorities are positioned early and effectively.

We are actively collecting legislative priorities from city departments and the mayor's office, and we're in the process of meeting with council members to gather your policy and funding priorities as part of our agenda building process.

Throughout the summer and fall, OIR will also be meeting with state legislators, partners, and key stakeholders to begin socializing policy concepts and strengthening support for Seattle's priorities.

This early internal and external engagement helps us build momentum before the legislative session begins.

Then OIR will finalize a draft state legislative agenda and submit it to the City Council for your review and approval, and this agenda will serve as our unified framework for advocacy in Olympia.

Looking ahead to next year, I'll note that many state legislators are either up for re-election or retiring, which means the makeup of the 2027 legislature remains uncertain.

OIR looks forward to keeping council updated as the year progresses.

Turning to regional, earlier this spring, the King County Transportation District approved a 0.1% sales tax for transportation.

Initially, all funds would have gone solely to unincorporated King County Roads.

Seattle, working alongside the Sound Cities Association, pushed hard for cities to receive a share.

At the June 12th meeting, an amendment we propose or was proposed to pass through 12.5% of the revenues but cap Seattle's share.

The city successfully advocated for removing that cap entirely.

Without the change, Seattle would have received about 1.9 million a year, and with it, our annual share rises to about 4.7 million.

Council members played an impactful role lobbying the county, sending letters, making calls, and speaking at the final meeting.

Thank you.

At the end of May, the Sound Transit Board adopted an updated system plan and work plan.

Seattle's two representatives to Sound Transit, Councilmember Strauss and Mayor Wilson played important roles in the process.

The work plan includes follow-up actions across key areas, including policy planning, transit operations, capital delivery, and finance.

Highlights include developing cost-saving opportunities, updating the regional long-range transit plan, and advancing high capacity transit studies.

Work is underway on key legislation needed in Olympia to support the ST3 program, including expanding bonding authority.

And finally, King County Executive Zahalay has transmitted legislation to implement the 0.1% behavioral health sales tax.

This measure renames the existing mid-tax as the King County Behavioral Health Bridge.

The Regional Policy Committee will review this proposal in the coming months with the Department of Community and Human Services preparing briefings for regional policy committee members.

And although it seems like a lifetime ago at this point, we just wanted to highlight some of uh OIR's support and implementation of World Cup planning here in Seattle.

Um we helped a field requests and multiple visits from the governments of Australia, Belgium, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including advanced visits earlier in the year.

We maintained direct communications with countries of Egypt and Qatar.

Although visits did not materialize, we maintained communications with those countries.

We connected the local organizing committee individually with all the consulates who were paying playing in Seattle so they could conduct their own outreach with the individual countries.

We also connected the American Muslim Advancement Council and the Muslim Association of Puget Sound with Visit Seattle to pursue sharing of culturally appropriate resources with visitors from Muslim majority countries.

In addition, OER and the Office of Uh OIR and the Office of Emergency Management worked with King County Emergency Management to hold emergency planning workshops for West Coast consuls in both January 2025 and earlier this year.

And these were focused on managing mass casualty incidents involving foreign nationals.

And on a special note of kudos for our international team, uh emergency management content that we previously developed at OIR for foreign missions was actually used by the U.S.

State Department to encourage San Francisco and Santa Clara to offer similar trainings ahead of their own 2026 World Cup planning.

Our tribal relations staff also helped facilitate Seattle Police Department outreach to tribal law enforcement agencies as part of the mutual aid strategy for World Cup.

As a result, Sequamish Tribal Police Department and Nisqually Police Department had officers at all Seattle World Cup games.

We also helped facilitate two virtual sessions focused on human trafficking in India country.

One session tailored to leadership of tribal governments and another tailored to native community partners.

Presenting partners included the Washington Attorney General's Office, the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs, Washington State Patrol, SPD, and several direct service providers that work with tribal and urban native communities.

These sessions reached 200 attendees representing tribal governments, social service providers, and tribal enterprises.

And finally, on the World Cup note, we wanted to end with a couple of updates that show how some of our past work we've told you about was on display during the World Cup activations in Seattle.

On June 25th, OIR organized a tour for Congresswoman Jayapal to highlight the city's work revitalizing Third Avenue.

We highlighted projects with the Seattle Department of Transportation and the Office of Arts and Culture.

Congresswoman Jayapal has been an important partner, securing earmarks, supporting World Cup appropriations, and championing downtown workers.

And the tour helped reinforce the importance of continued federal support for this work and highlighting cross-departmental successes.

Council members may also remember the city's efforts on House Bill 1515, which was passed in 2025, which was essential for our World Cup fan zone activations.

The city developed and led this legislation, which allows walk around alcohol service in fan zones and sip and stroll service at Pike Place Market.

OIR worked closely with Seattle Center, Department of Transportation, and Office of Economic Development, partnered with Representative Julia Reid and built a coalition of local governments and small build businesses to get the bill passed in 2025.

The legislation expires in 2027, and we're already coordinating next steps with city departments.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

That concludes our presentation, and we'd be happy to take questions.

Awesome.

Thank you, Director and colleagues.

We'll continue.

I know I'll pause here to see if people have questions, but we'll continue to get feedback from you all about what kind of information you want to see.

This was the first one, just you know, just trying to get a little bit of everything, but uh getting information from you colleagues about what information I got you, what information that you want to see from OIR that will help you as we navigate uh the year.

So we have Councilmember Kettle is first and then Councilmember Warez.

Councilmember Kettle.

Uh thank you, Council President, and thank you, Director Simi, for being here and for the work that OIR does.

Um I will admit I I have been advocating for a at least quarterly uh um presence uh update uh on the issues that are facing and you know part of this comes from frustration, like you know, the King County transportation piece, you know, reading in the Seattle Times and some others as well.

Um, just so we are ahead of the curve basically.

And uh but I just I do want to start with you know federal relations, maritime.

I recently went to DC with uh Port of Seattle, uh Commission president and CEO and uh OIR was working with their counterparts in the port uh in support of that uh very important uh um uh effort and continues to be, by the way.

Uh there's gonna be more work there.

And also in international relations, uh 40th anniversary of Galway, but it's really everything Ireland.

And uh in fact, I need to connect with you because uh looking to bring a ambassador uh to Seattle.

Um I haven't had a chance to uh email you and and uh and the team, some public safety stuff going on.

Uh and also Quebec little events like that make a big difference, and having city representation uh at you know at the higher levels is really important.

So I was happy to be that you know that elected that senior person at that event, um, which is predominantly a Washington state, but again, it was held here in Seattle, and I think it's important for Seattle representation.

So I appreciate the work that's being done with uh international relations and then state relations too.

Like uh we reordered the public safety pieces, the lab, uh Frenstic's lab work in support of what the uh city attorney is looking to do on DUIs, uh so very important.

Um across the board.

I I do I do say though, I do want to say it's important for issues when they come up in Olympia, for example, um, that they're brought to the relevant commit at the very least the relevant committee chair.

So, for example, last year in the fall, um the ALPR bill, the Automatic license plate bill was being worked, and it was socialized on the executive side, but it did not come to me.

And I didn't learn about it until I read it in the Seattle Times.

And that's unfortunate because obviously with the swap out of administrations, I mean I could have been engaging on that, and then by the time I was, it was too late.

And that's an example where you know anything that goes to the executive on public safety, for example, should be coming to my committee and as chair to me.

Um so then I can gauge.

You know, there's other things too, like you know, standby.

I'm I suspect there's gonna be a new HB 1265 coming for the next session, you know, when we're trying to address the issues on Aurora.

And so we need to do that.

And and we need your engagement, even if there's a lack of synchronization between the executive and the legislative branches.

We're not gonna be in sync on everything.

I think there's a lot of stuff that we are in sync, but there's definitely going to be areas where we're not.

Um, but that shannot be a hurdle.

I mean, you just at the end of the day need to be dual tracked.

And so, you know, that's my concern sometimes because there's a there's a desire, and I understand it to have like one voice coming out of Seattle.

Um, but I don't think that's always going to be possible.

And so uh again, to close though, I do really appreciate the work that um across the board, uh, particularly uh Stacey on the international side, um, because that's an important area and an area that's that's doesn't get as much attention and support that is doing.

So I'm trying to do my part there.

But the the other areas are really important to the regional um, but the state piece from a practical like legislation, the state piece, Olympia, um, and then getting early heads up is so key.

So I just asked that, and um, so thank you.

Welcome to the team.

Awesome, thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you.

Welcome.

It's good to see you, Director Hashimi or Mina, and welcome, Mr.

Reed, Deputy Director.

Um, I have I have a couple questions.

First of all, thank you for for putting into context the work that you do about policy and funding strategies, because I think sometimes the public doesn't know that there's that that's what you do, and that's our connection with you with what you're doing in Olympia.

Um, in the coordinated effective lobbying, state, regional, Indian country, and Washington, D.C.

So my question to you is this, and Councilmember Strauss and I had an opportunity again to be in Washington, D.C.

in February for the National Congress of American Indians.

And as you know, that's a representative of over 500 tribes, um, touching on every issue from environmental housing, social services, public safety, and not just state state tribal relations or litigation, but all those broad issues that affect Indian country and money, you know.

So I guess my concern or what the question I have is when we are in DC, and every time I'm in DC, I meet with Leslie Polner.

You know, Leslie.

And um I haven't seen anyone from OIR as of yet going out to Washington, D.C.

They meet four times a year.

I always go in the February meeting because that's the meeting where the tribal leadership are there with their lawyers, lobbyists.

They put out a really good agenda and nail down the issues and including litigation and also right now dealing with data centers, um, tribal jurisdiction and public safety and the fentanyl um crisis that's going on everywhere and the money that they need for housing and addiction services.

So have what is your update with meeting with Leslie Polner in Washington, D.C.

What's going on there?

Thank you, Councilmember.

I appreciate it.

And we appreciate your advocacy as well as um Councilmember Cadles and in DC on our behalf too.

Um, you know, to be direct, this is just a place where budget cats have have kind of had OIR.

So our travel budget is pretty limited.

And so we would like to be in DC more, and that would be a high um priority for us, would be an event of that nature.

So um currently our team is has been in DC, I think twice this year, and Leslie herself comes out here as well.

So we have um we have lots of connections to our lobbying team in DC.

Um, but it's those sort of on the ground relationship building and opportunities to meet with our federal delegation.

We we look we would love more of those and and we take any opportunity we can.

Okay, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but NCAI held their annual meeting in Seattle last fall.

And I moderated a panel with all um Native American elected leaders in the state legislature.

So it wasn't just issues that are relegated to Indian country or native folk.

Um I didn't see anyone from OIR there, and that was local.

Unless you were there, I apologize if you were there because we also hosted a couple of receptions.

No our tribal relations director was there.

Who?

Francesca.

Oh, Francesca was there?

I yeah.

She must have been, huh?

Okay.

Maybe we weren't all in the same way.

I'll double check on that.

But yes, we we were registered for for that uh conference.

So what I would have liked to have seen is something from OIR to say that Francesca went to NCAI in the fall, and these are because we all had the breakout rooms and panels.

Yeah, we're happy to have a lot of people.

Yeah, so we can have an update, and I know uh um tribal uh governments and indigenous-led organizations, nonprofits are in Councilmember Strauss's committee, and you know we have the IAC, the Indigenous Advisory Committee.

So if we could have something from OIR, uh like what what Francesca, whatever happened, um, you know, something back, and I'm I'm still pushing hard to make sure that um we make the tribal peace part of regular governing in the city of Seattle, that it's in there with the feds, the state, regional, city, county, you know, all the stuff we do.

So um if we could have something back as a report or within the report to Seattle City Council, that would be helpful.

Um I actually got a lot of work done on the schedule relicensing stuff while I was at NCAI in the fall and met with a lot of uh leadership um on all those issues about energy data centers.

That's how I learned so much more on the moratoriums.

So if we can have like that be a regular, um whether or not you're in DC or the next time they they host, that would be really important.

I'm guessing that Francesca also attends AT and I as affiliated tribes.

Okay, great.

So but we're not getting those reports.

So if we can have this in your PowerPoint, that'd be great.

And then that way I say, oh, Francesca went to ATI, she went to NCAI.

So now we know how Seattle was represented and what our issues are because we have a lot of issues that have to do with um in Seattle City Light and parks, and um notwithstanding litigation, a lot of the issues um regarding public safety.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

No, that's good feedback.

We'll definitely incorporate that into our presentations.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Are there any other Oh, Councilmember Foster?

Uh thank you so much, Council President.

Um, not actually a question, just a comment follow-up on Councilmember Juarez's um question just to share with colleagues.

Uh, as of last week, I am now a member of the Association of Washington City's federal priorities uh subcommittee.

So just wanted to share that news, really excited to serve in that capacity.

Um and I know we'll be meeting twice this fall and would love to make sure that I'm partnering with all of our council offices and OIR to serve well in that role and make sure that we are collaborating to uplift those um uplift to ensure that we um that we highlight the the priorities that uh members have here um and also wanted to share um uh we're doing some ongoing work around sort of transportation and infrastructure committee and maybe joining uh uh uh National League of Cities in that role.

That's uh to be determined at this point.

But wanted to make sure all of my colleagues had that update.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Are there other comments uh or questions or anything?

I will say Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, um Council President.

Uh, just to say that I serve on the legislative priorities for the Association of Washington Cities, we met last week to do our introductory meeting on what cities um uh you know what they're gonna be tracking in Olympia this year, and of course, like us, everyone's concerned about revenue um and how to be able to meet um our service needs across all our cities, so that's top of mind for them along with a lot of the other things that we care about.

Um, so I will be giving you more information as that moves forward um and we finalize the agenda.

But just to share, and I had this conversation with you, Director Hashemi, this past week, we met to talk broadly about um my experience in Olympia last year, really appreciate the dialogue and the conversation about that.

And just one thing that Association Washington Cities does that I think is really helpful is they truly prioritize, they take the top three or four priorities, and that's really what as an association they focus on.

And then, of course, that's not to say that different cities aren't tracking different issues or legislators themselves, but it's really if everything's a priority, then nothing becomes a priority, and um uh I really appreciate the way that they they do that work, which is truly prioritize because it makes it really difficult for staff to be able to track 500 bills um if we're not really prioritizing.

So I'm just gonna say to us here, which you know I've been guilty of in the past to add more things to the agenda, but just for this coming year, my plug would be um in my experience with AWC is if we truly prioritize things, it really does help when our staff um is helping an Olympia um to um do that advocacy on our behalf.

So thank you.

Thank you, um, council president.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

I don't have any questions or comments.

I know I'll be getting feedback from my colleagues, uh, understanding like uh information that they want updates on, just so we have a clean format and this was great start and just really appreciate your time.

I don't know if you all have any closing comments, Sam or Director Hashimi.

No, thank you.

We uh appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to be here and look forward to seeing you next quarter.

And um as always, happy to follow up on questions and um ideas in between.

Awesome, thank you.

And colleagues, just a reminder, they will be meeting with you all to talk about priorities for 2027 because it is right around the corner and want to get those in there, and then we will figure out the cadence for next year regarding how many times they are coming to update us because we know the legislative process moves very, very fast.

So really appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Okay, so now colleagues, there's no letters of proclamations for signature today.

Uh we are going to begin our our quick discussion and just a reminder we do have two executive sessions, but we are gonna have blue sky because I know people there was a lot of stuff that happened over the weekend.

I know uh people want to um you know address those situations as well, but also want to make sure that uh people kind of know about the legislation that's being transmitted and stuff that's cooking up, whatever you have in your committee.

I think it's good that we kind of update each other because a lot of legislation has passed through council in the last couple weeks.

We've been just chugging along, so um, we are going to begin our next discussions preview of city council actions.

And I'm just gonna jump to my left if that's okay.

If not, I'll go to my right if you're not ready, Councilmember Rivera.

I don't want to put you on blast.

No.

No, okay, council.

And then we'll just go to the challenge.

Awesome.

Thank you.

That's what I love to hear, Councilmember Rivera.

Um Challenge accepted.

Challenge accepted, Council President.

Um, colleagues, as you all know, last week we um passed out of select committee, the uh families education preschool promise um uh INE plan, implementation and evaluation plan.

I want to thank you all again for all the work that went into the um your review and your thoughts around that INE plan, and I look forward to um voting on that out of council tomorrow.

Um, Councilmember Saka, I'm aware you have.

Thank you for sharing um uh an amendment.

Um colleagues, if there's anything else, please let me know ASAP today.

Um it's helpful not to have surprises day of.

Um, and you as you know, I'm always available to work with you on all the things that you care about and that we care about collectively.

I will say I had a really good meeting today too with Superintendent Schuldener and uh our uh director, our trustee director Dwayne Chappelle, just to touch base um on all the things related to the FEP INE.

Um I also last week uh I sit on the WIRA 8 Samar Recovery Council meeting.

We had our meeting last week.

Um, and then I just want to quickly um mention because I know it's on everybody's wing on all of us this morning were the tragic incidents of the weekend, including yesterday at the Seattle Center, but also on Aurora Um in Capitol Hill over the weekend.

All of this gun violence has, of course, me and all of us.

It is it is tragic, it is senseless, it is avoidable.

Um, and so you all know uh it just has um continues to booster my resolve to do um uh a strategy here in Seattle.

You've heard me talk about it, and I'm gonna say it again.

The National Network for Safe Committee uh communities out of John J.

College has had amazing results in other cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia and Boston.

Forty to 60 percent gun violence reduction, we need to do that here.

I feel really um strongly about that.

Um if there is something that we could be doing here to reduce our gun violence by 40 to 60 percent, we should be doing it period full stop.

So I'm gonna keep um calling on us to work on something.

I intend to bring a resolution and something through the budget in order to work directly with the national network.

I'm gonna say that the national network, this is their effort.

We cannot do their effort here because they own it, they'll own the rights to that.

And we can't be doing things halfway here because unless we implement it in the way that they are recommending, it won't be a full-fledged effort, and it won't have the results that they have had in other cities.

So you'll be hearing more about that sh uh in the days to come, colleagues, and um I appreciate that we are all grappling with this, and I do feel that this is something that is worth us trying here in Seattle, all of us together.

It's not gonna take just the council and the mayor, but it's gonna take community and all the county um departments um and agencies to come together, including the prosecutor and the city attorney, the U.S.

attorney, um, public health, and others to really do uh a bold effort here to really um address this in Seattle.

Like you, I am really tired and it's way on weighing on me all the lives that are lost and the lives that are ruined who are committing um these crimes.

So um it has a huge impact all the way around, and um if there is something that we can do very uh robustly, we should be doing it.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Uh next is Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Uh well, good afternoon, colleagues.

I too want to uh start off by saying extending my condolences to the many victims of last night's tragic shooting at Seattle Center.

Three people tragically lost their lives.

Um my thoughts and prayers are with the families and all those their loved ones and all those impacted from last night's tragedy.

Um clearly at a point where thoughts, prayers, and condolences are not enough.

We need stronger action with here within the city of Seattle, within the region, within the state, and certainly at the feds.

Um there's too many guns on our streets, too easy to have a gun uh and and access a gun and stronger coordination and action is is needed.

Um so I appreciate uh that some initial efforts and and actions have been taken, and there tragedies like this remind us that there are plenty more work to do.

Um and just as the council member who oversees the Seattle Center um from a ledge perspective in in my committee that I chair, um I remain firmly committed to to doing that work.

I want to thank my councilmember colleagues who was in close touch with last night as the the incident you know was rapidly evolved, the the circumstances rapidly evolving, including council president, uh council member Kettle, chair of the public safety committee, and whose district this happened to be in.

Appreciate the collaboration.

Uh also the mayor's office, who's basically the gate gatekeeper of this information.

Um being collaborative and sharing out what they what they knew.

Um plenty more work to do.

All right.

On the substantive committee front, uh colleagues, given that the we have officially concluded the select committee on the Seattle Transportation Benefit District.

Uh our normal steps committee work resumes as well.

Uh officially known as the Transportation Waterfront and Seattle Center Committee.

We have we held a special meeting this morning.

Um successful special meeting this morning where we voted and passed an ordinance for permission to construct the skyline bridge sky bridge that connects two council districts, uh, as well as the U Alley Street Vacation as well.

Uh our next regular SEPS meeting will be held on Thursday, August 6th at 9:30 a.m.

Uh so finalizing the agenda there, but stay tuned.

Um now quickly talk about uh a community event or two.

Uh last Friday was really excited to participate in a cleaner elk cleanup on the border of the city of Seattle and unincorporated King County, but we stayed exclusively on the City of Seattle side uh where we help remove so me and my team, uh D1 office team joined Eric Bell, the leader founder of Cleaner Alki, the community group that we funded last fall during the budget process to help remove things like overgrown uh plants, weeds along the sidewalks and the public right-of-way, um, supporting the tree canopies, picking up garbage, litter in the South Del Ridge business districts near Flesh uh fresh flowers, uh great coffee and pastries, by the way.

Um, but right there along the South Dell Ridge business districts along our city limits again at Roxbury.

And very uh excited to be able to and honored to be able to participate in that with my teammates and uh and community and got a lot accomplished.

Um so come on by to Fresh Flowers.

There's a great barbershop right around that same area.

There's other small local businesses and enjoy um the businesses there and need our support.

That is all I'll share for now, mindful of time.

Uh, and but I do welcome any call comments or questions from any of you all colleagues, if there are any.

If not, we'll pass the baton.

Oh, sorry.

Awesome, Councilmember Strauss.

And we're just going right to the left.

And Councilmember Warz, you have bounce it over to Councilmember Foster.

Uh thank you.

Like many have said, uh, the tragedy at Seattle Center last night was absolutely heartbreaking.

Like everyone across the city right now.

My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones and everyone who is impacted, and we know that that's not enough because action has to come out of tragedies like this.

Yesterday should have been a joy for everyone, and instead it was the worst day of so many people's lives.

This violence, along with all gun violence, was preventable.

And we need to be making more concrete actions to get the guns out of kids' hands.

We need to get the guns out of the hands of people who are going to make impulsive or premeditated decisions that harm each other and harm our community.

I want to thank our first responders for going into harm's way.

Thank the people in the videos that I've seen from the scene last night who rushed to help people get away from the gunfire.

This is a tragedy that we cannot allow ourselves to normalize.

Seattle is strong.

Our community is strong.

I know what we will grieve.

We will remember and we will recover together.

And that recovery requires action because we must turn this tragic moment into change.

Because for too many people, last night will be a part of their lives for the rest of their lives.

And we need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to prevent it from happening again.

Moving into my committee reports.

I think we finally got council member War is in committee.

Sorry, I'm trying to bring some levity as a transit transition from some very heartbreaking uh you know comments, but uh council president emeritus Juarez uh was short and let me know that I was taking native communities and tribal governments once she left, and it's been a privilege and an honor to get to uh steward this work and last week we were doing the first of two rounds of our tribal nations summit recap, and we got to see uh video with council member warrants in there, and that was really nice.

And we got to see uh video with council member warrants in there, and that was really nice.

Next week, we will be having our second presentation on our commitment areas from the Tribal Nations Summit.

And we will be taking the votes on the reappointments to the Indigenous Advisory Committee.

Um we had them present presented this last committee, and we'll be taking the votes next week.

I want to move us into the mid-year supplemental budget, which was briefed last week.

Thank you to everyone who submitted amendments by the mid year supplemental deadline, which was last Friday.

So if you've not gotten them in, uh it's not a good situation, but come talk to me.

Um the deadline was last week for good reason.

Uh and we'll be the that good reason is we will be voting on those amendments next Tuesday at our 9 30 a.m.

meeting.

And so if you do have amendments, please make sure to get them done so we can post them on the agenda.

We will also be outside of Native Communities Tribal Government's Finance Committee.

We will be having the revenue forecast next Friday, August 7th.

This is not a committee that everyone sits on, but I'm sure uh you're all just as excited or nervous to hear the news that comes out of that committee.

So we will be sure to share that information as soon as we are able to.

In District 6, I want to thank Councilmember Rink and her team for organizing the Jimothy proclamation this last Sunday and the arts festival that was a product of it.

We were able to declare this summer to be the summer of Jimothy, the Jimothy Summer.

And Bergen Place had what I heard 300 people with many different pieces of art, many different local artists, and a piece of stained glass won the prize.

So thank you to Councilmember Rink and your team for organizing.

I had office hours last week.

I'll have office hours next week.

This week is a rare week where I'll be meeting with resident groups uh outside of official office hours so that we can have a little bit more time to talk.

I'll again have office hours next week.

So if you'd ever like to meet with me, just uh go to my website and click request a meeting.

Thanks, colleagues.

That is my report.

If there are any questions, happy to take them.

Seeing no questions, I'll pass it over to Councilmember Warz.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Um, like my colleagues here, I think we're all a bit somber here today.

Um about these continued gun violence.

Um, and we should also note that we also had a shooting in Capitol Hill.

Um, of course, Seattle Center, Capitol Hill, Aurora, and of course, we had our youth down at Rainer Beach as well.

I think we know the Clarion Call there and what we have to do, and to continue to be vigilant and protecting our community, our children, our neighborhoods are just across the board.

I can't tell you thoughts and prayers aren't enough.

So I think we all know that.

Uh moving on, I want to thank Councilmember Hollingsworth, or Council President Hollingsworth and Councilmember Kettle for keeping us updated last night in real time.

That showed real leadership and letting us know what was going on.

I really appreciate that.

Um also want to thank Chief Barnes for reaching out and Sarah Smith at SPD for also keeping myself and my team updated.

Um, what was going on, when the press conference was, when there would be a release, when the meeting was, the meeting this morning, um, and of course the mayor's office.

Um a few phone calls this morning.

Um again, um, I know that Council Mr Kettle will have more to say, but it doesn't really matter when somebody's loses a life and we have these type of shootings, whose district it is in.

Because we all live in this city, and uh bullets are bullets, wherever they are.

And um I just hope we can remain in show the city, uh the citizens and the residents and the people of the city of Seattle.

I hope they have confidence in this in this body and in the mayor's office and how we address it.

Thank you.

Okay, so I'm gonna go to my committee real quick here.

Uh we have a meeting this Wednesday, August 5th.

Wait, is oh yeah, is meeting this Wednesday, August 5th at 2 p.m.

Um in committee.

We will consider the three following items.

Uh Sale City Light Ordinance to update the voluntary green power solar program.

The Seattle City Light Ordnance to execute the first amendment to the boundary hydroelectric project relicensing agreement relating to the FERC boundary.

Uh resolution for state recreation and conservation office 2026 grant application authorization.

And we will be voting on all three items.

Uh Wednesday the 19th, August 19th.

Oh, I'm sorry, that meeting is canceled.

The final committee um meeting that I will chair will be Wednesday, September 16th, and that's just to clean up some matters that have been kind of stacking up that we can manage during budget.

And I hope my I hope my colleagues um will be there for me.

Um this weekend, Saturday, August 1st is the Lake City Summer Festival and Parade.

The festival starts at 10:30.

Uh this weekend, uh Rise Above, along with Garfield High School alumnus and former NBA player Brandon Roy, we'll be hosting a number of events centered around native youth.

Um that's gonna be exciting.

Uh we have the events include five major events.

I'm just gonna talk pick up the first five.

We have hoops on the pier, Friday, July 31st, from 9 a.m.

to 1.

That's it, Pier 62.

Three on three basketball tournament, Saturday, August 1st, starting at 9, Pier 62 and Pier 58.

Little Dribblers Clinic, August 1st, same time, August 1st, starting at 10, Pier 62.

Special Olympic Showcase, Saturday, August 1st, starting at 1, Pier 58.

And Saturday evening will include a premiere of the Lenny Wilkins documentary, Cornerstone, the Lenny Wilkins Story.

Um, and with that, Council President, that's all I have.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

Uh we'll toss it over to Councilmember Foster.

And you just go right to your left.

Okay.

Uh thank you so much, Council President.

Um, I will just start by saying, Um, as others have already said, I think the um not just the shooting last night, but the several shootings over the last several days, um, you know, on Aurora and Capitol Hill, and then yesterday at Seattle Center, um, are have all just been devastating.

Um, and I think that in particular for the folks who were um at Seattle Center last night, I want to express my own appreciation for the the first responders um who are there and who um went in to keep uh our residents safe.

Um I also want to say, you know, I think it's important that we continue to make sure we're making resources available and appreciate the work that's already happening at the city for um for folks who um were present last night and will be experiencing the impacts of um of that shooting and the trauma and I think that is ongoing work for us as well as the ongoing work on the violence prevention and gun prevention and and especially the the youth violence prevention um work that we need to continue doing as a city because um we we just have to we have to get to a different place together um than where we are right now.

So I appreciate all the comments that have already already been made there.

Um so with that I will uh I will go into uh a couple of updates from my committee.

Um and I will start first with um colleagues.

Today is the day that any amendments are due if you have amendments for the junk fees legislation.

Uh so as a reminder, we've heard this in committee several times now, and we will be holding a special meeting um next week uh where we intend to vote on amendments and vote the bill out of committee.

Um I know there was a lot of things going on between um FAP and the transit measure and et cetera, and we wanted to make sure to give this bill the time and attention that it deserves.

So hopefully you have spoken to HB uh already if you have amendment concept ideas.

If not, please do that as soon as we uh get off this diet so we can make sure we have time to discuss those.

Um I will go over to um home my homeowner protections bill that our office has been working on.

Uh we are really excited that that passed out of committee last week.

Um, given the number of things that we have on the agenda tomorrow, we will be bringing that to full council the week following.

And so this is the bill creating the do not solicit list for um homeowners to ensure that we have better homeowner privacy and protection here in the city and part of the work around um anti-displacement uh with homeowners that we are uh that I've been working on.

Um and then lastly, I appreciate you, Councilmember Strauss, for the reminder in terms of mid-year supplemental amendments and colleagues.

You'll you will see um and just daylighting this now.

I'm really excited and really proud, and I'll share more next week via email communication with um your offices.

But I just want to give you a heads up that you'll see an amendment from me in the mid-year supplemental office has been working really closely with the rakes foundation over the last several months to develop a partnership with them for investment into youth homelessness prevention and diversion.

So I'm really really excited about that, and you will see uh proviso um uh to that effect.

So just wanted to give you all a heads up so that you're hearing it from me first.

Um, and those are my updates.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry, Councilmember Lynn.

No, sorry.

Thank you.

Council President.

Sorry.

Um also just um want to speak about the the gun violence, especially um the impacts um to our youth.

Um you know, we've in Southeast Seattle um experience uh gun violence, youth gun violence um greater than any other um part of the city.

It's been devastating for Rainier Beach in particular.

And um there are obviously many levels of failure, um failures to regulate um weapons of mass destruction that uh for some reason at the federal level, at the Supreme Court level, um seem to fall on deaf ears.

Uh maybe that's not the right um analogy, but um they um it's enraging it it's uh unbelievable and um but we can't give up hope.

We you know that that is the one thing we cannot give up.

We we have to keep fighting uh for common sense, gun gun law reforms.

Um we can't have uh automatic weapons just everywhere in our community.

Um there will always um be people who uh do awful things um but we don't need to give them automatic weapons to do those awful things.

We can stop the prevalence of uh automatic weapons in our in our uh society.

We we had automatic weapons bans um uh a couple decades ago, and somehow we lost it.

Um but we can get those back.

Um so um but we also need to do better with our youth.

Um you know, we we didn't just fail everybody at uh in our in our sort of city and region that was there uh yesterday and and those who were killed and injured.

We also uh if if it was a youth that did this, we also failed that youth and um his or her family uh who i again not trying to rush to judgment, but um if it was a youth, we failed them too.

And um uh I just you know I I don't want us to, you know, um I think we need to take responsibility for for um coming up.

This is a public we have to view this as a public health issue.

You know, when there's uh one act of gun violence, it spreads.

Um it is contagious, and we have to put an immediate, we have to take all measures to put an end to it.

And that's gonna require all of us, that's gonna require all levels of government, all our different um uh departments and agencies to to help us here.

Um Rene Air Beach is ground zero for this.

Um uh you know, we've got a lot of work to do, and uh look forward to working with each and every one of you to making this a priority.

Um regarding committees, uh as you all know, we have our uh CP bill tomorrow, lots of amendments coming.

Uh I have a couple friendly uh amendments.

Um I think there are other amendments uh that and and we have a legislate uh or executive session here coming up.

Um but look forward to the robust discussion tomorrow.

Um uh and uh please do not hesitate.

Uh I I will be trying to get some last minute discussions in with uh folks one-on-one, but uh please don't hesitate to to talk to me if you have any questions or concerns about the bill.

Um thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

Uh Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

Um like all my colleagues, our colleagues, uh I join you in passing condolences to the loved ones of those past.

Um also uh thoughts reg for those that were injured uh and those that were running and um had not experienced anything like that before.

Uh everyone it was a traumatic and tragic situation.

But really it was just the next chapter, the next tragic chapter of a you know a book of gun violence, uh particularly uh as it relates to youth.

Um and it's a challenge for us.

It's a challenge to provide uh a comprehensive approach, a challenge to provide hope when there's none.

And as Councilmember Lynn said, there's a lot of work to be done, and I think we need to do it.

And as council member Lynn said, there's a lot of work to be done, and I think we need to do it, and we have to have structure, we have to have a plan, we have to execute it.

And so I thank my colleagues who've been working in this space on the committee to include Councilmember Rivera and but others.

Uh my conversations with council president and basically everyone here on this.

I do want to say uh I did receive a call from Deputy Mayor uh last night, and I did join him at Seattle Center, and I was there.

I wanted to note that in a lot of ways it was still an active operation because of the concern of a uh a uh suspect in person of interest at the um IMAX theater uh at that location.

And I I should note too that you know Seattle Center itself was secured and to include uh some adjoining streets, but then there was a second level in the area around Pacific Science Center and the IMX Theater.

And so I thank Seattle Police Department for the work that they did in order to do that.

Um in terms of that immediate response too, I think it's really important to highlight the work of the Seattle Fire Department and how they rushed to aid those that were injured and to get them to Harborview.

Uh one person decided not to go to hospital, uh, another person self-reported to um UW hospital, but the the work that the Seattle Fire Department medics, you know, the the uh paramedics, the work that they did uh was incredible and so quick, and the response for both Seattle PD and FIRE was immediate.

I do want to say too that I was there, I spoke to an uh assistant chief Davis.

Uh I have great confidence in him, also captains that I spoke to.

And given that this is West Precinct and Seattle Center is the beat, if you will, uh for the West Precinct.

I know a lot of officers there, and I spoke to them, and uh they had a good security plan for this, which is an annual event.

They were in position, um, but sometimes events like this with the with the gun violence, it uh it shows up out of nowhere, and because of all the reasons where we have young people who take these actions and take them in in such a way that they spray bullets across that creates additional casualties.

But the work that they did, SPD was good, and again, the I the issue of the potential person of interest at the IMAX theater uh created a situation where they were looking to get that set.

Um I think that's an important point to know in terms of timelines, and I say it uh uh with that in mind.

And the work that again on scene with uh um assistant chief Davis uh and the entire team was good, and they have my confidence, as does Chief Barnes, and in terms of what he's done, the team he's assembled, the work he's done setting up the work that was carried out by his team yesterday.

That said, uh another public safety side.

We have public safety committee meeting tomorrow where we're gonna be looking at public drug use and possession, uh the ordinance related to public drug use and possession, very important to the work that we're doing.

And we will uh have a few amendments uh tomorrow for the ordinance, but we'll also have PDA, public digital dignity in action, uh PDA and their law and uh enforcement assisted diversion program, and then also SPD to speak to the issues of drug markets that are impacting all seven districts.

Uh so that will be tomorrow.

I'm not gonna go into the calendar stuff except to just highlight one on Wednesday.

Um I'll be at a reception for the Freedom Plain National Tour.

Um, this is a great opportunity for us as a city uh to see what is you know our founding fathers, what makes America America, and uh as part of this Freedom Plain and the documents they're gonna bring, there's gonna be an original engraving of the Declaration of the Independence, um, Articles of Association from 1774, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton's and Aaron Burse Oaths of Allegiance, uh the Treaty of Paris from the 1783, secret printing of the constitutional and draft form from 1787, tally of the votes approving the Constitution in 1787, and the Senate markup of the Bill of Rights in the 1789.

Um these are all very important uh, you know, part of our history, and they will be here uh here in Seattle.

Seattle is the last stop of the Freedom Plain.

Uh that's our 250th that kind of mimics the train, the freedom train that traversed the country back in 1976.

And uh Mohai will have these documents uh from starting from uh for public viewing from 30 July until 16 August.

Um I will be remote uh next week, Council President.

And uh the last thing I want to say on a very uh positive freedom plan is very positive, but I also wanted to uh close by saying last week on Friday I met with Jazz Ed in South Lake Union, a nonprofit that is looking for music education for our children, our young people.

Um, and it was beautiful.

The work that they do is fantastic.

And again, tying it back to the beginning and tying it to the challenge of young people involved in gun violence is that hope and you know and having something to strive for and to be.

Yeah, I think of Jazz Ed.

I think of music education, I think of music, and I think of that uh for our young people.

So I just wanted to highlight um that nonprofit and the work that they do, and should I add too uh the support that they receive from Amazon, which is something I think most people don't realize.

A lot of nonprofits in our city uh do get great support from Amazon.

So with that, Council President, that's my um update.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Uh colleagues, thank you for all your updates.

I'll jump right into the governance report.

Uh Governance and Utilities Committee will meet for a special meeting this week, which is Wednesday, July 29th.

We will vote on Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light Emergency Assistance Bills, and then we'll have a possible the sorry possible vote on SPU 2027-2029 rate path, and here two informational items from uh ITD as well, which is um information technology department.

Um our next governance meeting will be on August the 13th.

So it will be next month, August the 13th.

And for everyone, uh our last day uh before recess will be August uh the 21st, Friday, August the 21st on Friday.

Um so we have a lot of legislation coming down.

Uh colleagues, I'm just co-signing to all the stuff that you said about the Seattle Center and the shootings that are going on in our city.

It's not just a Seattle Center, it was Capitol Hill this weekend, uh Friday and Saturday.

Last weekend was also in the Central District.

We also had 24th in Jackson, 23rd in Jackson.

We also had Lake Washington Boulevard and Madrona Park, Leshai.

We also had stuff going on in the South End and Councilmember Lynn's district and Rainer Beach, and we also had violence going on in Aurora.

And I believe that every neighborhood should uh every neighborhood warrants the response that we have been given uh now to the Seattle Center, and then also um to Aurora.

And big thank you, as my colleagues said to Seattle Parks, excuse me, uh to our Seattle Center folks, the Seattle Police Department, Seattle Fire, the EMTs who are on, who were on site immediately, who were riding on bikes uh around in the vicinity and who were able to do aid quickly to a lot of the victims as well, and uh also uh the the people that responded on the ground immediately.

So just really big thank you because when you saw people running away, you saw police and fire running towards uh the gunfire and uh the situation uh to help people.

So big thank you to that.

Obviously, I know people want to hear uh what council member I think Strauss and Saka had talked about, which is people want to see action.

They want to see people moving their feet uh and uh doing things and implementing.

And so we're we are here ready to work and help.

I think probably the most tragedy, tragic thing out of all this before we go into our executive session, is that these are young people, you know.

Um, and that's like the one thing that I know we all take to heart is when our young people um are doing things.

So uh thank you, colleagues.

For that, we are going to now uh transition into our executive session.

If there's no further business, we're gonna move into our executive session.

Hearing no, oh, sorry, I do my bad.

There was your hand raised.

I didn't see it before we move into executive session.

Is that a old hand, Councilmember Juarez?

I'm sorry.

Old hand, okay, Councilmember Foster.

Uh thank you so much.

I just need to ask to be excused from the August 18th uh council meeting.

Awesome.

If there are no is there any objection to to Councilmember Foster being excused?

You are excused.

Thank you.

Um hearing uh no further business, we're now gonna move into executive session.

Um hearing no further business, we're now moving to executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into the executive session.

This purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential and actual litigation.

The council's executive session is opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with our city attorney and authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions for policy for open sessions.

I expect the time of the executive session to end.

Ooh, it says five.

So at 5 p.m.

Um, if the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I will announce an extension extension and obviously it can end earlier than that as well.

At the conclusion of this executive session, the council briefing will automatically adjourn.

The next scheduled briefing will be August the tenth.

Colleagues, August the tenth at two p.m.

The council is now in executive session.

Thank you.