Good evening.
Thank you for being here.
My name is Council Member Shama Sawant.
This is a special meeting of the Human Services, Equitable Development, and Renters' Rights Committee of the Seattle City Council.
The time is 6.15 p.m.
We are meeting here at the Miller Community Center in District 3. I apologize profusely for the delay.
I know you all have families and lives to get back to.
I was waiting for my staff member, our policy analyst, Ted Bordone, to get here.
Unfortunately, he just informed me that he was in a bike crash and he's right now in the ambulance heading to the hospital.
And he tells us he's OK, but obviously you can imagine we are extremely anxious to hear about his welfare.
But we are going to have to proceed without him at this moment.
I wanted to begin by acknowledging that we are on Duwamish land and I wanted to honor all the Coast Salish tribes from here.
I thank all the staff of the Miller Community Center for making this time and space available for us.
Thank you to Seattle Channel staff and also the contract workers who are here helping us with audiovisual technology.
As you all know, childcare has been provided thanks to the childcare provider, Chartreuse Young, who is just up the stairs.
So if you need childcare, just go up the stairs and she has set her thing up there.
And of course, last but not least, I thank everybody here who is for this committee meeting and here to testify.
We have just one item on today's agenda.
the mayoral nomination and the subsequent council confirmation of the director of the Human Services Department of the City of Seattle.
And assisting me in this meeting today is Jonathan Rosenblum from my office.
So if you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to him.
He will be happy to help you.
Just to explain the structure of today's meeting, this is not going to be a meeting where city staff and elected officials are going to take up much time.
It has been set up by me as chair of the committee precisely to have a listening session of community members who will in one way or another be impacted by the Human Services Director appointment.
I'm sorry to inform you that the other members of this committee Council Member Deborah Juarez and Council Member Bruce Harrell will not be joining us here today.
They weren't here.
They weren't at the committee meeting on last Friday either where we heard from the Halcyon residents the senior citizens who are who are if we don't take action going to lose their affordable homes in North Seattle.
So, we, all of this meeting will be public comment, so I really urge those of you who haven't signed up already to sign up.
I will be here to listen to every person who speaks because I believe that the council has the responsibility to represent the human services department workers and the service providers and the community members who will be influenced by this decision, but also community members who just care about what happens to human services.
I know many of you are here because you care.
Now, I personally think that the individual who serves as the executive of any city department ultimately does not, you know, the buck doesn't stop with them.
The buck stops with the politicians, the elected officials, the city council members, and the city council, and the mayor's office.
However, whoever is appointed to, you know, especially important departments like the Human Services, as the Human Services Coalition has called the Human Services Department, is a high impact department.
So as you all have told my office repeatedly, who is appointed and what process is used for the appointment, which is I think the real main concern you're going to bring out today.
is critical, and since I see my duty as representing you, I wanted to make this time available for you all to speak on the record.
You know, we will have this whole meeting available for anybody to watch later.
That's the value of it.
That's why it's important.
Since the former director of the Human Services Department left her position, community members, service providers, many people have been asking my office when the mayor would start a process, a search process for the next director.
And many have requested ways to give input.
Everybody recognizes this is an economic justice question, a race and social justice initiative question related to the city of Seattle.
And to be honest with you, my office has also for many weeks, if not months, been reaching out to the mayor's office asking, do you intend to start a process?
We didn't get any concrete answer and so we were all collectively surprised when the mayor announced the nomination without having conducted a search process at all Unlike the search process that has been conducted for other director positions in the city again just to be very clear it's my duty to represent your needs and wishes on this if you ask my committee and to send this nomination back to the mayor to conduct an inclusive search process before the council takes action on a confirmation, then I will use all my powers as a chair of the committee to help make that happen.
If, on the other hand, After testifying, you prefer that the council proceeds with the appointment as the mayor has nominated, then I will instruct the committee to do that.
I've called this meeting to hear from HSD workers, providers, clients, and concerned community members because we were contacted by many organizations and individuals who were troubled and even outraged in some cases that there was no inclusive process for this nomination.
In particular, my office talked extensively to HSD workers and to the Human Services Coalition.
The coalition is made up of 180 non-profit human service providers in Seattle who receive funding from the HSD, from the city of Seattle, along with other sources.
These are taxpayer funds.
They were informed...
They were formed several years ago when they found that they were unable to advocate for needed human service policies because the political establishment had the power to withhold their funding if they spoke out.
By forming a coalition, they are able to speak without putting any individual organization at risk.
We have also heard from other organizations like Share and Nicholsville about their concerns about a lack of process.
We've also heard from workers, as I said, through their union, ProTech17, which represents them, to make their voices heard.
I know many of you are here today.
I will let you speak for yourselves, and I also wanted to thank you for your courage in speaking out on an issue that will impact you and your coworkers, because I know that is not easy in any way at all.
But our best protection is to be open and have public support for ourselves.
So I will be opening the listening session, and in other words, the public comment in a minute or two.
I want to give you the time you need to make your points.
So I don't know if we have a clock from the city of Seattle, because my staff member was going to bring that, but I will.
Where is it?
You don't need to run the committee.
I will.
So we will do our best in the situation.
But I also wanted to share one other thing with you, important thing.
The committee didn't just invite people with one opinion.
We invited everybody who has an opinion on this issue.
So it doesn't matter what your opinion is.
Please feel free to suggest what's on your mind without any fears.
The committee is here to listen to you regardless of what your opinion is and then decide what do we do?
What's the best course of action?
So I hope that is very clear.
And in fact, my office specifically reached out to the people from Plymouth Housing who had written a letter of support of the mayor's process to give them time to speak.
They declined the invitation, but whoever's here to speak in favor of the process, please go ahead and do that.
Oh, no, no, don't worry, I have my phone.
Thank you, Anita.
We also urged the mayor's office to have Deputy Mayor Mosley join us at the table to participate in this listening session and also to offer you all an explanation for the mayor's decision to skip including anyone in the search process.
Unfortunately, they declined that invitation as well.
And we have, you know, we have those letters.
Those letters are a matter of public record.
So if anybody is interested in looking at that, please ask Jonathan and we will make that available for you.
We were meant to have printouts here, but you know, a lot of that is now sitting in the ambulance with my staff member.
Okay, so let's start the listening session.
What I will do is call several names at once.
And if you can line up here, so one minute.
Oh, Melissa, you should stand here because the people will be facing this way.
So Melissa, thank you so much for helping us from Protech 17. She'll let you know when you should wrap up so that we can respect everybody's right to speak.
So I will call several names, as I said in advance, so please line up when you hear your name in order so that we don't waste too much time with people trying to get up from their seat and so on.
So we have Alex Zimmerman, Patricia Dawson, Ayan Musse, James Williams, Sean Smith, Anitra Freeman.
Oh, somebody supposed to be help me.
Sorry?
What's your name?
Yeah, he is.
He was the first one.
I'm so sorry.
I'm number one.
I'm so sorry.
Sieg Heil, my Fuhrer, Nazi garbage rats, pure antisemite and cretina.
My name Alex Zimmerman.
So we're talking about management.
And I think someone when come first time talking about her salary will be $40,000.
It's never happened.
Right now, she has a salary of more than almost $440,000.
House for one millionaire, she totally changed.
About management, it's very interesting.
We have right now management, what does she support?
For $350,000.
Guys, a management for $350,000?
Where did you find this management?
Huh?
I was really confused.
If somebody listen to me, I go to consul chamber every day for last 10 years.
More than 2,000 times I speak.
And what has happened is my voice.
It's exactly what is I put my voice.
It's my voice.
Everybody listen to this.
It's my voice.
Has somebody listened to you?
For last five years, she never stop in Amazon.
This cost us a billion and billion dollars.
For another few years, we pay another few billion dollars.
This exactly what has happened.
This is exactly what will be happen when we don't change this crook all nine totally.
We need bring something people who will be fight for us, not for corporation.
She never talk about stop in Amazon.
Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes.
A simple stop Amazon ever now for 10,000 people and all market will be stabilized.
We start paying almost same money like before.
This is exactly what has happened.
Guys, before we don't change this crooks, all nine crooks what is we have in console, nobody will listen to my voice.
You understand about your talking.
It's very simple.
No need be too much understanding what's happened for the last five years in Seattle.
I live this almost 35 years.
That's exactly what it means.
So stand up America.
Clean this dirty chamber and give freaking back us money.
What is we spend.
Oh time's gone.
Everybody know where is my voice.
Go ahead.
Hi.
And please, every speaker should state their name before they speak.
My name is Patty Dawson.
I work for the City of Seattle Aging and Disabilities.
I have a great job there.
I go into Seattle Housing Authority buildings, working with seniors, low income, helping with caregivers and with all kinds of social services.
I was recently, last year, my continuing ed was when I was sent by the mandated race and social justice training to the People's Institute, where a lot of layers of education about racism and fairness and process, which is why we need a fair process, hiring process, for our new human service director.
When you appoint somebody, it's not a process.
It's pretty simple.
And we've been, we're mandated to be educated about fair processes in terms of social justice.
So.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
There was Ayan Musse and James Williams before Sean Smith.
Do we have either of them here?
My name is Sean Smith.
I am a resident at Nicholsville Othello Village.
I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of all the Nickelodeons.
Can you speak closer to the microphone?
The Director of Human Services deals with people in the darkest moments of their life.
It is unconscionable to me that there is no community basis in this appointment.
Since August, Othello Village has been asking about process.
A seat at the table regarding the renewal of our site.
Our permit is up in March, and we don't know what the process is moving forward.
We've asked to be at the table when making policy decisions regarding the ordinance.
We have been excluded.
This needs to be redirected back to the mayor.
and say, go and find someone who is more community-minded, who is willing to come to the door and talk to people.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Ayan Musa.
I'm actually really saddened that it's only you.
It feels like the choir is all I'm speaking to, and to be honest, I'm extremely disappointed that your partners didn't show up.
So I'll start there.
It's also really truly disheartening that we're even gotten this far and we're as a community are asking let's step back and have a process because there's a process for everything.
But apparently, when we want to appoint people, we can do it.
And it isn't the first time that this mayor has taken the time to do it.
But as a community, we need to not only be out and loud about it, but she needs to understand that folks voted for her.
And whether you voted or not for her, she is now our mayor.
So I respect the time.
So I'm going to actually straight up tell you, please take my message back.
I have been in social services for over 20 years at this point.
It is not cute what is happening.
And HSD needs somebody that speaks for the community.
It cannot happen if we do not have an honest process.
Sorry, Anitra, before you start, let me call out a few names.
And of course, James Williams is here now, so you should speak after Anitra because you were there.
Then we have Ralph Nicholson, Erin Bryant, Jamie Helgeson, I'm sorry if I'm not saying your names right, Shawnee Jones, and Sydney Thomas.
Go ahead.
Okay, my name is Anitra Freeman, and yeah, this is Seattle.
What happened to Seattle process?
What Share and We'll need, and what everyone in the community needs in this position, is someone who works with all people collegially.
with respect, regardless of social status or economic condition.
And this is not Chair Wheel's experience with Jason Johnson.
He won't talk to us.
We need someone who knows the reality of services on the ground, and this is not our experience with Jason Johnson.
He has never visited one of our shelters or one of our encampments.
Some of his staff members have, and yet even his staff members have demonstrated not knowing the reality of a social service program before they cut it.
We need someone who knows the reality of homelessness, that it's driven by housing costs, not by the social service is not doing their job.
It will not be solved by punishing shelters for not getting enough people into mysteriously invisible housing.
JJ, I'm sorry, Jason Johnson.
continues to base funding decisions on ideology, not on facts.
We need someone who brings everyone to the table as equals.
This approach has been done before in Seattle with great success, but not under Katherine Lester or Jason Johnson.
We can do better.
Please come closer to the microphone if your name has been called so that we can quickly do it.
So anybody else whose names were called?
Ralph Nicholson, Erin Bryant, Jamie Helgeson, Shani Jones, Sidney Thomas, please line up closer.
Go ahead.
All right, thank you.
My name is James Williams.
You know, I think I'm here, I agree with a lot of the things that have been said by speakers who came before me.
I think that everybody knows that the process needs to be slowed down.
There's a lot of wisdom and there's guidance that should be taken by the communities that are affected by the services that are funded and provided you know through HSD.
I think there's a lot of talk in Seattle about being a progressive city and thinking about race and thinking about equity and we have these beautiful initiatives and everything but I say they don't amount to much if we don't follow those processes when important decisions are made such as this.
I'm happy to see you here.
I'm disappointed in a lot of your counterparts.
I hope that people find a way to slow down the process, and I hope that elected officials understand that if they don't, I think people are going to continue to come together, people are going to continue to fight, and people will be heard.
We will have more of a process one way or another.
I'm glad people are here.
I hope that people aren't here.
Pay attention to what's going on and there will be a lot of people who are affected by the decisions that's made and how it's made.
Let's slow down and get it right the first time.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Ralph Nicholson.
I'm here on behalf of Sharewheel.
I think we can all agree that one prerequisite for the position of Director of Human Services should be unbiased and unfettered response to the very real concerns of the citizens of Seattle.
It is my contention that Jason Johnson, during his tenure as Interim Director, let his personal animosity towards SHARE and its self-management structure cloud his decision-making.
decisions that have affected hundreds of displaced men and women.
One case in point involves his decision to allow Lehigh to overrule the basic tenet of share, safety of the neighborhoods and the people who reside in city authorized camps.
In case some of you are not aware of the aforementioned incident, it centers on a man who was blind drunk and threatened not only the Magnolia residents with a 9mm pistol, but the encampment itself.
When the camp leadership failed to respond to this dangerous situation, they were barred from the camp.
It's important to note that accountability not only makes the self-management model work, is an instrumental first step in the re-socialization of many homeless people.
Jason Johnson was made aware of this documented situation not only by SHARE, but by the Magnolia Community and Ecumenical Advisors.
His response was no reply whatsoever.
Instead, he allowed the camp to bar share and subsequently turned over total management to Lehigh, who in turn allowed the offending leadership of the camp to not only return, but to resume control over day-to-day operations.
To confirm Mr. Johnson without an investigation of this incident and to not interview other potentially better qualified candidates for this position would be a gross disservice to the citizens and homeless population of Seattle.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Sydney Thompson, and I'll be reciting my poem called I Am the Black Child by Michael Nguyen.
I am special.
Ridicule cannot sway me.
I am strong.
Obstacle cannot stop me.
I hold my head high, proudly proclaiming my uniqueness.
I hold my pace, continuing forward through adversity.
I am proud of my culture and my heritage.
I am confident that I can achieve my every goal.
I am becoming all that I can be.
I am the black child.
I am a child of God.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Did I mess it up?
Thank you.
Good evening, everyone.
Here, I'll give this to you real quick.
That was my son.
That is my son, Sidney.
And I wanted him to recite his poem to bring humanity into this space and to bring humanity to the department that I work in, the Human Services Department.
Again, my name is Erin Bryant, and I am a community member and a City of Seattle employee.
I come before you tonight with a strong desire to express my my deep concern about the appointment of the HSD's the HSD director position.
The race and social justice initiative is the city's commitment to eliminate racial disparities and achieve racial equity in Seattle.
I believe in the principles of race of the race and social justice initiative and the strategy strategies that we have identified such as to ensure racial equity in city programs and services to make tangible differences in people's lives.
We need to have a thoughtful and deliberate approach to selecting department directors.
The appointment or search should not vary.
Although you may have confirmed other department directors, city council members, you have a unique opportunity to shift the culture of the city as a whole.
This appointment enforces white supremacy no matter the race of the person you appoint.
It is critical to engage in a process and center and engage community and not the people you deem as community.
Allow us to partner with you.
We're here.
You don't need to just, it'll take long if everybody keeps pulling it out.
Hi, my name, is it on?
Hi, my name is Jamie Helgeson.
I work with Aging and Disability Services.
I'm a member of ProTech.
I would like to say that this meeting for me is about Jason Johnson.
This meeting is not about Jason Johnson.
I think it is really both for me.
A common theme that I am starting to see in my disappointment in not seeing other council members show up to listen is the lack of listening by just appointing somebody to.
the position without asking the community to weigh in, without giving yourself an opportunity to listen to beautiful poetry about a young boy, without giving yourself the opportunity to listen to all the stakeholders in this room and all the stakeholders that might have had the potential to speak their truth about this process.
And I would like to say that I, as a white person, have suffered from the notion that I think I know how to fix everything.
And one of the things that I've learned in RSJI is that I need to listen, and I need to listen to other people's stories.
And what I have experienced of Jason one time in meetings where concerns were being brought up is that In the middle of voicing our concerns and asking for him to be more involved, he simply said, I am complete and walked out of the room.
This is the sort of thing that has happened several other times.
And what I'm experiencing with the council or the mayor just appointing somebody is the same thing, is we are complete, we are moving forward, we are not going to listen to people.
So it is about Jason, it isn't about Jason.
Thank you.
Shawnee Shawnee just one second before you go on.
Let me just read a few more names so people can line up here Jennifer a Cindy Pierce Mary flowers Nasreen a Amy Hagopian go ahead
Good afternoon, good evening, everyone.
My name is Shani Jones, and I'm here as a community member today, but I do work for the Human Services Department.
And what I wanted to say is HSD has a long history with racial equity work.
And as the watchdog, can you hear me?
And as watchdogs of race and social justice work, I think it's important to speak truth to power.
And we were given a promise that there would be a transparent hiring process, and we are calling on you and your committee to fulfill that promise.
Not only do you owe it to the many racial equity leaders within the department, but you also owe it to community to fulfill the promise that was made to HSD employees.
And it's not enough just to trust the appointment, and this is actually a really good example of how white supremacy plays out.
Just to appoint a person as the leader of a department that serves a marginalized community without input from the folks that are impacted the most is highly disrespectful.
Thank you.
Hi, my name's Jennifer Asplund.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.
While I rarely agree with this council, today is an exception.
Regarding the appointment of Jason Johnson from interim director for the Seattle Human Services to the director is a concern.
As interim director of the Seattle Human Services Department, Jason Johnson oversees nearly $130 million in annual investments to more than 180 community-based human service providers that support the city's most vulnerable each year.
There is and has been a lack of transparency regarding contracted providers.
The public has lost faith that our tax dollars are being spent in a manner that results in positive based outcomes.
If Mr. Johnson's job is to oversee these funds, he has done a poor job and it's evident by the human suffering in our city.
I have attended many meetings where Mr. Johnson was asked for information and he did not have it or he was scheduled to attend a meeting in which he was a no-show asking for an extension.
As a taxpaying citizen, I expect more out of an employee bringing in a six-figure salary.
I'm requesting this council to decline to affirm this appointment and instead reach out within the city of Seattle to accept applications for this position.
If there are no qualified applicants, then you advertise this position to the public.
We can and should do better.
Good evening.
My name is Cindy Pierce, and I'm with the Neighborhood Safety Alliance, and I'm here tonight to ask the council, and I wish they were here, too, to reject the mayor's recommendation for Director of Human Services and look beyond Seattle for a new director.
I also want to thank Councilmember Sawant for her honest and bold comments to get this at the table.
I listened to you last, it was Monday, when you brought this up.
And I had to call your office right away because I was going, she gets it.
She knows.
She gets it.
She knows what's going on here.
And one of the key directives of the Human Services Department is finding a solution to homelessness.
And it's a huge part of the budget.
And what I have observed over the last four years is more verbal and written language and very little action from Human Services.
I recall the previous director in committee meetings using a lot of how to talk politics in Seattle.
Your current interim director seems to be doing the same thing.
He sits at council meetings, he's been asked questions and has been unable to deliver as the council has asked.
He never seems prepared and is unable to address many questions asked.
Since Council Member Sawant has taken over the committee, she's had to postpone meetings due to the interim director not being prepared.
On the HSD website, there's a statement reading the causes of homelessness, and there's six statements, not one of those mentions drugs and addiction, which is one of the biggest problems we have in this city.
We will need a director that will tell us all the truth.
Maybe the current director does exactly what the council wants and it works for them, but unfortunately it's not working for us, the people.
If the director does their job, all these subcommittees and consultants that you've hired end up costing us millions would be eliminated and we could have a concrete plan that may not be to the council's liking, but we'll be getting these people off of the streets.
And as history has shown, human services has been unable to perform the required tasks.
Thank you very much for your time and thank you for putting this session on.
Hello.
My name is Amy Hagopian.
I am a faculty member in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington although I am not speaking for the University of Washington.
I live in this district and I am grateful that you are my city council person and I am sorry that you have to work by yourself tonight.
The reason I'm testifying is because I often have my students do projects with the organizations Share and Nicholsville since the 1990s.
So I have come to know these two remarkable organizations which bring self-governance, agency, and empower homeless people to improve their lives through democracy.
and I find it a remarkable model for my students.
Last winter my students evaluated the Licton Springs Village on Aurora.
They found a lot of really interesting positive things about that experience and about the village as it was set up.
When there was a conflict and some difficulty there I wrote a careful three-page memo to the Department of Human Services explaining where I thought some of the frictions were and some solutions that might be brought to the table.
I got back a canned letter that clearly is sent to anybody who ever writes any sort of letter to him, and I'm glad to give you that now.
agree with what people have said that we clearly need a process, but we also need a person who brings a positive attitude to this job, somebody who cares about people experiencing homelessness, and people, someone who values the self-governance model that Seattle uniquely brings to this city.
Good evening.
My name is Mary Flowers, and I work for the Seattle Human Services Department.
I'm also a community member, and I'm so thankful that my children and my grandchildren are here today, which is a blessing.
I walked into this room, and I saw six microphones lined up and was expecting to see at least six council people here.
And then the microphones got moved, and they moved.
Now there's two up there, and there's still one that's empty.
And I sat in my seat and I was kind of downhearted that it took a lot for people to leave, those fortunate to have a job to leave, get their children and come here, those who don't have a job, a tired day of trying to find a job and make ends meet.
And it struck me that as I was standing there and looked at how many people are in this room, the power is really here.
That's why it's not about who the council, who the mayor, who the director is.
It is about the powers in the people because that's how they folks get elected in the first place.
And we got to get that crazy thinking out of our minds.
The most important people are the people in this room right now.
And that's why we have to have a process.
We work 58 floors above the ground at the City of Seattle Human Services Department.
It is isolated up there.
You have to have a badge to get in.
The mayor walks around with an entourage.
She doesn't go anywhere without three or four security people.
Even when they came to the Human Services Department, they were sweeping the floor.
That's not the reality that the average person lives with.
And so that's why a process is very important, because people who are wielding millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars at the Human Services Department, and they basically can buy whoever comes in here, because there's a power dynamic when you're a funder.
There is a power dynamic and that is you have to have accountability in a real way.
You have to at five o'clock be able to come in the room and look at people and see that this is my people.
I sat last week, this one week ago I sat at First Baptist Church for MLK and I heard the speech of the mayor who left right after her speech.
I saw council people that were applauding and introducing her as a champion of justice.
I heard her quote Dr. Martin Luther King.
And this is what I see.
You know, you can talk a good game, but your actions speak much louder.
And this is really, this is, this really demonstrates a lack of process because it's a lack of respect when you cannot even show up.
So feel that respect.
We need to feel that disrespect.
And you know what?
We're going to come back to the next meeting and to wherever the mayor is.
And the powerful thing is that there's a bunch of city employees right in here.
Some of them still on probation.
Some of them just got their jobs out of class and they're here tonight.
This is who you have working at the Human Services Department, and we deserve better.
And even that, we are much better off than the people that we are funded to serve, whether they're families, whether they're youth, whether they're people experiencing homelessness.
And it's not good enough to say, I'm a person of lived experience.
I was homeless 20 years ago.
Because if you were really feeling that, you would be in this room tonight.
So is Nasreen A.
in the room?
I'm sorry.
Nasreen, are you an employee at HSD?
Yes.
OK.
Thank you so much.
Then there's Owen.
I can't read your last name.
I'm sorry.
As long as I don't know two Owens who are signed up.
Leslie Bowling, Jarrell Davis, Lisa Frazine.
Please come up if your name, if you heard your name called out.
Hi, my name is Owen Kafus.
I'm an employee of the Human Services Department.
And I'm here to talk about the fact that this decision to push forward an appointment with false urgency and without process by wielding hierarchical power, it's evident that our mayor is following the white dominant culture that forms our city government and is not standing up for the race and social justice initiative that she proclaims that she follows.
I urge you and your fellow council members, if you truly believe in the Race and Social Justice Initiative, to push back and demand a process to make sure that community is involved and that the voices of the people that he is meant to serve are heard.
Thank you.
Before the next speaker goes on, I just wanted to say, I just wanted to make an earnest request.
I know as the minutes tick by, you will feel more of an urgency to go back to your homes and families, but those of you who are able to stay, please stay because I want to be able to say something about what the next step should be based on what I've heard, and I want to get some sort of response from you about whether you think it's on the right track or not, okay?
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Leslie Bolling.
There are two words that are coming to my mind right now.
One is commitment, and one is action.
Oftentimes I feel like commitments can be something that we write down, that we can maybe say that we did on a checkbox, and I think that isn't sufficient when it comes to our actions speaking louder than our words.
I really have two demands of council.
One is we're just asking for transparent government.
Council Member Sawant, I will remind you of a time in 2017 when maybe we had four mayors in like less than six months.
And council felt the pressure from community to have an open transparent process for that ninth position.
And you all listened and you had a transparent process.
And that led to a very different outcome than an appointment by council.
I as a community member and as a HSD employee, I'm asking for the same thing, demanding the same thing.
And I'm also demanding that city council actually take a look at how the appointment process actually perpetuates white supremacy within the structure of municipal government and take this as a learning opportunity to create some legislation to eliminate the appointment process in general.
Thank you.
Where the camera at?
Right here.
That's why I'm focused on this.
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results.
Told y'all not to vote for her.
Ran a campaign, grassroots, black woman.
But nah, people didn't want to vote for Nikita.
Support Seattle People's Party.
I'm born and raised in Seattle since 92. And I actually drove from the South End to get over here.
So I got to see the city on my way to this very space.
And when I think about the insanity of not just Seattle's government but King County, Washington State, the United States as an imperialist, colonial, patriarchal, heterosexual, all the isms that manifest in our communities, I see some cowards.
I see some cowards on the council.
Because in 2015, they voted unanimously for zero youth detention.
However, earlier this month, we learned that King County made a decision to continue funneling $210 million into a youth prison that is in this jurisdiction.
Those are inconsistencies.
As we look at the development of the city of Seattle, from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s to now, The insanity is evident because as businesses develop, as enterprise develops, as more white folk come into black neighborhoods, the human development has dwindled and depreciated.
So as much as we're investing in these enterprises, we need to be investing that into people.
And to my belief, my understanding, the human services department is one of those places that manufactures that.
And I'm actually like pretty I would be embarrassed if I was these guys when we got employees that are present that got families and they're able to be here.
At this point I'm not surprised.
It is consistent with what Seattle has been doing for generations.
And as Brother Malcolm said chickens will come to roost.
So y'all better watch your back.
Hang on, are you Lisa?
Just let me read a few more names.
Karen Taylor and Janet Preston.
Jane Klein.
Gretchen Washkey, I think.
Peggy Hotz.
Doug Hopkirk or Alice Quintan, sorry, something like that, Quintance, I think.
So if you heard your names, please come forward so that you can speak after the speaker who's before you.
Hi, my name's Lisa Versteen.
I'm a city employee.
I'm a member of Seattle Silence Breakers.
And I'm representing our group here to support the employees of HSD.
Our group, Seattle Silence Breakers, wrote a letter to city council sometime this week.
And I'm just going to read a little bit of that letter.
Seattle Silence Breakers recently learned about the plan for Mayor Durkin to directly appoint the interim HSC director to the permanent position.
We are very concerned and disagree with this as it removes the transparency of the process and the ability for employees and the community to weigh in and evaluate the pool of qualified candidates.
We agree with and support the members of the HSD change team and caucuses who have expressed the sentiment as well.
It's especially troubling that the mayor had previously promised an open and inclusive process for the appointment of department heads.
It appears now that the mayor is not keeping that promise.
The HSD director is in a very important position to lead a department that provides a wide array of services to a diverse Seattle.
They must be accountable to the public.
Therefore, the impacted community employees must be given the chance to have a say in who will lead in the best way forward.
Council, we urge you to use your position to postpone the confirmation of the director and allow for a transparent process to occur.
My name is Gretchen Wosky.
I am a City of Seattle resident.
I am an employee of City of Seattle's HSD department, and I am also a union steward with Protech 17. I am here to present a petition that has been signed with 130 signatures as of 1.15 PM.
There are more signatures to come.
It states, dear Mayor Jenny Durkin and City of Seattle, or Seattle City Council, wow.
We the undersigned protect 17 formerly PTE 17 members who work in the Human Services Department, HSD, at the City of Seattle are concerned about the lack of transparent hiring process for the HSD director.
The recent hiring process that was used for the director positions at Seattle City Light and Seattle Department of Transportation should be applied to the hiring of a director for HSD.
Therefore, we demand that the mayor provide our department with the same transparent hiring processes that was provided to SDOT and SCL.
I have 12 copies for you.
Actually, I have copies.
Why don't we hand them out so people will have them?
And Jonathan has more copies as well.
This is a very important piece of input, public input from the employees of HSD, so people should see it.
Thank you, Gretchen.
Really?
Okay, okay.
That's fine.
It's the union's prerogative to not share.
Thanks.
OK.
Sorry.
Good.
My name is Peggy Hotz, and I've been volunteering with ShareWheel in Nicholsville for over a decade.
I've long been concerned about Mr. Johnson holding the position of Director of HSD.
In 2015, Mr. Johnson demanded an out-of-sequence audit of Share, claiming that the new audit was triggered by a late audit in 2013. Share discovered through a FOIA request that a dozen of Seattle's largest shelter providers had also had late audits, but no out-of-sequence audit was triggered for them.
Also in 2015, Johnson shredded the City Council's green sheet, which was meant to pay Sherr's honey bucket bills.
More recently, just before the mayor's budget came out, Jason Johnson was asked directly by three human services directors if Sherr were in the budget, and he said yes.
It turns out that they weren't in the budget.
That would have meant defunding shelters holding 250 beds and a low barrier women's shelter run by Wheel.
Getting to Nicholsville, Nicholsville had no source of regular income for the first six years.
We did the best we could with homeless people only holding their own fundraisers like car washes and pancake feeds.
But eventually, our garbage service was suspended.
At that point, we made an agreement with Share that if they'd rent a truck and pay the dump fees, we'd reimburse them.
In 2016, the council once again approved money for Nicholsville to pay its enormous trash and honey bucket bills.
But Jason Johnson refused to give us that money, claiming the city didn't reimburse third-party vendors.
In 2017, Mr. Johnson ignored the city's own encampment ordinance and its required management plan, and absent any semblance at all of due process, allowed Lehigh to take over Tent City 5, precipitated by the event spoken about earlier with the drunk man and the gun.
Mr. Johnson has allowed the encampment ordinance's requirements for maximum two-year stays in one location to be thrown out the window.
While we promise house neighbors in public meetings that will follow the ordinance, the city picks and chooses which parts they'll stick to.
Meanwhile, Sharon Nicholsville are expected to uphold every minute detail of the ordinance.
Worst of all, in my opinion, is Johnson's obvious disdain for these grassroots, democratically organized homeless people.
Under Johnson's share will and Nicholsville's homeless participants are deliberately frozen out of important meetings affecting the encampments, shelters, and tiny house village that they themselves operate, while the big shots from the city and the mega-sized fiscal sponsor meet to make all the decisions.
I don't know how a director of human services could demonstrate more disrespect and disinterest in the people he's hired to serve than to leave them out of decisions directly affecting him like Mr. Johnson has done.
there must be a broad sincere search for a director who has experience in education along with integrity and respect for all people working with them as equals.
My name is Alice Quaintance of Alice Quaintance and Doug Hopkirk and I don't know Jason Johnson personally but over the last several years I've heard from people that I greatly respect both at Share Wheel, I haven't heard from Mary Flowers before, but I greatly respect her.
And also from people at CCS and people at DESC who have all expressed grave concerns about Jason Johnson.
I think that we need to look more carefully at his appointment.
And I would only add that I think that having respect for the communities of homeless people, be they organized communities like Share Wheel, Nicholsville, but also many of the encampments that we see, are in their own ways, if you see a small group of tents together, those folks are getting along some way.
They are communities.
And I just think it would be great to have a good process to find someone who can approach this very difficult, complex problem with the kind of energy and attention and concern that it really deserves.
And Lord knows there are not going to be any easy answers to it.
Thank you.
Do we have Jane Klein?
Yeah, go ahead.
Hi, my name is Jane Klein.
I think I might be the only person here this evening speaking in favor of this appointment for Jason, so I'm going to take a deep breath.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this meeting.
You've heard from many people this evening who have concerns about the mayor making this direct appointment.
There are also many, many employees from HSD who fully support this nomination.
and I'm here to join them in my public support of his appointment.
I'm fortunate to have worked with him for over four years at the city, and in my 15-plus year career as an assistant, I can say without hesitation that he is the best boss I have ever had.
Jason has dedicated his entire career to public service.
His credentials and his leadership skills make him uniquely qualified for this role.
He's been at HSD for over five years, and in that time, he's worn a number of different hats.
Regardless of role, Jason is always the first one in the office and the last one to leave.
Jason works over weekends so that his team doesn't have to.
Jason is the only department director I'm aware of who occasionally staffs our front desk at our office.
He helps the many constituents who visit our office navigate the services for which they are eligible.
But Jason isn't just a great boss and a helpful colleague.
He has had real positive impact on HSD's results, which means that he's had real positive impact on HSD's providers, and in turn, our customers.
Do you know that just last year, while he was serving as interim director, That all contracts that went through our RFP process had racial equity performance measures embedded in them.
That HSD changed our hiring practice in order to reduce implicit bias.
That over 200 staff attended RSJ or UIR training.
That over 200 staff were trained in results-based leadership.
Do you know that HSD executed three times as many contracts on time than in the previous year?
That we had zero audit findings.
That HSD launched a grants manager role to maximize other funding sources.
that we put all of our financial and funding policies online for anyone to access.
We also launched an operations dashboard for staff that makes our budget, staff demographics, and other operational functions fully transparent.
All of that work was under Jason's interim director leadership.
He has made HSD better, which means that we can better do our jobs to support providers and customers.
I ask that you please vote to confirm Jason as HSD's director.
Thank you for listening.
I'm Janet Jones Preston.
I'm a Seattleite, and I'm retired.
I just want to say this is a missed opportunity for Jason Johnson because he needs to be here so he can hear what people are thinking and feeling.
So if, in fact, he gets the job, he knows how to be a better employee and a better provider for people.
I don't think this should be on the city council.
I think our mayor should take responsibility and admit that she made a rush to judgment.
She should take a step back and have a regular process the way she's done and it's been done with other people.
My name is Karen Taylor, born and raised here in Seattle, Washington, 1964. Not proud to be a Seattleite, disgusted and ashamed, waiting for us to die.
Sweeping us out the doorways, moving us out, gentrifying, taking my neighborhood.
I'm disgusted.
Disgusted.
And then for them to not even show up to even hear us?
They don't have a relationship with us.
They don't care about us or how we feel or what we want or our children's future.
I'm disgusted.
I'm not going to die.
I'm going to keep rising every morning.
I'm going to keep living for my people.
I'm going to keep doing all that I can do to be all I can be while I'm here.
And I think that If I have to follow the rules, y'all should follow the rules too.
If there's a process, y'all should follow the process too.
In this day and age with Donald Trump in office, people think they can just do what they want to do with no consequence or no regard for the rest of us that are here that are suffering.
It's disgusting.
We have Reverend Walden, Queen Bee, Hamdi Abdulleh, Fiore Alarcon, Claire West, I can't read the last name, and Alex Brott.
Can all the speakers come up here?
Starting with Reverend Walden and Queen Bee and Hamdi.
And that was the end of the list.
If anybody, and there's one more name I want to call at the end, but is there anybody, if there's anybody who didn't sign up on the sign-up sheet but wants to speak, you're welcome to.
Just come up here to the microphone and then sign up on the sheet because we need it for the public record.
Good evening, my name is Reverend Harriet Walden.
I'm the founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, and I'm speaking within that role today.
I'm also co-chair of the Community Police Commission, so I'm not speaking in that role today.
I'm wearing Mother's hat, this hat.
been wearing it for 29 years.
This is our 29th year.
I'm here to talk about the process.
This is the same flawed process that they used when they eliminated Carmen Best.
And the mayor office has a problem with process.
And we, the community, had to stand up to say, you know what?
We know that your process was flawed.
We understand that you wanted to hire McClay, Malay, Cameron, the police chief that had been in Pittsburgh.
She still hired him in her department as a white overseer.
So we have to understand.
I call him the white overseer.
OK.
So hey, and I say that, and we need to understand what this is about.
I call Seattle a progressive racist town, a progressive liberal racist town, have not dealt with racism.
And that's a lot of people who like 45. We just didn't know that.
There's a lot of people like him that don't want process, and there's a lot of people without compassion.
It's a lot of people in America without compassion.
If you can see people, federal workers out there in the food line.
When I was 16 years old, I had to take Americanism versus Communism in order to graduate in Florida because of the Bay of Pigs.
And what they taught us at that class, we had to all take it.
They said that Americans did never have to stand in line.
Americans was exceptional, that we always had a lot of food and they had a lot of jobs.
And that what you see, Americans, they were all had with everything they need.
And then when you saw Russians, that they were in line, they had not enough food, they'd have no jobs.
And what do we see in America today?
We see American workers.
in food lines, shame on these people, shame on them, and shame on the people who voted for them, okay?
And shame on the people in Seattle who don't want process.
I mean, I want to avoid it because it's like, wow, what is going on here?
I mean, Seattle is a process city.
And then when they don't want to have process, then they do what they want to.
But we have to hold this mayor accountable.
That's right, we have to hold her accountable.
The first woman in 90 years, and first thing she did, she crushed a black woman, time she got there, okay?
And now she's, now you know Carmen Best is there, we praise God for her and we're gonna help her do a good job.
And when we need to stand up and say, you know what, Chief, you got that wrong, we'll do that.
And when she's doing a good job, we'll say, Chief, you did a good job.
But listen, let's be clear, all women don't stand for us.
Okay?
Let's be clear.
Let's be clear about that.
And it's something happening on the seventh floor.
I don't know, I don't care who it is.
Previous, previous, previous.
It's something happens when they get to be elected.
And that's just what happened.
That's why we the people, that's why they say we the people need to stand up and be counted and let the mayor know Don't don't don't that don't Approve her process on this because you know what happened when they approved the process and voted for the for the for the police skill for the Contract, you know what's happening with that and it's all in the newspaper.
So I won't be talking about.
All right.
Thank you very much
Good evening, everyone.
I'm Queen B. King-Rios.
I'm a member of Cher and Will.
Also, Will has the only women's low-barrier shelter in the city, and the Human Services Department provides funds for these shelters.
Well, I don't know what human services department director would cut funding to a shelter that provides a safe, warm place to sleep for a woman at any time of night in any time condition.
What kind of human service director is that?
You shouldn't have to be homeless and wonder about where you're going to sleep in the richest city in the world.
Our voices need to be heard and this was the best thing I could have saw when I worked and walked in here.
Our voices matter.
I don't work but my job now is to be a voice for people who don't make a choice.
But I'm going to be that voice for them.
Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.
My name is Alex Brott.
I am a Seattle resident and an educator.
And I organize with white folks to fight racism and white supremacy with a group called European Dissent.
And I'm up here, I've seen firsthand what happens when people are not having a say in the decisions for services and programs that impact their lives and that are placed upon them by people in powerful positions.
And even if James were the best number one qualified candidate for this position, The fact that there has not been a process around this is continuing the white supremacy that is evident throughout Seattle City government and throughout systems of power all across this country and different levels of government.
And so all we are asking is for a transparent accountable process and for people who are impacted by these services who are living day in and day out at the whims of people who are making these funding decisions.
make sure they can have a voice, make sure that they can have a say in who runs the Human Services Department.
Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Claire West.
I sell vegetables on the side of the road.
I run a non-profit mobile farm stand partnering primarily with community organizations in South Seattle, neighborhoods that don't have good access to healthy, affordable, fresh fruits and vegetables.
So that's what I do for my day job.
And my veggie hustle is financially supported by the Human Services Department, right?
material recipients of those funds and are sort of benefactors of that structure.
But I think maybe even more importantly, I personally am a benefactor of some of the leadership and the analysis and the really important deep work that has gone on over the last couple of decades in the Human Services Department to build an analysis and systems and structures around undoing racism and to really embody those principles in the work that that department supports.
As I think Reverend Walden put it, I am a white overseer of a nonprofit organization, right?
The communities that I work with and the folks that are most affected by sort of the food security gap in this city are black and brown communities.
And I know as a white person how easy it is to think that I have the best solutions and how really the leadership that I so respect and the guidance that I look up to both from my community constituents and from leadership within the Human Services Department.
I know that that's a really important sort of check on my power to keep me accountable and to make sure that the work that we're doing as an organization is accountable to the communities most affected.
And I think that We can ask no less of the person who holds the highest office in this town and also the folks who are elected to represent us.
So thank you for being here, Councilmember Sawant.
My representative, Bruce Harrell, is not here.
I guess if you're not running for re-election, it doesn't matter.
You don't have to show up to stuff like this anymore.
So that's disappointing.
But thank you for being here to hear these comments.
Thank you to the leadership in the Human Services Department.
Thank you to my constituents, and please, I just ask you to halt this confirmation until we can have an accountable process.
Thank you.
Is Hamdi here?
Hamdi Abdullay?
Okay.
Fior?
My name is Flora Lacona Bendano and I am a union employee with the City of Seattle.
I work in the Human Services Department and thank you for being here today and thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Also, if you can share with the other city councils that are not here, but also with the 12 members to come out with some type of ordinance that can have consistency and continuity in the hiring processes for department heads, not just for the HSD, but it's Seems to me that this mayor is using different type of processes for different departments.
And I think would be very appropriate to have consistency and continuity moving forward.
But also what we're asking for, and I personally asking for, is for transparent process among a pool of candidates that included a voice of communities of color.
And also, because the HSD receives funding from the federal and state and different funding sources, so I'm pretty sure that they also need to have some type of accountability, because we need to respect why and how the money filters into our city.
Thank you.
Our last speaker is Gerald Hankerson.
But as I said, please don't leave.
I just want to speak for a few minutes before we close the meeting.
First of all, my name is Gerald Hankerson.
I'm the former president of the Seattle-King County NAACP, but I'm also the president of the NAACP for Alaska, Oregon, and Washington.
I bring this up now because during my tenure, I'm just sick and tired of Seattle leaders dismissing our community like we ain't crap and making decisions behind our back, behind closed doors to put some white man in power to make decisions on the backs of our people since we've been in this country, let alone in this city.
I'm recognizing the fact, thank you.
I'm recognizing the fact that our whole country right now is on a shutdown over a wall, but we seem to have a wall between downtown Seattle and the black community.
This lady, elected as mayor, ran on behalf of the gay community, the black community, and every other community, but I have yet to see her yet to come down to be accountable to our community.
And I'm tired of talking about people of color, I'm talking about black people.
Black people.
Every day I look up, I see all these promises on the news and the paper.
We're going to build tiny houses and outhouses and garage houses and all these other houses when people can't even afford to live in Seattle.
And then now they can't live in Seattle, you're getting these billions of dollars that you want to put a puppet in a position to make decisions on the backs of us.
That's what I'm tired of.
I definitely want to compliment you, Shamus and Juan, for being courageous enough to bring this community meeting to the community rather than meet with y'all downtown behind closed doors.
But I also know this is an election year, and ultimately, it's our responsibility.
Everybody going to be coming, knocking on your door, asking for your vote.
But it's up to us to make sure who we put in that seat to hold them accountable.
We just can't quit after the elections, just walk away back to our regular lives.
Black folks haven't been able to do that in 400 years.
But I'm sick of a person that's in the office just shoving people down.
They shoved the police contract down our throat.
Then they tried to shove Carmen Best and everybody else down our throat, thought we was missing.
And now you're trying to shove Mariko Lockhart down our throat.
Now you want to put this guy, and I want to be clear.
I don't even know this person who you're talking about other than his name, Jason Johnson.
And that's proof right there.
The fact that we in the community don't know him shows that he's clearly not qualified.
Clearly not qualified.
So I'm serious when I say that doing this civil rights work, because I would love to work ourself out of a job.
And I want to give a shout out to all those city workers who was courageous enough to put her on the line, to come down here to confront your people.
But under no circumstances, I don't care if she send you any name, if that name is not recognized in our community as best qualified to be in this position, every single one of them should be rejected.
And the last piece.
I want to point out, just for the record, what happened to RSGI?
What happened to the race and social justice toolkit that she left us out?
Did anybody ever stop to vet to see what consequences this is going to have on our community?
Did anybody stop to do that?
But I also know, just like Starbucks just gave you $500 million, I know there's billions of dollars that she want to put someone in a seat to check the box and go about their daily business while our people are living in these outhouses right along the street.
No more Seattle.
No more.
And we're going to tote those halls and we got to come show up at City Hall.
I don't care what you got on the agenda to make our voices heard.
We'll be there.
Thank you.
So I'm really extremely grateful to everybody who spoke, everybody who came, and it also warms my heart that you all felt this, even though it's a committee meeting, that it was in the community, that you felt free enough to bring your family members, your children, even infants here, that really makes me, that makes me feel good that we were able to open that space up, and I think the city council should be doing that much, much more often.
And I appreciate everybody who spoke.
A few speakers spoke who said that they didn't have a problem with the process, that they were happy with Mr. Johnson.
But it's very clear that the overwhelming balance of the testimony was that we need a transparent and accountable process.
That's what I heard today.
in a very decisive way, not in an iffy or ambiguous way, but very, very decisively, human service providers, people who use the services, people who care about the community, and most importantly, in some ways, I think the HSD employees have spoken very clearly.
I really, I want to echo what Gerald just said, which is that the HSD employees have shown the most courage of all, so I really appreciate you being here and speaking up.
So as I had promised when we started the meeting that what the next step should be would be determined based on what we heard today.
And I'm grateful to you that enough numbers of you came here so that we could actually get a sense of where the community stands.
And it is clear that the community stands with the position that it is not going to be okay for this committee to approve the nomination as it has been made.
And so we need some sort of alternative step forward.
My policy analyst and I, Ted, who unfortunately some of you came later, I just wanted to let you know, Ted from my office got into a bike crash on his way to this meeting and he's in the hospital right now.
Please forgive me if I'm a little bit preoccupied and anxious because Jonathan and I, we are very concerned for his welfare.
But something that Ted and I had discussed before we came to this meeting was the possibility of having a city council resolution.
And we don't have it in a ready form yet.
So I can just tell you in general what the thinking was to see if that sounds right to you all.
The resolution would say something like we, that the community has been, demanding a transparent and accountable process and that so that therefore this nomination cannot be turned into an appointment by the committee.
The committee doesn't feel that that's correct.
And the resolution in our minds, like I said, I don't have a concrete form to show you, but in our minds, the resolution should say something about what the process should be, meaning how will that transparency and accountability be attained, and I would like, and my office would like that resolution to give some guidelines on how that accountability can be attained.
In other words, there should be something in the resolution that says we need a search committee that is composed of community members and HSD employees, human service providers, And perhaps most importantly of all, the people who use the services, like real change vendors, other people who have faced homelessness and so on, and City of Seattle employees who are leading on the race and social justice initiative.
There should be some sort of committee that is composed of some of these entities.
Do you, and I'm seeing nods, so we will.
So my office will get to work on that.
However, we will need your ongoing input on that.
Very, very few of you have actually given me your contact information on these sign-up sheets that just have your names.
Of course, my office is in touch with a lot of organizations that are represented here, but if you are, I mean, as an individual interested in giving us input on the resolution, no matter who you are, If the union wants to give us input, which the union should, the union should have a seat at the table, no doubt about it.
Protech 17 should have a seat at the table in the search process.
But if you all are interested in participating in the drafting of the resolution, which we will need to do fairly soon, Could you please sign up with Jonathan just on his notepad or whatever, just so that we have some way of connecting with you.
And for everybody, I would say, please watch out for some sort of announcement from my office.
And if you're not already on my office's emailing list, please give Jonathan your email address so you will get constant notifications of what we're doing.
As a matter of course, you will get a notification when this resolution would be ready.
It should be in the next week or two.
We could potentially do that.
We could potentially do that.
I don't want to make promises offhand because I don't know how complicated that resolution will be.
If it can be done, if there's agreement in the community, if we can get agreement on the council on something broader than just HSD, we could do that.
I am open to that in principle, but we'll see what form the resolution takes.
And if people are interested, we could have a community discussion when we have a draft of the resolution, you know, anything is possible.
I'll be honest with you, anything, we can make anything happen, but I alone cannot make any, I alone can make nothing happen.
You all have to be part of it.
So if you want to be part of it, please get on my mailing list.
Please be in touch with me and we can go forward based on that, okay?
And we also should be aware based on the communication that we have had from the mayor's office, based on everything we are hearing that, I mean, let me put it this way.
I would be delighted and I would welcome if tomorrow I heard from the mayor's office saying that they watched the Seattle Channel video of my committee and that they were extremely moved by the testimony Hear me out.
That they were extremely moved by the testimony and that they do want to carry out a transparent and accountable process, and if they invite the community to be part of the process.
If they said that, I would be more delighted than anybody.
However, I don't expect that that will happen.
We have to be, we have to live in the real world, not in dreamland.
And I don't, at this moment, I don't expect it to happen.
I welcome the mayor's office to surprise me and the rest of us.
But until that happens, please let's be aware that in order to make this resolution possible, in order to get a transparent and accountable process, we will have to fight for that.
Which means you and I together will have to fight for that.
which means just like Gerald said you will have to come to City Hall.
We will need bigger numbers than we had today in City Hall.
We can you know as I said I am willing to do anything that the community is demanding but I need your help to make that happen.
So as long as that is clear between us that we are going to have to fight for this then let's march forward.
Okay.
So please, please let's get organized.
Please make sure you share your information with Jonathan there.
Please don't go without doing that.
So let's keep in touch.
Yes.
Yes.
I, I, yes, thank you for mentioning that.
I, I hope, I hope, I hope the mayor, not only the mayor, I hope the rest of the council members, I hope the members of this committee who are, who didn't show up today, who didn't show up on Friday are also watching.
But again, I want to reiterate, again, I prefer to live in the real world.
I don't see that happening.
So we, we will need to get organized.
You know, Reverend Walden and, Gerald Hankerson mentioned the police contract vote.
I was the only council member who voted no on it.
Every other council member voted yes for it, even though there was an outcry from the community police commission and from the black and brown communities that that police contract was not good because it rolled back police accountability.
I bring that example up only because, only as a reminder that that's what we are up against.
So let's not underestimate what we are up against.
So let's make sure we get organized and fight, okay?
Please, please don't forget to sign up.