Public Safety & Human Services Committee - Public Hearing - 12/13/22

Good morning.

It is 934 a.m.

the December 13th, 2022 meeting of the public safety and human services committee will come to order.

I'm Lisa Herbold, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Nelson?

Present.

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Peterson?

Present.

Council Member Mosqueda?

and Chair Herbold.

Here.

Or present.

Thank you.

And I will check for Council Member Mosqueda's presence in a moment.

I did get a text saying that she's here, so let's, you know, hopefully when we see her on the screen, we can recognize her being with us.

So on today's agenda, we'll be hearing the appointment of Mary Ruffin to the Seattle Community Police Commission, the appointment of Adrian Diaz as Seattle Police Chief.

We'll hear an update on the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections Unreinforced Masonry Program.

And we'll be hearing testimony in a public hearing on the 2023 draft annual consolidated action plan.

We'll now approve our agenda for our committee meeting today.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

At this time, we'll transition into public comment.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

I'll alternate between virtual and in-person public commenters, and I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered.

If you have not yet registered to speak, but you'd like to do so, you can sign up on the council's website before the end of the public comment session.

When I call a speaker's name, if you are using the virtual option, you will hear a prompt.

And once you've heard that prompt, We ask that you press star six to unmute yourself.

Please begin by stating your name and the item which you are addressing.

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

Once the speaker hears the chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comments.

Speakers do not end their public comments at the end of the allotted time provided.

The speaker's mic will be muted after 10 seconds to allow us to hear from the next speaker.

And once you've completed your public comment, please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following the meeting, please do so via the Seattle channel or the listening options that are listed on the agenda.

We've got about 20 or so people signed up for public comment.

We've got 15 signed up for virtual comment, five, I think six now for comment in person.

And I will, like I said, begin by calling names two at a time, and I'll begin with the two of the individuals who are signed up to speak in person public comment.

Matt Chan, followed by Tanya Wu.

Start anytime.

My name is Matt Chan.

I am a organizer in the Chinatown International District, and I'm here to speak in support of appointing Adrian Diaz as Seattle Police Chief.

I've had conversation with Chief Diaz, both privately and publicly.

And one of the things that impressed me during the direct action we had in the Chinatown International District about the mega shelter was that he actually supported us.

He was one of the few city officials that stepped forward to say that we needed to pump the brakes on the shelter, because we hadn't measured the public safety impact on the community, which I thought was a prudent thing to say.

And that day he was in for his final interview, and the next day he was named the police chief.

And so I thought it took a measure of courage to come out to say something like that, which is, there was some peril to a statement like that.

But then again, when he was interviewed by King 5 News on Friday, he reiterated that statement.

And one of the things impressed me was he said that most of the time, almost daily, he would drive through the CID to see how things were.

And to me, that's an actual, that's something that's real.

It wasn't a political statement.

It was someone who actually cares about our neighborhood.

And I think that for most of the people in the neighborhood, the seniors and the business owners, they do want police presence there.

They want public safety.

I know that's a contentious issue about over-policing, but in the CID, my belief is it is under-policed in many ways.

So I just want to voice my support for Chief Diaz.

Thank you.

Next, we'll have Tanya Wu, and Tanya will be followed by Howard Gale.

Hi, my name is Tanya Wu.

I'm a small business owner in the Chinatown International District.

I'm also on the CID Public Safety Council, and I volunteer for a group called the Chinatown International District Community Watch.

We kind of patrol as an alternative to policing, and we also operate due to a lack of services.

But I am here today to support Chief Diaz's appointment He is in the community.

He knows the Chinatown International District community.

We see Chief Diaz frequently in our businesses and we see him on our streets.

So we know him and we trust him.

We know he is respectful for different opinions and that he really cares about the Chinatown International District community as well as all communities.

And more than anything, But our communities need an advocate, we need allies to uplift the voices of our seniors, and especially of our business owners and residents, many of whom do not speak English.

And when we really needed him, he was there for us to advocate for what we wanted and what we needed in the community.

especially when we needed public safety, when we need to have our voices heard on different issues regarding the community.

So he knows how to bridge that, you know, cultural gap, that language gap.

He is culturally competent.

We trust him and we really look forward to seeing him in our community and also with working with him in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Howard Gale.

Howard will be followed by Cody Zielinski.

Good morning, Howard Gale with seattlestop.org commenting on our failed police accountability system.

Your first agenda item this morning is the appointment of Mary Ruffin as a member of the community police commission.

I wonder if you will inform Ms. Ruffin that her role is to simply be window dressing to an increasingly dysfunctional commission that in the last few months has canceled meetings, attended police conferences, attacked people whose loved ones were killed by police, Not surprising for a commission that in nearly 10 years has not had a single person who was directly impacted by police violence and a commission that routinely engages in non-public and non-transparent decision-making without consulting other commissioners.

A recent example of this last point would be the September 29th meeting with CPC executive director, Brandi Grant and co-chair Harriet Walden with council members, Herbold and Morales where the Seattle Human Rights Commission was further bullied into relenting from trying to represent people impacted by police violence, the very people assiduously ignored by the CPC for the last decade.

This was an action taken without the vote or knowledge of other commissioners.

And speaking of things ignored, your second agenda item is the appointment of Adrian Diaz as our next Seattle police chief.

In Chief Diaz's answers to the council's questions, he boasts of his knowledgeable fact-based and proactive stance on policing, noting that he proudly serves on the board of the Police Executive Research Forum, the national group that for over seven years has been taking U.S. police to the United Kingdom to train on the methods used there to not kill people with edged and blunt weapons.

Yet Chief Diaz has been part of and led a culture of Seattle policing that has killed 18 people suffering a mental health crisis in the last 18 years, all people with an edged weapon or no weapon at all, like the still unnamed person killed on Beacon Hill in January of this year.

Like Derek Hayden killed the year before.

Like Perry Caver killed just six days before George Floyd.

Like Ryan Smith and Danny Rodriguez both killed the year before that.

You are not fooling the public by dressing up a decade of failures as something to be proud of.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Cody Zalewski and Cody will be followed by David Glick.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Hello.

Okay.

Hello Seattle City Council.

My name is Cody Zaleski from District 4 with the Psychedelic Medicine Alliance of Washington.

Firstly I would like to thank Andrew Lewis and the Seattle City Council for passing the resolution deprioritizing natural psychedelics last year in 2021. Our city has shown itself to be on the cutting edge of treatment and treating the problems of substance use disorder and mental health crisis with novel methods and treating mental health crisis with novel methods.

However the city of Seattle could still do more.

Codifying this prior resolution as an ordinance will continue to send the message that Seattle is invested in these profound mental health treatments.

With the recent victories in Colorado and elsewhere, we strongly urge the Seattle City Council to take the small step of putting this resolution on the books for good.

As the state continues debating psilocybin services in this upcoming legislative session, this brings much needed attention to the issue.

Thank you, and I cede my time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be David and David will be followed by Raminta Hazelska.

Hi, my name is David Glick.

I'm a law-abiding taxpaying citizen that lives here in Seattle.

I live in your district there, Mr. Lewis.

Thanks for coming to the meeting in person.

That shows that you're a professional.

I'm here to talk about public safety because I don't feel safe in this city.

Haven't for years.

I ride the light rail to work.

And four of the last eight times I rode the light rail, there were vagrants on the train that were aggressive, they were violent, and they were making everyone on the train feel unsafe.

I see no law enforcement on the trains.

I don't see anybody checking fares.

And it's unsatisfactory.

So whoever's in charge of public transportation, I think it's Mr. Pedersen, I would implore you please increase in security on the trains.

I talked to a security gentleman on the ramp one day, he said they're manned at 40%, 40%.

We gotta do better than that.

We have to protect the law abiding taxpayers of Seattle.

My girlfriend, who recently was running on a sidewalk by Fremont, was shoved out into the street by a vagrant.

She is also a law-abiding taxpayer of this city, who should enjoy the rights of being safe, but we're not.

She is not safe.

She was almost killed by someone in this city, a vagrant.

I guarantee you that person has a record.

She called the police, there was no response.

There was a cyclist involved in the same event.

He was also pushed by this person.

Think if one of those two people had been killed and the responsibility that would come down on your shoulders, if a citizen here was killed in this city, in those circumstances.

So please address public safety, be real, take it serious, because this is not a safe city.

Thanks for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ramanita Panzelka, I believe is the correct pronunciation.

If not, please do correct me.

And Ramanita will be followed by Randall Woang.

And Ramanita, if you could hit star six, we can be able to hear you.

Great, thank you.

My name is Raminta from Seattle.

Thank you for taking the time to consider the ordinance to decriminalize plant medicines.

Someone very close to me has struggled with depression, anxiety, and substance use their whole life.

They tried lots of medications and therapy, but they didn't like the way those medications made them feel.

They started researching spiritual practices of self-healing and found a community of people from all walks of life also seeking alternatives.

to the traditional paradigm of mental health, mental and spiritual health.

They met more people who were using plant medicines in combination with powerful intention setting exercises and meditation.

And they found ways to become whole after trauma or losing a loved one, or even facing difficult diagnoses or life decisions.

And following their work with plant medicines, they found tremendous value in every aspect of their life, And it's provided them with new ways of being that has really improved their quality of life and the life of people around them and close to them.

I believe these medicines should be accessible in safe environment to those who could also benefit from these type of experiences.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Randall Woang.

And Randall will be followed by Eleuthera Lish and Marcus Tumfield.

Hi, my name is Randall Wu Eng.

I am a lifelong resident of Seattle, CID community member.

I am speaking in support of Chief A.J. Diaz's appointment.

He's been there for the Chinatown community, showing up to numerous events, community events, showing his support for the community.

He's one of the few advocates, actually probably one of the only advocates, that spoke against, or spoke against, and having a pause in the mega shelter in the CID community.

He's been in the CLPD force all his career, and rising up from the patrol all the way up to the chief.

He needs to be there as a true leader, and I am full support, and we do need more safety around the city.

There is too much violence, too much businesses getting destroyed by all this violence and robbery and theft.

I know he goes to, my dad has been working in the Seattle community for 45 years.

He goes to KowKow on a weekly basis.

So he does support the community.

And that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Eleuthera Lish followed by Marcus Tumblefield.

Good morning, Luther Lish, I am with public health Seattle King County I am the strategic advisor on regional gun violence, and I'm here this morning to testify or to lend my support and the appointment of Chief Adrian Diaz to the official title and position of chief of the city of Seattle.

Thank you, Chair Herbold, members of the committee, virtual and here present this morning for making this priority.

I have worked with Chief Diaz for, gosh, since about 2005 in a variety of capacities.

As a person who started a program in community to abate gun violence and to support young people most directly impacted, I had the opportunity to partner with Chief Diaz in school settings, in community settings, And notably, in about 2008 after the loss of a lot of about seven young people to gun violence here in our city worked alongside of chief Diaz and others to help build out the Seattle youth violence prevention initiative and in that capacity, we were deployed to Washington DC to learn from community leaders.

on how they partnered with law enforcement to stand up critical incident response and support community-led public safety efforts that centered those most directly impacted and leading the charge to end gun violence.

We went on to partner together with the Obama administration and work on the National Forum for Preventing Youth Violence.

And as the only civilian, I sat in space with Chief Diaz and chiefs from around the country and had the opportunity to observe his innovative leadership.

in again centering community which I want to again testify this morning as a as a key priority to a strategy that both he supports and we know that works.

That continues today in his efforts to support the leadership of the efforts that are addressing regional gun violence.

He's partnered with chiefs outside of the city of Seattle and helped to stand up regional approaches in the past that over time resulted in zero youth homicides because of mutual efforts between law enforcement and community.

So it is an honor to testify in support of his appointment and to note that we will stand in support of ongoing partnership as he leads Seattle's police department in working with community.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Marcus Stellefeld and Marcus will be followed by Danny A.

Good morning, City Council.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to speak.

I'm here in support of the appointment of Chief Diaz as the Seattle Police Department Police Chief.

I just have to say that I've worked with Adrian probably 25 years, starting with gang intervention when he was a street officer, patrol officer, doing work in community.

and then advancing to my current role as the Criminal Justice Strategy and Policy Section Manager for the King County Executive.

I wouldn't put all this on the Police Chief.

I would say it's a unified approach that we need to unite that.

He brings strong accountability, strong leadership, community-driven approaches that I think is what we need to really make our safe, our county and our city safer.

And so I just wanted to say that I'm in full support of his appointment as the Chief.

and look forward to continued relationship as we move forward to really make our community safer.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Danny A, and Danny A will be followed by Anna F. And again, if you could hit star six if you haven't already so we can hear you.

Danny A, I see you are unmuted.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you.

Okay, sorry.

Hi, my name is Danny and I'm calling from the First Hill neighborhood and I support passing an ordinance decriminalizing natural plant medicines.

I want to first thank the council for passing the decriminalization resolution last year as this important step has already helped increase access to life-changing plant medicines for Seattle residents.

However, this is not enough as an ordinance would enshrine this access into city code and ensure the longevity of the progress we've made.

As someone who has used planned medicines to successfully treat anxiety and depression to improve my appreciation for life and to increase my capacity for kindness and empathy, I can personally attest to the power and safety of these medicines.

These are experiences that Seattle residents should have access to without the fear of incarceration or punishment.

Please help Seattle continue to be a leader in the psychedelic medicine movement by passing the decriminalization ordinance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Anna F. And Anna F.

will be followed by Dominique Davis.

Hello.

I would like to thank our Seattle City Council for passing the resolution to decriminalize plant psychedelics.

But today I'm here to urge the city council to make this into an ordinance.

My name is Anna and I'm a longtime Seattle resident.

I grew up in a small condo in Belltown under the shadow of the Space Needle.

As a young adult I went to the University of Washington and earned a degree in biochemistry and three minors in entrepreneurship chemistry and art history.

A few years later I went to Seattle University to earn my MBA.

It was only in the last few years where my interest in psychedelics began, mainly in the form of psilocybin.

I learned about meditation and began to notice the use of this medicine in conjunction with mindfulness practice.

I started taking microdoses with my partner and noticed a gradual change in my mood, my resilience, and perspectives on life change.

I kept this a secret from my family for a couple of years until I recently introduced the medicine to my mother.

who suffers from occasional depression and chronic pain from sciatica.

She came to visit me this past summer, and I proposed taking a small amount of medicine during our walk at Discovery Park.

This was a very meaningful moment for both of us in our relationship, and we were able to engage in deep conversations and enjoy the world around us in new ways together.

This is a plant that produces valuable medicine to me, my friends, my family, and community.

If this medicine were more freely available, I would use it to help my mother and ease her suffering.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Dominique Davis and Dominique will be followed by Alex Zimmerman.

Hello.

How you doing, Council?

It's good to see you all today.

As you guys already know, I'm boots on the ground.

My team is boots on the ground.

We're in the mix of gun violence and community safety every day.

So you kind of get in a different perspective of why we support Chief Diaz.

Chief Diaz has been grounded in our community for a very long time.

He's been connected to us for so many years and seeing him be elevated into this position is very well deserving.

The collaborations that we've been able to build, the way we've been able to work with each other in the field has been nothing more than astonishing, especially lately since he's been in this position of command.

I wanna make sure that we can continue this relationship because it enhances our work.

When we're able to tell SPD, we need you guys to be over there, or over here, it's kind of like us being put in a position of power to be able to show them how to police us, right?

And to have leadership in favor of that and not push against that and say, yeah, we're going to support you guys.

We'll play the background while you guys take lead.

It's been awesome, and I want to make sure we continue to build on that.

I don't want to go backwards.

We got to keep moving forward.

So I'm hoping that we can go ahead and confirm him, get him in position, keep collaborating with him, keep working with him, and his leadership trickles down to the rest of his team.

And I have seen the changes since he's been in leadership.

I've seen some of the attitude changes since he's been in leadership.

And I got to be honest with you.

I didn't I never thought that we would be able to collaborate from a community based organization and our partnerships at this level.

with law enforcement.

Like, you know, it always was kind of a push against each other and we kind of brushed against each other.

And there was law enforcement felt a little threatened that we might be trying to come in and take some of their positions or jobs.

I mean, kind of playing their role.

And that's not it.

We have to have somebody in space that understands that we are collaborating together, working together.

And this is a unified front that we need to build in order to address all the issues in our community.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Alex Zimmerman.

Alex Zimmerman will be followed by Liam B. Thank you.

Sieg Heil.

Sieg Heil, my dirty, damn Nazi, Gestapo, democracy, fascist.

a mob, and psychopath.

My name, Alex Zimmerman, I'm president of Stand Up America.

I'm very happy.

Right now we have new sheriff in town.

Same freaking idiot and clown, what as we have before many time.

Question very simple right now.

Can one clown choice another clown.

So we have a clown.

His name of this clown very popular.

His name, Mr. Harrell, a new mayor, a new clown, a multimillionaire landlord in 12-year council, what is never have for one year right now, Q&A.

Ever stupid Murray and Durkan have this before, but this clown for one year never have a Q&A.

It's very unique.

I love him.

I love so he close seven floors so we cannot ever bring a complaint.

Can this clown choose another clown?

It's exactly what has happened.

Can be something change?

No, nothing will be changed.

People will be kill one another because we have a circus, a clown, consul clown, mayor clown, everybody in this government clowned right now.

Stupid and clown.

And everybody happy.

It's a problem what is we right now have.

This clown talk, oh, Seattle channel don't show us faces.

Harold, clown for many years, we choice him because he's a professional crook and clown.

Stand up, Seattle 750,000 idiot.

Make him happy.

Our next speaker, Liam B, is showing as non-present, not present.

So we'll move on to Ben Sircombe.

Ben will be followed by Rachel Cervanek.

Hi, my name is Ben Cervanek.

I'm a board member of DecrimNature Seattle or Psychedelic Innocent Alliance of Washington.

I'm speaking in support of passing our decriminalizing psychedelics ordinance.

Thank you for giving me time to speak.

Council members, You've heard me speak dozens of times in the last two years about the benefits of the psilocybin and plant medicine and how they allowed me to overcome my depression and anxiety and become a functioning and successful member of society.

You've heard the same stories from hundreds of Seattle residents and I've heard from the speakers before me.

Today, I want to talk to you about why you should pass our ordinance to decriminalize plant medicine.

Since you all passed our resolution, you have been met with praise from news outlets, including Seattle Times, GQ, Axios, and even Rolling Stone Magazine, among many others.

There have been next to no backlash, and in a time of so much division, Seattle showed the state that our city can pass popular resolutions.

This was a huge win for city council and a much bigger win for the residents of Seattle.

All we are asking is for you to finalize your decision and give Seattle one more victory.

We need to show the U.S. that Seattle is a city that listens to its people.

This is a win for everyone and Seattle deserves this.

Do the right thing and pass our ordinance.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Rachel Cerbenak followed by Elise Bace.

Rachel.

Hi my name is Rachel Servanac from District 37. Perfect job pronouncing my last name by the way.

Thank you for that.

So I'll be speaking on the psychedelic decriminalization ordinance.

Thank you for passing the resolution in September of 2021 to decriminalize plants and fungi.

I'm in very high spirit today to have been joined by many passionate community leaders.

I am a co-founder, or co-director, sorry, of Responsible Antigen Access and Community Healing, Reach Washington, volunteer with Plant Medicine Alliance of Washington, PMOS, psychedelic peer support, volunteer with Fireside Projects, and paralegal with Terrapin Legal.

However, the thoughts that I share today are my own as a resident of Seattle and not given on behalf of these organizations.

What you all have done at the citywide level is excellent.

It is imperative that we codify this progress into an ordinance as swiftly as possible.

I envision a world where all people have the liberty to heal grow and learn with psychedelics.

Solidifying decriminalization into an ordinance will help residents of Seattle to feel safe in gifting gathering growing and sitting with psychedelic plants and fungi.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Elyse Base followed by Chris Villalpando.

Elyse?

Elyse, if you could hit star six so we could get you off mute.

There you go.

Perfect, thank you.

Thank you so much City Council members for allowing me to share my testimony today.

As a member of Psychedelic Medicine Alliance, we greatly appreciate the work you've done in creating a resolution to decriminalize psychedelics in Seattle.

We'd like to continue pushing for the creation of an ordinance to provide further legal protections for citizens who work with psychedelics for their mental health, spirituality, and personal wellness.

As you've heard from all the many people who have spoken today, I, like them, have witnessed so much growth in myself because of psychedelics.

I've been able to shift my perspective on past traumas, allowing me to let go of much pain, suffering, and shame.

And now that I'm on a path of healing, I'm much better able to live a full, meaningful, and purposeful life.

I've also witnessed a lot of growth in my personal relationships with family and friends.

It's allowed me to open up, communicate, and to share emotions.

It's helped me to strengthen my patience, my compassion, and my kindness.

And it's given me an opportunity to feel more love and to share more love.

And because psychedelics have improved my life and the lives of others, I really humbly request that an ordinance be enacted to protect us and to further these positive changes within ourselves and within the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Chris Villalpando, followed by Joan Warren.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Yes, we can.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council.

Thank you for your already stellar job in helping us get the psychedelic medicine progression going.

This is obviously in support of that.

I'm a member of the Psychedelic Medicine Alliance, Washington.

I'd like to start with a story of my personal experience with psychedelic medicine as an impetus to my mental, physical, and spiritual health and wellness.

The use of psychedelic medicine has transformed my life in inexplicable ways.

Five years ago, my father passed away unexpectedly from an aggressive form of cancer.

Compounded with this loss, I also lost my business and my relationship with my girlfriend.

I hit rock bottom, basically.

To help offset daily suicidal thoughts and severe depression, I tried every substance I could probably get my hands on, and nothing worked.

It wasn't until I tried psychedelic mushrooms that I was able to have a mental and spiritual breakthrough.

Somehow, without any program or guidance, my peace and balance was mysteriously restored in as little as a couple doses.

I now understand the gravity and the power of psychedelics.

My only regret is that I had not tried them sooner.

And as a Seattle resident and member of Pacific PMAW, I have deep interest in decriminalization of psychedelic medicines, and I wish to expand my knowledge and experience with these medicines in order to be instrumental and impactful for the growing global mental health crisis.

Mental health is a primary component in the progression of society as a whole, and psychedelic medicine could be the catalyst for that.

So I urge you to look past the stigma and instead focus on the global mental health crisis and efficacy of these natural therapeutics that have saved me and countless others for centuries.

And once again, thank you for listening.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Joan Warren, is still showing as not present.

So we'll move on to the final speaker that we have signed up, Pat Donahue.

Pat, go ahead.

Hey, my name is Attorney Pat Donahue.

I'm licensed to practice law in Washington State.

I've been so licensed since 2014. I'm the founder of Terrapin Legal, and I'm a founding member of the Psychedelic Bar Association.

My comments today are not on behalf of the Psychedelic Bar Association.

My comments today are in regard to the draft annual action plan.

Like Mr. Zielinski, Ms. Cervanac, and many courageous others, I'd like to thank Seattle for leading the charge in passing the decriminalization resolution.

I do agree with everyone who's spoken today that the city can do more to continue to lead the nation down this human path.

I encourage Seattle to codify the resolution and enshrine the protections as been proposed by the Psychedelic Medicine Alliance of Washington.

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Thank you.

That is the last person that we have signed up that is showing as present.

We have two speakers still not present.

So with that, we will conclude the public comment part of the meeting and move on to the regular items on the agenda.

Thank you, everyone who joined us both remotely as well as in person to participate in public comment today.

Will the clerk please read in agenda item number one.

Agenda item one, appointment 02422, appointment of Mary Ruffin as member Community Police Commission for a term to December 31, 2024.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

We are joined today by Community Police Commission co-chair, Joel Merkle, and Newell Aldrich of my staff to present this appointment.

This appointment is a council appointment, meaning the council is the nominating authority.

Co-chair Merkle, could you start us off by briefly speaking to the work that the CPC does as an orientation for members of our viewing public.

Then after you do a quick overview of the work of the CPC, Newell will introduce the appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, and thank you for inviting me to speak today.

My name is Joel Merkle.

I'm co-chair of the Seattle Community Police Commission.

I'm pleased to be here today to speak to Mary Ruffin's appointment.

The Seattle Community Police Commission was constituted under the consent decree with the Department of Justice, and then made permanent by the 2017 accountability ordinance.

And the other thing that accountability ordinance did in 2017 was increase the size of the commission from 15 to 21 commissioners.

And there are seven commissioners, each appointed by the mayor, the city council and the CPC.

Um, and, and we have five standing work groups, uh, that do the work, um, of the commission and, and, and make recommendations to the mayor and the city council with, uh, the input from the community.

Um, and we're really excited for Mary Ruffin to, uh, join the commission and participate in these work groups, including, uh, community engagement, behavioral health, uh, police practices.

State legislative agenda and complainant appeals.

And really the core mission of the Police Commission is to amplify and build common ground among communities affected by policing in Seattle, and to champion policing practices centered on justice and equity.

And so for those reasons, we're really excited for Mary Ruffin's appointment.

She brings a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and she's going to be a tremendous asset to the Community Police Commission.

We at the commission thank the council for putting forward her appointment.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate you being here with us this morning as well as your commitment and leadership to the work of the CPC.

Noel, could you please present the appointment?

Yes.

Mary Ruffin is a community member who understands the long-reaching impacts of police relations with communities of color.

As both an undergraduate student and law student at the University of Washington, she held several leadership positions focused on advocating for community.

She currently serves as the vice chair for the Solid Ground Board of Directors and works as a real estate law clerk at Foster Garvey PC.

She is eager to use her analytical skills and personal experience to aid the commission's mission.

She co-founded the Stronger Together Community Coalition.

She also testified in the Charlene Lyles inquest to provide her account of the events that took place on June 18, 2017 as her former neighbor.

She has seen firsthand the immediate and long lasting impacts of community police relations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Noel.

Let's pass it off to Mary Ruffin.

Really appreciate you being here with us this morning, Mary.

Thank you as well for your willingness to serve in this important capacity.

And I'm really excited to have you join us and have you join the CPC and use your experience understanding the long-reaching impacts of police relationships with communities of color.

Just hand it over to you if you want to say a few words about your interest in serving on the Community Police Commission.

After we hear from you, we'll turn it over to council members in case they have questions.

Sure.

Thank you for having me.

I think a lot has been touched on here, but I'm extremely eager to get started on this work and really focus on fostering relations between community and the police.

I think we need to work together on this.

And I'm acutely aware of the criticisms that have been raised today.

And that's a huge reason I'm here.

So thank you for having me eager to get to work.

Thank you, Mary.

Any questions from colleagues who are either present in chambers or the two council members who are with us virtually?

I am not seeing any raised hands here.

Good sign, it sounds like we get the seal of approval this morning.

So with that, I will move that the committee recommend the confirmation of appointment 02422. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of this appointment.

Are there any comments?

seeing or hearing any evidence of desire to comment.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Vice Chair Lewis.

Yes.

Chair Herbold.

Yes.

Five in support.

Fantastic.

Thank you again.

Congratulations, Mary.

The appointment will move forward to the January 3rd city council meeting.

And again, thank you so much for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

We'll move on to agenda item number two.

Clerk, please roll read into the record agenda item two.

Appointment 02417, appointment of Adrian Z. Diaz as Seattle Police Chief.

Thank you.

Good morning and greetings.

We are joined by Interim Chief Adrian Diaz and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell.

Thank you both so much for being with us.

Just a couple of quick words for the viewing public as context.

As the city charter requires, the mayor is responsible for appointing the chief of police.

The appointment must be confirmed by the council.

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced his appointment of Interim Chief Diaz to the position of Permanent Chief in late September and did so in accordance with the process established by the Charter.

The Council could not consider the appointment before directly after the September announcement because regular committee meetings were suspended for the Council deliberations on the 2023-2024 budget.

Part of our process, once a recommendation for confirmation is made to the Council, is the Council collects questions from ourselves as a body and we share them with the Chief or whatever nominee we're considering, in this case, the chief, and request that those responses are provided publicly.

And we've done so.

Those were shared both with council members last week and members of the public by linking them to the agenda.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell, who I understand will present the mayor's appointment.

Excellent.

Um, thank you.

First of all, thank you to the committee, a special thing to, um, committee, uh, chair Herbold and council president Juarez for serving on the search committee, uh, for our next police chief.

Um, and also thank you to, to the committee.

I know that this is a lot of hard work to do, uh, right before, uh, right before the break.

And I look forward to us all getting a little bit of downtime as well.

I am honored to present Interim Chief Adrian Diaz as our Permanent Chief.

As you can hear from some of the comments earlier today, he has had a strong commitment to community that didn't begin just when he started as Interim Chief, but that has been his entire career in policing.

And you can see the fruits that have come to bear with our communities and building that trust with our police department.

Chief Diaz has had national leadership on policing and accountability.

He has stepped forward, not only for the betterment of Seattle, but for the betterment of policing and the conversations we're having around policing nationally.

It is an honor to be here with him today, particularly because I know that if we weren't bringing him forward, he would most certainly have gotten snatched up by some other city looking for excellence.

He has a solid foundational leadership that I've always appreciated.

It's not very showy, but what it is, it's rooted and grounded in the fact that he shows up.

That even at time periods where the cameras aren't there, and, and there's no points for showing up he shows up he shows up in those quiet moments of leadership, and he shows up not only as a leader but also as a member of a team he knows when to step forward and he also knows when to let the rest of the team shine as well.

His leadership style is authentic.

It is very real.

And what I've seen is that the community has seen that from him and the community knows that that's what they're going to get from his ongoing leadership.

So it is a pleasure to be able to recommend him as our next police chief for the city of Seattle.

And also to know that we have a good future in front of us with him in this leadership role.

So with that, thank you, Council Member Herbold.

and looking forward to working with you through this process.

Thank you.

And before we open it up for questions, Interim Chief, hopefully soon to be Permanent Chief, Interim Chief Diaz, take it away.

Well, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold and also to all of the council members that provided input in the search process.

Obviously, it's been a long couple of years since I took over and in taking over, I knew that I was, you know, had big challenges ahead, but we were able to establish a lot of relationships with the city council and really figure out how do we actually move public safety forward.

So I really appreciate the city council leadership and where we're at today.

and all of what we've been able to accomplish.

And my biggest focus is always making sure the department is focused on their mission and that's helping people.

You know, one of the biggest things that I've done over the course of my career is really make sure that, you know, I started doing a lot of youth violence work, a lot of community work as the senior deputy mayor noted.

And that has really been the foundation of really trying to make sure that I, you know, help the community out and figuring out how can we actually make sure that the community is thriving and being able to be successful in everything that they do.

When I start to look at all of the challenges that we faced and to where we're at today, you know, we still have many challenges ahead.

I have, you know, a staffing challenge.

violent crime that's also rising.

But some of the things that we're making some very, very significant marks.

In the last three months, we've actually seen violent crime down 23%.

And that is a huge win for all the officers and everybody that is going out and trying to do the hard work to make sure they're solving crime and making sure that they're making the city safe.

But not only are we seeing crime statistics, you know, start to kind of level off in a good place, we're actually seeing some of the other crimes that are going on.

And we need to make sure that we encourage people to report crime.

And so, you know, this is going to be our push to make sure that people are reporting crime.

We know that sometimes our response times are longer.

But we really have to understand how we actually put the people in the right places at the right time to help drive overall crime down.

And I think that's really part of this rebuilding of the department.

And also right now, we've had a lot of challenges in our detective units, but I've really reestablished certain units and made sure that they're on the right path, but also taking a good global overview of the whole sections to make sure that we're also rebuilding them in the right manner.

We're training our officers in the right manner.

We're giving them the proper equipment to be successful to make sure that the city is safe.

So I really, again, just appreciate, I appreciate the mayor.

I appreciate the senior deputy mayor that have been steadfast in their support and also the city council that has also pushed me to the point where I am at now and under review of this honor of being the police chief for the city of Seattle.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Just want to recognize too that in addition to community members that we've heard from here today, representing the CID, representing folks who are doing really groundbreaking work, in gun violence prevention.

You are very well-loved in my district, particularly in the South Park community.

I think when you go to South Park, if they could lift you over their heads and fet you as a hero, they would do so every time you came in.

you've done deep community relationship building and done really amazing work with the youth in that community.

Also want to give you public recognition for the fact that it was a long standing priority of this council to re-stand up the community service officer program.

It did not happen as quickly as we'd like due to no No reluctance on your part at all, and really appreciate the work that you've done hands-on, establishing that program and reestablishing that program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

With that, I will see whether or not my colleagues have any particular questions that they would like to ask.

Yes, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much Council Member Herbold.

I do just want to start with a clarification because some comments were raised in public testimony before the hearing that the chief had actively opposed a project funded by the council and the county to provide places for people with severe mental health challenges or, other public health related situations to get out of tents and inside.

And I just wanna give the chief a chance to clarify whether he had actively undermined a council and mayoral priority in the community.

I don't think that's the case, but there were assertions made to that effect.

And I wanna give the chief a chance to clarify.

Yeah, thank you Council Member Lewis.

I did not undermine the Council and their position.

I had some great concerns with just the amount of shootings that we've had in that community.

We have over 50 shootings or shots fired in that community and we have to make sure that we, you know, are putting the right services and the right things in place to ensure that community thrives.

There are many concerns that we're hearing from community members, from our senior citizens walking down the street feeling unsafe and also feeling like they've been criminalized and we put a lot of services in that location.

I've actually been a part of the Salvation Army and so they've also have a location just right south of that area.

And so we want to make sure that we're putting in the right the right places for for housing and unsheltered populated to deal with that shelter population.

So those are things that I'm very very strong components of making sure that we're, we're, you know, as a city we're making sure that the people are getting the right services in there.

in the right areas.

The one thing that I can tell you is that it's really trying to be mindful of the overall public safety components of it and making sure that we're at the tables to address those issues in a safe and adequate manner.

And that's the concerns that I did raise.

But those are things that we would normally address in any part of any project that would be throughout the city.

Thank you, I really appreciate that clarification.

And I do think that input and feedback from the chief to those components, it is very appropriate and desirable.

So I do think that clarification is helpful for me.

I do wanna talk a little bit about staffing.

We recently got the quarterly report from the department on staffing numbers.

And it is good to see a year over year increase to 962 active serving officers as of this month that's indicated in that report.

The report does indicate that the department is projecting by December 2024 that we'll be at 980 active officers.

So can we first confirm those numbers and I want to ask a couple follow-up questions.

Yeah, so that it would be a projection.

So if we're maybe not meeting our hiring goals if we're not you know if we do see more officers leave the department we know that we have 101 officers in long term leave that potentially could retire some of those are military people some of those people are out on maternity leave.

So you have, it's hard to really decipher like how many of those, that 101 might end up, you know, leaving the department.

So we do, we do set projections.

And I think right now with the recruiting and hiring plan that the city council has helped fund, that hopefully we'll be able to meet those hiring projections and that we actually will not see that reduction.

Um getting down to that low level of service because I think if we do get to the level of service We really do have to make sure that we have mindful discussions about what?

Things that we really do have to take off our plate to make sure that we're providing the level of service throughout the city Right, but right now we're planning for a net increase of 18 active serving officers two years from now That two years from now.

Yeah, I think that's I think that's about right.

I couldn't tell you the exact exact numbers, but

Right.

And the only reason I raise that, I mean, I do appreciate the department producing projections that are based on recent trends and the reality that we're facing so we can plan accordingly.

But I only want to bring that up to caution against continuing what I think has been a not a great policy over the last two years of hedging our ability to meet our public safety obligations solely based on officer hiring.

Officer hiring is important.

We need to be doing it.

We need to be working to increase the number of active serving officers, but we cannot honor our charter obligations to public safety just through officer recruiting if we're anticipating only netting 18 additional officers in the next two years, I would imagine, unless we're pursuing strategies in two additional areas that I'd like to pivot to asking about.

So first, In the same quarterly report that we just got for 2022, there were 92,000 service overtime hours for traffic and event staffing for the department.

32,000 of those related just to sporting events.

And all of those hours aren't gonna be able to be displaced through alternatives to police officers, but I would imagine a significant portion of them could be.

And the first place I would think, and I get this a lot in the community when I'm talking to business owners or other folks who have recently been the victims of a burglary, and then they go to a Seahawks game and they see police everywhere, and it's a big point of community frustration.

So I would think first figuring out ways to cut down on redistributing those 92,000 service hours to higher acuity priorities in the community.

And so I wanna ask about that and then pivot to a different topic, but event and traffic staffing and redistributing those service hours to other priorities would be the first question and what your strategies to do that are.

Yeah, so you know as we look at all some of these events where we bring in anywhere from 40 to 60,000 people.

We also have to have great concerns of any potential active.

of violent acts that could occur in and around the area from a vehicle, you know, coming through barriers to a variety of different other aspects of this.

So we do have to make sure that we do have officers in and around.

The other component of now that some of the parking enforcement is moving back and we can get them upstaffed, I believe that they're short.

a significant amount of personnel, but we can upstaff them and be able to utilize them in the right manner.

That helps us being able to reduce the amount of footprint that our patrol officers or officers are spending.

And I can know that many of the times that we're actually utilizing a lot of officers, we're using them on an overtime basis, because it's usually on a Friday or Saturday and Sunday day, and people need that time off as well.

So we're trying to make sure that we're balancing the wellness component of it.

So we've actually purchased and utilized barriers to help us, you know, use less personnel in those areas.

But so this is a challenging component of it.

The other piece of that is some of those hours are reimbursable.

So it's not that that money would come to us where I could take that, you know, 30,000 hours and be able to put it somewhere else into patrol because those are reimbursable from the many of those, sports teams and unless the city council would then fund that completely separate and be able to take that money and be able to utilize it in other.

But right now our officers are working just in patrol shifts, 99% of all of our shifts are being augmented.

So you're right, I love to figure out what alternative responses that we can do to help leverage out our patrol staffing, but we also have to know that our patrol staffing is also having to work almost everyone's having to work that double shift because just to keep things safe and going on this on the street.

So we really have to so I do spend a lot of time thinking about how do we hire people as quickly as we can because we will burn our people out and and that is a great concern for us as well because if we burn people out We, they're going to respond to the community in a different way and so I really need to make sure that they're healthy, thinking of things like having a schedule, like an actual four three shift that actually gives them an extra day off so they're able to, to get that rest period.

So these are all things that we're thinking about and having discussion about, but I think to the second component or to the component of.

Alternative response.

We've been, you know, overall my course of career.

I've literally been involved in so many different components of making sure that nonprofits are engaged in, you know, helping us do utilize work from youth violence prevention work critical incident response to also, you know, crisis intervention.

Right now we have a CIC meeting so we're bringing all the nonprofits in.

to talk about crisis and how we're dealing with it, how can we work together to create efficiencies in our system.

So I've been a huge component of that, and that helps leverage out some of the officer's work as well.

So I think that there's both components.

I think that the budget for this next biannual budget has increased investments in mental health, increased investments in a variety of different social services that will hopefully help take some of that work from our officers having to respond now to calls.

Yeah, and I'll pivot to alternative response in just a moment here, but I do want to stay on the overtime for just a second.

I mean, I just don't want our wires to get crossed here because I do totally agree.

normal patrol shifts are being augmented by overtime.

I guess my suggestion is if the premium is on where our 962 deployable in-service officers can be, we're making a choice in how we're distributing our resources for 92,000 of those service hours to have those bodies dedicated to activities that the general public does not think are the highest acuity public safety challenge we're facing.

And I know that there's other hurdles we need to face that we might not be able to work around, but I'm suggesting a portion of those hours, and the police that represent those hours, could could go toward in some cases, maybe just having a day off, as you indicate, instead of needing to fill and honor those overtime slots or going back to patrol and not needing us to rely as much on on overtime because they don't have to go.

respond to a deep draft and fill a position at a sporting event.

So I think we've had a good back and forth on that, but I do want to highlight that as something that I think will continue to be a big council concern and something we want to take advantage of your partnership and leadership on to work on.

That might be a good opportunity because you just started talking about alternative response.

You know, I do want to get into this a little bit because I think this is sort of the other mitigation strategy.

If based on the department's own projections, even though we're going to try to beat those projections, we're going to have basically a similar number of deployable officers now and two years from now, 962 to 980. One of the mitigation strategies could be some of these overtime categories we just discussed.

The other could be alternative response.

And I just want to preface this line of questioning by sort of talking about comparing what I think are two fairly similar cities based on a lot of metrics, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Seattle.

Seattle's a bigger city, but in terms of our budget, it's actually fairly similar.

$1.4 billion general fund for Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Albuquerque has been under a Department of Justice consent decree for excessive force since 2014, just like the city of Seattle.

Albuquerque has gone from 1,400 to 1,000 police officers in the last two years.

Another really interesting comparison, similar size department, similar rate of attrition.

The difference has become stark, though.

when we start talking about the enthusiasm for building and developing alternative responses that don't require a police response.

In June of 2022, or sorry, June of 2020, around the same time that members of this council were talking about creating a third public safety department and civilian alternatives to police, Albuquerque also started their journey on trying to develop that.

The difference between us and them is we have two years of resolutions, work groups, promises, talking, misrepresentations in some cases, not from you, Chief Diaz, but from a previous mayoral administration.

By contrast, Albuquerque has an $11 million third public safety department that's completely civilian.

In 2021, they responded to 16,000 calls for service.

They built their department in six months between calling for it in June of 2020 and actually getting it built to start doing stuff in 2021. They have a full year of responding to things.

8,000 of those calls completely displaced from police service.

So 8,000 calls police didn't need to respond to because they built that alternative response service.

They just expanded it by $4 million more.

They're going to have 75 additional FTEs in the field that can do work that currently the police have to do that they won't have to do because they have these new responders.

So I guess my question is going to be, if this is going to be a priority to do alternative response, if they can build a mature, thorough, well-resourced, responsive, and effective alternative response in two years, and all we can do is talk for two years?

What do we do to get back on the right track and work in partnership with the Harrell administration and with your leadership to do this?

Because there's really no excuse to not be able to if a city like Albuquerque, New Mexico can go from zero to 100 in six months and we're nowhere after two years.

I don't dispute that I think we've, I believe, as you kind of noted we've had two different administrations we've had Mayor Durkin's administration and now to Mayor Harrell's administration.

We're currently working and having those discussions.

I think they're this the believe in the budget there is a dual dispatch.

funded component of this.

We have been willing and wanting to have these discussions about moving something forward.

We've already have a co-responder model within our department.

We also are, you know, building out the CSO program and figuring out how we can best utilize them.

We're, we're there at the table, we want to we want to make sure that we're, we're responsive, because we know if I can reduce a lot of those calls for service stuff that is, is, I mean I've been we've been supportive at health one.

We've actually talked about triage one last year, there was not maybe last year's budget cycle.

to try and get that you know going because there are many calls for service like person down calls that you know when we get there we realize that it's a medical issue or it's some other issue that it's not a criminal issue and and figuring out ways that I can reduce that levels of calls for service help help open up the area for for many of our officers to be able to go and respond to other priority one calls So you have for us, we are a partner.

We're willing to have that, you know, we're willing to figure out how we did it.

We actually helped, you know, at the city council's request to do the RMD.

We took the Nick Jr. reports, looked at the dispositions and really tried to figure out how do we actually classify this in to a response level.

And I think in conjunction with the dual dispatch system, this hopefully will be able to be, you know, mindful in how we do this.

We're really some evidence-based components of it.

related to Councilmember Lewis's line of questioning.

You did mention triage one that was proposed under the previous administration, but that was abandoned during the transition of administrations.

That proposal was You mentioned the number, Council Member Lewis, of 8,000 calls for service.

That proposal was designed to handle about what was estimated based on the RMD analysis, sorry, the Nick Jr. analysis, which was reinforced by the RMD analysis, about 8,000 calls per year.

I think one of the things that is really important in this work is appreciate your leadership, appreciate your your partnership, appreciate the executive's collaboration, but in many of these cities where we've seen the development of an alternative to traditional police response, there have been police chiefs that have really been at the forefront driving those changes in a really active and public way.

And I think we need that.

We need not only your participation and collaboration, we need you to also be, from a public safety perspective, driving these changes because there are only so many calls for service that our current police officers can address.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I think there's other areas where I've also driven this component.

The crisis or critical incident response has been a system that we created right after we had it established well into 2008 for many years, and then it took a break.

But when we had the Third and Pine shooting in 2020, I was a driver of it, and that's actually one of the programs that we've actually set up.

The other component of this is also reestablishing our Crisis Intervention Council and getting all the nonprofits back to the table.

We're having a meeting literally as we speak here, but also driving nonprofits to be making sure that we're working with them to actually drive some of this too.

So I think that there are other areas that we can actually be stronger in and we can work together on that.

Yeah, just just really briefly and Chief Diaz I I do look forward to this being a fruitful area of collaboration and and I do know that you know that the Harold administration has talked extensively about creating a third department and I think that that is a big area of collaboration between the council and the administration.

I guess what I would just finish to suggest is to highlight a sense of urgency on this, that it just seems from looking at the example of some of these other places.

we didn't have to wait for dozens of different studies, dozens of different task forces, dozens of different work groups.

It just seems like there was more of a process where people went out in the street and saw the level of community need and then built something that was responsive to it.

Because look, if you're, I mean, just from the conversations that I have in the community on a regular basis, Like, if you're a business owner that has to negotiate every single day with someone who's camping in front of their business, and we're just up here hemming and hawing, looking at PowerPoints, talking, like, it's incredibly frustrating, understandably.

And it's embarrassing for the city to basically just stand there and be like, Well, gee, I don't know.

We can't really arrest this person.

They're gonna be released from the King County Jail within 24 hours anyway.

Oh, I can only really book them for trespass or obstructing the sidewalk.

Guess there's nothing we can do.

Here, call this number.

And then you call a line that goes nowhere to try to get some kind of social service worker.

And it breeds incredible frustration.

We know what the need is.

We have this massive volume of people in the city that have very significant public health issues.

And in a lot of cases, they're committing high volumes of low level offenses.

And we have a lot of presence, but not much engagement.

We have a lot of people that are around kind of looking at the situation.

But they're not in a position where the police really feel like they can effectuate an arrest, or there's not the provider that has the necessary expertise and the moment to be able to effect a resolution with that particular person, and none of it is hooked up to 911 except for the police.

Again, just to bring it back, if we're gonna go from 962 deployable officers to 980 in two years, we have to do something in addition to our hiring and recruiting goals.

That metric alone is not gonna be enough to meet our charter obligation on public safety.

And we look forward to working with you, working with Mayor Harrell to build a third department and just build it.

Build it like Albuquerque built it in six months.

Like not build it sometime in the future, not wait for another report, but build it.

Because the people in my district can't wait anymore for this.

They just can't.

And they're, I mean, I'm not gonna curse on the council dais, but they're upset.

So I'm just gonna leave it at that and say, I will vote for your confirmation.

I look forward to working with you.

My line of questioning today has been tough, but I know it's because you're a servant leader, you can take it.

And these kinds of tough conversations are what you're signing up for.

And we're gonna work together in good faith as a department and a council to focus on these problems.

And these are the things that I'm gonna keep pushing on next year.

And I look forward to working with you to get them done.

So thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hey, I have a couple of questions, but I'm holding my questions until other folks who might have them.

I don't have a question.

All right.

So shifting a little bit, to the issue of investigations.

We know, again, that the department has significantly fewer officers than it did at the start of 2020. And you have, I think, wisely worked to shift resources to patrol so that we have the resources to respond to And I'm just wondering, um, executive order regarding sexual assault aside, what are things that you can do within the department to address some of the staffing issues?

I know you've done some things already.

I don't know that the general public is aware of them, but maybe you could just share with us what you have done and what you're planning on doing.

Yeah, so we had to abrogate many units that, you know, currently we're doing a lot of more in the operational side from our vehicle traffic unit to our anti-crime team to our bicycle units.

We end up, you know, really consolidating and right sizing the department.

So having certain amount of like sections in certain bureaus.

to try and consolidate the leadership style, because once you find that if you have five captains that are overseeing a section, or one captain overseeing a section, and you have five sections, that requires five captains, and personnel shrunk, I didn't need that many.

So it's really about trying to make sure that I right-size the department, because we've seen a reduction in the amount of officers we have.

So that's one component.

All the people that were left from specialty units, such as investigations, actually have returned.

So we have put that personnel back into those specialty units.

We have, especially in the sexual assault unit, we saw the drop down into a low level of number four, our four people.

We've now up to eight people now in a very, very short period of time.

And then each of the units that we're looking at and identifying, so we have somebody from ASU that is doing kind of an overall assessment of our sexual assault, anything from training, how we train our detectives to just how we approach our investigations, how we look at it from a trauma-informed approach.

We've actually already, We did a first assessment of case reviews with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

And we're gonna hopefully be able to get some recommendations from that and be able to implement it.

Some of that is related to training and just how we train our patrol officers, which is something that you've discussed greatly with me about just providing training for patrol officers in sexual assault and making sure that we have a trauma-informed approach.

That is just with the sexual assault, but we're actually doing this across all investigations.

So we are bringing in a group of people that are actually going to be able to do a full review and then figure out what recommendations or what things that we're doing right.

Because we also know that there are many areas of our investigation that people are doing the right thing.

They're just short staffed and they're not able to do some of the extras that we really would like to do.

So as we build that investigative units up, that one of the things that we really want to make sure that they're doing.

And so again, I've had to shift personnel.

I've had to restore some of the personnel back into those units.

And I know it's going to still be a little bit of a challenging time, but every month I'm actually putting people back into some units, partly because some people are getting promoted or some people are leaving the job and I'm actually having to refill, you know, some of those spots.

But what that does is that brings new energy into the units.

it really does create a different perspective and different light because of other people's experience and so that will hopefully really help drive our investigative rebuilding.

Thank you.

Another question I have is in the area of police accountability and discipline.

I'm just wondering if you could speak to your approach to officer discipline.

As chief, you're ultimately responsible for discipline.

And just as a bit of context for my question, a recent Office of Intergovernmental, I'm sorry, Office of Inspector General Discipline Audit showed that SPD police chiefs, not just you, but historically, are most likely to choose the lower end of the discipline range that is recommended by the discipline committee.

I'm wondering whether or not you could speak to the criteria that you plan to use as permanent chief to determine discipline.

Yeah, and from that, I think audit, I believe they just reviewed five cases of my discipline.

I think there was two on the low end, three on the actual top end.

It could be vice versa, I can't remember exactly.

But I was right in the mix of kind of almost in the 50-50 position.

I've had to make quite a few terminations.

Probably I know more than any other chief in my time.

And I've had to make close to two dozen terminations in just a very, very short period of time, which is unheard of.

And not because I enjoy it, it's surely not something I enjoy, but the officers or personnel have made an action and they need to be held accountable.

And when I look at certain things, I look at what the action is.

Dishonesty, I always tell people, if you lie, you die.

I mean, that's just, I can't have level of dishonesty in the department.

The second component that I look at is if you're racist or you make a racist comment, you're done as well.

And then the third is I look at crime.

And so I've literally made those terminations and I've held people accountable for a lot of their actions.

I also try to make sure that I'm holding our supervision accountable.

So when supervisors are not supervising, sometimes those actions of an officer needs that supervisor to just tell them, no, you're going in the wrong direction.

And it's hard for me to discipline that officer when I know the supervisor was actually at fault.

And so I've really tried to make sure that I'm holding our supervision accountable all the way up from Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain ranks.

and even an assistant chief where I've had to make demotions or I've had to get rid of some of our civilian command staff in certain positions.

And so, and those are things that I'm always thinking about to make sure that our department has the right people in the right place.

When we look at it across the discipline, there are some levels of discipline that I'm looking at that, yeah, they might be low ends because they haven't had a, history or an issue.

They had done really good work.

It was, you know, something that, you know, that just they were rude and and I, you know, I'm going to put them on a low level of maybe a written reprimand or an action or sometimes it's retraining.

But I'm also looking at if there's a pattern or history, then I've got to also figure out how to intervene in that situation.

I had an officer that had never used the cuss word, but what he found himself doing was he was just rude and people felt that there was a level of rudeness.

But it almost got up to close to a termination because of how many times he had been involved in doing that.

I actually put kind of a different type of discipline.

We're a little more of a sort of approach to it.

I gave him 30 days off, but what I did was I put several stipulations for him to accomplish.

Now that officer has been restored with not a complaint over the last two years.

So you really have to think about how do you, how do you get the officer back into a working function where they're actually doing really, really good work?

Because at the end of the day, that's what we want for our community.

But then when their officers actions have now caused, you know, the, caused issues and trust with the community, then those officers need to go.

And I've held true to that.

And a follow-up to that, one of the recommendations coming out of that OIG audit was more transparency in the closed case recommendations, or the closed case findings, rather, more transparency in what the recommended discipline was.

So similarly to the fact that our OPA ordinance requires the chief to notify a number of parties in a case where they are reversing or making changes to an OPA disposition.

The recommendation of the OIG was to make more transparent what the range of recommended discipline was, but again, in the closed case summaries, so the identity of the officer is protected as in the other information that is in that report.

And I'm wondering, would you support a change like that to create more transparency in that area?

Yeah, I haven't looked at the, you know, honestly, I didn't look at that component of the of the report to to know whether I would, you know, for me, it's I we do look at a proposed level of discipline.

So sometimes it's like written to two days.

And if that is what you know, the community wants to know, then That is, you know, that works for me to understand.

I've always stayed within the level of proposed discipline.

I don't deviate, you know, from that.

I've actually gone higher in some cases because there are certain things that I felt were that weren't at a higher level of discipline.

But we would work with the OPA director, Betz, and figuring out what that looks like.

So I'm not seeing raised hands for questions.

I understand people might have comments, but we can make them after the motion.

Oh, Council Member Mosqueda.

Oh, sorry.

You've got a real hand up.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and thanks again to Chief Diaz and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell for already fielding a number of the questions that our colleagues had.

I wanted a chance to chime in and thank you for your written response as well.

We send a robust set of questions and thanks to Council Member Herbold's office for working with all the council offices, but including our staff and having Melanie Cray review those questions, we were very impressed.

I want to say thank you for the written response that you provided to those questions as well.

Also, you made some comments at the beginning of today's briefing, which I think are very important to lift up for the community, especially related to making sure that you're working towards fulfilling the commitments of all communities, particularly those impacted by interpersonal and interactions with police violence.

dedication to maintaining a compassionate and community connected police force in combination with your clear belief that police are not the sole mechanism for public safety as evidenced by your support for diversion and prevention programs in your written response and also in your comments here today.

So I wanted to thank you for those responses and I think it helps round out the overall holistic approach that we're really trying to work towards as we think about supporting traditional public safety, as well as community safety, upstream investments that can help reduce the chance that anyone ever interacts with an officer or with the carceral system in the first place.

So thanks for those conversation points that you've already outlined today.

It gives me a lot of hope for the future of the department under your leadership, as well as the collaborative relationships that you've identified between The department, the mayor's administration and the council so thank you for all those comments.

I wanted to also thank you for the work that you've done to establish relationships with the council you mentioned that in your opening comments as well.

I think you noted that you're happy with where we are at today with that relationship but also with the public policy investments in public safety.

And I think that's really important to underscore and to lift up.

You would think otherwise if you only read the Seattle Times editorial board or some of the recent local TV news coverage on cable.

So given the misinformation that is being spewed that comes sometimes from within our own city council chambers, I think that clarification is really critical.

We, in my office, really have appreciated being able to work with you in addressing what you have identified as your top priority, and that is improving public safety and reducing crime.

And your vision about standing up alternative responses, even with the tough questions from Councilmember Lewis and under the leadership of Councilmember Herbold, you've continued to come back to the vision and wanting to fulfill that vision.

So I really appreciate that.

You noted your interest in the dual dispatch program, how to reorganize some of the staffing to make sure that officers are more available for the types of programs and services that they signed up for when they wanted to be an officer.

So I appreciate that vision and look forward to working with you to fulfill that.

And you also noted that under your leadership, we have seen violent crime reduced by 23 percent in the recent months.

And I appreciate that you and Mayor Harrell and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell as well are continuing to lift up this information because violent crime being down 23 percent is a very good indication that we are working towards addressing this epidemic of crime that is facing our country.

And I think as a country, we are all still grappling with how do we do more upstream investments to make sure that people have the security that they need, whether it's housing or economic opportunity, access to mental health services, and in combination with investments in the full officer retention and recruitment funding that's being requested.

I'm hopeful that we will continue to see crime decrease under your leadership and in partnership with the council.

I also wanted to thank you specifically as the chief and this administration with Mayor Harrell and his team.

You are choosing to not negotiate public policy or insert unfounded fear or stress into the community via the press.

Unlike the previous administration, and I appreciate that you are working with us instead working with our office and the chair of public safety on addressing public safety related needs and ensuring that those were included in the budget.

It was the direct conversations that we were able to have with the Harold administration.

and to talk about the investments for Seattle Police Department and other departments across our city family as well that resulted in additions in public safety, additive funding for public safety.

It was direct conversations with us and the executive team.

that I think helped us find common ground in a One Seattle style approach to gain public safety investments in the budget.

So I wanted to ask you if you had any additional comments that you'd like to offer.

I really appreciate you being at the bill signing and for your leadership and showing up there for the final biennial budget that was signed.

And of course, Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell as well for being there and your steadfast leadership.

Is there anything else that you would like to add about where we are headed and the investments that you saw added into the biannual budget?

No, I think right now we have built these good relationships.

I think you've noted every aspect of what we're trying to do and strive for the cities.

and public safety and making sure that we're putting the right investments in the right place.

For my job, for me, it's really about, you know, I look at several different markers.

I look at, you know, the amount of guns our officers are recovering as a marker of how we, you know, work to try and bring, you know, violent crime down.

We're actually almost about 30 guns short of the amount of guns that we recovered when we had, you know, full staffing in 2019. And it's a remarkable feat for the officers and the hard work that they do every single day.

They're responding to crime, they're going out and doing the work, but we've actually seen a reduction in the amount of use of force that is actually being done.

are applied in this field as well.

We've seen almost a 48% reduction from 2015 to 2021. And we're also seeing the complaints of our, you know, of officers complaints drop drastically as well.

The complaints that go to OPA.

And so, you know, as a chief, these are the things that you want.

You want officers to go out and do the good work that they're doing, recovering guns, trying to drive down crime.

but you're also seeing they're doing it with less force and they're doing it with less complaints.

And so those are the things that, as a chief, that we want to make sure that we're doing for the city, that we provide the highest quality of public safety and service.

And there's still a lot of stuff for us to do and still accomplish, but we're gonna continue if we do this together, I think we will be able to have an extremely safe city that Seattle once knew.

Excellent.

And if I may, Madam Chair, just a few more comments and questions.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Diaz, for that response.

And I look forward to continuing to work with you.

As we all know, budgets, just like any piece of legislation, are iterative documents.

They can always be improved upon.

They can always be changed.

And as we have done with every other department, we annually look to see what we need to do to make additional investments.

and reshift priorities within the department.

So that commitment is true for our new Department of Public Safety that we want to stand up in the future.

It's going to be true for the Community Safety and Communication Center, and it's true as well for the Seattle Police Department as well as any other department.

Just to summarize some of the investments that I'm excited that we were able to secure in the final budget with additions into the proposed budget as well.

This is a budget document that fully funds the Seattle Police Department's officer recruitment and retention policy.

It does not have any cuts to officers or any of the recruitment strategies.

It maintains funding for recruitment and retention plans.

It adds funding for therapeutic services of survivors of domestic violence.

It adds funding for unsupported increased need for gender based violence.

It adds half a million dollars over the biennium for Seattle Neighborhood Group Safe Communities Program.

It adds positions back to the Community Safety Communication Center.

When we saw that we could free up funding for two more positions at the CSCC, we worked in partnership with Vice Chair and Chair of Public Safety Council Member Herbold to add those to improve call time and dispatch response.

It adds an additional five million over the biennium to our partnership with LEAD and CoLEAD.

It adds funding for a 9-1-1 dual dispatch program to send a mental health professional as a lead response to 9-1-1 calls, as you noted before, for people experiencing mental health crises.

It expands funding for regional peacekeepers and the gun violence reduction program.

It prioritizes 4 million across the biennium for mental health services and schools responding to the demand for more mental health services from schools and students in the wake of the Ingraham High School shooting.

And we did that in partnership with the mayor's office, identifying every dollar possible.

before the budget was finalized, and it focuses about a quarter of a million dollars for behavioral health outreach and the CID fully restores the eight Asian Pacific Islander hate crime prevention program for the nine organizations.

who have been providing AAPI hate crime prevention strategies.

And it adds funding for the fire department ladder and medic van in district one for ladder 13 and medic 26 van.

Thanks, Council Member Herbold's partnership or leadership there and happy to be a partner with her.

We know that that's an important public safety element, along with SPD.

especially in the south end.

And I think that those are some critical investments along with recognizing that of the over 200 unfilled but fully funded positions that were not going to be filled and nor attempted to be filled in this upcoming biennial budget, we appreciate that the mayor and that the department identified 80 positions to be moved to the general fund to help us invest in some of these critical general fund investments.

And again, recognizing as with any department in the future, if additional staff positions are needed or funding is needed, we can always reevaluate that not only annually at our budget process, but also through supplemental.

So thank you for that.

I wanted to ask you a quick question about how you plan to get information out, not just to the public, but perhaps to your precincts as well.

When I first looked at the proposed budget, I thought I saw a reduction in precinct funding and talked with central staff, and thanks to the great work of central staff, the city budget's office and your budget team quickly realized that there was no reductions to the precincts being proposed.

Instead, you had suggested, I believe, assuming that you would be coming into this position, you had suggested reorienting some of the funding that was currently going to the precincts and allowing for that funding to be under your purview to have greater coordination efficiencies.

There was no reduction in funding.

However, some of the funding that had previously been on paper going to the precincts is actually going to the chief's overall budget so that you can have greater coordination.

Could you talk a little bit more about what the vision is that we see outlined in the proposed budget document and what you can do to help dispel any misinformation that might be coming from within the precincts as well to any folks who are out in the community who think that there was a reduction in either precinct funding or if they unfortunately have read the misinformation about cuts in officers to let them know that there were no cuts in officers or cuts to the precincts or overall SPD investments.

Can you talk a little bit about what your vision is for what was included in the budget as it was proposed to council and how you can help us get clarity and the correct information out?

So, as when I took over in 2020 and we had the covert cuts and some other cuts that were that occurred.

I really had to make sure that I kept a mindful of every aspect of what was spent and what what dollars were going and what you know who was spending it from overtime to to equipment purchases etc.

So I had each of the assistant chiefs.

report on a on a weekly basis, almost almost up to a point where is a daily basis of every overtime dollar that was spent.

And that keeps for me it kept me a mindful I have making sure that I.

was very good about the city's budget and how we spend it and how we met our budget, how we would meet our budget.

Over the last two years, I continue to do that.

Each of the precincts in some of the specialty units sometimes go under, they wait and don't spend the money that they need to be able to spend.

And so, What I've done is I've taken some of that money and then when they actually have a project that they, that they want to focus on, whether it's, you know, sometimes it's, hey, we've, we need new chairs for our write up room or we need new chairs for this or we need something that we can then figure out how do we allocate it to that to that.

project.

So it's for me it was really just taking a little bit more control of what we had and some of the underspent money and being able to be able to allocate it to where the projects that are needed for each of the precincts.

We've actually done some and working with our foundation we've actually were able to get a little bit of funding and redo some of the kitchens.

So that actually saved us as a city to not have to spend money on that.

But there are little projects that we also need to do.

And so each of the precinct captains will be able to help articulate which of those items.

The others could be equipment, it could be items that are needed for their patrol services.

And sometimes when one precinct gets it, I like to make sure that all the precincts get it.

Because if it's if it's something that works in one precinct, it's typically going to work in the other precinct.

So this allows me to be more uniformity, provide more uniformity throughout the whole operation section.

That's that's very helpful.

Thank you.

One example where I think this is coming up is the non-emergency number.

Some folks have been trying to reach the non-emergency number, and we know the department and the executive are working closely with you to try to scale up the number of officers so that there's more officers across the board.

But when the non-emergency number is not answered, and I believe, and I'll look to Council Member Herbold as well, that might be a CSCC issue.

But when the non-emergency number is not being answered and there's some chatter online about concern that the non-emergency number is not being answered, Some of the things that I've seen online have tried to pin that on a cut or reduction to SPD from council, and we know that that's not true.

Is there any other thoughts that you have about working with the CSCC, the 911 call center, or other strategies to improve the non-emergency number being answered, or is that part of the partnership that you envision to build more trust when folks call 911 and the non-emergency number?

Yeah, so the non-emergency response is actually run by the CSCC.

So I can't specifically articulate what they would be doing to make sure that that gets answered.

One of the things that we are doing in 2023 is we're already in the process of building a new online reporting system.

Because the online reporting system that currently exists sometimes crashes in the middle of when somebody wants to report a crime and, or it doesn't have access to language.

And so we're right now in the process of building a new system.

Hopefully within the next six months, it will be operational.

We're actually, it'll be something that can be done in multiple languages.

So it allows us to be able to reach more people.

our diverse communities.

Because if somebody calls, typically on a non-emergency call, people are really just wanting to report something that maybe might not necessarily need an officer in person.

And so by having a new online reporting system that's much more efficient, that allows people to access it in a very easy manner, We would then help we be able to direct people into that into that function.

We do have a telephone reporting unit, so it does require a non emergency call to initially take the call, but then be directed to the true reporting system or the telephone reporting unit.

But one of the things that we're trying to do is actually push out a number that would allow us to just bypass the non-emergency line and just put it right to the telephone reporting unit.

So those are a couple of different things that we're working towards.

But the new online reporting system is so crucial because right now it takes about 40% of all of our reports.

as done online.

And so even if somebody didn't want to go to the non-emergency line, they could actually just go onto the online reporting system and be able to make a report.

If they require an officer, then they would still have to go to the non-emergency line.

Thank you, that's really helpful clarification for I think the community as well, because when they hear that the non-emergency number is not being answered because of some false information around reductions to SPD, it doesn't make any sense, right?

There's not a reduction to SPD period.

And also there is no connection between SPD direct investments and the call center.

In fact, we added positions to the call center to hopefully improve some of those numbers.

And I'm excited to hear more about the function that you're hoping to bring online soon.

And I have two more questions if that's okay.

Can I ask a follow-up question before we move to a different topic?

Sorry about that, Madam Chair.

I didn't have the...

No, no, no.

You're great.

On the online reporting system, what's the timeline on that?

Because it is really important to addressing the needs out there.

I was just at a community meeting last night with Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera, and this topic came up.

And not only will it be, when will it be revamped to accommodate different languages, but will it also allow for a broader number of crimes that do not require a response to be accommodated?

For instance, car theft, where there, It has already occurred in somebody just or vehicle theft, other kinds, types of vehicle thefts.

It's already occurred.

Somebody just wants something for their insurance to report.

There's several other types of crimes that people comment to me being very frustrated about not being able to use the online system for it.

So we are so to your question, we are actually looking at, you know, what that looks like for all, you know, for for all what we call priority three calls.

So that is typically a call that has the crime has occurred and that the suspect is gone.

There's no one that is still there.

It's already been handled.

that that's where the priority three, most of the priority threes could go to some sort of online reporting.

Now there's some priority three calls that would not go to that, such as it could be a domestic violence assault that has occurred, occurred like four hours ago.

So beyond the state mandated arrest policy, where somebody, that would require still an in-person officer.

We still wanna make sure that certain calls would have that function.

But we hope within the next six months to have this operational.

I want this done before the summer months where we would experience Pride, 4th of July, the MLB All-Star, Torchlight, and then Seafair.

When you have all these different events that could potentially bring issues out about, you want to make sure your personnel are available.

And then they're not just focused on priority three calls, that we're really responding to priority one and two calls functions.

And so that is gonna be crucial for us to be able to direct a lot of those priority three to an online reporting system for those summer months.

And so that's my goal.

That allows or frees up our personnel to really focus on what we need to do, because that's where we see usually the uptick in amount of shootings or shots fired, and that allows us to be a lot more nimble with our response.

So we'll look for more reports on status with the goal of getting it up and running before summer.

Thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Thank you.

I wanted to go back as well to one of the questions that you provided in writing to the Council here in our questionnaire.

On question 18, I really appreciate your response and just wanted to chat a little bit more about what might be needed to fulfill some of that vision.

You noted the King County Jail declines to hold people arrested for many crimes and there is inconsistency in the approach that courts take to different matters brought before them.

Add in requirements that I fully support for diversion programs and other alternatives that are often poorly supported or resourced.

there's confusion.

Can you talk a little bit more about what we might want to do to increase support or clarification resources for diversion programs or alternatives to arrest and incarceration?

What might we be able to do in partnership with you to support release pending for the legal process when we know that keeping folks incarcerated for low-level crimes often increases or exacerbates some of the root causes of the crimes that might be later committed.

Any additional thoughts that you'd like to provide there on where we might be able to work with you or some vision that you have around reducing the impact of having folks jailed for longer periods of time and then maybe thus increasing the chance that they might be engaged in further criminal activity in the future.

Yeah, one of the things is trying to understand with the Seattle Municipal Court, how we can utilize our community courts better.

I think that is a function that might be sometimes underutilized and still wanting to make sure that you have some level of accountability, but also finding ways that you can create investments into restorative approaches.

The other aspect of this is, when back in many years ago, I actually, helped with King County to establish what they call the Family Intervention Restorative Services, which was a respite center for youth.

But it, the law read that we had to arrest, mandatory arrest on juveniles for domestic violence offenses.

But what it didn't, what it did function was, is did we have to actually book them?

And so in those cases, many of them they were, we would end up providing level of services.

So looking at some similar model to that for other different crimes is something that we could look at, but it's already been built in King County, in the King County area.

And so I think those are good areas.

I think what we've also talked about earlier in this confirmation process is just our support of having front end and back end services.

for whether it's mental health, be dealing with people in crisis, dealing with unsheltered population.

So those investments are crucial.

And sometimes, you know, also try to figure out when somebody does, that might be incompetent to stand trial, which is, you know, we have a couple of thousand people that could fit in this criteria.

how they're getting services when they're being released.

That is, it's a huge concern for me because those usually typically are part of the high utilizers of our criminal justice system.

So how do we make sure that they're getting provided some level of services that are invested in the communities?

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Well, I'll look forward to working with you on that.

I look forward to working with you on building out the affected persons program.

Really excited that we were able to include that in the budget for a roundtable, a work group to talk about what the affected persons program might look like in partnership with the Office of Police Accountability, which we know is independent.

But we will look forward to having you at the table there as we talk about the possibility of building that out to assist victims of police violence or their families to make sure that everybody has support.

And one of the things that we also included in the budget, and this will be my last question, Madam Chair, is additional requirements for the contracted screener, the applicant screener, the partnership or the organization that we're going to partnership with.

We've asked them to also screen for extremist ideologies, given that we had six officers that were part of the January 6th right on this national capital and wondering if you have any other thoughts about what you're going to be looking for as folks come into the ranks or for existing folks within the ranks.

We talked a little bit before about what your philosophy is for folks who are not comporting with the law or adhering to the oath of office.

Do you have any other thoughts about the screening opportunities that are provided in the budget or ways that you will be helping to root out extremist ideologies?

Yeah, so we actually had done some actually groundwork in this area on just hiring practices, what our assessments were being done, not only from the psychology side, just our screening process in general.

And then the second component is really increasing the level of wellness.

We know that when, And we've actually had one of our, our executive directors.

do extensive research and has actually now presented in front of the White House on in this area on extremism in potential policing and so in conjunction with our previous chief Kathy O'Toole.

And so there is already a lot of work that we've done on the on the front end.

to look at how we address this issue, making sure that there isn't any extremism within our department.

And that is, you know, sometimes, you know, you're going to have things that are going to have, you know, one-off situations.

And it's also for me in that process, I had to make terminations for a couple of the people that, uh, were directly involved in the insurrection.

And, uh, and those are the issues that I would immediately address, um, you know, as we go forward, but I think we can actually provide some of the work that we've actually done on some of the extremism, um, and policing, uh, uh, research that we've actually put together.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And as a follow-up to that, as the Council's Public Safety Chair, I am given the opportunity to provide input to the Office of the Inspector General for their annual work plan.

And I have made a request that the OIG review how SPD evaluates candidates applying at SPD for possible extremist ties or white supremacy ties.

I know you've told me that that is an area that you do work screening for and that your background in service does do some work around social media activity, but I think this is an area where there's always room for improvement.

Perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for being so patient with all of our questions.

And there may be some additional comments before we take a final vote, but let's move to get the confirmation in front of us.

Council members, I move that the committee recommends the confirmation of appointment 02417. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Are there any additional comments?

I'll just go ahead and go.

Senior Deputy Mayor said it best.

Hello.

Thank you very much for coming in person today.

When she said you show up when nobody's looking.

And that is precisely what I was prepared to say, because I've seen you at all different kinds of events in community all over the city without cameras, without huge audiences.

But you were there because you were invited.

And so I just have to say that I noticed that and I think that that's what you hear reflected in the comments that people have said before before this item was officially spoken about.

So I just want to acknowledge and thank you for being willing to continue serving.

You came you became acting.

Chief at a time of great turmoil, you know, all of a sudden, in, in, and then we had the pandemic and we have a lot of other things going on in the city.

We're also trying to really address our homelessness crisis, and in sometimes a lot of the A lot of the things that are going on completely external to department or actually even to law enforcement end up on on your plate on the department's plate to deal with.

So I just want to say that thank you very much for leading with such a plum during the past couple of years.

And since I've been here, I have I've just enjoyed our working relationship.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Nielsen.

Any other comments to be made before we call the roll?

All right.

Great.

I too have really enjoyed working with you and echo Councilmember Nelson's points about how much I admire the fact that you took on leadership at such a challenging time and that you're pushing up your sleeves and wanting to stick with it and stick with us, stick with Seattle and the community that you came from.

that is, there's a lot to be said for that at a time when we do see a lot of folks moving on to other roles.

And really appreciate the opportunity to work with you in the coming year.

Thank you.

Thank you as well.

With that, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Councilmember Peterson?

Aye.

Vice Chair Lewis?

Yes.

Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Five in support.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the council recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to the January 3rd City Council meeting.

I hope you will be able to join us then.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, thanks folks in the audience for your patience.

Will the clerk please read in agenda item number three.

Agenda item three, SDCI unreinforced masonry program update.

Great, thanks.

And while people are taking the table, I just want to give a few opening remarks.

We're joined by a number of presenters for this item.

We'll start with introductions.

But first, I just want to say that this update from SDCI and the Office of Emergency Management on the development of the unreinforced masonry program derives from a resolution that I sponsored and the council passed last year, resolution 32033, established the benchmarks for policy development in this area.

A number of you at the table played a really important role in the development of that resolution.

I really appreciate you Good morning, councilmembers.

Nathan, director of the Seattle department of construction and inspections.

I'm Lisa Nitza with Nitza Stegen and ASAP.

Good morning, Kerry Mayer, Director of Emergency Management.

Thank you so much.

I will hand it over to you to lead us on the presentation.

I do want to share with the viewing public that I have been alerted that the new person who's leading up this really, really important policy work identifies herself on the LinkedIn network as the Leslie Knope of earthquakes.

I'm really, really glad to have somebody here with us who is excited to get into the weeds and into the details of developing this work.

Neil, do you have the PowerPoint?

Or do you need me to plug it in?

I think it's set up to be run from your table.

It is set up to run from that one.

We tested it earlier.

No, let's see.

If you look at the screen below that.

I think if you click.

On the third item presentation right below that.

Well, that was the memo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Go back.

I think you click on the item on the left there where it says committee.

It's that tab.

Right here.

Oh, the other one to the left.

Click on.

Yeah.

Presentation.

So that one.

Did you have?

That looks like the PDF.

Yeah, it does.

But did you have the actual presentation?

I just want the public to see it.

OK.

Do you have the PowerPoint?

This is OK.

Thanks for your patience, council members.

So just for the benefit of the viewing public, a little bit of background on unreinforced masonry buildings.

So URMs were typically built before 1945 and URMs are buildings in which the parapets and the walls are not secured to the roofs and the floors.

They obviously have a much greater risk of damage in an earthquake situation and will often collapse.

And that obviously is not only of danger to the occupants in the unreinforced masonry buildings, but also to pedestrians who may be walking by in the right of way and even to motorists in the street.

I think we're all familiar with the 2001 Nisqually earthquake that hit Seattle.

Personally, I was in the old Seattle Municipal Building, and I was underneath my desk holding on for dear life.

It was a pretty scary situation.

And the Cadillac Hotel in Pioneer Square is a perfect and unfortunate example of an unreinforced masonry building, and we all saw the damage that resulted from that earthquake and of course we're at risk of having a much greater magnitude earthquake in Seattle.

We have over a thousand unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle.

About 33,000 people live and work in these buildings and can be found in these buildings every day.

Over 2,000 affordable units are in unreinforced masonry buildings.

And a lot of these buildings are historically significant and in total we have about 23 million square feet in unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle.

So this is a great partnership between SDCI, the Office of Emergency Management, who is here, and also ASAP.

And we'll involve, as we get going on this program, many other city departments and other not-for-profits.

and building owners throughout the city of Seattle.

And I just wanted to highlight SDCI's purpose statement, helping people build a safe, livable, and inclusive Seattle.

And I think URM fits into that purpose statement perfectly.

This whole program is about making sure that we have safe buildings in Seattle.

So a little bit about today's presentation, the history of this effort.

In 2012, the city put together a URM Policy Committee.

STCI completed an inventory of unreinforced masonry buildings back in 2016. And in 2017, that URM Policy Committee delivered their recommendations to the city.

Under your leadership, Council Member Herbold and the previous mayor, there was a joint resolution that was passed exactly a year ago, which laid out a work program for us.

And I'm delighted that we finally have our URM program manager on board, who you'll hear from shortly.

And we continue to work on the technical development standard for URMs that you'll hear about from our principal engineer.

So some of the goals of that resolution include developing a program that phases in a mandate for seismic retrofits of unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle, developing an implementation plan for that, submitting legislation to the City Council that has a mandatory And then last but certainly not least, providing support for your owners and the occupants who live in those buildings.

We're in the process of funding additional staffing.

Thank you very much.

City Council.

You approved an additional.

engineer plans review position that we'll be hiring for in 2023 to start reviewing these projects.

And we also are working on a communication strategy and also a funding strategy because we do have some buildings that are owned by the city that are unreinforced masonry buildings.

So I'm going to pass it on to Amanda, who's going to talk about the ongoing work in this program.

Thank you.

So the next part of this presentation, we're going to split it into two different pieces.

I'm going to talk a little bit on the policy development side, and then I'll pass it to Kaiki to talk the technical development.

So on the policy side, that is where we're hitting the ground running over here.

I was just hired.

I'm on day 12 with the city.

So thank you for having me so soon.

I come to you from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

I spent 12 years there working on hazard mitigation planning, community engagement, and supported response to earthquakes in both Utah and Alaska.

Utah, they had an earthquake right after the beginning of the pandemic where they had multiple URM failures, which would have resulted in many deaths had it not been for the lockdown and people weren't where they normally were.

So let's go to the next slide.

So as the URM program manager in SDCI, I'll be responsible for taking many of the recommendations in the resolution and turning them into the mandatory retrofit ordinance, as well as a program to implement that.

So that will involve working with the recommendations that the policy committee had developed, which includes supporting funding for the program, helping people navigate the permit process and understand the requirements, as well as finding ways to mitigate displacement of tenants when these buildings are being retrofitted.

I'm looking forward to collaborating with you moving forward, as well as developing a very strong partnership with OEM who is here, as well as coordinating with the Office of Housing and Human Services, the Department of Neighborhoods, as well as King County and some other stakeholder groups like Historic Seattle and ASAP, the Alliance for Safety, Affordability, and Preservation.

So I'll talk a little bit about the technical development front of this branch.

So even before the hiring of Amanda, we've been trying to make some progress on the technical front as a parallel track to the ordinance and administrative aspect.

Particularly, we have been working on the update of the draft technical standard for retrofits previously published back in March of 2012. The update is necessary to better align with the latest building codes and structural design standards to incorporate latest research and science as it relates to the ground motion hazards in our area and also new structural retrofit methodology.

So as part of this effort, we have reached out to the Structural Engineers Association of Washington's existing building committee back in April of this year to re-engage the structural engineering community.

We have since then formulated the URM technical standard task group and held a kickoff meeting back in July of this year.

The task group have been meeting since over the past few months from multiple times, whether as a big task group or also as a sub-task group to make progress in these retrofit requirement methodologies.

The goal of the task group is to have this technical update completed by hopefully mid-2023 ahead of the drafting and the adoption of the URM retrofit ordinance.

The idea is hopefully we can provide the engineering community with some assurance of these retrofits and also hopefully encourage owners to voluntarily proceed with the project even before the mandatory program has been established.

I'll turn it over to Lisa.

Thank you.

The Alliance for Safety, Affordability and Preservation was formed in the spring of 2018 as many of you know, and after it was after 50 years of discussing the severe and imminent threat URMs pose to safety and security of underserved populations in the city of Seattle.

It was formed to bring all the stakeholders in the ORM discussion together to identify goals and barriers or concerns, then work together to solve for these, to develop and advocate for a workable plan for mandatory seismic upgrades in the city.

These over a hundred stakeholders include architects, engineers, building owners, developers, historic preservationists, historians, affordable housing organizations, the city, the county, and most importantly, leaders from communities with the largest number of URMs.

Working groups met regularly for nearly a year, then took their recommendations to a meeting with the mayor's office in the fall of 2019. And at that meeting, all agreed on minimum technical standards, which are now being pressure tested, and the need to implement a retrofit program that would address a cost mitigation for building owners which had stalled things out for years, solutions for displacement, streamlined permitting processes and support for communities and understanding and navigating the retrofit process.

The council resolution last year was deeply appreciated and ASAP is very pleased to have Amanda Hertzfeld on board at SDCI.

We are thrilled now to lead the process.

And we look forward to working with her in developing, implementing, and advocating for a successful retrofit program that will alleviate the immediate safety threat posed by URMs.

And I personally want to thank Council Member Herbold for her tireless support and for that of her team for addressing this critical issue before it's too late.

I wanted to echo the support of the Office of Emergency Management for this work.

The most successful part of any emergency management program is really mitigation.

This effort will save lives not only for those who live or work in URM buildings, but really for anyone in the City of Seattle.

We're all very mobile all the time.

anyone could be impacted by a URM building.

We appreciate our partnership with SDCI and other city departments, and also with the private sector.

It really takes all of us working together in all of our different areas to make this program a success.

Historically and moving forward, the Office of Emergency Management will focus on community engagement outreach, not only with communities across Seattle, but also with the private sector to talk about funding opportunities, timelines, how to make this a reality so that people really understand what the requirements are and how they can best engage in the most quickest and safest manner possible.

I also want to thank you, Council Member Herbold, for your support of this work.

It really is truly unprecedented.

URMs are seen all over the West Coast, and we are the leader in this area.

I'm sure there'll be other organizations and metropolitan cities following our lead, so thank you for that.

It's truly extraordinary.

So for next steps, we are getting me up to speed.

We'll be hiring that new structural engineer next year.

And we're looking to continue, again, the development of that technical standard, hopefully by mid-2023.

Looking forward to working with you moving forward and coordinating on any future legislative actions as well.

And our next quarterly report will be given to you March 1st of next year.

So we do have already some examples of property owners who are taking the initiative, who aren't working, waiting to have the standard.

I know Historic Seattle has done some seismic retrofits.

Have we learned anything from their experiences and perhaps related to that?

We know that financing is a big challenge, and the state in the last legislative session authorized the county to create the C-PACER program.

The county has that up and running now.

Have we learned anything about that?

Is that being used?

I know C-PACER can be used not only for seismic retrofits, but energy retrofits as well.

Are we seeing it being used precisely for seismic retrofits.

Is it so?

Is it an adequate funding mechanism or will there need to be additional incentives created?

So I'll go ahead and speak to the CPACER program.

It is a potential option for financing.

We have a meeting with them later this week to go through those options, but it looks very promising.

Regarding Hysteric Seattle, I am working on setting up a meeting with them.

I know they're a very engaged party and we're certainly wanting to learn from them and look at how we can apply those lessons learned to future retrofits with other buildings.

Yeah, I think as it relates to the community engagement that you're doing, really amplifying those building owners who have gone through the process voluntarily and showcasing their work and basically taking them out as a case study to talk about their work is really, really important because I think this is going to be an area where there's a lot of trepidation about the requirements.

I appreciate that we're going to be looking at, I believe, if the recommendations are similar to the ones that we received several years ago, sort of phasing in the obligations to retrofit URMs and phasing them in according to the most vulnerable buildings that that are gathering places, for lack of a better word, for members of the public.

It's not a requirement that's going to be obligated to, as a regulation, the day that the ordinance is passed, we're going to work to have strategies to deal with the different types of buildings, different owners of buildings as you mentioned, some of these buildings are city-owned buildings.

So we're going to need to, in order for ourselves to fulfill the obligations that we're creating, we're going to need to work to finance those as well.

So just really want to say I think using as a case study the owners who have already done this is going to be really important in community engagement and education.

Yeah, as Council Member Herbold pointed out, there's a phased requirement.

I always forget the exact years, but I think it was like 7, 9, and 11. But of course, we know that there are many property owners who are going to want to implement these changes much sooner for a variety of means.

So it's really important for us to work with them quickly, which is why we so appreciate Council approving the Structural Plans Examiner coming on board next year so we can start that work in earnest.

And then another question I have, we have, as you know, another quarterly progress report due from the resolution passed last year in March of 2023. Just can you give us a sense of what we should expect in that report?

Hopefully we'll have made a lot more progress.

We're thrilled that Amanda's on board and we'll definitely have an update on the structural plans examiner and we need to go forward and work in earnest on our communication strategy and start doing a lot more outreach now that we are getting staffed up.

And on the technical front, we're continuing to meet with these experts that are passionate about this topic.

And as a matter of fact, we just had a meeting yesterday with them.

We're making some progress.

It's a very delicate balance between wanting to retrofit these buildings and also balancing with the cost of how to retrofit these buildings.

And also the risk that we have to acknowledge that they're taking on when they proceed with a different level of retrofit.

How to balance the cost effectiveness of retrofitting them versus what kind of risk potentially they're taking on on different level of earthquake.

Unfortunately, over the past 10 years, we have a better understanding of the seismic hazard in our area due to the research with our colleagues at the University of Washington.

And so, the acceleration to our understanding has increased.

And so, we have to learn how to be better balancing some of these methods of how to retrofit this building so that owners are not scared away from doing it.

So, it's a complicated issue.

But hopefully, we can make some progress and report to you in the next report.

So.

Any other comments or questions?

You good?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson, yes.

Thank you.

Director Torgelson, you usually appear in the Land Use Committee and I think that you being here in public safety and human services does drive home the point that we are talking about a public safety issue.

I mean, the potential of these gorgeous brick buildings failing is a public safety issue.

And so this lends urgency to the need to finally move forward on this.

And this issue has been around for a really long time, I remember.

And I really appreciate Council Member Herbold's leadership And so I just appreciate you being here and note that it's been around so long because it's a really expensive and complicated problem.

And so I appreciate that we've got a strong public private effort here going forward.

And I look forward to seeing next steps coming forward.

Right.

Well, great.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Again, thank you for your patience with the agenda today.

I know we're a little later than you anticipated, but really appreciate you being here with us.

And in the new year, let's talk more about what we can expect in the next report.

Yolanda Ho and Council Central staff is tasked to this work and just look forward to collaborating more.

and this will be a big priority of mine in 2023. Thank you.

Thank you, council members.

All right.

Clerk, please read in our final agenda item.

Agenda item four, 2023 draft annual action plan public hearing.

Thank you very much.

We've got some presenters from Council Central Staff and HSD before I hand it over for them to introduce themselves.

We're going to hear from Ali, the Deputy Director with Council Central Staff to briefly summarize what the hearing is about, and then we'll proceed to the public hearing.

And after that, we'll get any additional needed information from HSD to hear about next steps.

handing it over to you for introductions, thank you.

Good morning, Chair Herbold, committee members, I'm Ali Panucci of your central staff.

Sorry, did you want me to jump right in or have the other presenters introduce themselves first?

That's just, I think we only have one other person.

We do, Debra Reinhart, currently serving as the interim manager for the Federal Grants Management Unit in Human Services Department.

Perfect, thank you.

Ali, yes, please, let's orient ourselves here for us.

Great, thank you.

So today's public hearing is on the draft 2023 annual action plan.

This is an interim step required by the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development that the city is required to take prior to the final adoption of the annual action plan that will occur after the congressional appropriations are made in 2023. So this is a required step that basically reflects the decisions made in the 2023 adopted budget for how four specific federal grants will be spent in 2023. That's funding from the Community Development Block Grants, or CDBG, housing opportunities for people with AIDS, often referred to as HOPWA, emergency solution grants, and Home Investment Partnership Program funds.

The allocation of the funds reflected in this draft plan is based again on the appropriations the council recently approved in the 2023 adopted budget, and is guided by the five year consolidated plan for housing and community development, taking this interim step allows the city to start spending in early 2023, and then after Congress makes their final appropriations, HSD will go through another process of publishing a final plan and providing another opportunity for public comment.

Council will hold another public hearing, and then later in 2023, Council will adopt the final plan.

And that's generally the process.

And next year, there will be HSD and the executive will be beginning discussions and preparing the next five-year consolidated plan that will guide future investments of these funds.

Thank you, Ellie.

Anything to add, Debra?

We don't have a PowerPoint.

I'm just going to confirm some of the comments that Ali made.

We are in the fifth year of our current consolidated plan and we'll be beginning our next five-year period of consolidated plan next year at the same time as we are adopting the final allocation and award amounts for the 2023 annual action plan you see in draft today.

I just wanted to reiterate that these are placeholder numbers.

We are generally instructed by HUD that until we get our final grant award letters, which we currently anticipate, hopefully, by the end of the second quarter of 2023, we cannot submit our final annual action plan for obvious reasons.

If there is an increase or a decrease in any of the four federal grants, we have to go back and reconcile our original plan and bring it back to committee and then to full council with adoption with legislation package as soon as we finish our award letters.

For the broader audience, the 2023 draft annual action plan includes a wide range of proposed activities from the supportive services for people who are currently experiencing homelessness to The development of more affordable, not completely affordable, but more affordable rental housing, predominantly multi-family housing.

Job training, making parks more accessible to serve surrounding communities that have at least 51% households that are considered low and moderate income by HUD's income standards.

So that just gives a very high level overview of what we bring to you in draft form today.

And as my last comment, I want to give a sincere thanks to Council Member Holbrod and to the committee for giving us the opportunity to schedule this public hearing and this time to bring this document forward that allows our pre-award authorization from HUD.

Recognizing how difficult it is to schedule time during this time of the calendar, we greatly appreciate your efforts.

Absolutely.

And thank you to my colleagues for staying with us so that we can maintain quorum and get this done by the end of the year as required.

So yes, absolutely.

Thanks all around.

With that, I will open up the public hearing.

I have nobody signed up in person.

The chambers are empty.

Clerk, can you let us know whether or not we have any virtual testifiers?

No one has signed up since public comment this morning so it does not appear anyone has signed up virtually for the public hearing.

Okay, so we are opening and closing public hearing.

And If, are there additional comments?

We, as Deborah explained, we will expect a updated, revised annual action plan once we get notification of those awards to come before council committee and full council recognition adoption.

But anything else that we should cover before adjourning?

All right, seeing heads shaking, no.

The next Public Safety and Human Services Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, January 10th, 2023. Before we adjourn, are there any other comments from colleagues?

Seeing none, the time is 11.59 a.m.

and we are adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you so much.