♪♪
-Hello. I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
The Seattle City Council has just wrapped up
its budget process,
patching up a deficit of more than $250 million.
How'd they do it?
And why did one council member
vote against the final package?
Plus, how has Seattle responded to the biggest power outage
the city has seen in two decades?
And, what impact will a new member have on the city council?
I'm with council member Bob Kettle
and outgoing council member Tanya Woo
to answer these questions and the ones you're sending in too,
next on "City Inside/Out: Council Edition".
-I do think it's fiscally responsible.
For one, we have the deficit,
and so we have to address the deficit
and we have to have that flexibility.
-A lot of people who are in 12th and Jackson
also are at 3rd Pike and Pine, and Belltown --
same group of people travel back and forth.
We cannot tackle this whole issue by only tackling one area.
-All that and more,
coming up next on "City Inside/Out: Council Edition".
♪♪
Hello once again. I'm Brian Callanan
and welcome to "City Inside/Out: Council Edition".
This month I have with me Council member Tanya Woo,
Seattle's Position Eight Citywide Council member.
Thank you very much for being here.
-Thank you for having me.
-We also have with us Council member Bob Kettle,
who represents District Seven from Downtown up to Magnolia.
He's also the council's public safety chair.
Good to see you as well.
-Thank you for having me again. Appreciate it.
-Let's do this thing. And Council Member Woo
I want to talk about this because
we're recording this at a time in late November,
after a bomb cyclone
that knocked out power to more than 114,000 people in Seattle,
the biggest outage for the city since the windstorm of 2006.
You chair the committee that oversees Seattle City Light.
I just wanted to talk about how SCL has been responding to this
and what you want to tell people who might be bracing
for more storm activity here in the late fall and winter.
-Yes, Seattle City Light is an amazing group.
They were preparing for this storm event, um,
and we're right away able to deploy crews out.
Um, I was getting notifications all night on different areas
that were experiencing power outages,
and -- and people can go to the website
to find out when their power will be restored.
Um, and so I believe that crews are still
working around the clock to get everybody back online.
-Yeah, yeah, it's going to be something that people
need to be careful for, I know in the months ahead.
I just wanted to make sure I cover that,
'cause I know a lot of people have been leaning on
city resources for that over the past several days here.
But I did want to move on to the budget that you just approved,
along with the other council members,
a short while before the recording of this show.
And one big issue was how the council modified
the JumpStart Payroll Tax,
which was originally supposed to go towards priorities
like affordable housing, environmental programs,
community development.
In this budget, the council changed the rules a bit
so JumpStart money can go towards
any general fund priority for the city going forward.
Now, in looking at this,
Council member Strauss, the budget chair, said,
This move helps preserve as many city programs and jobs
as possible in an uncertain economic time."
-We all thought that today in 2024, as we're looking
to '25 and '26, that we would be out of the economic --
the downstream economic impacts from Covid-19.
The fact of the matter is that we are not out of the storm.
We are in the eye of the storm.
-Then there was Council member Morales,
who voted against the final budget
based on her concerns about JumpStart.
She had another view.
She said, "Taking away the guidelines
that were intended to focus JumpStart
on some major city priorities
is not what fiscal responsibility looks like.
-It doesn't put any guardrails on whether --
how much general fund to be spent or does it --
nor does it make a commitment to allocate resources
for the original things, like affordable housing
and community development and green New Deal
and economic revitalization,
which we all know are very important.
-Council member Kettle, talk to us
about your vote to support this change to JumpStart.
And how do you answer critics who say
this move is not fiscally responsible?
-Well, I do think it's fiscally responsible.
For one, we have the deficit.
And so we have to address the deficit
and we have to have that flexibility.
And what we need to do,
and like what I've been doing on public safety
was to engage the executive to -- to ensure
that those priorities are being addressed,
and then once done, then we can follow up as needed.
And by the way, JumpStart still has those,
um, parameters in terms of the allocations.
And that hasn't changed except for we've added two more --
you know, general fund and the reserve.
The reserve is good governance. -Okay.
-That is fiscally responsible.
And for the general fund,
everybody seems to think like it's just public safety.
But no, the general fund is paying for those
kinds of programs, whether it's an HSD,
Human Services Department, and others, Housing.
So it's not, you know, one thing
that we have to look at, and separately too,
we also have to look at the past five years.
Things have changed, like the housing levy.
That is huge. So we have to look at
the whole thing comprehensively,
not just one single tax, but everything in a comprehensive way.
-Okay. And I guess just people who said we had these original,
uh, guidelines here, and -- and the city's
not following them any more.
I think that was one of the critiques.
How do you respond to that piece of it?
-Well, we have to respond to the needs of the day.
You know, we cannot be locked in fully
and -- and they're still there, so,
but we have to have that flexibility because things change.
We're coming out of the pandemic.
We're not where we were in, you know,
when it was first enacted.
And, you know, and this is something that we've seen each year
of its existence too, by the way.
-That's true. The council has taken money from it.
This rule change was something that was a little different.
Council Member Woo, let me come at this
a different way with you.
Another council, or -- another challenge, I should say,
with the relying on the JumpStart tax so heavily
is that it can be volatile,
comes from bigger businesses with local payrolls
of over $8.5 million.
Stock market's doing great,
as it has over the past couple of years.
That means a lot of money comes in.
It's actually more than what the council
had anticipated with JumpStart.
But when things are on a downturn,
this JumpStart tax revenue would be lower.
So, what are your thoughts on relying on JumpStart
so heavily now and potentially into the future
for Seattle's budget?
-So I really want to stress that, you know,
we haven't done anything different
than previous councils.
Previous councils have always
used JumpStart to supplement, the general fund.
And I think, you know, this is many of council members' first budget.
And I think this is a whole learning process for everybody.
And so I think going forward now,
in the next couple of years,
just really examining what we did
and looking at how we could modify that for the future.
And so I think, while we did learn a lot
and many of us have only been in office for about ten months,
I think this will help inform our decisions for the future.
-Okay. And in terms of new revenue that might be coming in,
I know the council also said no to a capital gains tax
that could have brought in 16 to $51 million per year.
Why did you not support that?
Could I talk to you about that, please?
-Yes, I personally did support it,
but my issue with that was that it was -- this was done
during the budget process.
I think this needs to go through the legislative process
where we can have ample time for communication,
information, outreach and engagement
to allow for the public comment period
um, to be able to get fully informed about this.
I mean, having it go through budget in such a quick process,
even though this is currently a state model.
-Right. -Um, I think we --
we really need to look at it in the longer term.
Um, with emails I got,
I got like 122 emails regarding the, um, this tax
and overwhelmingly people did not support it,
which is really interesting to me.
I think to be exact 122 emails.
Um, 94 said no, 28 said yes.
And so I think there needs to be more time for these discussions
and to fight whatever miscommunication is out there.
-Okay. I know, too, on the flip side of this,
I'll go to you on this Council member Kettle,
when it comes to legislative matters statewide,
there was that measure there that talked about
a capital gains tax going forward,
and we should stop it at the state level.
People overwhelmingly said, "No, we want to keep
a capital gains tax around.
I know there was a lot of talk about timing.
"Is this the right time for a capital gains tax
here at the city level?"
If you look at those statewide numbers, it's like,
well, maybe it is the right time.
But I know there was some concern about this too.
Talk to me about the capital gains tax
and why you voted the way you did.
-You know. Sometimes it's not about what we're doing,
it's about how we're doing it.
One thing that came out of this experience for me
is that doing things last second
as part of the council budget action,
you know, amendments on amendments,
is that's seat-of-the-pants decision making.
We would be so much better off
of having informed decisions based on great committee work.
This is something that I was really doing on public safety.
So I can speak to, like CCTV,
because we worked that through
and that engagement through the committee process
where you bring people in the brief,
you have the give and take,
you have council members doing amendments,
engaging with SPD or other departments --
that whole process informs.
And a lot of the things that we were doing
in this council budget piece,
because things were coming in last second
or from different angles
that didn't have that committee backdrop.
We were less for it, I think.
I think we should -- you can't escape it fully,
but we should look to drive on, you know,
tenant service, tenant, landlord,
you know, all these kinds of issues, you know
we should look, including the taxes piece
through the finance committee.
We should be looking at these things
and working them through committee
because that gives better informed decisions
and I would say good governance.
-Got it. So maybe some more study
is needed for something like this.
Is the council open to the idea of more revenue?
Progressive revenue? I know that's a big decision
or a discussion that happened this -- this time too.
-Quite possibly. But, you know, at the same time,
in terms of structural reform,
we have to look at the base pieces too
and how can we ensure that they're strong.
That seems to be -- all this talk about progressive revenue,
and I'm not saying take it off the table, but
what I'm saying is don't lose the forest from the trees.
And it's like, "Hey, we have these major building blocks"
and why are they -- -Sales tax, property tax, etc.
-All the above. And you know, this goes to having a strong Downtown.
The Downtown is the engine for Seattle.
Seattle is the engine of the region and for the state,
you know, don't cut your nose to spite your face
by focusing over here without focusing due attention.
Yes, attend to that. -Right.
-But you have to deal with the basics as well,
and it has to have that balanced approach.
And that was the one of the frustrations
that came out of this process for me.
-Yeah, yeah, and I wanted to talk about this
just to wrap up with this big picture piece here,
Council member Woo.
In being fiscally responsible,
I know the council went in thinking,
"Alright, maybe there's a bunch of cuts to be had."
But when it came down to it,
it was about maybe $8 million
that was cut out of an $8 billion budget.
So, 0.1% of that.
Did you want to cut more? Or, can you help me with that decision?
Because some people were thinking maybe cuts would be
greater and the council wanted that,
but that's not exactly how it turned out.
-Well, when we talk about cuts,
it's more like how do we move money around?
Um, and I think the mayor tried to do that exercise
where he asked all departments what it will look like...
-If you cut "x" percent. -Exactly.
-Yeah. And then he made a decision
and passed down a balanced budget to us.
And so we really examined this and really for us
moved money around to fit -- make sure we fit our priorities.
Um, and so now that we've been through this budget process,
I think, and have gotten a couple of months under the belt,
hopefully going forward, we are mindful
and focusing the whole year on the next budget.
-Got it. You had something.
-I was going to say the committee piece too
can look at these organizations,
'cause a lot of it's salary.
But we also have contracting out.
It's like who's doing the job and who's doing it well.
If they're not doing it well, "Hey",
but if you're not doing that review process,
you know that's a challenge.
And, by the way,
look at the, uh, Seattle Housing and Investment plan.
-Okay. -Where we're looking to have
OH work -- and they've done a lot of this work.
So I'm not -- this is not a negative of OH.
But we need to have OH go through the process
like SDOT did with the Seattle Transportation Plan.
We need to have it all out there in terms of
the money's coming in to different programs,
but -- and the different types of housing
and how we got our plan in the comprehensive way.
So then people can say, "Hey,
I understand that we're not doing this,
but because we're doing this over here",
and they could see the trade-offs,
and but if everything is just happening in isolation,
next thing you know, you have citizen initiatives coming in,
which is another angle. -Right.
-It creates confusion. -Yeah.
-So the Seattle Housing Investment Plan could be
a big thing that comes out of this budget process.
So five years from now let's have a discussion about it.
-Okay. [ Chuckles ]
That's a little ways down the line.
Was -- Did this budget process need more transparency?
I know there was some concern about that too.
Any thoughts about that moving forward?
Could the -- Could the process have been more transparent?
What do you think?
-I think the transparency concern was revolving
around the last-minute amendments
and walk-on amendments and not having it actually be on online
so that viewers and people can actually read and watch them.
And so I think that's the concern with that piece.
Um, and so I think we could definitely do better
in terms of making sure that these things get in early
and on time and -- and more collaboration.
And I think part of it's also finding co-sponsors to make sure
that they get to that level.
-Yeah, important part of it.
Any more thoughts on transparency?
-Well, that's a very good point Council member Woo makes.
In fact, uh, Chair Strauss was saying,
"Hey, done with amendments."
So I looked at him on the dais.
I said, "Okay, I'm done." And so when it came up again,
I said, "No."
And to be consistent and to be fair to the process
and fair to the transparency point that you make,
you know, the last second pieces of this
really should be something to be avoided.
You can't get away with it 100%. -Yeah.
-But a little bit too much. -Understood.
I want to talk about some of the budget priorities
you personally pushed for in this session.
Council member Kettle, you had amendments talking about
funding for police overtime,
support for community-based public safety programs
like We Deliver Care, hiring new city attorneys.
Can you give us a brief look at your top priorities,
maybe your overall approach to the two-year budget
and what you were able to get through?
-So my approach was based on my strategic approach, generally
because budget should really reflect
what you're looking to do.
So obviously public safety is number one.
And I was working through the departments
in terms of we have to have a functioning
criminal justice system.
We have to have these attorneys,
the prosecutor, the two A --
the assistant city attorneys, ACAs,
uh, for the civil division,
Um, OEM's really important --
emergency preparedness.
We were just talking about bomb cyclone.
-There we go, yeah. -We have to build those things up.
So public safety was huge.
And on that point about this Seattle police overtime --
that was highlighted but was not highlighted
was the companion piece where 6.5
was taken out of the two years.
So actually that was a net $3 million savings.
But it was always presented as I was adding 10 million in.
This is working together in a collaborative way
with central staff, highlighting a--a mistake, if you will,
and working it and fixing it.
And in doing so, we actually gain $3 million
as opposed to dumping $10 million,
which is how it was perc-- you know, portrayed in the media.
-Okay. -And I just wanted to highlight that.
Um, next is like I import economic pieces
and then also the district,
but also -- but in a good governance way.
It's like the Garden of Remembrance.
We needed to do work on that.
We shouldn't wait till the whole thing --
the membrane with the -- in the garage below it.
We should take -- understand what's happening
'cause, you know, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Getting the MOHAI kicked off and then also Portal Park.
These are important pieces,
but doing it in the smart, right way
where we're looking to start the process early
so you can make smart decisions.
-Thank you. Council member Woo, I wanted to talk about
some of your top priorities
and summarize, if you can, briefly,
what you were able to push through there.
-Yes. And so 12th and Jackson was a huge priority of mine.
It's -- especially after the stabbings
that happened a couple of weeks ago.
Um, and so really wanted to make sure
that there was a constant response for that area.
I know the mayor's office has reacted.
Um, restoration teams there to help with cleaning,
emphasis patrols. -Right.
-Which we're really thankful for, um,
in terms of how we look at Downtown activation.
But the same time, um, I believe there needs to be
that human aspect where we we deliver care, lead,
um, in place, and possibly helping to bring back
safety ambassadors in that area
um, based on the work that Dottie Chen,
our community protector, used to do.
And so I wanted to make sure
that that was included in the budget,
to make sure we are able to tackle
and help people at 12th and Jackson, through Pike and Pine
and all the areas that are affected.
I mean, these communities are surviving.
They're not thriving just yet coming out of the pandemic
and heading into into...
into FIFA world soccer, wanted to make sure
that there is opportunity there.
Um, also, I was really excited to help, um, co-sponsor
with council member, Council President Nelson,
on mobile treatment vans for those areas
to be able to dispense addiction medication when needed.
And so I think, you know, we always look at Little Saigon
and remember how it used to look five years ago.
And I think we could definitely get back there.
We just need a little more care and attention to that area.
-Thank you. And I wanna jump a little bit further
into Chinatown-ID, when it comes to public safety.
So many of us have seen this police body cam footage.
Sergeant Sullivan with the Seattle Police Department
chasing down a suspect in the CID
who randomly stabbed ten people
over a two-day period in November.
You mentioned that earlier.
Not long after that, there was a shooting in the CID.
A woman trying to help a friend
close up business for the night was robbed.
Serious condition after the shots fired.
I just wanted to focus on this a little more tightly if I could.
What do you want to say to the Chinatown-ID community
about the violence that has been happening there
and what the city is doing to help?
-Yes. This is not the norm.
This cannot -- and we will not accept it.
And I think now that there is attention placed in that area,
there are resources coming.
The area has been under-resourced
and marginalized for too long.
And so I think now we're starting to make sure
that intention is being placed, especially in 12th and Jackson,
as looking at holistically,
because a lot of people who are in 12th and Jackson
also are at 3rd Pike and Pine, and Belltown.
It's the same group of people travel back and forth.
We cannot tackle this whole issue by only tackling one area.
We really not -- need to look at all these different areas
and try to help people, get people inside,
but most of all help the small businesses,
families, um, also the residents.
There is 4000 people who live in the Chinatown International District area,
especially our elders, our seniors.
And so how do we make sure we have the resources
to tackle this and --
and allow for this area to be able to thrive again?
-Thank you. And Council member Kettle,
I want to talk about this a little bit further,
bouncing off what Council member Woo said.
I know you've been working with the mayor
on this Downtown activation, uh, plan here,
really trying to make sure
that there's a team of people out there --
uh, Downtown Activation Team, I know it's called --
working with, uh, the Downtown Seattle Association.
It's mid ambassadors, 15 departments from the city.
Can you talk about this and how this is going to be different
than emphasis patrols, etc,
that the city has had in the past.
How do you make sustainable change
when it comes to public safety with this?
-Um, I think it's a great program.
Obviously I've been briefed in and understand it fully.
Um, can I just say, too, that this work
in Chinatown-ID is gonna continue as we move forward.
And I'm going to do that as chair of the public safety,
because obviously we're having a change in the council,
but we're gonna do that.
I'm going to be working with, um,
my colleagues on the council
to ensure that this area is taken care of,
because there is this change.
And by the way, I don't say 3rd Pike and Pine anymore.
I say 3rd Downtown Belltown,
because that's a misnomer, 'cause the Belltown, you know, neighborhood
needs it as well. -Sure.
And to your question regarding the debt,
to me, it's like a joint task force,
you know, and we need a joint task force commander to ensure
that all the different elements of the departments of the city
are working in unison and working towards that common goal
and to ensure that they're doing it.
So, I kind of call it the, you know,
JTF Operation Restoring Community.
-Okay. -And, um -- and so what they'll do is,
you know, link in, ensure that --
'cause there's so many pieces --
SPU, you know, public utilities,
uh, SPD, fire,
you have all these different pieces that come together,
but they have to come together in a coherent, smart way.
And this is where having the restoration director,
as it's called, come in and to be that kind of
joint task force commander, using my military background.
Um, but it will be -- make it more effective
and also give it the flexibility.
This is the challenge that we had,
like with the Third Avenue process,
like We Deliver Care, you know, as we work areas, things move.
And so then all of a sudden Chinatown-ID was having problems
and then Belltown was having problems.
So having that flexibility to, you know,
to move between and adjust as things,
conditions on the street change, is going to be a big change
and it's going to be, I think, very effective.
-Can I bring in the whole idea of
providing surveillance cameras?
Because I know the council talked about this last month,
passed along a measure here
that some people were very excited about.
Some people, like the Office of Civil Rights, at the city level, said,
"I don't know if this is going to work."
Talk to me about surveillance cameras,
'cause they're going into Chinatown
as well as Aurora and Third Avenue, too.
Is this going to help? How is this going to help?
-Yes. Talking to many of the businesses
and residents in that area, they want it.
And who am I to deny them that?
And so I think they're desperate to try anything
and to see if it'll help.
And if you walk around that area,
you'll see there are already cameras there.
Many of the business owners spent thousands of dollars
to place these cameras.
And so I think having a unified, um, camera system
and seeing how it operates and how it will work
will be helpful for that community
and for that -- for the businesses
and the residents in that area.
-Council member Kettle some thoughts on surveillance.
-Um, one is, um, as it grows to the budget --
Council member Moore voted in a plus-up for CCTV.
And so there's commentary about that.
But you know what --
that was backstopped by
committee work with our -- with our CCT, uh, legislation.
Where in there we talked about expansion of Aurora
and that had to be paid for, so
there was a baseline for her budget action.
-I see what you're saying. -Back to my earlier point.
-Yeah. Okay.
-And the CCTV, it's based on data,
you know, in terms of where it's going in terms of,
you know, working with the city attorneys
and the police department.
So it's for the hot spots.
Here's the big thing --
the Real-Time Crime Center.
That's what's going to make the big difference.
And on top of that, linking in the public facing pieces of businesses.
You've seen it with some businesses.
They have the cameras in the front,
on the sidewalks, in the street.
Linking that in is going to be such a huge piece.
So we can move quicker, better, faster to maybe get --
address the crime in action
or to have better, quicker, better resolution, you know,
in terms of identifying the person, arresting,
and then, you know, addressing that
through the criminal justice system.
-Thank you. I'm gonna move on to something else here.
I'm gonna pick up the pace ever so slightly if I can.
Council member Kettle, I got an email in from a viewer, Robin,
who wanted to know this.
Robin, thanks you very much. Thanks for the question.
Some thoughts there, please.
-Well, this is transportation levy.
You know, we just had that pass -- 1.55 billion.
There's a lot of pieces to that.
And that's a big focus, the Vision Zero,
but also the safe routes to school.
These are the kinds of things that I did in community
in Queen Anne, much like Council member Woo did in her community,
is trying to make things safer,
to include the pedestrian and traffic safety.
We did that a lot in terms of -- particularly around schools
and areas where children would be,
and so we just need to continue to do it.
There's been a lot of work.
There's still more work to be done.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
Council member Woo,
I got a very interesting one, uh, here from Eric,
had this idea, paying businesses
to open their restrooms to the public.
Hear me out -- this is what Eric is asking.
I know some cities in Europe have this practice,
but I wanted to throw this out there
because I thought it was an interesting question from a viewer.
Incentivizing businesses to have restrooms open to the public.
What do you think? -Oh my God,
that is a great question.
Um, well, I think it depends also on the area.
In certain areas like, uh, 12,
Jackson, King, Lower 3rd, 3rd and Belltown, might be,
um, might be tough areas, especially.
Um, and so I think this is a decision
that individual business owners will have to examine.
I know for -- as a business owner, um, you know, it's --
we--we--we take it by case by case basis.
-Yeah. -Um, but it's--it's always
a really interesting thing
to handle too, because, you know, um,
in certain areas where there are historic areas,
the pipes are also historic and making sure that, you know,
we have the ability to be able to allow for that.
-Yeah. -And so I think that's something
that we should definitely explore.
-Alright. -Great idea.
-Thank you for letting me put you on the spot.
And Council member Woo, I wanted to make sure
we pointed out, as we start wrapping up,
where we are recording the show just days
before your term -- as term in office is set to end.
You were appointed to this job in January,
lost out on your election bid to Alexis Mercedes Rinck
here in November, and it's an odd situation for
the Position Eight seat for a four year term.
It's back on the ballot again next fall,
along with the Position Nine seat
and a few other positions for the city.
I want you, if you could, to reflect on your term
and answer this viewer, please.
-Oh, my goodness. -Some thoughts out there.
What do you have for us? -Oh, no.
It's been an honor and a privilege
to be able to serve in this role for the last ten months,
and to be able to allow for the voice of many communities
that I serve and--and are part of.
And it's been an absolute honor
to be able to serve amongst amazing colleagues.
Um, and it's been a very collaborative process,
and we were able to get a lot done
in the last couple of months.
And--And to have shared values,
to be able to serve people.
Um, and, you know, I'm going to take a break
and take some time to myself
and just really examine what I want to do next.
I think, you know, there's a lot of opportunities
and, um, and--and but most of all,
you know, I started off as a grassroots advocate.
That is where I want to go back to,
to really fight.
There's a lot of things that need to be done.
I mean, we're expecting an increase in anti-Asian hate
because of the national political climate.
Um, and so there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
And I plan to keep on fighting.
-Okay, it doesn't sound like you're gonna be
running again anytime soon.
I want to make sure I cover that part with you.
Is that true? -Oh, we'll see, I don't know.
-Ah! Okay. That's--That's generally the way
it's done with these kind of questions.
-Yes. -Council member Kettle,
your thoughts on working with Council member Wu?
You were one of the votes to appoint her to the council
not too long ago. -Uh, it's been fantastic.
And not just the vote -- I nominated her,
and as I said on the dais, the reason why is that
because she has that experience of fighting for her community
and not just kind of like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah",
actually banging her head against City Hall's walls,
you know, and that frustration.
And the county too, by the way. -Yeah.
And, you know, that gains a certain perspective
and a desire to work the issues.
And that's what I loved about her positions
and how she approached the job.
And-- And she's been a great partner
in all the work that we've been doing this year.
You know, we've got 11 public safety bills done this year.
Some say, "Oh, we're not doing this and whatever."
No, we've been major changes like in public safety
and other areas to --
a massive transportation levy, for example,
and the transportation plan. -Yeah.
-And, um, and she's been there with us,
working these issues, adding her voice.
Can I just add too?
When I sit there on the dais
and I see -- I've been in Chinatown with her
and I see her with community,
and she brings that perspective life,
of the Asian community, which is nearly 20% of our city.
And I see it also with Council member Hollingsworth,
at her Urban League breakfast this morning.
I've been in the CD with her. -Sure.
-And she has that experience and that ability to connect
and to represent,
and that's going to be something that we're going to lose.
But as I've told her,
I'm definitely going to be looking out
for Chinatown International District,
at least from the public safety perspective.
-Sure. -And, um, and I really value that insight
and that -- and that, um,
that support that she gave to all of us, really,
not just me, but all of the council members.
-Can I ask you, just to wrap up here, Council member Kettle,
what's it going to be like to work with a new council member
in Alexis Mercedes Rinck?
Her politics are slightly different,
I could argue from the moderate majority
that's on the council right now.
What's it going to be like?
What's that fit going to be like?
-I think it's -- I think it will be fine.
Um, obviously we're all Democrats.
It's always good to remind ourselves of that.
I've spoken to her, and obviously she's going to be
taking on the responsibility.
Big arts and culture --
that's big in District Seven, and for our city.
City Light, we just talked about that.
So she needs to engage on that.
And then also the environment --
sustainability... -Sustainability, right.
-...tree canopy, all those issues.
So I'm definitely going to be engaging
with Alexis on these issues.
And I said as such to her directly.
And so, you know, this is about being collaborative
and working through and bringing the different pieces together
to get a better end result.
-Okay. Thank you both for your input.
Thank you very much for your service
to the city, Council member Woo.
And we will see everybody next time on Council edition.
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