Contents

• West Seattle Bridge Update/SR 99 Ramp Update
• Pay Equity in the News
• Family Support Funding Available
• Free eBooks for Teens & Young Adults
• 2024 City Council Boundary Maps
• Public Safety Jobs
• SFD Fallen Firefighters Memorial
• App-Based Workers PSST Effective May 1st

West Seattle Bridge Update/SR 99 Ramp Update

Below are a few updates about the West Seattle Bridge and related facilities. First, I’ll start with the good news: the repair of the West Seattle Bridge is functioning as expected.

Last week my office asked SDOT for an update about the condition of the West Seattle Bridge, and ongoing monitoring, including the electronic monitoring system provides ongoing real-time updates.

Here’s what SDOT shared:

“In conjunction with monitoring the data from the structural health instrumentation, we have been conducting quarterly onsite inspections since the bridge has been reopened.  The observations from the onsite inspection and review of the data from the monitoring system notes shows no anomalies regarding the expected structural behavior of the bridge. Because of the positive news, we are adjusting our onsite inspections to every six months for the upcoming year.  We will continue to evaluate the frequency of the onsite inspection with the goal that the frequency of the inspection will be re-aligned to be consistent with Federal guidelines if the findings from the inspection and data continue to show a normal structural behavior.”

Secondly, my office also requested an update about the implementation schedule for remaining Reconnect West Seattle projects. Here’s the estimated schedule for the seven projects:

1. S Elmgrove St conveyance swale – South Park – should be in construction soon (Q2)
2. 14th Ave SW conveyance swale – Highland Park – should be in construction soon (Q2)
3. Dallas Ave S corridor project – South Park – at 30% design; construction in 2024 most likely
4. 4th Ave SW/SW Roxbury St/Olsen Way SW intersection improvements – Highland Park – Notice to proceed in May (construction starting in May)
5. SW Holden St / Highland Park Way SW intersection improvements – Highland Park – Intent to award the project in May; anticipate construction to start a few months after
6. Dallas Ave S / 14th Ave S intersection improvements – South Park – advertise before June 1; anticipate construction starting in Q3/Q4 2023
7. Duwamish Longhouse signal crossing improvements – W Marginal Way SW – working with BNSF on acquiring comments and permits; intend to complete project in 2023 (construction start unknown)

Finally, as many of you are aware, on Tuesday evening WSDOT closed the ramp from the West Seattle Bridge to SR 99 northbound, due to a hole in the road deck. I appreciate SDOT’s rapid response team being the first to arrive on the scene. SDOT staff inspected the hole and alerted WSDOT, which is managing the repair, as the ramp is a state roadway. Here’s an image WSDOT shared Wednesday morning showing the hole, and exposed rebar:

On Wednesday, WSDOT said they were removing concrete around the hole and girders, and once that was done, would begin inserting new rebar, pouring new concrete waiting for it to cure. They also said they expected repairs to take 10 days. Here’s an image shared Thursday:

The ramp was closed for two weeks during April 2022 to repair a similar hole. This ramp remained open during the closure of the West Seattle Bridge and could be accessed from Spokane Street on the east side of the Duwamish.

On Wednesday, WSDOT said they were removing concrete around the hole and girders, and once that was done, would begin inserting new re-bar, pouring new concrete waiting for it to cure. They also said they expected repairs to take 10 days. Here’s an image shared Thursday:

Thursday evening WSDOT posted a thread with answers to the three most asked questions they’d received:

1. When was this built? Is the ramp safe? When was it last inspected?

It was built in 1959 and last inspected on Aug 9, 2022. It passed that inspection. This damage developed quickly and wasn’t present then. All bridges are inspected at least every two years.

2. How long has this hole been there? Why did it get so bad?

This damage developed quickly. We prioritize repair work that could be a hazard to travelers, so that’s why this damage is being addressed as quickly as possible.

3. Why 10 days?

Crews are working quickly and safely to make a lasting repair. They’ve cleaned the hole’s edges to form a good bond. Now they’ll repair damaged rebar and pour concrete. Part of the timing is to be sure the concrete is cured to a strength to safely reopen.

On Friday morning WSDOT’s shared this update:

DAY 3 (May 5): Crews continue repair work on SR 99 NB onramp from the West Seattle Bridge. If you look closely, you can see the concrete form and panels in this photo.

Today crews will prep for the next phase of repair & concrete scheduled for delivery tomorrow.

They also shared updated photos from the surface and bottom of the ramp roadway:

SDOT indicated the report they received from WSDOT was that engineers from their Bridge Preservation Office evaluated the site on Wednesday morning to evaluate the damage and assess the best course of repair.

Pay Equity in the News

Last week I was glad to sit down with a reporter from King 5 News to discuss my efforts to increase wages for nonprofit human services workers.  The report also includes an interview with researchers at the University of Washington School of Social Work, which found these workers experience a 37% pay penalty compared to jobs with similar requirements in a different sector.

The predictable result is that human services jobs go unfilled – or experience extreme turnover – and desperately needed services are not available.  This includes services to care for our elders, provide food to hungry families, interrupt gun violence, and bring safety to survivors of gender-based violence.  It also means that childcare classrooms and hotels for people experiencing homelessness sit empty – despite the critical need – because staff cannot be found to take on difficult work at such low wages.

I look forward to bringing a pay equity resolution to my Public Safety & Human Services committee for discussion and a possible vote on June 13th.  Sign up to receive notifications of that meeting here: Agenda Sign Up – Council | seattle.gov

Family Support Funding Available

The City of Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is seeking applications from organizations interested in providing services for low-income families that are focused on learning, healing, connecting, and celebrating unique aspects of their culture.

Approximately $3,827,366 is available through this Family Support RFP. Organizations may apply for up to $300,000. Initial awards will be made for the contract period of January 1, to December 31, 2024. For more information and RFP materials, please click here.  Completed applications are due by 12:00 p.m. PDT, on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

For questions or assistance, reach out to Ann-Margaret Webb, Funding Process Coordinator, at ann-margaret.webb@seattle.gov.

Free eBooks for Teens & Young Adults

Seatle Public Library is joining Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned Initiative to fight censorship with free e-cards for young people.  Anyone ages 13 to 26 who lives in the United States can now sign up for a free e-card from SPL that allows them full access to SPL’s collection of e-books and e-audiobooks.

Learn more and apply here: Books Unbanned | The Seattle Public Library (spl.org).  Since launching last week, SPL reports they “had over 1000 card sign-ups in four days and more than 500 had already logged on and accessed their account.”  Join them!

Books Unbanned counters efforts to remove books from public and school libraries across the nation. In March, The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom reported that 2022 saw a record number of demands to censor library books and resources. More than 2,500 unique titles were targeted for censorship, a 38% increase over 2021.  Of the reported book challenges, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.

2024 City Council Boundary Maps

The Department of Neighborhoods (DON) has published updated maps for the boundaries of Seattle’s seven City Council districts; the new boundaries will take effect at the start of 2024. The redistricting process is required every 10 years after the release of US Census data, to balance the population in each district and ensure equal representation. The new boundaries were approved by the Redistricting Commission created by Seattle voters in the ballot measure that adopted seven district council positions.

Through the end of 2023, District 1 will remain in West Seattle and South Park (including Harbor Island). In 2024, areas to the east of the Duwamish will be added: Georgetown, the SODO industrial area, and Pioneer Square. Additional neighborhoods were added to District 1 because the population increase was slower than the overall city average.

Maps for each of the 2024 Council Districts are located here. Here’s a map with the current boundaries.

DON’s update includes additional background information. Below is the 2024 map for the entire city:

Public Safety Jobs

Every day, thousands of City of Seattle employees clock in for a variety of functions across multiple departments – all to serve the residents of this city. Today, I wanted to highlight the opportunities to join careers in the three public safety departments in the city.

Police officers, firefighters, and 9-1-1 dispatchers collaborate with other departments and community partnerships to build equitable and expedient emergency responses across the city. We rely on these city employees to keep us safe and healthy while also building upon innovation as we reimagine how a city approaches community safety for all.

Careers in our public safety departments provide meaningful work, competitive pay, and opportunities for career development. Aside from the three positions I’m highlighting today, these departments also hire civilians for administrative, community engagement, and other kinds of work throughout the year. You can find job postings from all departments at the City’s job opportunities page.

All of our City departments are equal-opportunity employers that value diversity in the City workforce. Candidates from underrepresented communities in public safety industries are highly encouraged to apply.

Police Officers

Like most major cities across the country, Seattle’s police hiring has slowed and retirements have increased. In departments with more than 500 officers from 2019 – 2021 resignations increased by 43%. In departments with more than 500 officers from 2019 – 2021 retirements increased by 24%. In departments with more than 500 officers from 2019 – 2021 hiring decreased by 5%. A new study shows that hiring “seems to be picking back up, as responding agencies reported hiring more sworn officers in 2022 than in 2021, 2020, or even 2019—the last pre-pandemic year. However, agencies are losing officers faster than they can hire new ones, so total sworn staffing has continued to decline. Resignations are still increasing; responding agencies reported nearly 50 percent more resignations in 2022 than in 2019.”  To work towards remedying this, Council has supported Chief Diaz in reaching for ambitious hiring goals every year by fully funding the SPD hiring plan and passing a series of budget allocations for additional incentives like recruitment bonuses and allowing the department to support out-of-state hires with relocation costs.

Applicants must be 20.5 years of age or older with a high school diploma or certified GED. Entry-level candidates will register and complete a series of exams including the Frontline National Exam, Public Safety Self-Assessment, and the Washington Physical Agility Test. Preference points are added to passing exam scores for military experience, fluency in multiple languages, and community service experience.

After all of the above tests are completed, candidates will participate in an oral board interview and those selected to move on to the next steps will go through the backgrounding process and complete a medical evaluation, psychological exam, and polygraph exam before hopefully receiving an offer of employment. From there, recruits attend the police academy and internal training before becoming sworn officers.

You can apply online and learn more about the application online on SPD’s website. If you have questions, you can learn more about a career with SPD on their jobs page or email SPDrecruiting@seattle.gov.

Firefighters/Paramedics

Seattle Fire Department does more than put out fires across our city. In fact, SFD’s Medic One Program has been a national leader in providing pre-hospital emergency medical services for the last 50 years. Firefighters/paramedics respond to things like house fires, traffic collisions, and medical emergencies in Seattle.

Applicants must be 18 years old to take the FireTEAM Test and Public Safety Self-Assessment video exams, with preference points applied to passing test scores for veterans. The top 25% of candidates who successfully pass all portions of the testing process will be added to a certified hiring list forwarded to SFD for further screening.

Eligible candidates will receive an employment packet to complete and schedule a suitability assessment before taking the Candidate Physical Ability Test. Successful candidates will participate in a formal business interview before receiving an offer of employment dependent on passing a medical, psychological, and background check.

SFD has just closed a hiring process in April of 2022, but you can sign up for updates about the next hiring process at this website. To learn more about a career with Seattle Fire, you can visit their jobs page or check out their hiring webinars on YouTube. Seattle Fire also participates in recruitment events throughout the year, including one this weekend: KCFCA Diversity & Recruitment Workshop | KC Fire Chiefs (kingcountyfirechiefs.org).

If you have further questions, you can send an email to SFD.Recruitment@seattle.gov.

9-1-1 Dispatchers

The Community Safety and Communications Center is one of Seattle’s newer departments, originally a division of the Seattle Police Department. The CSCC is the Public Safety Answering Point for 911 emergency calls placed in Seattle – the 911 dispatch center, where they currently process 911 calls and dispatch police or send calls to the Fire Alarm Center. Their responsibilities will soon be expanding with the development of our dual dispatch program.

To become a 9-1-1 Emergency Police Dispatcher, applicants will need to pass a keyboarding test at 40 words per minute, a multi-media performance test, and a hearing and vision screening as well as a psychological evaluation.

Upon hiring, CSCC dispatchers begin their intensive and extensive training to become the first point of contact for Seattle residents and visitors reaching out for emergency services.

You can apply to become a 9-1-1 Emergency Police Dispatcher on Seattle’s job postings website. This link shows a current posting that closes at the end of the month but check back regularly for openings in the CSCC and other departments in Seattle.

SFD Fallen Firefighters Memorial

This Friday, I was honored to participate in the Seattle Fire Department Annual Fallen Firefighters Memorial Day event. This remembrance is a salute to firefighters all over the country that sacrificed their lives while protecting their neighbors.

This event took place in Occidental Park, by Seattle’s own Fallen Firefighters Memorial – a special site dedicated to the memory of all Seattle firefighters who have gone before us in service to the City of Seattle. I encourage you to visit this touching tribute sculpture, which contains the names of firefighters who have given their lives to protect our community since 1889.

This year, Seattle added two more names to the memorial. In doing so, we give gratitude to Seattle Firefighters Matt Runte and Michele Williams, and sympathy to their families. To lose a loved one under any circumstances is always difficult. I hope they take some solace in knowing that the City of Seattle will always hold their memories through events like this one and through the etchings on the memorial structure.

It is indeed easy to get caught up in our daily routines and the new challenges that come across our desks every day, but it’s important for us to take the time to honor the memory of the people who have worked so hard to keep our city safe.

Thank you to all of our firefighters, past and present.

App-Based Workers PSST Effective May 1st

In March, Seattle became the first city in the country to make permanent Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) requirements for app-based food delivery workers. A temporary ordinance was passed during the City’s state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as an emergency ordinance, it expired shortly after we ended the state of the emergency declaration.

City Council heard feedback from app-based workers that this was a necessary basic labor right, one offered to more traditional employees for over a decade in Seattle now. So, on March 28, City Council voted to pass a permanent version of this ordinance.

“Under the temporary pandemic ordinance, OLS resolved $5,800,000 in settlements that impacted nearly 21,000 gig workers. The permanent protections under the new App-Based Workers PSST Ordinance will reinforce our ability to provide outreach, education, and enforcement for an even larger group of workers,” said OLS Director Steven Marchese.

Currently, the law applies to food delivery network company workers who work for a network company that hires more than 250 workers. These workers who have worked in Seattle at least once in the past 90 calendar days will accrue one day of Paid Sick and Safe Time for every 30 days with at least one work-related stop in Seattle and may use PSST in 24-hour increments for health and safety-related reasons.

In January of 2024, the law will expand to cover all app-based workers who work at network companies that hire more than 250 workers, in order to align with other app-based workers protections sponsored by Councilmember Lewis and myself: PayUp Legislation – Council | seattle.gov

These permanent PSST protections went into effect, appropriately, on May 1st, International Workers’ Day.

Contents

• Fire Department Obstructions and Pay Equity at Committee
• Fair Chance Housing Still in Effect
• Denim Day
• Seattle/King County Clinic This Weekend
• State Legislative Session Adopts Priority Bills on Gun Control, Behavioral Health, Abortion Access
• EPA Releases East Waterway Cleanup Plan: 60-day Public Comment Period Begins April 28
• Georgetown to Downtown Safety Project Helps South Park Access helps South Park Access
• Seniors – Apply for Free Produce Benefits
• Natural Gas Signs on Trucks to be Updated

Fire Department Obstructions and Pay Equity at Committee

At Tuesday’s Public Safety and Human Services (PSHS) Committee meeting, I introduced a bill sponsored by Councilmember Andrew Lewis and myself to add firefighters to the definition of “public officer” in the crime of obstructing a public officer. The current law only covers police officers, building code inspectors, and the Fire Marshall, but does not offer protections to fire fighters and emergency medical technicians in the line of duty.

At the committee, SFD Assistant Chief Lombard and Kenny Stuart (president of the local fire fighter union) spoke to the need for such an amendment to the Seattle Municipal Code. They shared how firefighters experienced threats, physical interference, and even assaults while attempting to provide life-saving aid.

Our firefighters rush into danger to protect our health and safety, whether from a fire, a car accident, or an overdose. The nature of their service response and their need to focus on a person receiving aid or a fire, makes it difficult to have defensive awareness of possible threats.  Any interference can delay their service by a matter of life-or-death seconds.

I am grateful that Councilmember Lewis, Chief Scoggins, and the City Attorney’s Office have worked with me to develop this legislation, which is a common-sense fix to current laws that allow firefighters to focus on their work to make us all safer.  The bill was unanimously supported by committee members with an amendment from Councilmember Mosqueda that would require the quarterly reporting of demographic information collected for individuals who receive citations for obstructing fire department employees.

The bill is scheduled to be heard in Full Council on May 9.

Wage Equity:  At Tuesday’s committee meeting, we also discussed a draft resolution on wage equity for nonprofit human services workers. This follows a 3/14 presentation by UW-led researchers on their report, Wage Equity for Non-Profit Human Services Workers: A study of work and pay in Seattle and King County, which uncovered the 37% pay penalty for working in this field.

I believe the City of Seattle must do its fair share to increase wages for these mission-critical workers, or else we will continue to see empty classrooms and housing units, and people unserved, because workers cannot be found to take difficult jobs for such little pay.  Central Staff analysis estimates a cost of just over $7M in 2024 to take the first step.

Many jurisdictions and levy proposals have already taken steps toward doing so for their workers:

The Mayor’s housing levy proposal includes significant funding to address workforce stabilization – including increased wages – for workers in permanent supportive housing.

All these efforts are needed, and each boosts wages for specific workers.  None of them will increase wages for employees of the hundreds of nonprofit organizations who contract with the Human Services Department to provide a range of services, including support for survivors of gender-based violence, gun violence interruption, aging and caregiver support, food access, mentoring and educational support, and mental and behavioral health for families and kids.

That’s where the draft pay equity resolution comes in.  It states Council’s intent to consider increasing wages for HSD-contracted workers and calls for recommendations from a workgroup comprised of public funders and private philanthropy toward addressing the pay penalty.   It does not commit any funding; that will come during the Council’s budget deliberations in the fall.

I expect to formally introduce a resolution in early June, for a discussion and possible vote at the June 13th PSHS committee meeting.

Fair Chance Housing Still in Effect

A couple months ago, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance (FCHO).  The Court decided that the portion of the Ordinance banning landlords from asking tenants and applicants about criminal history is unconstitutional. However, the Court upheld the portion that bans landlords from taking adverse actions, such as denying housing based on criminal history.

The Seattle City Attorney’s office has asked the full court to rehear this decision. The timeline for the Court’s decision is unknown.

Until the appeal process concludes, the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance remains valid, and the Seattle Office for Civil Rights will continue to enforce the law.

If you have questions about Fair Chance Housing, either as a landlord or a hopeful tenant, you can email discrimination@seattle.gov or go to Fair Chance Housing – CivilRights | seattle.gov.

Fair Chance Housing creates…

• Safer communities, because housing reduces recidivism.
• Strong families, because half of our nation’s kids have at least one parent with a criminal background.
• Fairness, because punishing people who have served their time – or were never found guilty in the first place – is at odds with a just society. If you’ve served your time, you shouldn’t still be punished.

I would expect anyone in favor of a safer Seattle to support this law.  You can learn more:

• Review the studies that support the policy as developed in the Fair Chance Housing ordinance.
• Watch my appearance on CNN to discuss Fair Chance Housing.
• Read my case for Fair Chance Housing at More Than a Contract – SMERCONISH.

Denim Day

This week, the Legislative Department donned denim to call attention to sexual assault.  On April 26, millions of people across the world wear denim jeans with a purpose, to support survivors, and educate themselves and others about all forms of sexual violence.

The campaign began after a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court was overturned because the Justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans, she must have helped the person who raped her remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim.  Learn more at Why Denim? — Denim Day.

There is STILL no excuse and never an invitation to rape.  If you have experienced a sexual assault yourself, or want to know more about how to help your child, a friend, or someone else, contact King County’s 24/7 Resource Line.

Seattle/King County Clinic This Weekend

Do you or anyone you know struggle to access and/or afford healthcare? This weekend, free health, dental, and vision care are available at Seattle Center.

Need a ride?

State Legislative Session Adopts Priority Bills on Gun Control, Behavioral Health, Abortion Access

The State Legislature completed the 2023 regular session on April 23 and took action to adopt several bills included as priorities in the City’s State Legislative Agenda. Key bills include:

Gun control: A requirement for a 10-day waiting period and background check for gun purchases, a bill for which I gave testimony to support, and a ban on the manufacture, distribution, or sale of assault weapons. These bills build on last year’s successful action to ban high-capacity magazines and ghost guns.

Behavioral Health:  House Bill 1134 will strengthen 988 and build a stronger response for folks experiencing a behavioral health crisis.  I testified in support of HB 1134, which will decrease response times and ensure a highly-trained workforce is ready to take on crisis response jobs.

Abortion Access & Gender-Affirming Care: A suite of five bills will protect access to medical abortion; enhance data privacy for people who share their health information on apps; protect Washington patients and providers who may face legal threats from other states; protect providers’ licenses; and eliminate out-of-pocket costs to make abortion access more equitable.  Unfortunately, the Keep Our Care Act, which would prevent hospital consolidation that restricts access to abortion, gender-affirming care, and end-of-life care, again failed.

EPA Releases East Waterway Cleanup Plan: 60-day Public Comment Period Begins April 28

The US Environmental Protection Agency released a proposed cleanup plan for the East Waterway. A 60-day public comment period begins on April 28. The cleanup area stretches one mile and covers 157 acres. It is located immediately downstream and north of the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site, along the east side of Harbor Island, as shown below:

The East Waterway is part of the larger Harbor Island Superfund Site and is one of several “operable units” placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List in 1983 due to high levels of PCBs, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that accumulated over 150 years of urbanization and industrial development. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the cleanup of the East Waterway to remove and remediate historical contaminants that threaten human and environmental health.

Here’s the proposed superfund site plan, including information on how to comment, or receive the plan in Spanish, Khmer, or Vietnamese.

Background information on the site is available from the EPA Harbor Island Website.

The East Waterway Group (the City, Port and County) maintains a website with additional information at https://eastwaterway.org . The site notes the East Waterway:

• Is one of the most active commercial waterways in the Pacific Northwest, supporting shipping and water-based industries; most vessel traffic consists of shipping container vessels and tugboats.
• Serves ecological functions as a deep-water estuary at the mouth of the Duwamish River.
• Is part of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s and Suquamish Tribe’s usual and accustomed fishing area, with treaty-protected uses including a commercial fishery for salmon as well as ceremonial and subsistence uses.
• Provides public fishing access to the waterway from the Spokane Street Bridge. Learn more about safe seafood consumption In the East Waterway.

Georgetown to Downtown Safety Project Helps South Park Access

SDOT has reached 30% design to the Georgetown to Downtown Safety Project, and announced the update on SDOT’s blog.  I was a sponsor of funding $5.2 million for the Georgetown to South Park Trail.  Councilmember Morales was the prime sponsor.

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There is a gap between the two projects in downtown Georgetown. My office checked in with SDOT and they noted that 2014 Bicycle Master Plan Network Map shows a potential segment that would potentially connect the two, though it is not funded in the current levy cycle.

The forthcoming Seattle Transportation Plan will incorporate the modal plans (e.g. pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and freight); a draft should be available in the coming months. Project prioritization could come at a later phase. The current Move Levy cycle runs through the end of next year.

Seniors – Apply for Free Produce Benefits

The Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) provides an $80 benefit card for the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables at participating farmers markets and roadside stands.  Learn more and apply here by May 19th.

Natural Gas Signs on Trucks to be Updated

Earlier this month, I joined environmental groups including 350 Seattle, the Sierra Club, Gas Leaks, and Breach Collective in calling for the removal of signs on Waste Management trucks to remove “powered by renewable natural gas” ads from their garbage trucks.

In February, those groups wrote to the City of Seattle and Attorney General Bob Ferguson requesting they address the misleading information, as the methane gas used comes directly from pipelines, most of which is fracked, although a small portion comes from landfills. Also known as biogas, “renewable natural gas” is methane captured from landfills, sewage treatment plants, and large dairies.

Later in April, Waste Management reached out to my office to say that they intend to work on language modification for the trucks.

Climate change efforts must be driven by science and misleading information has absolutely no place in the public sphere. I applaud the efforts to uncover how much Waste Management trucks are relying on fracked gas.

The joint statement from Seattle Public Utilities (which manages garbage contracts) and Waste Management, confirming the decision to remove the truck ads is copied below:

JOINT STATEMENT ON WM USE OF RNG AND REMOVAL OF TRUCK ADS

“Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and Waste Management (WM) are committed to public health and a cleaner environment. In our work together for the collection of garbage, recycling and yard and food waste, we continuously look for ways to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2019, SPU entered into two new Solid Waste collection contracts, one of which was with WM. The contract prioritizes cleaner solid waste collection fleet vehicles and specifies the following:

• WM’s primary collection fleet of vehicles consists of all new trucks with 2018 or newer near-zero emissions compressed natural gas (CNG) engines.
• WM’s initial electric fleet includes two EV Class 6 street crew trucks and eight EV support vehicles.
• WM uses the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program to allocate renewable natural gas (RNG) to their waste collection trucks.

WM is in compliance with the terms of this contract and fully satisfies the standards of EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program. To avoid any confusion, SPU and WM have agreed to update the decals on WM collection vehicles in Seattle to better reflect our shared commitment to a cleaner environment.

WM is working as quickly as possible to update the trucks with its decal that will read, “Working together for a sustainable tomorrow”.

Each WM collection vehicle will need to be temporarily removed from service to remove the current decal and apply the new decal. SPU is committed to ensuring there is no impact to customers while the decal work is performed. The current timeline for completion is early fall.”

Contents

• How the City Prioritizes Encampments for Services
• Time to Return Your Ballot
• Talking Brain Health in District 1
• Medical Abortion is Legal and Available Here
• Roxhill Park Bog Preservation Efforts
• SER Report Wave 4 Report
• Rental Late Fee Cap
• Firefighters’ Obstruction Bill

How the City Prioritizes Encampments for Services

Since early 2022, I have been publicly asking the Mayor’s Office for a clear policy that explains how encampments, which are reported to the City by residents, are assessed and prioritized for services and removals.  My longstanding request was finally answered at Wednesday’s Public Assets and Homelessness Committee meeting.  You can review the illuminating presentation here.   Watch the conversation about prioritization here.

Here is what we learned about how the City prioritizes encampments:

Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington also helpfully included several examples of how actual encampment sites were assessed and prioritized.  Here’s one:

I believe that the City should communicate transparently and honestly with residents about what happens to their reports about encampments.  I hope that by shining light on the prioritization process, Seattle residents will understand why reporting an encampment doesn’t always immediately result in folks living there moving into temporary or permanent housing.

Time to Return Your Ballot

Election Day is this Tuesday, April 25^th, so it’s time to find your ballot and vote!  Here’s how…

Ballot drop boxes: Return your ballot to a ballot drop box, no stamp required. Your ballot must be returned to a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Plan ahead to avoid lines.

By mail: No stamp is needed to return your ballot!   King County Elections recommends dropping your ballot in the mail by the Friday before Election Day – that’s today – to make sure it gets postmarked in time to be counted. Your ballot must be postmarked by Election Day.

Vote Centers: King County vote centers are available to voters who need assistance completing their ballot. Trained staff and specialized equipment are available to help voters with disabilities cast a private, independent ballot.

Register to Vote:  You can register in person through April 25, Election Day, at a vote center. For more information on locations and hours of vote centers, visit www.kingcounty.gov/elections.

Talking Brain Health in District 1

I was thrilled to join community members and newly-confirmed Human Services Director Tanya Kim at West Seattle Senior Center on Tuesday to discuss the importance of exercise, community building, and some ways the City of Seattle promotes good brain health.  I learned so much from my fellow panelists Karen Thompson of Alzheimer’s Association, Washington State Chapter, and Sandy Sabersky of Elderwise.  The discussion was translated into Spanish so more could participate.

Seattle’s Human Services Department organizes monthly Civic Coffee events in partnership with The Seattle Public Library. These are opportunities for older adults to gather, meet local government and community leaders, learn about key issues, ask questions, and provide feedback.

Visit Age Friendly Seattle’s Virtual Events access page to find information about the next upcoming Civic Coffee event, including locations to join in person and links to join online.

Medical Abortion is Legal and Available Here

Mifepristone is a safe, effective drug that’s been used in medication abortions for 23 years. It’s been in the news lately because of a lawsuit in TX, but access to mifepristone remains protected in WA.  Learn more.

Find out how and where to access medical or surgical abortion in King County at Abortion services – King County.

Roxhill Park Bog Preservation Efforts

Last week, I visited Roxhill Bog, located within Roxhill Park between SW Barton Street and SW Roxbury Street. Roxhill Bog is the headwaters of Longfellow Creek, one of the most diverse, urbanized sub-basins of the Green-Duwamish River and a critical educational and recreational amenity for the community in Seattle’s 1^st District.   I have written about the Roxhill Bog in the past here.

With Earth Day on April 22^nd, it’s a timely reminder of how local activism can make a difference.

Educator workshop at Roxhill Bog (photo: Sharon Leishman)

A decade ago, two neighbors, Scott Blackstock and Rory Denovan, became concerned about Roxhill Park Bog’s ecological changes from the loss of water in the wetland.

The community was losing this 10,000 year old bog, its unique wetland plants, and its ecosystem which was enjoyed by the community and provided our local schools with an important outdoor classroom.  They asked these simple questions: where is the water, and why has it changed? What can we do to save our wetland?  As they started researching the Bog’s water levels, they became alarmed at how the peat soil was degrading so began to reach out for others to join their community-driven effort in saving this valuable wetland, not only environmentally but for the community.  Early partners included Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA), Duwamish Alive Coalition (DAC), American Rivers and Natural Systems Design, with funding from the Rose Foundation, King County Water Works, and Boeing.

Since taking office in 2016 I have worked with the community on this issue including encouraging Seattle Public Utilities and the Department of Parks and Recreation to attend a meeting at the Fen with the community. I’ve provided letters of support to both the American Rivers Association and King County to assist with grant applications. With King County Councilmember Joe McDermott’s support, the community received a 2020 WaterWorks grant from King Council to allow the community to proceed with their own hydrological study.

In partnership with King County, the Boeing company, and many others, the first phase of restoration will pilot a new approach to hold more water in the southern portions of the wetland by constructing a subsurface groundwater block with minimal impact to existing vegetation and parks facilities. This approach will provide valuable information for future restoration of the entire wetland and form the foundation for new green stormwater infrastructure to reduce combined sewer overflows in the Delridge Neighborhood.

Along with the plan designed by Natural Systems Design with the help of American Rivers, of returning water back to the Bog, the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, Duwamish Alive along with Parks have been offering community programs in the park including arts for seniors, birding and Bog tours, nature-themed activities for neighborhood youth and an environmental program for teens to once again welcome the community back to this special place.  They are looking forward to again offering these programs this year for the community and sharing the Bog’s story.

If you or your organization would like to learn more about this project, the history, and ecology of Roxhill Bog, contact DNDA to arrange a presentation either in person or on Zoom.  Email Caroline@dnda.org  or sharon@duwamishalive.org.

Summer Youth Environmental Justice program (photo: Caroline Borsenik)

SER Report Wave 4 Report

The Office of the Inspector General released the Wave 4 Sentinel Event (SER) Report.

This is the 4^th and final sentinel event report about the Seattle Police Department’s response to the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd. As noted on the OIG website, “A sentinel event is a significant negative outcome, such as a death or serious injury, that acts as a signal that problems within a system exist and may lead to similar bad results if the system is not examined to find root causes and proper remedies. Industries like airlines and health care providers have developed and used “sentinel event review” processes to thoroughly examine these types of incidents, identify what caused them, and use those lessons to prevent them in the future.”

What are the steps of SER?

This SER had three stages:  Stage 1 – Gathering community input and perspectives, Stage 2 – SER panel analysis and findings, Stage 3 – Audit and further systems review of issues identified by SER.

The four SER reports covered protests during 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, and SPD response. The final report covers the time period of July 2 through October 7, 2020. Three protests were selected for review, as described in the report:

1. A march in Capitol Hill on July 25th, where more than 5,000 people protested the deployment of federal law enforcement personnel to Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
2. A protest on September 7th, outside the headquarters of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) to demand increased transparency in future collective bargaining agreements.
3. A march in Capitol Hill on September 23rd, to protest a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to indict one of the officers involved in the March 2020 murder of Breonna Taylor on charges of ‘wanton endangerment,’ with no officers facing charges directly related to Taylor’s murder.

The Wave 4 report lists 49 factors, including:

• Ineffective communication by SPD with protestors, media, and legal observers;
• SPD crowd management tactics, including the decision to issue dispersal orders and the tools used to facilitate dispersal;
• The assumption by SPD of protestor coordination and planned violence, and its resulting posture of defensiveness; and
• The impact of officer exhaustion on perceptions of and interactions with protestors.

The SER panel, which included community members and officers, identified 20 recommendations in the Wave 4 report designed to improve SPD’s response to protests in the future. They fall into five main areas, as noted by the Office of the Inspector General:

• Community Legitimacy – Addressing the gap between structural and perceived legitimacy and acknowledging the need for SPD to take accountability for its actions and the actions of individual officers when public trust is damaged.
• Situational Awareness – Acknowledging the need for SPD to change its mindset when responding to protests, particularly where police themselves are the focus, by minimizing the prevalent belief within SPD that protesters work as a unified, oppositional group, rather than a diverse population of individuals with a diverse set of reasons for attending the protest.
• Communication – Improving the ability of SPD to communicate with protestors, media, and legal observers to safely facilitate crowd events.
• Tactics – Improving SPD crowd management tactics to limit force and ensure safety for protestors, officers, and others in the area.
• Officer Wellness – Supporting officer physical and emotional wellness during periods of extended deployment by reducing shift lengths and offering sufficient opportunities for breaks, food, and water, as well as through the provision of mental health services. Section IV provides a complete list of recommendations.

The report says about all four reports, “In total, the SER Panel identified 229 distinct contributing factors leading to undesired incidents and issued 136 recommendations to SPD and the City of Seattle intended to prevent such events from happening again.”

Under the proposed Consent Decree Agreement on Sustained Compliance filed by the US DOJ and the City of Seattle, the Seattle Police Department will consider and respond to the recommendations in the four reports and provide a status update to the Court by July 31. If a specific SER recommendation does not result in a policy change, the reason will be explained in the report.

Some of the SPD responses to the recommendations in previous SER reports are published on the Inspector General’s Sentinel Event review website (several of the recommendations have been implemented).

One of the challenges the report noted for SPD for the September 7, 2020 protest at SPOG headquarters was that “SPD leadership…had asked for the building to be unoccupied during the protest to minimize the potential for conflict and potentially ensure the safety of people inside.” Yet, “SPOG and SPD are separate entities and do not work in coordination; SPOG members making decisions at SPOG headquarters were not on duty nor tied to the SPD crowd management operations.”

In other words, SPOG members did not leave the building as requested by SPD leadership.  The report indicates that this “resulted in a 90-minute interaction resulting in 56 reported uses of force by SPD.”  Further, the report indicates that “Bicycle officers rode into the crowd from behind the SPOG headquarters as the song, ‘Save a Horse; Ride a Cowboy’ played from the building’s external speakers” and “Officers yelled at protestors to ‘run’ and ‘move faster,’ even as they complied with dispersal orders; protestors at the front of the crowd were unable to move back at pace expected by SPD.”

The report states that “Community panelists pointed to the music blaring from the SPOG building as one example of officers’ confrontational approach. SPD panelists agreed the music was inappropriate and could be viewed as antagonistic.”

Recommendations include “SPD professionalism policies and training should emphasize avoiding actions that are or could be perceived as retaliatory or punitive, especially in defense of their facilities.”

Rental Late Fee Cap

On Tuesday, the Council voted to pass legislation limiting how much can be charged in late fees each month when rent is late.  I’m including it in my newsletter this week because, though this bill was discussed and recommended for passage by a committee on which I do not serve, the Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee, it is a very important piece of public policy.

Before beginning my career in City Hall, I worked as an organizer with the Tenants Union. Renters’ rights have been a core issue of mine. As a Councilmember, when I served as the chair of the Council’s committee with oversight on the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, I successfully sponsored legislation such as Fair Chance Housing, Source of Income Discrimination and First-in-Time Protections, Losing Home Report Recommendations (5 separate bills).  Here’s a piece I wrote just last week about Fair Chance Housing and the importance of local legislation protecting tenants:  More Than a Contract – SMERCONISH

I wholeheartedly agree that high late fees are exploitative to renters.  I further question whether they even serve as an effective incentive that results in more timely payment of rent. In fact, the Seattle Public Library has recently shared that getting rid of library late fees had no effect on book return rates. Certainly, it can be argued that people have much greater motivation to keep a roof overhead than to keep their book borrowing privileges. Renters do not pay timely rent in order to avoid late fees, renters pay timely rent to avoid evictions. That is incentive enough for most people.

I appreciate that there was thorough discussion and consideration in committee about the upper limit of the cap.  Councilmembers Mosqueda and Morales who were not part of the earlier committee discussion brought forward an amendment, that Councilmember Sawant also sponsored, giving the Full Council an opportunity to weigh in on the cap.

As I said in chambers, the testimonies shared during public hearing and the emails that have poured into our inbox established good reason for reconsideration of the Committee recommendation. In the bill as amended in committee, someone paying an average rent of about $2,000 for a 1 bedroom in Seattle could pay as much as $30 per late fee. For a family who has struggled to pay their rent, a late fee that is $30 instead of $10 could mean the difference between commuting by bus or having to walk to work, even with ORCA Lift. That $20 difference could mean falling behind on other bills and racking up additional late fees on credit card payments or internet service. It could be the deciding factor in your child’s ability to go on educational field trips with their classmates, or whether you can get a prescription filled.

I voted in favor of the amendment at Council to restore the rent cap to $10, and proudly voted yes on the bill as amended. I appreciate the leadership of Councilmember Sawant in this legislation that brings us in line with neighboring cities and progressive municipalities across the country.

Firefighters’ Obstruction Bill

This Tuesday, the Council’s Introduction and Referral Calendar included a bill referred to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee that would amend the Seattle Municipal Code to include firefighters and fire department personnel in the definition of “public officer” for the crime of obstructing a public officer.

It is well known that the challenges faced by all our public safety employees at the City of Seattle have increased with the rise of the opioid epidemic, economic uncertainty, and multiple public health crises – COVID, mental health, and substance use.

This bill will give our fire department employees in the line of duty an additional tool for their personal safety and the ability to secure the scene of a medical health response or fire response, particularly in the case of bystander intervention while firefighters and paramedics are providing aid. In my regular meetings and correspondence with Chief Scoggins, he’s shared stories that include an aggressive bystander throwing rocks at SFD and AMR personnel while they transported a patient in a gurney.

No public servant should have to fear for their safety while performing lifesaving aid. While this code change may not eliminate the assaults and obstructions experienced by SFD personnel, it will help them safely secure their response scenes and potentially reduce the likelihood of threats to their work as integral members of our public safety network.

Contents

• Update from the 4/11 Public Safety & Human Services Committee
• Food Assistance: How to Find – or Give – Help
• Apply By 4/21 for Career Pathways for Gun Violence-Affected Youth Grant
• Last Chance to Order Free Covid Tests from State
• April Pools Day this Saturday at Southwest Pool
• EV Charging Stations Coming Online in Coming Months
• YMCA Seeking Applications in District 1 for 2023-2024 Get Engaged Program
• More on Fair Chance Housing
• Free Kia and Hyundai Anti-Theft Devices

Update from the 4/11 Public Safety & Human Services Committee

Human Services Department Director:  Committee members unanimously voted to recommend the appointment of Tanya Kim, current Acting Director of the Human Services Department, to the permanent position.  I have found Acting Director Kim to be a thoughtful and responsive partner, and I was pleased that she was willing to step up her commitment when asked to serve in the permanent role.  You can read more about Acting Director Kim here and here.

This is an important appointment.  The Human Services Department, which has been without a permanent director since before the pandemic, is one of the largest contributors to Seattle’s safety net, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to more than 200 community-based organizations and programs that support strong and healthy communities.  HSD has about 400 employees in four divisions designed to deliver outcomes that work for the community, promote innovation, and advance racial equity: Aging and Disability Services (ADS), Leadership and Administrative Division (LAD), Safe and Thriving Communities (STC), and Youth and Family Empowerment (YFE).

Next, Acting Director Kim’s appointment will be considered by the full Council for a final vote on Tuesday, April 17^th.  Council’s consideration of department heads is guided by Resolution 31868.

Ongoing Assessments in Proposed Consent Decree Agreement on Sustained Compliance: Inspector General Judge provided a briefing on the upcoming work of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

This work falls into three main areas: 1) projects and reports identified in the Consent Decree Agreement on Sustained Compliance; 2) developing new review processes to transition oversight from the Court Monitor to OIG for Consent Decree topics, and 3) creating new review processes to provide ongoing feedback to SPD, including the development of processes to provide transparent oversight of SPD systems not yet subject to consent decree oversight.

In short, review work will be continuing, and will be transitioning to a City-run system, which can allow for additional areas of focus and priorities set by the City.

Here’s the OIG presentation.

Until now, the Court-appointed Monitor has been overseeing SPD in areas defined by the Consent Decree such as use of force and constitutional policing. In the long run, this transition will allow greater scope for continuing overnight and enhanced real-time review.

The Consent Decree includes requirements regarding the collection of data about the use of Terry stops (also referred to as ‘investigative’ stops based on an officer’s reasonable suspicion of criminal activity). The City’s 2017 bias-free policing ordinance is more expansive and requires the collection of data not only for Terry stops, but also for regular traffic stops that can result in tickets, and incorporates that requirement into the Municipal Code.

SPD has collected data on Terry stops, and the demographic data has been included in a variety of reports, such as the Monitor’s 2022 Comprehensive Assessment, the CPE Science of Justice report, and SPD’s Disparity Review. Here is SPD’s Terry stop dashboard and dataset.

The transition to City management can now include oversight on regular traffic stops as well, the data for which has only become available in mid-2022, despite the bias-free policing ordinance requiring its availability being passed in 2017.

For work beyond the Consent Decree, the OIG has identified items including a review of investigative policy and practices, ongoing work on traffic stops and use of deception, SPD’s collision review process, as well as a sentinel event review process for officer-involved shootings.

The OIG will be adding three new positions; this is a fraction of the average annual staffing costs for the Monitor’s office of $800,000.

URM Quarterly Update: Lastly, the committee received a quarterly program update and briefing from SDCI and ASAP! (the Alliance for Safety, Affordability, and Preservation) on the work developed around Unreinforced Masonry buildings (URMs) as directed by Resolution 32033, which I sponsored in 2021. This URM Retrofit Program resolution charges City departments with identifying seismic retrofit standards to make older buildings safer during large earthquakes. It also tasks the City with finding funding sources to reduce the financial burden on the owners of these older buildings. SDCI last presented their progress in this area in December.

As we heard in committee, the URM Retrofit Program is made of two parallel tracks – one to develop the technical standard for retrofits, and one to develop policies needed to support this work.

On technical standards, I was pleased to hear that a draft of baseline standards is already being reviewed by earthquake engineers, who will give feedback for further development. These baseline standards will identify models for retrofits that range in cost and construction needs without sacrificing the safety of the occupants and neighbors of the buildings adopting them. These baseline standards will be published this year in the form of a Director’s Rule, while further work continues.

In the area of policy development, we heard a compelling proposal for a retrofit credit program. This program would grant owners of each URM property required to retrofit their buildings to the URM standard, additional development capacity, or “upzone credits.”  It would also allow developers, in selected areas across the city, to purchase “upzone credits” from owners of URM properties for a fee that would then help these owners of URM building pay for the estimated $1.2 billion in costs to retrofit URMs across Seattle. This would allow developers to build denser buildings while supporting the protection and safety of older, historically significant buildings. This proposal is in relatively early development stages with a set of challenging questions ahead of it but is an exciting opportunity to explore a significant funding source for this life safety matter. I look forward to the recommendations of this workgroup.  To begin to move this policy development forward ASAP and SDCI are working on Comprehensive Plan amendments for both the One Seattle Plan Comprehensive Plan Update (2022), which Council won’t vote on until 2024, as well as Mayor Harrell’s proposed new legislation to update the City’s industrial lands policy, which Council will be considering later this year.

Admittedly, the work of the URM Retrofit Program workgroups can be highly technical, but it is incredibly important.  I applaud our presenters for parsing through these standards and policies in laypeople’s terms. SDCI will return in June for its next quarterly report, but in the meantime, you can watch the full presentation from this week’s committee below.

Food Assistance: How to Find – or Give – Help

The number of people seeking food assistance increased over the last year, according to a report by Public Health. This increase is happening while food costs are higher than ever before, food donations and volunteers are down, and federal pandemic-era food programs are ending.

Give Help: Food assistance providers need additional food, volunteers, and equipment.  You can help by volunteering, donating nutritious foods, and giving money.  Find your local food bank or meal program on this list and map of food resources, updated quarterly by the City of Seattle.

Get Help: If you don’t have money to purchase enough food, the following resources can help:

• Basic Food/SNAP: King County’s Access and Outreach Team can help you apply and answer questions about Washington State’s Basic Food program. Call the Community Health Access Program (CHAP): at 1-800-756-5437.
• SNAP Market Match and SNAP Produce Match: You can stretch Basic Food benefits by purchasing fresh vegetables and fruit at participating farmers’ markets. Visit SNAP Market Match, email MarketMatch@doh.wa.gov, or call 360- 236-3148. Also available is SNAP Produce Match, a program where shoppers who use Basic Food benefits can stretch their food budget to buy more fruits and vegetables at participating grocery stores and online. Visit the website at SNAP Produce Match, email SNAP.ProduceMatch@doh.wa.gov, or call 360-236-3148.
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program: The WIC program provides families with healthy food, nutrition counseling, and breastfeeding support. You may be eligible for WIC if you are pregnant or postpartum, have an infant, or child under age 5. To learn more, see Public Health WIC Services, or call 206-263-9300.
• Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program: You can find nutrition resources for older adults, including senior congregate meal locations and information about applying for an $80 e-benefit card to purchase fruits and vegetables at participating farmers markets here, or call Community Living Connections at 206-962-8467 or (toll-free) 1-844-348-5464.
• School Meals and Summer EBT: Families can apply for free or reduced-price school meals for their children at any time during the school year by applying directly through their school or school district. School children who receive free or reduced-price school meals qualify for up to a $120 e-benefit card to purchase food during the summer months.
• Seattle Fresh Bucks: Eligible Seattle residents with household income below 80% area median income can enroll in the Fresh Bucks program to receive $40 in vouchers a month by mail. The vouchers, allow participants to buy any qualifying fruit and vegetable at any participating retailer including farmers’ markets, Seattle Safeways, and participating Seattle neighborhood grocers and farm stands. See Seattle Fresh Bucks or call 206-684-2489 for more information.
• Food Banks and Meal Programs: Many food banks now offer home delivery services and other conveniences like online ordering and curbside pick-up. Before going to your local food bank or meal program, call ahead to confirm their hours and to make an appointment, if necessary. Find your closest food bank or meal program by visiting this list and map of food resources.

Apply By 4/21 for Career Pathways for Gun Violence-Affected Youth Grant

King County intends to award $1M to data-informed, community-focused violence deterrence/intervention programs for youth ages 12-28 who have been directly or indirectly affected by gun violence.  Services for young people should include building relationships, providing intentional guidance, and connecting to resources.  Examples include paid trainings, certification, and job shadowing; paid internships; civic and business leadership development; career and ownership/stewardship mentoring; culturally reflective mental health and well-being supports; teaching life adaptive skills to thrive, and so on.

Learn more and apply here: Career Pathways for Youth Affected by Gun Violence – King County.

Last Chance to Order Free Covid Tests from State

There is one month left to get free tests from Say Yes COVID Test. While this program comes to an end on May 11, many communities in Washington are still eligible to receive five at-home COVID-19 test kits for free. Visit http://SayYesCovidHomeTest.org to see if your household is eligible.

April Pools Day this Saturday at Southwest Pool

Head to Southwest Pool this Saturday, April 15^th from 12:15 to 1:15 pm for April Pools Day!  Make this summer a safe one. Learn important water safety skills, enjoy free swims, play games, and win prizes!

This is a great opportunity to teach your family about water safety while having fun. April Pools Day water safety topics will include:

• Preventing open-water drowning
• Lifejacket use and promotion
• Cold water awareness
• Basic water rescue for children

EV Charging Stations Coming Online in Coming Months

Last month City Light announced 31 locations for Seattle City Light’s Curbside Level 2 Electric Vehicle Charging pilot, including the following additional locations in District 1:

• 4800 block California Ave SW
• 2100 block California Ave SW
• 6000 block 16th Ave SW
• 4800 block Fauntleroy Way SW
• 7000 block 17^th Ave SW

A map of the sites is available and locations are noted by a blue icon. Locations with charging stations running already are indicated in orange.

SDOT anticipates 50% of the new locations will be installed by the end of May, with the remainder completed by the end of summer. Sites will be energized as construction is completed.

The Level 2 EV chargers installed under this program will provide up to 9.6 kilowatts (kW).

Additional information including is available at City Light’s announcement, and their Curbside Level 2 EV Charging webpage. The current cost for a Level 2 charger is $0.21 per kilowatt-hour.

YMCA Seeking Applications in District 1 for 2023-2024 Get Engaged Program

The YMCA Social Impact Center is seeking 2023-2024 applications for the Get Engaged! Program run in collaboration with the City of Seattle.

The Get Engaged program places people aged 18-29 onto City of Seattle boards and commissions. They reached out to seek additional applications from District 1, so please share this with anyone who might be interested.

Get Engaged board members serve a one-year term as fully vested and voting members starting in September. Boards and commissions advise the Mayor and City Council, help shape policy decisions, make recommendations, and provide citizen participation in city government. Started in 2001, Get Engaged is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of leaders and advocating for the influence of young voices in city affairs.

Applications for the 2023-2024 year will be accepted until Friday, May 12^th at 11:59 pm.

To apply: Complete the application at https://forms.office.com/r/xzvenWjTsm and send a resume, cover letter, and 2 references to ibender@seattleymca.org

Participating boards and commissions include: the Arts Commission, Bicycle Advisory Board, Design Commission, Human Rights Commission, Immigrant and Refugee Commission, LGBT Commission, Board of Parks Commissioners, Pedestrian Advisory Board, Disability Commission, Planning Commission, Renters’ Commission, Transit Advisory Board, Urban Forestry Commission, Women’s Commission, and others.

You can view participating boards and commissions, and meeting times, here:
https://www.seattleymca.org/get-engaged-boards-commissions.

For more information: Contact Imani Bender, ibender@seattleymca.org.

More on Fair Chance Housing

Last month, I wrote about the importance of the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance.  Fair Chance Housing creates…

• Safer communities, because housing reduces recidivism.
• Strong families, because half of our nation’s kids have at least one parent with a criminal background.
• Fairness, because punishing people who have served their time – or were never found guilty in the first place – is at odds with a just society. If you’ve served your time, you shouldn’t still be punished.

I recently had the opportunity to make the case for Fair Chance Housing to a national audience in an interview on CNN’s Smerconish Show and later with a written article: More Than a Contract – SMERCONISH.  From that article:

There is no research that demonstrates that someone with a criminal history is less likely to be a good tenant.  One in three of us has criminal system involvement. And again, people with criminal legal system involvement are less likely to commit another crime if they have housing.  I’d expect anyone supporting safer communities to oppose discrimination against people with prior criminal legal system involvement.

As I await the next steps in the Ninth Circuit ruling that threatens a part of Fair Chance Housing, I will be looking for ways to ensure that criminal background information that landlords see is not information that is used to deprive people of housing.

Free Kia and Hyundai Anti-Theft Devices

As I’ve written about before, thefts of Hyundai and Kias thefts have risen by as much as 620% between 2021 and 2022. In January, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison filed a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai for their failure to release and install anti-theft technology. To further combat this, Seattle Police Department’s Crime Prevention Coordinators will be distributing steering wheel locks at all five precincts through the end of the month.

These devices are being made available for anyone who lives or works in Seattle with a focus on Hyundai and Kia drivers.

West Seattle residents and workers can pick up a free steering wheel club tomorrow, Saturday, April 15^th from 1 PM to 3 PM at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster St). They will also be available Thursday, April 20^th from 2 PM to 4 PM.

To learn about pickup times at other precincts, or if you have any questions, please see the SPD Blotter post or reach out to Jennifer Danner, Southwest Precinct’s Crime Prevention Coordinator at jennifer.danner@seattle.gov.

Contents

• Renewing the Housing Levy
• April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
• Westside Healthy Empowered Youth (HEY) Town Hall
• Library Hours Expanding at Local Branches
• Help Lay the Groundwork for Aging and Disability Services
• Building Emissions Performance Standards
• West Seattle Water Taxi Summer Schedule Begins April 17

Renewing the Housing Levy

This week, Council launched its consideration of renewing the 7-year housing levy with a deep dive into our city’s affordable housing needs, and a review of the accomplishments of the current levy, now in its final year.  By the end of June, Council’s Select Committee on 2023 Housing Levy, which I Vice Chair, will consider the Executive’s proposal for a ballot measure to fund the renewal of the Housing Levy. As part of this work, the Select Committee will:

1. review current and future housing needs;
2. consider the Executive’s proposal, including the size and scope of the Levy; and
3. deliberate and make a final decision on whether to send a Levy proposal to the ballot for consideration by Seattle voters.

You can sign up to receive updates on the Select Committee’s work here: Agenda Sign Up – Council | seattle.gov.

Affordable Housing Needs:  No surprise here: we learned that, over the past decade, Seattle’s production of housing has not kept pace with the need.  The slide below shows that for every 2.6 jobs created, only one housing unit was built.  But what about the affordability of that housing unit?   This 2017 Seattle Times story, reported [emphasis added] “about 92 percent of the 31,000 new market-rate apartments that have opened in Seattle this decade have been luxury units.”  So not only is it true that not enough units are being built, but of those built by the private market, almost none of them are affordable.

Since the housing levy primarily (but not solely) supports affordable rental homes, I requested data on income distribution among Seattle’s renters.  As you can see, incomes for renter households are skewed much lower than homeowners and almost half of all renters need affordable housing.

We can also see that the burden of soaring housing costs is not shared equally.  Black Indigenous People of Color, Native American, Pacific Islander, and multi-race households are more likely to spend 30%, 50%, or more of their income on housing.

Of the nearly 71,00 new affordable homes that our region is projected to need by 2044, 62% of them must be affordable to families struggling to survive on less than 30% of Area Median Income – that’s just $39,000 for a family of four.

My Priorities:  Given that the cost of constructing new buildings has risen dramatically, I am asking my colleagues to consider embracing the strategy of purchasing affordable homes and buildings from the private housing market.  While the current housing levy allows this activity, it does not include any specific goals for the strategy.  I’d like to see the levy include a specific goal for the number of affordable housing units to be created or saved by purchasing them from private owners.

I will also be advocating for:

• New affordable housing in neighborhoods outside the central city – including District 1 – to help residents stay in their communities as costs rise
• Co-locating affordable homes with affordable commercial spaces
• Affordable homeownership to help close the racial gap in generational wealth
• Addressing the pay penalty for affordable housing workers
• Deep affordability, so families with the smallest incomes can find homes

Next Steps:  Select upcoming dates for the levy renewal:

• April 19 at 9:30am: Select Committee will receive a briefing on the Mayor’s proposed housing levy renewal package
• April 19 at 4:30pm: Public Hearing
• May 31 at 4:00pm: Public Hearing
• June 21 at 9:30am: Likely Select Committee vote on housing levy legislation

Again, you can sign up to receive updates on the Select Committee’s work here: Agenda Sign Up – Council | seattle.gov.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

On Tuesday, I presented a proclamation declaring April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month in collaboration with the Seattle Women’s Commission, Seattle Disability Commission, and Human Services Department.  I’d like to lift up the call to action issued by King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC):

This year, KCSARC is calling on our community to be up-standers — people who actively take steps to prevent sexual violence.   Fortunately, you don’t need a superhero cape to stand up to sexual violence!

An upstander is an ally to someone experiencing bullying or harassment. An upstander is someone who helps another person who is too incapacitated to find a safe way home after a party.

And if someone tells you they’ve been a victim of sexual assault, you can be an upstander just by listening without judgment, being supportive, and sharing the 24-hour Resource Line for free and confidential help and information at at 888.998.6423, or 425.282.0324 — Ayuda en Español. 

My sincere thanks especially to Human Services Department Director Tanya Kim and Kristina Sawyckyi of Seattle Disability Commission for sharing heartfelt remarks – click below to listen.

Westside Healthy Empowered Youth (HEY) Town Hall

On Wednesday evening I attended a Town Hall hosted by the Westside HEY Coalition at Denny Middle School to address youth substance use prevention.   The HEY coalition works to “promote a healthy and safe community through collaboration, education, and empowerment so that Westside youth can thrive.”  The Town Hall was an opportunity to learn about many of the programs of the HEY coalition including, but not limited to, Parent Education Nights and Drug Take Back Days.

A teen dies of overdose about every 2 weeks in King County.  Most of these deaths involve fentanyl. Seattle King County Public Health recommends that no matter how open you are with your teen, some topics can be daunting and preparing what you want to say ahead of time can help. They advise to withhold judgement, remember to be patient, keep an open mind, and hear your teen out.  Important topics to cover:

• Even if your teen is aware of the fentanyl problem in King County, they may not realize how they can help. Make sure they’re prepared to respond to an overdose by discussing when to call for help and how to use naloxone.
• The drug supply in King County is more dangerous than ever. You can’t tell if there’s fentanyl in pills by looking at them. While a single pill might get a person high without killing them, another pill could be fatal. The majority of counterfeit pills seized in recent years were laced with fentanyl.
• There are overdose signs you can see, hear, and feel. Someone overdosing might just look asleep or passed out, may be snoring weird, and their skin can get cold, discolored, and clammy. Encourage your teen to keep an eye on the folks around them, and make sure they know the signs of overdose and how to respond.
• Calling 911 is always the right thing to do. First responders are trained to handle medical emergencies. The Good Samaritan Law means that, if you seek medical assistance in a drug-related overdose, you and the victim cannot be prosecuted for drug possession.

There are many issues underlying substance use.  I had the opportunity to speak about $500,000 in Mental Health Funding for Seattle Public Schools that I championed in last year’s budget.  In 2020, Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency due to the mental and behavioral health of Washington’s kids.  In 2021, the nation’s Surgeon General followed suit. These funds have been disbursed between Denny Middle School, Sealth High School, Ingraham High School, Rainier Beach High School, and Aki Kurose Middle School.  Some of the ways that they’re being used:

Denny

• Mental Health Days
• Student-led programming to meet in-the-moment mental health needs.
• Staff-training by local mental health providers on trauma informed instructional practices through the Why Try Curriculum and training to facilitate community circle meetings
• Two clinicians to work full time at Denny and offer both 1:1 and drop-in group counseling.
• Students and their families may receive up to 6 hours of therapy onsite with local private practitioners and therapists from SW Youth & Family Services

Sealth

• Workshop series for students focused on intergenerational, interpersonal trauma, healing, and resiliency, applicable to all areas of students’ lives.
• 16-week after school program and 1-week Spring Break camp during which students will participate in collective healing that include psychoeducation, coping strategies, and considerations for mental health care.
• CHOOSE 180 will bring professional community members to the campus to work directly with students to move the essential work of restorative practices forward, with roots in community building and establishing trusting, positive relationships.
• 3 different levels of support services to the students and families of East African communities. 1) Parent Connection to our School and how to navigate Seatt Public School systems. 2) Boys in Motion group: Focused on students’ mental health and navigating negative outside influences. 3) Girls Guide group

In the 2024-2023 biennium the Council added an additional $4 million in funding to address the mental health needs of our youth.  The implementation of the additional $4 million is currently being developed and the current plan is to use the $4 million to expand the number of schools receiving mental health resources based on what we learn from this pilot.

We also heard from Principals and Vice Principals from Denny Middle School, Sealth High School, Madison Middle School, and West Seattle High School.  Principal Ray Morales is in the photo below.

Here is the HEY Coalition’s extensive Youth Guide. It is designed to “make sure local teens, and those who care for them, are aware of the many youth-friendly resources that exist to serve their unique needs.”

Library Hours Expanding at Local Branches

The Seattle Public Library is adding open hours to local branches thanks to funding from the seven-year, $219 million 2019 Library Levy, which supplements City funding.  With this expansion, Library locations will be open a total of 223 more hours per week than current schedules and 133 more hours per week than 2019 schedules, when the Levy was overwhelmingly passed by voters.

New hours for local branches, starting this week:

Delridge Branch, 5423 Delridge Way S.W.

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• Noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday 

High Point Branch, 3411 S.W. Raymond St.

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

South Park Branch, 8604 Eighth Ave. S.

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

Southwest Branch, 9010 35th Ave. S.W.

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• Noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday

West Seattle Branch, 2306 42nd Ave. S.W.

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• Noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday

Help Lay the Groundwork for Aging and Disability Services

Share your priorities for the next four years of services for older people, adults with disabilities, and caregivers by taking the 2023 Area Plan Engagement Survey.

Every four years, the City of Seattle’s Aging and Disability Services division develops an Area Plan that focuses on the needs of older people, adults with disabilities, and caregivers. The plan considers data, best practices in the field of aging and disability services and for healthy aging, and input from the public. It lays the groundwork for the state and federal funding our agency receives and the services and supports our agency provides to the people of King County.  Learn more here.

I encourage you to help with this work. Please complete the 2023 Area Plan Engagement Survey (on or before April 15). It should take you about 10 minutes. The information collected will help inform priorities for the next four years.

Building Emissions Performance Standards

One issue I’ve been hearing about from District 1 constituents and several advocacy groups alike is the planned legislation on Building Performance Standards for existing buildings over 20,000 square feet. This week I met with a group from the 34^th District Democrats about this policy.  The group I met with this week is part of a coalition advocating for:

• More ambitious timelines in order to meet the goals established in the 2019 Seattle Green New Deal resolution, which calls for a complete transition off of fossil fuels by 2030. This would put Seattle in line with the 2030 deadline that global scientists agree is our best chance to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5°C. There are millions of dollars of “early adopter” federal subsidies from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act on the table that may be lost if compliance deadlines are pushed out.
• Penalties for these buildings large enough and frequent enough to deter continued pollution (at least $10 per square feet per year, matching Washington D.C.) and increasing each subsequent year. Climate justice demands that loopholes and alternative payments for big commercial buildings must be eliminated.
• The allocation of revenue from fines, penalties, and alternative compliance payments to the Clean Buildings Opportunity Account to support affordable, equitable decarbonization for highly impacted communities, affordable housing, and low- and moderate-income (LMI) tenants.

Here’s the Office of Sustainabilty & Environment’s (OSE) webpage about their ongoing work since early 2022 to develop this policy.  Numerous informational links are included. OSE’s webpage shows the January 2023 drafts at the top of the page.

The timeline for sending a bill to the City Council was originally targeted for March, but is now listed for July, with policy recommendations to the Mayor in June.  OSE worked “closely with a diverse Technical Advisory Group and participated in the Housing Development Consortium’s affordable housing task force to shape the policy; continues to brief key organizations and associations; and meet one-on-one with stakeholders representing environment, labor, housing, business, facilities management, community, and more – adding up to more than 100 meetings in 2022 alone!”

Unfortunately, despite all of these meetings and the good work of OSE, the delay is to address the concerns of certain Seattle building owners that the timeframe for needing to make improvements, starting in 2027, is too soon. At the same time, OSE wants to ensure Seattle’s standard and compliance deadline is as seamless as possible with the state requirements.  The state requires buildings to meet energy performance targets, beginning in 2026 with the largest buildings. The Seattle performance standard would add a greenhouse gas intensity target, beginning in 2027.   Both standards phase in compliance by building size and type, and then become more stringent every five years, with the timing for Seattle’s proposed standard aligned with the State’s existing schedule.

According to the 2020 Seattle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, 37% of emissions are from buildings. In 2021 the Council adopted legislation limiting use of natural gas in new commercial and apartment buildings.

The 2023 Council Work Plan assigns this legislation, once referred, to Councilmember Sawant’s Sustainability and Renters’ Rights committee.   Though, as described above, the public is lobbying the City Councilmembers for changes to the proposed policy, it is important to remember that since this legislation requires SEPA review, if significantly changed with Council amendments, depending on the nature of the amendments, it would typically have to go back through SEPA review again, potentially creating still more delay for implementation.

West Seattle Water Taxi Summer Schedule Begins April 17

The summer schedule for the West Seattle Water Taxi begins on April 17^th, and will run through October 13^th. This includes return of late-night sailings through 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturday evenings.

Service will be suspended the weekend of April 15-16 to conduct training and maintenance.

Contents

• March 28 PSHS Committee Report
• Consent Decree Update
• Duwamish Valley Program Update
• Terminal 5 Quiet Zone Construction to Begin
• Today is Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV)
• Keep Masking Up in Healthcare Facilities
• Fair Chance Housing
• 2022 Annual City Council Report
• Free Tax Help
• Colman Pool Registration
• Port of Seattle Job Fair in South Park

March 28 PSHS Committee Report

My Public Safety and Human Services (PSHS) committee met this week.  Two of the topics on the agenda that were presented are:  1. SPD’s report on the results of the hiring incentives legislation, as required by Ordinance 120389, together with the progress on the SPD Recruitment and Retention Plan and the 2. Office of Emergency Management’s report on their outreach and engagement plan “to increase the overall resilience of the city through education and outreach by building meaningful relationships in the community.”

Ordinance 120389 authorized hiring incentives to attract new police candidates and requires SPD to provide quarterly reports on the use of hiring incentives.  The first quarterly report demonstrates that though the goals for July 2022 to February 2023 had been 68 hires, SPD reports 42 hires from July to February.

SPD’s presentation also covered a variety of changes made to streamline the officer hiring process without sacrificing standards and expectations of excellence. For example, offering more frequent exams and modernizing application and communication systems reduces the time it takes for a successful candidate to go from application to swearing in by roughly 3 months. SPD also shared early examples of their new marketing campaign, which focuses on community service and targets audiences beyond traditional likely applicants in order to recruit into healthcare, social services, and education workforces.

SPD also presented their growing list of strategies to retain officers, including a shift structure change I’ve written about before, weekly videos from the Chief, and enlisting the services of wellness dogs.

Many of these new tools and strategies in the department’s recruitment and retention toolkit are still too new to measure the efficacy of, so I look forward to ongoing reports from SPD and am committed to sharing progress updates on these works either in committee or here in my weekly newsletter and blog.

The three-year update to OEM’s Community Engagement Plan guides the work of the Office of Emergency Management to build preparedness and recovery capabilities in communities across Seattle by empowering and supporting existing organizations and community assets. OEM also hosts their own disaster skills trainings that you can sign up for on their website.

One service I want to highlight is Alert Seattle. You can sign up for this free service online, and receive real-time official text message notifications from the City of Seattle, including updates and warnings about severe weather, utility disruptions, major public health and safety threats, and emergency preparedness information.

To learn more about SPD’s recruitment and retention efforts and OEM’s services and community engagement, you can watch the entire committee meeting at the Seattle Channel website.

Consent Decree Update

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Justice and the City of Seattle announced a Joint Motion to approve an Agreement on Sustained Compliance for the 2012 Consent Decree.

The agreement includes City commitments, in an Agreement on Sustained Compliance, for work anticipated to be completed in 2023, and anticipates the City, or the City and DOJ jointly, could petition the Court to end the Consent Decree upon demonstration of compliance with those commitments.

Below is the statement I shared:

“Today’s announcement of the Agreement on Sustained Compliance for the Consent Decree marks an important day for policing in Seattle.

Since the 2012 Consent Decree, the Seattle Police Department has reduced the use of force, particularly in crisis intervention. This is not only a result of SPD’s adoption of new policies, but also a result of the practices of those officers committed to constitutional policing.

When I share the data that demonstrates SPD’s reduced rates of force use, I often hear concerns about growing racial disparities. I appreciate SPD’s commitment in the Agreement to identify, study, and work towards “eliminating policies and practices that have an unwarranted disparate impact on certain protected classes” and ongoing work to “develop a plan that details the technologies, policies, and practices that it will seek to employ to reduce disparities in policing.” Even if SPD isn’t monitored under the Consent Decree in this area, this commitment is essential for SPD to build trust with all our communities.

The Agreement notes work to be done this year. Revamped crowd management policies will be developed and considered this year. These policies will include recent recommendations from the Inspector General’s Sentinel Event Review, recent changes in State law, and the changes deriving from Ordinance 126422. The Agreement also notes advances made by the City in areas highlighted by the Court as needing improvement, including arbitration reform and subpoena power through the successful negotiation of the SPMA contract (the SPOG contract ended at the end of 2020 and is still being bargained).

The Inspector General will take on reporting functions fulfilled by the Consent Decree Monitor to date. I appreciate the contribution of all three accountability bodies in getting us to this juncture in the Consent Decree, in particular the role of the Community Police Commission in providing input to the draft Agreement.

I further appreciate SPD’s work to analyze 911 call data and work to develop a model to identify which calls do not require an in-person patrol response, also noted in the City’s Memo in Support, and another important element in Seattle’s future.”

It’s anticipated that the Judge overseeing the Consent Decree will schedule a hearing for the parties to present.

The Agreement includes deadlines to complete required projects during coming months and submit reports to the District Court judge overseeing the Consent Decree. The reports are in three areas: 1) Use of Force: Crowd Management Practices; 2) Accountability: Strengthening & Continuing Practices; 3) Ongoing Assessments: Ensuring that Police Reform Work Continues.

For Use of Force/Crowd Management, SPD will revise crowd management policies to address feedback from the ongoing Sentinel Event Review and ensure officers are trained on the updated policy; SPD will also develop an alternative review and reporting process for use of force in crowd settings that address the Monitor’s findings regarding breakdowns in reporting and review in 2020. In addition, within 60 days of the effective date of the Agreement (that is, when the Court approves it), the City will provide the draft crowd management policy that is also consistent with City law (Ordinance 126422) together with the alternative reporting and review process to the DOJ and Monitor. The parties will then follow the review process outlined in the Consent Decree, and the City will file update policies with the Court upon completion of the Consent Decree review process.

For Accountability, the Consent Decree Monitor who reports to the Court, has retained an independent consultant to complete an assessment of Seattle’s police accountability systems. The final report will be filed with the Court no later than August 14. The City will develop a response that provides explanations for any recommendations not adopted and will be provided to the Court no later than August 31.

An upcoming newsletter will include detail about Ongoing Assessments and the role of the Office of the Inspector General.

Here are the documents that were filed with the Court:

Joint Motion ; Agreement on Sustained Compliance ; City Memo in Support ; Chief Diaz declaration; COO Maxey declaration; Malcolm declaration; Betts declaration.

The Malcolm declaration is from a labor negotiator for the City of Seattle, who works on police contracts. It includes a good primer on the negotiation process as it relates to accountability; it notes the City was found out of compliance with the Consent Decree in 2019 because of deficiencies in the accountability process. These deficiencies in accountability were also identified by the public in the hearing before the Council that is held in advance of police contract bargaining.  Negotiations are ongoing with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which requires confidentiality. It also notes the improved process with the CPC, OIG and OPA having formalized roles, as well as the involvement of Council Central Staff that former Mayor Durkan and I announced in 2020.

The Malcolm declaration notes negotiations with the SPMA used this process successfully and concluded in June 2022 with “a new contract that transformed the disciplinary appeals system for lieutenants and captains” by 1) changing the evidence standard to preponderance of evidence; 2) requiring arbitrators to uphold the Chief’s disciplinary decision unless it is arbitrary and capricious; and 3) making disciplinary hearings more transparent and accessible to the public. The agreement also retains full subpoena power for the OIG and OPA and helps OPA manage its caseload by simplifying the 180-day timeline.

The Betts declaration addressed the importance of changes to the disciplinary process yet to be achieved, specifically the standard of review and notes that arbitrators apply a very high, “elevated,” standard of review in appeals of some of the most serious cases of misconduct.

• “I believe that it is essential for the current collective bargaining to simplify the unnecessary complex tolling rules (‘tolling refers to the timeline for investigations necessary to a disciplinary outcome)”
• “I consider uncompromised subpoena authority a top priority in the collective bargaining negotiations with SPOG to ensure OPA has unfettered access to relevant records for investigative purposes.”
• “I believe that it is imperative for the current collective bargaining negotiations with SPOG to adopt that same standard.”
• “The recently executive SPMA contract directs arbitrators to apply a preponderance of the evidence standard in all disciplinary appeals. I believe that it is imperative for the current collective bargaining negotiations with SPOG to adopt that same standard.”

Here’s a link to the Seattle Channel video of the announcement; the DOJ release and the Mayor’s release.

Duwamish Valley Program Update

The Office of Sustainability and Environment has published an annual update developed by their Duwamish Valley Program Team, for the Duwamish Valley Action Plan published five years ago.

It includes updates in seven areas: Healthy Environment; Parks & Open Space; Community Capacity; Mobility & Transportation; Economic Opportunity & Jobs; Affordable Housing; and Public Safety.

Here are a few examples of projects it mentions:

• Connected to the broader Resilience District work, SPU is working to build a water quality facility located in the industrial area of South Park. This water quality facility is anticipated to be located at the Silver Bay property, a 3-acre parcel.
• South Park community members successfully lobbied for $600,000 from the State of Washington to support the Reconnect South Park (RSP) initiative. RSP is currently kicking off the development of a Community Vision Plan and technical studies to explore the potential removal or restructuring of State Route 99 through South Park.
• Community Supportive Space: Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition expects to have a final site design by summer 2023 for the conceptual design of a multi-purpose building on the Unity Electric Site, which is part of the Resilience District work. This multi-purpose building would support affordable community-supportive nonprofit spaces.

Terminal 5 Quiet Zone Construction to Begin

Construction is anticipated to begin the first week of April on the Terminal 5 Quiet Zone. Design was completed in January 2023.

You can sign up for project updates here.

My office requested an update on the shore power infrastructure at Terminal 5, which allows a vessel to plug into electricity while at berth, substantially reducing air emissions.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) reports to our office that the shore power component of their Terminal 5 Modernization program remains under its commissioning phase. They shared a reminder that this is the first international cargo facility in Puget Sound to install a shore power system and has proven to be a complicated technical endeavor. NWSA staff committed to keep us informed as the testing phase continues and expects to share another update within the next few weeks.

Today is Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV)

International TDOV was created in 2010 by trans advocate Rachel Crandall. Crandall, the head of Transgender Michigan, created TDOV in response to an overwhelming majority of media stories about transgender people with a focus on violence. She hoped to create a day where people would celebrate the lives of transgender people, empowering them to live authentically, while still acknowledging that, due to discrimination, not every trans person can or wants to be visible.

The White House’s Proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility says this:

     Transgender Americans shape our Nation’s soul — proudly serving in the military, curing deadly diseases, holding elected office, running thriving businesses, fighting for justice, raising families, and much more.  As kids, they deserve what every child deserves:  the chance to learn in safe and supportive schools, to develop meaningful friendships, and to live openly and honestly.  As adults, they deserve the same rights enjoyed by every American, including equal access to health care, housing, and jobs and the chance to age with grace as senior citizens. 

Keep Masking Up in Healthcare Facilities

This week, multiple healthcare facilities in our region announced they will continue requiring mask wearing in patient care and public areas.  This voluntary agreement is signed by major local healthcare systems, including Providence Swedish, Seattle Children’s, UW Medicine, Virginia Mason, and others.  Their statement reads in part:

“This decision is timely as the region continues to face a burden within the healthcare system and the risk for severe disease associated with infection amongst vulnerable populations is ongoing.  This regional consensus provides a consistent and clear message that these healthcare organizations continue to prioritize the health and safety of both their patients and employees.”

Local health jurisdictions – including Public Health Seattle & King County – issued a statement in support of the continued masking requirement.

At the March meeting of the Board of Health, we heard wrenching testimony from many medically fragile and immunocompromised residents advocating for continued masking.  These are exactly the people who are most likely to require lifesaving medical services – and yet, without required masks, they would be putting themselves at risk to do so.  I appreciate this statement by Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for King County:

“No one should get a preventable infection because they need to seek healthcare. Masking is an important way we can help make visiting healthcare facilities safer for the many people in our community of all ages who are at increased risk for severe infections.”

Fair Chance Housing

Last weekend, I shared the importance of the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance with Michael Smerconish on CNN.  Fair Chance Housing creates…

• Safer communities, because housing reduces recidivism.
• Strong families, because half of our nation’s kids have at least one parent with a criminal background.
• Fairness, because punishing people who have served their time – or were never found guilty in the first place – is at odds with a just society. If you’ve served your time, you shouldn’t still be punished.

Fair Chance Housing prevents unfair bias in housing against renters with a past criminal record by preventing landlords from unfairly denying applicants housing based on criminal history. It is enforced by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.  A recent ruling by the 9^th Circuit Court struck down a portion of the legislation, but the court case continues. I understand the decision, if it stands, would mean landlords could inquire into criminal history. Yet, the City can still prohibit landlords from using that information to exclude a tenant.   

I will be following developments closely in this case.

Housing is more than just a building—it is access to health, safety, opportunity, and well-being.  I would expect anyone in favor of a safer Seattle to support this bill.   If you are interested in reviewing the studies that support the policy as developed in the Fair Chance Housing ordinance, you can find them here.

2022 Annual City Council Report

Here’s the 2022 CIty Council Annual Report. It includes links to updates in a number of issue areas.

Free Tax Help

Taxes are due on April 18^th.  If you earned less than $80,000 last year, you qualify for free tax assistance.   Try these locations in District 1:

• South Park Branch: Mondays between 4:00 and 7:15pm, first come, first served
• Southwest Branch: Wednesdays between 1:00 and 6:00pm, Appointment preferred; drop-in accepted if space is available

Be sure to bring these items with you:

• Photo identification
• Social Security cards or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) for everyone listed on the tax return
• Proof of income, for example, W2s and 1099s (Social Security benefits)
• Official documents on Social Security Administration letterhead
• Medicare card (if Social Security number is followed by an “A”)
• Be prepared to provide information about health care coverage for each person on the return
• Last year’s tax return, if available
• Bank account and routing numbers for direct deposit of refunds, if available

Here are other places to find free tax help:

• Get Free Tax Help | United Way of King County (uwkc.org)
• AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Locator
• https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep

Ask if you’re eligible for the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), a new annual tax credit of as much as $1,200 for low to moderate income people in Washington. Undocumented immigrants and mixed status families are eligible for the Working Families Tax Credit.  You can check your eligibility and apply through the Washington Department of Revenue. Applications for the 2022 tax year will be accepted through December 31, 2023.

Colman Pool Registration

Colman Pool swim registration will open for current scholarship-eligible participants on March 28.  Registration will open for the general public on April 4.

Register here.  Learn more about scholarships (financial aid) here.

Indoor pool registration will begin in May.

Port of Seattle Job Fair in South Park

The Port of Seattle is hosting a job fair, open to the public, focused on maritime and other opportunities to connect Duwamish Valley residents with local employment opportunities.

Contents

• Soaring Overdose Deaths
• App-Based Workers’ Protections
• 988 Implementation
• Nowruz Proclamation
• Impact Fee Projects, Presentations
• Sound Transit Board Action
• West Marginal Way Bike Lane Update
• Have Apple Health?  Time to Reconfirm!
• Seattle Preschool Program Applications Now Open
• Volunteer for Seattle/King County Clinic

Soaring Overdose Deaths

King County reported on a grim milestone recently: so far in the first quarter of this year, 296 King County residents died of drug or alcohol poisoning.  This exceeds the total number of overdose deaths in all of 2012, all in a single quarter.  It also puts us on track to exceed last year’s record 1,003 overdose deaths by more than 18%, if deaths continue at the current rate.

This is driven largely by a dramatic increase in fentanyl- and methamphetamine-involved overdose deaths.

I understand the Board of Health will receive a briefing on this work at our April meeting.  I plan to host a presentation from Public Health on this crisis in a May meeting of my Public Safety & Human Services committee.  We will also hear a report on the City’s plan for the anticipated $14 million we expect to receive from a state settlement against opioid medication distributors.  I appreciate Councilmember Sara Nelson’s work during the budget to request this report, which is being authored by the Human Services Department and Mayor’s Office in consultation with Public Health.  You can sign up to receive notifications of that meeting here.

While addressing this crisis is a primary responsibility of the County, not the city, I know this crisis hits City residents hard.  The City has stepped forward to provide additional funding to help folks struggling with substance use disorder.  It’s important we note this painful moment, as I know every death and overdose means precious lives lost and pain and grief for their loved ones.

App-Based Workers’ Protections

In 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, City Council enacted an emergency Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) for Gig Workers Ordinance. This labor standard established temporary PSST protections for food delivery network companies through the COVID-19 emergency to address the risks faced by app-based workers whose work often involved exposure risks for COVID-19 but were unprotected because Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance provides coverage to employees.  Though there are differing legal opinions about whether app-based workers are employees, the sad reality is that they don’t get many of the protections of labor laws and regulations reserved to protect employees.

On March 15, Seattle City Council’s Finance and Housing Committee received a presentation on  CB 120514, which would adopt a modified version of these standards on a permanent basis. These workers have been heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic and they have made the case that these protections are a necessary step in ensuring that all workers in Seattle are treated with dignity and fair compensation.  The bill passed out of the Finance and Housing committee on Monday, March 19, with three members voting in support – including myself – and two members abstaining.

I am grateful to Committee Chair Teresa Mosqueda for her collaboration with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office and the Seattle Office of Labor Standards to bring this ordinance to the Council for our consideration. I am supportive of this bill as one of the City’s many efforts to ensure protective rights for app-based workers.

The Full Council will vote on this bill on Tuesday, March 28.

You may recall that in 2022, Councilmember Lewis and I introduced, sponsored, and passed the PayUp minimum compensation ordinance. You can learn more about that successful effort here. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to champion legislation giving app-based workers minimum payment, transparency, and flexibility, and look forward to introducing additional workers’ protections soon.

My office is continuing our work alongside Councilmember Lewis and in partnership with the Office of Labor Standards to draft the City’s next step towards protections for app-based workers – an ordinance protecting these workers from unfair deactivations.  In Fall of 2022 my PSHS committee heard from workers about their experiences with unfair deactivations.  A deactivation is when an App-based platform, relying on algorithms, decides to keep a worker off the app, depriving them of their ability to earn a living.  We heard stories about workers being prevented from doing work because of a background check that was found to be based on a different person altogether. We heard about workers being deactivated without even knowing why.

This ordinance would direct the companies that operate the platforms to create and monitor appeals processes, building a more equitable, responsible, and responsive system for workers who may have had their ability to meet their economic needs unfairly pulled out from under them.

Labor protections like these are public health policies, as they ensure workers are able to stay home and not spread contagious illnesses. They are also economic development policies as they strengthen local economies and ensure workers have a secure income to spend in their neighborhoods. They are community development policies as they help workers afford to stay in their neighborhoods, fighting displacement. And they are homelessness prevention policies as they help workers keep a roof over their heads.

988 Implementation

Yesterday, I testified before the Washington State Senate’s Health & Long Term Care committee in support of House Bill 1134, which will strengthen 988 and build a stronger response for folks experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

I wrote about 988 when it launched last year as a new statewide hotline for anyone experiencing mental health distress – or concerned about a loved one – including thoughts of suicide, mental health or substance use crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress.

Now the State is turning its attention to building a workforce that can respond, in real time, to folks in crisis.  HB 1134 will help decrease response times and ensure a highly-trained workforce is ready to take on crisis response jobs.

Here are my remarks:

Good morning Chair Cleveland and members of the committee. My name is Lisa Herbold and I am a councilmember with the city of Seattle, representing the residents of West Seattle and South Park.  Thank you for your leadership so that Washington State was one of only 4 states to rapidly enact a 988 infrastructure bill with a fee included in 2021, to ensure funding would be available for implementation.

The city of Seattle is in strong support of HB 1134; we know that a strong mobile crisis response system and full implementation of the 988 crisis line are critical to the health of our residents.  The 988 system will be a vital piece of a reimagined behavioral health system to ensure that individuals in crisis are receiving trauma-informed and culturally competent care.

We know this approach works, from the experiences of other communities.  I have visited Denver’s STAR program; they send teams of responders to scenes of crisis; in its first 18 months, it responded to 5,500 calls, and never required a backup from law enforcement.

We must ensure that response times will be fast and responders are credentialed and trained. This bill goes a long way in making that happen. 

The City of Seattle has provided millions of dollars in funding for behavioral health crisis response.  I am grateful for the partnership and continued leadership of the State to build out the infrastructure and workforce that will make this possible.  Please pass HB 1134. Thank you.

Nowruz Proclamation

The Council and Mayor signed a proclamation to commemorate Nowrouz, the Persian New Year and proclaim March 20 to be “Day of Nowruz”. Nowruz is celebrated by nearly 300 million people of different faith and cultures across the globe, from Western, central and South Asia to the Caucuses, Black Sea Basin and the Balkans. The proclamation notes that

The Iranian community in Seattle and across the world have demonstrated to uplift the voices of courageous Iranian women and men, and support the ongoing movement of Woman, Life, Freedom

Tens of thousands of Afghans, where Nowruz is also celebrated, have had to flee persecution and over 5,000 of them are rebuilding their lives in Washington state, including in the Seattle area; and

The Iranian-American and Afghan-American communities in Seattle, like many other communities who celebrate Nowruz, consist of inspiring residents who work every day to make our city a better place for all

Thank you to the Seattle Great Wheel, Convention Center and others for commemorating Nowruz with red, green and white lights.

Impact Fee Projects, Presentations

On Tuesday the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilites Committee heard a presentation about the project list for potential transportation impact fees.

The first presentation provides the background and legislative history; the second presentation provides an overview of the rate study. It includes specific projects listed, such as the Madison BRT project, Accessible Mount Baker, and the East Marginal Way Heavy Haul Project, that includes bike lanes that will serve riders from West Seattle who use the Spokane Street (lower) Bridge to access Downtown. The pedestrian and bicycle master plans would also be eligible for funding if an impact fee program were created.

The presentation also notes that low-income housing and early learning facilities can be exempted. Some jurisdictions also exempt ADUs (accessory dwelling units).

If the SEPA appeal to the Hearing Examiner is resolved, the next step would be consideration of a Comprehensive Plan amendment to note this ist of potentially eligible projects. Only then could the Council consider development and adoption of legislation implementing a transportation impact fee program.

A presentation slide showed transportation impact fee rates for other local cities; I requested additional information about the total amount of impact fees (impact fees can also be used for parks, schools and fire). I also asked for information about other mitigation fee programs that other cities in Washington State have in order to fund building affordable housing, like Seattle’s MHA program.  That’s a consideration in total costs for housing production, that needs to be considered as part of any consideration of impact fees. Some other cities have types of fees related to zoning capacity, as well as impact fees.

Sound Transit Board Action

Yesterday the Sound Transit Board took action regarding the ST3 light rail line. A number of options continue to be studied in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), so no final decisions have been made. The Board will select a project for construction after the completion of the Final EIS.

The Board passed a motion proposed by Mayor Harrell as a Sound Transit Board Member. Mayor Harrell’s statement about this motion is linked here.

This motion designates stations to the south and north of Chinatown/International District as preferred alternatives. Those stations would replace stations in Chinatown/International District and Midtown Downtown. This would not affect the West Seattle portion of the line, but rather the line that connects to South Seattle and Sea-Tac (as shown below, there will be three separate lines in the future).

The Harrell motion also touches on finances, which could play a role in the West Seattle segment. The motion references March 23 letters from Seattle and King County that identify up to $400 million in potential funding sources “through various sources including publicly-owned property value capture from increased development, and in-kind contributions.”

This would assist with funding potential costs beyond the current financial plan; some of the refinements, including for the West Seattle segment, could result in additional costs.

West Marginal Way Bike Lane Update

SDOT will be proceeding with construction on Phase 1 of the West Marginal Way SW Safety Corridor Improvements Project, which includes a permanent 0.4 mile protected bike lane along with safety measures for the driveway crossings along the Duwamish Trail.

This project was earlier paused until the West Seattle Bridge re-opened to reduce potential travel impacts along the detour route.

In July 2021 SDOT announced the construction of a new bike lane on West Marginal when the West Seattle Bridge reopened.  Vehicle traffic dropped around 60% after the West Seattle Bridge reopened, to approximately 15,000 vehicles per day.

In January SDOT released a review of traffic data collected on West Marginal Way with a single southbound lane during the time period of October 23 through November 6, 2022, that showed negligible impacts to overall operations of West Marginal Way SW. The two key conclusions were a projection of a 2 second difference per vehicle trip, and a speed reduction from 43 mph to 37 on average.

SDOT will evaluate and monitor the project after installation, and adjust the design if necessary.  SDOT has conducted outreach with the community, business, freight, bike and other stakeholders and collected data before and after the bridge reopened.

A temporary bike lane along West Marginal Way SW has been in place since shortly after the Spokane Street (low) Bridge was closed in December for emergency repairs. 

Have Apple Health?  Time to Reconfirm!

Thousands of people who have health insurance through Medicaid (also known as Apple Health, in Washington) risk losing coverage in coming months – but there’s still time to take action!

Steps to take for Apple Health clients:

• Check your account to make sure your contact info is up to date (at WAHealthplanfinder.org)
• Be on the lookout for a letter or electronic message about renewal
• If you get a letter or message, take action
• If you have any confusion or questions, get help from a Navigator

How to get help from a Navigator:

• Call Public Health for assistance at 1-800-756-5437
• Email questions to chap@kingcounty.gov
• Find in-person enrollment locations kingcounty.gov/enroll
• Make an appointment with a Navigator at kingcounty.gov/outreach (registration form is at the bottom of the outreach webpage page)

Seattle Preschool Program Applications Now Open

The City of Seattle’s award-winning preschool program is available to all three- and four-year-olds living in Seattle, with free or affordable tuition and high-quality learning environments that promote kindergarten readiness.  Learn more and apply here: Seattle Preschool Program – Education | seattle.gov.

Need help?  Email Preschool@seattle.gov or call (206) 386-1050.

Language assistance is available.
የቋንቋ እርዳታ አለ።
提供语言协助。
Kaalmada luqadda waa laga heli karaa.
Gargaarsi afaanii ni jira.
Hay asistencia disponible en varios idiomas.
ናይ ቋንቋ ሓገዝ ክርከብ ይኽእል እዩ።
Có sẵn hỗ trợ bằng ngôn ngữ.

Volunteer for Seattle/King County Clinic

Volunteer needed for the Seattle/King County Clinic! As the first Clinic back since the pandemic we will be meeting years of unmet need, and our ability to serve patients depends on volunteers. Sign up in a high-need area shift, send this to your friends and loved ones, and let’s get this clinic fully staffed!

The Clinic provides free dental, vision, & medical services at Seattle Center from April 27-30. The clinic is open to all; no insurance or King County address is required.

Learn more and volunteer here: Volunteer Information – Seattle Center Foundation.

Contents

• SFD Fire Safety Fair and Free Smoke Strobe Alarms
• New Telehealth Clinic Finder
• Join a District 1 Civic Coffee
• The Pay Penalty for Human Services Workers
• RapidRide H Line Service Begins Saturday, March 18
• Urban Estuary Restoration at Vigor on Harbor Island
• Michigan Encampment Resolution

SFD Fire Safety Fair and Free Smoke Strobe Alarms

Station 37 is hosting a Fire Safety Fair for Southwest and West Seattle residents. The event offers an opportunity for families to meet local firefighters, explore fire equipment like ladder trucks and fire engines, and even join Chief Scoggins for a Firefighter Story Time.

This free Fire Safety Fair will be Saturday, April 1 from 12 PM to 2 PM at Station 37 (7700 35th Ave SW). I encourage District 1 neighbors to attend – I had a wonderful time learning more about SFD’s operations myself earlier this year.

Seattle Fire Department is offering free strobe smoke alarms for d/Deaf and hard of hearing Seattle residents. These strobe alarms detect smoke and carbon monoxide, but unlike traditional smoke detectors that emit a high-pitched alarm sound, strobe smoke alarms use flashing strobe lights to alert people.

Seattle residents interested in a free strobe smoke/co alarm can contact the Seattle Fire Department by emailing fireinfo@seattle.gov or using this online form.

New Telehealth Clinic Finder

If you need sexual or reproductive healthcare services, check out the state Department of Health’s new webpage and tool to find telehealth options at Telehealth Services | Washington State Department of Health.

Telehealth services available:

• birth control refills
• pregnancy options counseling
• emergency contraceptives
• screenings for sexually transmitted infections
• gender-affirming care*
• PrEP for HIV prevention*

*available at some sites if a person has previously received the services from the provider.

Join a District 1 Civic Coffee

Civic Coffee is a monthly event by Seattle Human Services where older people can meet community leaders and local government officials, ask questions and provide feedback.

• Tuesday, 3/21 at Noon: Senior Safety
• Neighborhood House High Point Center, 6400 Sylvan Way SW

Panel discussion on proactive tips and steps you can take to enhance your personal safety in your neighborhood. Live in-person translations in Somali, Oromo, and Vietnamese are available!  Learn more here.

The Pay Penalty for Human Services Workers

At Tuesday’s meeting of my Public Safety & Human Services committee meeting, we were joined by a University of Washington-led team of national and international scholars presenting the results and recommendations of their in-depth research into the pay penalty experienced by anyone working in human services.  Their report, Wage Equity for Non-Profit Human Services Workers: A study of work and pay in Seattle and King County, found that nonprofit human services workers are paid 37% less than comparable workers in other sectors.

This research puts hard data behind the alarms our mission-critical nonprofit partners have been sounding since the pandemic began.

• King County quicky purchased 10 hotels/apartment buildings to house people living unsheltered – but can’t open half of them due to workforce shortages.
• The King County Regional Homelessness Authority has repeatedly told us that among its five largest contracted organizations, there are more than 300 vacant positions.
• During public comment, nonprofit leaders testified that multiple childcare classrooms – including some for infants – are going empty because they can’t find staff to work for such low wages.

I can point to multiple instances in just the past year or two when Council has provided funding for essential, urgently needed work – such as responding to people in behavioral health crises or sheltering people living on the streets – that went unspent because providers were unable to hire staff.   The study was funded by a Council Budget Action I sponsored during the fall budget cycle in 2021, at the request of Seattle Human Services Coalition.  You can view the presentation materials and watch the presentation and discussion.

Fixing a 37% pay penalty is not easy, but the City – and all other public and private funding partners – must take immediate steps to increase wages for these essential workers.  I intend to draft a resolution endorsing the study recommendations and stating Council’s intent to increase human services worker wages by 7% over the next two years.   If you’d like to track this work, sign up to receive agendas for upcoming Public Safety & Human Services committee meetings here: Agenda Sign Up – Council | seattle.gov.

RapidRide H Line Service Begins Saturday, March 18

The RapidRide H Line will begin service on Saturday, March 18, replacing Route 120.

The H Line will bring additional weekday and weekend service and operate trips every 7 to 15 minutes on weekdays from 4:00 AM to Midnight and trips every 15 minutes on weekends from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

I spoke at this morning’s ribbon-cutting event convened by King County to commemorate the start of service; my comments are below.

“Thank you. This is an important day for the Delridge neighborhoods. 

Bus ridership has always been strong along the H Line corridor, as many residents are transit dependent for access to jobs and services. Rapid Ride will bring more frequent and reliable service to the Delridge neighborhoods.

Route 120 carried 1.7 million riders in 2022 and is the sixth busiest route in King County. It has been one of the 10 busiest routes in the Metro system for several years. 

This project is a great example of collaboration between governments, to improve access for Delridge residents to the rest of the region. 

The vision for the H Line project began soon after the Sound Transit Board’s decision to select light rail to the Alaska Junction; Delridge had been the other option. Equity informed the decision to pursue the H Line Project. Delridge, especially the southern neighborhoods, has lower-income residents and a high BIPOC population.

State funding provided an early boost to get the project going.

The County has been adding bus service to this corridor in previous years, some funded by the Seattle Transit Measure. In previous years the City Council has adjusted the criteria for city-funded service to allow for additional service in this corridor. 

The H Line will tie into the Sound Transit light rail line. Once it is constructed, it will connect Delridge residents to the regional rail network. I appreciate the work the Sound Transit Board is doing to consider refinements for the Delridge station, to ensure quick connections between bus and rail.

I thank everyone here for their work on this multi-jurisdictional project and improving transit for residents of Delridge neighborhoods.”

The RapidRide H Line schedule is available here.

Urban Estuary Restoration at Vigor on Harbor Island

This spring Vigor will be completing 2.6 acres of new tidal estuary habitat on Harbor Island near the mouth of the Duwamish River. They are partnering with Long Live the Kings and the University of Washington Wetland Ecosystem team.

Here’s a video about how this work is proceeding.

This project is being done in partnership with scientists at Long Live the Kings and UW’s Wetland Ecosystem Team.  They are conducting pre- and post-restoration monitoring, to assess the food sources and habitat use of juvenile salmon in the new habitat.

Estuaries are critical habitats for young salmon, especially Chinook, to feed and grow as they begin their lives in the ocean. More than 97% of the Duwamish’s historic estuary has been lost to development. Vigor chose to take on this project to seek solutions for how industry and salmon can coexist.

Michigan Encampment Resolution

This week saw significant progress on resolving a longstanding encampment at SW Michigan and 1st Avenue South.  We received this update from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCHRA):

I’m pleased to share with you that KCRHA and our partners at PDA, WSDOT, and the City have completed the work with individuals at the encampment located at SW Michigan and the 1st Avenue bridge. 

As of today, 30 individuals moved into shelter or emergency housing placements. Three individuals who have a shelter match have not been at the location for several days and their whereabouts are unknown. One individual declined services. One individual encountered issues when arriving at their referred shelter location, and that person is not at the program or the encampment. 

Postings were made at the location yesterday that camping and parking are no longer permitted on site, and intensive cleanup activity at the location will begin on Monday.

PDA above refers to “Purpose, Dignity, Action.” They design and implement new approaches to real problems that, in the past, were met with enforcement, prosecution and punishment, but respond better to the coordination and care strategies that their programs offer.  PDA is the project manager for successful, impactful programs like LEAD, Co-LEAD, and JustCARE.

You can read more about this effort: Homeless encampment in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood to be removed | KOMO (komonews.com).

Contents

• Update on Sexual Assault Investigations
• Helmet Use Remains High One Year Post-Repeal
• Progress on Hiawatha Community Center
• Human Services Department Director Nomination
• Be a Film Commissioner!
• Funding Opportunities
• Appeal May Stall Deliberations on Possible Funding to Support Transit, Pedestrian and Bike Safety, and Bridge Projects
• Sound Transit Update
• Women in Public Safety Careers
• Hyundai and Kia Thefts
• Nurse Navigation Line

Update on Sexual Assault Investigations

Many of you will remember reporting last year by Seattle Times, KUOW, and others on the lack of investigations and services provided to adult survivors of sexual assault.  At the time, I appreciated SPD Chief Diaz’s willingness to transparently share data that demonstrated that only 1/3 of sexual assault cases were being routed and assigned for investigation.  Because advocacy and other services were only offered to survivors whose cases were investigated, that meant that most sexual assault survivors never received these vital services.

I wrote about this in detail here, repeatedly met with advocates for sexual assault survivors, and advocated for specific process improvements within SPD and the Human Services Department to improve the experience of survivors.

Last July, Mayor Harrell issued Executive Order 2022-05 directing SPD to conduct various assessments of SPD’s handling of sexual assault cases.  At last Friday’s meeting of the regional Domestic Violence Prevention Council, which I co-chair, we heard an update from Andrew Myerberg in the Mayor’s Office on work accomplished so far under that Order regarding Sexual Assault Unit (SAU) investigations.

In addition…

• SPD has engaged in case review of Sexual Assault Unit (SAU) investigations with a panel of community experts, who issued recommendations to improve training in December. SPD is expected to respond shortly regarding implementation.
• SPD has retained subject matter experts to review the functioning of the Investigations Bureau, and an academic expert to conduct a review of the functioning of the SAU specifically.
• An expert advisory panel was convened in November to inform efforts to support victims of sexual assault and hold offenders accountable through effective investigations.

In last week’s Domestic Violence Prevention Council Community meeting, I raised that community partners continue to emphasize the need for an explicitly outlined system of triage between SPD detectives and King County Prosecutor’s Office (KCPO).  Though referrals to KCPO within 60 days is part of the Sexual Assault Network Protocol, an outlined triage system is a best practice that is used for other major crimes — and should be used for sexual assault cases. A system of triage increases the likelihood of a successful case.

I will continue to follow this work carefully as the various experts and advisory panel weigh in on how SPD can improve its practice to better support survivors of sexual assault.

Helmet Use Remains High One Year Post-Repeal

Last year, I joined fellow members of the regional Board of Health to repeal a law requiring mandatory helmet usage for bicyclists. As I and my colleagues repeatedly said at the time – there is no question that helmets save lives, and everyone who cycles should wear one every time. However, there was considerable evidence that the law was being used as a pretext for law enforcement to stop people, and that those stops were disproportionately borne by people of color and people experiencing homelessness.  I previously wrote about this here.

The Board of Health weighed the harms of over-policing against the very high rate of helmet usage in our community.  Under the leadership of King County Councilmember and Board of Health Chair Joe McDermott, the board voted to repeal the law, while providing funding to distribute free helmets to community members and continue encouraging their use. This week’s Seattle Times reports on a study undertaken by Public Health that observed almost 2,000 people at more than 50 locations and demonstrates that the law’s repeal did not cause helmet usage to drop. In fact, the study found 91% of cyclists wore a helmet. This is excellent news, and I’d like to take the opportunity to remind everyone to wear their helmets when they cycle.

Progress on Hiawatha Community Center

I know how eagerly the community has been awaiting news of the timeline for completing a significant stabilization project at Hiawatha Community Center.  The work was initially delayed by the pandemic, and then by new, federal “Buy American” guidance for infrastructure projects seeking FEMA funding, which put a hold on all pending sub-grants, including Hiawatha.  I provided significantly more detail about the federal delay here and advocated with Representative Jayapal’s office at the time to get this project moving again.

Last fall, we learned the project had been granted a waiver from the federal guidance, which made it possible for FEMA to consider the $500,000 grant application.  This week, we learned from Seattle Parks & Recreation (SPR) that FEMA has awarded Hiawatha the $500,000 grant!  This makes it possible for SPR to move forward with bidding this spring and begin construction in May.  I know this news will be welcome to the many community members who have missed their local community center.  While the project webpage has not yet been updated, you can learn more about the planned work here.

Human Services Department Director Nomination

The Mayor has announced his nomination for a permanent director of the Human Services Department: current acting director Tanya Kim. Per the requirements of Resolution 31868, which lays out a process and timeline for Council’s consideration of such appointments, my Public Safety & Human Services committee will consider the nomination at the April 11^th committee meeting. My office is currently compiling questions for Acting Director Kim’s written response, a usual step in department head nominations.    You can sign up to receive notification of Public Safety & Human Services committee meetings and agendas here: Agenda Sign Up – Council | seattle.gov.

Be a Film Commissioner!

Apply or nominate a colleague by March 12 at Seattle Film Commission – filmandmusic | seattle.gov.

Funding Opportunities

• Attention performers: Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) will waive fees for performance-based art in select Seattle Parks with amphitheaters, including Dragonfly Pavilion in Longfellow Creek, Solstice Park, and Cesar Chavez. Learn more here.  First come, first served.
• 4Culture Project grants are now available in three disciplines: arts, heritage, and preservation. Learn more here.  Information is also available in Español, 中文, Русский, Soomaali and Tiếng Việt. 3/23 deadline.
• Hospitality and lodging businesses that suffered Covid-related losses can seek grants from the State. Go to wahospitalitygrants.com to check eligibility and sign up for the 3/13 webinar.

Appeal May Stall Deliberations on Possible Funding to Support Transit, Pedestrian and Bike Safety, and Bridge Projects

One potential funding source for transportation projects the Council has taken initial steps on is impact fees. Numerous local jurisdictions use impact fees.

In 2017 Council made a commitment that the City would consider including in the Comprehensive Plan a list of priority transit, pedestrian and bike safety, and bridge projects that we could consider funding with a transportation impact fee program if legislation implementing the program was adopted later.

In 2018 a rate study and SEPA threshold determination were issued; the SEPA determination was appealed to the City Hearing Examiner, who remanded the determination to the Council in October 2019.

Council restated that commitment to the public by passing additional resolutions in 2020, 2021, and 2022. As planned, the 2023 SEPA threshold determination was published in February.  Unfortunately, it was appealed earlier this week and will now go, once again, before the Hearing Examiner.

What has kept Council from deliberating about this revenue tool has been successive lawsuits opposing even the recognition of these 25 priority projects as ones that would be eligible if a program were enacted in the future.  The City has been trying hard to identify new revenue in anticipation of a 2024 revenue gap.  Those most benefiting from growth shouldn’t stop civic stakeholders from having this necessary policy discussion.

An updated 2023 rate study has been completed, and includes a map of eligible projects:

The Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will hold a briefing about these eligible projects at its meeting at 9:30 am on March 21^st.   If you are a community member who has worked on one or more of these transit, pedestrian safety, bike safety, bridge, or freight mobility projects, you can show your support for adding these projects to the Comp Plan as possible eligible projects for future transportation impact fees, to allow the Council to discuss later whether to enact a transportation impact fee program.  You can register to speak online as early as 7:30 a.m. and be prepared to speak on your telephone when the meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. For instructions on how to register and call in, CLICK HERE or use this website:

http://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/public-comment

Support at City Hall in person: You can also come to City Hall to speak in person. If you do, try to arrive a few minutes before 9:30 to sign in as a testifier.

Sound Transit Update

The Sound Transit System Expansion Committee met yesterday.

They adopted a motion on the Ballard Link Extension, which runs from Ballard through Downtown to Chinatown/International District. The motion added concepts for further study in those areas, in the context of the preferred alternative.

The committee did not consider modifications to the West Seattle to SODO segment, though the presentation included a slide showing the potential refinements to the stations in Delridge and the Alaska Junction shown in earlier meetings.

The Sound Transit Board will consider the motion on March 23^rd.

Regarding potential additional funding sources, the presentation noted potential additional costs for some refinements, and said “Through coordination with the City of Seattle Mayor’s office and King County Executive’s office, there is up to $400 million in potential funding through various sources including publicly owned property, value capture from increased development, and in-kind contributions.” It said letters of intent were anticipated before the Board meeting.

Women in Public Safety Careers

This week, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, honoring the resilience and contributions of women everywhere.

Seattle Fire Department gave a shout-out to their women in leadership, including former Assistant Chief Reba Gonzales, who now serves as the Interim Director of the Community Safety and Communications Center.

Seattle Police Department has also been highlighting SPD personnel and sharing what women empowerment means to them on Facebook through the month of March, beginning with the esteemed Detective Cookie.

Seattle’s women in public safety service can serve as examples and inspirations for young women across our city as they excel in their fields in service to the community.  This weekend, our public safety departments will engage directly in this work by hosting a Women in Public Safety Career Fair.

The event, hosted by SPD, CSCC, and Seattle Parking Enforcement and their partners will take place at Garfield Community Center this Saturday, March 11; that’s tomorrow!

Next month, King County EMS and Eastside Fire and Rescue will join 11 other King County Fire and EMS agencies for a Future Women in EMS and Fire workshop. The weekend-long series of activities, panels, and live demos is open for women in King County curious about a career in EMS and fire.

Workshop: April 22-23, 2023 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days
Application: https://bit.ly/ESFRFWIEF
 Applications due March 31, 2023
Send questions to: futurewomenems@kingcounty.gov

Hyundai and Kia Thefts

In my regular meeting with Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera, we have discussed strategies to address that, according to community members contacting my office and confirmed by SPD’s crime dashboard, Roxhill/Westwood/Arbor Heights has the highest count of motor vehicle thefts south of the downtown neighborhoods.

Many of the recent car thefts in West Seattle have been of Hyundai and Kia models. It’s been reported that a TikTok challenge has taught people how to break into these older models. Southwest Precinct’s Crime Prevention Coordinator Jennifer Danner sent out a bulletin regarding this crime trend, including information about a software update to help prevent auto thefts in these older Hyundai and Kia models, and some prevention tips:

• Car prowls are crimes of opportunity! Never leave bags/valuables in view.
• Park your vehicle in a driveway, secure garage, or well-lit street parking space.
• Use a mechanical anti-theft steering wheel lock device for your car or truck.
• Consider installing a catalytic converter anti-theft device or cage. Contact your trusted auto shop or dealer for options and costs.
• Keep an eye on your parked car and ask neighbors to do the same.

In January, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison filed a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai for their failure to release and install anti-theft technology. The City Attorney’s Office (CAO) shared SPD’s data showing a 620% increase in reports of stolen Hyundais and Kias in July of 2022 compared to the previous July. These stolen cars have been used in other crimes such as robberies.

That City Attorney Davison acted against these manufacturers has been made possible by the data from owners reporting these stolen vehicles, allowing Seattle to make the argument that the crime data shows evidence of a problem with these models of cars. I have heard people say many times that they don’t file reports with SPD when they are victims of crime, because “it doesn’t make any difference.”  This is a good example of how data from reporting crimes can be used to create strategies specific to the crime.

Nurse Navigation Line

Last month, SFD celebrated the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Nurse Navigation Line. This program connects 911 callers with non-emergency medical issues to a licensed nurse. The consulting nurse who takes the call assesses the caller’s symptoms and can refer them to clinics, telehealth providers, urgent care centers, and offer support for self-care. In this first year of operation, over 7,000 calls were transferred to the Nurse Navigation Line.

The Nurse Navigation Line was created using funding allocated by a City Council budget action passed in 2020, sponsored by Councilmember Lewis, with implementation intended in 2021, but not launched until 2022 under Mayor Harrell’s administration. Not only does this program offer a new service to Seattle, but the program also helps to preserve first responder resources aiding the health and safety of our city.

Contents

• February 28 Public Safety and Human Services Committee Update
• Public Safety and Human Services Committee Work Plan
• Apply for Nutritious Food Funding from HSD – Due 4/11
• Program Outcomes from CoLEAD/JustCARE
• Illegal Dumping Deterrent Camera Pilot Project
• Sound Transit Board Update

February 28 Public Safety and Human Services Committee Update

At Tuesday’s committee meeting, the Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC) presented technical updates they’ve made that will allow for dispatch of civilian responders. Council authorized the implementation of a new protocol software for the CSCC in late 2021. The protocol software, also used by Seattle Fire Department’s dispatching team, will help to standardize follow-up questions and aid CSCC dispatchers in deciding which responders (police, fire, and/or behavioral health specialists) to send out in response to a 911 call. Currently, the software is gathering data for quality assurance and to inform future development of the CSCC, including its capacity for dual dispatch.

During this presentation, I previewed the recent successes of the CSCC. Throughout 2022, CSCC had over 10 position vacancies in any given month.  These vacancies meant that the CSCC had to rely on workers to work more than 1,000 hours (one month even 1,600 hours) of mandatory overtime each month for the first nine months of the year to adequately staff the call center.

As a result of these staffing shortages, in much of 2022, CSCC fell short of meeting the National Emergency Number Association standard that 90% of 9-1-1 calls being answered within 15 seconds and 95% being answered within 20 seconds. In June of 2022, less than 80% of calls were answered within 15 seconds.

Thankfully, through increased staffing capacity and a robust recruitment effort led by then-Director Lombard, CSCC was able to shorten its answering time.  With fewer position vacancies in January of 2023, CSCC needed less than 500 hours of overtime to be able to staff the call center and surpass the NENA 15-second standard with 95% of calls answered within 15 seconds.

On another programmatic note of importance, that we did not discuss in committee, CSCC has also done extensive work with SPD and SFD to update policies regarding caution notes in their Computer Aided Dispatch tools. Caution notes are “pieces of information linked to addresses that assist responding employees by making them aware of potential concerns related to the location.” You may remember, SPD, SFD, and CSCC came under heavy critique earlier in 2022 for the use of these caution notes. Before even the tragic events that led to these critiques, CSCC was working to formalize and standardize the caution notes process, building in multiple approval points and expiration timelines for these cautions.

These changes and more will help the CSCC continue to grow in its partnerships with our other public safety departments by providing adequate and timely information for first responders to be able to find and respond to calls safely and quickly.

The Human Services Department (HSD) briefed the committee about investments that the department will be making, using funds provided in the Council-adopted 2023 budget.  Funding will be made available via their 2023 NOFA or Notice of Funding Opportunities.  They shared more details and this presentation at this week’s Public Safety & Human Services committee meeting.  Here are their expected areas of investment; you can learn more at Funding Opportunities – Human Services | seattle.gov.

HSD has several open Requests for Proposals or Qualifications:

• 2023 Culturally Nourishing Foods for Older Adults RFP, info sessions 3/8 and 3/10, due 4/12
• 2023 Multicultural Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) Services RFP, info sessions 3/7 and 3/9, due 4/12
• 2023 Home-Delivered Meals RFQ, info sessions 3/8 and 3/10, due 4/12
• 2023 Congregate Meals for Older Adults RFQ, info sessions 3/7 and 3/9, due 4/12
• 2023 Food Systems RFQ, info session 3/7, due 4/11
• 2023 Seattle Farm to Preschool Program Coordination and Food Procurement RFQ, due 3/10
• Child Care Facilities Financing (continuous)
• Child Care Nutrition Program (continuous)

NOFAs are typically on a multi-year staggered cycle.  So, for instance, the 2023 NOFA doesn’t include many HSD investment areas.  That’s because those other investment areas are on a different NOFA cycle. HSD is already beginning to plan for the 2024 NOFA, which will likely result in investments in these investment areas:

• Aging and Disability Services – Senior Centers
• Mayor’s Office of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault – Prevention
• Youth and Family Empowerment – Food and Meals

HSD may make additional dollars available during the year, outside of these specific investments.  Stay up to date on these announcements…

• Subscribe to the Funding Opportunities listserv and Human Interests blog – click here and then click “Latest News” in the upper right

• Follow HSD on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn

Public Safety and Human Services Committee Work Plan

The City Council passed a resolution to adopt 2023 work plans for each of the nine Council committees.

Here’s the Public Safety and Human Services Committee work plan. It covers the Seattle Police Department, Fire Department, Human Services Department, Municipal Court, City Attorney’s Office, Emergency Management, and Police Accountability, the Community Safety and Communications Center, as well as overlapping areas such as Alternatives to Current 911 Response, and First Responders.

The Council also adopted a resolution for Statements of Legislative Intent (SLI) included in the 2023 budget, for work Council has requested from city departments. Here are the SLIs for the Public Safety and Human Services committee.

Apply for Nutritious Food Funding from HSD – Due 4/11

HSD just announced new funding opportunities focused on providing nutritious food to Seattle residents.  $1,768,928 will be available through this Request for Qualifications (RFQ), due April 11, in the following service areas:

• Nutritious food sourcing (formerly Bulk Buy);
• Transportation of procured food; and
• Network administrative support.

The initial awards will be made for the contract period of January 1, to December 31, 2024, with a possibility of contract renewal for an additional three years.   These awards will strengthen Seattle’s food systems currently led by the Seattle Food Committee (SFC) and Meals Partnership Coalition (MPC), two organizations that are already working tirelessly to pool resources, share strategies, collect data, and generate collective actions to improve food security and access to nutritious food for low-income families in Seattle.

Find more information and all application materials at Funding Opportunities – Human Services | seattle.gov.  If you have any questions or require assistance, reach out to Tan Mei Teo, Funding Process Coordinator, at tan-mei.teo@seattle.gov

Program Outcomes from CoLEAD/JustCARE

Many of you are familiar with the work of CoLEAD/JustCARE, a program rapidly developed by the Public Defenders Association (PDA) in the early days of the Covid pandemic to help folks living unsheltered, as courts and shelters shut down.  Council provided $5.5M to CoLEAD/JustCARE through 2022, and an additional $6.7M for ongoing operating costs for 2023.

Its work has been under evaluation by researchers at the University of Washington, who along with representatives of PDA (now known as Purpose Dignity Action) joined Wednesday’s Public Assets & Homelessness meeting to share program results with me and other committee members.  You can find full presentations and the UW report linked here.

Wednesday’s presentation highlighted the housing and services outcomes of JustCARE participants: in other words, of the 500+ people served, how many gained temporary or permanent housing, and what other needs were met?

I want to highlight one extraordinary outcome: before enrolling in JustCARE, only 41% of individuals had health insurance.  Afterward, 89% did.  That’s more than double the number and an especially meaningful outcome for a population that reports significant rates of mental health and substance use disorder needs.

The UW research team had previously found that “…JustCARE provided a meaningful temporary respite for participants and for community members alike, and that the well-being of many JustCARE participants improved while they were in JustCARE.”

However, early participants were less likely than later participants to find temporary or permanent housing.  After March 1, 2022, 71% of participants found permanent housing, a huge increase in success.  I dug into the reasons why, and learned that at that point, PDA formalized a partnership with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority that led to many JustCARE participants receiving emergency housing vouchers and priority placement into new permanent supportive housing buildings.

This aligns with what we know: that when safe, adequate housing is offered, folks living unsheltered are eager to move in.  The research found that, “…the vast majority of people living in the encampments in which JustCARE works accept temporary lodging with JustCARE providers (and that JustCARE is able to offer this resource to almost everyone encountered).”

Illegal Dumping Deterrent Camera Pilot Project

Seattle Public Utilities is initiating an Illegal Dumping Deterrent Camera Pilot Project.

The pilot project is for a camera on the 7100 block of Detroit Avenue SW, in the Highland Park neighborhood, just off SW Marginal Way.  This location was selected in part due to the seriousness of the illegal dumping problem there and the relatively low volume of foot traffic. Over 5,000 tires, car parts and household garbage have been removed from this area.

The camera is solar-powered and motion activated and includes audio and flash warnings to discourage any potential illegal dumper. It will store pictures that can be downloaded from the camera if a violation has been captured.

Other cities using a camera for monitoring illegal dumping include Los Angeles, Chicago, San Franciso, and Spokane.

SPU’s RSJ analysis noted the potential for unfairly targeting underserved BIPOC communities and businesses; the SPU response says the “camera will be used as a tool to protect our underserved communities from intentional illegal dumpers who are targeting these areas.”

Spending on removing illegal dumping from the public right of way has increased in recent years, and service requests have been higher during the last four years, with the highest number during 2022:

SPU worked with Seattle IT’s Privacy Team on the privacy issues around the pilot and completed a Privacy Impact Assessment late last year.

The 4^th quarter surveillance technology determination report coordinated by Seattle IT stated that the project meets the definition of surveillance technology but falls under an exclusion criterion, specifically, “Technology that is used to collect data where individuals were presented with a clear and conspicuous opt-out notice.”

Sound Transit Board Update

The Sound Transit Board met last week on February 23^rd.

The meeting included an update on community feedback to the Further Studies that examine potential changes to the preferred alternative. Here’s a link to the presentation, most of which covers areas outside of West Seattle.

Here are links to the slides for West Seattle Community Feeback:

Alaska Junction:

Avalon station:

Delridge station:

In addition, at the end of the presentation, Sound Transit included an End to End Scenario that includes shifting the Delridge station at Andover, the alignment to the south, and a 42^nd Street entrance in the Alaska Junction:

On March 9, the System Expansion Committee will make a recommendation the Board will consider two weeks later.