It’s going to be a busy week on the second floor of City Hall, but not in the normal way… and by the end of the week the Council may be back up to nine members.
There is a series of meetings this week that are part of the process of filling the vacancy left on the Council when Tim Burgess was appointed Mayor:
- Monday morning at the Council Briefing, the City Clerk will deliver a binder of applicants for the vacant position to the Council members. The plan was for the City Clerk to have verified the qualifications of all candidates prior to delivery, but that depends how many applications were submitted.
- The Council members may individually meet privately with some or all of the candidates this week.
- Tuesday evening there is a public forum for applicants in City Hall. The forum is supposedly being organized by community-based organizations, but so far there has been no information on which are involved in organizing it or what the format will be.
- Wednesday evening, the Council will hold a public hearing to allow members of the public to provide input into the selection of an applicant to fill the position.
- Thursday morning, the Council members will meet in closed, executive session to discuss the applicants.
- Friday afternoon, the Council will meet to officially vote on filling the position. If no candidate gains enough votes to be appointed, the Council will try again on the following Monday and every business day after that until one does.
- The appointed Council member will likely be sworn in immediately after the vote.
In the meantime, Monday afternoon’s Full Council meeting has final votes on several items of note:
- Council member Juarez’s ordinance establishing an emergency moratorium on permitting commercial development projects in the Aurora-Licton Springs urban village.
- A 1-year lease with the Department of the Army for the warehouse space hosing the St. Martin de Porres overnight shelter.
- The annual amendments to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan.
- proposed changes to the city’s design review process.
- The MHA upzone of the Uptown Urban Center, with a companion resolution, and another resolution creating an Arts and Cultural District in Uptown.
This week’s Introduction and Referral Calendar is mercifully short. It includes a re-introduction of one of the three ordinances that make up the short-term rental regulation scheme (i.e. AirBnB rentals) to remove Tim Burgess as one of the bill’s sponsors — Council member Rob Johnson is now the sole sponsor.
Finally: Thursday evening, the Council’s Budget Committee will hold a public hearing to allow members of the public to provide comments on the Mayor’s proposed 2018 budget.