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Good morning.

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

It is 9.33 a.m.

Friday, April 17th, 2026. I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink, chair of the committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll and let the record reflect that Council President Hollingsworth is excused.

Chair Rink.

Present.

Vice Chair Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Here.

Councilmember Saka.

Chair, there are four members present.

Thank you.

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

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Hello and welcome, everyone.

We have a packed agenda today.

We will begin this morning with a briefing from the Seattle Music Commission, followed by votes on several appointments to the commission.

Then we will have a briefing from the Labor Advisory Standards Commission on their body of work, and end with a briefing from the Office of Economic Development on workforce development.

For my colleagues in the viewing public, similar to our last meeting of this committee, during the Labor Standards Advisory Commission briefing, we will have Spanish language interpretation for one of our panelists so they can fully join the discussion.

But with that, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

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

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up for today?

Currently, we have zero in-person speakers and zero remote speakers.

All right, going once, going twice.

hearing that we have no registered speakers for today, we will now proceed to our items of business.

So moving on to our first item of business, will the clerk please read items one through seven into the record?

Colleagues, the clerk will read items one through seven into the record so we may discuss these items at one time.

I will move the appointments as a package after we have discussed both the overview and the appointment to the Seattle Music Commission.

Item one, Seattle Music Commission overview, briefing, discussion, possible votes.

Item two, appointment 03474, appointment of Ryan Patrick Devlin as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2028, briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Item three, appointment 03475, appointment of Janice Jimenez as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2028, briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Item four, appointment 03476, appointment of Marshall Hugh Massengale as member Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2028, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Item five, appointment 03477, appointment of Seven Sky Spideos as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term of August 31st, 2028. Briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Item six, appointment 03478, appointment of Tina Marie Tyler as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2028. Briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Item seven, appointment 03479, appointment of KM Van Petten as member of Seattle Music Commission for a term of August 31st, 2028. Briefing, discussion, and possible votes.

Thank you so much.

I see we have our presenters who have joined us at the table, and I know we have some folks who have joined us online.

So before we get started, if you can take a moment and introduce yourself by stating your name into the microphone for the record, that would be great.

Hello, my name is Marshall Hugh Massengale.

If we can take one moment, I think, can you make sure the mics are turned on by pressing that button, and I think we might need you to...

Mic check, mic check, oh, there we go.

There we go, there we go.

If we can have Scott reintroduce himself.

Sure, Scott, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Marshall, Hugh Masingo.

Tina Marie Tyler.

Kay Van Petten.

Seven Skye Sibelius.

Wonderful, and our folks online.

Giannis Jimenez.

Thank you.

I believe that's everyone we have here.

Please proceed with the presentation.

Thank you, Chair, and good morning, committee members.

Thank you for having us here.

Again, my name is Scott Plooskalak.

I am the nightlife business advocate for the city and the Office of Economic Development, as well as the administrative liaison for the Seattle Music Commission.

Great.

I'm going to give a little background on the Music Commission for folks.

The Music Commission was established in 2010 by a council resolution and fully ratified into city ordinance in 2014. The commission is a group of industry and community volunteer stakeholders assembled to advise the Office of Economic Development in its advocacy for and policy related to the city of Seattle's support and growth of the local music industry and community.

The commission strives to enhance the growth and development of Seattle's music sector and convey the city's commitment to the industry, musicians, and live music audience that comprise the city's local music economy.

There are 21 members on the committee representing this cross industry sectors.

11 are appointed by the mayor and 10 are appointed by the council.

They each serve three-year terms and have the ability to be reappointed to a second three-year term.

The commission is comprised of four committees.

One is the full commission, which meets every other month.

So our next meeting will be in May on the third Wednesday at noon downstairs in the boards and commissions room.

We have an executive committee, which is comprised of the chairs and co-chairs of each subcommittee, and the advocacy and economic development and youth and community committees, each focusing on policy, outreach, and development of the industry.

We have a budget of $10,000 established by council in 2024 for the purposes of engagement and outreach.

Just some quick highlights of previous achievements from the Music Commission.

We launched in 2024, thanks to the Council, and signed by Mayor Harrell, the Musician Parking and Loading Zones.

Very pleased to announce that we now have 21 venues that have had these installed to date, with more coming online.

Extremely successful and very popular with all of our musicians and venues in town.

We have the Music Career Days and Creative Economy Career Days, which bring over 500 high school youth to meet with industry insiders, hear from experts on panels, and learn about the pathways to creative economy careers.

We have Mixers Meet the Commissioner events, industry events.

The Creative Advantage is a program that was started with the Music Commission, the Arts Commission, the Office of Arts and Culture, and partnership with Seattle Public Schools to provide equitable access to creative programming and teaching in public schools.

We've all heard the music out at the airport program that was started by the Music Commission.

Recently, last year, we completed the Jackson Street Jazz Heritage Trail, which you can do a guided trail through Jackson Street of all of our old jazz venues, and the Pianos in the Parks program as well.

Currently, the commission is focused on quarterly meetups for community engagement.

We're going out into community, inviting folks in.

meeting at different venues around the city to support the industry, finding alignment with the mayor's recent transition report that came out after the election, continuing aligning with the downtown activation plan, obviously working to see that local musicians are represented during the FIFA 2026 celebrations, and also on workforce development.

So today we have openings for seven commissioners.

We currently have six who will be appointed.

Three of these are appointed by the mayor and three will be appointed by the council.

So these are all first term appointments.

So they have the opportunity to be back in front of you in three years to reappoint.

So with that, if it's okay, I will go ahead and allow each of them to give a brief statement.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Hello, my name is Marshall Hugh, and I am a artist and founder of Fremont Fridays here in Seattle.

Fremont Fridays is an event that brings together thousands of people who, like me and all of us here, love the local music scene.

I've seen with Fremont Fridays how music is able to bring people together and impact a community not only through music but economic development and so excited to bring my expertise in my small borough to a larger group and learn from people that are experts in the system and hopefully people that are open to developing new systems that put our musicians and our music lovers at the forefront of any musical experience because I know that music is universal and it's a language we all speak and so hopefully it can be used as the tool that it is to uplift our entire city and see us where we want to be.

I think that we can be like Austin, like a New Orleans and See that right here on the ground.

So excited to be here and thank you for having me and pumped to join these fine people.

New Orleans, dang.

Come on, we got the song right here.

Let's do it.

I know, I love it, I love it.

Good morning.

My name is Tina Marie Tyler.

I am the founder of Hip Hop Institute for Peace.

I am a music lover and fan, and I come from a little bit of a different background.

I started off as a broadcast journalist covering entertainment, and so I covered the Grammys and all of that.

But now I have a nonprofit organization, and we are in formal partnership with the United Nations Permanent Forum of People of African Descent.

And my role is really to use music and specifically hip-hop to promote diplomacy.

And we provide large-scale events all over the world, and we produce them.

And so we put a lot of musicians to work.

We are able to use music as a way to bring people together in peace and harmony.

And so I'm very excited to join the Seattle Music Commission and bring some of this love and joy here to the folks in Seattle.

Thank you.

good morning y'all my name is kay van petten and i am a musician and music ecosystem builder i've been playing music in countless bands for the past decade here in seattle and i am now the marketing director for sonic guild which is a local non-profit that supports local musicians through grants and live events and we are proving that there is a better future possible through deep music patronage here in Seattle.

Since 2020, we've distributed over half a million dollars to the Seattle music community.

And we believe that more is possible.

And what we're experiencing is a renaissance of support for local music, where Seattle is building a model to show other cities what's possible as the evolving role of the label and streaming services and AI moves forward that we as a community need to step up and support musicians.

And that's exactly what we're doing with organizations like the Vera Project and KEXP and all these folks from the 90s grunge scene that stuck around to see that a better future for music is possible and that if we believe that future is possible, we have to turn music supporters into music lovers and make sure that musicians are at the core of everything that we do.

So I'm excited to be here.

Thanks for having us.

My name's Seven.

I'm the president of the Seattle Composers Alliance, a 27-year-old organization connecting music creators to community education and opportunity.

We currently have about 100 active members of all disciplines, and we're looking forward to reengaging the 500 or so community members that were a part of SCA5 10 and 15 years ago.

I used to think that the end of our mission statement was the most important part of what we do, but as I deepen my connections to the area as a voting member of the local chapter of the Grammys, representative of SCA to the Creative Economy Coalition and Creative Economy Workforce Coalition, and genuinely those are two completely distinct groups, the more I realize that the word connecting is the most important part of what we do.

We can't begin to tackle youth unemployment if young music creators don't know where their local venues, studios, and peers are.

Even our most talented artists are unable to advance in their careers when they are not able to find industry support and that industry is unable to activate within Seattle's ecosystem of businesses and join forces with one another.

The broader creative economy has so many silos, and I'm sure you see it yourself with the city's 70 or so active boards and commissions.

The through line with all of this is that the lack of connection, especially at the local level, I think is the issue.

And this is what excites me about joining the Music Commission.

In an era where we are theoretically the most connected, we're missing those bridges.

They cannot be built alone, but I'm here to help and to find allies who are excited about connecting Seattle's music creators to community, education, and opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now we'll move online to Janice.

Hi, I am Janice Jimenez, Senior Director of Marketing at Climate Pledge Arena.

I've been there since 2021. And since I've been there and living in the city for over 17 years, I've seen and experienced programs that SMC has executed in the last few years.

And it's super inspiring to see them put these programs together, whether I'm at the airport or walk into the crock or in front of Numos.

Seeing artists get excited about these benefits that they have is amazing.

It gives people a sense of belonging, it creates a warm environment and with that sense I'm hoping to be a part of these programs of where our city becomes a city of music like New Orleans or Nashville and we're known for our bands now not from the ones of Sorry, the 90s.

They're amazing and they're awesome, but you wanna be a part of making them bigger and better of what's now.

Thank you for inviting me.

And then I do have a statement from Ryan, if it'd be okay.

Please.

And my computer just went away.

Thank you.

Ryan Devlin, our sixth appointee, had a previously scheduled trip to Japan and was not able to join today, but he did ask me to read this message.

Hello, esteemed council members.

My name is Ryan Devlin, and I would like to join the City of Seattle Music Commission My sincere apologies for not being able to attend this meeting in person.

I am a working musician, music educator, and producer living in North Seattle.

I was born and raised in Seattle and have been performing in clubs, making records, and working various music-related jobs here for over 20 years.

I presently have two bands with my wife and collaborator Kim West, the Smokey Brights and Mega Cat.

I have had a really unique run of music industry positions here in Seattle, including singer-songwriter instructor at Cornish College of the Arts, producing events and concerts, managing arts organization partnerships, managing distribution for City Arts Magazine, and talent buyer at Columbia City Theatre.

This collage of music industry jobs in Seattle is precisely why I want to join the Music Commission.

This is an increasingly tough city for musicians.

We are up against some of the highest rents in the nation, largest corporations in the world, an exodus of industry resources from the city, and a loss of opportunity to make a living solely as an artist.

In spite of all that, our music community is a brilliant beacon known across the world.

I want to join the commission in order to advocate for my community of artists and music industry workers, and I think I am very uniquely positioned to do so.

I look forward to the opportunity to help Seattle fulfill its promise of being a true music city.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you so much, and thank you all for being before us today.

Colleagues, I'd like to open it up for questions you have, and I am recognizing Councilmember Juarez first.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all, Janice, big shout out to you.

It's good to see you again at Climate Pledge and your work with OBG and all that work.

So I know that we've met before, but not formally.

So it's good to see you.

I won't take the dig on the 90s.

I'll let that go.

But I'm just saying that was the best time for music.

I don't know what y'all listen to now.

It don't make no sense to me.

I'm going to leave it at that.

But Madam Chair, I just want to also thank you for highlighting, and also we found it in your guys' confirmation packets, to Ryan and to Marshall.

D5, thank you.

We always try to strive, as Councilmember Sanka knows this, when we went to a district system for district parity and representation all across the city.

So thank you for those appointments that are coming from all over the city.

And I do like the reference to New Orleans.

I think that's amazing and I love that.

And the other thing is, I know this is picky, but I just wanna make sure that I'm not wrong here.

And you knew I was gonna bring this up.

On your PowerPoint, my page numbers start at page seven and then they go to 12. So was I missing the first six or did it just start at seven?

Just- I apologize.

I'm not sure why I did that, but no, you did not miss anything.

Okay, good.

I thought maybe we didn't print out the first six, and then I started at page seven, because they're numbered on mine, but they start at seven.

That's all.

I just wanted to make sure I had everything.

So thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you folks who were, I know it's hard, you're volunteering, but it's something you love, having two musicians in my family.

So thank you so much for all your work, and again, Janice, it's good to see you again.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

And good reminder, we'll be sure to spot check for those page numbers.

I know it's certainly important.

Thank you.

And now recognizing Councilmember Saka.

And I first want to thank all the proposed nominees for stepping up to serve your city, our community, and the broader industry in such an impactful and profound manner.

So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Our city is grateful for your service and excited to learn more about how we can best support you from a city perspective.

and see all the great work that you're going to accomplish together.

So thank you again for serving and excited to be able to support everyone today.

As an aside, I'll say that from my perspective, at least, I agree with Councilmember Juarez, the 90s era music across the board, doesn't matter which genre, whether it's rock or hip hop, it's the best music.

Boy bands, pop, all of it.

Best music.

Best music era.

And maybe I'm just saying, you know, get off my porch, but...

But it is the best music era in my humble opinion.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Thank you.

Robust discussion here.

Perhaps debate here in committee this morning.

Do we get a chance to defend that?

No, no you don't.

We got some new fire out there for you this summer.

Come check us out.

Gotta get out the crib.

It is...

Okay, well, I'm not listening to that crazy rap stuff that I don't understand, so I'm sorry.

I'm old school.

I'm not doing that.

All right.

Don't worry about it.

We got it all for you.

I recognize it is also a Friday.

Is it happening today?

Oh, it's today.

Oh, no, it starts in the summer.

June 26th kicks off.

Okay.

You got some time.

We'll send you some links.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Some good follow-ups from today's committee meeting against Member Foster.

All right.

Well, I'm going to pivot as well.

Well, first, I want to just take a moment to recognize and kind of add my voice to the chorus, so to speak, of appreciation for all of your work just cultivating our creative economy, adding your creativity to our city.

And this feels also personal.

Some may know I almost went to school for music.

Playing in a symphonic band was a lifeline for me growing up, and I almost pursued a career in music and wanted to become a working artist.

working musician and a teacher.

But that wasn't quite in the cards for me, so maybe I'll have to live vicariously through y'all.

But it's something that just added a lot to my own upbringing, so really excited to see, again, the incredible work you all have done around Creative Advantage and bringing that program into Seattle Public Schools so young people can be able to to cultivate their own creativity is really amazing and excited to see what's coming next as well.

And so I did have one question for you all, just an open question to each of our appointees before us today.

What can the city do to ensure sustainable music industry careers are growing in Seattle and how would you like your advocacy on the commission to advance that?

Which way do you wanna go?

Yeah, there you go.

Apparently we're going in reverse order.

Well, I will say, spoilers, the Advocacy and Economics Development Subcommittee of the Music Commission is currently going through a massive list of about 20 priorities to try to narrow it down.

So I feel that it would be best for me personally to wait until we have consensus as a team before coming forward, because I just think strategically that's the best thing for me to do.

But thank you for the question.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking.

That's such a beautiful question.

And I think at the center of it is support for musicians, of course, not just support for music.

We talk a lot about being the city of music, but we need to be the city of musicians in order for that music to get made in the first place.

And I want to bring up one idea that I brought on that big list, which was to bring forward a music laureate.

No city has ever had a musician laureate.

There have been composer laureates, but as popular music grows and that we're trying to build the support like we had around the symphony or opera or ballet, we're trying to bring that to popular music, and so I believe programs like that and recognition, in addition to support and affordable housing grants for musicians, opportunities for musicians.

Recognition is a huge part of that too.

And having those rungs on the career ladder for an artist to know what the next step for them is, is just as big a deal as the next paycheck.

Creating those steps in the latter is really important.

And I believe that having a city musician laureate could be an interesting way to build another.

But of course, so many other ideas in that beautiful document you mentioned that we're working on.

Thank you for the question.

So I have a little bit of a different perspective, because I deal with the business of music, and that's everything.

The artist, you know, the vendors, the crew.

So for me, and the folks that I deal with, my contemporaries around the country and around the world, funding is major, right?

And being able to support funding and have funding, I should say, that supports different types of programming within our city, I think would be very helpful.

It's also very expensive to produce things in Seattle.

And so we should start looking at the costs and maybe there can be some waivers or things like that for some of the larger type of productions here.

And I also, you know, as a long time, I mean, I'm a resident, but I'm also a Seattle native.

I remember Bumper Shoot and I remember the Folklife Festival and I remember, you know, the Black Festival at the time and Seafair.

I always look forward to those things as a child.

Now that I'm 58 and still trying to enjoy those things, the programming is different.

And I think we really need to take a look at the major festivals that we have here in Seattle and re-examine them.

We really do.

It needs to have a broader appeal, not only for the people that are going, but also the artists.

I think we have to be sensitive to our cultural diversity here in Seattle and make sure that if the city is going to give a large portion of the budget to one individual festival, that those promoters and those producers are open to working with other individuals that may not have the same background or the same ideas that they do.

So I am looking forward to working with the city.

I'm looking forward to having more conversations because there are cities that have wonderful and very vibrant creative economies.

We do not have to reinvent the world, a wheel, excuse me.

All we have to do is take some of the best practices and apply them here and really look at the creative economy as a thriving revenue producer for the city of Seattle, not just an afterthought.

Thank you.

For me, what I'm most excited about is getting a chance to even be in these rooms.

I think people often in my realm, whether it just be people of color or musicians, we feel a disconnect between the systems that are in place and the government and what we do creating experiences for people to enjoy the Seattle music scene.

So, I'm most excited to learn and find ways to not only work the current systems, but find new systems to see artists and the venues thrive.

From my experience, I've seen a lot of representation from the venue side of things, because those are the people that have mastery of the business, and then you have the artists who sometimes feel like they're just the hired help.

And I believe that through me and everyone else joining the council, we're gonna be able to bridge those gaps and make a larger impact together.

So I'm really excited about that.

We got a ton of ideas, like a minimum wage for musicians, We're going to tackle it as a unified front, and hopefully with all y'all's help, we can make some great headway in these next three years.

Thank you.

And moving to Janice, is there anything you'd like to add on here too?

Yeah, just to add here, you know, Client Pledge Arena being obviously the largest venue here, we have a lot of opportunities that we, artists ask us to involve them on a local level.

I think this gives us gives me the opportunity to see what the community is looking for, what is needed, and how we can use the leverage that we have to support those artists in any way possible.

And for the record, it's 90s grunge.

I love 90s R&B and hip-hop and all of the other genres.

We need to be known for more than that.

It was just Seattle 90s music.

So, Councilmember Morris, just letting you know that.

Nice save.

Nice save, sister.

Nice save.

Love it.

I got you.

Beautiful.

Well, thank you all for those responses.

There were a lot of ideas that were named in your responses, too, which just makes me really excited about each of your participation on the Music Commission and the work that lies ahead.

So thank you for being here today.

And I'm going to move us along, colleagues, on this.

And so May.

I'm going to be moving the appointments.

And so, seeing no further comments, I move that the committee move forward with voting to pass appointments 034, pardon me, 03474, 03075, 03076, 03477, 03478, 03479. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to move forward with these appointments.

Any final comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to move forward to the appointments?

Chair Rink?

Yes.

Vice Chair Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Saca?

Nay.

Council Member Saca, could you repeat your vote?

All right, yes, yes.

Thank you.

Thumbs up.

Thank you.

There are four in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation that the appointments will be confirmed will be sent to the April 28th City Council meeting.

Thank you all again for being here.

Happy Friday.

All right.

Thank you, colleagues.

Maybe we'll have to look ahead for our committee schedule and figure out when we can all go to a Fremont Friday together.

Field trip.

Wonderful.

With that, we're going to move on to our next item of business.

Will the clerk please read item eight into the record?

Item eight, Labor Standards Advisory Commission, LSAC Overview, Briefing and Discussion.

Thank you, colleagues.

As our presenters are coming to the table, I'll just give a note that I know during our last meeting of this committee, we heard from the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

Today, we're going to be hearing from the other commission that OLS oversees.

Right, and as folks sit down at the table, if you can take a moment to please introduce yourself for the record by stating your full name into the microphone.

Thank you.

Good morning, Billy Hetherington.

Good morning, Patrice Tisdale.

Good morning, Samuel Holbert.

Hello, hello, good morning, Silvia Gonzalez.

Sorry, can we pause for one second if I can have you reintroduce yourself?

Me?

Yes.

Samuel Hilbert here.

Thank you, Samuel.

Again?

Wonderful.

Yes.

Silvia Gonzalez.

Norma Garcia Soto, Spanish interpreter.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

If you would like to move over to the presentation, that would be great.

All right, well, welcome.

We are the Labor Standards Advisory Committee.

I am one of the co-chairs, Billy Hetherington.

Our other co-chair is Amanda Powder.

She's a small business owner.

She wasn't able to join us today.

Just a quick story about Amanda.

When I got to meet her, her brother, when I was out in the construction industry, her brother ran the yard for the company that I worked for, so small world.

I just wanted to throw that out there.

It was kind of fun to learn that.

So the next slide.

Do you want a chance to each individual introduce yourself?

Do we want to introduce?

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, yeah, we can introduce each individual again.

Because you didn't get a chance to say who you are, sorry.

Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, go ahead.

Okay, I could do part of my thing.

Okay.

Background, Patrice Tisdale.

When I first joined the commission, I was general counsel for Drivers Union.

I currently assist and still help with them, but I am now with the Washington Nurses Association as their director of legal affairs.

Samuel Hilbert here.

I have been on the commission, I think, for two and a half years now.

I own a Lulz Cellar, so we have three locations here in Seattle as well.

Hello, my name is Silvia Gonzalez.

I've been with the commission approximately a year with ELSA.

And I have a share representing the workers.

And I occupy another chair with the Domestic Workers Standard Board.

And again, Billy Hetherington, co-chair.

I am the political director for Labor's Local 242. I work as a delegate for MLK Labor and also as a delegate for the Seattle Building Trades.

So we're going to split it up and tackle the presentation.

All of us here have our own little piece of it.

We're going to go over the overview and history, the composition and recruitment of the committee, the priorities we have.

And 2026, we meet annually to develop these priorities.

So you kind of get into some of those conversations.

And then conversation, we'll just have an open conversation with the committee.

and some of the work that we're doing with the individual council members.

So, next slide.

So, kind of an overview.

The commission was founded and established in 2016, a little bit before my time on the commission.

But as you can see, it was passed by ordinance and it is in the Seattle Municipal Code 321. So you can read that there.

I don't need to read it for you.

The makeup of the commission is business, labor, and community.

There's spots for all three of those on the committee.

We have a really good, as you can tell by the people that are represented here today, a really good mix of labor and business on the commission.

Next slide.

So some of the first cohorts that were our commissions that were stood up in 2016 were really worked on issues like secured scheduling, the first minimum wage that was established, the raise of the minimum wage that was established here in Seattle, wage theft issues and concerns that's really near and dear to my heart.

establishing things like paid sick and safe time.

And since then, the following cohorts, I've been on the commission since I think 2021, four or five years now.

In light of things like COVID-19, we work with the OLS to do business outreach, you know, keeping our business, our consumers safe and ways that we can do that to try to keep businesses open.

We worked on establishing the independent contractor protection ordinance that just got put in place here recently and establishing the fund source there to help OLS regulate that and thrive in that area.

We've done things recently as Know Your Rights training.

We put one on in partnership with OLS and the community and Sylvia's Domestic Worker Standards Board.

And there's some other Know Your Rights trainings that we're sponsoring that are coming up in the near future too as well.

I think that's about it.

So as Billy kind of alluded to there, we have 15 positions within our commission here representing all business, labor, and community.

Right now, we have worked really hard to make sure we have a diversity of perspective and consensus building within our commission.

We do have 11 current commissioners.

Three of those are business owners, one being myself, and he talked about Amanda as well.

One is a researcher.

We have two community organizations and five labor organizations represented.

We do still have four positions that we would love to fill.

We'd love to continue to make sure that we are keeping that diversity of voices brought to this commission.

One of those is a council appointment, two mayoral appointments, and a commissioner appointment.

Keeping in mind that we want to keep that diversity, we would love your help.

If you guys can ever think of somebody along the way here that would be a great fit here.

Specifically, we've kind of identified that we'd love to have actually a worker on our commission, somebody who can represent that side.

We also noticed we have a hole in the business side and kind of that medium-sized businesses, and especially like restaurant and hospitality industries.

Finally, obviously, it's always great to have the diversity of voices in the immigrant community, especially when it comes to labor standards, and we would love to find some more voices on that side as well.

Okay, como lo mencionó Billy hace un momento, en el 2025 ELSAC, en colaboración con el Domestic Workers Standard Board, hicimos una capacitación de Conozca Sus Derechos por Zoom, que fue todo un éxito.

Like he mentioned, in 2025, LSAC, in collaboration with DWSB, held a Know Your Rights training via Zoom, which was a great success.

We had mixed audiences of workers and businesses.

I am encouraged that LSAC is promoting language justice and all your rights.

Training was simultaneously interpreting to Spanish.

Having the opportunity to hear information in our native language is the best way.

The materials and the training were translated into seven languages and was distributed within organizations, with partner organizations.

The commitment with OLS and the immigrants and refugees is huge.

Their work and leadership, it's an example of our national and state level.

OLS

gives education, investigation, and free references to all of the people.

It doesn't matter their immigrant status.

And I want to mention that it's very, very important to have this type of education and conscious since we are living in times where the immigrant community rather stayed in silence.

In this training, we had the presence of immigration lawyers that spoke about the rights of the workers and the employers to to talk about immigration.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this type of training was a total success, and we believe that these agencies in the city should give more training to those workers and employers for small businesses.

And that's why we're planning another training on the first of June.

In collaboration with OLS and ORA.

But we have questions and worries.

How does employers and contractors can protect domestic workers?

¿Cómo las grandes plataformas de trabajo temporal protegen a trabajadores como gig workers?

How big platforms and temporary work can protect unemployed workers.

What happens when workers or workers from agencies are arrested in their way to work?

What can the city do to support workers and small businesses around these instabilities and interruptions caused by the federal immigration application?

These are questions that we still don't have answers, but we would like to have them.

Thank you.

Just to follow up on that personal background with myself, I came to Seattle in September of 2021 specifically to work at Drivers Union because the city had passed the deactivation rights ordinance that provided protections for workers like Sylvia just talked about.

It is not something that I was aware of in any other space.

I'm an immigrant myself to this country.

I've had family members that have had to work you know, in drive-throughs, right?

Because while they were waiting for their status, I've had family members abused when they've been here on the H-1B visa, and in their corporate setting, have had to deal with certain stresses and...

pressures, you know, wondering what are they going to do because their daughter, their child is dependent on them maintaining this job.

And so it's something I don't want to get lost, you know, the impact that the city has had with OLS, you know, with the advice of LSAT, of the various policies and ordinance and how to implement working with their community partners.

and driver's union was part of that.

The gig worker rights is something that is still being paid attention to.

Other cities are looking at the city of Seattle and OLS and asking how they were able to be able to get ordinance like that passed and moved.

So I don't want it to get lost, although I'm here to kind of talk about the data portion and seeing the actual impact of what OLS is doing with the advice of this commission.

And part of why I joined this commission was through the work that I was doing with Drivers Union.

So when we talk about that impact, looking at 2025, of what was done with OLS, the over $21 million assessed in investigations.

More than 33,000 workers were impacted.

Those are workers that wouldn't normally come, you know, may not necessarily step out where these protections in these agencies and this, you know, commission being around and knowing that they have this first path to come, you know, to to seek advice from.

And over 4,000 workers trained and over 7,400 businesses engaged.

And that's one of the things that we do want to, especially in a labor setting, from the labor side, the uniqueness about this commission is we do have labor and business working together to advance one particular, you know, the priorities of making sure that workers are in a safe environment.

Nobody starts from the mindset that the business are trying to do wrong.

We know that they're trying to do right, and a lot of them just may not be aware of how to do so.

And so, some of OLS's work is done through the community partnerships, and two main tools is the COEF, which is the Community Outreach and Education Fund, and the Business Outreach and Education Fund.

The COEF, our partners, trusted community-based partners that they meet with workers where they are, they provide language capacity, they have the same culture, the same lived experiences, and they help workers understand their rights, navigating workplace issues, and then connecting those workers with OLS when something goes wrong.

And BOEF does the same thing, but on the business side, because as I said, the starting point is that businesses are trying to get it right.

They're not purposely doing things to try and get it wrong.

And they don't always know what compliance actually looks like in practice, especially some small business owners.

They're not necessarily at the stage where they can have a general counsel or a lawyer and retainer to figure out how do I comply with what this looks like.

And so those funds are partners that step in to educate, guide and help try to prevent the violations before they happen.

But so these programs with OLS, it's what turns the policy and the ordinances of the city into real world impact.

And I'm here to encourage, you know, well, we as LSACs here to encourage a council to provide stable funding for OLS to continue to have this type of impact in the city.

Recently, the mayor's transition team recognized that OLS needs that stable funding structure to meet its enforcement possibilities, and this requires increased capacity.

So that's going to look like more staffing, more resources, and more discretion.

But at the same time, the city departments have been asked to propose how they could possibly cut 5% to 10% from their budget.

And for a department like OLS, that's tension, right?

They're already operating below their full capacity.

There's 43 allotted positions, and currently they're only staffed with 38 funded positions.

So the two, recognition from the mayor's transition team, but then the ask of the city's department, they're fundamentally in conflict.

And for OLS, because it's a smaller department and they don't have the discretion, their funds are earmarked for specific things.

There's not a lot of discretion in the ability to shift resources in response to increased funding or increased demand.

So, for example, and we heard it mentioned, I think, in the previous presentation, there's conversations about World Cup 2026, and that is coming, and that's going to bring an influx of workers and businesses into Seattle, and OLS doesn't necessarily have the discretion to shift funding to say, hey, this is happening, let's reallocate funds to more outreach or education.

And so, it creates that, you know, creates...

have detrimental impacts, right?

It means fewer workers are gonna be reached, fewer businesses are gonna be supported, and more violations that could have been prevented you know, will happen.

So as you all know, Seattle has led the nation in advance in labor protections for gig workers, right?

We have not just what happened with the TNC drivers, we now have for the app-based drivers, the delivery drivers, the independent contractors.

So these are things that are not seen in other cities and not taken into consideration that those that fill those spaces do not have the power to truly negotiate the contracts that they may be entering into.

and that impacts the small businesses that need...

that rely on those services as well.

So we're asking, you know, that this leadership that we have set the path forward, that we continue funding, you know, this process and providing the discretion.

There's a couple other jurisdictions that are trying different things.

So Oregon, California, Illinois have recognized and created stable funding for...

for a similar office.

Like, I've been in conversations with some of them, like, how did OLS, you know, have the impact and what they're looking to do.

And they've created, these other states have looked at creating fundings for their offices through payroll taxes or using some of the civil penalties that are tied to their enforcement.

So Seattle has the opportunity to do the same and do it in a way that aligns with the leadership that we've already demonstrated.

It's not just about enforcement, it's about making sure that a worker understands their rights before they're violated and making sure that businesses get it right the first time instead of having to learn through penalties.

and it's ensuring that the entire system that we've built isn't just existing on papers and words in black and white, but in actual function, consistency, and equitability.

So we believe in these laws and we're asking you to provide the funding and the discretion that OLS can continue doing the work and LSAT can continue having the impact that we've had with the various advice that we've given through our process.

Thank you.

So, and as I mentioned before, we meet on an annual basis and we talk about priorities and things we want to look at moving forward.

So, you know, here's some of the things that we're looking at moving forward that came out of our last conference or whatever you want to call it.

But one of the big things is the impacts on AI to the workforce that we're going to be trying to look.

Dedicated revenue sources that might help OLS with their funding stream.

and more things.

We meet on an every-other-month basis, and we take a look at these things and try to bring in guest speakers, hear from OLS, from the director, how these different things are impacting, and to craft policy and suggestions moving forward.

Here is a picture of one of our annual retreats.

This one here was from 2024. So we're a big happy family.

So in conclusion, we just wanted to say obviously thank you and applaud the City of Seattle for standing up the Office of Labor Standards and this group.

You're on the cutting edge of cities that are looking at taking, looking at workers and making them a priority in your policy.

But also in that, you know, the business folks, especially the ones that sit here at LSAC, recognize that they're competing with businesses in and around Seattle.

And with a lot of costs that are associated with businesses are set costs.

And the first thing that goes is it drives the impacts on labor, whether it's through wages, benefits, anything like that.

And so when they're out there competing and good businesses competing, they want to compete They don't want to compete against bad actors, right?

And so OLS is here to call out those bad actors and make sure that our good friends in the business community like we have here at LSAC can compete at the highest level and do good by the workers on that.

Oh, I wanted to invite everybody.

So as far as the business outreach, two weeks from today on May 1st, the OLS does their annual business outreach.

This year, they're going to be down in the Pioneer Square area and around the stadium districts and being really proactive and talking to those businesses as we're going to welcome the world to Seattle for FIFA.

So that's a great thing they do every year.

A lot of us participate in those efforts, too, as well.

And in the future, we've met with some of the council members as members of LSAC, and we invite any of the council members that haven't met with us to please reach out or let us know if you're interested.

We can reach out to your staff to set up a meeting.

Any priority legislation or anything that you're working on at council, we welcome them to look over them as a committee of business and labor folks and give you any feedback.

And we're here to serve you.

So thank you again.

Thank you all so much for being in committee today talking about your work.

I know one of the things that really excites me about the work of LSAC is, again, the diverse table that is set, including business, labor, and workers sitting together and really talking about the issues before us.

Colleagues, I want to open it up for questions that you have for our LSAC members.

Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much to everyone for being here today and for your service on the committee.

I really appreciate it.

I wanted to go to, I didn't get the slide number, but there was a slide that you had about the recommendations, and I saw a note that said, oh, that's not it.

It was later, it was Billy when you were speaking.

There we go.

This first one around restraining predatory commercial leasing practices.

I wonder if you can share more about that one.

Do you want to jump in?

So part of the conversation that came up, my involvement with others and just being out in the community, you hear about some of the leases that small businesses are signing.

And one example, a business window got broken and the lease, how it is written, although that should be something from My standpoint as an attorney, that should have been something that the landlord would have been required to fix.

It was not.

And they engaged, and it was multiple times that it had happened.

It was something within that area.

And they weren't aware that they could actually push for that.

The landlord had certain terms in there about how they could increase their what their rents would be based on certain improvements that they've done in a plaza space.

But it wasn't, they increased it beyond that and more than what the landlord, more than the actual fixes that the landlord has done.

So it is having some of those predatory type lease terms that are present that as a small business owner you're not necessarily going to have the wherewithal or the resources to have someone that can review this commercial, you know, 20-page commercial lease to say, yes, you should or no negotiate this part.

You know you have your business.

You're looking to get started.

And it seems fair enough to you in terms of the length and what the amount that you're paying.

So they, you know, sign that lease.

And then as they get into it, the details of it start coming out.

It's too late for them.

So it is one of those that I've seen too much where I'm like, we can't really do anything because you've already signed this contract and you're stuck with the terms of the contract.

But similar to what we've seen with the gig economy, that if there are city laws or ordinances that require certain, whether it's caps on how much you can increase in a commercial lease, and certain things that we know the landlord has to be held responsible for.

I think that would ease the concerns and ease the burdens that are then placed on the small business owners.

Because once that increases, it's now I have to think, oh, I have to come out of pocket to fix these things.

which means I may need to let a worker go or cut one of my workers' time, you know, the amount of time.

And now someone else is, you know, they are taking on more or putting on more responsibilities on other employees that are there.

So it's just kind of looking at some of these issues that we've seen and we've heard and I've heard, you know, people coming to me with.

Thank you so much.

And I know the OED director is here with us today.

And I wonder if there's a formal relationship between the committee.

I know obviously you're tied to Office of Labor Standards.

I'm also thinking about work that Office of Economic Development is doing, and so I'm curious if there's already sort of a direct connection as I'm listening to that recommendation with OED and knowing that there's work happening there on that lease and commercial side.

And if not, we can take that offline and we can make sure that happens, because I just hear a real opportunity there, and I see the director nodding his head from the audience, so we'll follow up on that.

And just one more question, if I may, Chair.

At the beginning, you talked about the desire to have a medium-sized business, and I heard you sort of talk about, you know, potential partnership from Council.

Can you just define that for us, what would be medium-sized, knowing that, you know, are you thinking like 25 to 100 folks, two locations, if there's any more information so that we can be good partners in helping maybe identify folks to partner with the Commission?

Yeah, I think you're kind of right in that right line of where we're thinking there, 25 to 100. We have currently two small businesses.

I know we have three locations, but we run very tight ship and we're very small.

And then we also have the GSBA on there, which has been really great because they kind of are a voice of many, many sizes of business.

But it'd be really nice to get those people in the room that have a perspective that I don't have, that our small business owners like myself and Amanda just don't have.

where they're having maybe bigger footprints, a lot bigger labor force, but maybe not to that size where we're to the big tech companies here as well, which obviously are a whole different array of mindset.

But yeah, I feel like they're just underrepresented there, and that's kind of where we'd like to see that side come in on the business side.

Thank you so much, and Chair, final question.

I really appreciated the comments and the context around your work and the need that's there compared to the staffing.

I also wonder if you can talk a little bit more.

One of my concerns has been seeing some of the dismantling at the federal level of labor standards and of the existing governing bodies.

I wonder if you can speak just a little bit to how that may be impacting work locally.

So that's one of the pieces.

I know, for example, on the state level, they just passed the trigger bill.

So if NLRB kicks out or doesn't take jurisdiction, the PIRC could do so.

But in terms of locally, it's something that is a conversation that we have been having.

as a commission in terms of what can the city do or what can we recommend that wouldn't necessarily step in the jurisdiction of other organizations.

And it's still an ongoing conversation.

Part of the reason why we're like, we'd like to have workers on the board as well, as someone in labor, we can give that perspective of, here's what we're seeing.

And yes, we are directly connected to workers.

But that, for example, the Nurses Association, that's hospital and facilities.

That is bigger workforce.

The Drivers Union, they've done our own kind of protecting employees, like we have a rapid response, like what does that look like?

And it's through litigation, but it is a little bit disheartening because that can take long.

So some of the ideas is, is there a way that we can quickly respond?

Is it something that and having a space to implement more heftier fines on employers where there's a quicker investigation process that goes into place.

So it's still some of the ideas that we're working through, but some of it could be that is implementing heftier fines.

I know when we were there and some of the arguments that we've used, we did use the investigations that OLS did and the multimillion dollar payments, settlement agreements that they Uber and Lyft entered into because they were stealing wages.

And they're aware of that.

But they also are aware that the workers don't necessarily have time to look at every single chart on their pay statements to realize, hold on, there was $0.05 taken here, $0.10 taken there, but that adds up to millions over time.

So having more, and that's part of why we talked about more enforcement, having more staff that can do the investigations in a shorter time period and having heftier penalties associated to that, I think is what would encourage workers to step up and looking to enforce them.

Because I've heard when I bring in cases from the TNC drivers, there's a fear of, Well, can they retaliate, or how long is this going to take?

And the bigger companies take their time and drag out the litigation.

And so it's two, three years later, and the drivers are moved on to something else.

and or now that the federal landscape's changing, they're free to continue to pursue it.

So thinking of ideas along those lines.

And same with businesses.

We've had those conversations on the panel where it's like, I don't want to get those fines, but we need to understand where it is.

So the community funds and the business partnership funds are two funds that I think are very valuable, but it is also having more discretion and having a little bit more outreach.

So locally, with the dismantling of what's going on federally, it is promoting the idea of like, yes, We lean into the space of we are a safe city.

And workers, businesses shouldn't fear speaking up and stepping up to it.

But I think, from an immigrant standpoint, is having that.

that safe space, for lack of better phrase, and having the confidence to know that if I come to the city, that one, my information isn't being shared, two, it's going to be responsive to the concerns that we're bringing up.

And, you know, I have that support.

Can I add real quick, Council Member Foster?

On that, I think that's why those Know Your Rights trainings that we do are so important.

And as Patrice mentioned, business and community and the business outreach that we do.

Because we work with representative workers, but there's a majority of the workers in the city of Seattle that aren't represented, large groups of immigrant communities.

And so these Know Your Rights trainings, I mean, for example, the first one that we did, we were gonna do an in-person one, but we at the last minute switched it to online for safety of the people that wanted to attend.

So those are huge in any way that we can continue to partner to do those.

And it lifts up the work that OLS does.

I mean, at this time, no more than any other, the work they do is so great in protecting the workers.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for those questions, Vice Chair Foster.

And just building on this point, it's my recollection, I believe there was a state bill passed this year around allowing for paid leave to be used during immigration proceedings.

Is that correct?

I might be recalling that incorrectly.

I believe so, yes.

And thinking about that as just one step forward to try and approach the myriad of challenges that immigrant workers are facing.

And you all spoke to, again, the dynamics between we have a number of workers that are a part of a represented union, but many of whom are not.

And so I want to recognize and honor the points that Sylvia was raising in this.

And thank you for being so clear on the the questions that we don't have answers to at this time.

And I think I want to also open it up to this end around what are the other things that we're seeing in this space and opportunities, understanding that the state took a step forward on allowing for paid leave to be used for time for immigration proceedings.

But I'm thinking specifically about the fact that we know a lot of people are not coming to work.

on some days when there's substantive fear of deportation.

And we continue to see challenges.

And I'm hearing about challenges around just retaliation, wage theft, and weaponizing someone's documentation against them.

And so other ideas or concepts that have been percolating or things that you're hearing would be helpful to hear on this front as well.

I haven't discussed this, but as you were talking, one of the things, thoughts or ideas, and I don't know if this is already happening, so I'll say it with that caveat, but I know, for example, I used to work with the NLRB, and there was a process and a memo that was in place at one point that before to do any kind of workplace investigation.

It's the de-conflicting memo.

They would also check with the NLRB to see if there was any complaint.

Because those bigger companies, workers started unionizing or started talking about it, they would then call you know, like, oh, we need to do an I-9 check.

Or they would call ICE and, you know, to quell that movement.

So there was that de-conflicting memo that was in place and was being adhered to.

So here in the city, I don't know if the city is alerted or, you know, police force, you know, if the police is informed.

if there's going to be any kind of ICE coming into the city.

So if there is something like that, or maybe the city police reaching out, informing OLS, informing OED, letting some of the agencies that work with workers and businesses be aware that this is going to happen, assuming you're provided knowledge ahead of time.

That could be one way to start that process.

Thank you for naming that.

I think with our existing laws in place, the cooperation between federal government and SPD, we don't necessarily get a heads up, but I think it's worthwhile talking to the executive that when the city understands there might be something coming our way, ensuring that we are communicating with departments so we can do appropriate outreach.

when possible.

Thank you for raising that.

And I do want to pivot us to just another point on this slide, maybe to close this out, just because AI is moving quickly.

It feels like we're playing catch up in many ways.

And so I'm wondering what issues related to AI in the workplace that you all are tracking at this time.

And I think this is going to be a continuing conversation as we continue to see the rise of AI in workplaces across our city.

What are some of the issues and challenges around AI in the workplace that you all are tracking at this time?

I mean, I know at the state level, Dustin Lambrough is part of LSAC.

He's not here to speak on it, but they're looking at the consumer price fixing type stuff through like AI and the technology there.

So we're kind of monitoring that type of stuff.

obviously any type of reduction in force, that type of stuff, you know, trying to look at those things.

I wanted to go back real quick to what Patrice was saying.

I know it sparked something in my head.

I know Governor Ferguson just did something at the end of last month around I-9 and having to give notice to employers and stuff to do an I-9 audit.

And so that's around kind of the federal ICE conversation too there.

But yeah, there's several of us on here that are in different realms working on different things.

And so when we come together, we do have, I think that's gonna be an ongoing conversation around what we're seeing in the AI space.

I'd also add to that with AI, one of the concerns is discipline decisions within AI because there's, and we've seen it in the gig space, right?

If you get X amount of things on your background check, doesn't matter what it is, and the importance of the laws that we have, that would be beforehand, it's just a count.

You get three things, you're off the platform, you've now lost your job.

Doesn't matter whether you are at fault, not at fault.

So we've actually addressed that.

And we know that in that space, it's their algorithm that is just scanning, seeing these three things, and making a decision, and they block the app.

So it's not someone, a human eye, actually looking at it.

I believe at one point there was a conversation on the state level.

I'm not sure where that went, so we'd have to look into that to get back.

But that was part of the conversation is having an individual, a human, actually making the decision when it comes to discipline and not leaving that to AI algorithms.

So that's another thing we've seen in the labor spaces as well, where AI is more efficient, but it doesn't consider enough context.

And I think along that line in the small business space, I mean, sometimes we're probably all guilty of using AI too much at times and maybe getting false information at times.

And it goes back to where OLS needs to be educating the businesses, not AI.

As a small business, there's many times that I mean, I'm trying to sort through the rules.

And yes, the quickest way might be to plug it into a machine.

And I think

And I believe that we were talking about education.

And I think AI comes in a time to affect vulnerable people that doesn't have that knowledge.

Y creo que deberíamos de reenforzar esa educación para toda la comunidad más vulnerable como quizás personas mayores que están trabajando en restaurantes, janitors.

And we should reinforce that education to vulnerable people like people working in restaurants, older people.

Because there could be a lot of fraud in regards to those type of workers.

So I think there's a lot of work that we have to do in this AI area.

Thank you all for those responses and again for being here today, hearing a very clear call out from the chairs to council to please engage with LSAC on any policy ideas and to regularly check in, especially as things are moving quickly with AI and on the immigration front, and frankly on all things.

And so I want to uplift.

I know, Billy, you mentioned the OLS event happening in honor of May Day.

I did find out it's on April 30th.

So I want to make sure we got that.

It's not quite on May Day.

And I will be there.

And I think some of our council colleagues will be there as well.

I'm really excited about that education opportunity to do that outreach work.

And so it'll be on April 30th.

at the Chinese Information Service Center, and there will be outreach to a variety of council districts and businesses within those council districts.

With that, colleagues, I'm gonna move us along and thank again our LSAC partners for being in committee today.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you.

Wonderful, and with that, we're gonna move to our final item of business.

Will the clerk please read item nine into the record?

Item 9, Office of Economic Development, Workforce Development Strategic Plan, Briefing and Discussion.

Wonderful.

And as we go through our transition, I'm going to welcome our partners with the Office of Economic Development to the table.

And also note for the record, this is the first time we have our new OED acting director, Vero Yarse, in committee this year.

We're very excited to be working with you.

And as you get settled in, if you can take a moment to please introduce yourself by stating your full name into the microphone for the record, that would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning, everyone.

My name is Brina McKay.

I'm the interim manager for the key industries and workforce development team at OED.

Hi, everyone.

I am Anita Chandramohan.

I'm the workforce development policy advisor within the Office of Economic Development.

Thank you, Madam Chair Rink, for the opportunity.

And thank you for, it's a pleasure working with you directly.

And good morning, everybody, council members and community.

Beto Yarse, Acting Director for the Office of Economic Development.

Wonderful.

Thank you all for being here.

Please proceed with the presentation.

Well, I'm going to start with a high level of the work that we are doing at the Workforce Development Strategy and our Office of OED.

So I will just start with from fragmentation to implementation.

When this work started in 2025, the city workforce investment and program were in coordinating and connecting the people graduating from our programs and trainings to the next step in their skills or career path within around the city of the region.

So that's something that I really feel very proud of how we're changing strategy and how we are measuring by doing it with the SMART goals and really evaluating on how we are moving forward with this fragmentation and our implementation.

So OED is a leader and the face of the city workforce development implementation, which I'm very proud of that work.

As someone who is a previous small business owner, someone who worked in hospitality as a worker, undocumented worker, I know how important is workforce development for our community and the investments that we do.

OED represents the mayor position as the chief locally elected official on the City Workforce Development Council of Seattle and King County, and also OED close contacts with industry and education partners and plays a key role in anticipating and responding to cross department coordination.

The collaboration is so important when we do cross-department coordination.

Over the last seven months, 10 departments have been working together to identify and allow opportunities that serve our local residents, students, families, and job seekers who want to learn and advance in skilling and financial security.

As someone who has been a graduate organizer, working in multiple capacities in my career from nonprofit, federal government, now with the city, I feel like coordination is key to advance these complexities of workforce development.

So I'm very proud of my team leading with that vision of coordination and utilizing the resources that the city has, especially in these times.

and really empowering our total city workforce in this capacity.

We are seeing many of our regional public partners prioritizing workforce, which is very exciting, and their strategies are very closely with evolving industry needs.

The city needs to be on the front lines of these conversations.

We have a unique opportunity to align, blend, and strengthen, finding opportunities, public investments, and community partnerships while advancing local talent development.

With that, I will just pass it with my team, which they are the ones who have all the knowledge.

I always very, very grateful for their smartness and their commitment and their passion for their work.

So, with that, I'll pass it to Anita and Brina, and I will be here to support Anita and answer any questions.

So, Anita, please share your knowledge with the Council, and thank you for being here.

Thanks, Bezo, and thanks, Brina.

Good morning, Council members.

Again, my name is Anita Chandramohan.

I'm the Workforce Development Policy Advisor within OED.

and thank you all so much for the opportunity to share more about the workforce portfolio and the really wonderful and exciting strategic work that we are doing within and across the city.

So today's briefing will follow this arc.

I'm going to give a quick snapshot of the city's historical workforce development efforts.

I will kind of give the last 14 months of catch up and thinking about the strategy development, current priorities, and focus areas.

I'll talk a little bit more about key partnerships within the work that we're doing.

touch on some early wins and, again, very cool things that we're doing in progress.

And then close with where we're headed and really thinking about some opportunities within clean energy, youth workforce investment, and thinking about how best to anchor the work that we're doing in robust impact metrics.

And so we're able to clarify what is actually driving change, how we can inform opportunities to scale, innovate, and also respond to very rapidly evolving employer and industry needs.

There should be a timeline on this slide.

but I can go over that in person if that's okay.

One second, colleagues.

We'll be at ease for one second.

Thank you.

Okay.

so on this slide you would see a timeline of the workforce development history at the city but before we get into the history i want to take just a second to define what we mean when we're talking about workforce development and when we say workforce development we're talking about the coordinated effort to prepare job seekers for careers across sectors how to think about business and industry attraction, and also working with employers to ensure that they have access to a skilled, diverse talent pipeline.

And so it includes investments around partnership solutions and thinking about how, of course, across sectors, different things can be prioritized, but there is still an incredible amount of overlap in thinking about the audience needs, challenges, and many of the things that our employers are looking for that are not technical and specialized training.

You guys have just heard several presentations talking about the impact or disruption of AI in workforce, and so we'll definitely touch on that a little bit.

But the reality is is that we're hearing from employers across every sector at every level that the ability to be adaptable, to communicate, to problem solve, those are the things that make somebody more competitive.

And so in thinking about how the city can be investing in those, that's also something that we're really thinking about in addition to the traditional training and employer development.

There we go.

I think we have the right slides up, just confirming.

Yes, that's the right slide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So as you can see here, before 2025, the city roughly invested about $15 million across departments within 65-plus workforce programs.

But there wasn't a lot of coordination and shared outcomes.

Departments were doing great work, but unfortunately, they were operating relatively independently, oftentimes in silos, and just not talking as well to each other as they could.

and the other part of that is that job seekers and graduates from training programs weren't effectively connected to the next opportunity or possible next steps in their career journeys.

And so in early 2025, OED convened a city workforce group and they brought together 11 plus departments thinking about how they can or how we can really think about workforce development strategically within the city, across the city borders, but also within the region because we know that Anything that happens within Seattle is really impacting the outside borders and vice versa.

And especially when we think about workforce, people who live in Seattle don't necessarily work in Seattle and people who work in Seattle don't necessarily live in Seattle.

And so that's why the really cross sector and regional ecosystem is incredibly important to this conversation.

In early 2025, I mentioned OED had convened this workforce group, and the phase one was identifying pillars that ground the city's approach in how we are thinking about the city, aiming to be a model employer, how we can prioritize outcomes and impact across our workforce investments, and also, as I just mentioned, strengthening the regional workforce ecosystem.

The second phase, which really kind of restarted in December 2025, began as the Citywide Workforce Group was identifying two urgent priorities, utilities and youth pathways.

And so utilities includes clean energy and green economy workforce demands, and also thinking about on the youth workforce priority, how are we exposing and giving hands-on skill, experience, and exposure to young people about the key and thriving career pathways that exist locally?

So as I just mentioned, the 2026 strategy really thinks about youth and utilities using those three pillars, the city as a model employer, strategic partnerships, and data and impact as the underpinning for the way that we're doing work within those focus areas.

And as we're thinking about stronger, more cohesive and connected workforce systems, we are thinking about how we can bring those pillars into each of those areas.

And it is 100% about how we can work together more effectively and having accountability to the folks that we're serving and to each other as well.

Part of this is really trying to have us understand what is the information or partnership gaps that remain, and we want to make sure we're not leaning back into that fragmentation and continue being able to share learnings, talk to each other, and make sure that we are connected internally and then also with the partners that we find very key to moving this work forward.

And I'll just maybe pause for a second here and say that across all of this, or throughout all of this, we get asked often, what is OED's role?

And OED is really serving as a convener, as a system integrator, but also as a relationship holder for employers, for skills trainers, and for public workforce institutions.

And it's OED's role to also bring that knowledge to the city and help departments kind of learn from those other partnerships and elevate them where appropriate for other departments to develop their own relationships as well.

I keep talking about partnerships and relationship development, so I want to take just a moment and highlight a few examples of partners that are very critical to our work and the regional economic development.

You've heard me say that workforce development is fundamentally partnership work.

And really at OED, our role is to align the partners, including industry and employers, so job seekers can access and complete training that leads to real job opportunities.

My colleagues and partners have heard me say that training programs are great, but if there's no job at the end of it, that's really doing a disservice to the job seeker.

And so it's really, I think, a responsibility of the city and the investments and the partners that we have to offer training which has next steps to placement and thinking about the employer priorities and making sure that trainings are not leaving people kind of uncompetitive or not as competitive because the trainings aren't responsive to industry needs.

And so aligning that with industry demand in real time is incredibly important.

And I'll just maybe say also here, we often hear from employers and industry that by the time a training program kind of gets to them or by the time a graduate gets to them, That's at the end of the pipeline, where the employer wishes they had been brought along at the beginning, because then they would have been able to be more of a co-designer or a partner and say, yep, these are the skills that we need.

And we have those jobs waiting at the end of this program to have the graduates be able to enter into or to upskill.

And so leaning more into those public-private partnerships or those co-design type of solutions is definitely something that we're trying to explore.

And so we partner across four main groups, higher education, thinking about certifications, bridge programs, and identifying, again, the offerings that we have in our local atmosphere for higher education and connecting them with the job opportunities.

internally deal as a huge partner in this work.

They participate in the citywide workforce group and hold critical relationships with the district, Seattle Promise, the colleges, et cetera.

And so just kind of naming that when we talk about workforce development, people often think about it, you know, is it, are you talking about adults?

Are you talking about youth?

Really it's the whole pipeline and that's the responsibility also of someone like OED to think about what are we doing from in the K through 12 or even K through eight, what's happening in, the high school space and then post-secondary, et cetera.

We also work closely to understand the needs and the inputs of labor and industry.

You've heard me talk a lot about having industry at the table or just having at least their priorities represented, especially because things are evolving so quickly.

And so understanding how we can really partner with union groups, with apprenticeship programs and with employers to strengthen training and direct placement in those jobs.

Part of this is also having employers come and talk to students and young people about what it is like for certain pathways as AI is changing the nature of that work.

You heard me talk earlier about what I'm going to call power skills, sometimes called soft skills.

Those are, across the board, the number one thing we hear from employers that they still can't find, even if somebody has the technical or skilled expertise.

The two other big groups that we work with, public workforce partners.

And so these are folks like the port, the Workforce Development Council, King County, and community organizations.

And so understanding where appropriate braided or blending funding opportunities can be provided, where we can strengthen wraparound supports, because we know that that's the biggest reason that people can't enter or drop out of programs.

And also just in terms of the shared municipal works, shared municipal workforce systems, having people understand, you know, what are some best practices that are being elevated within the city, we'd love to learn about the county as well, and being able to share those.

And so understanding, again, going back to how can the city be a model employer for a lot of the solutions that we will be championing or have been championing.

Next slide, please.

So the next two slides are a few examples of some early wins and progress that we've made working together in the citywide workforce group.

I'm not going to read the ones that are on the slides, but I'm going to give you two additional highlights to share that you're not going to see there.

So one is a soft launch of Next Move Seattle.

Some of you may be familiar with this funding and kind of approach.

So Innovation and Performance a couple of years ago received some funding to understand what young people need to help with mental health support and how can the city be responsive to that.

And so IP spoke with young people to identify some tools that they needed to feel better supported by the community.

And in response, a digital platform was created to help youth navigate opportunities in their neighborhood, their schools, their cities, particularly thinking about a citywide career and wellbeing navigation tool.

And so Nextmove Seattle is just soft launched last month, and we are working to support outreach for that, having a complimentary web app prototype as well.

It's not funded for its full launch, but I did wanna share that one other highlight.

And so it's been great to have IP share their learnings directly from young people with our group and have that respond and incorporate a lot of the career tools that we've been talking about We are also working on regional coordination with the Port of Seattle and the Workforce Development Council.

We've had wonderful touch points around some maritime strategy and workforce demand alignment.

We also have been talking about clean energy priorities, including thinking about what we really need to know about clean energy workforce opportunities here, and thinking about the coordinated support for dislocated workers, immigrant and refugee job seekers, and small business support.

This is the second set of progress on the city coordination.

Just elevating here, I'm sure you are all familiar with the FAP levy passed last year.

There was a path to trades component within this.

The citywide workforce group worked together to develop recommendations on how that path to trades funding could be used to align and support other city workforce investments, getting folks into the trades, getting youth exposed to skill pathways as well.

Also highlighting here, On the previous slide, you saw an award that the city was awarded.

One of our early wins is that the Citywide Workforce Group applied for and City Light and Seattle Public Utilities received training or are in the process of receiving training and coaching to improve their internal workforce development.

This was really great because it's training that City Light and public utilities were going to have to pay for regardless.

And so we kind of saved that expense and were able to have them go through this process.

We will be having a site visit from the National League of Cities and American Institute for Research coming in May 11th and 12th.

And we'll also be able to showcase some of the really great work that the city is doing internally to help support incumbent and incoming workers.

So in our closing moments, I just want to give a quick snapshot about what we are looking at coming ahead.

And so a lot of this work is ongoing.

It's going to continue through the end of the year and hopefully into the next several years, just understanding that workforce is changing.

And we really are seeing, I'd say across sectors, a lot of different types of workers who are being impacted in various ways.

And so how can we support them within the city is something we're thinking very intentionally about.

We also understand that the locus of control we have is only so wide.

And so understanding where those partnership levers are that we can really lean into is extremely critical for us.

And I think it's the work smarter, not harder model.

And certainly also that we can do much more together than individually.

And so I know that's been a theme.

There's even been a couple of speakers that have been here today that I've realized I want to go back and talk to.

And so that's been wonderful on my end.

but really thinking about, you know, how we are, how Seattle has been a place for innovation for so long.

And I think part of innovation in the workforce area is thinking about new ways that people can work together or can kind of partner that we haven't already and leaning into some pilots and thinking about what's working and what's not and how to scale that, right?

And so, again, I think we have a lot of clean energy, kind of green economy priorities in our state and our area.

and how can we though really be intentional about some of the industry and employer and business partners we have there to also then develop a local talent pipeline that makes folks wanna come and stay in the region and really boost the economic development for our neighbors and for us.

So with that, thank you so much to all of you.

We are very grateful for your support and your partnership and happy to take questions here with Brina and Beto.

Well, thank you so much.

And apologies for the hijinks there on the slides.

I ended up just sharing my own screen.

So glad that we got that sorted.

And thank you again for the presentation.

Colleagues, what questions do you have on workforce development?

I'm happy to kick us off while we are just perhaps marinating on some of these details.

Thank you for walking us through all of these elements and all of the work that you're doing, particularly connecting different departments' efforts with the work of OED.

I'm wondering, The FEP levy is front of mind for a lot of us.

I know I'm particularly excited about the path to trades component.

And so I'm wondering if you can just provide a little bit more detail on some of the work with regional partners.

We've been seeing a lot of reports and hearing directly from students about their interest in path to trades.

And so I'm wondering if you can speak to just a little bit more some of the partnership with DEAL and maybe partnership with Seattle Public Schools too I think something that I've certainly heard from a lot of parents is just a real desire to further reach and find kiddos and be able to explain these opportunities to young people.

And so I'm wondering if you could expand a little bit more on some of the thinking and outreach opportunities.

Sure.

I'm happy to kick us off.

Great question.

And yes, certainly top of mind.

I think what was really great or what is really great in our current strategy is we have this emphasis on utilities and kind of skilled trades within that, and then also a youth emphasis.

And so FEPP kind of brings those two worlds together in the best way.

We are definitely working with Deal as they are the relationship holder and we kind of look to them to lead the strategy and like have us advocate in terms of the work with the colleges.

We have a person from Deal who kind of works on the promise portion and kind of that post-secondary intro into the colleges and where it's kind of baton handed off to OED is when the workforce component comes in.

And I do think though, where the baton is kind of handed off is a very gray area.

And something that we're trying to be very intentional about is how we can get more skills, hands-on training to young people.

I think something that used to exist, and by used to, I say like, you know, 20, 15 to 30 years ago now is that there used to be a lot more trade exposure in high schools, right?

There's not really, and so how can, we'd be a bit more intentional with partnering with places like AJAC, with the Machinist Institute, where even having maybe like a mobile trades kind of counselor who goes between the different schools on different days to have young people be exposed to this.

One of the...

really cool events I think that we have, and I encourage council members to attend, is the Creative Economy Career Day.

There is an interesting skills to trade components of this because I think one of the unions that they work very closely with is the IATSE labor union, which houses a lot of different folks who work in the creative pathways, but folks who, for example, maybe carpenters, maybe woodworkers, are working even in electrical, then can have these jobs, for example, on a production set or building a set or even doing AV, et cetera.

And I think part of what is really great about the investments that we're looking at is how can we talk to young people about learning skill sets that can be stackable and flexible.

With the nature of AI, we don't know how jobs will completely transform or what aspects of them will transform.

That, I think, goes back to the fact that with a technical skill set that you have, you still have to be able to pivot it.

and apply it in different scenarios.

And so again, I think that goes back to partnerships, which is also to bring in alumni or folks like who are from the schools even or the backgrounds that they are to talk about like, yep, I was a young person, I had this interest, I decided to go to school for this.

Turns out, I use that skill set, perhaps not at all or in a completely different fashion.

We have found that young people really resonate with hearing from folks that have like gone through a lot of the pathways or the communities that they have as well, but also honestly hearing from people about how they've had to pivot or how they've pursued something and it's failed, but that's been okay and what they've learned from it.

I think for a lot of young people, They are hesitant for a number of reasons, like money, time, and all the other pieces, to invest a ton in a particular area and be like, well, that job isn't going to exist even if I do decide to pursue it.

And so I think it's also about helping a young person be set up for success and thinking about those pieces, especially when it comes to paths to trade.

We know that the city's had a great program in priority hire.

One of the things we're also trying to understand, though, and this kind of goes back to the partnership piece is over the course of the last 10 years, it has, I think there's maybe been like one person from the priority hire program who's graduated, who's gotten a job at the city of Seattle.

City Light and utilities have notoriously hard hiring processes.

And one of the things we're trying to understand is why there's been a drop off in women applicants over the last few years, but then also what are those like very hard, aspects or kind of points of the hiring process within the city that we can look at, right?

That we could make more equitable, that we can make clearer and easier for job seekers to navigate.

And again, I think some of that is like bound by labor and other kind of more industry pieces, but there are places that we can be flexible.

And so to understand what those are is also about, I think just digging a bit deeper and getting data on things that we have anecdotal information about, but not necessarily quantitative.

Thank you for breaking that down.

And I know also at this time, as from our previous discussions in this committee meeting, just the matters related to immigration have been really front of mind for many of us.

I wanted to take a moment to send my appreciation for the Ready to Work program.

And I'm wondering if OED has incorporated any other recommendations or findings from the Regional Partnerships for Immigration, Integration, and the Workforce Development report to, or, or thinking about strategies to address underemployment for immigrant communities.

Yeah, I will get us started.

So yes, the Ready to Work program.

And so just in case anybody isn't familiar, previously or historically, the Ready to Work program has served folks who are kind of level 0 or 1 to level 3 or so of English, right?

It's helping people kind of do English training, but also very basics around creating resumes, doing job applications, interviewing, et cetera, particularly setting that in a US cultural context.

and the refined 2.0 version of Ready to Work that's about to be launched.

And just to clarify, the 1.0 is still staying, so we're still serving that population.

But the second level is really thinking about, OK, great, we have these folks.

Maybe they've done some skilled trades back home.

Maybe they're at a level four plus English, but they don't have the vocational or technical English to pass an apprenticeship exam, qualify for a training program or whatever that might look like.

And so that's really where the ready to work refinement comes in.

And so it's a ready to work career pathway program.

And so that's been really exciting there.

Another piece is we've been bringing in the OIRA workforce lead to a lot of conversations on entry level positions with Seattle Public Utilities and with SDOT and City Light.

So understanding that Is there a way we could maybe have an idea that's kind of been thrown around?

There are applicants who are very talented who apply for city roles.

And I'll speak to city roles here just because I have more data on that.

But they apply to city roles, and they have all the technical qualifications, but their English is just not at the level that they would need to be hired at, particularly for safety and other communication pieces.

So one of the things that we have tried to understand is like is there a way we could have like a city referral service for an applicant who applies who might benefit then from some additional English training and could be referred to OIRA for that purpose.

The other thing I want to also highlight is We have also had OIRA been contracted and also with the citywide workforce group by a few different departments who have had challenges with immigrant and English language learning populations around public safety and communication pieces, right?

And so having the citywide workforce group and OIRA also really partner on how can we develop in language trainings for more departments to effectively communicate with English multilingual populations, right?

And so like, again, creating some of the resources where we make it easier for the employer to hire and communicate and navigate different challenges or opportunities with immigrant populations.

if there's anything you wanted to add.

I will just add as part of my role as director is like as we're here in cultivation and partnership with the multiple stakeholders, it's been several conversations in just these six weeks with OIRA and OLS and my role working with director Merchez and director Boo on how do we elevate more of this work.

and how we can make those investments more strategically in terms of immigrant workers.

It was very convenient that I was sitting here in the previous presentation because a lot of the conversations that we hear, it's conversations that we are already having, and how do we kind of implement it policy, how do we kind of figure out what is the funding that is needed, and also what are the resources that are already here that we just need to connect it and meet people where they are.

So my team is doing a phenomenal job on doing the strategy, working, and also my job is how do I hear from my team and how do I connect it with the other stakeholders that collaborate with us in this work.

Thank you for that.

And you mentioned, just in your point about city employment, that being more readily accessible information.

Is there information you wish you had to better support your work in workforce development?

Because there's so many different pathways in workforce development.

There's so much happening in our region.

And I'm wondering what would be supportive for your work, whether it be better connections across the region, or what would just further amplify and support your work?

Do you want to speak to that?

Sure.

I think that some of the information we wish we had, I'll start first with the relationship with King County.

Obviously, we're all still going through the transition process, and we are about to have a meeting with some of our colleagues over at King County, but trying to get more information and points of contact there on how we can really continue to move some of the work forward would be very helpful.

I also think on the data side, maybe not within the city specifically, but to the extent that we're able to get more updated information on labor and demographics across industries and sectors to be able to really understand what the economic impact is of certain sectors on our economy.

Of course, at OED, we have some of that information.

but to be able to have that across sectors would be really helpful in terms of how we would be able to prioritize our investments or looking forward towards the future of jobs, what types of investments we could prioritize in a more strategic long-term way is how I would respond.

Anita, do you have anything to add on that?

Yeah, I think I wanted to just maybe call out that part of Part of, I think, my hesitant to jump in right away to that question is thinking about we have a lot of data in front of us, and part of it is, I think, right now trying to figure out how do we identify the opportunities where we can pilot something, where something is working and how long we need to see it working for and then scale that, right?

And so I think some of the pieces where the unknown is there is around like the testing now, right?

We've got this data, we wanna be able to test it, but frankly, like testing something also requires quite a big investment.

And so recognizing that part of this process is we've got some of the data and unfortunately or fortunately in economic development and workforce development, you never have all of the data until you're at the end of the cycle and so as you are planning i think something we would like to understand or we're trying to figure out more and that's internally but also with partners is how can we best identify those opportunities for innovation right and so where is it that the port might be doing something the city is doing something similar let's get together and see if this collaboration can really result in something fruitful.

Sometimes it's not going to be as successful as others, but I think that's part of this learning opportunity.

And especially given that so many things are kind of unpredictable when it comes to workforce right now, I think testing is very important because if you wait until we have all the information, then we're almost like just playing catch up all the time.

I really appreciate that point just on testing and piloting concepts.

I think that's fantastic to hear.

Colleagues, any additional questions for our presenters today?

Hearing none, I am going to thank you three again for being here on a Friday morning to share a little bit more about this work and highlight, again, the complexities and the importance of partnership working across the city and our region.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate you.

And with that, we have reached the end of today's agenda.

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

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

The next Human Services Labor Economic Development Committee meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 1st at 9.30 a.m., and that is May Day.

So looking forward to seeing you all there.

Thank you, colleagues, again, and have a good weekend.

Thank you.