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Good morning.

The Human Services, Labor and Economic Development Committee meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 9.36 a.m.

Friday, April 3rd, 2026. I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes-Rink, Chair of the Committee.

Will the Committee Clerk please call the roll?

Thank you.

And please let the record reflect that Councilmember Juarez is excused.

We will now move on to approval of today's agenda.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Welcome, colleagues, to the committee meeting this morning.

Today, we will have a briefing and discussion and vote on several reappointments to the Equitable Development Advisory Board.

And followed by that, we will have a briefing and discussion by our Domestic Workers Standards Board.

For those who can't hear, there was a woo in the audience.

I think that is appropriate given today's topic.

Colleagues, domestic workers, clean homes, care for children, landscapes, support elders, work that quite literally makes all other work possible.

All of that while being written out of the very labor laws that were supposed to protect workers.

And that wasn't an accident.

When the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, domestic workers, farm workers, and home health care workers were deliberately excluded.

A concession to Southern Democrats in Congress, carving out the jobs done almost exclusively, entirely, by Black and Latine workers.

And that exclusion shaped labor law in this country for decades.

But Seattle decided to do something about it.

And in July 2018, Seattle became the first city in the country to pass a domestic workers' bill of rights.

And thank you to Councilmember Juarez, who is a member of this committee, for her work on that legislation.

Now, this legislation, this was not just minimum wage protections, but something more ambitious.

and domestic worker standards board.

Workers, employers, and community representatives at a table together with the power to effectively advise on industry-wide standards.

That is a new idea.

Seattle said the people that do this work should have a voice in shaping the conditions of that work.

And that's what that board is.

And I know I first met some of our panelists that we'll hear from today at the five-year anniversary celebration for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights just about two years ago.

And it was from there, there was a discussion about how we take this work statewide.

And that's what happened next.

Representative Breonna Thomas from the 34th Legislative District hailing from West Seattle.

who actually helped write seattle's domestic worker protections in the city modeled the state legislation on what we built here and her work alongside senator saldania hailing from the 37th legislative district who introduced the bill last year these two worked over the past two years to get it done and just last month governor ferguson signed House Bill 2355 into law, ensuring that nannies, housekeepers, home care providers, and other domestic workers across Washington state receive fair pay, written agreements, privacy protections, and legal recourse rights.

They have been denied for decades.

It is the 16th Domestic Workers Bill of Rights passed in the United States.

So this board's work that we're going to hear from shortly today contributed to that.

Every recommendation they've made, every standard they've pushed for it, every conversation that happened, that's a part of what made this statewide bill not just possible but necessary.

Now, for the first time, hundreds of thousands of folks across Washington state have these state-level protections, but a law is only as strong as its implementation, and that's still the work, and that's why we're going to continue our work with the domestic worker standards forward.

And so for awareness for also my colleagues in the viewing public during the domestic workers briefing portion for today, we will be utilizing Spanish translation services for one of our panelists who sits on the board so we can fully have her voice a part of the conversation.

I also want to note for the public, my office has been collaborating with the city's Office of Labor Standards with the intent to update our local domestic worker standards ordinance legislation.

And to support this, next week, my office alongside the Office of Labor Standards are co-sponsoring two policy development public meetings to hear directly from impacted domestic workers on what their needs are.

The first is on Monday, April 6th at Casa Latina.

And the second is on Wednesday, April 8th on Zoom.

Both meetings will be 5.30 to 7.30.

And to sign up, please email laborstandards at seattle.gov.

And with those opening remarks, I am now going to open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?

Currently, we have one in-person speaker and there are zero remote speakers.

Thank you.

Our one speaker will have two minutes, and we will be starting with our in-person speaker.

Clerk, will you please read the public comment instructions?

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

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order, excuse me, speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

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

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left on their time.

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

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

Thank you, clerk.

Our first and only speaker on the list is Alex Zimmerman.

Mr. Is it working?

Okay.

Yeah.

My name, Alex Zimmerman.

Yeah.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

I'm 15 times candidate for election, 15 times.

Yeah.

They prosecute them, Nazi, fascist, Gestapo bastard, prosecute me seven times, all cases dismissed.

And I have 7,000 days of trespass.

I repeat for idiot what is don't understand what's going on in this city, in king country.

I have 7,000 day of trespass.

Nobody in America have 7,000 day of trespass.

Right now I want speak to people who give me trespass.

For example, last trespass what has happened one month ago, approximately, make for me a chair, a black woman.

My question to her right now very interesting because we're talking about human, human, human, human.

Mr. Zimmerman, can I pause time for a second?

Can I ask you to keep your remarks related to the purview of this committee?

Exactly, that's exactly what I want to talk about.

I introduce myself, right now I want to talk.

So, Chair, black woman, my question to her, very simple, about human rights.

You're talking about human rights all the time.

Yeah.

And you know who's Martin Luther King?

The one he did, why he kill him?

Because he have different opinion in fighting for human rights.

So my question right now to people in Seattle, to council in Seattle, who for last 20 year, give me 22 traffic tickets, so five year I cannot come and talking.

So you chair, black woman, understand different between Alex Zimmerner and Martin Luther King?

No, you don't.

Is this a problem, what is we have?

When you're thinking, so Martin Luther King, a bad boy, he killed them because he's a bad boy, same to belong to me.

We were Trump, we were New American Revolution, stand up, slave and happy cow, and clean this dirty chamber from this bandit.

I would like the record to reflect that those final comments there were discriminatory in nature and out of accordance with our council rules, particularly behavior such as threats, personal attacks, or use of racial, misogynistic, or gender-related slurs or abusive language are considered disorderly conduct.

I would like that to be reflected for the record.

And with that, clerk, do we have any additional speakers signed up?

We have no additional speakers.

With that, I will be closing the hybrid public comment period.

And we will move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read items one through six into the record?

Item one, equitable development initiative overview, briefing and discussion.

Item two, appointment 0-3-4-5-7, reappointment of Juan Rodriguez as member of the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for a term to February 29, 2028, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Item three, appointment 0-3-4-5-8, reappointment of Finico Glover Jr. as member of Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for a term of February 28, 2029, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Appointment 0-3-4-5-9, reappointment of Eliana Horne as member of Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for a term to February 28th, 2029, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Item 5, appointment 0-3-4-6-0, reappointment of Tiffany Kelly Gray as member of Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for a term to February 28th, 2029, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Item 6, appointment 03461, reappointment of Stephanie Lockman as member Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for a term to February 28th, 2029, briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Wonderful.

At this time, I believe our folks are joining us virtually, correct?

Good morning.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to unmute myself.

Good morning.

Good morning.

We're just getting tech ready to be able to see you.

Give us one moment.

Colleagues, we'll be at ease for one moment.

All right, thank you.

With that, please proceed with the presentation of the appointments.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Toipa Mathew.

I am with the Office of Planning Community Development in the Equitable Development Initiative Division.

And OPCD's mission really is that we lead with collaborative planning, advance equitable development, and create great places.

So again, what was mentioned, I am here to present on five board members who are looking for a reappointment to their position for the EDI Advisory Board.

So move forward.

Just a quick overview, the EDI in terms of the purpose of the advisory board.

This one was established to really help support around advising, provide recommendations to the city all around connecting with equitable development strategies and goals.

and to support staff around providing guidance and recommendations of the allocation of funds to the public.

In the same process, really the SPART Advisory Board is key in promoting access to opportunities for historically marginalized community groups, particularly with the black, indigenous and other communities of color, immigrant communities and the LGBTQ plus communities and people with disabilities within the Seattle area.

OPCD staff are providing administrative support to the board particularly my position and for the advisory board we have 13 board members all due to our ordinance are subject to city council confirmation and all 13 board members terms are up to three years no they can't do more than two consecutive years.

And now the 13 board members, three of them are city council appointed, three are mayor appointed, and seven are advisory board appointed.

And as mentioned, we have five board members seeking for reappointments.

Position two, three, five, nine, and 11, just letting you know that position two is actually a board member who was filling a vacant seat from a previous board member who left their term early.

So they were filling in kind of like a weird gap.

So they're seeking reappointment to fill their first term actually.

and for the rest of the board members for position three, five, nine, and 11 are seeking their second term with us.

Without further ado, I would love to move on to brag about our amazing board members.

I'm not quite sure if this is following in your packet, but I'll start with Stephanie Lockman, position two, which is actually a mayor-appointed position.

Stephanie Lockman is currently actually a senior business finance officer who used to work for the People's Solar Energy Fund as a loan officer, which is a member-driven nonprofit organization that truly supports community groups around affordable financing, capacity building, technical assistance to advance community accountable clean energy projects.

And Stephanie has, prior to all that, Stephanie has experience around as a business lender, supporting small businesses and nonprofits, supporting small businesses and mission-based nonprofits.

as the community lenders in Denver and the Pacific Northwest.

Stephanie has supported really particularly BIPOC-owned businesses and startup expansion loans, brought social impact and climate lens to her work, and has worked in Senegal in both Catholic Relief Services, the Peace Corps, where she also worked with young folks around entrepreneurship and has provided income-generating activities for women groups and at the same time provided one-on-one mentorship for business owners.

She holds an MBA from Colorado State University and that really focuses on food waste division.

And she has a bachelor's degree in finance and a minor in French from the Washington State University.

Moving forward to John R. Juan Rodriguez for position three, which is a mayor appointed position.

John is actually originally from the Dominican Republic, has been raised in New York City as well, and recently has called Seattle his home for the last few years.

With that, John has more than 15 years as being a human rights advocate, particularly with the LGBTQ plus community.

and has worn different mini hats, been an executive director of different nonprofits locally and as well in different countries.

His professional background really ranges from business consultant, nonprofit development, communications, business management, has been in the travel industry, marketing research and sales.

He has He has been part of different variety of advisory boards and consulting the last few years he's been involved, particularly with the Dominican Association of Washington States, an organization he actually founded in Seattle, built to really support the BIPOC network, again, really interconnecting with the LGBTQ plus community.

He has also served as the co-chair for Seattle LGBTQ commission from 2019 to 2020 and has served as the executive director from the Seattle chapter of Affirmation of LGBTQ Mormons, Families and Friends, an organization that's close to his heart that supports LGBTQ members and queer ex-members of the LDS church and faith and founded the Dominican chapter for this particular organization.

And I did forget to mention that he was also a human rights ambassador with the United Nations and the Caribbean.

He currently, right now, if he already didn't have so many hats on, he currently serves as the executive director for It Gets Better Project affiliated with the Dominican Republic and co-chairs advisory committees around health providers for local and regional health programs serving King County, Snohomish, and the Island Counties.

And he focuses on supporting peer support groups around spiritual and emotional support around suicide prevention for the LGBTQ youth in Seattle and is fluent in both English and in Spanish.

for position number five.

And that one is a city council appointed position, is a local community leader with more than a decade of experience around economic development, particularly focusing on centered and inclusive initiatives that uplift underserved community.

He was actually a former city employee as an economic development manager and did a lot of work particularly in the Rainier Beach area.

He did a lot of work in the Rainier Beach area through job creation, citizenship planning, building key community partnerships that and in that process as well he has worked with a lot of local King County social services around leading participatory budgeting efforts to make sure the local residents had a direct voice in public investment decision making.

He is again mentioned earlier that he's a local community leader meaning that he's also has roots, deep roots in South Seattle, South and West Seattle.

He as committed to around youth empowerment, particularly around anti-displacement efforts in the community and expanding any sort of opportunities to really uplift the communities in the area.

He has co-founded a lot of grassroots organizations really focusing on these spaces and still remains to this day involved in local community groups, really focusing on land stewardship, housing justice and economic development.

He holds a degree from he holds degrees from an urban and planning and regional planning from Alabama Agriculture and Mechanical University, as well as Arizona State University.

So being local with his background, he's really excited to continue to bring those skills to the advisory board.

Tiffany Kelly Gray for position nine.

And this is a board appointed position.

Tiffany is considered a community advocate and visionary leader with a vast experience around advocating for equity and community empowerment with particularly in the Seattle Central District.

Currently, she is Bird Bar's Place Impact and Strategic Initiative Director.

And this is a nonprofit rooted in the Central District that provides safety net services to Seattle residents or anyone really who walks through their doors in need of services without the stigma.

She leads the fund development partnership strategies that combats displacement and truly addresses system inequalities while staying rooted in the Central District.

and part of her expertise and experience, she used to work for Merrill Lynch as a manager, a community lender at the Fifth and Third Bank, really along with roles in the economic development at the Central Area Collaborative.

And with all that too, she still serves as a board of trustee at the local Bertschy School, where she also chairs the Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee.

Not only does she work in the Central District, but she also is a longtime resident of the Central District.

And she's really deeply committed to expanding anything around wealth building opportunities for the community, for certain marginalized community groups.

and preventing any sort of displacement and talking with the focus of advancing equitable and community-led developments in the area.

Last but not least, we have Eliana Horn for position 11, which is a board-appointed position.

Eliana is an attorney, a community advocate, police and policy analysis with, again, another extensive background in tenant organizing, legal representation around community-led land development.

Eliana has over a decade of experience in supporting community stewardship of lands, pathways towards racial, economic and gender climate justice work.

So Eliana holds a GED from Fooney School of Law, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

And currently, all again, works around closely working with local BIPOC community groups to advance democratic control of land use and around housing.

They are currently, the policy analysis are at Peaches Sound Sage, a local nonprofit.

And not only they do that, they have founded a, they are the founder of interdependent law that conducts policy research, advancing campaigns, and legal counsel for community-based projects.

And so previously, their previous work has also included tenants unions of Washington and Colectiva Legal del Pueblo, where they led anti-displacement efforts and represented marginalized community groups.

Eliana has shown a strong commitment to advance equitable development through community leadership.

That was the five board members we are seeking for reappointment to the EDI Advisory Board.

That was a quick snapshot of their extensive background.

I am open to any discussions or questions.

Thank you so much for presenting in committee this morning.

Colleagues, any questions?

Not seeing any.

All right.

Well, with that, we are going to take these appointments up as a package to move them forward.

So...

I move that the committee recommend the appointments for confirmation.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded.

Any final comments?

All right, easy.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll on the recommendation to confirm the appointments?

Chair Rank.

Yes.

Vice Chair Foster.

Yes.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

There are four in favor, zero opposed, and zero abstentions.

Great, thank you.

The motion carries, and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the April 14th City Council meeting.

Thank you, colleagues.

And now we're going to move to our next item of business.

Will the committee clerk please read item seven into the record?

Item seven, Domestic Worker Standards Board, DWSB, overview, briefing, and discussion.

Wonderful, colleagues.

And as our guests come up to the table, again, want to take a moment to just celebrate the work that has been going on for years from the Domestic Workers Standards Board, but also the many organizations from the Fair Work Center to Casa Latina, who have been a part of these efforts.

We're gonna be hearing directly from them today about the scope of their work, a little bit of history, and where we're going next.

So really excited to be having them all in committee this morning.

When folks get settled in, if you can take a moment and introduce yourself by stating your name and organization into the microphone for the record.

Welcome again, bienvenidos.

Okay.

Buenos días, estimado Comité de Servicios Humanos, Trabajo y Desarrollo Económico.

Good morning, Committee of Domestic Workers Standards, Human Services, Labor and Economic Development Committee.

Gracias por la invitación para presentar a la Mesa de Estándares Laborales de las Trabajadoras del Hogar y Trabajadores del Hogar de la Ciudad de Seattle.

Thank you for the invitation for us to present to the Domestic Workers Standards Board of Domestic Workers in the City of Seattle.

My name is Silvia Gonzalez, one of the co-presidents of Domestic Workers, organization manager, home worker representative of Casa Latina.

My name is Silvia Gonzalez.

I'm one of the co-chairs of DWSB.

I'm a manager of the organization.

I'm a representative of domestic workers of Casa Latina.

These are my colleagues.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Jordan Goldwarg.

I use he, him pronouns, and I have been a resident of District 4 for 16 years.

I also serve on the Domestic Workers Standards Board in one of the employer seats.

I employ a house cleaner in my home, and I got connected to the Domestic Workers Standards Board through the organization Hand in Hand.

which is a national organization that organizes employers of domestic workers to be in solidarity with the domestic worker rights movement.

Ms. Good morning.

Good morning, Chair Mercedes Rink, Vice Chair Foster, members of the committee.

My name is Diana Salazar.

I'm a policy analyst and board liaison between the Domestic Workers Standards Board and our Office of Labor Standards.

Happy to be here today.

Okay, thanks.

Great.

I'd like to kick us off just by sharing a brief overview of the purpose of our presentation today.

We'll start off by going into a little bit more detail about what the role of the Standards Board is and how we collaborate with the Office of Labor Standards.

Then we'll provide a history and overview of the Standards Board.

We want to make sure that we share some of the ongoing work that's happening and also some of the future work that we're moving towards.

We want to touch a little bit more on the recent state law when protecting domestic workers that Councilmember Rank referenced in the introduction today.

And then, of course, we want to make sure that we have time for questions as well.

So just to start off with some background, this is a timeline going back to when the city passed the ordinance.

in 2018. I think it's worth emphasizing that Seattle was the very first city in the country to pass a domestic worker bill of rights.

And to this day, we are still the only jurisdiction to have passed a bill of rights that also includes an oversight board like the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

and also just want to highlight a couple of things on here in terms of support that council has given to the board in the past to continue furthering our work.

And so both in the fall of 2021 and also again in 2023, Council allocated one-time funding to support the work of the Board.

In 2021, that was to support specific recommendations that the Board made to Council, and that was part of the initial charter of the Board.

We were required to make those recommendations, and we were grateful to Council for the financial support that they gave to help further that, including grants to community organizations to further organize workers in this space.

And Sylvia will talk a little bit more about that later on.

And then again, in fall 2023, Council allocated funding to support a report, the creation of a report that OLS made on expanding paid time off benefits to workers.

It also supported a grant to an organization to do awareness about Seattle's paid sick and safe time law to employers of domestic workers.

And with that, I'll pass it on to Deanna to talk a little bit more about our relationship with OLS.

Yes, thank you, Jordan.

So what you see in front of you today is our standard enforcement model or process for our labor standards that we enforce at OLS.

It typically starts with a worker coming to us to make a complaint.

An investigator from our enforcement team will then meet with that worker, review any documents, if they brought any documents like a pay stub, And if the next step is to open an investigation, we will provide a notice to the hiring entity of that investigation and request any records so that the investigator can conduct a proper investigation.

A majority of our resolutions end in a settlement agreement where our office is able to assess penalties and fines per the ordinance, per our enforcement code, where we also announce the resolution publicly.

It's also available on our website.

As standard, we never ask about immigration status.

We are able to provide interpretation and translation, and all of our services are free.

In the close to seven years of enforcing this law, we have learned a lot about what it means to enforce a domestic worker's ordinance, and for the many reasons that Councilmember Mercedes-Ring already mentioned, why domestic workers have a hard time coming forward to us.

It's incredibly hard for all workers to come file a complaint, especially right now, given everything that's going on at the federal level.

But it's also exceptionally hard for domestic workers, again, for the reasons that have already been mentioned.

I will quickly provide Some of the reasons here, we are talking about a workforce that has been historically excluded from major labor protections at the national level, protections that all other workers already have and have had for close to 100 years.

And this, again, is rooted in misogyny, sexism, and anti-black racism, and also anti-immigrant sentiments.

We are also talking about a workplace that is people's homes.

Typically, when we talk about workplaces, we think of not the home.

We think about restaurants or hotels or buildings downtown.

We oftentimes don't think about our home actually being a workplace.

And that is something that we have to do a cultural shift, in particular with hiring entities, that their work, or excuse me, that their house is a workplace for a domestic worker.

And then lastly, I want to highlight the informal referral economy that happens in the domestic worker space.

Most of the workers actually get jobs through Facebook groups, through word of mouth, through parent groups, for example, in particular nannies, through neighborhood groups, like if somebody really enjoyed their landscaper, then they go ahead and tell their neighbor, for example.

And all of these are reasons why workers oftentimes do not feel like they can come to us and have led into low complaint rates in our office.

And that is consistent with what we have seen at the state level.

Researchers at the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University recently did a minimum wage study focusing in Washington state.

and what they found, if I can draw your attention on quadrant two, private households and social assistance experienced high violation rate, yet were the ones least likely to come forward.

They found low complaint rates.

So again, we're seeing folks in the domestic worker industry experiencing high violation rate, but are the least likely to come forward to any state agency to remedy their situation.

So what we did at OLS is through the thought partnership of the Domestic Worker Standards Board is we really wanted to ask ourselves, what does success look like?

Or how can we measure our impact beyond cases, beyond how many folks come forward?

And we really wanted to think creatively and strategically about how we enforce this law.

The first, what we've learned in our best practice is invest in community expertise.

Again, we're talking about workers that often do invisible work, quote unquote invisible work, are often immigrant, Black women, people of color, where English may not be their main language or the language they feel most comfortable in.

So in order to invest in community expertise, in order to do that well, we need to center language access and language justice.

and that includes translating all of our materials, all of our resources into various languages.

I believe we have 20-plus languages available, including Mixteco, which is my parents' indigenous language, which when I saw that, I was very surprised because it's a very...

There's not a lot of us here in Seattle.

We're mostly in California.

But that just shows, again, the intentionality and the commitment that we have at OLS to really make sure that our resources are available to everybody in the city.

Hiring entity outreach and education has been critical in getting the word out.

Again, we're talking about a workplace that they perform work in people's homes.

And so we had to do a lot of education and continue to do education for hiring entities to think about their home as a workplace.

What we found is that hiring entities want to comply, that they want to do the right thing.

I'll let the board discuss more about the campaign that they've done in reaching out to different hiring entities across the city, but we do see that translate into seeking resources, coming to us and accessing more information about other laws that they may be required to comply, for example, the paid sick and safe time law.

So again, all of this, we are hoping to lead into a societal shift in perception of who is, who are domestic workers, where do they work, and as council member Mercedes Ring said, that domestic workers make all other work possible.

And again, all of this learning would not have been possible without the thought partnership that is the board.

So with that, I will pass it back to the board.

Thanks so much, Deanna, for providing that overview.

Before I pass it over to Sylvia to go into a lot more detail about the work of the board, I did just want to highlight one thing here from the municipal code and the language that authorized the creation of the board, which is that when it talks about making recommendations to the city, the city has been interpreted very broadly there to include all parts of the city government.

And so the board has worked closely not only with OLS, but also with the mayor's office and with city council over the years to try to advance our work.

Gracias, Jordan.

Voy a hablar un poquito de las características del board.

Thank you, Jordan.

I am going to speak a little bit about the characteristics of the board.

Una de las características es que tiene una membresía, como lo mencionaba creo que la concejal Alexis, tiene una membresía representada por trabajadores del hogar de cada sector, como niñeras, limpiadoras de casa, personas mayores y empleadores.

Y también esta membresía incluye a empleadores o higher entity y a comunidades.

Un segundito.

Okay.

This has a membership, and the membership is represented for domestic workers in every sector, such as nannies, house cleaners, caretakers for older people and also they have the hiring entities and different part of the community.

Esta mesa de estándares laborales ha sido una de las pioneras en la justicia del lenguaje, dando la oportunidad para que los trabajadores podamos expresarnos en nuestro idioma.

En un inicio eran dos lenguajes, el inglés y el español.

but now there are meetings in English, Spanish and Ukrainian.

That is so powerful.

This board of the labor standards has been one of the pioneers in language justice, giving the opportunity for all the workers to be able to express themselves in their own language.

At the beginning, it was only two languages, English and Spanish, but now the meetings are in English, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

This is very powerful.

Okay.

The board is the main actor.

They are the ones that give the recommendations to OLS and at the same time they do all the presentations to the council and also to the office of the mayor.

In other words, we are working.

Otra de las características del board es que somos el modelo único en toda la nación.

Nos han contactado de otros estados como la coalición de trabajadores de uñas en Nueva York, los de trabajadores de Nueva York, los sindicatos de las uñas, salones de masaje, para compartir con ellos estrategias avances y desafíos sobre cómo ellos pueden lograr la creación de una junta de normas como mecanismo para mejorar y hacer cumplir los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar y de otros sectores laborales.

Nos sentimos orgullosos de todo el trabajo que realizamos en la junta y de los resultados que hemos logrado.

Another characteristic of the board is that we are the unique model in the whole nation.

We've been contacted from other states like the coalition, workers coalition, domestic workers coalition from New York, also unions for nail salons and also massage parlors.

They want us to share strategies, improvements, and challenges.

And how can they to do the same thing.

How can they create a standard board for a mechanism to improve and enforce all the rights of all the domestic workers and other labor sectors?

We are very proud of everything that we did in this board and of the results that we achieved.

Recientemente fuimos invitados por UCLA Labor Center para hablar qué es lo que estamos haciendo en la ciudad de Seattle porque tanto impacto nacional y lo que hacemos en la ciudad de Seattle obviamente tiene impacto a nivel estatal pero a nivel nacional y

Recently, we were invited by UCLA, the labor center.

They wanted to know what is that we are doing here in the city of Seattle that is having such a big impact, not only the state level, but also Why is it important?

¿Por qué es importante todo esto?

Tener una junta de normas laborales es importante porque reúne a los trabajadores y empleadores cada mes para hablar de cómo mejorar las condiciones de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Why is it so important to have all of this?

Because this is getting together domestic workers and hiring entities every month to talk about how to improve the labor conditions for domestic workers.

It's a formal mechanism for a unique and continuous advocacy.

It's important and it's constant because this is the only way to get better results.

Es importante porque es la voz de los trabajadores del hogar donde son escuchados en espacios seguros.

It's important because this is the voice of the domestic workers.

This is a place where they can be heard and this is a safe place for them.

Educa e informa a los empleadores haciéndoles saber que su casa es un lugar de trabajo.

This also informs and educates hiring entities for them to know that their homes is a place of work.

Y es importante porque crea una estructura para la gobernanza más inclusiva porque incluye justicia lingüística, presupuesto participativo y estipendios para los que representan a cientos de los trabajadores del hogar en el BOR.

This is important because it creates a structure for governing in a way that is much more inclusive because it includes language justice, participative budget, and also grants for representing all the domestic workers.

Jordan spoke a little bit about timeline.

I'm going to stop a little bit and I'm going to talk about 2021.

In 2021, the board had three very important recommendations for the council.

La primera recomendación fue invertir en la experiencia de la comunidad.

El concilio como respuesta dio subvenciones para organizaciones de trabajadores del hogar para lograr hacer alcance y educación para más trabajadoras del hogar y empleadores.

The first recommendation was to invest more in the community experience.

The council, they gave more grants for different organizations for domestic workers so they could get more outreach and education for more of the domestic workers and also the hiring entities.

La segunda recomendación fue proporcionar más materiales y recursos para la ordenanza de los trabajadores del hogar para seguir haciendo más alcance y educación.

Como respuesta, tuvimos más folletos, volantes, videos informativos, artículos promocionales con la marca del Domestic Workers Ordinance y anuncios en la radio.

The second recommendation was to provide more materials and resources for the ordinance of domestic workers for them to continue doing more outreach and education.

Also, as a response, we got more flyers, information videos, more of promotional And the third was to establish portable benefits for home workers.

The third one was to establish

benefits for all the domestic workers.

the Office of the Labor Standards, OLS, in partnership with members of the community and the public, they published an investigations and the results of what is the PTO in 2025. In this study, there was a lot of participation about different groups.

They were focus groups, and they were house cleaners, nannies, caretakers, and also gardeners.

What are we doing now?

What are the projects that we are doing and they are ongoing?

Actualmente los proyectos en curso de la Junta es seguir trabajando con dos comités.

El comité de póliza y el comité de alcance para seguir avanzando con nuestro plan de trabajo.

También seguir involucrados en recomendaciones para el presupuesto.

At the moment, the ongoing projects of the board are to continue working with two committees.

One is the policy committee and the other one is the outreach committee, so we can continue with our work plan.

We are also engaged and we want to know more recommendations for the budget.

And now?

Great.

Thanks, Silvia.

As Silvia was speaking, I was reminded that oftentimes when people ask me about the Standards Board, I tell them that it has been one of the most meaningful civic engagement experiences I've ever had, and just like one of the most meaningful volunteer experiences, period.

And I think that is coming through in terms of what you see around things like language justice, accessibility, inclusivity, and just the board's ability to actually affect change.

And I think particularly over the last few years as any sort of work around immigrant rights and worker rights at the national level has been so difficult, the work that we're doing here in the city has a tangible real impact on people's lives.

And not only for workers, but I think that the domestic worker movement is one of the few truly cross-class, cross-racial organizing spaces of solidarity that we see in the country right now.

And that's been really powerful in terms of bringing employers into the movement as well and recognizing that justice is necessary for all of us tied together.

So I want to talk a little bit about future work that is coming up for the board.

And we've shared some of this information with some council members that we've had the opportunity to meet with in the last few months.

But the big thing that's coming up is back in November, the board voted to recommend three proposed amendments to the ordinance.

and OLS is currently working on drafting those amendments and our hope is that those amendments will be approved by council at some point in 2026. So the first of those amendments is to mandate written agreements between employers and workers, and this reflects a real shift in what workers want and what's been considered best practice since the original ordinance was drafted.

At that time, a lot of workers, particularly ones who were fearful about immigration status, were concerned about having a requirement for particularly written contracts, and that word contracts could invoke fear for people.

But over the years, what we have seen is that workers really have come to believe that the benefits of having written agreements and having the terms of their work formalized with their employer outweigh any potential risk that comes from having that written documentation.

And so there's strong agreement now among workers that the ordinance should be amended to include written agreements.

The second amendment, which really comes out of some of the experience that OLS has had on the enforcement side, would require employers to maintain records of hours worked.

And obviously this is something that most workers in most sectors take for granted that there's going to be a record of, you know, timesheets and hours that people have worked, but that's not currently required in the ordinance.

And what that has meant is that when there are enforcement actions, particularly around wage theft, employers can just deny, you know, plausibly deny that, well, there's no record of this, and so, you know, the worker has no proof that they actually are owed these hours.

And so, the Second Amendment is to require employers to maintain records of hours worked.

And then the third amendment relates a little bit to the question of paid time off, which is something that we'll sort of keep coming back to.

But this amendment would include anti-retaliation protections for workers who use time off.

And so currently, we know that many workers don't even have access to time off, to paid time off.

But when they do, or even if workers want to take unpaid time off, fear of retaliation is one of the things that stops workers from doing that.

And so we want to include an anti-retaliation protection.

So those three amendments are in process.

As Councilmember Rank mentioned, there's two listening sessions with stakeholders happening next week to get public feedback and input on those.

And we sincerely hope that Council will take those up and pass them before the end of 2026. Outside of those amendments, I want to speak just a little bit more broadly about paid time off.

So again, this has been a major focus of work because so many workers do not have access to paid time off.

In some cases, there are workers who are classified as W-2 employees, like nannies who work many hours for a single employer, and those workers actually are covered under the city's existing PSST ordinance.

But again, because of the informal nature of the work, because employers don't often recognize that they are employers in the way that we typically think of it, workers are not accessing that benefit.

And so there's a need to do continued outreach and education along those lines.

But then there are so many domestic workers, particularly those who work a few number of hours for many employers over the course of a month, like house cleaners.

And those employers currently generally don't have access to any kind of paid time off benefit.

and that's going to require creativity and innovation, looking at things like a publicly managed fund to provide that paid time off benefit.

NOLS published two reports at the end of last year that go into a lot more detail about possible paths forward for expanding PTO access to all domestic workers.

Next, there's just going to need to be continued creativity and innovation in outreach, education, and enforcement for all the reasons that we've talked about.

I can say, just build on what Sylvia shared from the employer side, OLS, through its partner Hand in Hand, has used so many strategies to try to reach employers, and that's everything from like presentations to PEPS groups, to tabling at farmers' markets to a couple of sessions of door-to-door canvassing in neighborhoods that we've done to share information about the ordinance with employers.

And that type of creativity and persistence is required so that employers and workers alike know what their rights and responsibilities are under the ordinance.

And then there's also just a need for ongoing community engagement to determine what the emerging needs are.

And I think to come back to the written agreements for a second, that I think points to the importance of having a Sanders board where worker voices are continually involved in the process.

Because as we know, best practices change and, you know, what workers want can change over time.

And so having this formal structure of the board and the outreach that the board helps to facilitate is one of those things that really helps to inform the work moving forward.

Sylvia talked a little bit already about the many ways in which the board has been a national leader.

There's a few more bullet points here that share that.

I can also include that last year, Sylvia and I were invited to present to the New York Domestic Worker Coalition about the work of the Standards Board as they try to bring a similar board into that jurisdiction.

We also always try to think about how we can improve and things that we can be doing better.

One sort of continual area for improvement is continuing to expand representation and the voices of workers from communities that are not currently on the board We know that we have good representation from Spanish-speaking communities and Garifuna-speaking communities.

As Silvia mentioned, we now have a Ukrainian board member and are doing trilingual interpretation.

But just as one example, we have no Asian-American representation on the board currently, and we know that there are many other communities whose members are engaged in domestic work.

And so there's a need for us to continue doing outreach to ensure that more community voices are included.

Another thing that we want to keep working on is continuing to sort of demystify city governance processes to include accessibility and make it easier for everyone to participate in the work.

We know that, you know, coming to a public meeting for a board or commission when you're not familiar with the process can be very intimidating.

There's lots of acronyms.

There's lots of inside language that's used.

And it takes a lot of work to build trust and safety and to make people feel welcome and included in that.

And that extends also to some city processes.

And so as one example, the required trainings that board and commission members are required to attend when they join a board or commission were offered unilingually in English until just recently when, thanks to Deanna's efforts, We were able to host a training for all DWSB members, and that training included simultaneous interpretation into Spanish.

We recorded that meeting, and I believe that the city clerk's office is now using that recording to train other boards and commissions as new members join.

And so that's great that we've got Spanish, but we know there's so many other languages that people speak in the city, And so continuing to increase accessibility and inclusion and demystifying the governance process is important.

With that, I'll turn it back to Silvia.

Gracias, Jordan.

Ahora voy a hablar de algo que todavía sigo celebrando, y yo creo que no soy la única.

La victoria de la ley estatal para los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar.

Este fue un triunfo liderado por las voces de los trabajadores del hogar en colaboración con la coalición de trabajadoras del hogar del estado de Washington.

which is formed by Alagarifona, Casa Latina, Fair Work Center, Work in Washington, Firelands, Hand in Hand, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and SIU 775.

Okay.

Thank you, Jordan.

Now, I'm going to talk about something that I'm still rejoicing on, celebrating, and I am not the only one.

That is the victory of the law, the state law, for all the domestic workers, for the rights of the domestic workers, all of them.

This was a success, and it was This is a very important thing for all the voices, for all the domestic workers, and this was done in collaboration with the Coalition of Domestic Workers of the State of Washington.

It consists of ALA Garifuna, Ala Garifuna, Casa Latina, Fair Work Center, Slash Work in Washington, Firelands, Hand in Hand, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and SEIU 775.

But I also want to highlight the role of the Junta.

Several members of the Junta who represent the home workers were key organizers for this mobilization.

And the support Bravo!

But I want to emphasize also the role that the board, various members of the board that represents domestic workers, and they were also some key organizers for this mobilization.

And also the support of Seattle slash OLS, that was a very important point in the hearing sessions for the state the state bill.

And also the testimony that was shared, it was very impactful in the experience and in the results of the Bill of Rights for the city of Seattle.

Bravo.

We are the 13th state to have a Bill of Rights for domestic workers.

And I know that the council, Alexis, mentioned it a little while ago, but what did we gain at the state level?

Que los trabajadores del hogar que trabajan con un empleador o hire entity por más de cuatro horas cada mes tienen el derecho siguiente.

Derecho al salario mínimo del estado, derecho a un acuerdo con información sobre sus derechos, prohíbelos que los documentos personales sean confiscados, protecciones contra represarias, avisos de despedida, derechos de acción directa y enforzamiento por medio del Washington Labor and Industries.

Esa nueva ley entrará en vigor a partir del primero de julio del 2027.

Councilmember Alexis already mentioned it, but what did we win?

Domestic workers that work with a hiring entity for more than four hours per month, they have the following rights.

Minimum wage, the state minimum wage.

They also have the right to have a formal contract with more information about their rights.

They are not allowed, it's forbidden for the hiring entity to take their personal documents and confiscate them.

They have protections against retaliation.

If they are gonna be fired, they need to have previous notice and they need also rights for direct action and the enforcement by the Washington Labor and Industries, LNI,

to all their rights.

This new law, this new state law will start on July 1st of 2027. Thank you, Diana, for the photos.

Here we have two photos that project tremendous energy.

We have here two pictures that they show a very immense energy.

Those were taken on March 9th and there was not enough space for all of us.

Before the signing of this bill, there was another one, a previous one.

Y estaba viendo, porque también estuve en la otra, y estaba viendo la foto anterior y había tanto espacio para más gente en la foto, pero esta foto genera una energía y un poder Muy bonito.

I was present at the signing of the previous bill, and there was almost nobody there.

There was so much empty space.

But this picture shows so much energy, so much power.

Y la representante Brianna Thomas lo dice todo en esa foto.

Representative Brianna Thomas, she says everything you need to know about in that picture.

But we have, this year is going to be a lot of work.

Rulemaking.

we need to create more focus groups and outreach every single county in the state of Washington.

Thank you.

I love this picture.

Thank you, Diana.

These are pictures of the places we were together with the board.

Gracias.

Preguntas?

Questions?

Preguntas?

Preguntas?

Preguntas?

Recognizing Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair.

And thank you for presenting to us today.

And I really appreciated the briefing that we had a few weeks ago to hear about your work and your organizing.

And I just appreciate the energy, the hard work, and the joy, especially in the pictures that you shared in the presentation.

My question is, I know you walked through those three potential updates to the ordinance, one of them being around requiring a written contract.

And I was thinking about this and I wanted to hear more about how you're thinking about what would constitute a contract, especially knowing this work as you've described it is sometimes formal and sometimes informal.

And so, for example, a text message confirming, you know, we'll see you next Tuesday or, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

Just curious if there's more that you can share.

And I know in other court cases, that's been enough for a contract.

Even there was a case that I...

I'd love to hear more about how that written contract is being conceptualized.

Thank you, Councilmember.

That's a great question.

Yes, so that is one of the points of the stakeholder meetings next week, is to hear from workers.

For example, as Jordan mentioned, we are calling it written agreements because I think contracts does have, especially when we translate, does have a different tone.

And for that, one of the questions is, how do you typically reach an agreement currently?

Is it text message, email?

Ultimately, we just want to make sure that both the hiring entities and the domestic workers are aware of what their responsibilities are, what is expected when they arrive to perform their work, and the location, their pay.

As Silvia mentioned, the state recently did add requirement for written agreements for the state.

So there's language there that we can look at as well for some guidance.

Thank you so much.

And I appreciate the correction to written agreements.

I'll use that language moving forward and looking forward to hearing more.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

This is why I asked Diana.

It's agreement or contract?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

Recognizing Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm also going to ask a question about a contract.

And as a non-practicing lawyer, commercial lawyer, who has negotiated countless multi-million dollar complex licensing deals and also represented individuals and communities and small businesses pro bono, helping them establish and grow their businesses, I have a lot of personal insight and expertise with contracts in particular, and so when Councilmember Foster was talking about contracts earlier in the emoji case, I was traumatized a little bit to my, a little bit of a throwback to my first year of law school, my contracts class, but contracts generally require offer, acceptance, and consideration.

But it is a great and valid point about contracting.

I would be curious to better understand sort of the purpose and goal of that beyond protection of the workers.

because as someone who's drafted, structured, negotiated, helped interpret and advise on contracts for people, contracts can be very complex.

And it can be in the form of a text message, writing on a napkin, or a formal legal document or agreement.

But when we're talking about you know, someone generally hiring a worker, especially one from immigrant and refugee backgrounds and communities, many of which I represented in my previous pro bono work.

These are not what's known as an arm's-length transaction, meaning in an arm's-length transaction, it assumes multiple things, including that Each party has equal bargaining power, equal bargaining position.

That's not at all the case in these situations generally.

And so what does that mean?

It means there's a lot of asymmetry in the bargaining power and position of the respective parties, the ultimate result of which can lead to very unfavorable and very confusing terms for workers.

If those terms in the contract are litigated in court, can lead to findings of unconscionability.

The notion that the contract is not enforceable because the terms are just so unfair and one-sided, which many of them are.

So beyond the sort of mere requirement of having a contract or a written agreement of some sort in whatever form, Again, would just love to better understand kind of like the purpose and goal here.

And as a lawyer, just trained to think around corners and anticipate issues.

Are you thinking about, for example, as part of this new legislation, adding a model contract, model provisions of some sort?

including minimum, and these are just illustrative examples, including minimum required terms that workers need and want, like the term of the contract, when it starts, when it ends, the pay, how it can be terminated or ended.

Those strike me as key terms that are more favorable and workers would want more certainty around and clarity up front around.

How are you thinking about purpose and goal, question one?

Two is, how do you think about potentially implementing this?

It's a great idea, by the way, but I just want to help us think around some corners here.

A lot of issues lurking there.

Maybe I can start and then, yeah, I would love both of you to jump in also.

Those are great questions.

And on a practical level, so yes, definitely yes to model agreements.

And in fact, OLS already publishes a model agreement that is, you know, currently entirely optional, right?

And so this is something that would require, you know, make that a requirement.

I think, you know, maybe just to give some examples that we hear about on the board, you know, from an employer perspective, I think that oftentimes the value of a written agreement just really helps to bring clarity and transparency to what the expectations are, even for like a one-time cleaning one-time house cleaning.

And some workers prefer to work by, you know, charge a specific amount for a job and say, you know, I'll charge X dollars to clean your home.

Some people have an hourly rate.

And that can lead to a lot of you know, confusion in terms of, you know, if we're doing the hourly rate, but you have an expectation that I'm gonna be, you know, cleaning the inside of your refrigerator, and I didn't know that that was the expectation, that's gonna take more time, right?

we need to know ahead of time what are the specific terms of what's gonna be done during the job.

And I think what I hear on the board as well is that contracts become a tool of education and empowerment for workers as well, and knowing that this is an expectation many workers feel more empowered to actually have that conversation upfront before accepting a job to know what specifically is being expected of them.

And so it becomes a tool for empowerment, for transparency, for education on both sides.

And I think just the last thing I'll add before I pass it over is we're in the fortunate position of, even though we were the first city to pass a Bill of Rights, many subsequent Bills of Rights have been passed in other jurisdictions that have required written agreements.

And so we have other examples to look from and to learn from.

And to my knowledge, I don't know of any legal cases that have been brought related to written agreements for domestic work.

Thank you, Jordan.

And that's why the focus groups are going to be very important, because the same workers give ideas.

They give ideas of how they expect this to be enforced or how this can be applied.

That's why it's so important, the focus groups, because they will give ideas, the workers, they will give ideas on how can this be enforced and applied.

I'll just like to add that to what Jordan said.

There currently are three other states and three other cities that already require written agreements between the domestic worker and their hiring entities.

And yes, of course, we would create models.

Part of our thinking, and again, we are, the board voted on this in November, we are starting to do our legal research, our policy analysis to provide...

some guidance and hear from stakeholders.

So there's definitely a lot of ideas that we still are thinking through and appreciate your experience and ideas.

But at a minimum, we would also make sure that the written agreement be also in the primary language of the domestic worker That is a consistent practice with the other jurisdictions that already have an agreement.

That is also what the state has provided to make sure that both parties are fully aware of what their responsibilities are.

And ultimately, again, the goal is workplace transparency.

The last thing I'll mention is we currently enforce another law that has to do with independent contractors with contract requirements, and that is the ICP, the Independent Contractor Protections.

So again, we can also lean on our experience in enforcing that law to look into written agreement requirements in the workplace.

Thank you.

Appreciate everyone's perspective here.

Very, very helpful.

framed in my various questions, I think the overarching, taking a step back from a more strategic perspective, the overarching concern that I have and I'm sharing and that I'm elevating to your attention is contracts are terrific, they bring clarity, certainty, predictability, but they can also be incredibly confusing and even for sophisticated parties.

They're often laden with legalese.

Put a document, multi-page document in front of someone with all his legalese, that can be very confusing.

And so, as a starting point, putting them in the language of the work, the preferred language, that's a great starting point.

But it still could potentially lead to a lot of questions around, like, who do I go to for legal advice?

What happens?

And so, high-level concern.

How we implement this in a manner that still protects workers and still protects their interests, because these are not, again, at arm's length transactions.

There is no symmetrical bargaining positions here.

The hiring party probably cares a lot about things like limitations of liability and indemnification provisions and other things that are highly complex and that the worker's going to care less about.

So what are the minimum things that you're going to want to include to actually protect the workers?

Sounds like you guys are all through all the processes here described and the firsthand experiences already thinking about some of these things, but I just encourage you to think about, continue to think about how you can address the higher level concern around, potential concern around making sure we minimize confusion and avoid unconscionable situations and deals for our workers.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Councilmember Saka.

Panel, do you want to respond to any of those final points raised just around contracts?

No, just thank you so much for your concerns, Councilmember, and I think that's really helpful for us as a board and in our relationship with OLS as we, you know, think about how to implement this and bring, you know, a stronger proposal forward as we can.

Gracias por todas las recomendaciones porque como trabajadores podemos pedir y pedir y pedir.

Thank you for all your recommendations because as workers we can always ask and ask and ask.

Pero también debemos de ver cuál es el proceso, verdad, por dónde guiarnos, cuáles son las maneras not easy, but what are the most accessible ways to win?

Yeah, because we need to see how is the process that guide us.

Maybe not the easiest ways to do it, but something that is easy access or better access.

Yeah, no.

It left me thinking a lot.

This is leaving me thinking a lot about this.

But I know that working together, we can find solutions.

I appreciate the engagement on this topic.

It sounds like we have some follow-up work to do around some of the model existing contracts that maybe exist right now with OLS, what other cities have done, and we can do some follow-up work to really sort this out and come to a good place that gives clarity to workers and is enforceable.

So I thank you, Councilmember Saka, for your engagement, and thank you for your responses to that.

Recognizing Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I really appreciated that discussion, and I wanted to clarify my previous question, which was really around an intent of understanding what would be the way that best serves workers for the written agreement.

I'm now removing contract from my language.

So I appreciate that.

And so I'm looking forward to hearing the recommendations that come from the engagement.

And we talked about this when we met a few weeks ago, I'm an employer.

And so we have a, I'm like, well, we text message.

Does that count as a written agreement?

Should I write it down?

So I've been sitting here kind of thinking about that.

And I really appreciate your clarity as well around the primary language being a key portion, as well as just having something that's written down that folks can go back and refer to so that they have something if there is a dispute between the employer and the employee feels really important.

So I'm really excited to engage on this.

I just wanted to clarify the intent of my previous question and appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

All right, colleagues, I have a couple of questions, and I know we have some extra time, too, so still invite you to chime in and raise your virtual hand if you have additional questions.

But I'm gonna dive into a couple, just one more logistical for the Office of Labor Standards.

Understanding that now the state legislation under this, LNI will now have an enforcement rule, How are we going to be delineating and directing people when that goes into effect?

Should we be directing folks to go to the Office of Labor Standards first, knowing that they have an enforcement role?

Or are we having folks now go up to the state level once this goes into effect?

Thank you for that question.

Yeah, we are in constant communication with LNI on other similar labor standards that we may be aligned in.

One outcome or one potential outcome is if you all, if city council decides to amend the DWO, it will be consistent or if not, more protective than the states.

For example, in Seattle, we don't have hourly threshold for coverage.

However, the state does.

So again, we would want to ensure that whatever is the most protective law is what we can enforce here in Seattle.

But yes, also similar to what we are thinking about, if the amendment goes through, We will really like to partner with LNI on rulemaking so that we have consistent rules for both the city and with the state, and have both the state law and the amended version go in effect at the same time, again, for that.

So there is some parity in enforcement, and there isn't, for example, to your question, Councilmember, if we need to then direct folks elsewhere.

We wanna make sure that There's consistent communication and consistent enforcement and protections.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Foster, is that a new hand?

Okay, just didn't want to make sure.

Wanted to make sure I didn't miss you.

Building on this point, the legislation goes into effect July next year.

Beyond the three amendments to our existing ordinance, what further preparation work will be done by OLS as we're nearing that going into effect?

And is there anything you need support from council on in preparation for that?

In Spanish, the state law begins in July 2027. With the three amendments for this council, what more work do you need to do for the OLS and DWI and what support do you need from this council?

Budget.

Budget because we need to do a lot more outreach and education.

for workers and also for the hiring entities.

And when I mention budget, also to be able to support organizations that work with domestic workers.

Because the majority of workers, they feel more comfortable approaching community centers than OLS.

That's what I think.

I don't know what else to add.

I'll just add that as far as OLS, I have my colleague right here behind me, Jennifer Molina, who is our outreach specialist who is currently working on providing educational and public-facing materials on the differences between the Domestic Workers Ordinance and the state law.

And if council amends the domestic workers ordinance, of course, we will have more educational materials, again, highlighting the similarities and differences to make sure that the public is aware of the distinction and where they can go for support.

I just wanted to add one more detail to what Sylvia shared.

So when it comes to budget, there are some formal structures within OLS to do that community-based outreach and education.

And so there's two funds that OLS administers.

The Community Outreach and Education Fund, COEF, which funds community-based organizations to do outreach and education to workers and employers.

And then the Business Outreach and Education Fund, the BOEF, which provides similar funding to small businesses to provide that outreach and education to businesses.

And so we're really grateful for the funding that has been allocated and the budget for those.

And I just want to emphasize how essential those two funds are because as amazing as OLS is and all the great work that they do, we need trusted messengers from community to be able to share this message.

Thank you.

And that's actually a perfect dovetail for my next question, just related to outreach.

Because of the informal nature of this work, I'm always concerned that we're not reaching the workers that we need to be.

And so we talked a little bit about language access.

Because in many cases this work is informal, I get nervous that we lose opportunities to connect and support, to know workers, to know their rights.

And while I'm on this point, I would be remiss if I didn't recognize the moment of extreme immigration enforcement that we are in and how that is affecting everybody.

So I invite you to speak to that as well.

I can start on this one.

And yeah, I think we actually at our standards board meeting just on Monday this week got a great presentation from Jennifer and she was soliciting feedback from board members around what are additional creative ways to do outreach and enforcement.

And so one example was talking about school, like education through schools and partnering with SPS.

knowing that obviously so much domestic work happens in a family setting and that schools are a way that we can reach a lot of families in the city, both employers and workers.

And so that could be one possibility.

We talked about partnering more with the library and with community centers to do outreach in those settings.

One thing that OLS has already been doing, which it came from the enforcement side, but I think also is applicable to outreach and education, is OLS has started building relationships with a lot of local consulates, knowing that nationals of those countries often seek services from the consulate if their rights have been violated.

And so by building those relationships and letting the consulates know, you know, what resources are available through OLS, that hopefully becomes a way to reach more people as well.

But yeah, I mean, this is, I think, like, the key, one of the key challenges of this work is, yeah, how do you reach people?

How do you reach hard-to-reach populations?

And so requires just, yeah, continual creative thinking and ideas from as many stakeholders as we can.

I think one of the biggest challenges for outreach for domestic workers is language justice.

That's always one of the most difficult things.

Porque sabemos que no hemos logrado alcanzar a la comunidad asiática, a la comunidad somalí, que muchas de estas comunidades hacen trabajo de caregivers.

Entonces no es tan fácil, ¿verdad?

Hemos avanzado, pero podemos avanzar más.

because we know that we were not able to reach the Asian community or the Somali community, and they work a lot as caregivers.

So we know that we have done a lot, but we can still improve more.

I will just add that our office is in close collaboration and communication with OIRA, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

We are constantly talking about how we can support the overlap of immigrant workers and refugee workers, but in general, what are best practices, what are your outreach activities that we can to support one another, or what are some policy changes that maybe we want to discuss, or what are you hearing, as well as other departments.

So we're happy to continue that conversation, but as my colleagues from the board said, that this continues to be a top priority and an issue that is ongoing.

Wonderful.

Thank you all so much.

Colleagues, any additional questions for our panel today before I close this out?

Again, I'll voice my appreciation to the panel and close with this.

Gracias de verdad.

Este panel es prueba de cuando los trabajadores tienen voz real.

Las cosas cambian.

Los vimos en 2018 y vimos en Olimpia hace tres semanas.

El trabajo no termina aquí, obviamente, pero Thank you, colleagues, for your time and engagement on this topic.

It's tremendously appreciated.

And with that, we'll thank our panel, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

All right, colleagues, we have reached the end of today's agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

All right.

Hearing and seeing none, the next Human Services, Labor and Economic Development Committee is scheduled for Friday, April 17th.

It is 1114 a.m.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.