A MOTION making an appointment to fill the vacancy in the position of state senator for the 36th legislative district.
The minutes are before a scene of discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay motion. Kerry's minutes are adopted. That brings us to item four on our agenda. This is proposed motion 1215 535, which would fill a vacancy in the state and the vacant position of state senator in the 36th Legislative District. The vacancy is due, of course, to the election of our colleague, Council Member Cole Wells, now representing Council District four. Councilmember Gossett. Might you put the motion itself before us? Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I would like to propose that we adopt motion number 2015 0535. 2015 0535 is before us. I thought the since the state senator is a partizan partizan position and since Senator Caldwell's is a Democrat, the state constitution requires us to choose from among three nominees recommended by the King County Democratic Central Committee. Three nominees have been recommended for consideration, and I believe that two of them are with us this morning. The nominees, in alphabetical order by last name are Liz Campbell, Rubin, Carlisle and David Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan on the phone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kaplan. And for your information, everyone else is Mr. Kaplan is joining us by phone. And, Mr. Kaplan, you are already part of the audio system. So anything you say that is make two mikes throughout the chamber. Mr. Kaplan has informed us that he's out of state, attending a business meeting this week and therefore is unable to join us in person. But he is joining us by telephone today and will speak to his candidacy or his interest as well. And we'll begin with a brief staff report. Nick Wagoner of our central staff is staffing the issue. Good morning, Mr. Wagner. Happy New Year. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only thing that I would add to what you've already covered is that in accordance with the state constitution, the King County Democratic Central Committee has nominated Mr. Carlisle, Ms.. Campbell and Mr. Kaplan for the Council's consideration, and they are listed in the committee's email to the Council in order of preference based on the vote of the precinct committee officers. And that vote was 172 votes for Mr. Carlisle, nine votes for Ms. Campbell and four votes for Mr. Kaplan. Written information on all three nominees is included in the meeting packets that were distributed to council members in advance of the meeting. That's all I was going to questions of. Mr. Wagner. All right. Committee members have had an opportunity to review the recommendation of the King County Democratic Central Committee, together with the written materials that but and we have found that a key part of the process is an opportunity to interview the three nominees. I'll start by inviting Ms.. Campbell, Mr. Carlisle and Mr. Kaplan to make opening statements of no more than 2 minutes each, then to answer questions from council members and of Ms.. Campbell. You're welcome to join us at the table now as well, please. I think it would be first of best if we hear from the opening statements of each nominee and then have a chance to have questions and dialog to assist nominees and timing of their opening remarks and the answers to questions we have in front of me a light that will be green for the first 90 seconds, then yellow for 30 seconds left. And when the red light comes on, we'd suggest your time is up. My notes also suggest that you don't have to use all of your allotted time. Well, we'll go in alphabetical order by last name, starting with Ms.. Campbell. Bruce Campbell. Good morning. Good morning, Joe. How are you? I'm well, thank you for having me here. So I want to say first that I was very honored. It was actually Representative Carlyle. And I talked and and he asked me if I would like to put my name forward, if I were to be nominated by the present coordinating officers to join him up here. And I'm I'm very grateful for that opportunity. And I, I agreed to do that. And several police and coordinating officers volunteered to to nominate me for the special appointment. And there were there were two in particular who I had go ahead and do the nominating. And the second being, because they represent most of what I do within the Democratic Party organization, I think, and that's what I was the most proud of. And so that was that very young man who's African-American, who I've been mentoring and and who has become a precinct coordinating officer as as part of his process, becoming really politically engaged and working working with the party and a woman whose background is somewhat similar to mine and needed to leave a marriage and is is now a single mom. And being PCO is is quite an opportunity for her. For the most part, I, I tend to be very, very active recruiting people in empowering people and mentoring people within the community. I tend to represent a. Place of being liaison between the fine grain of what happens in a community and how it reflects upon the legislation that that is borne of it. And I get along pretty well, actually, with Representative Carlisle, and he knows that he and I talk a lot sometimes, and that is because there does sometimes exist a disconnect between the 30,000 foot level of legislation and how it plays out on the street. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Carlisle. Good morning. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And me, thank my good friends Liz Campbell and Dave Kaplan for their citizen engagement in this process has been very meaningful. I'm really honored to be with you today. I want to start by expressing my deepest thanks to Council member Wells, who is just not only beloved in our community, but really is a wonderful successor to our good friend Larry Phillips and just really is as a wonderful voice to this council. I'm also pleased that Councilmember Banducci is first meeting as well. So thank you so much. I've had the great honor of representing our district in the legislature for seven years. I've served as chair of the Finance Committee. It's been a great honor. I've learned a great deal and grown a great deal and been very instrumental in working on some of the largest issues around public education, around higher education, around tax policy and writing budgets, environmental policy, and many other issues. And it's been an extraordinary opportunity to engage with my community. I live on Queen Anne with my wife Wendy, who is a physician at Ballard, Swedish, and my four children who attend public schools in our our city. And I've just really enjoyed connecting on a very deep level with the citizen activists of our community. And serving in the legislature as a citizen legislator is, I think, incredibly powerful relative to keeping people grounded in real issues affecting real life. So it's been a great honor to serve in the House. It is an incredible honor to succeed. Council Member Cole Wells and I very much appreciate your support and I appreciate this great honor. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Caplan. Yes, it is indeed an honor and a privilege to participate in this process. I do apologize for not being there in person. I am at the Consumer Electronics Show down here in Las Vegas. I live in the world of technology. And of course, this is my primary trade show. Every year at this time. So I really had no choice but to be here rather than there. I am one of the few Democrats in the 36th District who's not running for Congress. And and and I'm delighted that Reuben is one of the others. I think it's very clear that the will of the voting precinct committee officers in our district are aligned behind Reuben Carlisle, and I look forward to hearing the announcement of his appointment to the Senate. And I think that's all I need to say this morning. But again, thank you so much. And I think Blaine was let go. I'm having blanking on the name, but whoever reached out to me and set this up so that they could be on the phone with you this morning, I do want to say thank you. Mr. Wagner. We like Mr. Wagner to me. Because he's a nice guy. All right. I want to thank you. I want to thank all three of you for stepping up and being part of the process. I myself was at one point appointed to the Senate from to a vacancy in the state Senate as a House member and came before this very council in this process. So I find this to be vital and informative on both sides and would open it up to questions from my colleagues for any one or all of the nominees. Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for all three of the nominees, and it's a question that I often ask prospective candidates for public service as legislators here in our state, whether it be at the county or the state level. And we're supposed to use these times to get a deeper sense of the ideals and ideology that guide prospective candidates. I mean, this is not a question about disproportionality within the criminal justice system. In Washington state, nearly 19% of all the men and women. Who are incarcerated in our state prisons are black and and our total population is only 3%. That's pretty significant disproportionality nationally. The figure is 2.3 million. And all the jails in the country and about 45% or 900,000 are African-Americans. So what do you think are the causes and what at least at the state level can be done? They get more? Or what do you think if anything needs to be done to address this problem? Are we staff. Sabbatical? Whatever order you deserve? Yeah. Okay. So I'm really glad that we're opening with that question that that's exactly, I think the key. In in Washington state really exists in racial disparity. And nowhere is it more obvious than in the criminal justice system. It does exist in every system in the state, but it's just easier to see in the criminal justice system. And there are some things that we that we have been doing. And I think we're going in the right direction. And I want to continue. And one of them is I voted to legalizing marijuana. We had a situation in the state of Washington where 59% of the arrests and convictions, jail time families decimated for cannabis were African-American . In a situation where you've got 7% of the population, 59% of the arrests were African-American, primarily male. Clearly, this was part of a racist system. This was a set up. And we're trying to reduce that harm. We're trying to reduce that disparity at the state level by recognizing that when we have state level laws, that implementation means an impact that has that much racial disparity. Then we can go ahead and say that law is racist and change it. We can say that that that's something we're going to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. The issue I would say that I have in the past, in all of the years that I've served in the legislature, I've been the prime sponsor in the House of Legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. And the two things that drive me to that position are, one, my own personal religious conviction. And two, is a deep acknowledgment of the systemic reality of disproportionality in our criminal justice system. And as I've studied that issue and learned more and more about it in terms of the death penalty throughout the throughout the entire criminal justice system, the implications are extraordinary and profound. And so I have led on that issue in large part because of the disproportionality. I think the one ray of hope is that I think that there's an extraordinary movement toward a tipping point of public attention from the presidency on down that is really bringing this issue to the fore. And, of course, your many years of service have led in King County on this. But I think we're at a place where there's a consensus among the parties that and others that we really need to step up to sort of not only rethink our entire infrastructure, but the wraparound services around parole and other sides of that. So I think that that your attention and many others have really changed that. I think the state is behind the county and some other organization institutions in its thinking, but there's definitely been a profound change the last few years, and I think we are now reaching a point where there's some bipartisan consensus to really address some of the core issues. Thank you. Oh, no, that third person. Mr. Caplan. Oh, well, of course, I agree with what's been said by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Carlisle. The only thing that I think I could add is that, you know, having grown up on Mercer Island, having made some mistakes in my younger days, I know what it's like to get in a jam in our people, give you a second chance and and not mess up your life. And I know that that's because I lived on the island. My dad knew the police chief, you know, all the things that go into being a by product of privilege and frankly, wealth. And I think we're way past due for sentencing reform, particularly in the context of nonviolent crimes, and particularly in the context of what happens to people of color in all states and I think throughout the country. And I think it's shocking that we even have to have this conversation in a progressive state like Washington. Thank you. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, welcome. Good to see you. First of all, I'd like to thank the Democratic Party for doing the process fully, legally and completely. It is refreshing to see that we are actually abiding by the law and how this process works. So thank you. And the process that we're doing now represents all the citizens, whether they be Democrat or Republican or independent. And I really want you to know that I appreciate it for all of the citizens that you have fully complied with, that the process is supposed to work. So that being said, good job. Thank you for being here and being willing to serve. And that's really important. And David, thank you for taking the effort to be here by phone. And you're welcome. You don't need to return my phone call. This is it. That's great. So good to meet you. So here's my question. King County is the economic engine of the state, and yet we get treated sometime in Olympia as the dog to kick. Or. Whatever. Maybe a bad analogy, but sometimes we're not well-liked out in Olympia. I'm sure you might have heard that as remember once or twice. And yet we're the economic engine. We're trying to be forward thinking. We're going to be able to do really great things that the tone we're winning awards nationally, and yet we are stymied because of things that happen by some of the decisions we're having. About 6000 new residents in this county per month, but we are getting continual reductions in funding formulas that used to be 60, 40, 60 coming to our court doing the work. 42 The state got flipped the other way. 4068 We still have to do the same amount of work. That is difficult. When they say they changed the definition of an unfunded mandate so that as long as they get more money than the year before it. An independent mandate that could be a penny. And yet we now have whatever 50 new duties to do. How are you and Olympia going to help us as the county is supposed to carry out what you want us to do? That's what we want to do. More and more, less money is coming here with more jobs to do. What are you going to do to help us as a county? I'm happy to take you first and thank you, Councilmember. I would say I really appreciate the issues and I put a sort of a lot of work into this. First of all, in my role as chair of the Finance Committee in the House, I committed an entire year of work to look at local, city and county finance options relative to local options. Local authority. Look at the property tax base. Look at the 1% limit. And look at the revenue sources, both from a revenue share, from transportation and other categories all the way through the new source of revenue associated with marijuana. But the the deeper undertone of the growth in costs that you have and the limited revenue, given that tax base, I think really opens the important policy question around how can we strengthen our partnership with other parts of the state to acknowledge that the 1% limit is incredibly structurally difficult for counties? Cities have a portion of you know, of course, and of course, counties are sort of stuck in that middle ground. So I think there's a very legitimate challenge associated with when we look at the 1% overall constitutional limit of property taxes. How could we rethink that? My central position has been and this is popular in some areas and quite unpopular in others, my central position has been most of the taxing authority has migrated to special purpose districts and my position has been that the county should be the central entity that controls most of that taxing authority in partnership with the entities that want to utilize that. But if you look, for example, just for the sake of the conversation at the King County Library system and many other systems that have their own revenue sources, I would make an argument that the county is sort of the fiduciary governing entity that probably makes more sense for those special purpose districts to have some stronger line of authority. So in my previous or my role as finance chair, I've spent a lot of time on that issue. I think revenue sharing is important. We're up to about $575 million in revenue share from all the different sources, much as some of that goes to the counties, but a lot goes to the city. So I think the reconsideration of the balance between cities and the counties and state is the work on a financial side that the legislature has got to do better. And I think we have not been successful in this area. So you may make a follow up on that quickly. Sure. Thank you. So I think that your idea is important, and especially when it comes to the junior taxing districts deciding how much more taxing authority they want to take. We have no authority to say in in one case recently, one of the junior district, one of $0.07. But by them taking the $0.07, it kicked off other junior taxing districts to get zero. And we have no ability to say these junior taxing districts, which included a hospital, a fire district and a cemetery district would get nothing. And we have no authority to stop that. So that's something that I think falls right in line with that. And the other problem is that the formula for unincorporated roads was devised 25 years ago. At that time, they devised a report that was 600 and I think 38 pages telling what needed to be done 25 years later . That is still not done. And we are still using the broken formula that they knew was broken 25 years ago as a temporary placeholder. So if you could help us with that, we would be very happy. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Caplan. Well, first of all, I want to apologize because I'm on a cell phone and there's been a little bit of static on the line. But if I heard correctly, the question is about tax reform in general or specific to the locality. I'm not clear. Specifically to King County being able to have enough of the revenue we give to the state back to us so we can actually do the job. Well, all I can say, in addition to what's already been said, is that our view I'm one of those people who pays being attacked every quarter, whether I'm profitable or not. I'm one of those people who watch as my property taxes go up every year because as I think grew and pointed out, I'm constantly being asked to vote for good things that we need. And, you know, I do believe that the county has a very specific transportation issues that need to be funded and. I'm not quite certain what else to say. We're way past due for tax reform in this state and way past due for some spending reform in this state. And I know that Rubin will take a leadership position on those issues. This coming year. My turn now, please. Okay. All right. So. So it's a it's a good question. King County is the economic engine of the state. It's it's the county that produces the most wealth. And that and that wealth is spread throughout the state. And that's part of being a donor state. We're kind of a donor county in terms of Washington state, a lot of times where. Where the tension comes is between the city of Seattle and and the county. I guess I'm thinking specifically of things like lead expansion and, you know, that's that's a major cost saver in the end . And then to have their biggest about who's going to put up the money for for just a little program expansion into King County and through the sheriff's office for training things like that seems silly to me as a citizen. I'm wondering if the legislative delegation from the district can. Very specifically, you asked what what one could do from this seat and beyond. Legislatively, there is always the option of acting as liaison, acting as negotiator. And I think that the county system and and those who are in executive positions in the city could, in fact, sit down with the state delegation, and we could talk about how the balance works and how the balance looks in the end. Places where there are overlap. Seemed to me to be low hanging fruit where we could move maybe $0.02 back. And as you said, $0.07 matters. So that's that's I think one way to just get a little bit of of revenues shift the tiniest bit of just kind of staunching the bleeding for the county and and beyond that. Yeah. Maybe there needs to be a shift in the burden in creating the taxes in the first place. Maybe cities need to stand up and say, okay, we're going to go ahead and do a B.A. tax and be the bad guy because somebody does, in fact, have to pay. We have to pay in. And then we all get everybody drives on those roads and we all know that they need to be improved. However, from the state Rivlin, I'm going to ask you. It seems to me. That there are some transportation packages that go through the state that involve new highway money. And it seems to me that taking out an old, bad, unincorporated King County Road and putting in a new road that works could count if just maybe one or two sentences was added. And I know that you are really good at adding sentences. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's. New question. Yes. I have a follow up question to what we've been discussing about the county being the economic driver of this state. And in fact, King County is home to about 40% of the state's jobs and produces nearly 50% of the state's economic activity. And we know this again, it's been very difficult for some legislators from the rest of the state and their constituencies to seem to accept that. And oftentimes, as I know personally, from having been in Olympia for a long time, initiatives that benefit or would benefit King County gets stalled in the state legislature. So we know that. But how will you go about dealing with that in the legislature and working with legislators from other areas of the state to be able to convince them that the county's initiatives are important to them besides our constituencies here? Did I get. To do this one? Sure. Okay. So. So I don't think that I'm going to suddenly come up with a really great, brilliant new answer that you haven't already tried. Oh, but I. I can mention the things that I think worked the best. And I think that the first one, the most obvious one, is trading. What do you want? Here's what I want. And. And I would like to trade with you. I will support you. You support me. That's how it works. Because we're all here together. And the second is one that, you know, this is going to sound somewhat juvenile. I call it field trips. I am I am really a big proponent of you. Take me to your county and show me show me what it is. I will I will go there. I will spend time there. And I'll start helping you in a very personal way. And I will start sending what I have. We have resources here that we can use there. And it's not just dollars and vice versa. I want field trips for for folks from other counties that might be further east in Washington to come here to King County and see what it is that we're doing here. We do an awful lot and we share an awful lot. And I'm not completely sure that all the all the counties know really what's involved in governing and running King County. And I would like to share that with them. And I would like them to understand we're in this together. And I think that sometimes that falls apart. And my biggest two things are always trading and sharing represented. This question of, of course, is goes to the core of a lot of the challenges in in Olympia. I've been a an activist on the issue of opening up the data. And I do that because I think transparency of how the money flows in our state on the tax side and then on the spending side is actually transformational. Interesting. So I've had the Office of Financial Management for the last number of years develop the data in one place that puts out where the money comes from and then where it goes. So the whole concept of there being eight counties in our state that are net contributors of of dollars and there are 31 that are net recipients. That gets politicized a bit and it gets seen as a sort of a poke in the eye one way. But the data itself is actually very powerful and it shows how the money flows. I've had some incredibly thoughtful and enriching conversations with with Republican colleagues in the cafeteria and others really going through the data and talking about how the money flows to Benton County or to Iowa or wherever. And there's actually a spark of really sincere and authentic interest in that conversation. And so, for example, the rural sales tax credit about 28 or so million dollars per buy, all we're really doing with that particular program is lowering the amount of the state sales tax in rural counties. Well, the conversation I've had with colleagues has been, well, what if we took those dollars and applied them very directly in terms of spending into rural economic development, very targeted, very real, and not just sort of evaporate into state government and to a person, they've all said, you know, that actually would really make a really valuable difference if you think about spending those types of dollars. So I've really had a good time bringing that table and that data to the table. And now the Office of Financial Management has institutionalized that. And they they release that data every year because of those requests that I did. And of course, you see graphs and charts that come out from different newspapers and things, but it is interesting and I think it's really helped change the conversation a lot. Mr. Kaplan. What can I add to what has already been said? Advocacy, transparency, clarity and a little bit of compromise. Some of what's been going on in state government, it seems like through the years there's been an effort to keep it secret from state citizens. And I think when we understand things holistically, we come up with better answers. And it's one of the reasons that I think we have and will be a great senator, because those are the things that he has made a priority in his role as our state legislator. Thank you. Further questions. Council member Belushi. Yeah. I just want to add my thanks to all of you for participating in this process and the local district and the King County Dems. It looks like it was a very thorough process and very well done, very collaborative and has resulted in some excellent candidates. So I'm really pleased to have this be my first meeting to be having this discussion with you all. As you all know, and I probably don't need to quote it to you, but I will. The the state constitution says that the paramount duty of the state is to make ample provision for the education of all children within its borders without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex. And this will be the big issue when you arrive in your new role. So I'd love to just hear you talk a little bit about where you see this issue going, how we're going to meet that obligation. And, you know, coming from a place of meeting the obligation to everyone without breaking the things that are already working. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that topic. Thanks. So I appreciate the question, of course, very much. At McCleary and our state's paramount duty goes to the core of of the work in the next year or two. And of course on the reality is, is that we have reached a point where our ability for the state to assume the compensation of our state's teachers and ensure that local levies are not being required to fund that base level of salary, that that or that salary is extremely expensive. And we've gradually slipped, of course, now to a point where Seattle and other many other districts in in King County have a very high local levy rate. The core value proposition, of course, of local levies is supposed to be wraparound services and enhancements and modifications relative to sort of customized learning at the local level. We have a huge structural problem, and the fact of the matter is that the work of the governor and the legislature recently to try to come to some degree of consensus of the elements of a grand bargain is struggling, and it's struggling because of the elements of a grand bargain incorporate levy issues. And the issue of equity is very important to that. So I think it's fair to say that this is job one. It's fair to say that we have to have a very serious recognition of the need for compromise of the elements of a grand bargain. But I also think we have to acknowledge that it is simply unsustainable to think that we're going to put an overwhelming majority of our effort into lowering local levies. Meeting the spirit and the essence of McCleary without additional resources that would compensate for those districts that would see a reduction in local levy, but no commensurate increase in salary in in education funding. So there are the elements of a grand bargain. Issues around levy reform are very important to King County because of the fact that most of the local levies have reached, you know, 25, 28, 32%. So we are not going to get to a place where we can lower local levies to 15 or 20% without substantial new state resources, so that it becomes a very legitimate policy conversation around what the options are for that. And I've been knee deep in this issue, worked very hard in the House, and I very much think that this is the work that we have to do in the Senate and onward. Okay. So so I come from a place or a mindset or a background or something that I always thought that when the state Supreme Court said to do something, that you did it. And I was kind of shocked. I was really shocked that the legislature and really part of the legislature would turn to the Supreme Court and say, no, make me. I was I was I took a lot of of nerve, I think. And here we are, the whole state kind of held hostage by that moment. And I'm not really impressed with with how the back and forth as has gone. And I'm thankful for the leadership that we've had in the 36th District. Our delegation. Senator Cole Wells. Representative Carlisle. And then when Representative Todd time came in, I have has held very fast on McCleary being our paramount duty to fulfill the catch in your question was without breaking anything. And I just had a call the other night from a colleague who's whose work is primarily on the human services part of childhood and who had been lobbied to to please give over and make her primary focus be funding McCleary no matter what. And she had to say not if you're going to take it out of here. And I think that that is really important because there are some things that we are not going to take that money out of cuts, hit human services first and then education. So we're not going to take more money from Human Services for in order to fulfill. McCleary The thing that I have looked at as the most attractive has been capital gains tax to go ahead with capital gains and to make sure that McCleary is fully funded. Yes, it is our paramount duty and that is going to be the first thing. Last legislative session was called the three M's and one of those M's was McCleary. It was mental health, marijuana and McCleary, and we didn't quite finish any of them. But McCleary really is the outstanding it's it's the elephant in your room. And I know that we're going to send Raven back and he is going to close some more loopholes and he is going to find some more money. And we, I hope, are going to do what the state Supreme Court tells us to do and fully fund McCleary without breaking anything else. Because if I have to go another legislature legislative session saying we didn't meet our obligation with McCleary, but at least we did not break anything else, then that is what I live with. Mr. Kaplan. Oh, I would just add that know, going back to one of the earlier questions, when you spend revenue wisely, you don't need to ask for as much upside. And if we had sentencing reform, if we had, you know, a different path for young people and nonviolent offenders, I think we'd free up significant amount of cash. But we cannot take the money that we need to fund education from the very things that create the safety net and the infrastructure that allows us to move forward as a state with compassion and with a rational game plan. So, yeah, we need more revenue. I agree with Liz that the capital gains tax would probably be the most palatable at this moment in time. But I do think there are areas where we're spending money unnecessarily and we could redirect some funds. Thank you. Thank you for the questions. Seeing none. We have the motion before us and we would need a amendment to address line 11 in the motion. Is there Amendment Council member Carl Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make an oral amendment to include the name. Please. So we mentioned. So this is my first time. You're doing great. To include Marilyn Carlyle as an appointee to the state Senate. Thank you. An amendment has been made to add the name Reuben Carlisle to the blank online 11 in the motion before us, appointing Representative Carlisle to the State Senate discussion on the amendment. Councilmember Lambert, did we. Move that ordinance to start with? We did. Okay. There's back this. Councilmember up the grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this where we comment on the. The selection? This is final. Please be boring. This is adding represent Carlisle's name to the blank. I would like to speak in favor of the motion. I had the chance to. Serve for a number of years with Carlisle in the State House. And the good thing, I think the public is well served when the senators are House trained. Oh. I never thought I. Was going to share. I never told this before. An old dear friend, Senator Ken Jacobson, once said he knew I was a basketball guy and he was talking about the difference between the House and the Senate. And he said the House is like college basketball. The coach calls the shots. You have this big team mentality. And he said the Senate's like the NBA. No one tells Kobe Bryant what to do. And I think Rubin may be a good fit there in that he not. Only was excellent team player, but he's also, I think, stood out for being an independent thinker, for being someone who is willing to question, not hesitate to. Bring independent analysis and question assumptions. Whether it was the state data center. Whether it's tax policy, you name it. He's been willing to stand up not only for his constituents, but for the people, the state. Of Washington, and bring. Intelligent, independent analysis to the questions before them. And the Senate. Is very fortunate, and I wish you well. Councilmember Dunn. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate you all coming up through this process. That can be daunting running the Pico Gantlet to get to here. It's almost as tough as that actual campaign sometimes, but I suspect you didn't have any problem coming through. And I wanted to show some bipartisan support for your appointment. You've you've always struck me as somebody who's got your heart in the right place. And, boy, you know, you're speaking my language when you're talking about special purpose district reform, and you get all of these different districts are raising their own taxes and not paying attention to what's happening on the $5.90 cap. And we saw it here a few years ago in the Library District, maxed out statutory authority and suppressed the flood district. And so we had to run around paying fire districts not to levy their rates. And so that's something we got to keep our eye on. And the answer's fairly simple, but it takes an enormous amount of political courage to make those reforms because you're messing with special purpose district funding. But keep up the good work. We look forward to partnering with you here at the local level to help you as we fight those and other battles. So I wish you the very best and I want to commend others for their participation as well. And you got a good audience to get some of your. Views out as well here. So anyway, I look forward to voting for you and working with you in the future. Thanks. And my apologies to the maker of the motion for not calling on her first council member, Coles. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very meaningful vote that I'll be taking, given that I have so much admiration for Representative soon to be Senator Robin Carlisle, as well as Liz Campbell and David Caplan. I don't know if you're all aware that we had over 200 PCOS participate in, I believe at the actual meeting at which and votes took place, there were 197 and something on that order. 92, one, 92 and we had, I believe, the highest number of PCOS in the state and the highest number of registered voters and voter turnout in the state. So what this amounts to is that we have a very active district and they get involved, they get engaged. And I am really thrilled with the caliber of the three contenders for this seat. Really outstanding. And the other reason that this is very meaningful to me, of course, is that I'm voting on my successor. And we, of course, don't lay any claim to having a lifetime important seat in the Senate or the House or county council. But I was on this I was in the legislature for a long time and just had just been completing now my 21st year in the state Senate. So that's significant for me and I don't let go lightly. I think, frankly, that I have resigned it and that there was a lot of emotion involved with that. But I think that I know that Reuben will be outstanding in the role as state senator for our 36th legislative district, and I have no doubt about that. I just wish I could peek into the caucus meeting that that that rule. And you will do terrifically and God bless the Senate in what would be very good hands. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Gossett. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And kind of any councilman down there to. Yeah, because I'm just kind of adding to what you said in relationship to Drew and his margin of victory. The percentage is as wide as my margin of victory when I run for office. With him and what he's been able to accomplish in his district. I look forward to support you. But I want to add that Liz and David are extremely accomplished and safe and we have our way to continue their their involvement in their district as well as broader politics, because we can use their talents to really. All right, Senator. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciated Gene Caldwell's comment about lifetime tenures with how the Senate and perhaps the county council. But I may agree with two of the three I. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. I had the privilege of being in the state senate for 20 years, and I say this unabashedly. The 36th District, House and Senate has always been one of the best represented districts in the state legislature. I say that without question. It's always had a vigorous group, whether Republican or Democrat, believe it or not, there were some Republicans at one time, and I told my colleagues the only Republicans left safe in Seattle are those in the Woodland Park Zoo. Elk. And I'm sorry. There's. Thank God I had a chance to meet ruined through a phone call he made to me because he wanted to hire somebody who had worked in my office. And we had a great conversation. And he was fortunate enough to hire that person and that person was fortunate to be a mentee of yours, and you did a great job with them. He's now in the private sector, working hard for his community in the 36th District, and that was Matt Gausman. And so anyway, I join with my colleagues. It's been a great conversation we've had today and I look forward to working with you as you represent this district in the state legislature. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to compliment all three of you on how qualified you are and your passion for good public policy and caring about our citizens. So thank you for that. I agree with Councilmember at The Grove that having senators or House change is a very good thing. I think it helps us ensure that that the debate between the Rotunda are not too far away. Remember, once we actually had a line across the rotunda and we all held hands, so it was clear that that is a passable space. So I think that's really important. And I want to say that I appreciate the transparency that you've brought to the legislative process and especially to finances. I think it's not that we don't as a county, want to help other parts of the state, but not to our citizens budget. And it's gotten in place now where I believe has come to our citizens detriment. And there are some ways of compromising that certain things are in better shape in different parts of the county. Keep moratorium on taking our money and our for instance roads get to look at good is quality based on some standards and the rest of the state and then we can go back to a different formula. But I think we really need to look at how much more we can share before it hurts us so badly. So I really appreciate your open communications and I look forward to it continuing as a senator and I know you have all of our cell phone numbers and I'm happy to receive calls up to 138. And please know that you're working hard. Thank you. She was telling me to AM just 20 minutes ago. Well. For the comments on the amendment hearing and others in favor of the amendment, please say I opposed nay motion that the amendment is adopted. The motion, as amended, is before US. Councilmember Dombrowski. Technical amendment on line for the correct the name of Senator Jim Caldwell's to strike the I and replace it with me. Oh yeah we will the I believe the clerk will take care of that for us. Indeed. Very good. Thank you. Further discussion. I'm final passage. If the clerk would please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Counselor. Double duty by Councilmember Dombroski by Councilmember Dunn. I remember Gossett. I always thought well, I was never remember either one more of the girl councilmember by my count. Hi, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Chair. Votes no nice, no notes, and then excused. Thank you. By your vote we've given a do pass recommendation to motion 2015 535 and we will expedite that to the full the special meeting of the full council at 130 today. Do they have to come back? They're welcome. They're welcome to be here for that. They're not required to be a council member. Lambert I just want to be sure that they take with them our agenda so that their, their first assignment is with and I think you that very much. Yeah. All right. They all. Thank you, Mr. Kaplan. We appreciate your participation, and you're welcome to hang up. Thank you. At any point you wish. Thank you. All right. And that takes us to item five on the agenda. Proposed Motion 2015.