Seattle City Council Community Economic Development Committee 9152020

Is Jodi on?

Is that?

Yes, Chair, I am.

OK.

I'm waiting for your cue to tell me when we're ready to go.

I believe we're ready to go, and you do have a quorum.

Thank you.

OK.

Very good.

Good afternoon, everyone.

The September 15th, 2020 meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 2.01 PM.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Here.

Chair Morales.

Here.

You have four present.

Terrific.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

At this time, we will take public comment on items that appear on today's agenda.

I ask that everyone please be patient.

We are continuing to learn how to operate the system in real time and navigate through the inevitable growing pains.

We're continuously looking for ways to fine tune this remote process and adding new features that allow additional means of public participation in our council meetings.

It remains the strong intent of the council to have public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, the city council does reserve the right to end or eliminate public comment periods at any point if we deem that this system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and in a manner in which we are able to conduct our necessary business.

I will moderate the public comment in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting is 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

I'll call on each speaker by name and in order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period by going to the council's website at Seattle.gov slash council.

The public comment leak is also listed on today's agenda.

Once I call the speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it's their turn to speak and the speaker must press star six to begin speaking.

Please begin speaking by.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item you're addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of your allotted time.

Once you hear the chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

If you do not end your comments at the end of the allotted time, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line and you plan to continue following this meeting, if you plan to continue following this meeting, that you do so via the Seattle channel or the listening options listed on today's agenda.

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

Please remember to press star six before speaking and hold, please, while I get to that screen.

The first speaker is Jarell Davis, followed by Julia Paschuto and Evelyn Allen.

Jarell, it is your turn to speak.

Hello, my name is Jarell Davis, and I want to speak around the permanent EDI board structure and really want to encourage council to support the race and equity task force decision around how many members are coming from the mayor's office, how many members are coming from the council, and how many members are appointed by community members.

Since 2016, the Race and Equity Task Force has been the expertise on race and equity standards related to equitable development.

By developing the comprehensive plan, by developing the growth strategy, as well as the EDI implementation plan, Race and Equity Task Force have led this The mayor's idea of collaboration or partnership with communities is obviously skewed and distorted if the mayor thinks that it is appropriate for her to be able to appoint the majority of seats on a community-driven board.

Since 2018, our state has demanded a permanent board for the EDI and has been met with nothing but opposition.

It would completely undermine the fact that this is supposed to be a community driven board.

Um, if the mayor is able to have the majority of seats, our proposition is that the mayor gets three seats max, and that is quite generous.

The council will get three and then the board will identify seven folks of the 13 person, uh, proposed seats.

Um, it will completely undermine the fact that over the last five and four years, the neighborhoods specifically that RCEP is representing, there has been a large amount of black, brown, and low income folks that have been displaced.

The fact that we've been trying to emphasize equitable development in these neighborhoods, yet it continues to get pushed to the back burner, I think contributes to the fact that gentrification has continued in these neighborhoods.

And so I urge the council to support the race and equity task force suggestion of the breakdown of how the seats are allowed for the permanent EDI structure.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jarrell.

The next speaker is Julia Pasciutto.

Julia, you need to press star six.

Hi, I'm here.

Good afternoon.

My name is Julia Pasciuto.

I'm with Puget Sound SAGE the Race and Social Equity Task Force and also an EDI advisory board member for the interim board.

I'm speaking on Council Bill 119887. As Gerald said since 2018 the EDI advisory board and the Race and Social Equity Task Force have been advocating for a permanent EDI advisory board.

that retains the community self-determination principles outlined in the equitable development implementation plan that the city adopted in 2016. To date, the interim board has played a critical role in the rollout of our most acclaimed anti-displacement strategy, the equitable development initiative.

We have developed and stewarded a community accountable capacity and capital funding process.

that has resulted in over $21 million awarded to Black, Indigenous, people of color-led anti-displacement projects and activities.

We call on you, the council, to amend the EDI Advisory Board legislation to reflect our shared vision.

We need an advisory board that is representative of the communities facing displacement and who have these expertise in what their communities need, and we call for a board a 13-person board member, three of whom would be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by council, three of whom would be appointed by council, and seven of whom would be appointed by the advisory board itself.

As I said earlier, it's an equitable development initiative.

It's all about community self-determination and the communities impacted by displacement need to be at the forefront of decision-making.

And you have the opportunity to make that happen.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julia.

The last speaker that we have on the list right now is Evelyn Allen.

Evelyn, it is your turn.

Please make sure you press star six.

Good afternoon.

My name is Evelyn Thomas Allen, and I'm co-founder and convener of the Black Community Impact Alliance, speaking on the Permanent EDI Advisory Board.

I'm also happy to be speaking to you on such a historic day, a day that has brought honor to the name of Breonna Taylor.

I am also an original member of the Racial and Social Equity Task Force, a coalition of leaders tasked to represent their neighborhoods that have experienced historic redlining and the risk of high displacement due to gentrification.

My neighborhood is the Central District, the historic black community.

The purpose of our status to bring community identified project resources and voice for those communities that have been historically excluded.

We join with others and all of the comments that have gone on before in emphatically stating that the permanent EDI board should reflect its original purpose to be community driven.

The BCIA supports the structure as outlined in September 11th, 2020 letter to the city council's community economic development committee from ethnically led community organizations.

It is our hope that the mayor and the city council uphold their stated commitment to honor the voice of those ethnic communities that have historically been targeted to be kept silent.

We call for the establishment of the permanent EDI board with the majority membership from the community from which it is to serve.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Allen.

I do not see any additional speakers, so I will conclude our public comment period and move on to the next agenda item.

Council colleagues, we have 17 items on our agenda today.

The first 15 are council appointments, commission appointments to various commissions.

I do want to point out that all of these are new appointments.

As I see it, none of them are reappointments.

That said, we do have several folks who are not able to be here today.

And so I'm going to ask our council colleagues indulgence to trust the the work of our city staff and our commissions who have vetted these candidates, who have had conversations with them.

And if there is a candidate who is not here, that we consider allowing their appointment to be made.

Many of these have been waiting for several months already to be appointed.

So I want to go ahead and proceed.

begin the conversation with that.

And I'm happy to hear from colleagues as we move forward with any questions that you may have for the folks who are here and for the city staff who are here as well.

So as I said, we have 17 items on the agenda.

Can I please ask the clerk to read items one through seven into the record?

Madam Chair, I believe Alexis may be muted.

Oh dear.

Alexis, can you please unmute yourself?

Council Member Morales, I want to acknowledge that Council Member Juarez is present.

Terrific, thank you.

Welcome, Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Agenda items one through seven.

Appointments 15-18, 16-19, 16-30, 1629 1620 1632 and 1631. The appointments of Yarida Siqueiros.

Harmony Leanna Etchstedt.

Marsha Wright Soka.

And Jennifer Gordon as members of the Seattle Women's Commission for terms of July 1st 2021. The appointment of Sangyu Sophia Lee.

as member of the Seattle Women's Commission for a term to July 1st 2022 and the reappointments of Zoe True and Rhonda Carter as members of the Seattle Women's Commission for terms to July 1st 2021. For brief discussion and possible vote.

Terrific.

Thank you so much.

We do have Marta Itawu here from the Office of Civil Rights to present these candidates.

So Marta, I'm going to hand it off to you.

Okay, I just wanted to say a little bit about the commission.

The Seattle Women's Commission is appointed advisory body for the city of Seattle who come together as volunteers to research, analyze, and make recommendations to the mayor, city council, and city departments on issues facing women in Seattle.

So the four appointees are Marcia Soka, Sophia Lee, Rebecca Bryant and the other person's name, I don't remember if you called it or not, I have two others, Sophia Lee, excuse me, Rhonda Carter, and also Zoe True, which are reappointments.

So those are the folks, so those folks aren't here, they're reappointments, so I just speak on their behalf.

But as far as the four appointees that are here, I hope they're online, I'm not sure if they're online or not.

So why don't we go down the list?

So we'll start with Yadira Siqueiros.

Is Yadira on the line?

She should not be on there because she was the one that I reached out to and she was the one that was going to be calling me back.

Okay.

Leanna Eikstead?

Now, that is not someone from my commission.

That's Harmony, Leanna Ickstead?

She was, okay, yeah, Harmony.

That was her first name.

I didn't get it when you called her by the middle name.

So she was one of the ones that was supposed to be getting in contact with me back and I haven't heard from her yet.

Is Harmony on?

Harmony should not be on because she didn't contact me.

Okay.

Marsha.

Yes, Marsha should be there.

And what I usually do is I just kind of say a few words about the person, and then I ask that person to say some things about themselves, and then you all ask them some questions.

Marsha's on, so why don't you go ahead, Marsha?

Yes.

And then we'll ask Marsha to speak.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I'm just introducing Marsha Wright-Soka, who has waited a long time for this day to happen, and we're pleased that she was able to come today.

And she has been working hard on the commission and coming to meetings, being on the calls and stuff since we have started to meet virtually.

They've really hung in there with us doing the virtual meetings and stuff.

So I want to go ahead and turn it over to her so she can give you a little bit more background about herself and why she wants to be a commissioner and things like that.

So go right ahead, Marsha.

Hi, everyone.

I know that my last name is kind of a doozy.

I married into it.

It's Ukrainian.

It's Marsha Wright Soyka, for the record.

And I'm really pleased to be here.

I've been working with the commission now for several months unofficially.

But I'm very, very excited about the caliber of the commissioners that I have been working with.

And just really, really pleased to be nominated.

Marsha, can you tell us, I am a former Human Rights Commissioner myself, as is Council Member Lewis.

So I've been through this process.

I know it can take some time.

I know that there are several vacancies, although it seems like the Women's Commission is more, is full compared to some of the others.

But can you talk a little bit about some of the priorities for the Women's Commission and what your particular interest is?

Sure.

So I moved here a few years ago from the East Coast.

And when I was joining the Seattle community, I really wanted to find a way to utilize my background to give back.

And so I have a history of working with women's rights and women's equality organizations all over the country.

And so it was very exciting to hear about the Women's Commission and that they were searching for members.

Part of the reason why I was interested in the commission was because of the recent eviction report that they had released.

And up until recently, I was working in affordable housing in Seattle, and we desperately need voices on the commission that can focus a gender lens on the affordable housing issue, And that has been a critical part of our work and our priorities.

The other thing that I would say is that we have really been taking a look at equitable development as a whole.

It's one of our priority focus areas.

And within that, we are looking at everything from the disproportionate impact of fair enforcement on the people that transit is supposed to serve.

We are looking at housing policies and how we can expand opportunities for affordable housing for those who identify as women who are disproportionately impacted by economic hardship here in our city.

And another thing that I would say is that the coronavirus pandemic has given sort of new urgency to our committee, because as we start to seek the recovery that is desperately needed by those who identify as women and their families throughout this city.

It is important that we have a voice of commissioners who are looking to ensure that that recovery period is equitable and goes to those who have faced the most harm, economic and health wise during the pandemic.

So I think that it has given us a new urgency and renewed energy.

Terrific.

Council colleagues, any questions for Marsha?

Okay, seeing none.

Thank you very much, Marsha.

We are going to move to Sophia Lee.

Marta, did you want to say anything?

Oh, no.

I think that they can just do a segue into each one of them as they move down the line there.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Sophia, how are you?

Nice to see you.

I am doing well.

Nice to see you too council member Morales and all the other council members.

My name is Sophia Lee and I am a six year resident of Seattle thus so far and count and counting hopefully many many more.

I have been highly involved in local Seattle activism and politics for the last several years, primarily through a transgender civil rights organization called Gender Justice League.

I am a transgender woman, and I have been the board chair of the organization for the past several years, and I have recently stepped down so that I could make space to in my time to join the Seattle Women's Commission.

Within the Women's Commission, I have been provisionally been participating throughout since January, and I have also been provisionally voted in as a co-chair not too long ago.

So, yeah.

Any questions?

That's great.

Well, I think it's a testament to the work that you've already done, that you've been voted co-chair before your official appointment.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any questions for Sophia?

Terrific.

Yes, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, Chair Morales.

No questions, but just wanted to also offer my congratulations to Sophia and just offer my own testimonial that she has, they have been extremely active and really incredibly contributing member of Seattle's political activism community and as a community member in general.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

It's good to see you too.

Very good.

Okay, let's move to the next person I have, which is Jennifer Gordon.

Jennifer, welcome.

Tell us about, yeah.

Yeah, I'll give you, I guess, the highlights of my background and some of the lived experience I bring to the commission.

I am a registered nurse by trade.

and I consider myself a pink collar worker.

Nursing is still a 90% female profession in Washington State and does continue despite that to have a gender wage gap.

I'm also a third generation United States Navy veteran, the first female in my family to serve and the first officer as well.

And so I, feel that it's important that I can bring that veteran voice to the commission.

I'm also a first generation college student and currently finishing a master's in public health and a master's in public administration at the University of Washington.

And so I can bring that intersectional identity of the higher education student as well.

As far as the work that I've been doing with the commission so far in my unofficial capacity.

I am a member of the community health and wellness subcommittee.

Obviously, that's a good fit for me as a frontline healthcare worker, especially now that we're entering this pandemic response or have been in this pandemic response for several months now.

And I'm excited to be able to lend a voice to how that affects a lot of our frontline healthcare workers, which are majority female, as well as how it's affected women in the community.

We're already seeing data that women are dropping out of the workforce at a greater rate than men due to the pandemic.

I know myself, in my own experience, have had issues balancing the expectations of my graduate program, thesis committee, with my desire to take my skills to the front lines of this pandemic.

And I have returned to work full-time, first in the COVID unit at University of Washington Medical Center, and now with the State Department of Health Infection Prevention Team under the Incident Command Response for the pandemic.

And seeing the ways in which women are pulled in these multiple directions now, be it frontline essential workers versus these other responsibilities or parental load, trying to teach children at home versus workload.

I'm excited at the opportunity of bringing all these differing identities and these intersections to the commission and helping to raise awareness and bring the voice of the women of the city to the council and the mayor's office.

So thank you guys for having me today.

That's great.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, there's definitely a cascade of issues, compounding issues for us to deal with right now.

And women are certainly at the front line of having to manage a lot of that.

So thank you for what you do in so many different ways.

I am going to, so Zoe True and Rhonda Carter are not here, is that right?

Zoe True and Rhonda Carter are re-appointments and we usually just say a few words about them and ask for them to be reappointed.

Okay.

So of the first seven that we have, the two who, I'm sorry, getting myself a little confused here.

Yadira and Harmony are not here.

Marta, do you want to go ahead and say a little bit about them?

Yeah, I will, but you don't have Rebecca Bryan on the call?

Well, I see Rebecca, but I don't have her appointment packet.

Do I have an appointment packet for her?

She was on the list to be appointed today.

That's what I was told.

Okay, she's not on the agenda.

Jodi, I might need some guidance here.

Chair Morales, hello.

It's possible we were missing some items in the appointment packet, and that's why she's not on the agenda.

So we will be sure that she gets added to a future agenda.

You can still call her up and speak with her, but she won't be able to be voted on today.

But as long as she's on the line, it's fine if you'd like to talk with her now.

Okay, very good, thank you.

Rebecca, my apologies.

We would love to hear from you and we will make sure that you're on the next agenda so that we can make the appointment official.

Please, go ahead.

Can you hear me Council Member Morales?

I know earlier, okay, great.

And as a former staffer in a congressional office, I know things get shifted around and are tricky.

So I just appreciate all of your work during this pandemic time.

Honestly, I think after hearing from my, I call them my pseudo commissioners, since we're not officially appointed, I don't think I have to explain to you why I want to be a part of this commission.

It's an incredible, diverse, just exciting group of women who want to contribute to our community.

A little bit of background on me.

I'm not a local or not a native Washingtonian.

I went to school out here in Tacoma.

And then after that, just stayed.

I ended up working for one of our members of Congress for about nine years here in D.C., back here.

And then last June, decided to come home to work for Fred Hutch.

So I currently serve as the Community Relations Manager at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center.

With that, I'm sort of a civic ambassador to the community.

And why I wanted to come home and work at Fred Hutch and also get involved with an organization like the Women's Commission is that I've seen firsthand in my career that public policy can change lives.

And I want to help that happen in whatever way I can.

So I think you wanted me to speak a little bit to what I've been doing on the commission so far.

I'm an unofficial co-chair of the Economic and Education Opportunity Committee.

What I, I guess, have been bringing to that and hope to continue to bring is a focus on access to STEM education for women, in addition to also focusing on retention issues.

That's something that I hope that I can lend some lived experience to.

That's terrific.

Thank you so much.

Council colleagues, I think what I'd like to do is go ahead and read the background for the two appointments who are not here, just so we have that in the record as well.

So first, we have to get us to get us, who is a higher ed organizer with SEIU 925. She's an immigrant from Mexico dedicated to helping and improving the lives of underrepresented minorities.

She's worked with marginalized tribal communities to have access to natural disaster training and fighting for health care access.

She's a staff union officer and part of the locals effort to become an anti-racist organization.

And because of her previous work, her interest in applying to the Women's Commission arises from the fact that she has the experience of working with an intersectional approach to racial justice and understands how it differs from superficial diversity and inclusion rhetoric.

Yadira, who's a BA in political science with a minor in anthropology from Our Lady of the Lake San Antonio, That's where I lived and grew up.

And an MS in Intelligence and National Security Studies from the University of Texas El Paso.

And it looks forward to working with the commission.

Yay, San Antonio.

We also have Harmony Leana Eichstedt.

I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Harmony graduated from UT.

All the Texans.

Who knew?

With a degree in women and gender studies.

While there, she helped create the first women's studies curriculum to be approved for high school students by the Texas Education Agency.

And I can tell you that getting anything progressive passed by the Texas Education Agency is no small task.

She also worked for Lulu Flores, former president of the National Women's Political Caucus, to amend the bylaws of the NWPC to include a college caucus option for students and co-founded the Feminist Action Project Conference and the Austin Women's Clothing Swap, which raised money and clothes for women's organizations through a citywide clothing swap.

After graduating, she worked for the Center for Women and Gender Studies to bring the NEW Leadership Program to Texas, where they recruited students from around the state to participate in a six-day camp where they met with women leaders.

Professionally, Harmony runs an agency that supports mission-driven entrepreneurs through business coaching, events, digital assets, with a focus on supporting and promoting underrepresented business owners.

Okay so colleagues those are the first seven items on our agenda today appointments on our agenda today and as I said what I am going to ask is if before I actually open it up and move to vote I do want to ask colleagues for the folks who aren't here but for whom their commissions and the staff have been putting forward their names if there is objection to moving ahead with these candidates.

Okay.

In that case, council members, I move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 15-18, 16-19, 16-30, 16-20, 16-32, and 16-31.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the September 21st council meeting.

Okay.

Um, the next item, uh, will the clerk please read items eight and nine into the record.

Item agenda item eight and nine appointments, 1625 and 1626. the appointments of Ryan Baldwin as member of the Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term to January 22nd, 2021, and the appointment of Star Arnaz Dormanish as member of the Seattle Human Rights Commission for a term of July 22nd, 2021 for brief discussion and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Okay, do we know if star and Ryan are here?

I have not seen them yet.

They should not be on the call because those were the reappointment that no, no, they weren't reappointments.

They are new appointments, but they were not to be scheduled on the appointment because they weren't confirmed to be on the call today.

Okay.

Um, so, uh, if neither of them are here, um, Then I'm going to, well, shoot.

I'm going to go ahead and read these two as we did with the two who are not on the call from the previous section.

Ryan Baldwin, after a military career in the Army, Ryan graduated from the University of Seattle, in Seattle, where he spent a great deal of time studying issues in social justice and focusing on the challenges faced by LGBTQ individuals in their individual lives and relationships.

As a member of the LGBTQ community, married to an immigrant spouse, Ryan feels a real understanding of the challenges faced by populations that are marginalized.

and has a desire to serve in a capacity to advocate for justice and equal opportunity for all Seattle residents.

And Ryan's appointment would be to the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Star would also be appointed to the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Star is interested in being on the Women's or Human Rights Commission and comes from the values instilled by family and education.

As a child of Iranian refugees and the first in the family to be born in the U.S., The cross-sectional nature of identity has awarded her privileges and disadvantages.

At a very young age, Star felt the results of ignorance and was personally affected by the racist behaviors of others.

Seattle has become home and she wants to volunteer in a meaningful way.

And as an enterprise project manager at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, STAR navigates difficult topics and projects that better serve patients.

STAR has a master's in public administration from Seattle University and delivered a capstone on interorganizational collaborations.

So these are, again, new appointments, but neither was able to make it here.

And council colleagues, because we've had such a backlog of appointments because of everything, We are trying to get through as many appointments as possible.

And I know for many of our candidates, they were not able to make it, but we would like to go ahead and move these appointments so that they can continue the work that they're doing.

And I know the Human Rights Commission especially has several vacancies.

So as a former Human Rights Commissioner, I know that it makes it really hard to do your work.

if there are several vacancies on the commission.

So Marta, was there anything else that you wanted to add?

No, nope.

They're just, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

So council members, I am going to move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointment 1625 and 1626. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson, it's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation of the appointments to be confirmed.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the September 21st city council meeting.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read items 10 and 11 into the record?

Agenda items 10 and 11 appointments 16, 16 and 16, 15. The appointment of Caitlin Skilton, as a member of the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities for a term to October 31st, 2020, and the appointment of Dante Dapper as a member of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to April 30th, 2021, for brief discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

I don't know if Ketlin is on.

Okay, I do believe I saw Deontay Damper.

Hello, welcome.

Hi everyone.

I am Deontay Damper and for your approval, I would love to be on the commission board for the LGBTQ commission space.

I'm from Seattle and growing up in this space, I lived in the South end of Seattle and I was teased about being queer, but I had my beautiful culture here.

I, and of course I would go to Capitol Hill and I was in a space where my queerness was there, but my culture wasn't.

So the question is, where do I fit?

Being added on to the space of the commission board, well, I would love to push, push an envelope and show visibility and inclusion for all people of color.

I think sometimes in our spaces, we've missed the mark with, instead of tokenizing the people of color, we need to actually actually have spaces and actually offer bigger opportunities for us in the spaces, especially with advocating for LGBTQ issues, especially for black trans women of color.

I'm happy to be in the space because I see all these lists of leaders here and you've demanded visibility.

And with your approval, I would love to continue to do the same.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Deontay, really appreciate you being here.

Are there questions for Deontay from any of the council members?

Okay, Janet Stafford from OCR, do you know if Ketlin was going to be joining us?

I guess she is actually having some computer glitches on her.

Okay.

So she should be joining us.

I'm hoping before shortly.

Do you want to speak on her behalf at all?

Sure.

I can say a little bit in behalf of Caitlin and, and even just a little background regarding the disability commission, which already serves as an advisory commission for city council and the mayor's office.

specifically in regards to the concerns of the Disability Commission.

I think some of their work has included their annual Jubilee event that collaborates and distinguish folks specifically in the Disability Commission as well as one of their most recent policy change, which has included the closed captioning in the City of Seattle.

In specific to Caitlin, Caitlin's background has included working with the Seattle Youth Employment Program.

She's also been a freelance photographer.

She was crowned for the current title holder for Miss Wheelchair Washington America.

And she has been really active in the monthly commission meetings for, I would say, almost uh, for the last, um, for the last year.

So we really are looking forward to having her, uh, be appointed and participate as an appointed commissioner.

Thank you.

That's great, thank you.

I'm sure we've got lots of folks having trouble with technology, so I appreciate you speaking on her behalf.

And Dante, I do also just want to let you know that I see here that you've been working as a member of the AMP videos project, so thank you very much for that work.

We're going to try to make sure that that stays, that bit of funding stays in the budget.

And thank you for your service to the Rainier Beach family.

Appreciate that as well.

Um, okay.

Uh, any questions for either of these regarding either of these, um, candidates?

Council members.

Okay.

In that case, I'm going to move appointments.

Uh, move that the kitty move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointment 16 16 and 16 15. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Are there any additional comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Okay, thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the September 21st meeting.

Okay, we have Erica Lindsey here, I believe, to speak from the Office of Arts and Culture on behalf of appointments 12 through 15. Will the clerk please read items 12 through 15 into the record?

Agenda item 12 through 15. Appointments 16-21, 16-22, 16-24, and 16-23.

The appointment of Holly Jacobson, Paula Olivia Navia Mandegral, Terry D. Morgan, and Judy Rafaela Martinez as members of the Seattle Music Commission for terms to August 31st, 2021 for brief discussion and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

OK.

I believe I'm going to start us off on this.

Erica's at a doctor's appointment with her daughter.

OK.

Hello, Randy.

Nice to see you.

Nice to see you, council member.

Nice to see all of you even virtually.

We're gonna do, we have a couple things going on here.

I'm gonna introduce, it is my pleasure to introduce Holly Jacobson for her appointment to the Seattle Arts Commission.

And then I'm going to pass the mic to my colleague, Chris Swenson, who's the acting director at the Office of Film and Music, who will lead the nomination of the three music commissioners, Paola, Terry, and Kitty Wu, aka Judy Martinez.

So, Thank you for the time.

For those of you who aren't familiar, the Seattle Arts Commission was chartered in 1971 and supports the cultural vitality of our city with a deep commitment to racial equity.

They do their work as a committee of the whole.

They also have a public art advisory committee, a cultural investments committee, and a facility and equitable development committee.

Shout out to the EDI coming up later on the agenda today.

Holly came to us as the commission put her forward as a nominee.

They went through a pretty rigorous process of analyzing how they could be both representationally and in terms of skills and abilities as balanced as they could be.

And Holly really fulfilled a number of needs that the commission identified.

She's a really talented arts administrator and advocate.

You may know her through her work as the executive director of Path with Art.

She's also a very powerful advocate for the sector, as well as for our most vulnerable communities.

In particular, Holly's advocacy for unsheltered communities and the work Path with Art does with them was what drew the commission to put her name forward for consideration.

So with that, I'd be happy to let Holly take the floor and share a few words.

Thank you, Holly.

Go right ahead.

Thanks, Randy.

And thanks to Morales.

It's.

A real honor to serve or to.

I mean, I kind of been de facto serving all year, but if I'm officially nominate, if I'm officially approved.

It would be my honor to continue to serve on the commission.

I have a.

As Randy mentioned, I think that the work that I do through the organization that I run, Path of the Art, is particularly useful because we sit at the nexus of social impact and social justice and the arts, representing very underserved communities who typically don't have access to the arts, but have a lot to gain.

we believe our community has a lot to gain from lifting up those voices as well.

So a little bit about Path of Art.

Path of Art is an arts organization.

It started in 2008, and I came on board as the executive director seven years ago in 2013. And we provide arts engagement to mostly low-income individuals who are dealing with trauma.

And as a way to help people heal from that trauma and also give them some agency and voice and dignity and and less invisibility.

And our participants have come to us from all walks of life.

But in addition to helping individuals heal through the arts, we also believe that what I found in the last seven years is that we have a role to play in helping our community heal through the arts.

We are extremely fractured community.

And I believe strongly, and part of Patrick's role is in healing the divides and fostering more empathy, which I think we could probably all agree is needed now more than ever.

So, That's the word with Pavlov.

We work with a veterans cohort.

So shout out to the veterans on the call.

We work with, like I said, just mostly people from about 45 social service agencies, either residential or community psychiatric agencies, and provide arts engagement for those folks, doing workshops like we do at the King County Drug Diversion Court, et cetera.

So I believe my role on the commission is to make sure that those voices are represented number one.

And, um, and as Randy also mentioned, I am very passionate to, um, I have an agenda to center the arts and community recovery in general, outside of path of art, because I really think that the arts are, um, not a nice to have, but essential to community wellbeing and, um, And my background in social justice and democracy work and exposure to art has led me to believe that art is really a great democratizer.

So I'm not quite sure what else I can add.

That's great.

Thank you.

Appreciate that, Holly.

Okay, let's see.

Colleagues, are there any questions for Holly?

I just want to say thank you very much.

I do think that especially right now in this time when there is so much As I said, so many compounding crises happening, making sure that we are looking for ways to share stories, to share the humanity of our neighbors is really important.

And so I want to thank you for the work that you're doing there.

Thank you.

And Chair Morales, if I could just mention one other thing, in that it's really an honor to serve on this Arts Commission.

Because this Arts Commission is where I see Path of Art is on the forefront of an international movement that's um, using the arts to create empathy and, and represent underserved voices like those who with lived experience of homelessness, um, of which I am one, uh, they, um, this arts commission, this, uh, Seattle office of arts and culture is an amazing, uh, arts and culture, uh, office compared to any other in the country.

So it's an honor to serve.

Thank you.

Okay, so we're going to hear from Chris Swenson now about the three appointments or four appointments for the Music Commission.

Three appointments.

Yes, three appointments.

Hi, thank you, Council Member Morales, and thank you for the introduction as well, Randy.

I'll start by saying thank you also, Council Member, for the introduction about the work that these commissioners, while they've been appointed but not confirmed, have been doing over this year.

So this is a Super exciting day for me and I know for them as well.

I'll take this opportunity to read a little bit about the Seattle Music Commission and its impetus, what it does and where it is.

In 2008, a committee of music advisors and the city of Seattle launched a vision for the future of music in Seattle called the City of Music Initiative.

This vision and its recommendations to enhance the climate for music and reward our city with an even stronger economy and cultural environment is carried out by the Seattle Music Commission, which is a 21-member citizen body representing a cross-section of the music industry and community sector.

The Seattle Music Commission was originally formed by resolution in 2010 and then was ordained in 2014. The commission is half appointed by the mayor and half by city council and operates under an annual work plan.

The commission lives within the Office of Film and Music and is currently supported and administered by the Office of Film and Music, the Office of Economic Development, and the Office of Arts and Culture.

And I thought it was, I felt it's important to present it in that fashion because this is kind of a new opportunity for really great work in cross collaboration between departments to support the commission and the commission's work and recommendations.

So we're excited to present three appointees to the Seattle Music Commission, Paola Madrigal, Terry Morgan, and Judy Martinez, who you will see in the chat or excuse me, on Zoom as Kitty, Kitty Woo, hi Kitty.

And I'd like to introduce Alex Rose, who is the key liaison for the Seattle Music Commission to introduce Paola.

Alex, can I hand it over to you?

Yes, thanks, Chris.

And thank you, council members.

I am so pleased to present Paula Nava Madrigal.

She is a cellist and one of a small percentage of female conductors in the US.

In addition to conducting orchestras, she teaches classical music to immigrant youth, providing free lessons and instruments.

She's originally from Mexico, and when she moved to the U.S. with her husband, who's a Seattle musician, the two teamed up to provide free musical training to Latino and immigrant youth, and they now run Orquesta Northwest.

Paola lives out her belief that all children deserve to receive musical education, no matter their social, racial, or economic situation.

Paola, if you're here, there you are.

Paola, please.

Thank you for having me.

For me, it's an honor to be here, and I will be happy to serve and work.

I want to improve the music scene in Seattle.

I would like to see diversity in the stage and in the audience, and I want to work for that.

I think Seattle deserves better.

on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paula.

So I know you've been working there for a little while.

Can you just talk a little bit about some of the work that you're doing as part of the commission?

We have been working where we're having meetings and talking how we can improve the kids and how we can help them to bring more computers.

This is one of the work that we have been doing.

And we have meetings about how...

Sorry.

That's okay.

I'll just chime in to just say Paola has been a really integral part of a digital equity work group that the commission has formed and submitted a letter to the mayor and all of you council members were CC'd on that.

So I just wanted to flag that for you again.

Yeah, she's been doing really wonderful work around digital equity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council colleagues, any questions or comments for Paula?

Okay, so Terry Morgan, I think I saw Terry here.

Yes, and I'll give a quick, you know, Terry Morgan is someone who actually does not need an introduction because his reputation precedes him.

I'm going to, Terry, if it's okay with you, let you talk about your history and long experience with the music industry and community in Seattle and let you lead that.

And thank you again, Terry.

I'll hand it over to you.

Thanks, Chris.

My name is Terry Morgan.

I have a company called Modern Enterprises.

I also oversee the Seeking Media Group.

We've been involved or I've been involved in the Seattle market since 1971 when I came here to go to school at the University of Washington.

Ended up taking a degree in African-American studies, did my work in ethnomusicology and African art. went on and did my master's work in systematic musicology at the same time I was teaching history of jazz in the music department.

After I got tired of being an academic, I became a promoter and we founded Modern Productions and basically started the Showbox Theater back in 1979. producing all kinds of international new wave pop and punk rock artists, along with bringing in classic American artists like Sonny Terry, Brownie McGee, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, James Brown, Sun Ra.

At the same time, I started producing the Out to Lunch concerts for the Downtown Seattle Association.

I did that for around 30 years.

I got involved with a lot of activities with the DSA.

I actually I actually conceived the idea of a holiday carousel for downtown Seattle.

It's been there for over 30 years now.

I also created Festival Sundiata, which is the African-American cultural arts festival at the Seattle Center.

I produced that for the first 10 years, bringing in people like Gil Scott-Heron, Mighty Sparrow, Branford Marcellus, Burning Spear, and lots of others, all of them in the mode of encouraging a real positive opportunity to showcase for Northwest African American artists, along with others.

I've been heavily involved in producing BIPOC artists over the years, making sure that I had cultural diversity in all of the projects that I produce.

continue to do the same kind of work.

Now I've moved into light.

I produce Borealis.

It's the International Light Festival.

We've debuted in 2018. It's South Lake Union.

We hope to come back in 2021. And I think we had over 120,000 people attend our first year.

And I'm just honored to be part of the cultural scene and part of the music commission and I'm probably the oldest guy on the commission and I'll just kind of be a veteran and throw in my two cents whenever I can and try to create a new future for Seattle and help with the economic recovery here.

That's great.

Thank you so much, Terry, for all you have done and all you will continue to do for the city.

I do want to say that I think it's, as I said, really important that we understand the central role that music and the arts play in the vibrancy of our community, but also just in the actual contribution that it makes to our economy.

and to the ability of us to attract folks to come visit and of our local artists to be able to find an audience and be able to support themselves.

So thank you all for supporting that work.

Are there any questions from our council colleagues?

Yes, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I just want to say to Terry, I had a great conversation early in the term, in person.

That's how long ago it was, just to underscore it, to talk about Borealis and what that could mean for bringing it back in the South Lake Union community and really having that cultural event.

And, you know, just as one of the other disappointments to throw on the heap of 2020, unfortunately that's not going to happen this year.

But, Terri, I'm right there with you on looking forward to 2021 and really maintaining that as a new tradition here in the city of Seattle.

And just want to thank you for your service on the commission and everything you do to make this a vibrant arts community.

And just thank you for that conversation we had earlier this year, and certainly encourage you to stay in touch with my office.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilman Lewis.

You'll be hearing from me.

Anyone else?

Any other colleagues?

Okay, well, thank you all very much for what you contribute to our community and for being willing to serve, continue to serve our community.

Council members, I am gonna move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments.

We had one more.

Oh, did we point D.

Yes.

In your packet is Judy Martinez but to the rest of the world as kitty who is the engine of 206 Zulu, Washington Hall, former board member of the Vera project.

Another person who needs no introduction, but just a remarkable human being.

I'd love to close out this long-awaited and very exciting set of nominations by handing the floor to Miss Kitty Wu.

Kitty, are you on?

Thank you, my apologies, please.

No worries, no worries.

It's a lot on your guys' plates.

I was asked to think of a few words and my mind was reeling because music and art has been just a huge part of my life here in Seattle.

We moved here in 74 and my father's in the signage industry and would drive me all around.

He did signs at Seattle Center, so we spent a lot of time there.

I went to Bumper Shoot and Folklife and Festival Sundiata and all of these really great festivals that just got me just geeked about music as a really young person.

And, you know, moving on later in life, just, you know, I fell into music as a passion and it became my work.

And I'm really passionate about young people and making sure we have youth in all ages programming.

The digital equity stuff is really weighing heavily on my mind with all of our youth here at 206 Zulu, some of which we can't, we're having a hard time reaching out to during all of this COVID stuff and people just really not having access to the equipment and the tools that they need.

So that is where my head is at right now.

If I'm appointed, I want to continue doing the work that we're doing with digital equity.

the Youth Commission, and I'm just really excited to serve with all these amazing people.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I don't know if I should call you Judy or if I should call you Kitty Woo, but thank you for all that you do and for your work and your passion.

It's really important, particularly as we have so many young people who are Dealing with a lot with community centers being closed and libraries being closed and, you know, trying to find ways for young people to engage in their community and stay connected to their community that I know how important this work is.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

I think now we are ready to move on.

So council members, I am gonna move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointment 1621, 1622, 1624, and 1623. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Are there any comments?

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed?

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Great, thank you so much.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the September 21st city council meeting.

Thank you so much colleagues.

Before we move to the next agenda item, I do see that Katlyn Skilton has joined us.

Katlyn, if you didn't know, you have been appointed, but I do wanna give you the opportunity to say a few words before we move to the next agenda item.

Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you very much.

My name is Caitlin Skilton.

I am the 2020 title holder of Miss Wheelchair Washington.

I have been attending Seattle's Disability Commission for a little over a year now.

And I'm really excited to be here and be involved in this discussion.

Thank you, Caitlin.

Forgive me.

And I guess I should correct myself and say that this committee has approved that we move your appointments forward.

So all of you have been approved by committee and we will move it forward to full council for final adoption.

So thank you all very much.

And we really appreciate your willingness to serve our community.

Okay, we are ready to move on to the next agenda item.

Will the clerk please read agenda item 16 into the record?

Agenda item 16, Council Bill 119887, an ordinance relating to community involvement in the oversight of the equitable development initiative, establishing a permanent equitable development initiative advisory board and adding sections 314.994, 314.995, 314.996, 314.997 and 314.998 to the Seattle Municipal Code for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, before we get started, I just do want to take a moment to say I want to thank the Interim Advisory Board for the Equitable Development Initiative for serving the community for the last couple of years.

We have Liz Schwitzen is here from Council Central staff.

Uba Jadere is here from the Office of Planning and Community Development.

Ab Wader from Puget Sound SAGE.

Yordanos Teferi from Multicultural Community Coalition and Cesar Garcia from Lake City Collective.

Um, I will let that I, we might have a couple other folks.

I think Mr. Davis entry on a holiday are here as well.

So, so I just want to say that I am really excited that we are here to discuss this and ideally vote on creating a permanent EDI advisory board.

You know, we just had the Jump Start legislation conversation and my office advocated for inclusion of $20 million for additional investments in equitable development initiative.

So with the passage of Jump Start, this advisory board will soon have the opportunity to really make dramatic improvements in communities of color and help select projects that benefit from this investment.

So I'm looking forward to this conversation today.

I'm going to turn it over to Lish to get us started, and then we will hear from the rest of our presenters.

Good afternoon.

So this, as you have heard, this legislation creates a permanent advisory board to advise the city on the equitable development initiative.

It would have 13 members as proposed.

Eight of those would be appointed by the mayor and five by the board itself.

And terms would be three years for members.

I'm going to, there's an amendment that I'll talk about at the end, but I'm going to pass it over to Uba and Sam Assefa, Director of the Office of Planning and Community Development to talk about the legislation and then let you hear from community members.

Thanks.

Thanks, Leish.

I'm Sam Assaf, I'm the Director of the Office of Planning and Community Development.

First of all, thank you, Chair, Councilmember Morales, not only for having us here, but your leadership on this.

And also, I want to thank Councilmembers as well, who've been working on this issue for quite some time.

We are excited to be at this place in this process to get a permanent advisory board for the equitable development initiative program.

We're here to give you an overview of the proposed legislation, the mayor's proposed legislation for establishment of this permanent advisory board.

Just to give you an overview of the purpose of the EDI advisory board is to guide the implementation of the EDI program and also to ensure that the program furthers the city's race and social justice initiative.

Among other things, some of the key work of the board includes implementing the accountability goals of the EDI implementation plan.

And we'll talk about that briefly.

Develops the funding criteria for the fund, working with city staff and council.

And it also develops recommendations at each year when we have requests for proposals for the EDI fund.

To date, as you thanked the interim advisory board, they have been extremely effective and helpful in literally getting this program off the ground and supporting and guiding that program as a new initiative in the city since 2016. I too would like to thank their tireless work.

It's many, many hours each month, and then especially during funding reviews.

They review hundreds and hundreds of documents and pages to come up with a list of recommendations.

It's not an easy task.

So I just want to say thank you for their work.

Now I just want to introduce someone who actually doesn't need any introduction.

OPCD's equitable development manager and my boss, Uba Gaderi, to give you an overview of the EDI program in general, just to give a bit of background, but also set this decision that you're making today in the context of the large, very important program that the city has.

So with that, Uba can give a quick overview.

Thank you, Sam.

I'm going to focus on an overview of the ordinance and hopefully you can get a little bit more of an overview of the EDI and the fund later on if we have time.

And as Leish stated, the ordinance and there was, excuse me, I'm normally not like this.

So in the end of 2017, Council adopted Ordinance 125473, which required OPCD to submit a resolution by July 1st, 2018 to formally create the EDI structure.

With working with the Interim Advisory Board and law, it became clear that a resolution will not be sufficient to meet the core objectives.

So we ended up with an ordinance.

The membership, like Lish mentioned for the ordinance we are presenting right now, creates 13 members, eight appointed by executive, five appointed by the board, and all appointments confirmed by city council.

And we have worked extensively with the law to address potential legal barriers to the board appointment process and the legislation requires the board to adopt bylaws that provide both transparency and accountability in the selection process and also to ensure that the needs of the impacted communities are represented.

Both law and also the interim advisory board have also recommended that the exact process for selecting the board appointment seats be kept flexible to allow the EDI to develop best practices that will be useful for increasing representation on the on the board.

The legislation also provides guidance on the membership criteria, and the criteria is intended to ensure representation from the communities most impacted by growth and development and displacement, as well as acknowledging the multiple identities and perspective that's critical to a successful functioning advisory board.

As far as compensation, the board also presents a recommendation for including a compensation structure for participants, making sure that we are compensating folks for their expertise and their time.

Community stakeholders have been consistent over and over asking us that the city needs to compensate folks for their expertise and their time.

And the proposed language represents a balanced approach between these options and it meets the needs of also community members.

There is no like a certain amount called for.

There's a lot of other different departments and other different programs that also compensate the community members that they're engaging.

So we wanted to make sure with this legislation that there is also a consistency there.

As far as the approval and removal process,

Sorry, I'm just not feeling well today.

Again, 13 members positioned through one through eight shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by city council.

Positions nine through 13 appointed by the board and confirmed by city council.

And then also initial members in position three, six, nine and 12 and 13 shall be members of the Ecuador initiative interim advisory board so that we have consistency of history there.

And yeah, so again, the criteria is a useful criteria that kind of calls out representation from geographic locations among high-risk displacement, low access to opportunity, and even with and recommendations ensuring that they align with this membership criteria, looking at geographic neighborhoods that have experienced significant displacement, as well as histories of discriminatory policies and practices.

We are looking for membership criteria that have also the lived experience being targeted by racially discriminatory policies and practices.

And I'm going to leave it at that, talked about the compensation, the appointment process, and the membership.

And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer those.

Very good, okay.

Thank you, Uba and Sam, appreciate that, and Lish.

I think, colleagues, what I'd like to do is go ahead and ask our community members who are here to speak, and then open it up for questions for the entire panel.

Ab, are you, shall I begin with you?

Yes, I'm gonna start, and then do you want me to introduce the rest of the community?

Yes, please.

Okay, great.

Again, thank you, Council Member Morales, and good afternoon.

My name is Ab Winner.

I am the Equitable Development Manager at Puget Sound SAGE.

You heard from my colleague earlier, Julia Pasciuto, who sits in the Interim Advisory Board and the Race and Social Equity Task Force.

Puget Sound SAGE has been fighting for community controlled development in Seattle and King County, and we do this coalition work with South 4 and the Race and Social Equity Task Force.

We have been advocating for community ownership of development in order to build resiliency in our communities.

And we see the EDI Advisory Board as one of the ways that we can support the leadership and build the capacity of Black, Indigenous, people of color, and low-income communities.

These groups have been historically excluded in decisions about how their communities develop.

So the advisory board is an opportunity to lift up community priorities and engage in decisions that have long-term significant impacts in their lives.

EDI has always been about community self-determination in land, housing, and other community development areas.

And we see that the EDI model is supposed to be a self-determined community-based process.

This work is for the community and by the community with the intention to make the city more equitable in its allocation of resources.

So we cannot take out the community decision-making process because that is what makes this program important and distinctive.

and we need to have the right people in this board and we know what we need for it to look like.

I am joined here today by community leaders who serve in the Interim Advisory Board, members of Race and Social Equity Task Force, and Equitable Development Initiative grantees who can speak more about the importance of having the right people serve in the Permanent EDI Advisory Board.

So we have Yordanis Seferi, Treyana Holiday, Cesar Garcia, and Gregory Davis.

I'm going to turn it over to you, Yordanis.

Thank you.

Before you begin, I want to make sure that for those of you who might be using a headset or a microphone, please make sure that you're speaking into the microphone because it's a little bit hard to hear if things are shifting around.

Thank you.

Please continue.

Thank you.

And let me know if you cannot hear me.

As I was saying, I'm with the Multicultural Community Coalition.

And in addition to to MCC being a grantee, an EDI initiative grantee.

I also serve on the interim EDI advisory board, as well as being a race and equity, race and social equity task force member.

So as you've heard from many of my colleagues, this really does come down to community self-determination.

As you've heard, the interim advisory board has been leading this work since 2016, quite effectively, I might add.

And now at the point that we're asking for this to become a permanent advisory board, we cannot have that community control taken away.

And that's just essential to this work.

That's just essential to community determining the priorities within these equitable development projects and activities.

And the one thing I want to highlight is the fact that during this time of COVID and the resulting recession, we've seen the disparate impact on underserved and marginalized communities.

And so we recognize that with the permanent ADI board, there's going to be a need to deepen and grow resources and the infrastructure of that board to attend to these disparate impacts.

And so that's, again, where community needs to come in to make certain that those funds go appropriately to those community-based projects and activities.

And so I will pause there and allow one of my other colleagues to weigh in.

All right.

Hi, you guys.

I'm Trayana Holiday.

I am community organizer with Africatown Community Land Trust, a key contributor for King County Equity Now, and also a producer for Converge Media.

And in a lot of my roles, as I just laid out there, We understand the need for community voice is super, super needed right now.

It is some of the most impactful ways that community members can be a part of the process.

And clearly, EDI is a representative of that process.

It is important that community members, as Ab and Yordanos both pointed out here, that community members be a part of the decision-making that happens in their communities, specifically with regards to development.

As we know, historically, groups of color, in particular black people and brown folks, have really been left out of the development decisions that impact their communities so heavily that we see large, large numbers of displacement happening in the central district in south end of Seattle at alarming rates.

And it's simply because there wasn't a process like this.

There was the ability for for-profit developers to come into communities unchecked.

Unchallenged, unequivocally, they came in with their power, their money, and we see how it actually negatively impacts communities.

There are some benefits in terms of maintenance of areas and space.

As the divestment kind of happened, now we see this reinvestment.

But we need EDI to stand strong for community members who have been left out of this process.

And I think it is crucially imperative that the EDI board really be representative of community.

and be a voice, an extended voice of this people power that folks are connected to in community-based work.

So I will, with that, pass it on over to my colleague, Cesar.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Council Member Morales, and members of the committee.

I'm here today representing Lake City Collective.

We are a group, we are an EDI grantee, and we are actually the first group that is being funded by the EDI in North Seattle, in the entire North Seattle.

And we are a small group, but very active and powerful in our community.

We are a multicultural group with eight core members representing the communities like Native Americans, like Middle Eastern, South Asian, Asian, Latino, and the disabled community.

And we are serving around 800 people.

And we wouldn't be able to serve all these people in this area if not being by the EDI grant.

In fact, I'm right here at this location that is being funded and paid by the EDI.

This is the Lake City Collective gathering space that you can see here.

You can see how we have masks that we are distributing.

Before COVID-19, we had meetings here.

We have been very involved with many city departments, like, for example, for the Your Voice, Your Choice program.

You can see those sawhorses in the middle because we are running youth programs right now.

for kids in our area.

And also thanks to the partnership with the Seattle Public Library, because Council Member, as you mentioned, the library is closed.

So we have been that replacement of the services that the city could be providing, but we are providing and distributing books for the community right now.

So this is just an example how a small group in the very northeast corner of the city Where was benefited by this interim advisory board.

And of course, we are in support of a permanent advisory board, because that not only will bring a more diversity and.

On the actual board, it will also increase representation, but also understanding of every corner of our city.

Displacement is happening very badly in the downtown.

Chinatown and the South and Central District, but displacement is moving to other areas.

And as you know, if you just look at this, the document, the EDI implementation plan, and even the document called Seattle 2035, you will see how the displacement risk is affecting other areas.

So the permanent board will actually help with that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Cesar.

Very great.

Mr. Davis, are you on deck?

I am.

Actually, I'm at the plate right now.

Welcome, everybody.

Much respect to you.

My name is Gregory Davis.

I'm the managing strategist for Rainier Beach Action Coalition.

We steward the Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan, which essentially has us in partnership with the city and city departments as they take their gaze at what's going on in Rainier Beach.

We're also part of RCEP, the Equitable Development Interim Advisory Board, EDI member, and also work with King County on this community of opportunities.

Before I get into it, I do want to say to each of you council members, I just really would like to ask you to give your staff our warmest regards.

We know your staff works hard.

They push lots of paper, gets lots of calls, and so we really just want you to extend our appreciation to them for the work they do on your behalf and on behalf of the city.

So, naturally here to support the permanent equitable development advisory board.

And I have a couple of points that I want to share just, you know, based on some thinking about this and some experience.

In fact, beyond supporting the permanent advisory board, we're actually in lockstep with RCEP and the letter that you would have gotten where you would have received, where we're actually looking at kind of wanting to flip even the assignment authority from the mayor's office having five and the community having five.

We see it.

given the mayor's office three, given city council three, and let the existing advisory board have seven.

And this is something that we're seeing in current events where we're really learning more and more about the fact that the community knows.

We've been thinking about this since 2018. We've been thinking about it a long time and that thought has brought us to this point of making these recommendations.

So it's not something that just kind of came up in this movement, this time of social unrest and COVID and all of that, been on our minds a long time.

So we want some consideration given for that.

Speaking of consideration, you know, one of the interesting things that we often have to experience as a community is, you know, we're considered reputable when it suits people.

If we are reputable in any instance, we should be reputable until proven otherwise as a baseline.

So we want you to consider this position, our position, as an idea worthy of consideration because it's coming from reputable organizations.

I've served on groups like this in the past, specifically the Priority Hire Advisory Committee, and I've experienced when we have fewer community-directed appointees, the table is just not set right.

The executive appointees seem to, by virtue of that appointment, feel like their voice carries more weight, good idea or not.

And we just need to counteract the possibility of that, or I'll say in my case, the actual experience of that by the positions that were taken.

You know, we have good ideas.

Our ideas are rooted in experience.

For instance, my recent serving on that advisory committee, it's rooted in research.

And generally, the ideas that we set forth wind up not only having an impact on a particular body that we're serving on, but a citywide impact.

So, you know, the idea that the sitting advisory committee members have the most slots that we can identify people for, it really increases the likelihood for representation and that this work not be limited to selected circles, which tends to happen when we see executive appointments or appointments from other groups.

So that's how we're thinking about it.

That's how I'm thinking about it.

And so just appreciate the opportunity in this forum to share with you.

So I'll turn it back to Ab.

Thank you all.

Council Member Ross.

That's great.

Thank you.

Well, I want to thank all of you for being here and sharing your perspective.

I want to open it up for our committee members to ask questions.

And I will take the prerogative of asking the first question.

I'm not sure who wants to answer, but I would like to hear a little bit about some of the sort of the mechanics of how the advisory board works.

So you have any number of, well, you have a process for soliciting applications.

You have a process for going through the applications.

And I would just be interested in hearing a little bit about how that works, what the dynamics are, how you work through those conversations to get to the decisions that you have to make.

And I'm asking this because, as I mentioned, at least a $20 million investment coming in the next couple of years.

And so ideally, you will have the opportunity to be having some really meaty conversations about some very important projects.

So I'd just like to hear a little bit about how that process works for you.

I was waiting for my boss to answer that, but I'll go for it.

Waiting for the advisory board members to answer it, but happy to chime in just quickly.

Council Member, I think it's important to know, in addition to the funding, I just want to emphasize, The most foundational work is also the group really developing the program itself and the accountability and all the other.

They do a lot more work on the funding.

That is very, very important.

I just don't want to miss that.

Uba and I would recommend the interim advisory board members also chime in on this.

Ubaid, do you want to go through the actual sort of structure of the specific to the funding process?

Oh, the funding process or like the review committee, the membership for the advisory board.

Council member, can you clarify that question?

I'm interested in just hearing a little bit about how the how the advisory board actually works.

So they – not – I mean, we will talk about the employment process.

I have an amendment, which we will talk about in a moment.

But before we get there, I would like to hear just a little bit about how that – how this structure functions when it comes to making those decisions about the investments that we – allocating the resources that we have available.

Okay.

Like Sam said, the interim advisory board is taxed with in advising and recommending everything EDI policy program investments.

We have a facilitator that we work with.

I think we had about 15 advisory board members to begin with.

Now we have probably 11 active right now.

We have monthly meetings of 90 minutes a month where we the facilitator who creates the agenda, sometimes with the advisory board.

And then the first year and a half, I think we spent a lot of time creating the EDI fund guidelines, vetting the criteria, using the first initial demonstrated projects that got $6.5 million.

to figure out how we could set up the next $9.5 million.

And then the first year that we had an RFP process in 2018, we actually had all the interim advisory board members participate in the review committee.

We got about 37 applications.

We worked with ethics to put together a conflict of interest policy in place.

The decisions were made out of all the groups that are applied that were part of the advisory board.

One group ended up being funded that year.

Obviously, as we all know, money is disorganizing.

We did hear from community that having people who are part of the organizations that got a proposal, be part of the review committee was a little bit problematic and not accessible for people who don't have a seat at the table.

We modified that the following year to have a wait until the applications came through to put together a review committee of people who did not have conflict.

We also, within that review committee, include other funders and other real estate experts who work with these communities, like Enterprise and, at one point, the LISC representative.

And then just continue with, and during the, and every fall, we put together a convening that, where we put together a steering committee that includes the review, that includes the interim advisory board, to really first of all look and assess what EDI has accomplished that particular year and then also co-create the work plan for the following year.

So those are some of the things that the interim advisory board helps us work with but there's like few of them here I will like challenge them to chime in and ensure that I'm not like making up stuff here.

No, you're not making up stuff.

In fact, that does give me an opportunity to kind of just give some congratulations to Sam and your leadership team in selecting the folks you got on this EDI team.

They're some smart people.

So, and naturally, some of them are because they come from community, right?

You tap the talent and, you know, we contribute, we lend them to you to do the work downtown.

But one thing that I don't want to create the impression of is that as a group, we're perfect.

We're getting everything right.

We've got issues within and among ourselves, but that's not different than any other body that we have.

But we think that sometimes in that division, when it comes to looking at matters like this, we do come together, bonded, to make the decision that we know is going to have a broader impact than just the decision itself.

the things that's kind of a subtext to a lot of this.

And so those are the couple of things that I just wanted to kind of add to build out what Ubaha shared.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, are there other questions or issues that you'd like to raise before we move on?

I'm not seeing or hearing anything.

I guess I would ask just one more question before we consider the amendment, which is based on conversations that we have had, that I've had with some of our community members here.

There is an interest in amending the legislation to have more of the appointments made by the advisory board itself.

and only three made by the mayor and three made by the city council.

So I would be interested in hearing what benefit you think a change like that would bring to the operations or the way that the permanent advisory board functions.

I'll jump in here.

I think it goes back to just making certain that there's a level of community representation that we think should be a part of this.

Again, as I mentioned, the Interim Advisory Board has been functioning very, very effectively, has managed to award $21 million in capital and capacity building Grants for capital projects and activities.

And so, and this is 1 of those programs.

That's a lot it all over the country.

It's 1 of those successful program that the city has.

And so now that we're going moving to a permanent structure, it.

I would think that it would bode the city well to recognize the work of the advisory board and allowing the advisory board to have the most seats.

Obviously, we could also achieve quorum with that number of seats and not have to just, yeah.

So technically speaking, there would be that.

But I think for me, it would be a recognition that this needs to be centered in community.

that we know best for determining community priorities and how those funds should be allocated to the various development projects that you've heard of.

And I'll just add too, I'm not even on the interim board, but I wanna add here and kind of echo your Donnell's statements about centering community.

What we heard earlier, just from Uba in her introduction was that, or when you guys were introducing this, that they go through hundreds, Sam was saying hundreds of applicants and it's a lot of work.

I think getting people who are tied to the communities where this work is being centered, is essential in terms of making sure that it is a more community-guided process, but also, once again, being very inclusive and also being equitable in terms of mitigating some of the damages that have been done with history, right, and literally excluding these groups and having such a top-down approach.

I think it's important to note that this wouldn't be so neutral, but that this would be more heavily focused in community in an effort to also mitigate past damages that have been done to these communities.

So I just wanted to add that as well.

Thank you, Triana.

Okay, I want to move us along.

So Jodi, I'm going to ask you, I don't believe we have passed we haven't moved to pass the bill yet am i supposed to read the amendment first so that lish can talk about it um yes since you've already discussed it you could move uh move to amend the council bill with the proposed amendment one that lish has provided okay um so council members there is an amendment uh that lish has provided um

And Council Member, there are a couple of minor technical amendments to the version that was attached to my memo.

So if I can share my screen, I'll show the Council Members where those lie.

And let me see.

And I did email this to folks earlier in the day, but just for the viewing public, let's go ahead and put that up.

All right, so the two changes from the version attached to my memo are on the fourth line here.

It clarifies that three of the initial members of the board would be appointed by the interim advisory board.

Two other members would be coming from the interim advisory board as mayoral and council appointees.

That assures that we have at least nine members appointed at the beginning of the board so that they have a quorum and can appoint the remaining board members.

And the other change, I don't think this was in my memo, but the legislation includes a reporting requirement from the board to the director of the office of planning and community development.

And this amendment would ask that they also send that to the city council.

Right.

Thank you, Lish.

OK.

Sorry, Jody.

Are we supposed to discuss this, or do we just move to amend first?

I would move to amend.

I'd say something.

I move to amend Council Bill 119887 as presented on Amendment 1, and then see if anybody has comments on that amendment.

Thank you very much.

Forgive me for the viewing public.

This is only my third committee meeting because COVID.

Council members, there is an amendment.

I move to amend Council Bill 119887 as presented on Amendment 1. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 119887. Will the clerk please call the roll on the amendment?

Yes, and I just want to acknowledge that Council Member Juarez has asked to be excused.

Okay.

Well, not till, yeah, till at four.

Not till after?

Okay, thank you, Council Member Juarez.

At four o'clock, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries and the amendment passes.

Okay, council members, I move that committee recommends passage of Council Bill 119887 as amended.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill as amended.

Are there any comments at this point, colleagues?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the bill as amended?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Very good.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass as amended will be sent to the September 21st City Council meeting.

Thank you very much, everyone.

I really appreciate all that you're doing for our community and we will See you on the 21st.

We do have one final agenda item.

Council colleagues, we are going to hear an update from OPCD about the RFP process.

So will the clerk please read item 17 into the agenda?

Agenda item 17, equitable development initiative RFP update for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

Uba, would you like to give us an update?

Yeah, I'll make it quick.

I had a whole presentation, but we have 10 minutes left.

But as you might know, we have an RFP out that was released August 31st of $5.8 million.

And funding will be allocated both to existing EDI projects as well as new organizations.

Within the following allocations, existing organizations will get $3.6 million.

renewing a second year capacity building, plus some capital investments.

For example, projects that might be going under construction and things like that, that might need tenant improvement.

We'll be in funding those groups.

And then we have an opportunity of $1.7 million for new partnerships that is responsive to the current moment, both of COVID and the Black Lives movement.

And then we are also internally partnering with an Office of Sustainability and Environmental Justice program, which also has its RFP.

process out.

And instead of the 250 that they normally do, $250,000, we are adding that to another $250,000.

Another brilliant idea from the interim advisory board, instead of reinventing the wheel to just use the infrastructures that are in place.

And then we will also be partnering with a new interdepartmental team called the Seattle Together Partnership that And Randy from Office of Arts and Culture, and Andreas from Department of Neighborhoods co-lead.

So that's another $475,000.

That adds to $5.8 million.

Within the new partnership that is responsive to the current moments, it's going to be up to $50,000.

We have a bucket around Black, Indigenous, people of color.

infrastructure improvements.

We have a bucket around economic recovery and disaster gentrification.

And we have a bucket around community response and recovery as it relates to COVID-19.

Groups can apply to all three buckets.

So one of the buckets we are in the middle of right now are recruiting review committee members.

We have the last workshop happening Tomorrow is Thursday?

No, on Thursday.

We've done three other outreach webinars, and those are on our website.

And then on the 17th at 3 o'clock, we have another webinar for folks to jump in and ask any questions that they have.

RFP is closing on the 23rd of this month.

And between October 7th through the 19th, we will be doing the review of all those different applications, both the internal and not the internal, the existing projects as well as the new projects.

We're hoping to finalize and final decisions by right before Thanksgiving with contracting process beginning November, December of this year.

The contracting process, but the contract period is January 2021 to December 2021. Can't believe we're talking about 2021, but yeah.

Thank you, Uba.

That is good news.

Good to hear.

I'm glad to hear that there's partnership happening with OSC as well, and might as well leverage all of the infrastructure, as you said, and processes that we already have in place.

Colleagues, are there other questions or comments about the RFP process that Uba's discussing?

OK.

Um, well, if there are no additional questions or comments, uh, thank you, Uber.

Thanks to everyone for being here.

Really appreciate your service and your willingness to continue serving our community.

Um, this concludes the September 15th, 2020 committee meeting of the community economic development committee, and we are adjourned.