Contents

• City Council Passes Historic Building Emissions Performance Standards to Combat Climate Crisis, Pollution
• December 12 PSHS Committee: LEAD Program Capacity During 2024, Surveillance Technology Reporting
• Resolution Calling on NHTSA to Issue a Recall of Kia and Hyundai Models Vulnerable to Theft
• DNDA Honors Sheila Brown Gateway Project at Cape Long
• South Park King Tides
• Firefighters Local 27 Agreement
• 2024 State Legislative Agenda

City Council Passes Historic Building Emissions Performance Standards to Combat Climate Crisis, Pollution

(Herbold staff photo at the Mayor’s bill signing ceremony)

On December 12 the City Council unanimously adopted landmark building emissions performance standards to combat the climate crisis. The Mayor signed the legislation on December 13.

This is the most ambitious plan to reduce building emissions in Seattle history. While the City has required some bigger buildings to track and decrease their building energy use, this is the first time City law will target existing buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions specifically. It’s estimated that the policy will reduce emissions from buildings by 27 percent and reduce Seattle’s total core emissions by about 10 percent.

The symbolism and timing of this legislation is powerful. On the same day the Council acted locally, at the COP 28 United Nations Climate Change Conference, nearly 200 nations agreed, however imperfectly, to transition away from fossil fuels.

Addressing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Future generations will look back to this moment and judge us by what we did today to address our climate crisis. We experience the impacts here in Seattle: extreme heat, drought, and forest fire haze during the summer and even autumn has become normal. King tides are more of a threat to our coastal communities due to sea level rise driven by greenhouse gases.

It’s time for us to take big swings and make sure we’re doing everything we can – for ourselves and for all future generations of Seattleites. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to answer the call from Mayor Harrell, the Office of Sustainability and Environment, and advocates to sponsor and shepherd this legislation through the Council in our last weeks of 2023,

The bill will combat our climate crisis by enacting the Building Performance Emissions Performance Standard (BEPS), which will set targets and timelines for the city’s large buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The BEPS will require owners of existing buildings larger than 20,000 square feet to take steps to incrementally reduce those building’s greenhouse gas emissions. The standards are performance-based, which means that owners can choose what investments to make as long as they are meeting the reduction targets.

This bill will work in tandem with new state regulations.  The knowledge of the BEPS regulations now can help building owners make smarter decisions about the investments they must soon make to comply with the Washington State Clean Buildings Performance Standard law so that they their buildings both reduce energy use and use energy sources that produce less greenhouse gasses.

The City of Seattle is also offering assistance to building owners who have fewer resources, including nonprofits.

The ultimate goal is to reach net zero emissions for these buildings by 2050.

I thank Mayor Harrell and Office of Sustainability and Environment Director Farrell, and advocates, for their diligent work to get us to this point, and willingness to work together. Thank you as well to Councilmembers Mosqueda and Strauss for co-sponsoring the legislation.

More information about how this will be implemented is in this Central Staff memo.

Photo: Tim Durkan (Mayor speaking at bill signing ceremony, with housing, labor and environmental leaders)

It hadn’t been very widely reported that the Mayor declined to send the bill down earlier this year.  Councilmembers Sawant, Mosqueda, and I discussed that turn of events at the Council’s September 11 Briefings meeting.   In part, I believe because we expressed our concerns that day – just a few weeks after that – the Mayor’s Office and OSE reached out to me and asked me to shepherd the bill.

I was honored to have had the opportunity to answer the call from Mayor Harrell, the Office of Sustainability and Environment, and advocates to sponsor and shepherd this legislation through the Council in our last weeks of 2023.

My condition to introducing the bill was the support – of all community stakeholders building owners and environmental advocates and labor – to changes sought by environmental advocates, specifically owner penalty increases to better match those of other cities and building decarbonization costs. When the bill was sent down to the Council it included that important change, higher penalties but balanced with giving flexibility to reduced fines for partial compliance and flexibility to create grace periods.

December 12 PSHS Committee: LEAD Program Capacity During 2024, Surveillance Technology Reporting

My Public Safety and Human Services Committee held its final meeting on December 12^th and heard updates about the LEAD program and surveillance technology reporting.

LEAD Program Capacity During 2024

The LEAD program provided an update for October/November 2023. This is timely, as the public use/possession bill adopted by the Council and the SPD policies that followed passage, rely upon diversion as an alternative to arrest.  Pre-filing diversion is also a resource available to the City Attorney in cases where she prefers diversion to filing charges to prosecute. It’s important for policymakers to understand the trends for diversion, and especially for the Council, with its authority over budgets.

The public use/possession bill adopted by the Council in September went into effect on October 20^th, and diversion plays a key role in the implementation of the ordinance.  The crux of the committee presentation is that with the increase in arrest referrals, the LEAD program will reach capacity in the first quarter 2023.

LEAD takes referrals from three sources: 1) arrest diversion; 2) community referrals, and 3) social contacts provided by police officers. The chart below shows the arrest diversions, in red, increasing significantly with the October 20^th date, and fewer community referrals shown in blue (the presentation is easier to read):

Social contacts are shown in gray.

The chart below shows future projections for the specific types of referrals, from December 2023 to December 2024. Blue is community referrals; dark gray is SPD social contacts; red is SPD arrest diversion. The January 2024 bar, second from the left, shows two new categories: in light gray, social contacts with Metro, and in light red, arrest diversion from Metro.

The horizontal red line shows the program’s maximum capacity, and the green line the projected trends for persons accepted into LEAD; it’s estimated the program will exceed capacity by May 2024:

This shows the trends by specific numbers, with 759 current participants, and a maximum capacity at 1060:

Presenters emphasized that the Mayor’s Office and SPD are aware of the issue.

With these trends, the LEAD program has had to focus community referrals into three areas only: Third Avenue Downtown, Chinatown-International District, and the Rainier Valley. During 2022 and earlier in 2023 community referrals came from either much of the City or several areas where the program is in operation:

This reduction in community referrals is far from optimal. SPD estimates the public use possession bill will result in 700 to 800 new arrest diversions annually.

The presentation also featured the precinct-based discussions; other areas the program serves include SW Delridge, SODO, the East Precinct, North Aurora, Ballard, and the University District. LEAD played a key role in resolving the Rosello Building problems in South Delridge.

I sponsored a budget action included in the 2024 budget requesting that the Human Services Department, Seattle Police Department, and LEAD report quarterly on referrals to LEAD and the funding required to support them.

The City’s State Legislative agenda includes a request for state funding for LEAD, as is provided for other jurisdictions.

Here’s a link to the Seattle Channel broadcast.

The City began to fund diversion in 2006, after a 2005 Citywide Public Safety Forum sponsored by former Councilmember Nick Licata, made recommendations for a public safety package that balanced adding more police officers with prevention and intervention programs in human services.  Following those recommendations, the City Council “Developed a $5.9 million public safety package which balanced adding more police officers with prevention and intervention programs in human services.”  The following year, we worked with the Human Services Department to develop the Request For Proposals for those prevention and intervention programs.  The result was three new programs, Clean Dreams, Co-Stars, and GOTS.  Clean Dreams later evolved to become LEAD.  LEAD is now an international program that is evidence-based and data-driven.

 

Surveillance Technology Reporting

Review of surveillance technologies, per the City’s surveillance ordinance, has taken a fair amount of time before the Council in recent years. The Office of the Inspector is working on potential innovations that could improve the process, along with the City Auditor.

This process revision looks like an excellent innovation, that can identify the privacy and civil rights risks a technology presents. Risk categories could include data sharing, data theft or improper retention, civil liberties, public perception, and community concerns. This could also make the review process more accessible for the public, by providing a concise explanation of what the important broad policy issues are; we don’t currently have that.

The current analyses are somewhat technical, detailed, and long, and there’s a place for that, but this concept OIG presented may make it clearer both for Councilmembers and the public.

Here’s the presentation. Below is an example of what a scoring system could look like (this is not an actual review):

Resolution Calling on NHTSA to Issue a Recall of Kia and Hyundai Models Vulnerable to Theft

The Council unanimously adopted a resolution I sponsored this week calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a recall of Kia and Hyundai models lacking immobilizer technology that are vulnerable to theft.

As you may remember in January 2023, the City of Seattle was the first municipality in the nation to file a complaint against automakers Kia and Hyundai.  There are now 17 cities that have taken this action. The City Attorney’s complaint seeks the manufacturers be required to install industry-standard anti-theft technology in specific Kia and Hyundai models made between 2011 and 2021.   There are a total of 17 cities that have signed onto the lawsuit started by City Attorney Davison.  The lawsuit seeks to require the car manufacturers to install industry-standard anti-theft technology in specific Kia and Hyundai models made between 2011 and 2021. Additionally, it seeks to recover damages for the City from the automakers, as the absence of security equipment has led to an extraordinary number of vehicle thefts and a commensurate surge in police response. The suit contends that the increased police work in Seattle and elsewhere would not have trended up so steeply if the specific models were manufactured to industry standards.

This resolution calls upon the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to issue a recall of Kia and Hyundai models lacking immobilizer technology that are vulnerable to theft.   Baltimore and Philadelphia have also passed resolutions.

Local Progress is reaching out to member cities to pass resolutions such as this one.  I heard from numerous constituents about their experiences, as thefts of Hyundai and Kias thefts rose by as much as 620% between 2021 and 2022, so I believe this is relevant to Seattle residents. Further, 2023 numbers do not show that this issue has been abated. In 2023, through October, 868 KIAs and 1,021 Hyundais were stolen; with the Kia and Hyundai theft totals being larger in recent months than all other makes and models combined. Some report difficulties attaining insurance or having to pay higher prices.

The cost of manufacturing the standard anti-theft technology is only $100, yet in lower-cost models it has not been included.  This means that the thefts are likely hitting people of limited means hardest.

Vehicle theft is a Class B Felony in Washington State; the King County Prosecutor is responsible for prosecuting felonies; the City Attorney handles misdemeanor and gross misdemeanors.

I thank SPD for, in April, making anti-theft steering wheel locks available to Kia and Hyundai owners.

DNDA Honors Sheila Brown Gateway Project at Cape Long

Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA) announced the Sheila Brown Gateway Project at Camp Long opening this week.

Sheila Brown was, for 13 years, the Camp Long Director.  The Sheila Brown Gateway Project was made possible thanks to the contributions of 125 community members.

In addition to a new gateway, the new entrance includes pillars and a gate similar to those at the park’s main entrance, built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Here is a little from DNDA about Sheila’s long public service:

“Sheila led and supported many environmental projects that endure to this day, including establishing the 4-H Challenge course at Camp Long and the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail that runs through Delridge.

DNDA deeply appreciated Sheila as a community partner and inspiring person, and so did our friends at EarthCorps, The Common Acre, and many more organizations. She helped create the city’s Leaders in Environment, Equity, and Facilitation program to empower youth in communities of color to become environmental education leaders.”

South Park King Tides

SPU has announced the latest information related to the City’s flood damage protection efforts.

There is a King Tide that is peaking over the weekend; it is not expected to meet the trigger of 11 feet. SPU shared earlier this week that they are keeping an eye on tidal flooding forecasts through next week as we move into another round of King Tides.  King Tides will be a concern through early next week with astronomical tides peaking this weekend. However, high tides over 10 feet are still expected through the middle of next week. SPU also shared the following:

“A tidal level exceeding 11.5-feet when river overtopping starts to become a risk. This level can be reached through high tides combined with storm surge and low atmospheric pressure. Accordingly, SPU tracks all these factors and prepares to respond to flooding during windows when tide predictions are greater than 10-feet NAVD88. There are numerous 2023-2024 dates that are predicted to exceed 10-feet.” See the table below for upcoming months, and SPU’s preparation timetable:

Firefighters Local 27 Agreement

The City Council approved an agreement for a contract between the City of Seattle and the Local 27 Firefighters Union.

Seattle’s firefighters and fire employees are there for all of us on our worst days, every day. They are asked to do much, to routinely put themselves in harm’s way, yet they ask for little. I am proud, as one of my final acts in office, to support this contract and stand in solidarity with them.

The total cost of implementing retroactive wage adjustments in 2022 through 2023 is estimated to be $22,300,000. In 2024, the additional budget needed to fully fund all positions under these titles is $21,400,000. In total, estimated costs for 2022 through 2026 are $106,500,000.

The Mayor’s announcement is here.

2024 State Legislative Agenda

The Council adopted a resolution to establish the City of Seattle’s 2024 State Legislative Agenda. This guides the efforts of the City’s Office of Intergovernmental Relations efforts during the state legislative session in Olympia.

Posted: December 15th, 2023 under Councilmember Herbold