All right, good evening everyone.
It is six o'clock on the dot.
We're gonna go ahead and get this meeting started.
Today is Wednesday, September 18th, 2019. It is 6 p.m.
Welcome to this special joint meeting of the City Council's Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans in Education Committee and the Select Labor Committee in partnership with the Community Police Commission who is joining us at the table.
Representatives of the Community Police Commission are joining us at the table currently.
I'm Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, chair of this committee, and also joining me tonight is Council President Bruce Harrell, who is the chair of the Select Labor Committee, and also here with us is Councilmember Mosqueda, who sits on both of these committees.
And I think we're expecting one additional council member potentially in a minute.
So thank you all for being here.
I know that both of you have busy schedules and have other commitments that you have made for this evening.
So you will need to depart a little early, but we will nonetheless make sure that we collect the record on public testimony.
And, of course, both of you are welcome to make comments either now in introduction or immediately before you leave us.
So really quickly, I am going to move to adopt the agenda if there's no objection.
Hearing no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
I'm going to do a quick report on the chair's report really briefly.
Thank you, Council Member O'Brien.
We are now joined by Council Member O'Brien.
We are holding this public hearing tonight in accordance with Seattle Municipal Code 4.04.120, which requires the council to hold a public hearing at least 90 days before the city begins collective bargaining with the Seattle Police Management Association in order to hear public comment on the effectiveness of the city's police accountability system.
If you are here to provide public testimony and you have not already signed up on the public comment sign-in sheet, there's two sheets in the front of the room.
I ask you to please make your way to the front and sign up on one of the public comment sheets.
We look forward to hearing your public testimony in just a few moments.
Before we begin that public testimony process, we are going to hear two very short presentations.
First, we're going to receive a brief presentation from Council Central staff who will give us a general overview.
and background information on the purpose and subject of tonight's hearing.
And then second, we will hear from representatives of the Community Police Commission, who will provide us some additional information from their perspective and the community's perspective regarding the state of the accountability system in relation to the upcoming labor negotiations with the Seattle Police Management Association.
So we will go ahead and I'll ask Cody to, actually before I do that, are there any comments from my colleagues before I get going?
Not for me.
Great.
Cody, can you read the first agenda item into the record?
Agenda item one, introduction to collective bargaining with the Seattle Police Management Association for briefing and discussion.
Thank you so much.
So let's go ahead and start with introductions of Council Central staff.
Greg Dawes, Council Central staff.
Great.
Dan Eder, Council Central staff.
All right.
And then we have a short presentation from the both of you.
I don't think we have a PowerPoint presentation, so take it away.
Thanks.
I'll start out.
I'm just going to very briefly give some background for why we're here today.
As you mentioned, the Seattle Police Management Association contract is coming up.
SPMA is the smaller of two unions representing police officers.
The larger one is the Seattle Police Officers Guild, or SPOG, which represents most sworn officers.
SPMA represents about 80 lieutenants and captains.
The purpose of tonight's meeting is to hear and seek input on the effectiveness of the city's police accountability system.
And again, before the city and the union begin negotiations.
This is a process that is required for both SPOG and SPMA.
The current SPMA contract runs from January 1st, 2014 through December 31st of this year.
There are two timing considerations that affect when negotiations can begin.
The first one is that the city provided notice on June 12th to the SPMA of a formal 180-day intent to begin bargaining.
And the city and SPMA can now begin bargaining, but no sooner than 90 days from tonight's public hearing.
So that means that city and SPMA would be able to begin negotiations in December 2019. And so now with sort of a larger context for the negotiation process is my colleague Dan Eder.
Thank you.
Thank you, Craig.
As Craig mentioned, I'm going to provide a brief overview of the labor negotiations process to set some context for the steps that will follow tonight's public hearing.
The revised Code of Washington at Chapter 4156 establishes the right of public employees to join labor organizations and to be represented in matters concerning their public employment.
State law also requires that the city and unions, such as SPMA, negotiate in good faith all mandatory subjects of bargaining.
Mandatory subjects of bargaining are those generally relating to wages, hours, and working conditions.
And consistent with Greg's earlier comments, SPMA and through a separate process SPOG will negotiate with the city on subjects of police accountability.
The city's negotiations process includes meetings of a labor relations policy committee to establish bargaining parameters for the labor relations negotiating team.
The Labor Relations Policy Committee consists of the City Council's Labor Select Committee, which is appointed by the Council President and confirmed through a resolution, and the Executive's Labor Committee, which the Mayor appoints.
The Labor Relations Policy Committee meetings concern bargaining strategy and negotiations.
and they are therefore excluded from the requirements of the State's Open Public Meetings Act.
The Labor Relations Director will use the Labor Relations Policy Committee bargaining parameters to negotiate what is called a tentative agreement with SPMA.
Once a tentative agreement has been reached, SPMA will typically consider ratifying the tentative agreement through a vote of its membership.
And the city's process for ratifying a tentative agreement will be through a majority vote of the full council in an open public meeting.
And that concludes our prepared remarks.
Thank you, Greg and Dan.
Any questions for Council Central staff before we shift over to the Community Police Commission?
No.
Okay, so, and just for the purposes of the viewing public, the members of the Council's Labor Select Committee include myself, Council President Harrell, Council Member Mosqueda, Council Member O'Brien, and Council Member Bagshaw.
So I just thought it would be important for us to note that that is, those are the representatives from the city council perspective, and Greg or Dan, maybe you can mention who represents the mayor's office in the Labor Relations Policy Committee.
Yes, it's typically the city's budget director, the Seattle Department of Human Resources director, and a deputy mayor.
Thank you.
Okay.
If there are no other questions, we're going to move over to the second agenda item.
Before we begin that presentation, I'll ask Cody to read agenda item two into the record.
Agenda item two, presentation by the Community Police Commission for briefing and discussion.
Thank you, Cody.
All right, so, and thank you to our Council Central staff for being with us late in the evening.
I appreciate your time.
Let's go ahead and do a round of introductions, and then I will hand it over to you all to walk us through a quick presentation.
Okay.
Thank you.
Bessie Scott, Interim Executive Director, Community Police Commission.
Helen Giver-Amlock, Commissioner.
Emma Katagi, one of the Commission Co-Chairs.
Isaac Ruiz, one of the three Co-Chairs.
Reverend Walden, one of the co-chairs.
Thank you all for being with us.
Bessie, you're going to kick us off?
Sure.
Thank you so much, Council President Harrell and Madam Chair.
I'm going to speak for a few minutes, and I'll be followed by Isaac Ruiz and then Helen for Brimlach.
I wanted to acknowledge that the OPA Director Meyerberg is in the audience as well as Inspector General Judge and thank them for being here.
Several community members and organizations have let us know of other competing events this evening, meaning that they're not able to be here.
They remain committed to this work and want to stay engaged with the CPC as work on the contracts and the consent decree continues.
First, we should recognize that this is a unique hearing and the fact that we are having it reflects the many years of advocacy by organizations and individuals in our community on police reform.
In 2017, as a result of unprecedented partnerships between the CPC, community groups, and city leaders, a police accountability law that city leaders held as landmark was adopted.
That law has not been fully implemented.
Police contract terms do not align with the law.
The federal court overseeing the consent decree between the city and the Department of Justice has found that the city is out of compliance with the consent decree.
It agreed with the CPC that many provisions in the police contracts conflict with the accountability law reforms and are inconsistent with the purposes of the consent decree.
The CPC continues to strongly support the right of all unions, including police unions, to collectively bargain.
Because of the important role police contracts play and having lived through many different bargaining cycles where the city agreed to contracts that did not fully incorporate recommendations to strengthen Seattle's system, community advocates worked with the city council over the years to ensure that each time the city prepares to begin negotiations for a new police contract, there would be substantive input both from community and from civilian oversight officials as the city creates its bargaining agendas.
As mentioned, in 2008, advocates worked to add a requirement in city law for the city council and the CPC to hold a joint hearing on the effectiveness of the city's police accountability system at least 90 days before the city begins negotiations with either police union.
The purpose is to give the community a meaningful opportunity to comment on how well the police accountability system is working and what the city's bargaining priorities should be.
That's tonight's hearing.
Thank you.
Thanks, Bessie.
and civilian oversight officials worked with the city council to add a second requirement.
Oh, sure.
That in 2017, advocates and civilian oversight officials worked with you, the city council, to add a second requirement in addition to the one that Bessie mentioned.
that the city elected officials also get input from the city's civilian oversight officials, namely the CPC, the Office of Police Accountability, the OPA, and the Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety, which we call the OIG, and I'll drop, because I'm a lawyer, I can't help it, a reference to section 3.29.460A of the accountability law.
Now, one reason for getting this input is that the parties who are negotiating the contract, the city and the unions, have to be clear about their agendas before bargaining begins.
And as we've heard before, you can't just add other issues during negotiations.
And at the same time, we have to acknowledge that the city has other issues besides accountability that it wants to address in its contracts.
So it's important that they are aware of how well the accountability system is working or not working and how the weaknesses in the system may be caused by barriers that are embedded in the contracts themselves.
Otherwise, the concern is that the accountability aspects of the contracts, when taken in combination with all of the other priorities that the city has, that these accountability aspects can get deprioritized or only partially addressed.
Also, as we've seen, even when contracts have a fixed duration and they've reached the end of their term, the existing contracts remain in effect for as long as it takes a city and the union to reach agreement on the next contract.
And that can often, as we've recently seen, take several years.
And so any problems that had been identified in the contracts that were not secured during the last round of bargaining remain as problems until the new contract comes around.
So getting input from the community and from the civilian oversight officials at this stage to make sure that the city's agenda covers each of the provisions that needs to be fixed is an important improvement that we've seen as a result of the 2017 accountability law.
So we've covered two key measures, but I want to call attention to a third reform that the CPC recommended and that was discussed when the accountability law was passed.
And it was also discussed, I should add, last time the SPMA contract came up for approval with the city council, which is that the city use an advisor in bargaining who has expertise in accountability system reform and police contract reform.
We've discussed this several times with the city council, and I want to be really clear that this was not a recommendation for open bargaining at all.
The recommendation is to have someone recommended by the civilian oversight officials who has expertise and knows the issues raised by community and their lived experiences with the system and who will be focused on the recommendations made by the oversight entities to address the problems that have been identified.
And this advisor could or should assess bargaining agendas before they're finalized and then be in the room to provide insights and analysis as negotiations proceed.
Getting the bargaining priorities right at the beginning is critical, but because the bargaining process is closed, and I wanna stress, this is not a recommendation for opening it, but because the bargaining process is closed until after the contract has been tentatively agreed, it's also critical that the city utilize this kind of additional expertise during the negotiations.
Tonight's hearing, as we've heard, is about the SPMA contract, but we also know that there are two contracts, the SPMA contract and the SPOG contract.
Ideally, a single hearing would be held to include both contracts because these contracts do work together.
And we hope that going forward, that will become the practice in the future.
Even though SPOG and SPMA are different bargaining units, one of the recommendations that has been made several times to the city is to ensure that when it comes to accountability, the contracts don't allow for different ranks to be treated differently.
Both, I think we would all agree that both should have best practices, that OPA should not have different approaches to investigations for the same kind of misconduct depending on what rank is involved.
And the discipline and disciplinary appeal standards should be the same regardless of rank.
And I would note that the 2017 accountability law provides that the contract terms relating to the accountability system should treat all ranks equivalently.
So with that, I'll pass it over to Helen.
Thank you, Isaac.
So that brings us to now.
In a few moments, we'll hear testimony from everyone.
The CPC and, sorry, excuse me.
No, that's okay.
Take your time.
So we're going to hear testimony from everyone this evening.
And we're also, we'll accept any letters or emails that may be submitted.
Then the CPC together with the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety and the Office of Police Accountability.
We'll take what we hear tonight and we'll incorporate that into recommendations that we'll make to the mayor and city council.
So our recommendations will include a detailed analysis of the contracts accountability provisions that do not reflect best practices.
And we'll highlight provisions that diverge from the reforms in the accountability law that was adopted in 2017. We also will add new issues and suggested best practices that we all have identified since the 2017 law was adopted.
You do not need to be, and I'm speaking to the folks behind me, you do not need to be steeped in contract law to provide testimony this evening.
Contracts are dense, and the implications of specific phrasing can be hard to discern.
And that's just saying that these documents aren't particularly accessible from most of us.
And by that I mean they're not very easy to understand.
But these contracts do have to be addressed in order for us to move forward with a strong accountability system.
So we want to hear from the folks behind me.
If reform in the contracts is a priority for you, we want to hear if you believe that Seattle's police accountability system is fair and effective.
We want to hear if you have trust that if Seattle police officers violate rules that they will be appropriately disciplined and held to account.
It's important for us to hear your experience and your views about whether you trust the system and how well you think it's working.
For decades now, our city leaders have committed to reforms in the police accountability system, but then some of those promises were not realized in the contracts that the city negotiated with the police unions.
This can be really problematic for ensuring community trust.
The CPC is committed to working with Seattle police officers to make sure that they have what they need to do the best, to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, but they can't do that without community trust.
And one way to build that public trust and confidence that is needed is to make sure that these contracts fully enable and do not undercut a strong accountability system.
And that concludes the CPC's presentation.
Thank you so much.
We are, I think, done with the presentation portion.
I want to thank you all for joining us at the table to provide that perspective from the Community Police Commission's perspective.
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that we have quite a few people in attendance tonight.
So thank you all for making it out this evening to join us for this public testimony.
Of course, not everyone has signed up to give public testimony, but for those of you who didn't sign up but are here to listen, really still appreciate that you are here.
So it's a very diverse and big crowd and I really wanna appreciate the fact that you all are here because you care about this issue.
Secondly, I wanted to acknowledge our OPA director, Andrew Meyerberg, who's in the audience.
Thank you for being here.
Our Office of Inspector General, Inspector General Lisa Judge, also in the audience.
And we also have representatives from the Seattle Department of Human Resources and Labor Relations who are here to listen.
And I think that's a good practice for us to all be able to be here in this room, even if we're not making presentations.
to listen to each other and to learn from each other.
So I really appreciate it.
You all are welcome to stay at the table with us if you'd like to.
You're also welcome to move back into the audience if that is more comfortable for you as well.
I'll leave it up to you all.
No pressure either way.
But we're going to go ahead and begin the process of receiving public testimony.
Again, there are some sheets in the front, and if you'd like to provide testimony on the collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Management Association, I ask that you make your way up to the front and sign onto the sheet.
Each individual will have up to two minutes to provide public testimony.
If you're here as a group, you will get up to five minutes to provide public testimony to the City Council.
There's timers up in front that show the time.
There will also be a little bell.
Cody, make sure that bell is on to give people sort of an auditory cue that time is up as well.
If you're starting to go over your time, I'm gonna gently and then more forcefully remind you that your time is up and ask you to conclude your remarks.
We do want to hear from everybody who has signed up, so I ask you to be very courteous about the amount of time that you have allotted to you to give public testimony.
If you are shy or don't want to be on the camera, we have written comment forms up at front that you can complete and leave with a clerk, and we will go ahead and put those into the record as well.
You can also email my office at Lorena, L-O-R-E-N-A dot G-O-N-Z-A-L-E-Z at Seattle dot G-O-V.
I almost forgot how to spell my own last name.
And we will also be collecting those and putting those into the public record as well.
So lots of ways for you to provide input tonight that doesn't include standing up at the microphone if that's not what you are comfortable with.
Once again, we're here to receive public testimony only on the collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Management Association.
I know that folks are also interested in the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract.
That is a hearing that we will have later.
But for tonight, we are focused on the Seattle Police Management Association collective bargaining agreement.
Okay, that being said, we're gonna go ahead and start public testimony.
And once again, just for the audience, just a reminder, some of my colleagues do have other commitments, and they're gonna have to dash.
Please don't be offended by that.
They're just gonna have to, they will watch and listen later, I'm sure.
But thank you all for being here.
Okay, so I'm gonna call out the first three names.
As I call your name up, please come up to one of the two microphone podiums, and we will go ahead and get you going.
First person is Adrienne Weller, second person, will be Amari Tahir and the third person would be Marguerite Richard.
Should I start?
Okay.
I am Adrienne Weller for Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party on the effectiveness of the city's police accountability system.
The Community Police Commission is undermined by Mayor Durkan's use of the police union contract and an outside review board that overturned the firing of the cops who punched a handcuffed black woman in the face.
Police violence is allowed against the most oppressed in our society, women of color, poor and immigrant women, sex workers, LGBTQ people, homeless, and those with mental health and disability issues.
The real problem is a lack of power.
In 1965, the Seattle Black Movement demanded independent review boards of police practices.
We still need an elected civilian review board.
It would function differently from the present ineffective community police commission because it would be elected at the grassroots level by the community, not appointed by city officials.
An elected civilian review board would have the teeth to investigate and subpoena witnesses and have a special prosecutor who would have power to discipline and prosecute abusive cops.
Police brutality will always exist in a capitalist society where it is the function of cops to protect private property and big business.
Eliminating the root of police violence will mean getting rid of capitalism.
In the meantime, we urgently need a vehicle for holding the police accountable.
Thank you, Adrian.
Next up is Omari, followed by Marguerite Richard.
My name is...
My name is...
Both of them are on.
My name is Omari Tahir Garrett, and I just want to tell you that in the late...
50s the police murdered one of our 13 year old Schoolmates at Meany junior high school, and that's the first time I became aware of gun violence.
I want to say thank you to Councilman O'Brien you did a good job and I want to say goodbye to My schoolmate Bruce Harold.
We want to welcome back to the legal community because we need all the lawyers that we can get because Gentrification is just the complete opposite of reparations.
Instead of them paying us for working us for 400 years so that we could compete in a capitalist society, they raised the price on everything.
I bought my first house when I was 19 in 1966 for $17,000.
Now that house is worth $700,000.
It's ridiculous for the police to tell the people that hired them how they're going to work.
Would you let a doctor with a high school?
Diploma operate on you with a scalpel Then how can you give a policeman?
a weapon much more dangerous than a scalpel And send him out in the community to operate on the community Now the police should only be allowed to be a policeman for five years during that time They should have to go to school and get a teaching certificate and then teach for five years and then they can come but this constant being on the battlefield as a teacher is ridiculous.
If you go on the internet, after two years, it's called a cumulative PTSD.
And that's the only way a policeman could murder a 90-pound pregnant woman in front of her kids and not think anything about it.
And John T. Williams.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Next person is Marguerite Richard, followed by Roy Martin Brown.
And then we have a group, Nayeli and Cunningham Group.
Yes.
Good day, everyone.
I can barely hear myself.
But anyway, if it's working, that's good.
I am Ms. Richard and I have been down here quite a few times.
I know the system is not working because the other day when I was at the Ethics Commission, I was asked to sit down and so was Mr. Garrett.
I had to tell him not to talk to me like that.
If I don't do what the old Mr. Charlie tells me to do, then they call the guards and then they call the police.
Do you think that that is fair?
So what I'm saying to you, we have black issues, but we have multicultural people that get involved in our business, and their business is not our business.
And we need to learn how to take care of our business without other people getting in our business and telling us about how we got over here, what Jim Crow did to us and where we are today.
I'm telling you, you're not listening.
Because if you listen, you wouldn't be sitting up there talking about why we need to be here to see about management.
And you're talking about the Office of Professional Accountability.
That's really all you should need.
But because it's not accountable then you have to have this commission that sits there and you said speak for us How can you speak for us if you don't speak like me?
Then how can you speak for me?
You're not me I have my own mind and god gave me the mind to speak and talk about the issues at hand And that's what i'm gonna keep on doing and you're gonna stop this oppression repression and suppression and depression of the black person here in this country is called generational poverty and community trauma.
And I want to send out my condolences to the young man that got killed in the tunnel because his grandmother called me from Texas and told me it was her grandson.
Thank you.
Next person is Roy Martin Brown, followed by Nayeli and Cunningham group, and then Jeff Robinson.
Good evening.
My name is Roy Martin Brown.
I'd like to thank and honor the Duwamish people.
The thing that we have to do is thank you who are commissioners who have been on this road for a long time to try to make sure that the police are community accountable.
The other thing I want to thank the council members as well as providing this opportunity to us to speak to you about our needs and our desires.
The thing that I would like to point out is that we need to have one conversation about both contracts at some point in time so that more people can be involved in our communities of color, from female community and other communities that are generally affected by working with Seattle Police at some point in time.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir.
Next up is Nayeli and Cunningham Group, followed by Jeff Robinson and then Howard Gale.
Hi, good evening.
Welcome.
Hi, I'm Nayeli Chavez.
I am 15 years old and I am at Sheetalth International High School and I would like to say a few words.
We are here to support the work of the Seattle Police Department.
We believe in accountability.
There are so many layers of accountability and we know good officers are leaving this department.
It affects our city and the crime that we see daily.
We all need to express our support for the hard work they are doing in our communities.
Hi.
My name is Kenny M. Thatch.
I'm a 16-year-old.
I go to school at Chief Sealth International High School, and I work for Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, and I'm going to speak on behalf of the Youth Corps.
Not going to lie, the accountability system is kind of rushing out all the good cops that we all know as Officer Garcia Diaz, Detective Gookie, and Rodriguez.
And the thing is about this accountability system is that there are not some bad cops out there.
There's some in different countries.
It's just that you're just assuming or jump to a conclusion of things.
That's how I think of it in my own perspective.
And it's hard for the new cops to go away.
They work hard.
They help out to our community.
Without the good cops or anything, none of this or none of the youth corps would never exist.
And it's just that, There's a thing called stranger danger.
It's just that if there's someone new that's from the police force and we don't recognize that person or we don't even see that person at all, We're in our head thinking, who is this person?
How should we approach this safely or cautiously?
Sometimes people can get into panic mode and without thinking ahead, they just start going crazy and stuff gets out of hand or out of control.
I just want to say that the accountability system is kind of not okay slash I don't trust it kind of way.
But it's just that I just want to say that I just don't want the good cops leaving.
I just want them to let them know that there are so many good guys out there.
They work hard.
They do everything in a good dean in America.
And with all negative energy around us, there's not much many positive energy around us.
And I just want to say that people who are affected from the police brutality or accountability system, I just want to tell y'all that no matter how dark the day is, just always know there's going to be a sunlight shining through your day.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
And thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else from the group?
We're good?
All right.
Thank you so much.
We're now going to hear from Jeff Robinson, Howard Gale, and then Ming Xiao, who's also a group.
Good evening.
My name is Jeff Robinson, and I am a deputy legal director at the National ACLU and wanted to comment just on a national perspective.
When contracts with police departments are done without truly taking into account input from communities most impacted by police practices, it sends a very clear message to the community.
You will have no say in how we police you.
And I know that is not the message that this city council wants to send to the community in Seattle.
In 2016, a group called Campaign Zero did an analysis of police contracts in 81 of the 100 largest cities in America.
And what they found was that the vast majority of those contracts had provisions that were roadblocks to accountability.
Discipline was limited.
Public access to records was blocked.
Expunging sustained and unsustained discipline records and having an elevated standard for the most serious kinds of police misconduct.
In other words, the more serious the police misconduct, the more difficult it is to prove it.
Anybody out here who gets charged with a crime doesn't have that standard.
Whether you're charged with shoplifting or first-degree murder, there is one standard, and it shouldn't be different with police officers.
The ACLU is always concerned with due process, and that doesn't mean stacking the deck in favor of officers.
And I am a former Teamster who drove a forklift in Milwaukee, so I am pro-union.
But being pro-union does not mean having an accountability system that does not hold officers accountable.
We shouldn't be looking at other cities to see what they've done, because quite frankly, there are not other cities in America that are doing this right.
The eyes of America are going to be on Seattle, because Seattle is seen as a leader in this area.
And I am asking you to please understand that.
Don't look at what other cities do, look at what should be done here.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jeff.
Always good to see Jeff, also known as my former law partner, trader, law market vendor, and friend, and really appreciate your words tonight.
Howard, you will be followed by Ming Hsiao, and then we'll hear from Marla Murdoch.
Hi.
I just want to, since we're talking about the SPMA contract, I think it's important to revisit history.
Two years ago, 22 months ago, when the SPMA contract came up, I was the one that raised the alarm.
article published by Melissa Hellman in the Seattle Weekly concerning the issue about arbitration.
And at that time, the CPC didn't really take that issue up and Council Member Gonzalez at that point actually said that arbitration would be open to the public.
Your statement that arbitration would be open to the public and transparent was a statement that was made just prior to the vote on that SPMA contract.
That's something that it highlights the fact that there's a flawed process here in the entire labor relations committee.
So two quick points.
Anyone can be on that committee.
According to the Seattle Municipal Code, anyone can be on that committee.
In fact, it mandates It actually mandates that no binding agreement shall be entered into regarding policy for wages, hours, or working conditions without the participation of the Director of Labor Relations.
So the question is, why isn't there an equivalency?
Why when it comes to money, there's someone who oversees money that's on that committee, and yet when it comes to police accountability, there's no one from the CPC, no one from the community.
So I think that's a very serious oversight.
Lastly, I want people to remember there's an inequity here.
police sit across the table from the city and negotiate a contract.
The police members actually get to vote on that contract.
One person, one vote.
When it comes to the city, we get no votes.
So that's a really flawed part of the process.
And again, one thing that there is in time but should be discussed is, a lot of people don't know this, the people that are on the Labor Relations Policy Committee from the City Council have not sat in most of those negotiation sessions with Rich O'Neill.
There were two people unelected that were there, Ian Warner and a hired attorney.
So again, I think there needs to be much more transparency in this process.
Thank you, Howard.
Next person is Ming followed by Marla Murdock and then Diane Narasaki.
And Ming is signed up as a group, so they will have five minutes.
We are here to support SPD.
We appreciate all the hard work they do for our community.
As a businesswoman working at the International District, I saw a police officer there working hard to protect us.
My group from international Chinatown is another people, old men, old ladies who speak Chinese.
I'll be translating for the ladies.
Great.
I want to express my appreciation for the Seattle Police Department
through their hard work, we can enjoy a safe neighborhood.
I have been a business owner
in the international district for 26 years, and throughout all these years, I've been dealing with the police, and they have done a great job protecting our international district and our community.
In the past, if there was an emergency, we would call 911. Otherwise, it would be very, very slow.
But in the past two or three years, our security has improved a lot.
If we call 911, the police will deal with the problem at a very fast pace.
It gives our citizens a lot of security.
Before, when we call 911, the emergency response was not so quick.
But in the past two, three years, what we've experienced is that when we call the 911 emergency line, the police come to our help, you know, in a very timely manner.
So I am here to call on the citizens of the West Coast.
I think life in the West Coast is very happy and safe.
I also call on the citizens of the West Coast.
I can say that everyone should pay more taxes to the police, support more police work, not only support the current police force.
As a citizen of the city, we want to advocate that the police has done a great job for our community.
and whatever they ask for, we should support that wholeheartedly, support them 100%.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
My name is Chiu-Fung Pan.
I'm 88 years old.
There are individual police officers who do not use violence according to their professional ethics.
This is a minority of police officers.
The majority of police officers care about the people.
The majority of police officers use violence according to their professional ethics.
Police brutality are a single, not a very common occurrence.
We should know that most of the cops, they follow the rules.
when they enforce the rules, they do that according to their police duties.
Because the police don't seem to want to do it.
So we have to love the police, support the police, respect the police.
We have to love the police.
We recognize that police work is hard work.
It's hard work and it's also dangerous.
So whatever they ask for, we as good citizens should be 100% behind them, support them, whether it's asking for a raise or asking for more time off, we should be 100% in support of them.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, the five minutes is up, but thank you so much for being with us this evening.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're going to go ahead and move on to Marla Murdoch, followed by Diane Narasaki, and then Andre Taylor.
Good evening, and my name is Marla Murdoch, and I believe having strong and robust police accountability bargained in the SPMA contract and based on the accountability measures that are in the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance is really a matter of life and death for those impacted communities.
The SPOG contract did not hold up accountability measures required by the consent decree.
And in addition, the Judge Robart asked the city to work with the CPC and the court monitor to come up with a plan to be in compliance.
Instead, what happened is a group was hired out of state to study this plan.
I know from coming to meetings that there was a lot of research that went into and a lot of work on Gonzalo's part and Tim Burgess' part on going into that legislation.
Right now to sit there and throw more money out of what has already been done is a waste of resources that we could use for other important problems in our community.
Please listen to the community organizations, to CPC, and especially to those communities that are really impacted by the lack of police accountability in our city.
It's time to take real action and rebuild community trust in fair and just policing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Marla.
Next up is Diane Narasaki, followed by Andre Taylor, and then Joseph Lockman.
Good evening.
I'm Diane Narasaki, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition co-chair.
We join over 30 organizations in our deep concern about our city's broken accountability system, made possible by the city's failure to negotiate contracts with the police unions, which do not allow for the full realization of the law's reforms.
For years, prior to the passage of the ordinance, we urged stronger accountability measures in the wake of police misconduct, including excessive use of force and biased policing, only to be told that nothing could be done until new contracts were negotiated.
We then learned that new contracts had been negotiated without needed reforms, and tragic incidents of police misconduct continued unabated.
This is why we joined the ACLU and over 30 organizations in 2010 and asked the Department of Justice to investigate the Seattle Police Department for excessive use of force and biased policing.
We strongly advocated for a civilian oversight role, and many of us worked with the Community Police Commission from the resulting consent decree.
We joined the CPC, civilian oversight advocates, and the Council to pass the 2017 Accountability Ordinance, which included many of our recommendations.
We were therefore shocked to learn in 2018 that despite the ordinance's legal mandate, the City failed to negotiate with SPMA and SPOG to fully realize the ordinance's reforms in their contracts.
This time, the City must stop repeating history, engage an expert police accountability systems and contract proponent, recommended by the city's civilian oversight leadership to help the city during negotiations and ensure that the contracts align with the accountability ordinance.
Bring the city back into full compliance with the consent decree.
When the 2017 accountability ordinance was passed, the nation looked to Seattle as a model for the rest of the country.
Follow through on your promises to enable implementation of the ordinance, restore lost community trust, and let Seattle lead the nation once again.
Thank you.
Thank you, Diane.
Next up is Andre Taylor, followed by Joseph Lachman, and then Paul Benz.
Hi, I'm Andre Taylor, founder, executive director of Not This Time.
I've been bragging on what we've been doing here.
I've been bragging around the country.
I just came back from Houston and at the Donald nearly marched Young African-American man was having a mental health crisis.
Two horse mounted police officers dragged him through the streets on a rope like he was a runaway slave.
But I gave them hope when I told them about what we were doing here in Washington.
I just want to make some things clear.
Washington is probably the 18th largest state.
Last year in police killings, we rank fifth.
The 18th largest state, but we rank fifth in killings.
from police officers.
Seattle is under a consent decree.
Well, what that means is that something is not going right, something is going tragically wrong.
We passed a historic police accountability measure with Initiative 940 because the people said something is going wrong, but we in Washington will lead.
We are not waiting on nobody else to lead.
We will lead.
And 60% of Washington State showed up to vote for that law and create history in this country.
71% in King County showed up.
So during the process of accountability, guess what?
Something wonderful happened.
Three of the largest police organizations and community got together.
Three of the largest, FOC, WOCOPs, and WOSPECs got together, negotiated with community, and we did this thing together.
There's one particular police union that have never come to the table and that is Spog.
And I have to say that Spog, if you allow it, they will allow Seattle to go back into the dark ages while everybody else is moving forward.
You will be remembered by what happens today and tomorrow as we move forward.
No one will forget when you have the opportunity to change things, It is our responsibility to do so.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andre.
Joseph is next, followed by Paul Benz and then Allison Holcomb.
Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
Again, my name is Joseph Shoji Lachman, and I'm the Civic Engagement Program Manager here on behalf of Asian Counseling and Referral Service.
And we're also part of the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Washington and joining the over 30 organizations, including the ACLU, here today to talk about the need to really, really live up to the spirit and the letter of the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance, and also follow the guidance and recommendations from the Community Police Commission.
I want to say that I'm here on behalf of ACRS, but in my personal capacity, I will be testifying against the King County Sheriff's Department regarding the killing of Tommy Lee by the police.
And that's what really happens when you don't see true accountability.
I had to look at the photos of his body with the bullet holes going and showing that he was shot in the back multiple times and had to recall all the times the sheriff lied to us and told us that he'd been shot running at them, that he'd been shot on the side, and finally, the autopsy report showing that he'd been shot in the back multiple times and died from those wounds.
That's what happens when we undermine accountability for law enforcement.
I just want to say that there are multiple examples that come up in SPMA's contract that are incredibly concerning There's no mention of fair and effective accountability system in the purpose section.
There's this idea that there's a standard of proof higher than a preponderance of evidence regarded for the chief to discipline.
There's minimum civilian oversight for complaints and investigations of serious criminal misconduct.
The 180-day limit, which came up in the SPA contract as well, is incredibly concerning, the limit for investigations, and it's unclear, of course, when the clock starts on that.
Concerns over the weakened disciplinary appeal hearings, including the arbitration, where you may have an arbitrator that's picked by police and counsel without proper expertise in areas of police discipline.
And, again, there's no strict timeline on this as well.
So my point here is that please don't take a fix-it-next-time attitude to this, and please uphold the spirit of the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance.
Thank you.
you, Joseph.
Excuse me.
Thank you, Joseph.
Next up is Paul, followed by Alison Holcomb.
And then, uh, is it Sade or Sade Smith?
Paul, you're up.
Committee Chair Gonzalez, Paul Binns, co-director at Faith Action Network for Program and Policy.
Faith Action Network was involved in many of the negotiations on Initiative 940 and the use of force by law enforcement, even before it was an initiative, in fact, when it was a bill before our state legislature.
that was never passed.
We have been very involved over the years here in Seattle on many of the conversations between the police and the community, calling for things such as de-escalation, best practices, transparency, and accountability, and now calling for those same things in the SBMA and SPOG contracts.
We have always made it clear that we have the greatest respect for those who put on their uniforms every day and the challenges and responsibilities that lie therein.
But if there is not more transparency and community input given and more accountability language particularly, from the May 2017 unanimously passed ordinance by this body, by the city council, then the community trust in the department from top to bottom will not be there.
As we move forward and continue these difficult conversations, please don't see us in the community as anti-cop or anti-union.
We want all to be safe, those in the uniform and all of our community members.
But we need the assurance that this contract aligns, the SBMA aligns with social justice principles, much of which is contained in that 2017 accountability ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you, Paul.
Allison Holcomb followed by Sade Smith and then Jason Proctor.
Good evening committee members and chairs of the Community Police Commission.
I am speaking, my name is Allison Holcomb, I'm the political director for the ACLU of Washington and I'm speaking on behalf of 38 different organizations from the Seattle area who have signed on to a letter that we'll be submitting as written testimony and I just want to take a moment to lift up a few of the points from the letter because many of the organizations that signed on were unable to be here this evening because we all know it's a very busy season in Seattle.
First, I want to put this in context that these 38 organizations who are following on decades of work that they and other organizations have undertaken are really doing this work for a common goal that we all share, which is to reduce the unnecessary use of force, and especially deadly force.
Nobody wants that.
Police officers don't want unnecessary use of force, and neither do community members.
And what we need to remember and what community wants city to remember when they go in to negotiate these contracts is that police contracts are different.
As is stated in the accountability ordinance, the police are granted extraordinary power to maintain the public peace, including the power of arrest and statutory authority to use deadly force in the performance of their duties under specific circumstances.
Police contracts are different.
And, therefore, it's consistent that community strongly supports collective bargaining rights.
What they are arguing for here is that police contracts also need to align with social justice principles in addition to supporting workers in obtaining safe conditions, fair wages, and job stability for workers.
Collective bargaining agreements should treat officers fairly, but they also need to make sure that we're not creating unfair systems that disadvantage, harm, and sanction the violation of constitutional rights of community members who are impacted by police misconduct.
Community also wants to make sure that everything that you're hearing tonight is consistent.
There are mainly, the overwhelming majority of police officers are good officers who are creating safe conditions.
It is the few people that cause unnecessary harm that police accountability systems are designed to address.
And so community asks that you please negotiate strongly on behalf of your constituents.
Thank you.
Thank you, Allison.
And we look forward to getting that letter in our inboxes from you.
We'll make sure to add that to the record.
Ms. Smith, followed by Jason Proctor, and then our last person signed up is the Honorable Michael B. Fuller.
Good evening.
Good evening.
I'm standing here today as a representative of the Seattle-King County NAACP, but I am also, well, as of October 1st, when we met last day at the King County Public Defender's Office, where I've worked for five years.
Yes, I will speak louder.
And then I served two years in Skagit County as a public defender as well.
And I'm coming to you with both perspectives as a community member and as a public defender, seeing the direct impact of Seattle policing on the community every single day.
It is concerning that when we have a discussion about the rights and interests and civil rights of the people, we keep having to repeat the interests of police officers.
Police officers are here to serve the community, not the other way around.
Police officers opt into their jobs and their positions.
Individuals impacted by police officers are living this experience with immutable characteristics.
They don't get to take off their badge.
They don't get to go home and not be black or brown.
And they don't get to go home and not be under threat of state-sanctioned violence.
The narrative needs to be very clear that in this country, policing as a job is not dangerous.
You can look up the statistics on the SPD site.
Sorry, from 2000 to 2010, four officers died in the line of duty.
Only one of them was because of community violence.
The last two years, 16 community members have been murdered by police officers and on video, and there have been no prosecutions.
So when we're talking about accountability, we need to make sure to correct the narrative on what we're talking about.
We need to also address the fact that If we are going to say that we are a progressive city, if we're going to say that we're about our people and about our community, that is not only just including officers, but that means we have to not just have people of color sitting at tables, spending hours having discussions, but we have to follow through with those promises.
And we also need to not be so forgiving.
politicians and elected officials don't follow through with those promises.
And so as a community member, but also as a public defender, I'm going to say this again.
We cannot continue to have this narrative in the most progressive city in this country while we're sitting there with children in concentration camps at the border.
It is time for us to stand up and do what we need to do.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Jason, Jason Proctor, and then after Jason will be the Honorable Michael Fuller.
So many great things said here tonight with the exception of the people that left that feels like they almost got paid off by the SPD.
So I'll keep my comments short tonight.
and this is towards both contracts.
I'm hoping for some good reforms so that we won't have we won't repeat history and allow officers like officer Whitlatch to get her job back or officer Shepard or even you know recent comments from Carmen Best to allow that one officer that that had the canine that bit the guy in the misconduct finding get his job back or to reverse the misconduct finding.
That's very inappropriate in going forward with the consent decree.
Also, Sergeant Frank Pabloki, or I'm probably butchering his name, no one ever mentions that case.
That was horrible, you know, to wait outside for someone in a chair.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
And but getting back to the contract, I haven't seen the most recent draft.
I saw the one before, and there's so much language in there that's completely biased towards you know, the SPOC.
For one, picking arbitrators, that's completely biased.
That needs to all be changed.
And then moving on from that, also the statute of limitations period, increase that because 180 days, by the time with people delays and investigations, we need to do a fair investigation.
And lastly, Carmen Best comments, I mean, Carmen Best, great, Great woman.
But the comments about officers leaving Seattle or not policing certain areas due to this, a political issue, that's completely uncalled for.
It's sending us back.
Thank you, Jason.
Next up is the Honorable Michael B. Fuller.
Yes, I'm Honorable Michael B. Fuller.
I'm Honorable Michael B. Fuller.
President Bruce Howard, I'm tired of being sick and tired.
All of y'all around this table, I hold you accountable when you violate RCW 2.48.210, your oath on admission, RCW 2.24.020, your oath, and RCW 2.04.080, your oath of office.
And Seattle Police Department, these horrendous killings and not being held accountable.
So that's extraordinary abuse, abusive moral turpitude of extraordinary circumstances, reckless misconduct, wanted misconduct, and irreparable injury and harm too.
Black lives matter.
This is not to change it or to dream.
Black lives matter.
New generations are all for it.
The females and males can believe it.
who fought to make this country safe, free, and secure from that Federal Immigration Reform Act of 1986 that was signed by President Ronald Reagan, and that Communist Control Act of August 24, 1954, that was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, and that Older American Act, October 3, 1965, that was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, and that 44th President George H.W. Bush put in the law the American Disability Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, but City Council say one America.
And you've been working for people of color and denying our own forces that also make this country safe, free, and secure from that Federal Immigration and Nationality Act Title 8 U.S.C. 1324 A.
Inferences 1. Inferences A. Inferences IV.
Inferences B. Inferences III.
Thank you, Honorable.
Honorable, your time is up.
Thank you.
I know exactly what you're doing.
Got it.
Thank you, Honorable.
Thank you so much.
Our next person is, I think it's Asha Mohammed.
Oh, yep, there it is.
It almost looked like an E at the end, so I was like...
Good evening.
Good evening.
It ain't over.
It never is, honorable.
It ain't over.
It never is, thank you.
Note that for the record and let the record reflect.
It has been reflected.
Good evening, my name is Asha Mohammed.
I'm the executive director of Somali Family and Youth Club, a community police commissioner, but tonight I'm here as a mother.
I really want to applaud the work that we do.
These conversations are hard.
I just want to say that and uphold what Jeff Robinson said, due process is important.
Seattle is changing.
We're not in 1960, old 70, old 80. We're here.
We're Americans, too.
This is our community, too.
English is not our first language.
We're scared, too.
We cannot move the conversation that African Americans have been under attack for 300 years.
I honor the work of Reverend, I honor the work of Betsy, and I also honor the work of a sitting mayor.
Let's not forget that people are fighting hard to where we're here today.
Us and them is what's hurting us.
Due process.
Immigrant community do need to participate.
We need to do a better job.
It's not about people, it's about system.
The system is created to eat up people of color.
And we cannot shy away for African American community to be at the front center to lead this and for the rest of us to back them up.
Period.
I honor that.
It takes a lot of courage, but there is also a lot of pain.
We have been betrayed at the highest level of office.
We have been betrayed to those folks that the promise to protect and serve.
We are hurt.
But we're resilient and we want accountability now.
Thank you, Asha.
That was the last person we had who signed up on a public comment sign-in sheet.
Is there anyone who's with us this evening who didn't have an opportunity to sign up who'd like to offer public testimony before we close out?
Okay, seeing no one, we're gonna go ahead and close out the period of public comment.
I wanna thank Council President Harrell for being here with me.
I wanna thank everybody in the public who came out to provide public testimony.
So this is obviously just the beginning of this conversation and discussion.
Please remember that you can still submit comments to my office and the city on these issues and obviously to the Community Police Commission as well.
We look forward to continuing our work on making sure that we define the parameters on this collective bargaining agreement in a fair, just, and transparent way and look forward to continuing to work with the Community Police Commission and the general public at large and our other community partners.
Thank you so much for being here.
We are adjourned.