Speaker 1: The bill passes and the chair will sign it. The report of the Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee. Please read item five.
Speaker 5: The Report of the Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee Agenda Item five Council Bill 118395 relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the Director of Seattle Public Utilities to accept the grant of a non-exclusive easement within the West Waterway of the dual mish river from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for a city owned sanitary sewer line . The committee recommends a bill pass.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Bagshaw.
Speaker 0: Thank you. This council bill authorizes Seattle Public Utilities to accept an easement from the Washington Department of Natural Resources. It will be for a new sewer line in the Duwamish West Waterway. We previously had a sewer line in this location and the original lease was in perpetuity. But in 2009, our sewer line was ruptured by a pile driving operation. We had emergency permission granted by Department of Natural Resources to repair and to install a replacement sewer line and now a new location. And we've got a 16 inch sewer pipe. It's providing a critical link from the north part of west Seattle. And this will be a 30 year, 20 foot wide non-exclusive easement. And our committee recommends this legislation be adopted.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Questions or comments? Please call the role on the passage of the bill.
Speaker 2: Gordon Harrell. All right. The Carter O'Brien. I Rasmussen. All right. I want back shot. I am president burgess. Eight in favor. Nine opposed.
Speaker 1: The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Please read item six.
Speaker 5: Agenda item six Council Bill 118416. Relating to wastewater services of Seattle Public Utilities and Amending Subsections 21.2 8.04 OBE and 21.7 6.0 40a of the Seattle Municipal Code to adjust the wastewater volume rate and adjust credits to low income wastewater customers. The committee recommends the bill pass.
Speaker 0: Would you also read in Council Bill 118417?
Speaker 5: Yes. Agenda item number seven Council Bill 118417. Relating to drainage services of Seattle Public Utilities amending sections 21.3 3.010, 21.3 3.030 and 21.33040. And Subsections 21.7 6.0 40a of the Seattle Municipal Code to update definitions, adjust drainage rates and provide clarification regarding assignment of parcels to rate categories. Define additional conditions under which rate credits may be applicable and revised credits to low income drainage customers. The committee recommends the bill pass.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Bagshaw.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. The Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhood Committee spent two meetings this past month, plus multiple hours discussing and really digging into the drainage and wastewater rates. You will remember that we passed a strategic plan last year. I want to say thank you to Councilmember Harrell and council members who want for participating in this and asking some tough questions to Seattle Public Utilities. Under this rate change, customers are going to experience an increase in their wastewater fees, which are billed as part of ESPN's combined utility bill and drainage fees. And also they will be billed via King County's property tax system. The typical Seattle single family residential cover customer would have a combined increase of 4.6% over 2016 and 2018. Their monthly bills. They will be averaging about $11.60 per month more in 2018 than they are in 2015. And under the strategic plan that we approved last last year, increases in SP rates combined were going to be a little bit lower. But our overall drainage and wastewater rates are higher than were anticipated for a number of reasons. The first was an unexpected factor that the Port of Seattle made a decision to form their own stormwater utility rate or utility starting in 2016, which will result in a loss of about $4 million per year to Seattle Public Utilities and revenue. And then additionally, we're going to increase our financing of certain capital projects, particularly the one that is going to be a joint project with King County along Balad, and that's called the West Ship Canal Project. What that essentially is going to do is create a linear reservoir for those people that are in the north end of Seattle . And it is a CSO project that we were anticipating. We were anticipating it a couple of years from now. So that's why this is going to come in earlier than anticipated. But the drainage rates are not going to overall as that.
Speaker 3: Would.
Speaker 0: Be too much of an imposition on our ratepayers because our drinking water rates were actually reduced this year. So the change is going to result, as I mentioned, and slightly greater customer equity bills. But we recommend that we proceed and adopt the rates. And I also want to say that our utility discount program, something that we are working very closely on, is going to make a difference for those with low incomes. And I'm working with Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light and our Human Services Department to coordinated this as much as possible for low income residents so that they can also work with the King County and our Orca Lift project. So we're going to coordinate as many of these low income programs as possible, so we recommend this proceed.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Questions or comments on either item six or item seven? Council members who want.
Speaker 0: So as I've mentioned in the previous instances when rate increases have come before council, I think it is important to look at the rate increases even though they may appear small in the context of the overall tax burden. In Washington state, in a state that has the most regressive tax system in the entire nation, which means that working class people pay a far greater percentage of their income in taxes, and that is outside of the fees that they pay for the raiser. They pay for services than the richest. And in that context, even small utility rate increases are unacceptable when there are alternative ways that the council could explore to cover the costs of operation which are indeed necessary. I mean, these these are unnecessary cost that our utilities have to account for. But we should find progressive measures to to account for them. For example, in Seattle City, late in the work in the Energy Committee, we found several ways to reexamine cost allocation that would have resulted in the rates for regular working class people to go down rather than up. However, that was not at that time supported by the majority of the committee. And I would encourage members of the Energy Committee to support such a revised cost allocation mechanism. And I think the council members responsible for the Espoo, Seattle Public Utilities, myself included, should similarly look for different ways to allocate costs so that big business and the rich pay their fair share. So both for this and the next point, point number seven on the agenda, I will be voting no. But as of late, Councilmember Shino, I'm really excited to be able to work on the utility discount program that you mentioned and I think we should definitely go forward on that. And as we've said before, rather than reinvent the wheel, see what has worked at the county level and see if we can use that for the City Council and Energy Committee and the city light and public utility customers as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Any other comments? Well vote first on item six Council Bill 118416. Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.
Speaker 0: GORDON All right.
Speaker 3: HARRELL All right.
Speaker 2: The Carter.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 6: O'BRIEN All right.
Speaker 2: RASMUSSEN All right. So want.
Speaker 0: No.
Speaker 2: Back shot at President BURGESS High seven in favor. One opposed.
Speaker 1: The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Item number seven Council Bill 118417. Please call the roll on the passage of the bill.
Speaker 2: Gordon. But.
Speaker 6: Harrill I.
Speaker 2: Look at it.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 2: O'Brien All right. Christensen I so want.
Speaker 0: No.
Speaker 2: Back shot. I am President Burgess.
Speaker 3: High.
Speaker 2: Seven in favor. One opposed.
Speaker 1: The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Please read items eight through 12.
Speaker 5: Agenda items eight through 12 appointments 57, one, 13 and 80 for the appointments of Rachel Kitagawa Joshi as member Pike Place Market Historical Commission for term of confirmation to December 1st, 2017 and the appointments of RICO, Kieran Dongo and Gloria Skog as members Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Council for term of Confirmation to June 30th , 2018. An Agenda Items 11 and 12 Appointments 84 and 86. The Appointments and the appointment and reappointment of Catherine H. Kraft and Mary McCumber as members. Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Council. For a term of confirmation to November 30th, 2018, the committee recommends the appointments be confirmed.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Bagshaw.
Speaker 0: Yes, thank you very much. The first one with Rachel kid in our host today. She is an architect, loves working with the diverse community and has a strong commitment to preserving the market. And Rachel was with us this past Tuesday and we're recommending her appointment to the Pike Place Market Historical Commission and RICO Kieran Dongo is already on the Pike Place Market PDA. It's a reappointment. He's also an architect with extensive experience and knowledge in the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, and he has worked with community organizations to make a positive impact in their neighborhoods as well. This is his second term. Glorious Couch has been recommended for the Pike Place Market PDA as well. And she's been involved in the market community. She currently serves as the chair of Finance and Asset Management Committee for the PDA. And this will be her fourth term. Catherine Kraft is being recommended for historic Seattle PDA. She has a background in architectural history and cultural resources. She goes by Katie and she has extensive experience working with citizen design review boards and has been helpful on the current council. And this is her second term and Mary McCumber gets the prize here. We're recommending her going back to the historic Seattle P.D. She has served 18 years on the PDA. She was executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council from 92 to 2003 and has been a long time supporter of historic Seattle. So this is her fifth term, and we recommend the appointment and reappointment of these five people.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Questions or comments? All those in favor of confirming the appointments listed in agenda items eight through 12 vote. I oppose vote no. The appointments are unanimously confirmed. The adoption of other resolutions. Please read item 13.
Speaker 5: Agenda Item 13. Adoption of the resolutions. Resolution 31597. Reaffirming the city's commitment to update the comprehensive plan in 2015, introduced on June 29, 2015.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember O'Brien.
Speaker 6: Thank you. So we discussed this a little bit. The briefing. This is a little unusual because it's coming straight to the full council instead of going to committee. And I just want to take a second to explain why that is. The city is required by state law to update its comprehensive plan periodically, and that deadline is June 30th. We had intended to update it by.
Speaker 1: June 30th, but when we filed to do environmental.
Speaker 6: Review on these on the proposed changes, there was a suit filed which has kicked this up to the hearing. Examiner Which means we will not be able to meet the June 30th deadline. And the state had requested that jurisdictions that were not able to do this to take some action to signify their intent, to meet the to complete the upgrades by the end of the calendar year. This resolution identifies the steps we had taken to have this done.
Speaker 1: By June 30th and also the.
Speaker 6: Revised timeline now that this is going to the hearing examiner.
Speaker 1: On how we will complete this by December.
Speaker 6: 31st. I'm also want to just clarify that there are a couple of major updates to the comprehensive plan. One is a set of requirements that are required by the state that's.
Speaker 1: Largely around.
Speaker 6: Enacting new growth targets for jobs and housing in the city, which this will be done.
Speaker 3: By the end of the year.
Speaker 6: The city chooses to go beyond just those simple targets and do a comprehensive planning process, which this time around is being referred to as Seattle 2035. There's currently a draft environmental impact statement out.
Speaker 1: On that process with a final environmental impact.
Speaker 6: Statement due at the end of this year and a longer process that will proceed into 2016. So this year, because of this requirement, the Council is dividing that major update of the comprehensive plan into two pieces, the Seattle 2035.
Speaker 1: Process.
Speaker 6: Which will be done next year, and the specific requirements required by the state which were intended to be done in the next couple of days, but are set to be done.
Speaker 1: By December 31st. Thank you. Any questions or comments?
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So I would move adoption of resolution 31597. Second, it's moved in second. And that the resolution be adopted. All those in favor Vote I II opposed Vote No. The resolution is unanimously adopted and the chair will sign it. Is there any other business to come before the council? We will reconvene at 315 as the Seattle Parks District Board in about 14 minutes. They were adjourned.
AN ORDINANCE relating to Seattle Public Utilities; authorizing the Director of Seattle Public Utilities to accept the grant of a non-exclusive easement within the West Waterway of the Duwamish River from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for a City-owned sanitary sewer line.