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The Public Safety Committee meeting will come to order.

It's 9.32 a.m., January 13, 2026. I'm Robert Kettle, chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Lin?

Here.

Councilmember Juarez?

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Good morning.

Here.

Chair Kettle.

Here.

Chair, there are four members present.

Thank you.

Councilmember Juarez is excused until she joins us and I do want to welcome Councilmember Rivera to my left and Councilmember Lynn to my right who are on the committee with us and So it's great to have our newly formed committee.

I also like to welcome Council Member Foster who's joining us today.

And as I've always said, for yourself and the other Strauss, Council Member Strauss, Council Member Rink and the others, always welcome to join us and at any time.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Good morning.

I want to start with a chair comment.

Last week, and our vice chair, Councilmember Saka, has joined us from being remote to being in person.

Welcome.

Last week, We had a tragic death, a death to mourn and condemn in Minneapolis by a federal law enforcement, an ICE agent.

And here in Seattle, an operation by ICE on the same day that apprehended three individuals on Aurora near Home Depot.

I have said federal law enforcement has the right and the ability to operate throughout our country, our state and county, and in Seattle.

It does have the right, but it also has the responsibility to act responsibly.

We need federal law enforcement to act responsibly and meet the high standards we set for our own Seattle Police Department.

I have the policies in my hand right now.

And just to say, SPD policies and protocols require officers in uniform or plainclothes to identify themselves, show their identification, and explain the reason for an arrest.

Officers are not permitted to hide their identity by covering their faces.

If there's any indication that a subject might resist arrest or that arrest could be problematic and in circumstances permit, uniformed officers should be summoned to be present during the arrest.

Further, when taken a suspect into custody, sworn employees will identify themselves and inform the suspect they are under arrest and state the reason for the arrest as early as practical.

It should be noted a sergeant or above approves administrative arrest warrant service.

A lieutenant or above approves dynamic or high-risk arrest warrant service and high-risk operations.

If any high-risk factors are present, the lieutenant will consult with SWAT.

An SBD SWAT is the designated unit to serve high-risk warrants and conduct high-risk arrests.

That is the standard for the Seattle Police Department, as noted in their policies.

and that's our responsibility is to oversight to ensure that they do so.

Outside of perhaps an operation against an armed drug gang, for example, we need from our federal law enforcement no mask.

We need them to identify themselves and to act professionally.

It's that simple.

But we're not seeing that here in Seattle and definitely not across the nation and especially most recently and sadly in Minneapolis.

I note, and I ask everyone to see what was posted by Thurston County Sheriff Sanders.

He noted, as he started off, poor tactics, poor outcomes.

Later he wrote in his post, the reality is it doesn't matter if Renee Good made contact with a federal agent with her car because every respectable modern law enforcement agency in the country has training and policy that if adhered to would result in Renee still being alive today.

Police cannot and should not induce our own jeopardy and create an unnecessarily deadly force scenario.

Per Thurston County Sheriff's Office policy and training, we do not shoot at moving cars unless the car is being intentionally used as a deadly weapon and we cannot physically get out of the way.

We don't hang on to the doors of fleeing cars.

We don't stand in front of cars that are non-compliant drivers behind the wheel.

When criminals run, we get back in our cars, set up for the grappler and handle business.

Law enforcement, he further says, is one of the most challenging professions on the planet.

Long shifts, deep trauma, high demand, and constantly changing landscapes weigh heavy on officers across the country.

None of this can be an excuse to never adapt our tactics for safer outcomes, even when the people we are trying to arrest don't follow commands.

The question we must answer in law enforcement when making a critical decision isn't whether we can, it's whether we should.

Sheriff Sanders notes that his remarks are spot on, and it goes to the points that we've been talking about with Seattle Police Department.

Poor tactics, and by the way, contrary not just to law enforcement, local law enforcement, contrary to Department of Justice policy, and, might I add, undisciplined operations is what we're seeing out of ICE.

In such conditions, it is standard to butt in place a stand down.

We saw this many times in military service, both in terms of operations and for safety.

We have stand downs.

So therefore I call for an operational stand-down of ICE in Seattle.

An operational ICE operational stand-down is needed because ICE cannot conduct its operations safely and professionally.

It needs to review all elements of its operations.

So therefore I call for an operational stand-down of ICE in Seattle until they do that review and look at what they're doing, look at their policies and their inability to follow their policies.

Separately, how ICE is conducting operations is essentially psychological operations.

The mask and tactical gear is not needed when targeting individuals at Home Depot, the day laborers.

It is not needed.

It reminds me, instead of being in Iraq, and I said this recently to Cairo News Radio, and there's only one piece where I talked about battle rattle.

I will say, when I was in Iraq, my army friends with their Kevlar, they didn't say helmet, they said Kevlar, and they would have all geared up, the body armor and the like, which I had as well.

They said, yes, battle rattle.

So they're all geared up in their, quote unquote, battle rattle.

We do not need that in America.

We don't need ICE agents grappling down from the Black Hawk like we saw in Chicago.

That is not needed.

They're doing that for psychological warfare effects.

They're trying to create effects.

What ICE is looking to do is to achieve is to intimidate immigrant and refugee communities.

And they do so, in fact, against all of us, all communities.

Their actions are not limited to, you know, an immigrant or refugee community.

It is targeting all of us and it is impacting all of us.

Federal law enforcement is being used against all of us alike and that is wrong.

I will say countering PSYOPs is calling out what it actually is and repeatedly doing so.

And I think it's important for people like myself with my background to call it out and call it out in this way.

I recognize that I'm making my statements related to ICE and federal law enforcement more broadly and the National Guard differently.

But I think it's important to call it out from the perspective I get in addition to all the great statements that have been made by the mayor, city attorney and my colleagues here on the dais.

To close, we need to be better prepared and to act responsibly.

That's what we need across the board.

That's what we need from federal law enforcement.

And I want to just add one last thing since I just mentioned the National Guard.

I think some are out there thinking that, oh, because of the Supreme Court decision, everything is settled with the National Guard.

Things are not settled.

That decision, basically revolved on the term regular forces.

And the administration was trying to say regular forces was federal law enforcement, ICE and the others.

The Supreme Court said no.

So basically, that means armed forces, armed military.

And I ask all of us to be on guard, to note that it's quite possible with this administration that since they've been rebuffed in terms of using National Guard, that they may in turn look to despite legal precedents and legal issues, but are military on our streets.

So colleagues, I just wanted to say that.

And the last thing goes to the point about us being prepared and acting responsibly.

We have a slide that was sponsored by our colleague, Councilmember Rink, that was also co-sponsored by Councilmember Strauss and myself.

It's a slide related to SPD report on federal immigration enforcement policies.

I ask that SPD do that, working with our new mayor and her administration to see what can be done and what policies that we can act and basically show our intent, show our values, but also look to have a safer environment in Seattle.

So colleagues, these are things that are really important.

And clearly, we need an ICE operational stand down in Seattle because clearly, they do not follow their policies.

They're creating unsafe conditions by their ill-disciplined operations.

And that's, I think, something that all of us in Seattle should be calling for.

Thank you.

With that said, we will now open hybrid public comment period Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are on for today?

Currently, we have two in-person speakers sign up and there is one remote speaker.

Okay, let's start two minutes.

Let's start with our in-persons, please.

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 minutes are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

The first in-person speaker is Michael Coutts.

And if I pronounce that incorrectly, please correct me.

The taller one's probably better.

Good morning.

Thank you for those comments.

I appreciate them.

My name is Michael Coutts.

I'm a former student body president at UW.

As a lawyer, I have to say I'm speaking for only myself, not my firm or any client, just as a resident of Columbia City.

I'm here to speak on just what Chair Kettle was speaking about today about ICE.

I'm asking the city council to investigate whether it can do a little more than asking ICE to follow those protocols.

I ask the city council to investigate, publicly comment on, and pass a resolution regarding the SPD's authority to arrest federal agents who, clearly outside the scope of their own duties and authorities, commit crimes in Seattle.

I'm no expert on this topic, I'm not offering a legal opinion, but I noticed that Larry Krasner, DA for Philadelphia, stated that his office would arrest ICE agents who commit crimes there.

Meanwhile, JD Vance claims absolute immunity for those agents.

and it looks like there's a decent amount of legal commentary in the scholarship saying J.D.

Vance is wrong.

One article noted an interesting case from the Prohibition era where a federal official shot a fleeing car who was suspected of transporting whiskey, and one of the people in that car died.

The federal agent was careful enough to say in court he wasn't trying to hurt anyone, but he did, and someone died, and he was charged with murder, and the court refused to give that federal agent immunity.

That case is Castle v. Lewis, 254F917 in the Eighth Circuit, 1917. Lawyers on your team would need to investigate and research that case and others, but please do look.

please find out what the City Council can do to ensure that ICE officials committing crimes here are appropriately charged.

I am a little sick of hearing pleas to the feds to do something when it's fully within the state and city's control to do something itself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Howard Gale.

Can I make sure that everyone has a copy of this?

Thank you.

There's one for each.

Good morning, Howard Dale.

So I appreciate your comments, Chair Kettle.

You stated a few days ago, while federal law enforcement agencies have the right to conduct their duties within the city, we expect them to carry out their missions unaided by our local police.

That is no longer sufficient.

I spoke with you in August.

You hopefully remember this.

the 36th District Democrats have passed a resolution demanding that the Seattle Police do their sworn duty, which is to protect people from constitutional violations, including and especially Fourth Amendment violations.

So the missing piece here is not that the Seattle Police should not aid in immigration enforcement actions.

Seattle police need to presume, after what we've seen for the last 12 months, that over 75% of the actions that they take do not have actual judicial warrants and do not have reasonable, articulable suspicion on an individualized basis.

That makes their actions illegal.

So again, Seattle cannot enforce laws that are not Seattle cannot enforce local laws over federal laws, but Seattle does have the right to enforce constitutional laws that all federal agents are subject to.

That is the missing piece.

And so what I'm calling upon all of you, but especially Chair Kettle, to endorse the 36th District Democratic Resolution, which is very specific about what can be done.

Again, this is not about arresting, this is not about mask laws, this is about very specifically assuming without proof to the contrary that a federal agent's action in abducting someone is almost certainly going to be a Fourth Amendment violation.

It's very simple.

And again, I will note that today's agenda for updated public safety's framework lacks any discussion of this immigration threat.

And I will say, this is the greatest threat in 156 years to the public safety of people in Seattle.

Beyond the pandemic, beyond the grade five.

This is absolutely the greatest threat.

So again, I'm asking, please actually start to adopt the 36th District Democrat Resolution.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be our remote speaker, David Haynes, the first remote speaker.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt, which is now, you have been unmuted.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

Have you ever noticed that Seattle always lives vicariously through what's going on in Minnesota, New York City, San Francisco, and LA, and a couple other implosive blue city states, there's a real problem with public safety in Seattle.

And all I hear is virtue signaling to button push voting blocks, referencing national and elsewhere politics.

And I think it's a telltale sign of the efforts of the progressives in Seattle that make a real concerted try to trick the people into believing that they have the best policies by complaining about elsewhere situations while the whole time we see these evil, predatory, wicked repeat offenders being exempted from jail, being dispersed by the cops.

And then the cops are always more focused on playing propaganda politics, letting us know the excuses of why they can't combat the evil that we can't get around the sidewalk and to the business.

we notice how the police chief keeps dispersing people from the downtown core to cater to the Chamber of Commerce who sent all these whacked out people into Belltown.

But yet all I hear from the council is things about Trump, things about ICE, things about Minnesota, things about Somalia.

But yet when you come right down to it and you stop looking through the racist lens that Seattle is required to look through before they decide how to make their judgments, you realize that Seattle is literally running interference for evil black and brown drug pushers who destroy their fellow man's life daily, who ruin the pursuit of happiness and then get listed most vulnerable because they're deemed they don't know any better.

So you all are rewarding people who are committing crimes with all the housing and the capacity and you're just blindly capitulating to LEAD, which was created by George Soros, who was not doing their job properly when it comes to breaking the addiction.

They're using people for nonprofits to get rich, skimming Medicaid.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

And thank you everyone for your public comment.

I will just quickly say, following my chair comment on ICE operations, we have a group of students who missed that or maybe heard it outside.

but to follow up on Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Gale's comments, I am, oh Mr. Kurtz has left, checking with legal counsel.

We are doing different pieces.

I have met with former Deputy Wong who, because there was a, with the prior administration, a federal law enforcement work group, if you will, so I've met with them.

Obviously we have a change in administration that's, there's a little bit of a restart, but with the SLI, that we have in terms of having a report from SPD on federal immigration enforcement policies that we will be moving forward with the new administration to take more action.

And I will say to Mr. Haynes, there's this thing called strategic framework plan for safer Seattle, which is what I usually talk about to include the 36 pieces of legislation that was done in the last term of the council, which I can't speak anymore, so that's my my comment for Mr. Haynes.

And yes, Mr. Gale, we are dealing with arguably the greatest threat to our democracy, at least since the Civil War.

All right, thank you.

We will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Burke, 2025, Office of Emergency Management, Organizational Assessment.

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Hearn, welcome.

Please join us at the table.

And then once you sit, introduce yourself for the record.

And then once ready with the clerk, start your presentation.

Brian Murphy, principal at Burke Consulting, based here in Seattle, and was the project manager for this effort.

Good morning.

My name is Oliver Hearn.

I'm an analyst at Burke Consulting and help support engagement and the analyst component of this project.

Colleagues, let's hold our questions until the end.

Oh, do we have it as a PowerPoint?

Mr. Chair, I just want to share that I'm here.

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Juarez is here for the record.

Thank you.

Is it possible to bring it up as a PowerPoint?

Do we have it?

Mr. Murphy, over to you.

All right.

Well, good morning again.

Thank you for the opportunity to brief you on our work.

We'll plan to step through a summary of our work and our findings, our recommendations, and then be happy to take questions from Council.

So we were contracted in about March of 2025 to conduct a high-level assessment of the Office of Emergency Management, looking to see how they were performing and really to focus on how they were set up for success in terms of where they're placed within the city government and how they're resourced.

So this was in response to a slide that I believe reflected both council and mayoral interest.

We finalized our report in about June of 2025, and so I've recently dusted it off to come back and share a summary of our findings.

So Oliver will describe the methodology, the different inputs that we used to come to our conclusions, but I just wanted to note that we did engage with offices of emergency management staff, both early in the process and later in that.

So early on, they helped us sort of refine our scope and our approach, and they put us in direct contact with emergency management directors at the operating departments.

Towards the end, we shared our draft report and they provided some helpful factual clarifications but did not weigh in on our recommendations and we were working directly with the mayor's office in our work on a day-to-day basis.

Yes, and I'll just add that so the findings both in this presentation and the report, the larger report that we've shared, are based off of a sort of multi-pronged approach that we took throughout this process.

It was a review of relevant literature, looking at more of the national regional scene, a broad concept of, you know, the changing roles of OEM historically and currently, looking at accreditation, best practices, other existing literature, also reviewing Seattle OEM specific org documents, FTE allocations, organizational charts, things along those lines.

As Brian mentioned, city stakeholders were interviewed including OEM as a part of this process.

We had an opportunity to speak with several of the organizations that OEM operates with and communicates with during an emergency and gather their perspective on those operations.

And last but not least, another major component of this analysis is the pure city benchmarking portion where we had an opportunity to speak with the cities of Denver, Portland, San Francisco and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Had an opportunity to speak with them, looked at some of their internal documents and had an opportunity to sort of compare Seattle to what some pure cities are doing as well.

So we'll talk through a summary of our findings before moving into our recommendations.

So a little bit of background.

In 2020, Seattle announced that OEM would be moved out of the police department and into a standalone office reporting to the mayor.

So this was in response to the death of George Floyd and a shifting of some police department responsibilities.

And it actually brought the city much more in line with a common practice around the country and what's typically viewed as the best practice of having an independent emergency management function that's not directly housed with the police or fire agency, although obviously they work together a great deal.

So one other note is that OEM is accredited by a national body called the EMAP, or the Emergency Management Accreditation Program, and Oliver will note that some peer cities are accredited as well and others are not.

Per city code, OEM's responsible for quite a lot.

So they're helping to prepare the Seattle community for disaster.

They're helping to understand what are our risks here in Seattle and how can we mitigate those hazards.

Seattle takes an all hazards approach, so they're looking at things like an earthquake, but also terrorism.

They're looking at things like climate change or cyber attacks, but they're really doing that in collaboration with other city departments.

So in the instance of cyber attacks, IT is really the lead.

And I think that that raises a theme that you'll hear us as we walk through our presentation, that they're a pretty small department.

They have about 15, 20 FTE, and they are very leveraged.

They are working across the entire city organization with other city departments to leverage their resources, their expertise, and help get them prepared and ready for a disaster as well.

They also train city employees, volunteers, and community members.

So we're all ready to go when something happens.

and obviously that's another huge point of leverage.

Thousands and thousands of city employees and what, 800,000 Seattle residents.

So another point where a small department is leveraged across quite a large span of responsibility.

OEM does manage the city's EOC, or Emergency Operations Center, and that's how the city responds and coordinates on some in-person and remote operations when there's an event happening.

There are other EOCs at other operating departments around the city and we'll touch on that.

They also collect and report on information following a disaster and they're involved in response and recovery and also a practice of after action reviews following an emergency.

And in general they're responsible for overseeing the city's emergency management organization or function across the city.

Oversee is an interesting word, they're really in a coordinating role.

So if we look really broadly at the field of emergency management before we delve into some more specifics for Seattle OEM, we see that that span of responsibility is common.

So planning and mitigation, disaster response and recovery.

Emergency management is really a coordinating function.

It's often more about coordinating than it is about leading or doing directly.

In many cases, the EOC, the city's EOC, doesn't activate for all emergencies.

Police and fire operate quite independently much of the time, as does other operating departments like SDOT, SPU, or City Light.

And even when the EOC is activated, OEM is sort of getting everybody ready for that, but they may not be in an incident command role.

There may be another commander who's calling the shots in the EOC, and OEM's role in that case is to coordinate and help share information and help that all operate effectively.

So really, we focus on things like project management, coordination, communication, facilitation.

Those are common roles across the nation in emergency management.

A real uncertainty right now is federal funding.

Like other large cities, Seattle really does rely on federal funds significantly for both planning and mitigation, and those certainly are more uncertain.

The federal government's role in direct response and direct recovery is also uncertain.

We need to be looking to be more independent at a local level and less reliant on federal resources.

Because emergency management is often good at coordination, it can get drawn into more and more complex challenges that are faced by government.

So on the slide, we mentioned cybersecurity, climate change, or climate adaptation, and other multidisciplinary challenges.

A good example is the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, which is massive compared to ours, is actually coordinating the city's response to homelessness.

And it's because it's just so good at sharing information across disciplines.

Because emergency management is so diffuse and so leveraged, it can be difficult to communicate what it does and the value of it.

So a national survey of big city emergency management agencies found that stakeholder confusion, I think that would be the mayor's office, the council, other departments, have a common misunderstanding about the role of emergency management.

So this is a real challenge.

and that came in just below sort of a lack of funding, a lack of staffing and competing priorities, which you'll hear us talk about as well.

Success can also be difficult to measure.

Emergencies happen periodically and it's hard to ask what would have happened if we hadn't prepared or hadn't responded in the way that we did, but we can try to highlight some performance measures though that may be helpful.

It's often said that the west coast is unpracticed because we don't have as many activations as they do back east or in the south, although we're seeing that happen more and more.

Emergency management does have a good practice of doing after action reviews and that's one of the outcomes that we might talk about is following an activation.

They will do a review of what went well and where are their opportunities for improvement.

It's a great aspect of the profession.

So another component of the report that we'll highlight and I briefly touched on before is that pure city benchmarking.

So we had an opportunity to reach out, communicate with, and share resources with the cities of Denver, Portland, San Francisco, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

I've got two slides here.

This first slide is a little bit more of a quantitative numerical evaluation of how Seattle compares with some of those other cities' organizations.

In the next slide, we'll focus a little bit more on the conversations we have with those groups and the qualitative aspect there.

But let me start with just sort of the key takeaway from the quantitative numerical side.

And the two key takeaways we have there are Seattle's OEM receives less funding than pure cities, and other organizations had significantly more community outreach and education FTEs.

I recognize even saying this now and since the report has come out, we recognize that there have been additional funds added to the proposed 2026 OEM budget, recognizing that there's, I think, another million, 1.2 million going in there and additional FTEs allocated there as well.

I think that it's a great step in the right direction.

I think that these key takeaways are probably still ring true, and that's a good step, but more steps are likely required towards that direction.

Let me bring our attention next to the sort of table that we have outlined there.

And before I highlight a few specific line items, I just want to I just want to recognize that far right San Francisco, if you look at San Francisco there, you'll see some significantly larger numbers than we see with Seattle, Denver, and Portland.

And just highlighting there that when we spoke to these different organizations, when we spoke to these different cities, each was unique.

Each organization, while performing somewhat similar roles, had their own unique qualities to them.

And San Francisco was especially unique in the and the fact that they house their 911 call center as well as a lot of their EMS functions within their emergency management department.

And I just want to flag that as why you're going to see some significantly larger numbers there.

We had conversations with them and started to understand that sort of difference there, but weren't able to pull those sort of core relevant numbers out of their budget.

but let me call attention to just a few line items.

Starting with that fiscal year 24 OEM budget, we see that Seattle is just about $3 million.

We can call that four, a little over four based off of where the 2026 proposed budget is.

Still seeing that as significantly less than Denver and Portland there.

We see the fiscal year 23 budget per capita Seattle's about $3.75 spending there, which is significantly less than Denver's 11 and Portland's 16. Also worth looking at is the fiscal year 24 budget as a percentage of total expenditure.

We see Seattle is about 0.04% spending there, which is less than Denver and Portland's 0.17 and 0.12 respectively.

The last thing to highlight in this table, and Brian already touched on it briefly, was the EMAP certification.

Just highlighting here that Seattle does have that EMAP certification.

When we spoke to Denver, they let us know that they are actively seeking recertification, so they're going through that process right now.

And when we spoke to Portland, neither Portland nor San Francisco have the certification or are actively seeking that certification.

And I'll speak a little bit more to that on the next slide.

And then, before I move on to the next slide, the last thing I want to highlight here is just an appreciation to these peer cities.

They were extremely helpful in the process, very willing to share resources.

It was a great collaborative experience, and as Seattle OEM goes forward, I would definitely recommend continuing to lean on that relationship.

They were, as I mentioned, they were very collaborative, more than willing to help, and I think that there is a strong partnership there to be had in the future.

As I mentioned, this next slide talks a little bit more about the qualitative side of things.

So here are some of the main key focal points of what we heard in conversations with Pure Cities.

The first being this concept of balancing leadership and facilitation as a major challenge.

And I think that this is probably the largest, most crux of a challenge that we saw with Pure Cities.

and this is balancing clear, concise, fast communication in a meaningful and impactful way in an emergency when things are hectic, being able to provide that clear communication and also having the proper authority to do so.

One of the things we heard from Pure Cities is that there are different levels of authority of what their emergency management departments are able to take on in an emergency, and trying to find that right level of authority to respond adequately continues to be a challenge for peer cities.

The next item I want to draw attention to is the placement of emergency management within the mayor's office.

As we spoke to peer cities, that was broadly supported.

A few other cities had experiences where their emergency management department might have been located somewhere else, I think that the general consensus was that under the mayor's office, under that sort of executive leadership, was a strong place for it.

It provides a sort of peer-to-peer relationship with other departments and organizations that they're communicating with and helping facilitate communication with.

And it also provides sort of that direct access to decision-making in a time of emergency or need.

The next item I wanted to bring up was dedicated training and communication staff are essential.

I'll nod back to the additional FTEs that are added this coming year.

I think that's a great step and I think those additional FTEs are a strong direction.

Our peer cities just kind of reinforce that idea of how important communication both with the general public as well as communication within departments are and helping to facilitate large trainings throughout the year.

Last but not least, we talked about EMAP certification with Peer Cities and the general consensus was it may be beneficial but it is certainly not sufficient.

Just highlighting here that I think the EMAP certification is a great opportunity to make a strong organization even better and really provide a foundation for their plans and actions.

The consensus we got from Peer Cities was that an EMAP certification is not going to make a weak emergency management organization, a strong emergency management organization.

As we have written, it's no guarantee of preparedness or effectiveness.

So in response to the question about whether OEM set up for success, we wanted to call out a couple of structural and resource challenges, and Oliver's spoken a bit to some of the resource challenges.

On the structural side, I think it's important to note that OEM's reported to four different individuals in about the same number of years.

Both mayor's office and council have expressed, I'd say, varying levels of interest depending on the circumstances.

and participation by department directors and senior staff in the emergency executive board is inconsistent.

And I think this is, on one hand, completely understandable.

Emergency management is an exercise to be prepared for something that isn't happening today, and we all have to-do lists and urgent items today that are extremely important.

But that tyranny of the immediate can lead to a lack of focus on supporting OEM and its role in supporting the whole city and being ready for an emergency.

Can you hold on for one second?

No questions, but I did want to thank the students who joined us and the teacher.

Which school?

Uprep.

Uprep.

Uprep.

OK, Uprep.

All right.

Thank you very much for coming.

Make sure to ask your teacher tons of questions about what we talked today, okay?

And if you have any other questions, please talk to my vice chair, Councilmember Saka.

Okay.

Have a good field trip.

All right, Mr. Murphy, can you...

Sorry for the interruption.

I just wanted to give him an acknowledgement.

Thank you.

I'll also note that as a new and independent department, OEM has had to build up its organizational capacity.

It doesn't have the police department to help it shape a budget request or perform other administrative functions within the city.

So it's building that muscle.

And then Oliver has noted that OEM doesn't have authority for resource allocation specifically, and that is something that we do see in some of the peer cities, and that means that In an emergency, OEM can ask other departments to share resources, but can't direct that.

And so that's something that's worth looking at in some more detail, and we'll touch on that in a bit more.

Resource challenges have been noted.

As a small department, those across-the-board cuts really hit hard.

They've impacted OEM's training and coordination, community engagement, rather, specifically.

There's been some remedy to that.

but I think this is worth continuing to pay attention to and that reliance on federal grants as well is certainly a risk.

So Oliver noted that we spoke with stakeholders throughout the community.

We spoke with someone in the mayor's office, folks in CBO, police, fire, City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, SDOT and OEM as well.

and I'm gonna present some summary themes on this slide and then on the next slide get into a little bit more detail.

We heard some appreciation, we also heard some criticism, and I would phrase that criticism really as a desire for more.

I've described OEM's role as a coordinating role, I think that's true, but there's also a desire for more proactive leadership.

helping the city to identify priority threats, helping the city prepare for and plan for those threats, strengthening the EOC operations so that it works fluidly and fluently, and then adding more value in information synthesis and active coordination.

And I'll expand on that in just a moment.

The other recommendation from stakeholders was to have OEM focus on core functions, really focus on the basics, so hazard assessment that should inform planning, training, exercising, and resources, focusing on that EOC, and then building relationships and building trust with the operating departments and with city leadership.

So I think that point is important.

and then as more resources are allowed to expand its role, OEM's role in community outreach and communications.

So taking some of those same ideas and then organizing them by what happens before a disaster, what happens during a disaster, and what happens after a disaster, So there was a desire expressed that OEM take a more proactive role in identifying risks and helping set strategic priorities.

So helping the mayor's office and city departments really focus on what do we need to focus on right now.

FIFA is a great example and actually OEM's role in FIFA preparedness was generally reviewed very positively.

Helping make sure that departmental coups or continuity of operation plans are in place Those are asked of all city departments, but I don't think they're in place.

And OEM does not have the authority to require that they be ready.

And we've talked about making sure that the folks from across the city who are coming into the EOC, making sure they're prepared for their role and able to operate effectively in that environment.

more training for staff and community members before an emergency, and then sort of smoothing the way that the city's strategic work group, disaster management committee, and emergency executive board work.

It's a lot of committees, but it's a big city with a lot of need to coordinate.

I don't think the structure is wrong.

There was actually strong support for that structure, but there can be ways I think that those bodies are used more effectively.

Within response, helping gather information, process it, disseminate it in a way that glues us all together.

That was a comment from one of the stakeholders.

So sometimes the criticism here is that information comes to OEM, they repackage it and send it back out without synthesis, without sort of the value add of helping distill and identify what's most important and what needs to happen.

Increasing the operational focus of OEM.

So emergency management involves a lot of planning, training, and exercise.

And that's a big part of the profession.

And then when something happens, we activate.

And that shift into activation really calls on OEM staff and others to change and play a very different role.

and they need to be ready for that.

They need to have practice in that and they need to treat it as a core part of their job when they're hiring for that position.

In recovery, I think it's important to better describe roles of the OEM's role and department roles and to plan for a neighborhood level recovery.

The city has a citywide disaster recovery framework, but it doesn't get practiced very often, and recovery can be challenging because it's so interdisciplinary.

So there could be more focus on clarifying roles there.

All right, we're gonna step through three sets of recommendations here that really bring together roles that the mayor's office could play as well as OEM, and then we'll move on to your questions.

We think the mayor's office could do more to help prioritize the emergency management function.

Think of emergency preparedness as a very high value insurance policy that will protect Seattle residents and the ability of the city itself to perform well in challenging moments.

So it's got a high ROI when we think about the dollar spent on emergency management but I think we need to extend that thinking into how time is spent on emergency preparedness.

So we can't outsource that to the Office of Emergency Management.

It has to be a high priority for the mayor's office and for the departments, operating departments as well in the face of that tyranny of the immediate.

We think it's important to keep OEM's position as an independent entity within the city's organizational structure.

to demonstrate executive support for OEM via the Emergency Executive Board and other opportunities.

We think that establishing a staff training requirement with minimum expectations, so this would be for staff not in OEM but in other departments, and that's something only the mayor's office can do.

OEM can't require that.

And as I mentioned earlier, exploring opportunities to give OEM more, or others, more authority to mandate COOP development and maintenance, and also resource allocation during an emergency.

We've talked about protecting and even expanding OEM's resources.

And finally, we've mentioned elevating the emergency management function in the key operating departments, so the emergency management director within those departments reports to the department director and not elsewhere.

From OEM's side, Operational readiness really involves focusing on the core, those fundamentals, so making sure the EOC is gonna be effective when it operates.

So a measure I would love to see is that individuals who report to the EOC report that they feel ready, they feel well-prepared, they feel well-trained, they've exercised, they know what to do, where to sit, who to talk to, how to operate within the EOC.

More could be done to clarify the EOC activation policy.

When will the EOC operate, activate?

When will departmental emergency operation centers activate?

How will they coordinate?

Who's gonna be where?

And then one stakeholder mentioned a more aggressive activation policy.

It's all about practice.

And so getting folks together for both unplanned events when they happen, a windstorm or the like, and also planned events.

We know there's gonna be a parade, a large civic action, that's an opportunity to activate the EOC, get everybody to practice, use that time to do some tabletop exercises, and make sure that's a frequently used muscle.

There was encouragement to review the city's emergency management plans and resources, make sure they're all stemming from our vulnerabilities in the Shiva.

and then simplify that structure.

There's a lot of plans and sometimes it can be very difficult to follow.

So trying to simplify that, use more plain English and really break it down.

With additional resources, as we've mentioned, I think there's an opportunity to focus more on that community-facing preparedness as well.

A final recommendation is to leverage the city's Emergency Management Program strategic plan.

So this is a process or a document that OEM coordinates across the city to identify and develop a shared plan.

I think it's a great starting point, and there's lots of opportunities to improve it.

This is an opportunity to proactively identify what are immediate threats or immediate areas of focus that we want to prepare for, even if the threat itself is not immediate, and to identify clear roles and responsibilities within that.

There's some of that within the strategic plan right now, but nothing like a racy matrix or something that really breaks down and says who's going to do what, when, what are the responsibilities of each department.

And this strategic plan is also an opportunity to address OEM's long-term organizational development.

So in addition to what they're doing now, they can describe what they'd like to do next and the resources that would be necessary to support that.

This is our last slide.

I just wanted to recap some key takeaways.

You know, we think it's important to keep OEM where it is as an independent department, evaluate resources, focus on the core, and then this encouragement to really bring them close, that the mayor's office and OEM leadership need to work together in collaboration.

We think meeting at least twice a year on a planning basis to review the prior year, what went well, what did not go well, set priorities for the coming year and then validate that updated emergency management program strategic plan once it's drafted by the department, by OEM and other city departments.

Thank you for your patience as we walk through that.

Be glad to take your questions at this point.

Okay, well thank you so much Mr. Murphy, Mr. Hearn on this emergency management.

review and basically study.

Very important and I would add very good timing.

I recognize you were interviewing the previous administration, but the departments are largely the same.

So there's great overlap.

But I think the timing of this starting at the very beginning, this is the first committee of the new term of the Council, is great because it gives Mayor Wilson an opportunity and her team who is coming in, Mayor Wilson but also Deputy Mayor Sarrant and Director Chan from the Director of Operations and the departments.

An opportunity to see what's happening here because the earthquake doesn't necessarily wait on that.

And importantly, we have the FIFA World Cup coming up.

And so we need to ensure that we are set for that.

And so I think this is actually really good timing with our change of administration.

of the Mayor.

So I just want to thank you for coming and for conducting the study.

Now I always ask for our new members of the Committee, I always ask my Vice-Chair if he has any questions first.

So Vice-Chair Saka, any questions?

This doesn't change in the new term, Vice-Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

Appreciate the customary rights of first refusal, but I'll actually take you up on this one this time.

First and foremost, I want to thank our presenters, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Hearn, for sharing your presentation today.

I love the office of our city's own Office of Emergency Management and the broader function and capability that it represents.

Fun fact about myself personally, in my old reserve unit 20-plus years ago now, I suppose, I was the emergency manager representative.

That was one of my ancillary functions, so coordinating at the unit level all the wings.

you know, EM roles and responsibilities at my own unit level.

And then had many jobs in my life from flipping burgers and refereeing youth soccer and serving, you know, serving tables, being a waiter, slanging consumer electronics at a big box retailer.

Obviously, I served in the military, but my very first office job was as an intern in our city's own Seattle Public Utilities in the Office of Emergency Management.

So there's obviously, as we learned as part of this process, there's the centralized role, and that's the thrust of this presentation I'm hearing.

But individualized functions, it's kind of a federated approach where individualized functions live elsewhere.

and also I'm really geeking out about the RACI matrix reference there.

I would love to hear more.

I know you all are not city departments, but I would love to hear more city departments talk about RACI matrices and sort of what that represents and when they engage with us, because that shows ownership, accountability and a sophisticated, nuanced understanding of, you know, their own sort of remit, how it relates or not to what others are working on, etc.

So, shout out to Racy.

All right, substantive questions.

Throat clearing aside, substantive questions.

I guess first, starting with, I don't even know what slide number, don't need it for purposes of this, but I do note that you specifically commented on and called out the fact that with respect to our peer city analyses and side-by-side benchmarking, which I love, you noted that the city of San Francisco, as an example, has 911, calls EMS response and homelessness within its purview or remit, in addition to who knows what else.

And that seems to be reflected on the slide six that shows their total city budget is $140 million, $141 million.

but double-clicking for just a moment on the homelessness response.

I know that was not something you all sort of focused in on.

You were more focused on the broader assessment.

But that is an interesting or peculiar feature, I think at least, based off what I'm aware of.

Is that...

a specific, would you characterize that as a specific recommendation for homelessness response to live within or at least primarily within a city's Office of Emergency Management?

Or would you characterize that as a best practice of some sort for that specific function to live within an Office of Emergency Management?

I'd be happy to, do you want to speak to that?

I'm happy to talk to that a little bit.

Yeah, I think, so San Francisco has sort of that myriad of things that it's addressing, homelessness being one of them.

Also came up in our conversation with Portland as well.

They had talked about having some functionality there.

When we spoke to other cities about this, they really emphasized that their homelessness response was a response in sort of an emergency nature.

It was not necessarily living within their emergency management organization to be proactive and try to fix the more systemic causes around that.

It was more in a response when needed.

So I'm thinking of like white flag nights when the temperature drops to a certain level, like that might be an instance where I think that their role really comes into play.

and I think that they're able to respond effectively in that manner but less so living in a more systemic sense within the Office of Emergency Management there.

Anything else?

I would just add that it is not necessarily a common or a best practice and I'll just note that in talking to stakeholders here in Seattle, so bringing it down to here in Seattle, there's a lot of interest in focusing on the fundamentals and focusing on being ready for the earthquake that we all know is gonna come at some point, or FIFA.

I wouldn't stretch the organization at this point to draw in something as complicated as homelessness and an ongoing and endemic as homelessness.

It could be something to aspire to, because I think it's a case where competency comes with some punishment, that San Francisco is phenomenal at doing that, filling that role, and therefore they got that responsibility.

We're not there yet.

Got it.

Thank you.

You also mentioned that, and I learned more history about this, our own city's OEM department and how it was essentially pulled out of the broader function and capability was essentially pulled out of SPD after George Floyd's murder in 2020, which strikes me as something that makes sense.

As part of your peer assessment, any any indications of other kind of key functions that were similarly, like changes, structural changes to the department in terms of roles, responsibilities, remit with respect to their OEM departments, changes that were made specifically in response to the racial reckoning that we had in 2020?

I can't say that's something that came up in our conversation specifically.

Okay.

Moving on, I note that one of the, on slide eight, you note that OEM has no authority.

And I understand how that could potentially work out in practice, if that makes sense.

just wanna pull through issue, like as part of the contextual framework you set, issue identification and some of the solutions or recommendations, just wanna pull the thread through the you know, the cloth here that connects all these together.

How would you suggest best to remediate that?

OEM has no authority or limited authority.

How would you suggest that we best remediate that?

Would that be one of your, pertaining to one of your other recommendations to essentially put the department squarely within the mayor's office?

Or what other empowerment are needed to better address that specific issue.

I'll speak to that, Councilmember.

I think that, one, I think is simpler and easier to address is the requirement for training of city staff across the city.

I think that that's something that the mayor's office could stipulate and say there are staff in certain functions, certain roles across the city.

They must have this level of training that OEM would then provide.

So it's not a shift in authority to OEM.

It's an actual designation made by the mayor's office.

We also spoke about sorry, the ability to share resources.

I think that's more about building relationships with the operating departments and building a trusted relationship so that they're pulling in the same direction.

We know that in an emergency, the allocation of staff and staff time and dollars is really where the rubber meets the road.

So there's gonna be disagreements.

The relationships allow you to work through those disagreements.

The mayor's office certainly has the ability to make emergency calls without having to delegate that responsibility necessarily to OEM.

Thank you.

And I can see how if that function lives directly within the mayor's office as opposed to being one of the 40 plus federated departments across the city that there would be, that would at least in part address the issue of authority and lack of, perceived lack of empowerment.

But So my final question, and thank you chair and colleagues for indulging me on this, on a policy geek for OEM related topics, but moving on to your slide 15 here, that first bullet recommendation says OEM should remain an independent department.

Can you talk a little bit more about what's specifically intended there?

for example, that lives more, well, it's always gonna be part of the executive department.

Well, it currently is today, not always.

So it currently is today an executive department.

But if that had a more direct relationship with the mayor's office, wouldn't that further sort of abrogate the perception that it's an independent department?

So here the distinction we wanted to make is that I think it's in the right place.

Other options include housing it within police or fire, and there's some advantages to that.

Those organizations have resources, therefore, OEM would have the ability to direct those resources.

But OEM is, emergency management, is an interdisciplinary discipline.

If it lives within police, it's going to focus on police law enforcement priorities.

If it lives within fire, it's going to focus on fire priorities.

I think it's well placed where it is in the mayor's office and gives it more of that independent relationship with those operating departments.

Thank you.

And then final question pertains to that second bullet there on that slide, 15. OEM needs additional resources.

We've learned through this presentation and I do appreciate the focus on the sort of policy benchmarking peer review through the context of those four or five other comparable jurisdictions.

That earlier slide there that shows the side-by-side comparison of the city's budget against the city's population, whatever other metrics you included there, is really only obviously just a snapshot and the highest of the high levels only of what those departments do.

So this bullet here, without more context, is not particularly helpful a policy maker's perspective, every department would say that they need more resources.

And so my question to you would be, if that is indeed part of your assessment and your recommendations here, more resources for what exactly?

Which specific new functions or capabilities do you recommend that our city OEM department pick up We should not, as legislators who hold the principal power of the purse, I don't think we should be in the business of just writing checks for the sake of writing checks.

We need to have you know, appropriate resources for a specific policy priority, a specific need, aligned with current priorities, and, you know, making sure we have KPIs and racy matrices in place to make sure we're tracking and monitoring performance of those things.

So all I want to say is, for what exactly?

Assuming we appropriated more resources for OEM, what would that look like exactly?

What specific functions, based off your review of our department, in the context of the peer review, would those resources go towards?

I can start by answering a portion of that question, which is I'll go back to our comment about the communication and training staff.

I think when we looked at those comparison budgets with other cities, some of the space that we saw that discrepancy was within the communication department and within the training department.

The full report has a table that includes FTE allocations from each city.

And you can look there and it'll show in a little bit more detail sort of where some of the FTEs, what divisions and what roles they function there.

But I think one major component is that communication both with other departments, communication with the general public and sort of, as Brian was talking to, that sort of insurance policy, getting that communication out with the general public and preparedness.

as well as facilitating both individual training and also interdepartmental training, like large-scale interdepartmental training.

Yeah, I absolutely agree that they're under-resourced in that capacity.

We also receive pretty strong input from stakeholders to focus on sort of core functions first.

I think I would say, council member, just as you did, it's not the role here of a consultant to suggest how that should best be allocated.

I think, and we tried to really end on this point because I think it's very important, is that the mayor's office and OEM need to come together and identify where are their roles that need clarification, what are the expectations and accountabilities, KPIs and the like, the outcomes that they want to see, where does OEM need more resources, and that can be plowed into updating the emergency management program strategic plan, both in short-term and in that long-term organizational development.

Got it.

Thank you.

Really appreciate your presentation, the analysis here, the underlying analysis, and then answering my thoughtful questions, or at least pesky questions.

I think we can all agree on that, from a fellow OEM nerd.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

OK, my Vice Chair OEM nerd.

By the way, I have a clerk OEM nerd, so I'm covered in multiple directions.

And I appreciate your questions.

three words, Director of Public Safety, something that I've been communicating with the mayor's office about, very important.

All right, Council Member Juarez, you're up next.

Thank you.

I just want, first of all, thank you to the presenters and the report that I understand was done in June 2025. That's correct, right?

Correct.

Okay.

So staying on page, and thank you for clarifying the role of the consultant on our OEM program.

My understanding back in 2021 is also one of the reasons why OEM was moved out of SPD was due to COVID.

Is that correct?

I actually don't have direct knowledge.

I'm seeing a a head shake from Councilmember Rivera.

I think it was largely in response to the murder of George Floyd and sort of a reconstitution of the police functions.

Their Office of Emergency Management was moved out as was parking and other functions.

Okay, it was when we moved the 911 callers out as well.

Okay, now I'm understanding.

I'm trying to remember, I was going back to your report.

So looking at page 8, I have a few pages that I pulled up that I looked at.

I printed out your PowerPoint.

So you said OEM is highly reliant on federal grants.

So can you share a few of those grants and which ones would be in jeopardy now?

That would be a great question for OEM staff.

I'm aware that there are UASI funds, which is for the Urban Area Strategic Initiative in Seattle and the broader region.

There's also planning grants and mitigation grants, some of which I believe are in jeopardy.

Even grants that have been awarded is my belief.

But this is not something I'm current on.

when I look at well let me go back here so from what I can gather from looking at some of the other cities and what we're looking at is it is it fair to say that you're sharing that OEM should be staffed more have more communication with the mayor's emergency executive board which if you look at it it's I pulled up the old one If you looked at the Mayor's Emergency Executive Board, just the executive piece alone is 13 folks.

And of course, the executive and title folks are like 27 city departments.

So was there an idea?

And again, thank you for your report.

It was 47 pages and I would be lying if I said I read every page, but I tried to get through what I didn't understand.

What would be your recommendation to how you would like you say, be able to respond to the mayor's office more quickly with resources and also direction of who can do what.

What does success look like there?

So I think the structure of the Emergency Executive Board is probably a good one and the right one.

It's about making sure that those folks who are literally directing large departments with a lot of pressing needs make sure that they are participating in the planning and participating in the training so that when an emergency happens, they're practiced in that and they understand their role, they understand the roles of others, and they can make the resource allocations that are necessary.

OEM is in this highly leveraged position and if other folks aren't as focused on emergency preparedness and response as they are, at least in some portion of their year, or even their month or their quarter, then I think OEM is gonna come up short because they're then relying on city departments and city individuals who direct those departments to be practiced in and able to make on the fly decisions about resources.

Okay, so you made a comment on page seven and you'd have to go there, but I just wrote it down because I think I understand what the sensibilities were on that.

that you have the resources, but not the right level of authority.

So what would that look like?

It's a good question.

I think I may have just wrote it down on page seven, but that's where I had the thought besides additional FTEs.

Yeah, OEM, we do think could use additional resources and additional staff.

I understand that, but it was like you also said You need the proper authority, the right level of authority, which would be an expansion if I understand that correctly.

It would, it would.

Other peer departments, and maybe Oliver can speak to this, do have the ability to to obligate other city department resources in an emergency.

OEM does not have that authority.

That's a complicated thing and I would recommend it deserves more study than my answering your question right now on what the right answer is for Seattle, for Seattle OEM at this point in the evolution of the city and the department.

So is it fair to say that OEM has obviously grown more particularly of George Floyd and COVID beyond just disaster relief.

We moved them, all the 911 and everybody out of SPD, made OEM a standalone organization.

If my understanding was, is I thought that the point of doing that was to pinpoint and concentrate power and resources and authority to respond to the issues of COVID and what we saw in the summer of 2020 in the fall.

And you're saying that, well, now that we're there, we need more.

Would that be a fair statement?

I think they need more resources, Council Member.

I do not want to go on record as saying Seattle OEM needs more authority because that's one thing we touched on in our fairly high level study.

I think that resource allocation authority probably deserves more conversation than we can give it right now.

We can point out that other peer cities do vest more authority in their emergency management departments, but that may not necessarily be the correct answer for Seattle in that federated model that Councilmember Saka was speaking to.

And I'll say- Okay.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

I was just going to add one peer city conversation that came up in was our conversation with Portland.

They have a different sort of structure to their organization and they have an opportunity to dictate more authority in emergencies in some circumstances.

So it might be worth following up with them after this conversation.

So I have one last question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When I, back in, before 2020, and again, this doesn't really go to, it goes to your presentation of what you're saying as the consultants hired to do an assessment for us back in doing your report and delivering it in June of 2025. And now we have Mayor Wilson, who obviously will be picking up the challenge to to make this a more streamlined organization and more responsive based on what you've shared with us.

Back in, I think, 17, 18, we had done, and would you recommend, when Mayor Harrell was then Council President Harrell, OEM required the legislative branch, Seattle City Council, to go through a disaster exercise.

And the disaster that was created was an earthquake in which the north end was separated from the south end.

And how we would respond as a legislative branch with OEM at the time when it was still at SPD.

And the scenario was communications were down.

There was looting, fires, hospitals running on generators.

and we actually had to get on the dais and have council president at the time, Harold, share what would we be doing?

How would we be allocating resources?

Would we be suspending civil rights?

How would we connect with national, like FEMA?

So would you say, or is this in your report?

Again, like I said, I did read all 47 pages.

Would it be good for the legislative branch to engage in an exercise like that again, post 2020, 2021, now that you're a standalone separate consulting group that's saying what OEM needs to do to be prepared from 2026, looking forward?

Absolutely, council member.

I think practice helps make better and that we all need that practice again and again.

I think it's very difficult to get legislative branch, also department directors and mayor's office get their attention, get their time in the face of that tyranny of the immediate.

But I think it's extremely important and then it's extremely important that OEM deliver an exercise, whether it's a full exercise or a tabletop, that is worth everybody's time and you're all glad that you set aside the day to do that.

I should share that when we did that, It was very interesting because I think for a moment, and again I'm just going to speak plainly, we quit politicizing situations and actually talked about the physicality and how prepared we would be if indeed something like that happened, where we kind of had to step away from any kind of political ideology and talk about why we would have to suspend civil rights, what type of people were looting, and when I say type, I mean just everywhere, how SPD would respond, how OEM would respond, how SPD, how the fire would respond, what the executive branch could do as opposed to what the legislative branch could do, how the mayor would impose an emergency executive order.

and how the legislative branch would execute that.

So you're right, I'm feeling a little unprepared in that if we were to do that next week, because I don't know with host now that since 2021 OEM is a standalone based on your report and some of the other cities that we compared them to who are doing non-traditional things such as fentanyl and homelessness.

I'm not sure how we would respond if we would be I mean, we barely handled murder hornets and the bomb cyclone and then toilet rats.

So, you know, I don't know how we would respond if the big one hit or we had a major fire in some of those major infrastructures that protect our city, actual brick and mortar and institutions, how the legislative branch would be responding to the executive branch to have 18 city departments that are crucial and first responders to get out there and to do that.

So I guess, Mr. Chair, that's going to be on you to figure out how we do that.

And if we, in fact, have one of these disaster scenarios that we actually go through the exercise of that, because we certainly learned a lot from that.

I know I did.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Council Member Juarez, and the answer is yes.

We actually had a two-day training session last year.

I was with the Mayor one day, and then the next day they brought different people in.

So there's those pieces.

And in answer to your question, this is the reason why we have OEM here today as a topic with Burke Consulting, because I've been working with my team on these various OEM issues.

and now, particularly again with the timing with the new administration, it's actually really good because we do need to step out early as things are developing right now.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for being here and for this presentation and for the work that you did in putting the report together.

I will say I was here when in the Durkin administration with OEM got pulled out and really it was in response to George Floyd and really alternative response on what needs to actually be an SPD versus not and so you know PAOs got pulled out, 911 now is its own call center and then OEM and OEM's function was very much is a coordinating body.

It's the central repository.

It's a place where all city departments have a point of contact when there is not just an emergency.

OEM gets activated via the Emergency Operations Center during any event, including parades, big games, protests, anything of that nature it gets activated just as and it is you know actually colleagues I would I should step back and say during the Durkin administration as an operations manager OEM was in my portfolio so I worked very closely with OEM and I was the mayor's office contact for the OEM and EOC activations I spent a lot of time with the wonderful, wonderful folks at OEM.

And I got to see this firsthand, and of course I was there during COVID when we had an actual emergency.

And so in that regard, OEM has been part of a major emergency, COVID, shutting down the city, reopening the city.

and really saw the coordinating pieces and of course the mayor's office, OEM is a city department, as a city department the mayor is overseas that city department and it's the mayor who's making the breadth of decisions around emergencies and so I do feel that OEM is an independent organization or department, rather, is important because it gives them the ability to coordinate with the sister departments.

And I will say, during an emergency, really, the mayor's making these decisions.

So how I read your OEM, the structural challenge around OEM has no authority.

It can only ask other departments.

to act or share resources.

I remember during COVID and even before COVID because the COOP, these operation plans that the departments are supposed to be putting together in case of an emergency.

So every city department needs to have a COOP plan.

The COOP plan delineates order of operations in case of an emergency including who's on deck.

from the department director on down, because if the director's not available during that earthquake, then who's next on the list?

And they're supposed to be keeping these COOP plans updated.

that is not always happening and that really is the mayor's responsibility.

It is not something really the mayor can delegate to OEM because they are the overseer of all the city departments.

So I think there's opportunity now with a new administration and this is not in any way to malign prior administrations because I don't know what happened during the and the Harrell administration with OEM.

But I do know that in past, the COOP plans haven't always been updated timely and I appreciate what you said about, you know, other things are happening day to day and it makes it challenging to be able to go and update COOP plans, but that is a priority and I know it was a, I'm sure it was a priority during Harrell administration, it was during Durkin, and it's just a matter of making sure that the departments have those updated.

I see that as an area of improvement.

And then I appreciate the clarity around OEM's responsibilities as regards their sister departments, because sometimes the departments don't understand what OEM's responsibility is.

It's very much a coordinating responsibility that they have.

and then also we look to OEM to the departments do anyway to tell us almost like what to do or what comes next and so having the point of contacts at the city departments making sure that they are participating in all the activations as they should be and making that a priority is important.

What do I mean by that?

If there is a parade every city department is supposed to have their person, well in those days it was in person at the OEM which is near the, used to be the new fire station but it's not so new anymore just past the federal building and you would be there.

It takes the department director prioritizing that there needs to be a person there when there is an activation from their department.

because that's how they coordinate and you know what to do.

Like during COVID, we were coordinating via OEM so that, because you don't know which department is gonna be on deck for a particular item related to an emergency.

So I think how I read has no authority.

It's more they can't tell a department what to do.

So they need the mayor's help to do that.

And that's how I read that piece.

I don't know if that's how it was intended, but that was more how I read it, is that they really need the mayor's help in ensuring that these things they're requesting of their sister departments actually get done.

I had questions about the peer cities Denver and Portland have about the same number of FTEs give or take as Seattle but their budgets are a lot larger so I'm wondering is the difference in budget related to the training because I know that there's always improvements every city can make make that bold statement.

Just knowing from going through an emergency like COVID and all the things that we had to do, as much as you can prepare, as much as you can, there are always things that are going to come up that you're not going to know.

You just aren't, right?

That's just how life is.

And I wonder on the training front, is that what's making up the difference?

Because I know that on the training piece, tabletop exercises are a goal, but they don't always happen.

Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit, and I like your point about the constant iteration, and I'll go back to what Brian said about practice makes better.

I think this is a great point of practice makes better.

To answer your question specifically on the FDEs, again, I would refer to that table in the full report where we have that a rough allocation of FTEs and their roles from each of the different organizations from the peer cities.

But I think you're correct in saying that a lot of that disparity came from both the training as well as the communication, and again, emphasizing both internal communication, interdepartmental communication, as well as public engagement communication.

Thank you.

And the public engagement communication is important.

And I know that ROEM does alert, the Alert 911, I think it's called, and we can all opt in and you receive emergency messages on your phone.

And I know that can get beefed up because not everyone know, not every city resident is aware of that that is available.

So for instance, a point of communication is making sure that all city residents, you know, are aware and opt into this service.

as a point of communication.

I do want to say, colleagues, I'm having a little bit of PTSD from COVID and the engagement with OEM.

I really want to give a shout out to OEM for all the great work that they did during COVID.

It's very stressful times.

And they did a really great job.

I will say, I do think that like I said earlier there's room for more on the training front for across the city departments and there's more opportunity for clarity of OEM's role which I see more as that coordinating body role which doesn't sound like a big role but it is that is huge to be able to have the central repository and look to them to be that is really critical.

And then also we always talk about the big one, but these smaller events that the EOC gets activated for are equally, equally important.

And I don't think people always think about that.

So making sure that the department has what they need to be able to do that well and mainly I think it's just for the mayor, it's making sure that the other city departments understand how important it is for them to coordinate with OEM and ensuring that they are participating in those activations I think is a critical point from my vantage point having had that experience.

So colleagues, I don't, I've been with the city for a long time and I just happen to have this experience with OEM so I'm just sharing my vantage point for whatever it's worth because as I said earlier I was involved in an actual emergency with OEM and the last thing I'll say about OEM and sorry chair I'm making more comments and I'm asking questions but I think it's pertinent to this conversation is that Something I want to underscore that didn't come up here that OEM does is they coordinate with the regional cities.

And they have as part of their, they have a body where they have a representative from Snohomish and other cities, and maybe it rotates at this point, but there is a coordination point with other cities, regional cities, to make sure that when an event happens, we have those relationships as you talked about earlier and the importance of making sure those relationships are established so that if we need help from a regional city we know who to talk to and what to do and that piece is really important and I don't think that really came up here in terms of other cities surrounding cities that I know OEM works really hard to do.

and then one cool fact, they have a ham radio and a ham radio operator who's a volunteer, a resident volunteer who manages that and it's actually very cool.

So I think, Chair, it would be...

If I could say to our colleagues, if you want to visit the OEM, I'm sure they'd love to have you.

And it's a really great experience to go down there and meet with them and see the operations and all the cameras, the TVs, as activations happen, they can see what is happening on the ground.

Anyway, thank you, Chair.

Thank you for indulging all my comments.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Another reason why you're on the committee.

And I have been, obviously, to the AOC.

I've actually took a class there a day.

Well, it wasn't a full day.

I don't really have a full day to commit like that, but some training.

And I'm more than happy to go down there with my colleagues and also with the executive, with Mayor Wilson or Deputy Mayor Surratt or Director Chen, and now our new public safety person, Ms. Holcomb.

OK, Councilmember Lin.

Thank you.

Thank you for this presentation.

A couple questions, comments.

I've read that, looking back at emergencies and across the globe, that there have been studies where comparing like demographics, racial demographics, economic demographics, that when you compare these communities, they found that when there's better social capital, social cohesion, that the emergency response is much better, that, you know, neighbors helping, checking on elders, checking on each other, both an immediate response as well as long-term, you know, rebuilding when there's better social cohesion.

and kind of chiming in on some of my colleagues' comments.

I think in an emergency, we really see how political divisions, other divisions, we see our communities come together.

That can be a unifying response.

in certain circumstances.

But I saw some of the recommendations about community outreach and education.

But I was just wondering about, I know that OEM is, or at least this seems to be focused on the city's response, and that makes sense.

Obviously, the city government has an enormous responsibility in an emergency.

But I just wonder about things, What I've read about community cohesion, social connections, oftentimes it's things in urban planning where we have third places, where there are informal ways that people get to know their neighbors and where there's better ability to get to know your neighbors.

Again, there's better outcomes in an emergency.

But I just wanted to uplift this and sort of see if that's part of, you know, I appreciate the focus on the budget.

I think, you know, and part of the report is about outcomes, right?

And we need to focus on, and I know it's hard to focus on outcomes and emergencies are unique and so on.

But again, are there ways that we can be facilitating better social connections, social cohesion so that, you know, again, oftentimes that first responder is a neighbor?

So I'd love to hear you respond to that.

And also I just wanna, would love to hear a little bit about how to make sure we are engaging different communities.

I represent Southeast Seattle, our most diverse district.

There's different cultures, different communities, different potential language barriers to our communications.

Just want to be mindful, thoughtful.

I want to make sure that we are planning, empowering different communities to respond.

So any thoughts or recommendations there would be appreciated.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I support so much of what you said and I've seen those studies as well.

I think things like Neighborhood Night Out really helped to bring a group of neighbors on a block out together where they interconnect.

There's also preparedness hubs that are happening around the city that the city is providing some support to.

And those kinds of things are hugely important.

I mean, if only we think of it as a numbers game, there's 800,000 city residents and only less than 20 OEM, only so many council members, only so many city staff.

So really it's an investment in helping community members, neighborhoods, businesses get ready and stay ready.

There is a tension, I think, in our recommendations that we've often said, you know, focus on the core first, and that's like really building on some of the stakeholder input.

And then on the bottom of the slide, we say, with additional resources, focus more on those community-focused alerts, the communication, the social network building and the like.

So I think it's absolutely essential.

particularly prior to the additional budget, the OEM was not resourced to do that.

They had those positions cut, so I think it's great if they can continue to do that.

The trick there is to how to leverage their very few people through community-based organizations and community-based trainers and the like to sort of do that on-the-ground work.

That takes a lot more people, and it takes people of all walks of the city and languages and backgrounds.

to get us ready.

And as one of my friends said, No one can say we weren't told this isn't coming, so we have a responsibility as individuals and also to get the residents of the city ready for self-sufficiency because the feds are not coming, the state is not coming, maybe some neighbors will come, but they may be facing their own challenges as well.

So it's really incumbent on neighborhoods and communities to be self-sufficient for longer than we wish was a fact.

Yeah, thank you for that and totally understand the issue there around resources and which department might be doing this, whether it's OEM or one of our other departments like Department of Neighborhoods.

I do think we should, in my mind, that social cohesion, those community connections, is not just a benefit in an emergency.

We know that it also improves public safety more generally.

It improves mental health.

And so I just think that as we think about resources, I think it can be a multiplier there if there are ways that we can facilitate community connections.

And I think a lot about our land use planning, you know, and there may be a no-cost way to facilitate community connections to build these, you know, sense of resiliency.

And so I just that's another part that I would maybe for another meeting is how do we build OEM into our land use, our planning framework.

I'm sure it's there in part.

But we think about things like SEPTED and public safety needs to be central to our planning efforts.

So thank you.

Just one last comment.

I think I'll just be remiss not to to mention as we will talk more in our next steps about things like ICE and the federal response.

And it is just disheartening that, again, emergency response should not be political, but we see it becoming political.

We see what is in part devastating about ICE is destroying trust in government.

and trust in government is essential to a good emergency response.

And so just stating the obvious about the challenges we face here and why it's critical for us to focus on what we can do here.

And I do think this is an opportunity, again, to a sense, bring our community together.

I mean, I think as we plan, you know, as we do those tabletop exercises, it goes beyond our politics.

And I think it's an opportunity here for us to come together.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Very important points about the neighborhood piece and then also on the grants, the federal government.

Most people don't know that until the Trump administration, OEM brought in way more money into our budget than what they have used in their budget itself.

The grant writing and the like was phenomenal, and they definitely paid their way in terms of the budget.

If you just look at money coming in and what we spend on OEM, there's no other equivalent, I don't think.

Councilmember Foster.

Thank you, Chair Cattle, and thank you for a great presentation.

I want to echo actually some of the points that my colleague, Councilmember Lynn, made around collaboration with the Department of Neighborhoods, particularly when it comes to just your notes around staffing reductions.

I think you have that on slide eight, regarding that staff reductions have impacted training and community engagement, so I was very curious about whether or not you all were able to look at collaboration with other departments as a way to sort of innovate or fill some of those gaps where there already may be community engagement roles across the city.

And I think not limited to Department of Neighborhoods.

I think that also goes to other departments who are specifically tasked with outreach to immigrant and refugee communities or communities who we need to make sure that we're being proactive about connecting with.

So I was curious about that.

But I also wanted to ask, I know another colleague asked if you had looked at recommendations for the additional budget, and I heard that that was something for OEM to do in the future, but I am curious if you were able to identify particular vulnerabilities that have resulted from the staffing reductions that you mentioned in your report.

So my understanding is that the staffing reductions were specifically around community outreach and engagement and training.

And I believe some of that has been remedied.

In terms of collaboration with other departments, absolutely.

And I think there's public safety outreach, there's parks and community service, parks is doing outreach.

with OIRA and others.

So I think I would come back to the strategic plan and that RACI matrix and let's say, let's set a goal across the departments that we're gonna focus on preparedness and outreach and driving uptick of Alert Seattle.

Let's track that as a metric, for example, of how many people have subscribed to Alert Seattle, how many people have been engaged.

Frankly, the mayor's office there, I think, needs to be a galvanizing force across little OEM and these other city departments and say, let's work together to make that happen.

And in the absence of that call, there's gravitation back to organizational mission that may not focus on emergency preparedness and that social cohesion.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

And again, always welcome to join the committee.

All right, we've gone a little bit long on OEM.

It's a very important topic.

I just wanted to really...

I'm just going to make a few statements, maybe one question, but outreach is so important to Councilmember Lynn's piece, and actually it came up in different ways.

I'm still a block watch captain from my neighborhood, and I'm also a snap captain.

Seattle neighborhoods actively prepare, which is essentially this function.

And in terms of outreach, we don't get it the way we used to.

SPD, DON, and that might be something where we engage OEM on because they can pick up that working with SPD and DON to really ramp that up.

And that's really important because we do need a neighborhood level recovery.

And I suspect and D7 like in my neighborhood, Queen Anne, we're way more prepared than say D2.

And so what we need to do is look around the city and see how can we lift that up.

We have a Queen Anne block watch network that is working emergency management and we have 43 active block watch captains that are engaged and they just had a meeting because I'm part of this.

And developing that capacity is huge.

We also have the hub network in Queen Anne and with the ham radios as Council Member Rivera was speaking about and really building up that neighbourhood level recovery is a theme that we have as I was writing notes to myself is something that we really need to understand and I think we do have to have a strong partnership with the mayor and the department, but also with us.

And I offer all of us really, but particularly myself as chair, to the administration, to this new, when I say Director of Public Safety, I don't know what the exact title is going to be with Ms. Holcomb, but also to Mayor Wilson and Deputy Mayor Surratt and Director Chan to do this.

I think it's really important.

I think the entire council will be in for that.

and just one basic question, and it goes to the, the numbers and the budget and so forth.

Different cities, sometimes city and counties are essentially the same thing.

They have the same footprint in that piece.

Obviously we don't have that and so I don't know what King County does for emergency management and how that plays for us in Seattle and could that be part of the calculation and could that be part of the reason why our numbers are not quite like, particularly for Denver and Portland.

Recognizing San Francisco is kind of in its own category.

is that a factor in terms of the city county relationship in terms of essentially the same and or how it plays out like in our scenario?

I think that's a great question.

It's certainly worth looking into in more detail.

I can't say that as per the research that we've done here, we really looked at the city-county relationship too much.

I would just reiterate again, similar to what you've said, San Francisco has some major fundamental differences.

And again, I think it's really helpful to compare Seattle with Denver, Portland, and San Francisco, but even Denver and Portland to who look a little bit more similar on paper, have their own unique capacities and functions that they serve in there.

As I said, Portland has made an effort to help in more of that capacity with homelessness.

So I think they're a good kind of broad comparison, but I really appreciate that.

I think more research would certainly help.

All right.

Well, thank you so much, Mr. Murphy and Mr. Heng.

I really appreciate you being here today.

Thank you so much.

Now, colleagues, really, really briefly, we're going to go to item two on our agenda.

We did have a second agenda item today.

In fact, we had a third, and I kicked it off.

Thank God.

Clerk, can you just read item two just so we can get this into the record, and I quickly will review it.

within eight minutes.

Public Safety Legislative Work Planning.

Okay.

Again, thank you so much.

Okay.

Okay, within eight minutes.

All right, colleagues, this is the first committee meeting of this term.

Welcome, and particularly our new colleagues.

And I just wanted to run through a few pieces in terms of general committee work planning and what we're doing as a committee, but also specific to our strategic framework plan for a safer Seattle.

Next slide.

We've updated the six pillars and one has been a combination.

Number four used to have, you know, vacant buildings and lots used to be its own.

Graffiti used to be its own.

Now it's been combined and it's basically the urban blight.

This is important, like for our first bill that we passed on vacant buildings and lots, you know, what I did with and former Councilmember Morales.

It has a public safety piece, but it's also got an economic development piece.

Separately, as we've done our work, obviously gun violence reduction prevention and community safety has come to the fore, and also addressing the scene between public safety, public health, housing, and human services.

And the last thing I'd say, too, is that before it was more tailored on pillar two, but we really have to have a full functional criminal justice system.

This goes to a lot of our work with the Seattle Municipal Court, for example, in terms of magistrates, some of the things that we've done, budget and otherwise.

But this is the updated public safety framework for the strategic framework plan for a safer Seattle.

Next slide.

What we're looking to do in quarter one, and I want to engage with everyone.

I've already started with Council Member Juarez because next meeting we have King County Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Mannion coming to us and speaking regarding sex traffic and other issues that she's facing from her position as Prosecuting Attorney.

That's really important and as you know public drug use and possession is a big piece and we've been doing some work with different stakeholders to include PDA lead but we also have this OIG report which also highlights different issues there and this is a great opportunity for us to tackle these challenges that we had regarding this subject area broadly.

And anyways, the other one I wanted to note, particularly for quarter one, is alternative response.

We need to look at what we're doing for police, fire, and of course, care, and then the different pieces.

I don't think most people realize that within SPD, there is alternative response pieces to it with the mental health professionals, the CSOs, the POET program, obviously, fire with HealthONE and otherwise.

we need to bring these pieces together and have that kind of holistic look and then ensure that the different parts are working well together and that's a big piece for us in quarter one.

Next slide.

And then looking at different pieces, you know, we have our oversight, like, you know, the FIFA security piece.

We've done a lot of work that relates to FIFA, particularly last year, but we need to ensure that we're there.

We'll work with parks, since we have parks on our committee as well with Council Member Juarez, and there's different pieces.

And of course, each year we have our accountability partners come before Council, and so we'll look to do that.

and I suspect in quarter two that we'll have work with the administration to come back on OEM there too.

Next slide.

And then long-term legislative planning, you know, the community safety piece is really important because it's an area that I don't think has gotten a lot of attention and oversight and we need to do that.

I mentioned the public drug use and possession earlier, but working with the diversion pieces and how we can further that and also further neighborhood safety and working through these pieces.

And bottom line, too, is to ensure implementation of our strategic framework plan for, say, for Seattle, which includes, as I mentioned during the response to Mr. Haynes at the very beginning with public comment, includes those 36 pieces of legislation.

We really need to work these pieces.

And I do want to say that across all three branches, the electeds, including us, among us, you know, taking that oath to, you know, to the city, the charter of the city of Seattle, but also its ordinances.

And we need to take these ordinances and put them into place and full implementation because it's, they do work together.

As example, with our overnight establishments bill combined with chronic nuisance property, we're really tackling You know, those killings, that gun violence that we're seeing in the overnight hours.

Not perfect as we saw last weekend, but there's been a dramatic reduction.

And this is where those ordinances that we've been working over the last two years really come to play.

And we need to make sure they continue to be implemented fully so we can create a safe base in our city.

Now, I ran through this really quick.

I'm sorry because we did take quite a bit of time with OEM, but I welcome your input and consideration and then with Council Member Juarez, you know, starting us off in terms of that kind of, you know, coordination and bringing pieces together that are of interest to all of us here on the committee, you know, in terms of her work with Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Mannion.

So thank you.

I know that's rushed and only got three minutes, but if there's any comments or questions, vice chair or otherwise, happy to take.

And then we can also discuss offline.

I don't see anything from my vice chair.

So, oh, one quick one.

So we got council member Rivera had her hand up, but we'll go to you as a- Go ahead, vice chair.

Okay, so quickly, thank you, Chair, for putting this together, this proposed framework together.

I'm generally supportive, certainly, of the work plan component, and all that is to say is the The care expansion and ensuring our new care department is set up for success and fully empowered is going to be critical for us this year.

H1, half one of the year timeframe.

I know you have it slotted in Q2 for a briefing or discussion of that specific item, but with the approval of the police contracts, they are now, the care department is now much more empowered than they were before, that's fair to say, to proactively engage and interact with members of the public.

So making sure as they roll out, hire more experts, including social workers to do this work, that they are fully set up for success is gonna be important for us from a ledge oversight perspective.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely, and that's why we're, in one way, we're starting off with a broader alternative response and then we're gonna neck down because it is so important that this major related to care and we have to ensure that it's going well.

And this discussion, even right now, gives a hint to CARE that, hey, we need to be, as you like to say, the basics.

Council President Hollingsworth talks about fundamentals, nuts and bolts.

We have to ensure that the basics, the basic build-out of CARE is done right so they can carry out its mission.

So thank you, Vice Chair.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for putting this together.

It's really helpful to have a framework.

You know, I assume as everything else as we get going here, it's the beginning of the year.

There's always opportunity to add to it or make tweaks to it.

But I really appreciate this starting framework and your leadership in getting us off in the right direction.

And so really it was more to say thank you for the thought that you put and the work behind this.

Thank you council member Juarez for your engagement as well with our chair on this and I look forward to engaging as well chair and I'm here to partner as we move forward on these public safety pieces.

There are many pieces to this and in terms of care council member Saka agreed and also I know that they will take time to hire folks and so I understand probably that may have fed into the quarter two, they'll probably be in a better position in order to get information from them, but your point is well taken and I agree.

Thank you, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Lin.

Staying with committee before we go to you.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Just wanted to say, you know, public safety, obviously a citywide issue, but you know, district two, in many ways faces some of our greatest public safety challenges around gun violence, around what we see in CID Little Saigon.

And so I know we don't have a lot of time, so I'm just going to rattle off sort of, and we can chat offline about some of these topics.

Little Saigon is certainly going to be a top priority for our district, and in some ways it might deserve sort of its own focus here in public safety.

Crowd management and safety.

I know that the OIG, Office of Inspector General, is doing a review and certainly imagine a lot of First Amendment protesting happening this coming year and with FIFA, so crowd management and safety.

Bias crimes we see are on the rise again.

Unfortunately, City Attorney Erica Evans has said she's going to have somebody dedicated to bias crimes.

that's worth looking at.

Would love to understand what resources we have for victims of crime, for victims of gun violence, victims of other crime.

I just certainly have heard a call for that from D2 residents and would love to sort of have better information, understanding of what resources we have for victims.

Earlier, we heard about the public safety threats of ICE.

And I do think that that warrants probably more short, immediate attention, just because I think we are all concerned about the public safety threat that that poses.

and finally I'll just say we voted on the SPOG contract, a lot of discussions around accountability and I do think that that's a public safety issue.

I think again it gets back to trust in government, trust in the police department, building a better relationship between the police department and our communities and maybe that falls under community safety, community-based policing, which I know the police chief is interested in.

And so I just would love to lean in on that.

I know that you're focused on building those relationships with new hires to making those community connections, but I think that that's always an area that we could do better.

Thank you.

Thank you and yes, it kind of goes to implementation of legislation, your point about crowd management and then really engaging with the accountability partners.

That's why they'll be before us and you can ask like the OIG, but it's not just OIG, obviously we have CPC in the chambers today.

So those pieces there and 100% regarding District 2 and like Little Saigon and I think we're scheduling that you and I can have a walkabout in the district and in the area, because I think it's important.

I've been there before, but I think it's really important to meet and discuss the challenges.

And it could be a template for other areas.

And then what we're doing other areas could be a template for like 12th Jackson and King.

Council Member Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Yeah, you know, I wanted to say I appreciate the inclusion of making sure that we are working collaboratively across the Public Safety Committee with the Housing and Human Services spaces.

Particularly as Chair of the Housing Committee, I think we want to make sure that we are working collaboratively, that we have strong communication.

So thanks for inviting me here today.

But I wanted to really make sure that we echo and have space to dive into gun violence.

I know my office, just in the last 12 days, has received a number of emails about gun violence and shootings.

I appreciate that there.

And the one thing that I want to say, I'm just not quite sure where it fits or where we'll be addressing it.

but is the concerns around federal government and public safety.

I know all of us share the concerns there and we see it as a threat to both public and community safety and that we'll be getting follow-up reports from the mayor's office and SPD to council later on this year.

So unclear to me whether that sort of fits into the collaboration with county and state part of the framework or the work plan, but wanted to make sure that we know where we'll be seeing that.

Thank you so much, Chair.

110%, and also within the Council itself.

I've had discussions with Council Member Wink.

We're going to have a joint meeting in March with her committee and ours on getting the response related to the SLI, and in between time, working with the county and state, because There are the two levels of government between us and the federal government and we do have our challenges and I think it's important to be realistic but to the point made in different ways that we do need to keep the press on related to federal law enforcement and calling it out in all the different ways that we can.

But county and state coordination in addition to the coordination within the council like with the select committee but also with the mayor's team.

I look forward to meeting with Ms. Holcomb to talk about that along with the mayor and deputy mayor.

All right, great.

All right, thank you so much, everyone.

Again, this is all designed to facilitate discussion related to, you know, working these challenges that we face.

But we've reached the end of committee.

I know we're six minutes over.

I apologize.

At the end of today's meeting agenda, is there any further business to come before we adjourn?

I suspect not.

No.

Okay, good.

Hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

Thank you so much.