[0:00] Good morning everyone. Welcome to the March 17th, 2026, meeting of the Transportation Economy and Environment Committee.

[0:11] I'm Stephanie Fain, chair of this committee. Thank you to everyone for joining us today in person and online.

[0:18] Would you please call the roll?

[0:20] Thank you. Can someone be by the chair?

[0:23] Here.

[0:25] Can someone be by the chair?

[0:27] Can someone be by the chair?

[0:29] Here.

[0:31] Jefe.

[0:33] Here.

[0:35] Thank you very much.

[0:37] Let's take the minutes up.

[0:39] Vice chair of on-right power.

[0:41] Would you please put the minutes from the February 17th, 2026, meeting before us?

[0:45] Thank you very much.

[0:47] The motions before us.

[0:49] All those in favor say aye.

[0:51] Aye.

[0:52] All right. The minutes have been approved.

[0:54] So we have a pretty full agenda this morning.

[0:56] We're going to start with a one-hour panel of local experts discussing safety and security preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

[1:06] And following that briefing, we'll then open the meeting for public comment.

[1:10] And then take up two items for action.

[1:12] Metros south, links, service restructure, and metros agency safety plans.

[1:18] So thank you again for all being here and we're going to go ahead and get started.

[1:22] We're going to start with our first item.

[1:24] The briefing on safety and security at the upcoming World Cup,

[1:28] happening here in King County in just three months.

[1:32] I'd like to invite our panelists to come on down to the front table.

[1:36] So as we all know, as a major international event,

[1:42] that will bring significant activity to our region.

[1:46] We're very grateful that we're well coordinated across jurisdictions and agencies

[1:50] to ensure the safety of residents, visitors, and the many workers supporting these efforts.

[1:56] We're joined today by a strong panel of representatives from Seattle Fire and Police,

[2:02] the King County Sheriff's Office, Office of Emergency Management,

[2:06] and Metro, and Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026 local organizing committee.

[2:12] We're reflecting the high level of coordination required for an event to the scale.

[2:16] So thank you all for being here and for all of your work already underway.

[2:20] Just so everyone's aware we've asked each presenter to keep remarks

[2:26] two about seven minutes so that we can reserve time for questions and discussion at the end.

[2:32] And so that we have enough time to get through everyone.

[2:36] And with that, I will ask Adam McClendon to kick off the panel.

[2:40] And then you can decide whether to move to your right or your left.

[2:44] And when it's your turn, please go ahead and introduce yourselves before you begin.

[2:50] All right. Thank you, Heta.

[2:52] Good morning. Thank you for having me today.

[2:56] Adam McClendon with the local organizing committee for the FIFA World Cup.

[3:02] To get us started and to level set a reminder that we are all spending a lot of time these days preparing for six

[3:10] World Cup matches here in Seattle.

[3:12] All of the matches are during the week for the matches are in the middle of the day and two matches are in the evening.

[3:20] At the local organizing committee, we have the responsibility and pleasure to coordinate amongst all the parties

[3:28] and plan for a safe responsible and fun tournament here in Seattle.

[3:34] We are not FIFA. We are obviously not government.

[3:38] And our span of control is not in the stadium.

[3:42] We are doing all of the planning outside of the stadium here in Seattle.

[3:46] Specifically to human trafficking.

[3:50] And when I say human trafficking, I'm referring to sex and labor trafficking.

[3:54] There's really several a whole spectrum of organizations and systems that are placed here in Seattle and in King County and across Washington.

[4:06] It's really a established network of legal systems and community-based organizations who do this hard work every single day.

[4:14] And we know when you have large events that bring an influx of crowds.

[4:20] The potential for impact specifically around human trafficking increases.

[4:26] At the LOC, we are focused on prevention efforts.

[4:30] So as a reminder, prevention is the work that you do up front to prevent human trafficking from happening.

[4:38] Mitigation efforts are really the opportunities to support the victims and bring them to justice.

[4:46] So we are focused up front with prevention, really supporting the community to do training and really anti-trafficking campaigns to prevent human trafficking.

[5:00] We have four strategies specifically.

[5:04] We are focused on at the local organizing committee in response to feedback.

[5:10] We got from a large network of providers that have been convening monthly for really the last two years.

[5:17] Thanks to the staff at King County.

[5:20] We have worked with all of them and are focused on four things, as I mentioned.

[5:25] One is, how do we support survivor-centered voices in security?

[5:31] The local organizing committee does not have any control over the legal and the community-based organizations.

[5:38] Or any of the systems that are in place that I mentioned.

[5:41] But what we have heard from those organizations is super important to have victim survivor voices as part of the security systems and the emergency response.

[5:53] Systems that are being put in place specifically around the World Cup, that way.

[5:59] If there is a need to connect somebody to services quickly, the person with expertise that knows how to support the victim

[6:07] and connect them to services is in the room to support a number of people that are at this table that are doing the legal and security work here.

[6:16] We think this is important strategy because it also tests a new model that doesn't necessarily exist in emergency operation and management,

[6:24] where you have somebody that has the human service sort of case management focus.

[6:29] So this is an in-process strategy that we would like to implement.

[6:34] We've got some work to do here to put it in place.

[6:37] The second thing we're working on is May is missing and murdered indigenous people month, as part of that month.

[6:46] We are working with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and are going to support an awareness campaign, specifically around missing and murdered indigenous people.

[6:56] Use what we have which is a very large megaphone to push out that campaign awareness campaign ahead of the World Cup and are looking forward to that in the coming months.

[7:10] The third strategy is in partnership with MLK labor focused on we know that the World Cup is going to bring a large influx of part-time and temporary workers.

[7:22] And how do we train all of them in human trafficking prevention?

[7:27] So looking forward to that effort to this then will be a training that will be embedded in some of the ongoing labor training that is going to happen beyond the World Cup.

[7:39] And excited to use this as an opportunity to really elevate the need for workers to actually be trained in human trafficking prevention and awareness.

[7:49] And then the fourth strategy is really how we train businesses.

[7:53] We began this strategy in June of last year with a goal of bringing together businesses really focused in Seattle between the Seattle Center and the stadium.

[8:07] And also in the nine fan zones around the state of how do you bring businesses in offer them free virtual training.

[8:16] This is in partnership with best they have online training both in English and Spanish offering that to businesses.

[8:24] And then in addition offering them free consultation needs sort of strategy development.

[8:30] For businesses that had already developed human trafficking prevention trainings as part of their operations.

[8:38] How do you review that and update those policies and procedures for the businesses that had never actually thought about that.

[8:45] Giving them the consultation to actually put those strategies in place.

[8:49] Again, having those businesses trained in human trafficking prevention from our perspective.

[8:56] One of the best things you can do is a community is advertising get as many people and eyes that are front of house security people at counters that are providing a service trained in human trafficking prevention.

[9:11] And arming them with the tools not only to identify people that might be in a risky situation, but how then to call the hotline.

[9:20] So that is a strategy we've rolled out.

[9:23] We're really excited about the businesses that are joined and I think there's also an opportunity here for the council as you have constituents in your jurisdictions that are interested in this training.

[9:35] We do still have some of the licenses available to get actually trained.

[9:42] So that is a very brief overview.

[9:44] Happy to take questions at the end.

[9:46] This is a super important topic.

[9:49] Glad to be invited to present major events like this definitely increase the vulnerability.

[9:56] And I think there's opportunity here for businesses that do the training to actually support their staff and arm their staff with knowledge and

[10:04] skills and resources.

[10:07] And then as I mentioned for the public.

[10:10] This is a super important deterrent that you can do which is take the training.

[10:15] It's about 30 minutes of your time to then know how to respond and what you're looking for.

[10:21] Thank you.

[10:30] Good morning.

[10:31] My name is Dan Nelson.

[10:32] I am the FIFA planning captain for the city of Seattle and Seattle Police Department.

[10:36] I just want to flag.

[10:38] So the city of Seattle started our efforts in planning for the FIFA World Cup back in 2023.

[10:44] So we knew we were in a city.

[10:46] We didn't really know what we're like the extent or all the details of what we're planning for.

[10:50] But that's when we really started putting some effort in.

[10:54] I identify the just extreme scope and scale of the tournament that we're going to be hosting here in our region.

[11:02] One of our first steps was to organize ourselves to figure out how are we going to approach all of the work we heard.

[11:08] You know, there's all of these fan activations zones and fan activations zones across the state.

[11:13] So how are we going to ensure parity as far as, you know, approaches to safety and security across such a vast distance.

[11:21] Our first steps was to reach out to the Washington State Military Department and the specifically the emergency management division to begin organizing our resources.

[11:30] And approaches and standing up work committees to support the 18 lines of effort outlined by FIFA.

[11:37] So just group overview.

[11:39] It's worth restating.

[11:41] Early we talked about the scope and scale of this tournament.

[11:44] So this year's tournament is 48 teams.

[11:46] We're going to have a larger than any previous tournament that FIFA's held.

[11:49] Again, hosted across three countries.

[11:52] There's two site host cities in Canada, 11 in the United States and three in Mexico.

[11:58] The we're anticipating an additional is about 708,000 visitors to our region to support and enjoy this tournament.

[12:07] And that's on top of the normal, you'll peak tourism that we normally experience here in the city with all of the cruise ships.

[12:15] And we're hosting again six matches here in Seattle.

[12:18] So they did the draw for all the teams on December 5th.

[12:22] Pretty happy with our draw.

[12:24] And so the next day on December 6th, they outlined the schedule.

[12:28] So the first match is Bill's inverse is Egypt.

[12:30] That's on June 15th.

[12:31] Second match to use national team Australia.

[12:34] That's on June 19th and also June 10th.

[12:36] And so that is what we're forecasting right now with the exception of the knockout rounds at the end is going to be our best attended match.

[12:43] Additionally, there's other community activations and I think the mayor is playing that night too.

[12:48] So there's going to be a lot going on in June 19th.

[12:50] Then we have Qatar and a team that's still to be determined playing on June 24th.

[12:56] And then currently in the federal Republic of Iran and Egypters at the play on June 26th, which is our pride.

[13:02] Our community designated pride match.

[13:05] So we are talking about participating some pro LGBTQ rallies outside the footprint of the tournament.

[13:14] And then lastly, there's a knockout round on July 1st and then the final match on July 6th.

[13:20] In addition to Seattle Stadium, which is what Lumenfield will be referred to for the duration of the tournament,

[13:25] there are other venues within the city of Seattle and in King County as well.

[13:30] So there are two practice facilities in the city, one's at the University of Washington and one's at Seattle University.

[13:37] And there's also a team based camp down in Rhetton at the Longacre facility.

[13:43] Again, we have a great assurances that that will be selected, but they have not really officially who will be staying at that base camp.

[13:49] And then another base camp over at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

[13:54] There are four team hotels in the city of Seattle that the teams will be visiting.

[13:59] And again, we talked about the nine fan activation zones across the state.

[14:04] So one of the things we've ran into when organizing our responses because there are these fan activation zones all the way across the state of Washington.

[14:12] Mutual aid has been tricky because, again, these agencies are hosting their own events in their areas.

[14:19] Obviously, they need staffing to make their local events in success as well.

[14:23] So that's something my team and I have been navigating.

[14:26] And we actually have received a great support mostly from the King County Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Patrol and many other great partners to round out our security plan.

[14:36] One of the main things that we're contemplating as we're moving towards operationalizing our plans is preventing crowd crush.

[14:45] We can't go in Google, you know, soccer tournament disasters and not see massive a fan disorder and things like that.

[14:53] So we're implementing more European style of antiquing at the stadium footprint, which will hopefully reduce.

[15:00] Not eliminate a lot of those risks. Additionally, we're going to be doing proactive about which

[15:05] worried you've begun proactive about reach with the participating nations that are coming

[15:09] to Seattle to ensure that we are aware of their plans, not only on matchday, but also non-match

[15:14] days, as far as proud gatherings. Are they intending to march if so? How many people are they planning

[15:21] on taking part in the march and different things like that? So on the day of we can actually return

[15:25] and provide the best overall experience for everyone probably to our area. Messaging and communication,

[15:32] there is a FIFA app that's going to be required from what I understand to use to take all the

[15:36] tickets are going to be, or 95% of the tickets will be electronic. And so you'll have to have the

[15:40] FIFA app, which is good, because then we're going to have this global audience sharing one application,

[15:45] so that will be a really good way for us to share way of finding information and things like that.

[15:50] Intelligence were partnering with our Washington State Fusion Center, they're the main conduit

[15:58] information, everything from team profiles to fan group profiles. And if we have an incident that

[16:04] happened in New York, New Jersey, through the Fusion Center, we'll learn about it real time here in Seattle,

[16:09] so we can adjust to the operational plans that we have. And lastly, as far as staffing goes again,

[16:15] we're going to be relying on mutual aid partners to, there's a lot of different aspects

[16:21] again, talk about the stadium venue, as well as our fan celebration sites, which again, we're

[16:25] following a more decentralized model for that, so we'll have fan activation sites,

[16:32] and victory hall, which is run across from team old park, the waterfront, the Seattle Center,

[16:37] and then Pacific Place, so we'll have resources to all those different places. And again,

[16:41] happy to answer any questions at the end.

[16:48] Hello, I'm Jeff Flarram, the undershare for the King County Sheriff's Office.

[16:52] I'll start with, I've been working with this panel of people for the last two years, and it's an absolute

[16:57] pleasure to be here. We're kind of excited talking about this event. Dan and I have been tasked by both

[17:02] of our agencies. I was a chief at the time when we first got this assignment, so we are rapidly

[17:09] approaching an exciting, excited about it. When the Sheriff's Office, when the FIFA approach

[17:14] doesn't say they were coming and Seattle approached us, the Sheriff set to work identifying

[17:21] what are our lines of business that we need to protect and how can we support the entire event.

[17:25] So we came up with, excuse me, the FIFA Corps Service Area, so the FIFA Corps Service Area is Metro Transit,

[17:33] Sound Transit, King County International Airport, the City of Shoreline, and the City of

[17:39] Sea Tech. And then any impacted areas by other events happening, say, I'll give you an example,

[17:47] White Center Pride's going to have a big event and an unincorporated and other big FIFA watch

[17:51] parties in our contract city jurisdictions. But those areas I just named out for you is Council's

[17:56] well aware are contract, either entities or cities with the Sheriff's Office. So in focusing on

[18:04] those Corps Service areas, we're able to build out our plan to support Seattle. What it did first

[18:10] Seattle is early on, they realized we're going to be able to cover transit throughout the city,

[18:15] because they're going to be very focused on the Seattle Center, the fan activation, inside the perimeter

[18:21] of that world cup. If you think of outside the perimeter, we need to get all those guests safely

[18:27] too and from in and out of this event every game day. The other things really important, I don't

[18:33] know if Dan mentioned it, but he does in some of our other road shows, there's not going to be much

[18:37] parking. This is not a park at event, so we know that Metro and Sound are going to be the way that most

[18:43] people get to this event and our delivery for them is getting them in safely. So how are we going to do that?

[18:50] What does that look like? So let's talk about non-game days first. We know this events

[18:57] happening, we know the dates of the games, however for us at the Sheriff's Office, non-game days are

[19:01] very important and I'll tell you why. King County International Airport is going to end up supporting

[19:06] most of the team, the teams, the partners and arrivals. It is also going to end up supporting most of

[19:12] our dignitary and VIP arrivals. Those arrivals could be as high as heads of state coming to watch

[19:20] their teams. That's the Sheriff's Office core responsibility to provide law enforcement services and

[19:25] protection to that location. So you can come up with any kind of scenario, maybe a team's coming in,

[19:33] maybe somebody's upset about somebody, maybe somebody's happy to see their player. We have to make sure

[19:37] that those crowds can see what's going on, if they're doing first amendment stuff, make sure they're able

[19:42] to express their voices, and make sure we have a presence so that their port doesn't get shut down so that

[19:47] they can't. There's no obstructions, there's nothing like that. Make it a good experience. We're

[19:51] going to be very focused though on those travel days. We also believe we're going to need to upstaff

[19:57] when we are upstaffing on the shoulder days of the games, because many of our fans who are coming

[20:01] from out of town are going to want to take part in Seattle. They're going to want to take part in the

[20:05] region, take the light rail down and see pipe plays, come down and see a mariner game. It's not just

[20:10] going to be about those World Cup games, so we need to prepare it for that large volume of people.

[20:15] And then we have special operations group, the NATO Council is aware of. We have a joint

[20:20] bomb squad with the Air Support, we have a SWOT team. Those groups will be working those days

[20:26] any kind of tasks that are coming out through our command posts, different things going on.

[20:31] So a game day, an actual game day, what you're going to see is a large amount of what we call surge

[20:37] staffing and the transit system. What does that mean, Jeff? Well, surge staffing is, if you got on the

[20:41] light rail at federal way or even at the end of the line, you're going to start seeing some uniform

[20:46] officers. The closer you get, the more you're going to see, because we know our volumes are going to

[20:52] increase as we get closer and closer. And it's a visible presence. It's a happy presence to be there.

[20:57] It's, uh, here's your way to the game. It's deterrence through being accessible and being seen.

[21:04] What you won't see is we will have some plain clothes resources, uh, throughout the system,

[21:10] making sure everything's okay and keeping eye on things that may be uniformed officers wouldn't

[21:14] see. Uh, our special operations group will be fully activated. So that is your SWOT team.

[21:21] SPD SWOT units are going to be heavily dedicated to the stadiums. We will be deployed in a way to support

[21:27] them on the outside of the stadiums and support the transit system, right? Because anti-terrorism is a

[21:33] big part of this event. So we need to be able to be able to move around and react to any real time threats.

[21:39] Um, we will have opened up the SOCC. The SOCC is the Sheriff's Office Coordination Center.

[21:46] That is embedded with the King County EOC, uh, basically I held a bake sale and Director McCluskey gave

[21:53] me the back half of his EOC. So we're able to, uh, but we're in that room with the EOC very intentionally.

[22:01] Because if the Sheriff's Office is dealing with something, we want to be able to share it with our EOC

[22:06] and then we'll be linked in with the unified command, which will be everyone will have a footprint

[22:11] in the Seattle location. However, we open the Sheriff's Office Coordination Center

[22:15] because we are so big, meaning we are spread out so far. Um, the Seattle Unified Command is not going

[22:21] to want to know if something is going on in Carnation or Maple Valley. They might, but it's going to be

[22:29] noise if it's not directly related and we still need to be able to be flexible, which is why we open

[22:33] that Coordination Center. We'll be staffing up to do FIFA Watch parties and we'll staff those

[22:40] based on intelligence, uh, and I can mention ingress and ingress. Uh, so I will go to, uh, one other

[22:48] topic that I know it's been, uh, on everybody's mind, and that's drums and UAS. The Sheriff's Office

[22:54] took a lead position after working with the FBI, um, state patrol WSP, uh, in the state,

[23:02] on counter-drone work. Um, we were able to put in first some grants that executive's office has

[23:07] accepted now. Uh, and this will coordinate a grant Seattle put in for them as well, so to state patrol,

[23:13] and we will be running joint counter. So when I say counter-drone, it is detection and mitigation

[23:19] of drums that could be dangerous that are coming into the area. Uh, this is one of the topics that

[23:26] kept me up at night when we first accepted this tournament, and I come due today feeling much more confident

[23:32] with the way we're going to be able to handle this. I can't get into specifics on how we do this.

[23:38] Um, but one of the things we do do we do that I can speak about is Seattle several years ago came up with

[23:44] ground intercept teams. Get, um, we have equipment that can detect the operator of a drum that's flying

[23:50] illegally. We will then go out with local and federal resources from the FBI or Homeland Security. I'm

[23:55] sorry, uh, TSA, and we will contact the operator flying illegally. An example of that is Seattle in the

[24:02] Sheriff's Office and TSA arrested a subject unsatement that was flying a drone unsafe during the, uh,

[24:08] Seahawks parade. And I think you saw that probably on the news. Um, we've been doing this for the

[24:13] last two years and Seattle kudos to them started it and we've really taken off and it's this team effort.

[24:20] Um, one of the things we added is the ability to, uh, look for operators from the helicopters. So this

[24:27] scenario is let's say you live in a high-rise in Seattle. It's very hard for a ground team to make contact

[24:32] with you on your balcony when you're flying a drone. It, what we found is we use Guardian 1 or another

[24:39] helicopter to equip the same way. We can see the operator, we can see the drone, see if there's a payload

[24:45] and then deal with it from there. So I know I'm probably going over my time because I talk about this too much,

[24:50] but much more confident and very happy and thankful for the partnerships that are here. Thanks.

[24:55] Uh, thanks, Brendan. Because I just wanted to see if you wanted, uh,

[25:02] tiny chief Collins to go before me. Okay, Brendan, I'm the director of emergency management for King

[25:11] County. Um, I just wanted to add on to some of the things that have already been said. You know,

[25:17] you heard, uh, Captain Nelson talk about this is 50% larger than past, uh, World Cups.

[25:24] And this is really the largest sporting event that's ever been fielded anywhere in the world. Um,

[25:31] and more than to talk first about how not only we hear the local level but the state and the federal

[25:38] government look at special events and generally they get together with the fusion center and with local

[25:45] officials with the Department of Homeland Security and others and they come up with a special event assessment

[25:51] rating. Um, and this is a classification system that can be used to evaluate and categorize these events

[25:58] based on the potential impact they might have on public safety and security and other local state and

[26:04] national interests. Um, it helps to guide the allocation of security resources and support for events that

[26:11] may require additional assistance by their local state or federal officials. And nationally, uh,

[26:19] there's about 94,000 of these events that are classified each year and about 20 of them have the highest

[26:27] ratings at Sierra 1 and Sierra 2. And Sierra 1 and Sierra 2, that's when you see a lot of federal involvement,

[26:33] a federal coordinator is assigned and there are federal agencies that are participating in the activities

[26:39] related to safety security and other things. So again, 94,000 nationally each year about 20 of them are

[26:48] Sierra 1 and Sierra 2. Uh, for World Cup, there's going to be 104 matches, 78 will be in the United

[26:55] States and of these all will be classified and either Sierra 1 or Sierra 2. So just put it in perspective,

[27:02] normally there's only 20 of these a year for World Cup will see 78 alone. All of the matches in

[27:10] Seattle will be classified as Sierra 2. So the second highest level of security and special assessment ratings.

[27:17] So why is this important? It's important because you've already heard the coordination and planning efforts

[27:23] that have to go into all of these different agencies, not only in Seattle and King County but in our

[27:29] surrounding counties across the state and with the federal government. Um, this is a big deal because of

[27:37] all the other things that are happening. You heard about the activities in Seattle, there'll be activities in

[27:42] and in other locations in King County. Uh, they'll be travel throughout King County and travel

[27:48] throughout the i5 and i90 corridors as there might be another base camp out in Spokane. So coordination

[27:56] and planning across all of these different efforts have to be, has to be done and done comprehensively.

[28:04] You know, we also have all these other special events going on throughout the summer. We have

[28:07] independence day. We have pride, celebration and others. It's also the height of the summer.

[28:14] We worry about things like heat waves and wildfire, including wildfire, smoke. And there are other things

[28:20] going on as well, just the normal course of events. So you've heard already about planning efforts, right?

[28:27] The local organizing committee, Seattle, King County are all doing their planning, planning for what's

[28:34] going on in Seattle, outside of Seattle and across the state. Um, you heard Captain Nelson talk about

[28:40] the statewide planning committee that the state emergency management division is, is organizing

[28:46] across all different types of focus areas from transportation to communication, both the communication

[28:54] technology and public information to safety and security to hazards materials and many others. And above

[29:02] all this, there's an executive steering committee that's made up of representatives from Seattle,

[29:06] the local organizing committee, King County, the state and the federal government, any fuel, fuel,

[29:11] all of tribe of Indians. Um, in King County, we have a concept of operations plan that's being developed

[29:17] to help guide what we will do for World Cup. And again, we talked about already the matches and

[29:25] wind will occur. Base camps will actually open likely at the end of May, beginning of June.

[29:30] So we'll have activities going on here for World Cup, probably starting at the end of May,

[29:35] and lasting through probably mid July. Um, and, you know, all of this also needs to be coordinated,

[29:43] and plan for and not just in Seattle, obviously, but throughout the throughout King County and throughout the

[29:49] state. In addition to the concept of operations plan that is being developed, there's one in Seattle,

[29:55] we have one for the county, there's one at the state, the federal government.

[30:00] Government will have one. For each individual match, there will be plans, plans that Seattle Police, Seattle Fire,

[30:06] King County Sheriff's Office, King County Emergency Management, and others will put together to really speak to the needs of that particular incident or that event.

[30:16] And then statewide, we're putting together a concept of operations, also that is called the multi-agency coordination group plan.

[30:25] This really looks at how we do that high level policy level or strategic level planning and coordination across the city, the county, the state, and the federal government.

[30:38] And we need to make sure that all these efforts are integrated so that we have one purpose, one message and one objective, and that's to make sure people are safe and secure.

[30:49] You heard under share of floor talk about the Emergency Operations Center. We will have the King County Emergency Operations Center open and active.

[30:56] At some level, probably as soon as the base camp opens, more full activation on match days, and then we'll keep it open until the teams leave from the base camps.

[31:09] We are the link to the State Emergency Operations Center. So Seattle, Renton, any other city within King County need something they come to us first, and then if we can't handle that, we'll elevate it up to the state.

[31:24] And that's also managed by the State Emergency Operations Center by the State Emergency Management Division.

[31:29] We're also coordinating with our partners and other jurisdictions, like the home mission pierce counties, and we will have additional representatives in our King County EOC.

[31:40] We plan to have some transit there. We plan to have some other state agencies and federal agencies as well. So again, there is this coordination going on locally at the county at the state and with the federal level.

[31:54] And there are plans upon plans upon plans.

[31:59] Naturally, there are some plans that are going on that we all fall up under.

[32:04] We have a concept of operations plan at the state and an event action plan and local plans and these all need to be integrated together.

[32:12] And as you heard, we've been doing this for about two and a half years now. Once Seattle found out that they were a host city, the planning really did start.

[32:22] So just a couple notes on the multi agency coordination group. This is that high level group that will come together.

[32:30] Probably just on match days, but coordinating on other days as well.

[32:36] This is a strategic coordination body that will bring together these policy level or strategic level personnel from multiple agencies and jurisdictions to really establish those strategic priorities.

[32:49] If there are concurrent incidents going on, something that goes beyond what just the match day happens.

[32:56] This will support coordinated decision making to help de-conflict any finite resource allocation during an incident.

[33:04] And help to make sure that there's a shared, common operating picture during any of these complex incidents that might occur simultaneously with the matches.

[33:15] The multi agency coordination group does not control or command what goes on tactically at the local level or at the county level or any other operations that are taking place in the field.

[33:28] Really, the purpose is to prioritize those finite resources if they're necessary to allow for some rapid allocation of resources and adaptation to what any changing hazards might be.

[33:42] To provide that consistent policy direction and to secure some strategic oversight, you know, in the event that something bad does happen outside of the matches.

[33:56] And this is a multi-week multi-dure-stictional international event and that's why we decided to put together this multi agency coordination group that will have a high operational tempo.

[34:07] There'll be complex security and public safety demands.

[34:12] And the concurrent planned events across the state, the fans zones in Seattle, the fan activation zones and other places of the state.

[34:21] And other watch parties that are going on will all require some level of effort beyond just local organizations and local planning efforts.

[34:31] This multi agency coordination group helps to coordinate all the federal, tribal, state, local and private sector partners as well during this complex response.

[34:44] And it's going to facilitate coordination among all the different agencies that are involved.

[34:50] I think lastly, just so we can move on here, but I also wanted to talk about the joint information system.

[34:56] So the joint information system is really simply put a plan to coordinate public information both the intake of that public information from news agencies, from social media and from other locations.

[35:10] And put out that public information as well, especially during emergencies.

[35:16] We have a joint information center that joint information center is the physical location where that joint information system plan is implemented and executed.

[35:28] So for FIFA World Cup 26, the joint information system in joint information center concept of operation helps to detail the structures and organization and the roles of public information officers and how they'll come together physically in the joint information center and virtually in other located joint information centers elsewhere.

[35:52] This plan really does reflect current practices in emergency public information, including how social media and mass notification technologies are used.

[36:02] And they're using a hub and spoke model where the central joint information center that physical location where the key organizers of the joint information system will be located.

[36:13] That's the hub and then all other joint information centers across the state that are involved.

[36:20] So within Seattle at the local organizing committee.

[36:23] At the state in Tacoma in Tri-Cities, et cetera, will be the spokes to help coordinate with that central hub.

[36:33] And the King County Emergency Operations Center is the place where that central jick will be located.

[36:38] And that central jick really is to make sure that all of the different agencies that are involved in World Cup when they're dealing with public information and especially emergency notifications if necessary.

[36:50] Speak with one voice, provide that timely and accurate information to the public and to the media.

[36:57] And coordinating that messaging is important to ensure accuracy and consistency and make sure that we're not giving out the urgent messages to the public when there is an emergency going on.

[37:10] And I'll just comment also that one campaign of the joint information system and joint information center that's planned and hopefully we'll be able to execute on it is to be focused on the human trafficking element.

[37:23] But I don't have any details on that yet, but it is a planned effort. So thanks and I'll take questions. What at the end, thanks.

[37:34] Thanks for having us back. Appreciate it Jonathan Rose program director for King County Metro.

[37:40] And I'm actually here to put McColle in the hot seat. I have our subject matter. Expert on safety security. Lead for that work group Chris.

[37:50] Bruno.

[37:52] Take it away Chris thanks.

[37:57] Thanks Jonathan.

[37:58] morning Chris Brenner with King County Metro Emergency Management and like he said our security

[38:04] safety work group planning lead. So of course we've been working on this for the last

[38:09] year and a half with 60 to 70 percent of fans and regular writers expected to take transit to the

[38:17] matches. It's really crucial and important that we have a good plans for our safety and security

[38:24] of our writers. We're doing this in four different ways versus with additional transit security

[38:29] officer deployments on match days in addition to our regular weekday security operations. We're

[38:35] going to have additional post-employments for our transit security officers. We're looking to

[38:39] expand the transit security officer presence along third avenue. At our shuttle stops the

[38:46] FIFA shuttle stops as well as around the stadium for supporting loading and unloading of passengers.

[38:56] We're also prioritizing deployment where our fans and customers are expected to be heavier during

[39:00] those match days. Some of those areas that we're looking at are along the Seattle waterfronts,

[39:04] or in the King County Water Taxi, as well as our new waterfront shuttle. We're also looking at the

[39:10] international district supporting Jackson Quarter corridor and Seattle Streetcar and finally we're

[39:17] expecting additional ridership and people around the federal way parking rights. So we're going to

[39:21] be deploying additional team there. We're also looking to enhance our monitoring and oversight

[39:30] dispatching capabilities by signing some additional security monitoring center and field

[39:35] supervisation supervision. For our physical security side, of course we know we have a lot more

[39:44] lot of metro operations happening adjacent to the stadiums. So we're looking to add some additional

[39:52] security officers to assist with our metro employees with our operations there at our bases and then

[39:58] we're also working closely with our water taxi service planning for any potential marine security level

[40:04] or Marsec level changes that could occur during this time. In addition to our additional security,

[40:11] we have a number of different department and interagency coordination mechanisms. We will be

[40:19] activating our metro department operations center throughout the match days, or throughout the

[40:25] tournament, with varying levels of activation during match days and non-match days. This will allow us to

[40:32] have a central point of coordination across the entire department, be able to escalate and

[40:37] inform issues to our leadership for policy decision as well as have operational control,

[40:44] common operating picture for all of metro. In addition to that we'll have metro emergency management

[40:49] representatives at the unified command post in Seattle with King County Emergency Operations Center.

[40:56] Some additional ready to go in case we have to activate other emergency operations centers for

[41:02] FIFA issues. So this will allow us to have that additional capability for information sharing,

[41:11] intelligence being able to inform our own department operating center and act on any information that

[41:19] comes up very quickly. Some of the other things that we're doing we're doing a lot of training and

[41:24] exercises to ramp up for FIFA to prepare our employees and our staff. We're increasing de-escalation

[41:31] and customer service training offerings to our frontline employees and other operators.

[41:38] We've developed a new incident management training and framework for metro first-line supervisors.

[41:44] Exercise and tested two different continuity drills at our transit control center focused on

[41:49] communications, power outages and evacuation so they're ready for that. Conducted some communications

[41:56] tabletop exercises with our security monitoring center and then have a large communication coordination

[42:06] and operational continuity exercise coming up in April. We'll exercise our operation side and policy

[42:13] decision making the ability to escalate issues up to our leadership. And then our

[42:19] decision with our transit peers with our emergency management and other emergency response peers on

[42:25] other exercises with sound transit with King County Seattle. So we're very involved in all of that.

[42:34] Thank you. Thank you and before we move on to Battalion Chief Collins I just wanted to

[42:39] let my colleagues and members of the public know that we are going to have a transit summit

[42:44] at this committee meeting April 21st where we will probably have an opportunity to talk a little bit

[42:52] more about transit security there. But thank you very much for being here in your report.

[42:58] So let's turn it over to Battalion Chief Collins. Thanks.

[43:02] Great. Thank you very much. Council members committee and my public safety colleagues.

[43:08] It's good to see you. I'm sorry. I can't be with you in person right now. But I appreciate the opportunity

[43:13] to share with how the fire service has been prepared for the people world cut. A lot of the the

[43:19] scene is already been set by my colleagues. We're prepared for a world events that is larger than this

[43:29] the British yellow region is prepared for in the past. So I'll skip the details and I'll just

[43:33] keep my comments specific to the fire service. As Vince mentioned we've been on this

[43:39] preparation process for over two years working closely with our law enforcement partners,

[43:45] our emergency management partners and so forth. So it locks step on that front.

[43:51] Sales fire as representing the fire serve of the regional fire service. As a member of the state

[43:57] executive steering committee and also co-leads the the states safety and security work group to

[44:03] ensure that all the needs of the fire has Matt EMS agencies are are represented in taking care of.

[44:13] As far as our our people preparation goes we've attended several national level host city events

[44:21] where intended to synchronize information sharing and just not only network but just build plans

[44:29] that are realistic and developed around to be physical expectations. We meet with FIFA leadership in the

[44:36] fire and emergency preparedness as well as medical realms on a bi-weekly basis just to ensure what is

[44:44] being planned for here in Seattle aligns 100% with FIFA's expectations.

[44:51] Proximity wise we're we are working closely with our partners in Vancouver British Columbia,

[44:57] Vancouver BC fire and rescue and in on

[45:00] In fact, on April 20th, Seattle host a workshop for host city fire departments where, at this time,

[45:08] to send members from Santa Clara, Los Angeles County, and then Kofur will be coming to share best practices and

[45:14] ensure that the isolated efforts that have been going into each host city's planning are shared across

[45:22] borders and that we can learn from each other. As mentioned, just the scale of this planning is one of

[45:31] the largest challenges. The fire service is woven into not only the response efforts, you know,

[45:39] anticipating the need to manage large scale numbers of potential patients, but also the

[45:49] charging management plans to ensure that transportation to an incident or from an incident is anticipated

[45:59] in those needs are addressed. And the patient triage, the treatments and ultimately transportation

[46:12] to definitive care is another line of effort that we're working closely with the hospital system on.

[46:19] We meet every other week with members, our host city medical lead from University of Washington's

[46:27] hospital departments to ensure that what we do on-scene is smoothly transferred to the hospital

[46:35] system. Tomorrow indeed, we actually had a full-scale exercise that will help prepare us for what we may

[46:41] see in response to during the World Cup, but I am not going to be taking place at a women field.

[46:47] I will give this an opportunity to practice our mass casually incident response plans. We are also

[46:53] sitting members to turn to respond to bomb incidents, as well as really emphasizing that coordination

[47:01] of MCI and mass casually incident responses with definitive care at the hospitals. On the prevention

[47:09] side, it should be known that the fire services and just not responding to an incident,

[47:17] we are part of preparation well and advance. Our fire prevention division is woven into the

[47:24] permitting process to ensure that life safety needs are addressed from the onset, from the way the stadium is

[47:31] designed, the exit pathways are planned for, just to maximum occupancy loads, and so forth.

[47:41] The best way to mitigate a response is to eliminate it from happening at the beginning and that's through

[47:49] prevention. As mentioned, public affairs, our team has been and continues to be active in the joint

[47:57] information system, and will be present in the Joint Information Center to ensure that the fire

[48:02] services communicating a message that's well synchronized with all other agencies. Mutual aid, as Captain

[48:10] Nelson mentioned, is imperative, and we have we are fortunate to have existing plans in place that we will

[48:18] be prepared to utilize specifically for paramedics, which is advanced life saving or ALS

[48:28] patient care. Those we are prepared to call on our partners from Redmond, Bellevue,

[48:35] Shoreline, and the King County 9.1 programs. In the Hazmat, Hazard's Materials Room,

[48:44] the Joint Hazard Assessment Team, also known as the J-hat, is a concept that she utilized throughout

[48:51] the country for a special large scale special events. This is a team that utilizes members of the fire

[48:58] service law enforcement, department of energy, civil support team, and really is a collaborative effort

[49:07] to provide passive and active detection for ongoing detection for C-burn threats. And so that

[49:15] that event is or that capability as well, established and will be in play. We would be, I'd be

[49:22] remiss without just acknowledging that the region really had the good fortune of hosting the 2025 FIFA

[49:30] Club World Cup, where many of all of our practices got a chance to be initially exercised,

[49:38] and in the lessons learned from that event, I had just given just a tremendous advantage towards

[49:45] honing our plans for the 2026 World Cup. It was mentioned in post-floor World Cup after actions that

[49:54] the Seattle Greater Seattle area was one of, was recognizes one of these safest locations

[50:01] of all the host cities. And I don't, I don't say that to bring credit on ourselves, but just to build

[50:07] confidence in in the Greater Seattle community and the King County community that our plans are well

[50:16] tested. The fire service is prepared to provide fire, has mad, EMS, capabilities, inside the

[50:27] stadiums, at the base camps, working with our right members in Rinton and Kourtney, with members in

[50:33] Spokane, as well as the training sites that we're talking to. We will also have our presence for all

[50:39] of those reasons at the fan celebration sites. So that I appreciate the opportunity to be here,

[50:46] virtually, to brief you on the fire services preparations for the people who are up and like my colleagues

[50:52] and happy to take any questions. Thank you very much. Colleagues, do you have any questions?

[50:59] Councillor Valducci? Thank you Chair. And thank you for an opportunity. This has been extremely

[51:06] educational. I apologize for being on the move, but I've been listening intently to all of the

[51:10] presentations. Thank you so much to all of you for all your hard work and coordination. I've got

[51:18] three basic questions if I may chair. The first one going back to the presentation on human trafficking

[51:25] and labor trafficking. I've been thinking a lot about the legacy of the World Cup and, you know,

[51:32] we obviously we have a lot of work to do to do it, to get through it, to do all the work on the

[51:37] days of. But how do we put all this effort to benefit for the future? And it feels like some of

[51:44] this training and organizing and educating that is going to go on for the World Cup around human

[51:49] trafficking could be very beneficial as a way to build into the future. And I wonder if there's any

[51:55] thought being given to that at this point? That's a great question. I had a similar question and

[52:03] we'll turn it over to Hedde. Thanks for the question, Council Member Valducci. I think you're

[52:13] identifying, setting up systems for training, being a great opportunity for legacy. So specifically to

[52:22] our initiative around trained workers and the partnership with MLK, yes, the World Cup will put

[52:29] human trafficking prevention training in place and then the desires for that to actually exist

[52:36] beyond the World Cup to your point exactly around legacy. With regards to the work we're also doing with

[52:44] businesses, I think we're super fortunate in this community to have an outstanding partner in best

[52:50] who does this work day in and day out. We've got a number of hospitality businesses and frankly

[52:59] transportation and ports that already do a fair bit of work around human trafficking and I think there

[53:06] is an opportunity for even more to not only take advantage of the free training but actually put policies

[53:12] and procedures in place because that way it does become a legacy and the the businesses,

[53:18] whether it's for the World Cup or for the next mega event or summer of influx if visitors

[53:25] to the Seattle region they can continue to be trained and obviously open to your thoughts to around

[53:31] other opportunities you see where the trafficking prevention can be a legacy. I'd love to follow

[53:37] up on that after because it has been a priority of members of this Council, specifically Council

[53:42] and I know that we would love to use the opportunity to build into the future. So thank you for that

[53:51] and we'll follow up with you afterward. The second question I have is about I am very, very reassured to hear

[53:56] about all the work and all the coordination going on around what you could call intentional threats,

[54:03] people who see a big event and look at it as an opportunity to do something. I'm in my district worried

[54:11] about the unintentional threats what my husband would call the idiot factor. So we're looking for like

[54:17] can somebody talk a little bit about how we're planning just crowd management the fact that there's

[54:21] likely to be an increase in drunkenness sort of just just celebratory behavior gone wrong. Let's put it

[54:27] that way it's a little more diplomatic. Who's where is the the resources for that kind of likely

[54:34] public safety issue? It's a great question. So I'll take a stab at it. So we are anticipating

[54:43] our deployment to we're working as an deployment of three phases. So we have a pre match phase, a match

[54:50] phase, and then a post match phase. And the intent of that is to kind of ease of facilitate crowd

[54:55] movements from all the transit platforms and everywhere else people are coming from to the last through

[55:02] the last mile area and ultimately to the destination loom and field or any of our fan celebration

[55:08] sites. And so intentionally and unintentionally so what we've been doing is looking at what's

[55:13] happening across the world as far as you know how our people who are you know evil minded have

[55:22] we will intent you know targeting large gatherings of groups and we're using those and applying them

[55:28] directly to our operational plans. So you know Anishar Floor mentioned earlier like parking

[55:34] is kind of a bit of a situation down by the stadium because we need to ensure that we're going to have a

[55:40] large gathering of uh a few members in the Pioneer Square area. That's where everyone's going to be

[55:45] killing to try and get into the stadium as well as it's going to be a huge community activation space. So

[55:50] think about all the merchandising, all the vendors, all the different things. And so what keeps me

[55:56] up at night and over on the sure floor it was drones. For me it was vehicle born attacks. Like how are we

[56:01] going to create a safe space for everybody to gather for upwards of 10 hours you know and not have to worry

[56:07] about again vehicle born attacks. And so we have a very intricate anti vehicle deployment map and we're

[56:15] going to be beginning engagement with that community because obviously it's going to create some access issues

[56:20] for some of the residents and businesses in the space. But we feel strongly that's necessary to again

[56:25] ensure it's safe and secure environment. And then lastly is you know making sure that all of our

[56:30] resources are there through you know the duration of the uh celebration. So you know the match doesn't stop

[56:37] well the match stops in the match stops but people are going to flow into Pioneer Square and people are

[56:41] going to continue to visit restaurants and bars and different things like that. So we need to ensure that

[56:45] we have appropriate staffing to ensure that everyone has a safe time in Seattle. And then lastly we are

[56:53] planning for relief squad. So all of our officers are first responders who are out there for

[56:57] upwards of 10 hours. Again they will be relieved by the evening crew who will come in so we can

[57:02] rotate some people off the exit. So hopefully that answered your question. And are you coordinating

[57:08] with the suburban cities? My district is all Bellevue Kirkland, Redmond, Russel Island type places

[57:14] because they're likely to see this kind of not big massive crowds but partying behavior is going to be

[57:20] like it's going to be like any big event not where people are out maybe there are disappointed or

[57:26] happy and probably have taken some fun more. Council member Ola, I'll join Dan and check that call.

[57:35] With the coordination center that we have going and I want to take a step back and talk about a

[57:39] one pane of glass solution. So we've been working with Seattle and all the other partners involved

[57:43] including the fire service that we're going to be able to share a one pane of glass real time event

[57:50] and what I mean by that if you're looking at the screen right behind us what that screen will show you

[57:55] and what we can see in all of our different locations from the EOCs to the unified commands

[58:00] to the share of the office commands to the stadiums will be what's being broadcast live from the air

[58:06] support what's being broadcast live from drones that we have in the air to monitor crowds what's being

[58:12] broadcast live to a system called ATAC which allows us to see firefighters police officers

[58:19] and how this answers your question council member is if something's going on say at the new

[58:23] light rail station in Mercer Island we're going to be able to get resources and eyes on that so we can

[58:28] share and then unified command right everyone will know what's going on we're taking a leap in the future

[58:34] here with technology but it's it's a long time coming and I think this is really to help us be flexible with

[58:39] our resources to answer you know your husband's idiot factor question and also if we have anything really

[58:45] significant that happens as well so thank you yeah thank you both very much yes super helpful thank you and

[58:52] chair final question is one of the counties obviously key roles in all of this is we we own and

[59:00] and do contract operate Harborview hospital so we can expect potentially a lot of business during the

[59:08] world cup and we need to be ready for it I heard Italian commander talk about coordination with the

[59:13] hospitals just with love to hear from anybody how we're coordinating with Harborview particularly

[59:18] because if anything really bad happens you know somebody said structural failure like any major incident

[59:24] we're going to see a lot of business at Harborview and I just just like to know how we're coordinating

[59:28] with our friends and that important resource council member I'll start from the law enforcement

[59:33] said I know Harborview officials were at the symposium hosted last week or the week before a lot of us

[59:39] were there and they were approaching they actually approached us on the public safety side concerned

[59:44] about their air air lift some of your most critical patients are thrown in and out of Harborview and they were

[59:49] concerned about drones either our drones or our helicopters and they were relieved to hear that we

[59:55] basically have air operations running every day and their flights in and out of

[1:00:00] Our priority, but I thought that was really great that Harverty was there approaching all of their partners,

[1:00:05] so I can offer that bid in-site for you.

[1:00:07] Thank you. Helpful here.

[1:00:09] And just to tack on, I'll kick it over to Chief Collins. I've been working with the directors

[1:00:15] of security for all the area hospitals that have reached out. And so we make sure that they're plugged

[1:00:20] into all the intelligence assessments that are coming out. And again, we're at the planning

[1:00:24] symposium because of that level of engagement. And we have adopted them in our safety security

[1:00:30] subcommittee. And so when she's Collins and I host that, they're present, so we can make

[1:00:34] sure that we're aligned on our approach.

[1:00:35] Great. Thank you.

[1:00:37] Councilman, I did mention our coordination already, but I will bring the light to the next month. We were

[1:00:44] a Seattle Fire Department, it's hosting along with the University of Washington and Harverview

[1:00:50] Medical Center, a hospital response workshop right now, it will have, it will be held at

[1:00:57] the University of Washington, but it's upwards of 120 members across all agencies to talk about

[1:01:04] talk through, not only instant response, but just how our network's intelligent sharing is woven

[1:01:13] together during this period. So collaboration is taking place in that Harborview and that

[1:01:20] community is, is well involved.

[1:01:22] All right. Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Chair. Appreciate the time. Thank you. Council member

[1:01:27] Dunn.

[1:01:28] Thank you, Chair Fein. I appreciate having this briefing. We were back in that Washington, you see

[1:01:34] at the Department of Transportation in December meeting with the folks briefing on FIFA and learned

[1:01:40] a lot of information. And I'm glad you followed up on a local briefing. I'm really delighted

[1:01:45] and glad to see all of our agencies and partners working together. A couple of life experiences

[1:01:50] I want to share. I want to, I'm not sure I want to bring it up. I'm going to bring it up. We graduated

[1:01:55] from college. We were back packing through Europe. We were in Amsterdam. We were at a bar.

[1:02:00] The Netherlands won the turning. It was, it was a busy city. It was orderly. But what happened

[1:02:08] afterwards was we heard it. We heard all the sort of crowd outside. They rioted in a positive way,

[1:02:13] like a victory riot, where they, I mean, they tore the place apart. So a couple hours later,

[1:02:18] when we finally wandered for lack of a better term out of the bar, we looked around and it

[1:02:24] was just a mess. I guess it was a major, major deal. So rise can be positive. They can be negative.

[1:02:31] They can just be disruptive. Right? People can get hurt. So you got that to watch. Another

[1:02:35] life experience is at the, I went to, I was fortunate to go to the Super Bowl in 2014. And

[1:02:42] the, the transportation system there really broke down to a point where people were in

[1:02:49] the city in New York. Trying to get over to the stadium in Jersey. And the transportation system

[1:02:55] wasn't working right. The head of that transportation commission had to resign because it was

[1:03:01] so badly managed. So we have not just transportation and transportation security challenges, right?

[1:03:10] We have got just sort of basic large event security. And then we have the elephant the room,

[1:03:16] which I don't, I don't, I maybe missed some of the questions, but we are in an armed conflict with

[1:03:23] another country right now. And that raises the specter of some additional things, which many of you

[1:03:29] know about. And I won't go into you really right now. And so I'm just really delighted to see this

[1:03:34] interagency coordination. And I guess if there was a question to what extent are you coordinating

[1:03:40] with the federal government on threat assessments through the, the gradation of this event?

[1:03:46] Lockstep myself, Captain Nelson, Seattle and King County, State Patrol, even the state, we're almost

[1:03:55] daily talking with the FBI. When you talk about the whole county, UAS, and that big threat that is there,

[1:04:00] that is being, the charge is being led by the FBI, up to training our folks from Seattle, state

[1:04:05] patrol. It is, it is, it is almost daily, do you want to add? Yeah, so as I mentioned earlier, so each

[1:04:13] host city was assigned a federal coordinator and a federal coordination team. And so we had to give and we

[1:04:19] did a needs assessment across the spectrum. And so like, what is our, what is our local resourcing

[1:04:24] and local like, and then what are those gaps? Looper resourcing put it on mutual aid and then

[1:04:28] where are the gaps? And so then my team and I put in that request. And there's things from like, you know,

[1:04:33] EOD dogs for canine, you know, different types of trained dogs that do different things for the

[1:04:40] personnel screening areas to, you know, having a UAS training representation in our unified command. I mean,

[1:04:46] we're, you know, undershare floor talked about, are kind of entering the county UAS space. I mean,

[1:04:52] I was historically reserved for federal officers and federal agents. So now this is going to be the

[1:04:57] first time SLTT officers and agencies are able to internet space. So having representation from the

[1:05:02] UAS training's office to help guide our decision making in the field. So to summarize, we're, we're, we are receiving

[1:05:08] federal assistance and we are working very closely with them. I'm glad to hear that, you know, and they got their

[1:05:13] hands full right now and they will with what is, I sort of 11 cities across the countries that are right. So they're

[1:05:18] going to be spread out and just, you guys know this because you do it every day. But 95% of all on law enforcement in the

[1:05:25] United States are local or state on enforcement, mostly local. Only 5% are feds. And so it's quite frankly,

[1:05:32] as much as we appreciate our federal partnership. It's really, you guys, you know, and in all of us working together.

[1:05:39] I guess the point I would make here is the feds are already kicking some dollars, which is good. But if you find

[1:05:44] obvious gaps, this is true for Metro as well, and sound transit. If you see obvious gaps,

[1:05:50] in a need as you get closer to the series of events, please by all means reach out and let us know.

[1:05:56] You know, that's what we exist for as a regional government to help, maybe shore up those, those funding

[1:06:01] shortcomings. Thanks for your work. Thank you. Great points. I think we will wrap up there so we can move on to our

[1:06:10] action items, but just wanted to say thank you to the folks at the local organizing committee for helping us

[1:06:17] put this together and for all of you for being here for all of your multi-agency coordination that's happening

[1:06:23] sounds like every day, every hour. We really appreciate all the work and planning and know that everything

[1:06:31] will runs more smoothly, certainly, with all of that work. So thank you so much for being here and we will

[1:06:39] see you again soon. Thanks. Okay. We will now move into public comment. We received one written

[1:06:50] public comment yesterday, I think, which was shared with members of the committee. If there is anyone

[1:06:57] participating via Zoom, I would like to provide public comment, please use the raise hand function or press

[1:07:02] star nine if you're connected by phone. Clear calls are on. Do we have anyone online or in person

[1:07:10] wishing to provide public comment? Chair Fein, we do have one person in person and so far we have

[1:07:16] nobody who has raised their hand. Okay. Great. I'm just going to briefly read the rules for public

[1:07:25] comment, though. Imagine you know them. All public comment must be related to items on today's

[1:07:32] meeting agenda. It must not include obscene speech or be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign

[1:07:37] for election of any person to any office or for the promotion or of or opposition to any ballot

[1:07:44] proposition. If this speaker fails to abide by these restrictions as stated, I mean rule the speaker

[1:07:50] out of order and have the speaker move from meeting. You will have two minutes to speak and we'll

[1:07:55] hear our timer go off and we will start by calling on the people who have signed up to speak in person

[1:08:04] and then you'll just let me know if we get anyone online. Great. Thank you. The person in person

[1:08:10] is pram subedi. Please go ahead.

[1:09:10] What is back bone of our tannity tomorrow? This bone is really talk about it. So what is

[1:09:19] particular one rule in bed? Thoughts put it in bed. In get will to community directly. So this

[1:09:30] but today supported I support as home metal, central, community, engagement and it needs and

[1:09:42] feedback. What make this fun it is? It is better than impact for it. How is it significant?

[1:09:53] In management, but it's new. Even with limited resources, metal, whatever. But I would

[1:10:06] increase the security. And as a panel, it all decisions and it gets more reliable, going to turn

[1:10:18] to recognize the more people who will see because they are better than for a system that is easier to use to pull people.

[1:10:33] After the service of what you will see is easier for the resident of Kent, Abon and that would

[1:10:46] determine to take standard, almost every hour is because it is because I would want 51, 51, 51, 51, 51,

[1:11:05] come in every minute. This is nothing but service, it stands for people to

[1:11:19] pull people in the house and come to the standard, they rely on the two groups. This will make

[1:11:38] then this more dependent and gets better acted to drop as you get a hospital and

[1:11:52] as in the need. I also have to support this little doctor and continue

[1:12:00] anybody in the joint, reliable and all these, but not work but that's worry for everyone.

[1:12:11] This is how we build a tangy system that to the world for everyone. Thank you.

[1:12:19] We're going to repeat one more time. Hello dear chairfane and members of Transportation Economy and Environment Committee.

[1:12:34] I am Prem Subedi. I am a resident of Kent who rely on public transit and part of the King County Transit Advisory Commission for King County District 5.

[1:12:43] And part of the South and Connection Mobility Board that help King County Metro with bus restructuring for federal and wailing flight rail expansion.

[1:12:51] The bus is the backbone of our transit system and this restructure shows what is possible when we invest thoughtfully and engage communities directly.

[1:13:00] Through this process, I saw firsthand how Metro centered community needs and feedback.

[1:13:05] What makes this plan especially impactful is that it delivers significant improvements within a neutral budget.

[1:13:11] Despite limited new resources Metro was able to increase frequency, expand all day service and create more reliable connections to link light rail.

[1:13:21] People will see more frequent routes, better transfers and a system that is easier to use.

[1:13:27] After the service change in August, it would be easier for residents of Kent to take transit with almost every route being frequent.

[1:13:35] With peak hours within the 150, 160, 161, 164 and 168.

[1:13:43] This is not just a service change, it's a transformation in how people access opportunity.

[1:13:48] For many writers in South King County this means shorter wait times more dependable commutes and better access to jobs, education, hospital and essential needs.

[1:13:59] I urge you to support this restructure and continue investing in frequent reliable all day bus service that works for all.

[1:14:06] This is how we build a transit system that truly works for everyone.

[1:14:10] Thank you.

[1:14:13] Thank you very much.

[1:14:16] That is the last person in person and we have no hands raised online.

[1:14:22] All right.

[1:14:24] With that, we will close public comment.

[1:14:29] Thank you very much.

[1:14:31] Okay.

[1:14:33] Our first action item is a proposed ordinance to update Metro's transit network in South King County in coordination with the extension of sound transit's link light rail to federal way.

[1:14:44] This proposal would create three new bus routes revised eight existing routes and eliminate 12 routes as part of a broader effort to better align service with the new light rail connection.

[1:14:55] Metro provided a detailed briefing on this.

[1:15:00] And so today we are considering it for action. My goal is to move this legislation out of our committee with a due pass recommendation, expedited to full council, so that Metro's restructure can stay on track for implementation, lay of the spring and fall.

[1:15:21] Mary Bergenon from Council Central staff is here today to give a staff report. So Mary, would you please go ahead and provide us with that? Thanks.

[1:15:31] Thank you, Chair Faina. Mary Bergenon from the Council staff materials begin on page eight of your materials packet.

[1:15:38] As you noted, because Metro provided a very detailed briefing last month, I'm not going to go in much detail, but we'll orient you to what you have in front of you both for action as well as the additional materials

[1:15:50] that Metro provided to give more information about this proposal. So if you turn to page 10, you'll see a small map of the service area and the routes that are being changed.

[1:16:03] If you want to see a bigger map that is full page, you'll find one on page 90. Also, if you want a list of the 23 routes that are being affected, there is a table on page 11 of the committee materials packet.

[1:16:18] And it shows the routes that are proposed to be added to be revised or to be deleted.

[1:16:24] It describes the pathway that they follow geographically as well as what the proposal would include.

[1:16:30] So what you would be adopting today if you approved the legislation is both an ordinance that would authorize Metro to begin implementing this service change at the fall service change this year, which is at the end of August.

[1:16:44] And in addition, an attachment that describes each route to be changed with a full description, a rationale and a map.

[1:16:52] In addition, the packet includes a number of other items that are not for adoption, but for context and I'll just briefly describe them.

[1:17:00] There is a fiscal note that notes that in total Metro will be adding 95,000 additional county funded service hours 80,000 to restore service that had been cut during the pandemic and 15,000 new hours.

[1:17:15] This would come at a cost of about $27.2 million for the biennium covered in the adopted budget.

[1:17:23] Next, there is a network development and equity analysis that describes how service would be implemented and states that the proposal in front of you would add earlier and later service and provide an overall 55% increase in trips across the week, including on Saturday sunset.

[1:17:44] In Saturdays and Sundays and would add access for more than 22,000 people to transit.

[1:17:52] There is a public engagement report that describes the three phase process that Metro engaged in as well as the several groups that participated.

[1:18:02] This was described in some detail last month, so I won't go into further detail.

[1:18:06] And then there is the federally required title six analysis that describes the impact of the proposal on low income people and people of color and that analysis concludes that there would not be a disproportionate burden on low income populations and there would not be a disparate impact on minority populations.

[1:18:28] Finally, the legislative packet includes letters of support from a number of local jurisdictions and community-based organizations.

[1:18:38] Terms of the timing as you noted chairfane, Metro has requested action by council by the beginning of April or preferably the end of March so that they can begin the work needed to schedule the service get route change materials out and start informing the public.

[1:18:56] That concludes my remarks.

[1:18:58] Happy to take any questions and we do have Metro staff here if you want more detailed information.

[1:19:04] All right. Thank you, Mary. Do any of my colleagues have any questions.

[1:19:12] Calling for questions on the Metro South link restructure.

[1:19:19] All right.

[1:19:21] Well, before we take up this motion, I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge all the leadership that really brought us to this point.

[1:19:29] Starting with my, our vice chair, Ron Wright-Bauer whose leadership was instrumental in bringing light rail to South King County.

[1:19:38] Because of that work and the work of so many South King County leaders were not at a point where we're debating not whether we have transit access, but how to make it work better for the communities that we serve.

[1:19:50] This restructure expands service hours and improves access to high frequency transit while also recognizing that travel patterns have changed since the pandemic.

[1:20:00] It shifts some routes from peak only to all day service and as more weekend early morning and late night trips, particularly for workers traveling to and from the airport to better reflect how people are actually using the system today.

[1:20:14] For proposals also, the results of significant work by King County Metro.

[1:20:19] I wanted to thank the team for their responsibilities throughout this process and for engaging thousands of community members to help shape these changes.

[1:20:28] I also appreciate the work with the mobility board.

[1:20:32] And I'm thrilled to hear such positive feedback by our very unsocking county mobility board member.

[1:20:40] At the same time, I've heard from constituents that there were still be some service gaps in South King County.

[1:20:46] So while this is an important step forward, we know it's not the final step.

[1:20:49] We will continue working together to ensure that riders across our communities have safe reliable and convenient options because for many of our neighbors transit is an optional.

[1:20:59] It's how they get to work to school and to essential services like healthcare.

[1:21:03] With that in mind, I'm pleased that this restructure strengthens connections to light rail and to opportunities across this region.

[1:21:11] colleagues, I ask for your support and recommending this ordinance for adoption via the full council.

[1:21:18] If there are no other comments.

[1:21:21] Vice chair of on-right power, would you please move proposed ordinance 2026 00037 with a due pass recommendation and expedited to full council.

[1:21:32] Thank you.

[1:21:35] Do any colleagues have any final comments or questions.

[1:21:42] All right, clerk, please call the roll.

[1:21:44] Thank you, chair.

[1:21:46] Can some of them by duty?

[1:21:48] Hi.

[1:21:49] Can some of them by bond by power?

[1:21:52] Hi.

[1:21:53] Fair thing.

[1:21:54] Hi.

[1:21:55] The board is for eyes, no no say no excuse.

[1:21:57] Thank you very much.

[1:21:58] By our vote, we have approved proposed ordinance 2026 00037 with a due pass recommendation.

[1:22:05] We will expedited to full council and put it on consent.

[1:22:09] Thank you very much.

[1:22:11] All right, our final item is a proposed ordinance that would approve King Honey Metro's 2025 and 2026 public transportation agency safety plans for submittal to the federal transit administration.

[1:22:26] I understand there is also a technical amendment.

[1:22:29] And Mary Bergenon from Council Central Staff will give a staff report.

[1:22:34] Please go ahead.

[1:22:35] Thank you.

[1:22:36] Again, Mary Bergenon from the Council staff.

[1:22:38] The materials began on page 252 of your packet.

[1:22:42] So as you noted, the public transportation agency safety plan or P task is a requirement of the federal transit administration.

[1:22:50] Any transit agency that receives federal funding must complete one of these and review it each year and updated as needed.

[1:23:00] The P task is a regulatory compliance document.

[1:23:04] It does not cover the full scope of what Metro does in terms of safety and security.

[1:23:09] Rather, it responds to a checklist that is provided by the federal government.

[1:23:15] What staff has done in our analysis and I'm not going to bore you by going through this in detail because it is lengthy is you will find on pages 527 and 542 in the packet.

[1:23:27] Two tables that staff prepared based on the federal checklist that go through each element and sub element that is required to be included and then shows where in the documents it is located and describes Metro's response.

[1:23:43] Staff can confirm that Metro has responded to the federal requirements for both the 2025 and 2026 plans.

[1:23:51] And again, these cover both safety which is typically defined as prevention of unintentional harm such as a collision or breakdown and transit security which is typically defined as prevention from intentional harm such as an assault or disturbance.

[1:24:09] I will note that the federal guidelines were updated in 2024 and do include more detailed focus on transit security issues and the safety of transit workers, which as you know is something Metro has been focusing on very intensively over the last year with the transit safety task force.

[1:24:31] I will note that there is an amendment in your packet which is a technical amendment. It would simply change the date on both plans to March 2026 to reflect the timing of council review.

[1:24:43] So again, amendment one is on page 392 in your packets and that concludes my remarks.

[1:24:50] Thank you very much. Do my colleagues have any questions.

[1:24:58] The only question that I had was whether there was safety and security work outside of this report that we're that's not contained and you answered that.

[1:25:07] So I think with that we can go ahead and move forward.

[1:25:15] I'm sorry I'm actually coming to you from the back of a 550 bus.

[1:25:22] So I don't hard time unmuting for a moment. Can I ask a question please?

[1:25:27] Of course.

[1:25:28] So I heard very clearly and saw in the report that this is a federal requirement and it contains federal required information that doesn't isn't co-extensive with all of our security efforts.

[1:25:43] And I get that we're often required to make reports that aren't the full story.

[1:25:49] Where it was one fine the full story.

[1:25:51] I would like I would love to hear a report about what our current full plan is around safety and security.

[1:25:58] And by the way, I wish I had those terms to find for me before I talked about the idiot factor in a previous agenda item.

[1:26:05] But because it's like there was a whole bunch of focus about a year ago now on transit safety.

[1:26:15] And we budgeted for that to be followed up on by keeping our consultants who built the transit safety task force plan.

[1:26:24] And it just has been quiet for a while, so I'm really interested in hearing the full scope of what we're doing, what the current situation is and how.

[1:26:34] How we feel gaps. I know that is not today's topic, but I'm very interested to know how and when that happens.

[1:26:43] Thank you, Councilmember. I instead of commenting myself, I will turn it over to Metro's General Manager, Michelle Allison, who is here with us.

[1:26:51] Thank you so much. Councilmember for the good question and you're right. This body of work expands well beyond one report to the federal government.

[1:26:58] And really is embedded into many efforts inside of Metro as this is a paramount area focused for us in relation to the implementation plan that was developed as a result of the task force last year.

[1:27:12] You are right. We have spent the beginning part of this year organizing ourselves around how to organize and implement the 160 recommendations that came from the task force.

[1:27:23] So within the next couple of weeks, you will see an invitation to the launch of that implementation and the work going forward.

[1:27:31] And then how specifically how we're going to prioritize those efforts, 160 unique programs or projects needs to prioritization.

[1:27:40] And then where they go, the work groups that we're going to stand up to implement the work that we will prioritize those are the next phases of discussion that you will see.

[1:27:50] Really unfold in detail in the next coming weeks. The implementation group, the prioritization and then the work groups for making those programs and projects real.

[1:28:01] Some spanned county wide and some are within the jurisdiction of Metro and Sound Transit.

[1:28:06] Those items that Metro and Sound Transit have more authority over.

[1:28:09] We have already begun to be discussed between the two agencies. So while we may not have had a lot of public conversation on some of these items.

[1:28:17] We have not stopped the work and we look forward to coming to how in more detail and keeping you all up to date on how we're holding our self accountable for transparent and timely implementation.

[1:28:27] But again, that is one aspect of a larger safety and security program that we have inside our organization.

[1:28:34] The important next step as it was regional and included a lot of good new ideas and there's always ongoing work on how we can continue to be as safe and secure as possible.

[1:28:44] Super helpful this year looking forward to those next steps and.

[1:28:49] I hesitate to even say this out loud, so I know how.

[1:28:53] How much you all don't need more reports, but if there's any place where the work is all summarized or comes together.

[1:29:01] So that the public and you know representatives of the public like council members can see the full scope of what you do even in the very very very summary format that I think would be a good communications tool at some point.

[1:29:13] Yeah, I really appreciate that point of feedback. It's always good to be transparent and to show your work. So we will bring that back to the team.

[1:29:20] Thank you very much. Thank you chair.

[1:29:22] Thank you. Great question.

[1:29:24] Any other questions? All right.

[1:29:29] Vice chair of on right power is moving upstairs. So council member done. Would you please move proposed ordinance 20260025 with a do pass recommendation.

[1:29:42] Move proposed motion 20260025 for approval.

[1:29:45] Thank you. Would you please move amendment one.

[1:29:50] All right. Amendment one is before us. Any questions or comments about amendment one.

[1:29:56] All right. Seeing none. All those in favor of amendment one.

[1:30:00] And please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Amendment 1 carries. Thank you, much. We'll turn back now to proposed motion 20250025 as amended. Do my colleagues have any final comments or questions? All right. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, too.

[1:30:24] Thank you. Council member Dan? I'm sorry. Council member Douchi? Aye. Council member Dan? Aye.

[1:30:33] Council member Bondri-Bauer? Aye. Chair of thing. Aye. The vote is for aye. No, no, no. Thank you very much. By our vote, we have approved proposed motion 20260025 as amended, as amended, with a due pass recommendation.

[1:30:50] We will send this to full council on the normal course and put it on consent. That concludes the action items on our agenda.

[1:31:00] I think we got all votes in my right about the. Thank you.

[1:31:06] So thank you everyone for participating in today's committee meeting. Just another flag that the April 21st tree meeting will be our transit summit around FIFA.

[1:31:23] So another multi agency gathering. So please go ahead and put questions together and it will also be a joint meeting with our regional transit committee.

[1:31:34] All right, with no other business, this committee is adjourned. Thank you.

Transportation, Economy, and Environment Committee_20260317

Agenda

Transcript