Two of Saka's three traffic safety bills go to a Council vote Monday. The biggest one isn't on the agenda

The Seattle City Council meets in a special session on Monday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m., with two transportation bills on the agenda, both from District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka. They are part of what Saka calls the SAFER Streets Act, a three-bill effort to write the city's Vision Zero traffic safety work into city law.

Traffic deaths and serious injuries remain a top concern on streets across Seattle, and these bills deal with who can order safety fixes and what kind of trucks city contractors drive.

What's on Monday's agenda

The Oct. 26 agenda (Legistar) lists:

• CB 121297, which clarifies the authority of the City Traffic Engineer to make traffic management and safety changes.
• CB 121298, which asks the city to develop recommended requirements for truck side guards, called "lateral protective devices," on vehicles used by city contractors, along with other safety equipment. The bill's file includes Boston's side guard ordinance as an attachment.

The agenda also lists an executive session. It does not include the third bill.

The bill that isn't scheduled

The largest piece, CB 121296 (Legistar), would require the city to apply traffic safety best practices when using its traffic powers, and would set study, reporting and prioritization standards. The Urbanist reported that the package would require the Vision Zero plan to be updated every three years and ask for a report on improving the response after fatal crashes. The Seattle Bike Blog reported that one committee amendment would let the City Traffic Engineer make safety changes without a historic district certificate of approval.

City Clerk records show the committee recommended CB 121296 on the same day as the other two, but it is not on Monday's agenda, and its status reads "Full Council Agenda Ready." The records do not say why it was left off. The Urbanist reported in September that if the package did not move quickly it would likely wait until after the Council finishes the budget around Thanksgiving.

What our records add: the committee votes

All three bills were introduced Sept. 2, referred on Sept. 15, and recommended as amended by the Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee on Sept. 17 (meeting):

• CB 121296: 5-0, with Saka, Alexis Mercedes Rinck (Position 8), Dionne Foster (Position 9), Robert Kettle (District 7) and Eddie Lin (District 2) voting yes.
• CB 121297 and CB 121298: 4-0, with Saka, Rinck, Kettle and Lin voting yes. Foster is not recorded on those two votes.

No committee member voted no on any of the three.

Questions raised along the way

The bills drew criticism over how they were put together. The Urbanist reported that the Seattle Department of Transportation was brought in the day before the first committee discussion, and that council analysts said the Department of Finance and Administrative Services, which would handle the side guard work, may lack the engineering capacity to meet the May 1, 2027 deadline for recommendations. Rinck, the committee's vice chair, questioned an amendment deadline set before the bills were formally introduced, saying, "I've never seen an amendment deadline for a piece of legislation that has not formally been introduced yet." Saka defended the process, saying his office worked closely with the transportation department, according to The Urbanist.

The Urbanist also reported that Mayor Katie Wilson has an executive order covering similar ground, which asks for a side guard report by January.

What's next

If the full Council passes CB 121297 and CB 121298 on Monday, they go to the mayor. The next day, Oct. 27, the Council's budget committee begins three days of discussing proposed budget amendments, including the transportation department's budget on Oct. 28. CB 121296 remains ready for a future full Council agenda.