Lots going on this week.
At Monday morning’s Council Briefing, the Council will hear an update from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations on the state legislative session. Last week’s session was cancelled, so this will be the first update since the firing of Lynn Peterson as Director of WSDOT — which tore open a deep partisan divide in Olympia. The Council will also hear from Seattle Fire Department chief Harold Scoggins, as well as representatives from HSD and King County-Seattle Public Health, on conditions at the “Jungle” encampment. The written report is frightening, and this briefing is certain to provoke a crisis of its own — the 150-acre encampment is a huge public health and public safety risk, but houses hundreds of people with nowhere else to go.
At Monday afternoon’s full Council meeting, the Council members will consider a resolution introduced by Council member Sawant last week “urging the authorities in the Mexican federal government and the State of Guerrero to release Nestora Salgado, and requesting that the U.S. State Department increase its efforts to secure her release in its diplomatic discussions with Mexico. This resolution skipped over committee review and went straight to the full Council, so there is no indication as to how it will be received.
This week’s Introduction and Referral Calendar has several interesting items:
- Two collective bargaining agreements (here and here) between the City and various unions representing City employees. They will skip committee review and go straight to next Monday’s full Council meeting.
- Three bills (here, here and here) introduced by Council member Sawant for her Energy and Environment Committee, which address energy efficiency for non-residential buildings within the city: one that sets up a public web site for publishing energy efficiency test results for buildings, and two that require periodic testing for privately owned and City-owned buildings.
- A renewal for Amtrak’s lease of space in King Street Station; they will continue to occupy the first floor, but the other floors will become available for the City to lease to other interested parties. The new lease would be for 20 years. This will go before the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.
- A bill to create staff positions to implement transportation projects funded by the recently-approved Move Seattle levy: 35 full-time positions and one part-time position. This will also go before the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.
On Tuesday morning the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee meets. The agenda for the meeting has not been published yet, but Council members Herbold and O’Brien have agreed to use this committee meeting a s a timely forum for following up on the situation with the 23rd Avenue construction project and the impact it is having on local businesses.
Tuesday afternoon’s Energy and Environment Committee meeting is cancelled, and has been replaced with a special meeting Thursday at 9:30. The agenda for the meeting has not been published yet; it may potentially continue the deliberations on Larry Weis’s nomination for CEO of Seattle City Light, and/or it may take up the new items on this week’s Introduction and Referral Calendar.
Wednesday morning the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, and New Americans Committee meets, and Wednesday afternoon the Human Services and Public Health Committee meets. Agendas have not been published for either meeting yet. UPDATE: The Gender Equity, Safe Communities, and New Americans Committee meeting has been cancelled.
Saturday at 12:30will be the “We Can End Homelessness” People’s Assembly at City Hall, organized by Council member Kshama Sawant.