It’s going to be another busy week.
Monday morning, the Council has its weekly Council Briefing. They will receive another update from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations on the state legislative session. It will also get a briefing on a resolution introduced this week to formally approve the Statements of Legislative Intent (SLIs) from last fall’s budget session.
Monday afternoon in its weekly Full Council meeting, the Council will take final votes on a couple of ordinances:
- extending the city’s paid parental leave to 12 weeks and making it available to more city employees. Curiously, this bill was co-sponsored by all nine Council members and has skipped referral to committee, instead seeing its first hearing at the full Council meeting. The 2017 cost of the extensions in this bill is estimated at around $3 million.
- correcting some fees charged by the Department of Construction and Inspections (actually lowering them).
This week’s Introduction and Referral Calendar has a few items of note:
- An ordinance that would change the way the Office of Labor Standards is funded, making it at least partially funded by business license tax revenues. Council member Herbold proposed a variation of this in the fall but found opposition among her colleagues since it opens up the possibility that OLS might be over-aggressive in enforcement in order to increase its own budget. This version, however, appropriates the money from business license taxes, not assessed penalties. Of note, the bill is co-sponsored by Herbold, Burgess, Juarez and Johnson.
- An ordinance authorizing an internal loan of $29 million between city accounts as an advance on the affordable housing bond the Council approved last fall. The Mayor’s Office has decided to wait until 2018 to issue the bond in order to better time its entry into the bond market, so this ordinance would allow the investment in affordable housing to move forward now.
- An ordinance transferring ownership of the former Delridge power substation to the Parks Department, so that it can partner with the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association to re-develop it: part wetlands, and part a “permaculture food forest.”
Tuesday morning the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee meets. On its agenda:
- a bill correcting solid waste rates;
- Race and Social Justice Initiative reports from Seattle Public Utilities and the Office of Economic Development;
- A briefing on the non-profit Scarecrow Project.
Tuesday afternoon, the Energy and Environment Committee meets. The agenda has not been published but will likely include the aforementioned ordinance transferring ownership of the former Delridge power substation.
Wednesday morning, the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee meets. The agenda has not been published, but the ordinances on funding the Office of Labor Standards and the inter-fund loan of $29 million for affordable housing should be on it.
Wednesday afternoon’s Education, Equity and Governance Committee meeting has been cancelled.
Thursday morning the Parks, Seattle Center, Libraries and Waterfront Committee meets. The agenda for the meeting has not yet been released.