Seattle City Council Committee on Governance, Native Communities & Tribal Governments 31722

are recording.

Thank you, son.

Good morning and welcome, everybody, and happy St. Patrick's Day.

This is the first meeting of the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee.

Today is March 17, and the time is 9.32.

I am Deborah Juarez, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Here.

Five are present.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

We'll move forward on the agenda.

Next, we'll go to approval of the agenda.

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

Not seeing or hearing any objection, the agenda is indeed adopted.

I will move to the chair's report.

So this is our first meeting of the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee, and I want to welcome the committee members, in particular, my vice chair, Council Member Peterson.

We're all going to be working on some collaborative issues together.

I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda.

She's going to be working with me on some labor issues, which I appreciate.

So with that, let me tell you what's on today's agenda, just briefly.

Item one is a briefing from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and we get to welcome and introduce the city's new Tribal Relations Director, Tim Ranian.

And he will be joining us along with OIR's Federal Contract Lobbyist, Sierra Howlett-Brown.

You all know Sierra.

And just quickly, I want to add, Tim is a dear friend and a member of the Puyallup Nation and was also a Tribal Council Member for the Puyallup Nation.

I think today may be historic in that we have three Indigenous folks on a committee in leadership positions.

So for that, I'm thankful.

The OIR will be briefing this committee on the status of federal funding designated for tribes, as well as providing an update of the city's work with federal agencies on tribal matters.

We've made a commitment, the legislative branch, to work with the executive branch on not only our government to government relationship with neighboring tribes, because this is their land, but on issues of economic vitality, economic development, social services, all those issues that we've been working on.

And now we're closer to institutionalizing.

So someday, when I'm not here, there'll be other people to, if you will, pick up the baton and carry this good work forward.

Agenda item number two is the appointment of Mr. Chin to the Civil Service Commission.

Mr. Chin will be accompanied by Andrea Scheel, the executive director of the commission.

And lastly, agenda item number three is the reappointment of Mr. Richard Short, some of you know him, to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

the Seattle Ethics Election Executive Director, Mr. Wayne Barnett, who we all know.

Is he here?

I don't see him yet.

We'll be here to speak to Mr. Short's nomination.

And I understand that Mr. Chin is here.

And thank you, Mr. Chin, for being here.

We'll get to that item and give you an opportunity to speak when we get to that item on the agenda.

So at this time, we will turn to public comments, the remote public comment.

And let me read some of the instructions, and then I'll hand it over to our clerk.

Sarah Mase.

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

However, we reserve the right to end or eliminate this public comment period at any point if we deem that this system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

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

So, Sarah, how many people do we have signed up today?

Presently, there are none.

OK.

So if we have no one signed up for public comment, going once, going twice, going three times.

OK.

So since we have no one signed up for public comment, Sarah was all ready to read the directions and instructions.

Sorry, Sarah.

I still get thunder there.

With that, public comment period was open.

And now we will close the public comment period, see that there is no one signed up for public comment.

And let's continue to move on to the agenda.

Items of business.

As I shared, we have the first item.

And Madam Clerk, will you please read item number one into the record?

Agenda item one, Office of Intergovernmental Relations presentation on federal funding designated for tribes and city work with federal agencies on tribal matters.

Thank you.

So as I shared in the president's report or the committee chair's report, we have Sierra here.

Hello, Sierra.

I'll let you go ahead and make introductions, and then I will hand it over to you guys from our fabulous OIR team.

Can you hear me?

We can't hear you.

So, Sarah?

She, Ms. Hallett-Brown does not appear to be on mute, but we can't hear her.

So, can you hear me now?

Okay.

It was on my side.

Apologies for that.

Good morning.

Thank you, Council President Moraes, and thank you committee members for letting us join you here on your inaugural meeting.

We're very excited.

to join you.

This is really going to be Tim's show, so I wanted to just introduce him, but wanted to take a brief moment because I know that Council President Juarez and all of you were interested in how the recently passed FY22 omnibus package is going to impact Indian Country.

We are still working on some of those more detailed analyses that we will share with you all when that's available.

We do have some high-level numbers that I can send out to the group.

including, you know, there are significant increases in many of the areas that impact Indian country, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

There's funding for missing and murdered Indigenous women.

There is an increase in Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Education.

Really across the board, the priorities for Indian country are being, for the very first time in a long time, plussed up significantly.

So a lot of exciting news in there.

One of the most exciting things is the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, though, that was included in the passage of this omnibus.

So that has been a struggle to get over the finish line for a long time.

It is a longstanding piece of legislation, but the reauthorization has been on hold.

And there are a lot of provisions within that legislation that restore tribal jurisdiction for non-Indians over certain crimes in Indian country.

give some funding for tribal programs to address some of the issues within Indian country, but really a win and a really historic moment for Indian country with the violence against women reauthorization.

So I will be sending out more details and, like I said, more of a robust analysis from some of our partner organizations that are tracking these issues very closely.

And then I'm hoping to give you all updates periodically of funding and legislative priorities within Indian country at the federal level.

And just so you all know as well, I am currently, sorry, I didn't actually introduce myself, Sierra Howlett-Brown.

I am the Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And for the past six years, though, I've been the Director of Federal Affairs for our Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And so I'm wearing both hats right now for the time being for the next few weeks.

And then we will have a new director of federal affairs coming on and I will be permanently in the deputy position.

But in my deputy role, I'm really excited to bring you and introduce you to Tim Ranin, who joined our team a little over a month or two ago.

Time is very fluid right now with the transitions, but we are very excited to have him on.

He's going to give you a bit of a briefing about his background and then of the work he's doing for our department and for the city, and very excited to join this committee with you all and introduce him.

So, Tim.

Welcome.

Thank you, Ciara.

I appreciate that.

Council President Juarez, honorable committee members.

Good day to you, honorable and noble people, my dear people.

I'm very grateful and joyful to see all of you.

My name is Tim Raynon.

and I'm a member of the Puyallup tribe.

I am the son of Larry and Sharon Raynaud, grandson of Donna Lou Dillon and Apolonia Raynaud, great-grandson of Marguerite Dallin and James Dillon.

My great-uncle, Herman Dillon, Sr., served our Puyallup people for many years as tribal council chair.

And as President Juarez mentioned, I, too, am a former council member.

having had the opportunity and the privilege of serving my people for six years as a council member.

And over the past 22 plus years, I've served my people, my tribe, as a tribal attorney, as the Executive Director of Human Resources Training and Education, as People Operations Director, and as a tribal council member.

I've also had the privilege of serving as co-chair of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Law and Justice Committee, And I've served on various state and local committees, commissions, and task forces representing tribal perspectives and helped build and lead coalitions in the state to address issues important to tribal communities.

And now I have the honor of serving alongside you folks with the city of Seattle as a tribal relations director.

And I bring with me a breadth of knowledge and experience tribal governance, working with federal, state, and local governments on issues important to tribal governments, and in relationship building.

And so I'm honored to be here to serve alongside you and to work together to try and strengthen and build our relationships with our tribal relatives.

One of the things I wanted to share with you is my understanding of my role And I want to acknowledge that it's been a few years since this position has been filled.

And consequently, as I've learned, some of the communication and the relationships between the city and the tribes may have been impacted by that.

And so my role, as I understand it, is to help strengthen and repair those relationships between the city and our neighboring tribes.

It's to help encourage the city to live up to our obligation and responsibilities to work with and collaborate with tribal leaders and communities, to help facilitate the government-to-government consultation and coordination between our area tribes and city, and to ensure that tribal input is received and considered on matters of mutual interest.

I hope to be able to facilitate meetings between city and tribal leaders so that city leaders can hear directly from tribal leaders rather than just hearing from the tribal relations director.

I also recognize that meeting with tribal leaders immediately may not always be possible.

And so I will also be available to speak on issues, respond to questions of the committee and the city leadership as needed, but Ideally, we would like to have tribal leaders and city leaders talk directly to one another and hear from one another.

I'm also here to help departments and agencies of the city recognize tribal sovereignty and treaty rights and to value the special and unique government-to-government relationship the city has with tribes.

You know, all through my career, I've tried to practice what I call preventative law.

And that's, you know, to help keep those that I represent or work with out of court by, you know, advising and adopting policies and practices that prevent conflict.

And so one of the roles I feel I bring is to advise our elected officials, our staff, on ways to work with tribes to prevent conflict that could undermine our relationships.

And so that's a little bit about my understanding of the position.

I also wanted to share a little bit about my vision.

And please keep in mind that this vision is still in development as I continue to meet with with tribal leaders, with city leaders and staff.

But I wanted to share a little bit about the thoughts and ideas that I bring to this position.

And I'm very appreciative of Mayor Harrell's vision that he shared in the welcome email that he sent out to staff yesterday.

He mentioned his vision for one Seattle based in unity and togetherness, hope and opportunity, and a belief that our best days are still ahead of us.

And he mentioned that his administration is taking a back to basics approach to the work.

And my vision for tribal relations work is right in line with Mayor Harrell's.

I too have a vision for Seattle's tribal relation work that is based on unity and togetherness between the city and the tribes, where leaders and staff from both city and tribes have a common understanding and respect for each government sovereignty and feel comfortable in reaching out to one another to discuss and collaborate on matters of concern or mutual interest.

Where it becomes second nature for leaders and staff, both city and tribes to know when and how to reach out to each other for input and guidance on important issues or projects that could potentially impact the other.

I have hopes and excited about the opportunity of strengthening relationships between the city and the tribes.

I'm hopeful that we can work together to repair and strengthen our relationships with our neighboring tribes.

And in the words of Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell, find opportunities to do positive things together.

I have a strong belief that our best days are ahead of us and I'm encouraged by the conversations that I've had with a few of the tribal leaders so far and staff.

that our best days of city and tribal relations truly are ahead of us as we involve tribal leaders and staff early and often in matters that are of mutual interest, as we increase communication and follow through on tribal related matters, as we celebrate and build upon our shared values of protecting and preserving our environment and our human and natural resources and caring for our people, and as we share our diverse culture and knowledge with one another to help better serve our people and our communities.

And I too want to take a back to basics approach to helping city leaders and staff understand and recognize tribal sovereignty and ways to repair and strengthen the city's relationships with tribes by again, providing opportunities for city leaders and staff to learn and listen to tribal elders, tribal leaders and staff You know, one of the things that I've always been taught is the Creator has given us two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

And so that is one of my goals, that we can listen to one another and begin to build those relationships.

I've had both positive and negative experiences where with local governments and agencies attempting to work with tribes.

And my goal is to ensure that the city of Seattle is a standing example of the right way to work with and build relationships with our tribal relatives.

And so, go ahead.

Oh, I'm sorry, Tim.

I thought you were done.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Well, I just wanted to talk just briefly about the plan that I started to develop to do this.

but I'm open to questions at any time.

So if you have a question, please.

Oh no, I wanted you to just finish what you were saying and then I would open up the floor.

Okay.

All right.

So first thing we want to do is work on building relationships.

And I started to do that by meeting with staff, city leaders.

I'm starting to meet with tribal leaders, tribal councils next week.

The idea again, listening, to hear their expectations, their ideas on how we can work together more effectively.

And I also hope to help facilitate opportunities where city leaders can visit tribal reservations and meet with tribal councils in their council chambers and in their offices to hear directly from them.

And I want to explore the establishment of a tribal leaders council made up of city leaders and tribal elected leaders to talk about issues important to tribes and discuss ways that we can work together.

I also want to work on the ongoing work of increasing recognition, understanding, and respect of tribal culture, language, and presence in Seattle and among our city leaders, staff, and residents by continuing some of the work that's already being done, like on the waterfront, including tribal artwork, history, and tribal presence there.

Renaming of streets to incorporate tribal language is appropriate.

And to incorporate tribal language, art, culture in future projects.

And in that arena, I hope that we can involve our local tribal leaders, our elders, and our cultural staff in the planning of such projects.

And I want to provide opportunities for city leaders, staff, and residents to learn directly from tribal leaders, elders, cultural leaders, and tribal staff regarding tribal issues, tribal history and culture, and tribal sovereignty, so that we can have a better understanding of our tribal neighbors.

And so, and also one other area, I'm looking at is exploring ways city and tribes can work together to support tribal economic development.

And that would be one of the topics of discussion for this Tribal Leaders Council as we get that going, exploring the possibility of convening a Tribal Economic Development Summit with city leaders and staff and tribal leaders and staff.

So those are just some of my thoughts that I bring to this position and I'd love to meet with you folks and hear your thoughts and your ideas to help develop this position, this program and the direction that we go moving forward.

One thing I know that I don't have all of the answers, I'll be the first to admit that, but I do know that we have the answers in our communities amongst our leaders, amongst our staff, and amongst our tribal relatives.

If we will work together, collaboratively, we will be able to come up with the answers to the questions that come up.

And we will be able to accomplish some great things.

And I'm excited for this opportunity to be here and work with you folks.

And I just want to raise my hands to each and every one of you.

I raise my hand to each and every one of you in gratitude and respect.

I'm grateful to each and every one of you.

Thank you, Honorable Enola.

I am finished.

Tim, thank you.

It's good to see you again.

Three things I want to share very briefly.

As you know, I grew up on the Puyallup Reservation and I actually knew your grandfather Herman and was of course the lawyer for the Puyallup Nation.

And I remember Herman in the day when we took over Cascadia and all those things that went on.

So it's so good to see you here in this position.

It makes me so happy to see all this and all the things that you've talked about.

We've been talking with the mayor about and with Sierra about.

So having this move forward just makes my day.

It makes it worth being on Seattle City Council.

Two things, we are going to be kicking off our More Than a Land Acknowledgement campaign and working with the executive and the Indigenous Advisory Council.

And as you know, More Than a Land Acknowledgement is going to incorporate the land back principles that we've been seeing in Indian country, at least for the last two decades.

And that includes return of land, repatriation, co-management and stewardship.

And these are built on the principles that we've seen since the 70s with co-management of treaty rights and fishing rights.

And what I have to say, and I'm very proud of what the city of Seattle and OPCD, when we had director Sam Asafa here, we did have a six part series talking about land policies.

So no disrespect to those that do land acknowledgements, but we have a joke in Indian country that it's the land theft acknowledgement.

Thank you for acknowledging you stole our land.

So now what do we do?

So that is, I'm excited to share that Mayor Harrell has been great on this, working how we're going to put together a tribal summit, tribal leadership, economic development, and how we can.

And you saw that the Muckleshoot tribe through their development authority just bought a huge seven-story in District 4, and we hope to see some more of that coming.

The tribes also were big investors and supporters of the Kraken and the Climate Pledge Arena.

Rightfully so.

I think tribes have more of a footing, because this is their land, than just a kiosk or a gift shop.

And I hope, before I leave, that we can encourage more economic development in downtown Seattle, in North Seattle, in South Seattle, and West Seattle.

and which land is indigenously is theirs.

So sitting here is making me a little lonesome for Indian country.

I forgot the days when we started meetings honoring each other and raising our hands.

You know, it gets a little crazy here.

So thank you for bringing us back to where we are in balance.

Thank you, Sierra.

I know that you've been working on the Violence Against Women Act as long as I have been, and we've been in D.C.

three, four, five times.

We're getting it through the finish line, having jurisdiction over non-Native folks that commit crimes against Indian women and children, or whomever, should be prosecuted in tribal court.

That's always been our right.

We continue to fight for that right since the Oliphant decision in the 70s, and we will not let up on that right.

We've come a long way.

For people like Sierra and Tim, I guess I'm kind of an elder now.

You guys don't have to call me auntie now.

Yeah.

So with that, I'm going to open up the floor, Tim and Sierra, because I see that some of my colleagues have some questions.

First and foremost, Councillor Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I just wanted to take a second to say congratulations to both of the speakers so far.

Welcome, Mr. Reynolds, and I look forward to working with you.

And I'm really excited about the opportunity to have someone in this role also with your caliber, but as you noted, to rebuild those relationships.

And also congratulations to Sierra.

I did hear from our friend Leslie Fulner over the weekend that you I have this amazing new position, and I just want to say congratulations on your promotion as well.

Always look forward to hearing from you.

With that, Madam Chair, I will just conclude my comments with a huge note of appreciation.

We're raising our hands to you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Strauss.

Council President, thank you.

And you knew that I wanted to say something before I even raised my hand.

I appreciate that.

Mr. Raynon, I have to say we've been waiting a long time to have you here.

We're very excited to be here.

Because you, I'm just going to highlight a couple things that you said that resonated with me, which is for me as a council member I especially don't necessarily know when and how to engage in government to government relations, because this is not.

just there are government to government protocols that have to be taken into place.

And in my education, I've not had the opportunity to learn the best practices to do that, to listen to tribal leaders and staff in a way that is most appropriate.

I do look forward to listen with you, to collaborate with you and to do positive things with you.

And you mentioned something that, you know, there's people that have done it the right way and the wrong way.

And then I can tell you, I haven't done much of anything because I just don't know the way.

And that is why I'm excited to have you here to work with you.

I will admit that there's probably times that I've done it the wrong way for no other reason than I don't know any better.

And I'm excited to learn from you and to work with you.

Thank you.

I'm very excited you're here.

Thank you.

And I'm definitely available to help and to consult with, but you know, that's one of the, the most exciting things about this position for me is to be able to help advise and guide our city officials on how to do these things correctly.

Because like I said, I've experienced the wrong way and it's sitting at the council table.

It's definitely not a pleasant experience and it definitely does the opposite of build relationships.

So yes, call me up and I'll be glad to sit down and talk

I should point out, Tim, two things.

Councilor Strauss is chair of our land use.

committee and he has done some phenomenal work and it's always consulted me on consultation and tribes and acknowledgements.

But also, for my colleagues, I want to thank Interim Director Gail Charlington.

She attached your resume, Tim.

So, and I've known you've been a lawyer for 20 years and I've seen your work when you first got out of law school and then you were HR Director and watched you go through the ranks.

If you get a chance to look at Tim's resume, it's pretty stellar and we are very lucky that we have Mr. Rennion here.

to guide us, and of course with Sierra and everybody.

So we look forward to working with you.

Are there any, I'm sorry, Sierra, did you want to close us out?

We're good?

Okay.

So, Sierra?

I'm happy to close it out, but we're good.

We appreciate the time.

You sure you don't want to say anything else before we head over to the next one?

You good?

I guess one thing I would point out is this, just hearing all of these comments, it really drives home just our Office of Intergovernmental Relations and the relationship that the office has with the council, the mayor's office, and the city at large.

you know, I encourage everyone to just use us as much as possible in your meetings, in your, you know, work.

I think that there's a lot of opportunity for collaboration and just sharing with each other.

So I'm really happy that Tim's here and filling the void that we've had for so long in this position and this very important position.

So I'm happy to have this opportunity to kind of share his work with you all.

And I'm meeting with Tim tomorrow, so him and I will get together with our tablets and coffee.

So thank you, Sierra.

Thank you, Tim, and welcome.

So good to have you here.

Thank you.

OK, so with that, let's go to item number two.

Madam Clerk, can you please read item number two into the record?

Agenda item two.

appointment 02114 appointment of Evan D. Chen as member of the Civil Service Commission for a term ending December 31st, 2024.

Great.

I see.

Let me before we have the executive director of the Civil Service Commission.

I see.

Oh, there's Andrea.

I see Andrea now and I see Mr. Chen.

Andrea, I'm just going to hand it over to you and you can kick us off.

And then if Mr. Chen would love to hear from you, if you want to address and I should let you know that for both appointments and the reappointment, we have your we have your committee packet.

So we have your resume and all of your information in front of us.

Go ahead, Andrea.

Thank you so much, Council President Juarez.

I want to thank you and the members of the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee for having me and Mr. Chin here today and for your kind consideration.

I am Andrea Scheele and I'm the Executive Director of the City of Seattle Civil Service Commission and the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

I'm here to say a few words about the work of the Civil Service Commission and introduce Mr. Chin for your consideration and for appointment as a commissioner.

The Civil Service Commission is an independent three-member body charged under the city charter with certain powers and duties to ensure that in its capacity as an employer, the City of Seattle treats civil service employees in accordance with stated merit principles in a way that is equitable, fair, and free from political influence.

The civil service commission is comprised of one city council appointee, a mayoral appointee, and one commissioner is elected by their peers in the city civil service system.

The commission conducts fair and impartial hearings of alleged violations of the city's personnel rules, including appeals of serious disciplinary decisions and of the personnel can appeal alleged violations of the personnel ordinance.

And the commission does have the power to make employees whole.

The CSC, which is what we call it, keeps abreast of and makes recommendations concerning the city's personnel system to the mayor and to the city council, as well as the human resources department.

The CSC's core values are equity, accessibility, independence, and transparency.

I am honored today to introduce Mr. Chin.

He is an attorney.

He's currently the Human Resources Director for the City of Linwood, and he's the former Administration Division Director for the City of Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections.

Mr. Chin graduated from the University of Washington School of Law.

He worked as a judicial law clerk for the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I, and then he worked as a field attorney for the NLRB.

He was several years in private law practice before Mr. Chin joined the City of Seattle Department of Transportation as a labor relations coordinator, where he was then promoted to the HR director position.

Mr. Chin and I actually served together on Seattle's task force for systemic improvements to the employee experience for 11,000 plus staff, which centered employees of color.

And as human resources director for the city of Linwood, Mr. Chin developed Linwood's first equity action plan and was instrumental in getting the city's first race and social justice coordinator position.

As a longtime public servant, trained mediator, labor and employment attorney, former Seattle employee, and current executive of a large local municipality, Mr. Chin is uniquely equipped to serve the employees and residents of the city of Seattle as an appointed member of the Civil Service Commission.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Mr. Chin to say a few words on his own behalf.

Mr. Chin, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for supporting my nomination for the Council appointed position to the Civil Service Commission.

Thank you, Andrea, for the kind words, and thank you for the members of the public for being here.

As you heard from my application, I have formerly worked for the City of Seattle, and I am looking forward to work with them again.

I do have a great deal of respect for the workers of the City of Seattle, and I've seen firsthand their smarts, their creativity, and their dedication to public service.

I still have many friends and former colleagues, and I look forward to supporting them in this role.

In my career, I have experienced times where the employee-employee-employee relationship has broken down for whatever reason, and a performance or behavior issue has cropped up that needs to be addressed.

And sometimes matters do rise up to the level of the Civil Service Commission or other venue.

I understand all of the interests of the parties involved, and as a commissioner, I hope to bring objectivity, fairness, reason, and compassion to this role.

I also bring my experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion in my approach as I understand and implicit biases and hope to make sure that I help mitigate those biases in myself and amongst other civil service commission members.

I've also worked closely with the city's workforce equity director, Felicia Caldwell, and I've really dug deeply into the equity inclusion concerns of the city workforce.

As an HR director, I have counseled many employees on work and life matters, and I'm familiar with the city's personnel roles, having worked with them for nearly 10 years.

In fact, I've represented management in an appeal on a suspension before, so I know firsthand the processes involved on that side of the table.

As a commissioner, I'll bring experience, knowledge, sound judgment, and an equity lens to this position.

So I thank you for the opportunity to allow me to help maintain our shared accountability to City of Seattle staff and ultimately to the people of Seattle.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chen.

I had a chance to, we have a lot of lawyers today.

All of our appointments and presentations are all the lawyers, but we had a chance, all my colleagues have had a chance to get your appointment packet with your resume attached to it.

And so, as you know, the city of Lynwood is probably a little calmer than the city of Seattle, so nice to have you back or have you here.

I was looking at your resume and I'm also impressed that you were legal counsel or a field attorney with the NLRB, the kind of experience that you're going to bring to this is invaluable.

And I'm glad that people like you want to step up and take these positions in our great city.

So thank you very much.

I'm going to open it the floor to see if any of my colleagues have any questions or comments that they want to direct to Mr. Chint.

Okay, I have not seen any.

Andrew, is there anything you want to share before we wrap up and go to a vote?

Just again, that I am very grateful for the opportunity and to the committee for considering Mr. Chin's nomination.

Thank you.

So with that, I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 02114, Mr. Chin.

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

There's no further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommends that the Seattle City Council confirm appointment 02114, that is Mr. Chin.

Congratulations.

And this item will come before the City Council Tuesday, March 22nd.

Thank you, Mr. Chen.

Thank you, Andrea.

Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you.

Moving on in our agenda, let's go to item number three.

Madam Clerk, will you please read item number three into the record?

Agenda item three, appointment 02116, reappointment of Richard F. Short as member of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term ending December 31st, 2024.

Thank you.

I see Mr. Wayne Barnett here.

I understand Mr. Short isn't here, but you're going to walk us through and share a little background before we go to a vote, Mr. Barnett.

Can't hear you.

Can't hear you.

Nice headphones, though.

Kind of can hear you.

So.

Is that working?

Okay.

That's good.

Happy.

I got to lose that headset.

So, uh, let me, all right, I'm here to speak to Richard shorts, renomination to the ethics selections commission.

Um, he was unable to join us today.

He's unfortunately traveling for work and census apologies.

Um, Richard has been on the commission for three years.

Um, those three years, as you all know, are very, very disruptive.

We had a pandemic for two of them and, So it was a very interesting time that Rich joined, that we only have, I think at this point we have four commissioners who've ever met in person.

Three of our commissioners have never even met each other.

So we're eager to get back to regular meetings and hope that Rich can serve as kind of a steadying force as we return.

Mr. Short did serve as vice chair and chair already.

So he's looking to join us as a regular commissioner.

He's a graduate of GW Law School.

and a professional with T-Mobile.

I think, you know, these days the most important thing he's done is to help steer us through two years of the Democracy Voucher Program.

He's played a very steadying hand in that, very thoughtful.

And yes, I'm hoping you will reconfirm.

So thank you.

Thank you, Wayne.

I appreciate that.

And we did again, as I've been sharing, but I always read these appointment packets.

I seems that I forgot to say that Mr. Shen comes from District five.

Mr. Short is representing District six.

So I don't know if that means anything, but I thought I'd just put that out there.

Is there any questions or comments that anyone would like to ask of our guests?

That is Mr. Wayne Barnett.

All right.

Not seeing any.

So with that, I'm going to move forward, if we will.

I move the committee recommend confirmation of the reappointment of Mr. Richard Short.

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

If there's no further discussion, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Juarez?

Aye.

All in favor?

None opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee will recommend Mr. Short to the full city council on Tuesday, March 22nd.

I don't know why I can't get that date down.

Tuesday, March 22nd.

So with that, thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Please share our congratulations to Mr. Short.

Before we move to adjourn this does conclude our items of business and all items passed out of this committee will be forwarded to the March 22nd City Council meeting for final action.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled to be held on April 21st and with that thank you colleagues and with that we stand adjourned.