♪♪
-Okay. Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for being here.
It is very apparent how much light rail means to this city.
Um, and I want to share a few thoughts,
and we're going to hear some --
hear from some very gifted speakers.
And you'll sense their passion about our discussions
we're having very recently.
Now, I guess I'll ground us in a little history to talk about.
You know, we would have had light rail here now,
as you may recall, 40 years ago,
had the voters continued with the Forward Thrust initiative.
And I think it's very important to ground us,
because what we're doing now,
we do not want to find ourselves in that predicament again.
We cannot make the same mistake today.
We know that the voters approved, uh,
the significant expansion back in 2016.
And quite honestly,
we have a responsibility to deliver on that promise.
As we grapple with the cost increases
that we discussed at last week's meeting,
we need to be very transparent about the realities
we're confronting in our path forward
with estimated costs for ST3 program
to have increased 20% to 25%.
And again, to put it in contrast,
for capital projects such as building new lines and stations
like the ones here in Ballard, otherwise known
as Councilmember Strauss's backyard,
there's an increase of up to $30 billion
when you factor in timelines and inflation.
This is real money. These are real challenges.
However, we cannot
and will not derail our commitment to Seattle voters
who overwhelmingly supported this transformative investment.
It is that critical to our optimization
as a city, our vibrancy,
getting back to the potential that we have as a city.
If the West Seattle and Ballard extensions are delayed,
there will be no new light-rail construction
in Seattle for at least four years.
That is not what our residents voted for.
That is not what they expect.
And as mayor, that is totally unacceptable.
We must deliver in the densest communities
with the greatest ridership.
That's almost Econ 101. Go where the action is.
Go where the jobs are.
I look forward to Katie Guerrero's remarks
to talk about the impact on jobs.
The West Seattle and the Ballard link extensions
represent exactly this kind of strategic investment.
And that's why I was very vocal at last week's
Sound Transit meeting.
We have to connect vibrant,
growing neighborhoods with high ridership potential
to our regional transit network.
Back in the 1990s,
when light rail was just a vision, we didn't know
or anticipate, perhaps, some of the growth that we had,
and this has been good growth, good jobs.
Light rail currently has up to 3.4 million boardings a month.
The West Seattle and Ballard extension
will have over 200,000 daily boardings.
These communities overwhelmingly supported
light-rail expansion for a safe
and sustainable transit solution to where they need to go,
including our beautiful waterfront park
and our grand opening you'll see of the park later this week.
So what is the best approach to managing costs
in a situation like this?
Well, time is money.
We all grew up hearing that.
We have to advance our projects quickly.
Every single day of delay
adds unnecessary expense to taxpayers.
That's why Seattle has taken unprecedented steps
to support Sound Transit's work,
streamlining our permit processes
and expanding our team.
Specifically, we reformed our land use codes
after four to five years of collaboration,
cutting permit review times by 50%,
helping projects on time and under budget.
That's what we are doing here in the city of Seattle.
We structure city staff
and expanded the office of the waterfront
to bring proven project delivery experience
to ST3 challenges.
Taking the lessons learned we did on the waterfront project
and the resources
and expanding our ST3 city team to handle the surge
of permitting work.
These are significant cost savings that we will achieve.
So this moment, given the cost estimates that I described,
this moment will call for our most creative
and innovative thinking and collaboration,
our ability to solve problems across all jurisdictions.
This is not a zero sum competition.
We need innovative solutions that deliver projects
while managing our costs.
Now, there is a path forward.
I believe there's a clear path forward
and it starts with these actions.
First, as I've detailed,
we've already done some great work with Sound Transit
to cut down on delays and costs through our permitting reform.
Our staff teams are now working together hard
on value engineering
that will lead to real cost savings for the delivery
of these lines and other ST3 projects.
At Thursday's executive meeting,
I will ask my colleagues and Sound Transit
to create a working group that includes Seattle,
Snohomish, King and Pierce counties to build on this work
by reviewing and validating -- validating revenue and risk.
Now, second, Sound Transit must study cost-saving measures
and they have to think outside of the box.
They have to come up with ideas to deliver projects as planned.
That includes looking closely at the existing tunnel.
I think board member Balducci raised that issue,
and I stated my alignment with her thinking on that issue.
Third, in collaboration with Councilmember Strauss,
I submitted legislation that will be heard in his committee
tomorrow and is a fronting of significant budget resources
to ensure that we have the staff ready
to move these projects forward in partnership
with Sound Transit.
Now, this should be clear evidence,
obvious evidence that Seattle is all in
to support the West Seattle and Ballard link extensions.
Finally, the Sound Transit Board needs to advance the spine
and Seattle projects concurrently.
This is critical.
We should not delay one capital project over another.
This is what the voters expected.
This is why they are putting their money into
both the spine
and into the Ballard and West Seattle projects.
The voters trusted us to deliver this generational investment,
and that's indeed what it is, and we will not let them down.
We can solve these challenges if we work together.
[ Applause ]
Hey, who started that clap?
That was right on time. Alright.
Councilmember Mosqueda has always had my back.
As long as I've known her, she's had my back.
Where were you, Dan Strauss?
You're going to hear from some speakers now.
You're going to hear first from City Councilmember Dan Strauss,
district 6 representative,
of course Ballard, where we are today.
But I'm very proud to have the leaders standing with me,
sort of singing the same song.
Ballard and West Seattle,
we realized, are areas that, yes, we have challenges,
but these are the types of investments
that helps us with these challenges -- job centers,
growth, good neighborhoods, people getting from "A" to "B."
This is sort of us at our best
in terms of transportation strategy.
So next you'll hear from City Councilmember Dan Strauss
for district 6. Dan, come forward.
-Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Good morning.
My name is Councilmember Dan Strauss.
I'm elected by the people of Magnolia, Fremont,
Phinney, Green Lake, Greenwood, Crown Hill, Ballard,
and many other micro neighborhoods,
and I represent the entire city of Seattle.
As a Sound Transit board member,
I represent our entire city on that board,
as well as the regional interests
that impact everyone in the Sound Transit region.
Thank you for coming to Bergen Place.
You know, as we go through this conversation today,
I think about how things have changed.
When I was growing up,
a 6-story apartment in Ballard was unheard of.
This park that we are at, Bergen Place,
had a big blue canopy over it,
and that building was a single resident occupancy hotel.
This park had a very different feel than it has today.
And where that canopy has been replaced by art
and it just has a very different feel.
So as the mayor said,
Sound Transit has the funding available to deliver all
of its programs in the short term.
And without changes to operations and capital delivery,
costs will overrun by the time
we are supposed to reach Ballard.
Sound Transit is now working to achieve cost savings.
They've already hired national experts,
and they are improving capital and service delivery
by delivering -- by including new
and best practices in building light rail
and operating light rail.
But savings and efficiencies
cannot save $30 billion by the time
we need to reach Ballard.
Tomorrow we, as the city of Seattle, take the next step.
And when I say next step,
I mean, the first step was merging our departments
to be with the office of the waterfront,
because they've already delivered on state level,
state-size investments in our city.
The second was to streamline our permitting,
to make sure that our permitting system is not delaying
and in fact,
improving Sound Transit infrastructure in our city.
And now we are hiring the staff to get this work done.
This next step is going to reduce costs and speed delivery
of light rail in our city's boundaries.
There's been a lot of conversation at Sound Transit
about third-party funding.
I sure hope that this counts.
Sound Transit investments in our city have regional benefits.
If we are to build the downtown tunnel,
it is required for the spine to reach Everett.
If we don't need to build the light-rail tunnel in downtown,
then we need to use our national experts
that are working for Sound Transit now to ensure
that our trains are able to use the single tunnel.
I'm committed to delivering the Sound Transit 3 plan,
and as delays have already occurred
and phasing projects are under consideration,
we must plan for the future.
A decade ago, it was visionary to say at 15th and Market,
we could get downtown or light rail would reach West Seattle.
Today it is simply an unmet need.
We must plan for a future
where catching light rail at 15th and Market,
you can go to Northgate or to downtown.
When you're in West Seattle catching the train
at the junction,
you should be able to get downtown or to White Center,
Burien and straight to the airport.
Tomorrow we're taking this next step
to make the investment to ensure Sound Transit is able
and delivers light rail in our city
as cost effectively and fast as possible.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for putting this forward.
-Thank you, Councilmember.
You know, before I introduce our next speaker,
I'd like to recognize a few folks that are standing with us,
um, in solidarity.
And that's Monty Anderson from the Seattle Building Trades
and his fellow workers.
Labor's here in the house.
Uh, King County Councilmember Jorge Barón,
thank you for being here.
Deputy Mayor Jessyn Farrell, thank you for being here.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
Yes. Yes. Carpenters are here. Thank you.
No, no, I know who you are.
The carpenters are here.
And it's very important because.
Katie's going to bring them all together on the labor part.
I want to also thank the --
some of the Sound Transit board members
that aren't here right now for supporting my amendment
at last week's board meeting.
I want to thank them because we were accused,
at least in my remarks,
of putting our thumb on the scale,
I think was the term that they said a few times,
and we're not putting our thumb on the scale
for Seattle or West Seattle or Ballard.
The weight was already on the scale.
This is what the voters in Seattle,
the largest city in the state, voted on.
So it was not a question of putting our thumb on the scale.
It was an issue of making sure the scale is calibrated right
to meet our needs.
And so again, I want to thank the members
that supported us on that amendment.
Next, you're going to hear
from County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda here
representing West Seattle,
another critical part of our city
where we want to be served by light rail.
And I look forward
to Councilmember Mosqueda's remarks.
Councilmember.
-Well, good morning. -Good morning.
-And happy day after Labor Day, everyone.
Thank you for all of you who celebrated yesterday
and for all who labored.
We're here today because we have labored hard
to make this vision of Sound Transit 3 a reality.
We believe in a future
and in a city and in a region that gets us closer to,
frankly, what the rest of most of the world has --
a connected metropolitis -- metropolitan
that has green transit,
that has a connected future, a resilient future, a future
where workers and families and students and elders
have equitable access to jobs, education,
services and small business
without having to get in their cars.
And that future is light rail.
I live in West Seattle,
and every time I get on Sound Transit,
including this weekend after leaving Bumbershoot
to get downtown to make the connection to a bus,
I sit on light rail
and I think, "This is how the other half lives.
This is what we deserve in Ballard,
in West Seattle, in Everett, in Tacoma,
in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties."
We all deserve access to what was promised.
We need the lines that were communicated back
in 2016 to voters,
where voters across King and Snohomish
and Pierce County spoke loudly
and clearly about the need for us to be connected.
They stood shoulder to shoulder with labor and community,
and they said yes to Sound Transit 3.
They said yes to a connected future.
They said yes to building a Sound Transit system
that works for everyone.
And now our job is to deliver on that promise.
And let's be crystal clear, as the mayor just said,
every single project in Sound Transit 3
matters from Everett to Tacoma.
From Redmond to West Seattle and Ballard,
every line is essential.
And here in Seattle, these projects aren't just essential
and important, they are urgent.
These are the descen--
These are the communities and residents
who are ready and waiting,
who voted and are begging to ride these lines.
Seattle is growing faster
than almost any other city in the country.
Our population is booming.
This year we surpassed 800,000 people and counting.
Councilmember Barón, representing this district
and myself representing district 8 in West Seattle,
we also represent these communities,
but this growth can only work if we can get around.
We must build a Sound Transit 3 that connects communities,
that connects our people with amenities,
that make sure that we can drive up ridership
by creating stronger connections through the heart of our city
and into major destination points
like West Seattle and Ballard,
like Everett and Tacoma.
Voters in Seattle supported Sound Transit 3
because we were promised relief.
We were promised a system
that matches the scale of our city's growth
and our region's growth,
and we can continue to achieve that promise
without sacrificing the vision of our regional connectivity.
By making sure
the 2016 voter-approved vision becomes a reality.
Because here's the truth.
When Seattle succeeds, this region succeeds.
We are an economic, cultural,
and educational hub for the region.
We are a destination for workers and students and sports fans,
for families going to concerts and museums
and in parks and in my district, in district 8,
in West Seattle, in Delridge,
even specifically there where I call home,
we are a hub for music lessons for all ages,
concerts of all ages, swimming lessons
and physical activities for kiddos and elders,
childcare, and jobs, jobs, jobs in small and large companies.
Imagine using light rail to get to these gathering spaces
without a car and then getting back home again.
That is the promise.
So from West Seattle to Ballard to across this region,
we must make these critical connections
and ensure that we are getting closer to that vision.
Cutting out the reason for us to get in our cars.
Cutting down on traffic and cutting CO2 emissions.
It is good for the health of our planet
and it is good for the health of our residents.
It is good for the health of our regional economy.
West Seattle and Ballard have supported
and will continue to support the creation of Sound Transit 3
because, as Councilmember Strauss said,
we have already stepped in
and supported the creation of more housing,
more affordable housing,
more livable and walkable neighborhoods
around the tube stations,
we're creating more access to these amenities
for a once in a generational investment
in what will be an incredible transit connected system.
This is not just about transit infrastructure.
This is about making sure people have a home
and a community that is connected, that creates us,
that creates a connection to affordable housing,
small businesses.
Truly, it will be the backbone of these growing communities.
And I want to just paint a picture about what happens
if we fail.
If we fail to build out Seattle's light rail
as promised and create access to these amenities
and drive the economic engines of our neighborhood,
we fail the entire region.
Without strong Seattle connections
through Sound Transit 3, the spine does not work.
The rail does not reach its full potential.
That is why we must keep going.
West Seattle and Ballard projects must remain on track.
This is a win, win, win that helps Everett,
helps Tacoma, helps Bellevue,
helps workers and students and elders and families
across these three counties be able to live freely
and make sure that they're able to have
greater self-determination.
I want to thank and applaud Mayor Harrell
in concluding with my comments.
Thank you for leading on the permitting efforts
to put forward the amendments that you already have,
and for the legislation
that Seattle is considering to shave off an entire year
for West Seattle and Ballard.
And I want to thank SDOT for all of the work
that they're doing to creatively think about
cost-cutting measures, efficiencies, ways
for us to move forward while investing in community amenities
and saving money at the same time.
I want to thank our now C.E.O., C.E.O. Constantine,
for his new vision for looking at old ways with new eyes
and recognizing that we can do this.
We can also cut costs and we must move forward.
This behind us -- community,
labor, inter-jurisdictional partnership --
this is what partnership and collaboration looks like.
Let's remember what the voters said in 2016.
They want light rail here in Seattle.
They want it across this region.
They want it to be built now.
And they want us to keep our promise.
So let's stay united.
We will not be pitted against each other
and let's keep moving forward.
Thank you very much.
-Let the headline say Councilmember Mosqueda
brought the fire.
I was told to bring the fire.
I brought the fire.
Well stated.
This work cannot be done without
community transportation advocates, regional advocates.
And before I introduce our next speaker, I apologize.
Council President Sara Nelson, I didn't recognize you.
Thank you for being here.
We have, uh, we look forward to your leadership
on these projects as well.
And you're going to hear next from Kirk Hovenkotter,
executive director
of Transportation Choices Coalition.
And I think all of you,
if you've been around as long as some of us have been around,
his work speaks for itself,
and we're very proud to have this kind of leadership
in our region, in the transportation sector.
Kirk, please take it away.
-Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor, and thank you all for being out here today.
Oh, my gosh.
This is two press conferences in a row.
Thanks. Alright. I'll just, uh...
-Perfect.
-Thank you. I'm Kirk Hovenkotter.
I'm the executive director
of Transportation Choices Coalition.
Our organization was proud to lead the ballot measures
in 1996, 2008, and 2016
that expanded light rail across the Puget Sound region.
Today, we see record-breaking ridership on light rail.
Thousands flock to new station openings.
Light rail is more popular than the Kraken
or the return of the SuperSonics.
The excitement for these investments are palpable.
The message from voters, riders and the public is clear.
Build the damn trains.
Light rail brings together the region literally
and figuratively.
While the cost challenges are real,
no other promise has brought together King,
Pierce and Snohomish County
in the way around a shared initiative
that Sound Transit has.
We need to move forward together.
That means that now is not the time to cancel projects.
Our region needed this transit yesterday.
We need to deliver on the system that people voted for
and have been paying for.
Moving forward together means we need to keep projects moving.
The longer we wait to start building,
the more these projects are going to cost.
West Seattle light rail is ready to go.
Everett and Tacoma are just shortly behind.
We can start putting these workers
to work this year if we want to.
Moving forward together means that we're in this
together as one region.
In these times, with this federal administration,
we have to work together.
Every major infrastructure project across the country
has been facing inflationary challenges.
What matters is that Sound Transit is accountable,
transparent and committed to solutions.
And we saw that on Thursday.
People want this. The public wants this.
Voters want this and riders want this.
We've seen Sound Transit in this region overcome
challenges to delivering light rail in the past.
And Transportation Choices Coalition is going to push
to ensure that we do it again.
Thank you so much for your time and your consideration.
Thank you.
-Thank you, Kirk.
And before we hear from our last speaker,
I want to recognize Angela Brady,
who is our director
of the Waterfront, Civic Projects, and Sound Transit.
And that was -- She's the human being behind a lot
of our efforts to accelerate and reduce costs.
And so, Angela, thank you for being here as well.
So to pull it all together, at the end of the day,
it's also about jobs.
And we have again,
one of the region's strongest labor advocates in Katie Garrow,
the Executive Secretary-Treasurer
of the MLK Labor Council
and a champion for good union jobs.
Councilmember Mosqueda,
I really liked how you emphasized jobs in this --
in this commitment for our region.
So, Katie, take it away.
-Good morning,
and thank you to the members of the media who are here.
Happy Labor Day to you all.
Members of IATSE, IBEW, SAG-AFTRA, uh, thank you.
My name is Katie Garrow.
I'm the Executive Secretary-Treasurer
for MLK Labor, AFL-CIO.
We represent 220,000 unionized workers
in 150 affiliate unions across King County.
We're dock workers and scientists,
housekeepers, bus drivers,
janitors and construction workers.
It's well known that for a while now,
working people have been moving south and north,
uh, outside of Seattle city limits.
Boomers and the very lucky Gen X members
were the last generations to be able to --
the last generations of middle-class people
to be able to afford home ownership in our city.
This has put incredible pressure on our highways
and our roads,
and light rail cannot be completed fast enough
for working people.
Despite cost increases reported last week,
now is still the cheapest time to finish the project.
Working people face cost increases
just like capital projects do.
We understand tariffs and inflation
and we still need public transportation.
We cannot afford to sacrifice any segment of the light rail.
And let me remind you that these dollars are not wasted.
They're invested in economic development of our region.
They pay young apprentices,
young single moms
who get their first job on a construction project,
who then have the money
to be able to buy new school clothes for their children,
to be able to put braces on their kids,
to be able to go on family vacations.
That is the investment
that we make in the Sound Transit workforce.
Swedish Ballard
and the Metropolitan Market in West Seattle
are staffed by many, many people
who commute in from places like Everett,
from places like Yelm and Kent.
And we need for them to be able to have reliable,
convenient ways to get to work.
Our region's greatest nuisance is traffic.
We cannot afford to sacrifice West Seattle or Ballard.
Build it all. Thank you.
-Thank you, Katie.
Thank you, Katie.
And before we take a few questions,
I also want to recognize Billy Hetherington
from LiUNA 242.
Billy was up here saying, "You recognized everyone."
See, I pace it out, Billy. That's the way I do it.
Get more recognition that way. Alright.
Billy never wants attention, but I thought I'd close with Billy.
Thank you for being here, Billy. And 242.
Okay, that's sort of --
I think you heard from the wide swath of concerns here,
from jobs to economic development
to just climate sustainability
and the transportation sector.
We've all spent a lifetime fighting for other people.
And when you hear from the residents
in West Seattle and Ballard,
they need to know we have their backs and you have strong,
effective leadership advancing their cause.
So with that, we'd be more than happy to take some questions,
and I may defer to some experts on it.
And, uh...
Uh, Jamie, do you mind coming up here
and being the referee a little bit?
Because I'll...
-Start with Mike.
-Yes, Mike?
-Can you restate or -- or describe in more detail
your viewpoint as of today regarding, uh,
trying for a single tunnel version through Seattle?
-Sure.
The question is just whether the single tunnel,
um, the discussion about that,
just to clarify it a little bit, I think, what Mike is asking.
So, as you may recall at the board meeting last week, um,
just during sort of general comments, uh,
board member Balducci asked the Sound Transit staff
to really look at the feasibility
of what it can look like given our cost challenges,
and there's been no commitments made,
but there was certainly a strong appetite to consider
what a single-tunnel option
or how this may all come together.
And I don't know if anyone wants to add any more to that.
Dan, please.
-Thanks, Mike. It's a very good question,
because the downtown tunnel is required
for us to get to build out the spine from Tacoma to Everett.
It's also a very costly endeavor.
There are transit agencies around the world
that use automation and different technologies
to increase the number of trains
that are within that tight space.
The way that we operate light rail today
does not allow us to increase the number of trains
that are in the tunnel today.
For us to be able to complete the spine,
we'll need to double or triple the number of trains
that are passing through downtown.
So from here,
Sound Transit is exploring to understand what
other practices and technologies are available to us
and if they work in the city of Seattle
and if that allows us to put two to three number times
as many trains in the downtown tunnel,
which would alleviate the need to build another tunnel.
All of that is still under the study and analysis phase.
There are no conclusions at this time,
but that's part of this practice
that I was discussing where Sound Transit is going through
and reviewing how their operations
and their capital delivery are going and what needs to change.
-Thank you, Councilmember.
-Everyone here has expressed --
-Well, I'll call on you.
-Mr. Mayor, just to assuage concerns from citizens,
will the [indistinct] impact any of the --
the planned extensions that are scheduled for the near future?
-Uh, to repeat the question,
Sebastian asked, will some of the $30 billion
that we talked about affect some of the planned expansions?
And, I mean, that's -- that's the $30 billion question.
And our point is, as we deliberate,
the city of Seattle will do everything it can
to get the costs down.
We think West Seattle and Ballard,
as I think Councilmember Mosqueda said,
is critical for the whole spine to work effectively.
So we don't want to see any regress there.
Um, but certainly, you know,
Sound Transit will look at all options.
Um, we're optimistic that we'll be able to, uh,
sort of lead the other jurisdictions
on what they can do.
You may recall -- I don't know if you recall or not.
Some of my comments at last week's meeting
is that Seattle will do everything it can do
to reduce costs,
and we're going to expect every other jurisdiction,
city and county,
to do exactly the same everything they can do
to lower these costs.
But just like the tunnel conversation,
we're going to have to get very creative.
But there's not been specific talks about, um,
eliminating projects.
-In the context of the World Cup,
how much of that is a deadline that you're looking towards?
-Well, you know -- You know, that's been a stated goal
for the Bellevue line to be completed by, um...
That gives us a very real, tangible event
to sort of work behind.
And so we still think we're in pretty good shape,
but I'm not going to be the first one
to say that we're going to deliver all the projects
for World Cup,
because that would be a dangerous precedent to start.
-Just to double down on Sebastian's question there.
I mean, obviously everyone here
is committing to seeing ST3 forward,
but the bottom line is we are looking at potentially
up to $30 billion in year of expenditure funds.
Is there any realm of possibility
in which we could see projects delayed, canceled,
or taxpayers could be left to front more money?
-Just to repeat the question,
is there any possibility projects can be delayed
because of the $30 billion, um, increase?
And we -- And I openly talked about the timelines
and the inflation factors.
We have to see progress.
We can't assume that there's going to be drastic,
uh, delays.
And I think under the enterprise initiative
and their C.E.O. Constantine's leadership
and with our advocates here,
um, letting our staff, quite frankly,
under Angela's leadership, under the hood,
so to speak,
with Sound Transit to figure out how creative can we be?
It's very important to realize
that a lot of the inflationary factors
that caused this were outside of Sound Transit's control.
Again, our partnership with the federal government,
with the state,
all other bodies of government are going to be critical.
So we feel confident in moving forward.
But we have to acknowledge the realities
of the challenges that we have.
-Tracy.-
-Um, Mr. Mayor, do you, um,
have you guys estimated
how much money -- what you and Councilmember Strauss
are introducing -- might save for starters
off that $30 billion?
-That's a good question, Tracy.
We've been a little reluctant to give a dollar amount
because this is a work in progress
and Angela is building up her team.
I'm not going to put you on the spot, Angela.
It'd be hard to speculate.
Um, I can tell you what it won't be.
It won't be $30 billion.
Um, but it's going to head in that direction.
And that's how we have to go about this.
-Chris Ryan.
-I was trying to cut through all the speeches.
Are you just having this press conference
because you're worried Tacoma and Everett
are going to come back and say,
"Prioritize us before Ballard and West Seattle"?
-Can you be a little more direct in your question,
Chris, please?
[ Laughter ]
No, I --
You know, the colleagues on the board are friends.
We've made it very clear we support the whole spine.
We also understand
that Seattle is a major economic hub and job hub,
the largest in the state.
And so we have unique -- a unique obligation,
and we are the voters here,
the largest block of voters who are paying for this project.
So I'm confident that our colleagues
in Pierce County and Snohomish County
and other areas of the region are supportive
of what we're doing.
That was demonstrated, I think, in the past amendment,
where I made it very clear that we have to look at
where growth will be
and the future growth should govern all
of our strategic decisions.
And that's what this is about.
So this is not a means to bludgeon anyone into submission,
but for them to realize we, too, support the spine.
But we have to recognize the labor and economic benefits
that Seattle brings.
And that's what this is about.
-Alright.
You talked about the permit streamlining bill
and the ST3 staffing.
Are there any other things that the city of Seattle
could be doing to speed up these projects
and, you know, reduce costs on them faster?
-That's a good question.
I'll repeat it in the answer.
We will ask ourselves that question.
The first thing we know
is we had to devote a goodly sum of dollars and resources
to expedite the permit process, to look at everything
that Seattle can do within our jurisdiction.
Then that question becomes,
we have some pretty talented engineers
and strategic planners at the city.
How then can we couple our work with Sound Transit
and then even use the lessons learned in Seattle
to the other cities in the other jurisdictions?
So we can't be so insular in our thinking
that it's just about Seattle that we have control over.
But how do we use our expertise in the other jurisdictions?
All of that work should result in significant savings,
and so we'll figure this out as we go.
But that's why we reorganized ourselves
around this body of work. -Okay.
-Alright. -One more question.
-This will be the last one.
-I know you say that a lot of these inflationary pressures
are outside of Sound Transit's control.
But obviously, you know,
these cost pressures came up back in 2021
during the realignment.
What's to say that we don't see this again
as we move forward over the next few years
and continue to work on these projects?
What sort of oversight will there be to ensure
that we're staying in budget? -Yeah, that's a good question.
Number one,
we have to recognize
that as elected leaders and labor leaders,
we have to listen to community as we go.
But we can't let the process of constantly listening to feedback
also cost us critical dollars.
And so we cannot guarantee
that there still won't be some issues moving forward,
but we can guarantee that we'll be as effective
and as efficient as possible in how we do this work.
You know, this is a 50-year project.
We have to understand that.
And it started in 1993.
You know, 2040, 2050,
there might be other people around
right here talking about some of the challenges in 2043.
I don't know, I'm not going to predict that.
But what we can control is to be as smart as possible.
And we have some of the smartest people at the table.
And so with that,
I'll just close out the discussion by say--
by saying thank you to all of my colleagues,
my passionate advocate warriors, my laborers, my labor leaders.
And we're going to do this smartly, aggressively,
and, of course, protect the interests of Seattle.
And we'll always look out for the entire spine as well.
And I think that's a common theme
that we're seeing here today.
Thank you very much.