Councilmember Lisa Herbold in her email newsletter to constituents outlines the Seattle City Council budget committee deliberations and her own budget proposals.

"Next week the Council’s Budget Committee will hold the final meeting of the “Budget Deliberations” round on Monday the 24th. This meeting will cover departments and issues not covered this week on the 18th and 19th.

On Tuesday the 25th, the Council will hold its 2nd public hearing on the budget.

The hearing begins at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall; sign up begins @ 4:30. The hearing will advise the Budget Committee Chair (Councilmember Burgess) in the release of his Initial Balancing Package, scheduled for November 2, and any potential budget actions by other Councilmembers, due by the end of the day on November 4 (with a minimum of three sponsors).

Agendas and links to materials are available at the Budget Committee meetings page; here are links to the budget process and schedule. You can sign up for e-mail agenda notices here.

Additional information, including an archive of budget documents from 2009 to the present, is available at the Council’s Budget website. Meetings can be viewed live on the Seattle Channel’s live feed; past meetings can be viewed at the Seattle Channel’s Budget Committee archive.

My Budget Proposals

Below is a list of potential amendments to the Mayor’s proposed budget that I have proposed. I’ve organized them by issues relevant to a. District 1, b. to the committee I chair, the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts (CRUEDA), and c. other issues, though there is some overlap.

District 1 Budget Proposals:

1. Fauntleroy Boulevard Project
City Light has revised the description of the project to allocate $1.5 million for the street light improvements and utility pole relocations recommended by community members as integral to the revised design

2. Lander Street Project
This project is $27.5 million short of the $142.5 million needed for full funding; I’m exploring options for obtaining full funding during this budget cycle for this long-delayed project, which is important for travel between District 1 and Downtown as well as freight mobility.

3. West Seattle Bridge studies
This would continue work begun by former Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, by adding $100,000 to complete the two studies called for in a budget action last year to carry out the evaluations called for in the West Seattle Bridge/Duwamish Corridor Whitepaper to improve safety, incident management, and traffic flow.

3. Age Friendly Community Innovation Fund
This funding would support a grant program for groups in each of the seven City Council districts to apply for up to $25,000 for programs and services based on improving the lives of an aging population.

4. South Park Family Service Center
This funding will support health and human services, a leadership program, and an education program in South Park."

Herbold is also the chair of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee (CRUEDA)

CRUEDA Committee Budget Proposals:

1. Civil Rights Issue - Hearing Loops for Boards and Commissions Room Fund to ensure local and state government facilities are accessible to those with hearing disabilities. The Boards and Commission Room hosts several citizen advisory groups including the People with disAbilities Commission.

2. Civil Rights Issue - Employment and Housing Bias Testing will allow Seattle Office of Civil Rights to conduct approximately 210 employment and housing tests to proactively enforce the City’s anti-discrimination laws.

3. Economic Development Issue - Seattle Legacy Business study funding to for a study to determine the scope and definition of a Seattle Legacy Business program to preserve businesses that contribute to the City’s unique culture and character and are at risk of being lost.

4. Economic Development - King Street Station proposal would require OED report back to Council before funding is released to describe how funding will direct commercial affordability opportunities and resources to low-income entrepreneurs and support a model that serves as a business incubator for low-income immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs by providing education, training, resources, facilities and support.

5. Labor Issues - funding evaluation on Secure Scheduling so academic researchers can complete an evaluation of the impacts of the regulations for the baseline, one-year and two-year periods following implementation.

6. Labor Issues – Office of Labor Standards (OLS) Directed Investigations Program development – to allow for investigations initiated by the OLS Director rather than relying on a specific complaint from a worker.

7. Labor Issues - Establish OLS as a Regulatory Fee-Supported Department – our labor laws should be enforced with a small annual regulatory fee on businesses, saving $6 million in general fund dollars in 2018.

8. Utilities Issues - SPU and SCL Delinquent Payment Policy and Utility Discount Program (UDP) Policy changing the delinquency payment policies to allow for a 50% down payment of past due bills to avoid shut-off and change the income eligibility requirements to specifically exempt Medicare/Medicaid payments as personal income to increase participation in the UDP.

9. Arts funding for Burke Museum, Town Hall, Nordic Heritage, Hugo House Increase funding for each organization’s capital campaign.

Other Budget Proposals:

Community Service Officers funding to develop a Community Service Officer program, allowing for the hiring of unsworn officers with distinctive uniforms to assist regular police officers by performing community services associated with law enforcement, conducting crime prevention activities, improving relations, and developing potential police officers.

District Council funding for meeting rental space, and amend proposed Council Bill to establish Community Involvement Commission to provide a formal role for District Councils in evaluating grant projects at a geographic level, as currently practiced.

Pronto bike-share operations: redirect $600,000 proposed to operate the current Pronto system toward implementing the Bicycle Master Plan, Pedestrian Master Plan, and School Safety projects.

Seattle Police Department hiring: 72 new officer positions are proposed to be created in 2017-2018, to bring the total of new officer positions to 181 during the last few years. My proposal would require new officers to be hired using preference points, as proposed by the Community Police Commission, and include in the City’s legislation proposed to a federal judge (as described in an earlier blog post)

Speed camera revenues (non-school zone) revenues dedicated to pedestrian users: Increase portion of non-school zone red light camera revenue dedicated to school safety to pedestrian uses; currently 10% of camera revenue goes to the school safety and pedestrian improvement fund. This would increase it to 20%, more in line with national best practices, and policy for school-zone cameras.

Mobile Shower unit for people living in encampments including the start-up costs and ongoing provision.

Public Defense Services for tenants would fund a two-year pilot to contract with the King County Department of Public Defense for civil legal services related to housing evictions for indigent defendants.

SCDI funding for enforcement for the move-in fee legislation to answer landlords and tenants questions regarding the new requirements, investigate complaints and respond to appeals in a timely manner.

Restoration of SYVPI Recreation funding for organizations engaged in Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative programming.

Restore Transitional Housing funding in 2017 for 8 homeless programs that were eliminated from Seattle/King County's HUD McKinney application in 2016.

Tenant Landlord Resource Center adopt a Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) asking SDCI to develop a proposal for a public facing landlord tenant resource center, with resource needs identified and in coordination with multiple city departments.

City Auditor - Evaluation of Source of Income and Move in Fee bills the Office of City Auditor’s budget to complete a rental market study for both the Source of Income legislation and the Move-in Fee legislation.

Child Care Space Mitigation fund - to address the displacement of before- and after-school child care from Seattle Public Schools’. The funding would be available for use by the District and to child care providers to make arrangements to keep child care on-site at schools or assist in relocating where providers would otherwise be displaced.

Community Planning Process for Myers Way Properties, Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI): This proposal would request the executive to conduct a community planning process to determine the future uses of the Myers Way Properties. Such uses/purposes would include: green space that can serve to clean the air and water near an environmentally degraded area; protection of wetlands and Hamm Creek Watershed; hill stabilization; natural park space in an under-served area; preschool; expansion of the Joint Training Facility for firefighters to include training for police.

Green Pathways – funding to establish a position on the Workforce Entry and Employment Pathways interdepartmental team to identify how City internships, apprenticeships, youth employment, workplace investment and job training can lead to career paths. The green pathways work will be integrated with this citywide work, and this position will oversee and implement this work.

Animal Control Officers – double our dedicated animal control officers by add two enforcement officers who will be dedicated to better enforce our scoop and leash laws, and ensure public safety in our park system.