Seattle City Council Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee 2/5/19

Good morning.

Thank you for being here for our Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee on February 5th.

And it was difficult for many folks to get here to City Hall, and I appreciate the efforts made by many, so thank you.

And we do have some people that were unable to make that will still proceed with some of the appointments.

We're familiar with many of these individuals, and so I'll talk through that once we get to those items.

So we're going to start off with appointments to the Community Surveillance Working Group and talk a little bit about what that's about.

And we'll move to some other appointments to the International Special Review District Board and the Ethics and Elections Commission.

And then we have an ordinance dealing with the Myrtle Reservoir Radio Transmitter Facility.

And of course, we have a discussion of our new Chief Technology Officer, Saad Bashir, that we look forward to.

Why don't we start off with our first one, two, three appointments to the community surveillance group.

So, Ms. Sammons, why don't you read those into record, but we'll first have public comment.

We never skip that.

We never forget about that.

So, we're pleased to have two speakers.

Mr. Alex Zimmerman followed by Michael Schutzler.

Alex, you are first.

Mr. Zimmerman, before you start, we also have, as required by rules, a public hearing on agenda item number seven.

So we'll have those, so Ms. Samuels, can I have both of those hearings?

We'll do them separately.

Okay, so we're going to take this as public comment for agenda item number seven then.

Well, we have a little bit of a confusion here.

So you actually did not speak, you did not sign up for the general public comment.

I'm sure you intended to do that.

So we do have a general public comment sign up on all agenda items.

There are no people signed up for that.

We do have a public hearing on agenda item number seven.

So is there anyone here that like to have public comment on our general signup sheet for all agenda items?

Yeah, exactly.

I want to speak about agenda number six.

Or number seven, you mean, correct?

No, six.

Six.

Okay, so why don't you have Mr. Zimmerman sign up for that one?

Yes, six.

I can speak about seven too, but first I want to speak about six.

So I can speak twice?

As much as it pains me to say this, yes, you have the opportunity to speak twice.

So you'll speak on this item, and then you'll have two minutes, and then we will close public comment on general items, and then we'll move to a public hearing for agenda item number seven, as required by the rules.

Thank you very much, sir.

You're very welcome.

Thank you very much.

I want to speak about agenda number six.

This is about appointment of Susan Taylor, a member of Seattle Ethics in Election Committee.

Sieg Heil, my Führer.

Adory, Garbage Rats, Antisemite, and Crooks.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I want to speak about Agenda No. 6, about appointment people for Ethics in the Election Committee.

My experience with these people for many, many years is 100% negative.

It doesn't complain about what I did, not one positive word.

So each time that we approve somebody for this committee, it's approximately eight attorney, all crook, without exception, because I go and I know this.

Yes.

So I give you a very simple example how this committee working.

A couple of months ago, you give me trespass for one month, and I go to appeal.

So my appeal was to be in website, but you don't have this in website.

So I go to city clerk, I go to council, nothing happen.

You appeal and trespass me without my appeal show to public.

So I bring this two months ago in Ethics in Election Committee.

Is this crook, include director, never answer me?

Why my appeal?

You like all civilized people in this whole attorney.

Mr. Harrell, you attorney too.

Yes, who did this?

So why is possible?

How is this possible?

So my appeal not in website.

So nobody know what is my appeal about.

How you can make decision like professional attorney with licenses about appeal what is don't have appeal?

How is this possible?

I go to court, and when you don't bring court to appeal, the court talk, no, you don't have appeal.

So we make decision about plaintiff, for example.

We don't doing this because you crook by definition and you all identical.

You're not only crook, you have a Nazi, Gestapo, bandito principle.

This exactly what is I have.

Stand up, Seattle.

Thank you very much.

So, second agenda, I can speak now.

Hold on, Mr. Zirin.

I had to make a correction.

So, you'll get a chance to speak again.

Just please have a seat, sir.

Thank you very much, sir.

So, Mr. Shustler, I think you might have signed on the wrong sheet.

I think you needed to speak to a general, the CTO appointment, I think.

So, that would be on a general comment.

So, why don't we take your testimony?

Next, and then we'll go back to agenda item number seven.

So Mr. Schuetzler is up.

And then we'll go back to Mr. Zimmerman.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

Michael Schuetzler, CEO of the Washington Tech Industry Association.

We are a co-op of nearly 1,200 tech companies helping new startups succeed.

helping people of color and women jobs get jobs in tech, and working closely with the public sector to build a stronger community.

I was honored to serve with my colleague Sherry Williams from the Tech Access Foundation as co-chair of the selection committee for this new CTO.

That committee included senior tech leaders and a few CEOs who had very high standards for this role.

More than 200 applicants from around the country wanted this job.

Our committee evaluated dozens of the most highly qualified candidates.

We conducted rigorous panel interviews of the most promising ones.

Saad Bashir stood out as the best among the best.

His specific experience as a CTO in Ottawa, his wide range of operational expertise, and his communication skills were unmatched.

I was particularly impressed with his intellectual curiosity.

This is not a mere technologist sought as a student of history and organizational design.

He could easily fetch a much higher salary in the private sector, but his sense of civic duty and a desire to serve this, our community, has led him here.

We are lucky as a city to attract someone of this caliber.

We at the WTIA are eager to work closely with Saad and support his mission to serve all the residents and employees of this great city.

Thank you, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, and thank you for your testimony.

That's very helpful.

So now that concludes our general public comment section.

We'll now move to a public hearing on agenda item number seven, which is the Myrtle Reservoir Radio Transmitter Facility legislation.

And Mr. Zimmerman, you've signed up for that, sir.

Thank you very much.

Just to remind you, this is on a specific item dealing with the Reservoir Radio Transmitter Facility.

This is not general public comment, sir.

Start the clock.

Where is my face?

Where is I am?

Oh, hello, my, what is mean?

Führers.

No. happens.

Say hi, my Führer, a dirty Nazi pig.

My name is Alexander.

About transmit, what is we have, a radio.

I go to consul chamber, king country consul chamber, for many years like you, hundred times, maybe thousand.

And I spoke, I know about this radio transmission.

My question right now, very simple, and I go right now, very interesting in money, what is good to people, not to corporation or to government.

I don't understand why Seattle need be part of this business.

Can country have a $12 billion?

$12 billion.

So this $12 billion, they pose to be, by definition, guarantee radio, emergency for every king country.

Why Seattle part of this?

So Bellevue part of this, Redmond part of this, Renton part of this, why Seattle part of this?

This not us duty, it's king country duty, king country responsibility, and they have a $12 billion.

It's a ton of money.

Why Seattle, we have too many homeless, too many problem with housing, need 250,000.

home for 50 percentage poor.

Why are we involved in something that is absolutely no need doing this?

I cannot have a sense in this mind.

And I'm a businessman.

You know what it means?

When this don't give me a profit, why reason this?

For surviving?

Can country responsible for everything?

Right now, I speak to everybody.

Stand up, Seattle.

Stand up, America.

We need clean this dirty chamber from this crooked steel.

Million and million from us for nothing is exactly what has happened right now.

Stand up, America.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

OK, so we'll move to our first three agenda items.

Why don't you read all three, or all three, the first three into the record, Ms. Sanders.

Appointment 0, 1, 2, 4, 9, 4, 7, and 4, 8. Appointments of Shankar Narayan, Richard A. Stoltz, Joseph R. Woolley as members of the Community Surveillance Working Group for a term to December 31, 2021 and 2020. Okay.

Greg, before you, why don't you introduce yourself and then I'll say a few opening remarks and I'll hand it over.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Greg Dawes, Council Central staff.

Okay.

Just for sort of viewing public, sort of what we're trying to establish here is we have set up pursuant to our, basically our privacy work and our surveillance review work, a seven member surveillance community surveillance working group, which is truly that members that have come from the community with some level of expertise to understand how the city uses and purchases and deploys technology and strikes that balance between protecting our privacy needs and interests and Using making sure we use technology in a smart and effective way and the mayor has four members that she would appoint, and the council votes and confirms three.

And today's presentation, we were going to introduce the three.

All three of them had complications on getting here, and one is out of town at a national conference, but we're familiar with all three, and we have their resumes, and we also invited any of the mayoral appointments to come to the table this morning.

I should also mention we're joined by Council Member Teresa Mosqueda.

Thanks, Council Member Mosqueda.

So what I'm going to just ask Greg to do is we have the resumes, we've had them for some time and we've reviewed them out of many people that were eligible.

And so Greg, why don't you give an overview of the group and these individuals and I think we can still proceed even though their physical presence isn't here.

Thank you Mr. Chair, will do.

The council created the working group as you discussed under the surveillance ordinance which is 12569. The ordinance required that the working group would consist of members from communities of color and those that are historically subject to disproportionate surveillance.

immigrant communities, religious minorities, and groups concerned with privacy and protest.

As you mentioned, it's a seven-member committee, three appointments coming from the council and four coming from the mayor.

I'll introduce everyone here in a moment and distinguish which ones are coming from which bodies.

I would note that the work group is charged with creating a privacy and civil liberties impact statement for each of the technologies that will be coming before the city council.

The surveillance ordinance requires that any surveillance technology come before the city council for a review and briefing.

The work group appointments were made after a process that advertised to the community and also reached out to specific organizations that are identified in the ordinance.

So with that, I'll go ahead and make the introductions.

And I'm going to start with the mayoral appointments.

I'm going to, those four appointments are Asha Mohammed, who is a program manager at the King County Department of Community and Human Services.

Dr. Nagan Daya, who's an assistant professor at the University of Washington.

Michelle Merriweather, who is the president and CEO at the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

Masih Fulade, who is with the Council on American Islamic Relations.

And now move into the council appointments.

These three are Rich Stoltz, who is Executive Director of One America, Shankar Nairaun, who is the Technology and Liberty Project Director for the ACLU of Washington, and Joe Woolley, who is a volunteer on the Community Advisory Technology Board's Privacy and Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

As I mentioned, they are already up and running and will receive their first surveillance impact review and have their first meeting on February 14th.

Thank you very much.

And we're joined by Council Member Lisa Herbold.

Thank you for being here, Council Member Herbold.

I know coming from West Seattle is a little tougher than some parts of the town.

Thank you.

It's getting better.

Are you finished with the opening remarks?

Yeah.

Okay, so a few thoughts.

One is, This is a really, I think, in my humble opinion, it's just a great group of folks that can strike the balance of, again, privacy and surveillance, the review of surveillance technology.

One of the reasons why we are moving forward, just so my colleagues know, it's been suggested to me and I would agree that one of the reasons why we're moving forward is that their formal work is beginning, but we want them technically in place as some work is being done in the next week or two.

My plan was to vote it out of committee based on both the reputations and the resume, and then present it to the full council.

Again, many of them were going to be here, but because of the weather, they were unable to be here.

Now, one comment I was going to make to them, and it would have been nice to have gotten their reaction, so I'm assuming these are, many of these are technology types, so they'll actually look at the video and.

Probably watching right now.

Probably watching right now, is one of my concerns, and this is not to single any one individual out, but one of my concerns as we move forward is, that this group, that as we look at technology, some of which we've already been using, that we do it efficiently.

And what inefficiency would look like is where we have technology we're using and the review or the impact statement may slow some things up.

Now I'm not suggesting we rush it and we waive our privacy arguments, but there's a difference between studying potential abuse and use.

And I'm hopeful that there's a balance in this group to look at some of this technology.

I could share a personal story with you if I may.

We'll be out here before noon.

Just last night I was going through a credit card statement and I discovered fraud once again on one of my credit cards.

I think many people have dealt with this issue once or twice.

So there are bad people out there doing bad things with technology and the government is certainly not beyond that.

So I'm not suggesting that we rush through the process, but one of the concerns that departments have articulated in me is that as we have, particularly some of our past technology, that we sort of clog the process up a little bit too much with too much bureaucracy, too much inefficiency.

And I trust that there's going to be some of that because, again, we have to look at potential uses of abuse and actual abuse.

But I'm hopeful that they strike the balance between a smart review, a thorough review, and realizing that time is money in certain situations when you're dealing with technology.

So that's just my chair's opinion.

And again, we're developing a working relationship with those groups.

I'm hoping that it works well and works efficiently.

Any questions of either Greg or to the absent members before we take a vote because I'm actually prepared to vote from any of my colleagues.

Council Member Aronscato.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I would just say I am very comfortable moving forward as well.

I feel like you have done a tremendous job of thinking through what this task force should be, took input from the community and some of the folks on this list to be nominated.

And I think that with your guidance and the parameters you just outlined, I think we're in good hands to have this quickly move forward in an expedited way.

So I appreciate you moving this forward, even though we have the weather circumstances that are.

Thank you very much.

Councilman Harbaugh, do we ready to vote?

Okay, so I will move the appointments of, I'll just say it by number of appointments, 01249, 01247, 01248, Shankar, Richard, and Joseph.

All those in favor of the appointments, vote aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

And we'll move forward with that at the next full council meeting.

Thank you, Greg.

Thank you for being here.

Okay, please read the next appointment into the record.

And Mr. Beshear and Deputy Mayor, please come forward as we present it.

Appointment 0, 1, 2, 5, 2. Appointment of Assad Bashir as Chief Technology Officer, Seattle Information Technology Department for a term to January 1, 2023. OK.

Why don't we start with introductions, and then I want to say a few opening words, and I'll loop it back.

I know you have some opening words as well.

Just introductions.

First name introduction would be fine.

That's my first guest.

Push a button and it turns green, so.

Good morning, my name is Saad Bashir.

You passed.

David Moseley, Deputy Mayor.

Okay, I just wanted to give sort of a process explanation and then turn it back to our guests at the table.

So we did receive the clerk file on January 25th, which was a transmittal letter from Mayor Durkin, and as Mr. Schuchler pointed out, this was the result of a very extensive search with literally hundreds of potential candidates and and I because I've met mr. Bashir before I Would agree that he appears at least to be the best of the best and so we're looking forward to that so we did get on January 25th and notice of appointment and the oath of office firm and Mr. Bashir's resume and his background track and all those good things on February 4th, we had Submitted to the instructional referral calendar referred to this committee today.

Of course, we're going to have an initial discussion on I have several questions that I'll ask you, and what I'm hoping to achieve out of some of these questions is I will take some of the questions, list some of the questions my council members may have, and then during this week formulate written questions to submit to you in a few days to give you adequate time to respond so that this process here, I have some drafts, but I'll finalize it, draft questions I'll finalize into a more formal letter.

And then on, and we'll probably give you that this week for sure, in the next couple of days.

And then we'd ask that those responses come back to us around February 27th, if that's an acceptable date.

And we have a little flexibility there, but we think that should give you ample time.

We're not asking you to write a PhD on these questions, just to give us an idea of both your background and your vision and your values.

And then on March 5th, we'll have a second meeting, and we should be prepared to vote it out of committee on March 5th.

and presented to the full council on March 11th.

So that's the plan.

Sometimes plans change, but that's certainly the plan at this point.

I have no reason to believe we can depart from it.

And having said that, sort of laying out the game plan, why don't we, why don't you share some opening thoughts with us?

I believe Deputy Mayor, did you want to go first?

Thank you, Council President, members of the council.

It was my honor, really, to staff the search committee for, as I did with City Light, for IT And I was, we were very fortunate, as Michael Schuster pointed out, to be joined on the search committee by people that are very involved in some of the most exciting technology issues in our city.

Certainly Michael was a co-chair.

Sherry Williams from TAF was also the other co-chair, and Expedia, Nordstrom, you know, the folks in town that are just doing exciting technology work were a part of that.

And we did interview, I believe it was nine, in the end, nine people.

It was originally 10, but one pulled out.

And from that, those discussions, Saad demonstrated the kind of commitment to public service, knowledge of technology, and appreciation for the work that needs to be done to serve the customers of IT, which really the first line of customers are the departments of the city.

And we also had Mamehara from SPU as a part of the committee because we wanted a department that IT serves as a part of that process.

So I've had an opportunity now to get to know Saad and the issues that he will be bringing before the city, which he will be talking with you now.

And as just the mayor, and we are very pleased that we were able to attract a person of Saad's knowledge, experience, skills, and integrity.

to this position.

And for that, we express our appreciation to Saad and look forward to the council hearing.

Thank you very much.

Saad, before we cross-examine you, would you like to say a few remarks to us?

Thank you, council members.

And I don't know, for some reason, I'm more nervous today than I was when the mayor made the announcement in front of a few media folks.

But just a few quick words, Council President.

I'm truly excited to potentially join the city as your permanent CTO.

And there are several reasons, but the biggest thing that is motivating me to take this role on is the idea that we can create a best-in-class IT service delivery team in a world-class city that's home to some of the world's global technology brands.

That idea is really motivating.

And, you know, as we all know that technology is, you know, telling us, dictating us almost in many cases how we run our operations, how we deliver our services, how we engage with our citizens.

And so, if not done right, very quickly you can add up costs, you can expose your organization to cyber security threats, you know, you can have privacy concerns, you can have poor digital experiences, and you can have deployment timelines that never seem to end on technology projects.

And very briefly, I just want to give you a snapshot of what my approach has been in the past in a similar role and what I'm expecting to bring forward to this role.

You know, one of them is going to be focus.

Absolute clarity on why does IT exist.

And that is only going to come to us if we are in complete sync with the departments that we are looking to serve and the citizens in the city that we are looking to serve.

You know, the other thing is being nimble.

We have to operate like a living organization.

As business needs change, you know, IT processes and the way we do business needs to change as well.

And so processes for the sake of processes, you know, shouldn't really be stagnating our creativity.

The third one is outcome driven.

You know, every small and big effort in IT has to be aligned to some outcome that the organization is expecting.

And that's going to be really important.

You know, transparency, how we make decisions, how do we deploy the budgets that you give us, how do we deploy the resources that we have, you know, that is going to be paramount to me as well.

Vendor management, so much of our daily operational success is dependent on third party products.

And so we need to, I would love to move us from a fragmented transactional relationship with so many vendors and have really true partnerships with a select few.

Privacy, respecting all policies, legislations, guidelines to show that you can have a strong technology landscape in a complex organization like ours while you're still respecting privacy concerns.

And, you know, if Shankar, Robert, Joseph, Richard Joseph were here, I would say that to them in person, but I'm expecting to work with those three and the other four that the mayor has nominated to this working group on a regular basis.

Very quickly, two things that are going to serve as my anchors in this job.

One is going to be talent development.

The other one is going to be cyber security.

You know, if you, both of them, both of these have the potential of creating huge value for the organization.

And at the same time, if not done right, major liabilities for the organization.

And just in closing, you know, I want to acknowledge a commitment that I made during the nomination, which was about, you know, making sure that a best-in-class IT organization is going to stay true to diversity, social justice, and inclusiveness values.

And as I mentioned at that time, you know, this is the kind of work that I have been able to support with my participation in nonprofit boards, such as Oxfam Canada, which is a world's leading NGO.

And I would look forward to continuing that type of an approach in this role as well.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate those remarks from both of you.

I'll start off with an opening questions and certainly turn over to my colleagues.

Can you, a little bit, I don't know much about Ottawa.

I mean, I've read a little bit about it.

I've never been there.

Can you sort of describe, you had a, you know, you're the Chief Information Officer there and the Director of Economic Development and Innovation there.

So you had sort of two hats during your career there.

Can you sort of describe either what similarities existed in that job relative to the challenge we'll have here or what differences.

Either one.

I sort of want to sort of contrast what you're coming from and what your vision is for where we're heading.

Right.

Every day since the last six days that I've been in this role in an acting capacity, I've been looking at those similarities and differences.

You know, I'll start with the Director of Economic Development role that I had where I worked really closely with the mayor for about six years.

And in that role I had the luxury of working across the various organization business lines with the business sector, with the citizens, small business community.

And I got a really good appreciation of how municipality works.

And the kinds of things that we were able to do in economic development led the mayor and council at that time to think about if we need somebody to make our IT organization very aligned to the business objectives, to what the council wants to do for the general citizen of the city.

They wanted me to take all of that learning and that approach that they had seen in action in economic development and apply it to the CIO role.

So economic development, I would say, didn't give me direct technology experience, although Ottawa is considered to be a Silicon North.

It has that label because it has a high concentration of tech companies.

So even though I was in economic development looking at all sectors, technology was one of those sectors that I was on a daily basis involved in.

Moving into the CIO role, that very similar to, if you talk about similarities first, very similar to Seattle in terms of the same footprint, providing a similar number of users, the kinds of services that you expect out of IT today.

So from your mobile phone to your laptops to hundreds of various applications that the business needs to run their operations.

cybersecurity, you know, service desk, all of the bread and butter aspects of IT you would find there like you would find in Seattle.

One thing that It was similar when I joined my CIO role there that I'm finding similar here at this point in time is perhaps the relationships were not as strong between IT and the rest of the organization.

People weren't clear exactly what value were they generating even though IT in Ottawa, when I joined them, and IT here, in my six days I've noticed, is doing some really great things.

And so how do you tell that story?

And it's not just about communication, but there are some very good pockets of work going on.

But also in Ottawa we were able to rebuild that trust.

with our clients.

And that didn't happen overnight, Council President, that was a daily exercise and you lost trust because this project faltered and then you gained trust in some other area because you did something better than what was expected.

So those would be the sort of the similarities and differences.

Very good.

You know, I could do this all day.

I have one more and then I'll just turn it over because I become sort of intrigued by when I hear technologists or the vision of them.

And, you know, in another life I was a chief counsel for a telecom company.

So I've spent hours in these kinds of meetings.

As you probably know, and I don't know if you know this in your six days here, You know, the city of Seattle has gone through sort of a drastic consolidation process of all of our IT work.

And of course, we still have individual pockets of great work being done, but we're trying to move toward basically a four-phase consolidation effort.

And we're on the, in 2018, we sort of marked our fourth phase that we're continuing to go through, particularly with respect to managing capital projects, huge capital projects.

And so my question is, sort of, how do you approach, you are called upon to make a lot of tough strategic decisions.

And I'm sure you rely on staff and rely on friends or whoever, but how do you go about making these kinds of huge strategic decisions?

Who are your resources?

How do you go about, how have you gone about that in the past?

Because it's certainly larger than one person to make some of these strategic calls.

Particularly on phase four of consolidation, there's many calls that have to be made.

Right.

And I think what you're asking for is, what is that secret sauce?

And I wish there was one simple answer that I could give you.

And I think this question was asked during the interviews as well.

There's going to be a combination of factors, and I'll just list a few.

One is going to be the ability for IT's workforce, our own staff at the city of Seattle, to be able to take on a lot of the modernization efforts that we want to undertake in technology.

And that is not going to happen just by assigning work, that is going to take a very deliberate exercise of investing into skills development, retooling many of our people.

and really making sure that our talent, not a third-party vendor, not a consultant, is in front and center of modernization efforts.

So that's going to be, if there was one thing that I had to pick without which I cannot do this job, it is going to be the focus on talent.

The second thing is, you know, no matter how motivated the talent, if I am unable to get that trust from the clients that I am going to be serving, the departments.

And I'm not talking about just department heads, mind you.

You know, I've said this before, that even the administrative assistant in some department that IT is willing to serve has lots of good perspectives.

And so relationship between IT and all of the various business lines at every level is going to be fundamental.

And that also is not an easy exercise.

Many people shy away from it because it is quite time consuming.

You have to spend the time to build those relationships, but that is something I am willing to do.

Not just me, but my management team as well.

You know, I think the third is, it's just good solid practices.

You know, you have, we now have the luxury, we are in the middle of a tech hotbed.

There is no shortage of best practices in this city for somebody who wants to do things in IT.

And so I remember in my previous role, I used to send people to Seattle.

I came to Seattle multiple times to sit with people who I thought were experts in whatever they were doing and I could steal some ideas from them.

So I feel really lucky and maybe this might be the easiest part of the role is to be able to call upon those networks of people right in the city, go to their offices, invite them to ours, and share those best practices.

Sort of those would be the top three things that I would be looking for.

Very good.

Colleagues?

Council Member Herbold?

Thank you.

A question for Deputy Mayor Mosley.

Can you tell me if the Community Technology Advisory Board was involved in the search committee?

We had a number of people from the technology community, but the specific advisory board was not.

The city's advisory board was not involved?

Correct.

Also, a question for the nominee.

Seattle IT is a relatively new department as we've been talking.

We are in the midst of consolidation.

One of the things that we've heard from I think one of the challenges for folks within the department is that because of micromanaging and practices that have led to relatively low morale in the department, there are some real challenges of moving towards consolidation.

mentioned as it relates to working with other departments.

I know there's a lot of concern that consolidation is going to lead to a sort of a fee-for-service approach and that smaller departments aren't going to get the attention that they desperately need to be able to do their work and deliver services to our constituents.

Can you just talk a little bit about your experience running large departments?

like this and what you see as how to address some of the issues related specifically to both morale within the department as well as creating the trust with other departments that their needs are going to be met as we move through consolidation.

I'm going to share with you the experiences from the previous role.

And I'm finding that 50 one-on-ones later last week, same themes are emerging.

So one is internally, if we just think about just IT staff, there seems to be some sentiment around, which was in the previous role as well, that we're not heard.

We have great ideas.

We're frontline people.

We see the business every day.

You know, so give us an opportunity to help simplify the way we do business.

And that is exactly what was going on in the previous role.

And so if you make it easy, which is, you know, exactly my approach to, you know, encourage people to come forward with the ideas that they have on how to run the business better, simpler, and give them the credit when we actually do go ahead with some of those advice.

So that's going to be one.

The other is, and this is very true for a more of an IT worker than anybody else maybe in the organization, is skills development is a big deal.

You know, somebody who comes into the profession of IT is not one of those people who wants to do exactly the same type of job for the next 30 years.

And so there's a certain kind of mindset that somebody gets attracted to and skills development, focus on their career progression, figuring out exactly where they want to go in the next five years, and having a bit of a talent development plan, which is really a very simple thing to do.

It just requires that attention to that aspect of your work, and it's something that I'm very much looking forward to do, is do that career progression planning.

One of the things that I think people are going to remember the most in my previous role was the introduction of a lot of tactics around training.

We introduced a training platform that is the same platform used by some of the top global technology firms for their internal IT shops.

We used to have training Thursdays, for example.

I'm hoping they still do over there.

where we, you know, carved out time from people's calendar because if we just leave it to them, you know, they will always have enough things to keep themselves busy and never time available to do some internal training.

So, to me, that is really the best way to raise the morale of the team versus just, you know, saying that all the right words that maybe have been said before.

In terms of the the rebuilding of the trust, and as you mentioned, for me it's going to come with incremental successes.

I am not going to be promising any department heads that the next project that happens from next week onwards is going to be on budget, on time, and it's going to deliver the value that we promised to you 110%.

That would not be sincere.

What I am going to promise to them is that we are going to remove any red tape, any bureaucracy, any processes that may be unnecessarily hindering the actual delivery of work from IT.

I'm also going to commit to them that whatever we plan to do in 2019 and beyond, that plan will be completely built with their input and their feedback.

It wouldn't be a one-sided type of discussion.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you.

So my first question is also for Deputy Mayor Mosley.

Having participated in the Seattle City Light Search Committee, I know he runs a robust search process, and I was very impressed by the Seattle City Light appointee, very impressed by you as well.

In line with Councilmember Herbold's question, can you also give us a list of some of the folks who participated in your search process?

Because I imagine it was robust as well.

It was, and I can send you the names of the exact people that were there.

Michael Schusler from the Washington Information Technology Association, representative from Expedia, Nordstrom, Microsoft, SPU, as I mentioned, being a customer of the agency.

Technology Access Foundation, TAF was, Sherry was a vice chair.

IBEW was engaged.

In fact, the same person that was on the committee because they had members in both City Light and IT was a member of this search process as well.

So I can send you the exact list with names and the affiliations of all those folks.

But it was a group of about, I think, nine people.

And we had the same kind of interview process over three separate days where we interviewed nine separate people.

That's wonderful.

And I think part of the reason that that's important is we have a lot of trust, as you mentioned, in some of those individuals who sat around the table.

Specifically, my background is in labor, so I was interested to hear who from labor was participating.

Steve.

And Steve.

We love Steve and IBW and PTE.

Can you talk a little bit about your experience with how you've made some of the changes in the past and the document that you and you answered some of this with regards to Councilmember Herbold's question, but it says in your documents here Mr. Bashir transformed the department through a restructuring that made the organization more nimble and client centric and I think sometimes when you come from organized labor when you hear nimble and a public-private partnership background people think outsourcing or downsizing.

And it sounds like you've been very conscious to make sure that you're working with individuals who you called the talent, I like that, who are working within your departments.

Can you talk a little bit about how you've made some of those changes, recognizing the role that organized labor has to play?

I know that Canada has much stronger labor protections in many ways than the United States, so can you talk about some of your experience there?

Thank you, Councilmember.

Maybe I'll list a couple of examples.

By the way, yesterday I had a great second time chat with Steve.

And it feels like we're on the same page and feels familiar because I've had similar conversations with union reps back in Ottawa as well when we talked about how do we retool the skills that we have.

But one example that maybe demonstrates what my approach is, in my early days in my previous role, I realized that for many core operational roles in IT, we had been using a number of professional services consultants for that same job for many years.

And that didn't make sense, not on financial level, not on sort of employee satisfaction level.

And we had been renewing those contracts year over year, in some cases for more than 10 years for core business.

And so I went to city council, did a report, and asked them what I think they have never really, I shouldn't say never, but it's seldom an ask of council, which is take away my discretionary funds and instead give me these number of people that I can staff, unionized people, who can then take on the work that we have been asking professional services firms to do.

And that was a major success.

Council wholeheartedly approved it because just on the dollar level it just made sense for the organization.

I think that is the approach that whenever possible I'm looking for my own people to be part of that transformation.

I know exactly what you mean.

Transformation typically means we're going to have fewer people because we'll do things in a different way.

In my case, what I'm talking about is there are new tools and technologies we are putting in place as we speak today.

What I would love for the city of Seattle to do is that many people who are currently in roles, where they may not be another 10 years left.

And I think there's no hiding away from that fact because technology is changing.

How do we take those people and retool them?

We're informal, we'll turn around Robin.

A few thoughts to piggyback on Councilman Herbold's point about CTAB.

Perhaps between now and the next meeting, we can extend an invitation for yourself and Saad to meet with CTAB members.

It doesn't have to be their formal meeting, but something, and maybe they have a formal meeting between then and now, but it'd be nice to gain their feedback.

We'll try to include them in as many processes as possible.

Yeah, number one.

So I'm sure you've picked up on the fact that a lot of our inquiry has to do with social justice and the digital divide and realizing how many people are not gaining access to either high-speed internet or just the world of innovation employment-wise.

And so we spend a lot of time through our matching grants and our RSGI work trying to address the digital divide.

And so again, I don't know Ottawa, but can you describe a little bit about your work on dealing with underrepresented groups or people that are being sort of shut out or just don't have the access that we'd like them to see.

And if you don't have any experience in that, that's fine too, but I want to hear sort of your views in that regard.

Right.

You know, I feel a little bit of a, this stuff resonates with me because, you know, 20 years ago when I came to, 21 years ago I came to Canada, I couldn't speak English.

And so I had lots of ideas to do and I wanted to apply for jobs but I had struggled, you know, speaking English in a coherent way.

And so, you know, I frequently have bumped into those situations, you know, especially with the city of Ottawa where people, have wanted to participate, whether it's a job interview, whether it's trying to sell something to the city, whether it's just participating generally and giving input to the city.

And so within the powers that I have, I've been able to make differences here and there.

For example, with Carleton University, which is a top university in Canada based in Ottawa, I've been able to bring in a number of international students and even students who have just recently immigrated to Canada to come and work on internships.

And some of them have actually been able to find full-time roles.

And really what they were struggling in many cases was not the merit, but it was just communication, English language skills.

In my economic development role, if I take myself back, I used to supervise a grant program that was for the non-profit community where we were trying to do a lot of social innovation type of work.

So, for example, Ottawa Community Loan Fund.

is an organization that I developed really close ties with which provides $5,000, up to $5,000 small micro loans to businesses who otherwise, or individuals who otherwise may not get a loan from a bank because they may be out of a jail or they may have certain personal situations.

And many other of those types of social economic development related entities were the ones that got a lot of my attention in my economic development days.

Maybe just one last thing is that I was in Ottawa this weekend and on my way back I was reading one of the magazines that they give you and on a long flight you have no choice but to read them.

There was a, there's an organization, I think it's called the Hidden Genius.

I took a photo of that article, which provides, you know, youth from the African-American community in San Francisco.

It's to work in the high-tech business.

And a lot of the stuff that I was reading sort of resonated with me.

And, you know, those are the kinds of opportunities that I would, you know, go and seek out and see how can we participate in those initiatives.

One of Mayor Lennon Reed's initiatives I've been following up real closely.

Very good.

Any other questions from my colleagues?

Thank you again.

So one of the things you mentioned was your interest in removing the red tape.

As you heard, I think the Council President said we're going through a drastic consolidation process.

One of the first things that I heard after coming into office early last year was both the consolidation of IT and the consolidation of HR have been really tough growing pains for our labor community, the folks who work for Seattle, the city of Seattle.

And as you talk about removing red tape, one of the things that I'd be interested in, in addition to your eloquent answer around protecting labor and making sure people feel part of the any change process, is whether or not you might be interested or how you would approach, let me affirm it that way, how you would approach the fact that we're hearing from some departments that it is now more expensive for them to engage in IT changes and it's more time-consuming as well.

Is there any sort of audit or review that you might engage in as the director to address that concern?

I'll offer you two things there.

One is that already in the last week there are certain bread-and-butter operational items that an IT shop does and And I have been working with the person responsible for that particular function to get briefed on it.

And what I'm looking for really is those process improvement opportunities.

So those, you know, call them audits or call them me trying to learn the business a bit more in Seattle.

Those things are going to take up a lot of my time in the very early days.

And wherever I feel a best practice can be applied, I will without any hesitation.

Another tactic that I would also employ would be, lack of a better word, focus groups, but there may be a better word, is, you know, take a couple of people from the clients, a couple of people from the actual technicians of IT who do that work on a daily basis, introduce somebody who has no knowledge of the client and the technical work, and figure out how can we do this process, this engagement slightly differently.

So that's going to be something that I've already started to make a note of a number of areas in IT that I would employ.

Maybe one last thing, Council Member, is that You know, I believe that an organization as complex as the city of Seattle deserves an IT that is going to be very okay in reshaping itself as the business needs change.

So if tomorrow or a year later I find that a process that we put in place that worked in February 2019 but needs to be fine-tuned, no issue there.

Very good.

Deputy Mayor.

Yes, I think I'd just like to point out that one of the things that Tracy Cantrell did in her interim work as the ID director was to oversee an assessment of the department, which was completed toward the end of her term.

And Saad has already reached out to the team that did the assessment to get briefed on what their findings were.

And I think that will be, so rather than an audit, it's something that's already occurred that Tracy wanted to do, to have for the next director.

And I believe, Saad, you've already met with the folks that did the assessment.

Very good.

Councilmember Herbold.

Okay, we do have other agenda items, so I want to move on.

Just a request, not a question, so I'll be quick.

I just wanted to express my hope that you resist the temptation that is a natural temptation for new leadership, but that you consider resisting the temptation to rename the department.

This department has had three name changes in the last four years, and I think it's really important to keep focused on what the priorities are for this, the direction that the department is taking.

And I really just don't, I think the continued rebranding of this large department is disruptive and can take away from what the true priorities are.

Understood, thank you.

That's an interesting point.

I hadn't thought about the different name change and what that does.

I guess, I don't think I disagree, I just hadn't thought about it.

There's another part of me that says, When you have new leadership, you have new direction.

I think we're acknowledging there's been some great work done in the past, but to be able to tell the department or the mayor.

It's a request.

It's a request, right.

It's a request to consider.

But I'm not even sure I disagree with it, to be honest.

I just hadn't thought of it.

So that was good for thought.

And I do appreciate the point, because I hadn't thought about it.

But I think the stronger point that I fully agree with is the acknowledgment the department has gone through a lot over several years.

And there could be morale issues.

And we need to be open and transparent and daylight the issues.

And that we're hopeful that some good, strong leadership and continuity is critical.

And I think that's a great point that I strongly agree with.

I hadn't thought much about the name change.

I have to admit, I was sort of opposed to when the names started to change, but I said, well, if we're heading in different directions, I appreciate the comment.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you.

One additional request, and I have not dug into this data, but I really appreciated your comment around promoting women and people of color and making sure that We look at how we can lift up the talent and ensure greater diversity across leadership and within the folks that are hired.

This is one of the big issues that the city's working on across departments as we think about recruiting new talent, as we think about recruiting younger folks, people who want to start their careers here, we want them to stay here.

Could you do me a favor before we meet again?

And perhaps this is a broader question, but I'd be very interested in your analysis of the current demographics and sort of what that says to you now and what you'd like to do in terms of maybe changing some of those demographics in terms of leadership, both for gender, race, and age diversity.

I have not taken a look at the demographics, so maybe it's great.

But thinking about ways that we can be an attractive place to work requires us to create opportunities for people.

And then on the other side, what we've been working a lot on is making sure people feel safe, that they're in workplaces that don't have harassment, intimidation, that people aren't being sexually assaulted in the workplaces is something that we're dealing with in many departments.

And it is obviously something that we talked about with the Seattle City Light new director as well, to being very intentional about how we look at policy changes to create safe workplaces, but also welcoming workplaces that recruit more talent into that department.

So that would be something I'd be interested in hearing more about.

So just to sort of button up on the process again, I won't repeat the chronology that we're gonna do but I have on the last draft I had 20 questions here in writing that I'm gonna shave down to around 12 or so and then I will share this with my colleagues that are not asked that they add or subtract from these questions.

So I'll give you a draft in a couple of days so you could shoot around a little bit and then we'll get this to you this week.

So but I'm not again this is just my first draft to use for discussion items and I want to see the where the conversation led us.

And so I'll shave this down and give it to my colleagues, and we'll get you a final document this week.

Okay.

Thank you for being here.

I look forward to possibly working with you, and thank you, Deputy Mayor, for the presentation.

And I'd love to hear about your discussion with CTAB and how that unfolds.

Why don't we read the next agenda item, and we'll keep moving forward.

Great.

Great.

Appointment 01229, appointment of Yuko Kuniji as member, International Special Review District Board for a term to November 30th, 2019.

All right.

Hi, Rebecca.

Hello.

Welcome.

Once you're settled here, just make sure the little green light's on.

And why don't you just start with introductions and sort of tell us why you're interested in the board.

And Rebecca, maybe you could explain to the public a little bit about the International Special Review District Board.

Certainly.

So I'm Rebecca Freestead, and I am the coordinator for the International Special Review District Board and the Columbia City Landmark District Board.

Those are two of the eight historic districts within the city.

The International Special Review District Board is a seven-member board that has two members appointed by the mayor's office and five that are elected by the community in an annual election.

And so this appointment is actually somewhat unique because this is a a vacancy that was in one of the elected, excuse me, yes, in one of the elected seats, and in accordance with our board rules and procedures, those vacancies are filled through a mayoral appointment.

And so Yuko is being appointed to, or the recommendation is for appointment to position four, which is for a resident, tenant, or community participant.

The board oversees applications for changes for any physical changes to buildings within the historic district, any changes of use or open spaces, changes within the right of way.

So Yuko is a licensed architect.

She's been working in architecture for 18 years, currently works for Tsuyama Peterson Deguchi, and has actually been an applicant before the ISRD board in the past.

Very good.

Hi, Yuko, and we have your resume, but why don't you tell us a little bit about your background and why you're interested in this particular board?

Sure.

So I'm born and raised in Japan, and I moved to Seattle in 2000. So I've been here for about 18 years.

I've been always being an architect.

And I moved here for a more challenging, diverse project types and background and working environment.

And then the reason I applied for this International Special Review District Board is that I always wanted to contribute to this community.

As Rebecca mentioned, I have been on the applicant side before, and not just with this board, but trained as an architect, I've done several public meetings, and I have seen few successful and unsuccessful public meetings and I've been learning how, what it takes to, for the board member to help out the process.

And sometimes it's reasonable, sometimes it's not.

And I just wanted to help out the process.

And this community in specific, I had a, like Rebecca mentioned, I had an opportunity to apply for a project in 2012 and I've seen the process with community members and board members and applicants and advisory board and they're all very on the same page and it's a very collaborative effort and I was really impressed by how everyone is trying to get through the same goal and still in respect with future of the district and addressing all the challenging safety, security issues.

And also this district has very unique assets of historical uniqueness and then how we preserve that while we have this amazing speed of growing.

It's something that I felt like it's a good time for me to jump in and participate.

Very good.

I just have a sort of quick question.

Well, more of a statement that I appreciate your work at the Wing Luke Museum that I was aware of.

And so I just want to give you kudos on that.

Great.

Thank you.

And certainly, I don't have any questions about your qualifications.

But I did want to put a plug in for, because of your background, that the city of Seattle has a real strong sister city relationship with Kobe, Japan.

And Stacey Jellick, who's, I think, just an all-star here with the city, been very instrumental in helping me get intimately involved with that Citrus City relationship.

And assuming you're appointed, I think that's a good assumption, it'd be great for you to get involved with that organization, should you have any bandwidth to do that.

But I just think you'd be a great person to be involved with what we're doing there.

We have some art exchanges and some work we're doing this year.

We have a totem pole that was near its life end, and so we're changing that with some other artwork.

And so I could send you some information if you're so interested.

So any questions or comments, please?

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I appreciated hearing the fact that you Have the unique experience of having brought projects before this board and you referenced the fact that you had seen some successful meetings about projects and some that It sounded like you thought there could be improvements And I'm wondering from from the perspective of somebody who has brought projects before the board are there specific?

process changes or improvements that you intend to work with the board on making

So I think maybe just share some unsuccessful experience that I've seen, of course not with this board member, but some other states that I had presented some projects.

I think it's, it makes things really challenging when board members are not trying to really put them in the applicant's shoes.

And I think it's a source of a lot of bigger issues that we have for diversity too.

But I think we really need to try to be on the presenter's side or trying to understand them, trying to, you know, really understand what they're trying to do.

not pushing your agenda or, you know, it's a, it's, I think it's just trying to get close to each other, trying to understand what they're trying to do.

My term hasn't started yet, so I will see how it goes and, of course, I will make some suggestions if there are anything that comes up.

Very good.

Any other questions of Ms. Kanuki?

We're good?

Can I just add real quickly that in light of her pending appointment and the amount of kind of high profile and significant projects that are coming through the board, I think one kind of testament to her dedication is that she's come to a couple of the past board meetings and has been tracking the work of the board for the last month or two.

And I think we'll hit the ground running really well.

Very good.

Okay, so I'm prepared to move it unless there are any further questions.

And again, I want to thank you for being willing to serve.

This district is such a gem for the, excuse me, the entire city that it's become that because of a lot of the volunteer work by so many great individuals and you're one of them.

So thank you.

Okay, with that, I will move to approve appointment 01229 Yuko Kanugi.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

And I present this to the full council.

You're welcome to be here if you like.

You're not required to, but I'm sure it'll go smoothly.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca.

OK, let's move to our next agenda item.

Go ahead and read it into the record.

Sure.

Appointment 01251, appointment of Susan R. Taylor as member, Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term to December 31, 2021. OK.

Hello.

So just make sure our little lights are green there.

And why don't we start with introductions and then we'll just, Wayne, just lead us through the discussion of Ms.

Taylor.

All right.

My name is Wayne Barnett and I'm the Executive Director of the Ethics and Elections Commission.

I'm Susan Taylor.

I'm the applicant and I'm very excited to be here this morning.

Good morning.

So you want me to just, what would you like me to do, just tell you about how we got here?

Yeah, tell us about your process and how you've chosen Ms. Taylor and then maybe we just turn over here to tell her our interest.

So go ahead.

Yes, I believe it was early December when Vicki Rollins announced that she would be stepping down from the commission at the end of the year after her three years of service.

Seems very loud.

And at that point, we did put out a call.

We broadly publicized that we had an opening, sent it to all the minority bar associations and bar associations in King County, as well as Washington State, and as well as the Northwest Ethics Network, which is run out of the Albers School at Seattle University.

And Ms. Taylor was someone who saw the posting in the Northwest Ethics Network.

I think we got around, I'm gonna guess, about half a dozen applications.

I think maybe a few more than that.

And then we interviewed four candidates at the December meeting, and Ms. Taylor was the choice of the commission.

And that's why we're here.

And Ms. Taylor, maybe we have your background, we have your resume, maybe you could talk a little bit about your interest in serving on this particular commission.

Certainly.

Thanks.

As you can see from my background, I recently retired from being the chief compliance officer at Fluke and Tektronix.

I'm still working on an interim part-time basis.

But as chief compliance counsel, I built a very strong program of compliance.

overseeing our anti-corruption program, the standards of conduct, and our whistleblower hotline.

We had a very vigorous hotline program.

And my belief is that with the background from that work, I'm qualified to serve on the commission and use some of that learning, but also I'm very excited about supporting and learning more about elections and lobbying and particularly supporting the Democracy Voucher Program, which I think is so exciting.

As I understand it, Seattle is the first and only place where it's been launched.

And personally, I believe that big money is a problem in politics.

And with Citizens United, it's hard to limit that so much.

But through the Democracy Voucher Program, we're going to be able to make the smaller money matter more.

I think that's really exciting.

So that's partly what really got me interested in this, but it's my background that makes me feel like, you know, I have really something to offer as well.

Do you think, because of our novel voucher program, that it may have the effect of increasing big money in local politics vis-a-vis independent expenditures, PACs, trying to influence elections?

You know, to be quite honest, I don't think I have the experience to predict that.

And I do feel like the Democracy Voucher Program is a grand experiment.

I mean, it's up to us to manage it properly so that the legacy for anyone who wants to do something like that is strong.

But I hope not, is the answer.

I ask the question because I don't think your role as a commissioner to look at, to build policy in this regard, but I do think your role as commissioner, as you scrutinize rules, be mindful of the ecosystem with which you work in and to perhaps be resources of some of the challenges we may have.

None of us knows how this is going to play out.

It looked like a great way to allow sort of level the playing field to allow candidates to the ability to run and, again, sort of equalize things.

So we don't know what it's going to look like.

But I'm sort of just curious about your perspective.

And I'm hoping that commissioners, real bright commissioners, look at the big picture.

And 5, 10, 15 years from now, we're able to make some recommendations as they continue to gather data.

It's sort of an interesting experiment.

It really is.

Yeah.

Colleagues?

I have no questions.

I just want to thank you for your willingness to serve.

Thank you.

It's an important commission.

Thank you.

So I get the honor of saying my new title is, I'm the first first-time candidate to ever win using democracy vouchers nationally.

In the world.

In the world.

Even better.

In the world.

Congratulations.

I got a history maker.

So I feel really excited about this program, but also cognizant of the fact, just like every piece of legislation, this initiative has an opportunity for improvements and enhancements, and we made some of those legislatively this last year.

One of the things that I'm really looking forward to working with you on, and Wayne's an incredible leader for this commission, One of the things I think is the biggest pressing need is to make sure that our communities who speak English as a second language truly understand and are reached out to and have culturally competent, not just bilingual, but culturally competent outreach entities that are able to educate people about what those democracy vouchers are.

And perhaps this is a question for both of you, but what role do you see yourself playing?

What role does the commission have in kind of deploying and testing and thinking about that bilingual, bicultural outreach for this program?

Well, I can at least lead in.

It's clear from the website that a big effort has been made at least as far as native local languages to communicate how the Democracy Voucher Program works.

I don't know, I mean in terms of outreach of people actually visiting local community groups or organizations, to me that would be another logical step.

Does that take place?

Yes, it does.

I should also point out that this year, we looked last year at how things went in 2017. And that was an area where we did see that we did not optimize the outreach in a way that we'd hoped to.

So this year, we've entered into contracts with nine community-based organizations to specifically do outreach in language to these communities.

So yeah, hoping that this year we can do even better.

Great.

Mr. President, it might be interesting to get an update at some point, like a midway point.

I know that this relates to governance to some degree and obviously elections are not something we necessarily oversee, but in terms of getting an update on how we're doing with the new nine entities that might be of interest later on in the year.

One of the experiences that I had was when I started going door-to-door, especially in some of our limited English-speaking neighborhoods, I had a few elders who spoke English as a second language who told me, oh, I'd give them to you, sweetie, but the city already came by and collected them, not realizing that they were handing them over to someone that wasn't necessarily from the city, right?

The city doesn't collect these.

So I think getting a better understanding of what they are, the power, the way in which we can get people engaging in democracy It's really just beginning to show how valuable this tool can be for having a more engaged civic population, civically engaged population.

And yeah, excited about some of the changes you all are working on.

Great.

I think that's a great suggestion.

We'll follow up on that.

Some of the problems in the field that have occurred with the vouchers, it's good to hear them.

And so we could put in safeguards and and move forward and improve the system.

So really good.

Any other questions before we move on with Ms. Taylor?

If not, then I will move to approve appointment 01251, the appointment of Susan Taylor to the Ethics and Elections Commission.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

And I look forward to presenting this to the full council in our next full council meeting.

Thanks for signing up.

We really appreciate your service.

Thank you, Wayne.

Thank you.

And if I could, Mr. President.

Yes, please.

I just want to thank Wayne for his work.

I know that last year you had a number of opportunities to tell folks across the country about the democracy vouchers.

And I just am so excited about how well you represented the city and the program and our lessons learned.

And thank you for that.

And congratulations on that coverage.

You're very welcome.

Thank you.

Okay, our last agenda item is, please read it into record and then presenters can come forward.

Council Bill 119454, an ordinance relating to the City of Seattle's Myrtle Reservoir Radio Transmitter Facility.

Short title, you short changed us on that.

So I hope everyone's microphone is on with the little green button.

Why don't we start with introductions, and I guess maybe you can lead it off for us from central staff perspective.

Go ahead.

Lisa Kay, Central Staff.

Good morning.

Why don't you introduce yourself, sir?

I'm Robert Farrell, and I'm a senior real property agent with the City's Department of Finance and Administrative Services.

Thank you, Robert.

I'm Spencer Bonner.

I'm the radio communications manager for the city within Seattle IT.

And I'm Mark Schmidt, a senior manager in Seattle IT.

Okay, thank you for being here and explaining to us what we might approve.

So, Lisa, why don't you tell us what we're doing today?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, council members.

Voters in King County approved a ballot measure in 2015 authorizing construction of a new upgraded regional public safety emergency network, which we will be calling PCERN today.

The project requires construction of quite a few new radio towers, and the lease before you today would authorize construction of one of those.

Okay.

So, do you have a presentation or a PowerPoint you'd like to lead us through?

And we're all ears.

I'll go to the first slide, which is the next page, the summary.

And if somebody could- Is this the machine that's running?

Thank you.

In conjunction with the formation and implementation of the Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network, also known as PCERN, the executive requests the approval of a council bill authorizing FAS to enter into a 25-year lease agreement with three five-year renewal options with King County, PCERN pursuant To which PCERN will install and operate emergency radio equipment at FAS's Myrtle Transmitter Facility in West Seattle.

By way of background, in 2015, the voters approved a $273 million levy to upgrade King County's aging emergency radio network.

A non-profit corporation, PCERN, is being established or will be established to manage the network.

As the agent for PCERN, King County identified FAS's Myrtle Transmitter Facility as a preferred site for PCERN's communication facilities.

The city of Seattle will also be a subscriber to the PCERN system.

Our next slide discusses more of the background.

FAS and King County reached agreement.

on the terms and conditions of the lease to govern PCERN's use of the Myrtle Transmitter Facility.

As part of this agreement, PCERN will pay FAS approximately $20,000 in annual rent.

And this is the third such agreement between the city and King County PCERN governing PCERN's use of city-owned properties.

A couple of previous agreements, one between SPU and King County PCERN.

governing PCERN's use of SPU property within the Tolt Watershed.

And another agreement between FAS and King County governing PCERN's use of FAS's Maple Leaf Transmitter Facility.

And the last slide is a map depicting the location of the Myrtle Transmitter Facility.

Very good.

Lease I sort of reviewed the legislation and sort of familiar with that I quite can I saw it somewhat as perfunctory But I don't want to make sure I'm not missing anything huge in this lease agreement is there Any red flags I need to know about having said that with these three gentlemen to your left that I don't know very well No, no this appears to be consistent with the previous agreements Anything you're not telling me that I forgot to ask gentlemen I

Not that I can think of, but I will say this has been a long negotiation process.

I've had a lot of help from people in Seattle IT, Mark Schmidt and Spencer Bonner, Lori Creasler Roth, who's not here today.

And over the last year or so, we've, I think, built a strong working relationship with our counterparts at King County.

We look forward to the implementation of this, okay?

Sort of a side note that I've spent a lot of time in the last year or so dealing with other issues on PCERN and our Governance relationship with the different cities in a whole bit So I'm actually glad to get that over with and now we're looking at actual construction of another facility.

We're redoing the lease So that's good.

So any questions Councilmember Herbold?

Thank you.

I'm just interested to know whether or not there are any neighborhood impacts of the construction installation of this facility that we should know about, and whether or not you've had engagement with the community about them, should there be impacts.

We have not been engaged with the community as the landlord.

I can't speak for Pierson or King County or whether they have, but I will point out that part of the deal structure is that Our existing tower comes down, we put up a new tower of the same height.

So that would, I don't see any greater impact on the community.

But for the, so it'll be a like facility is what's there now.

I'm curious about if there are actual construction impacts?

I can't speak to that.

So the construction is planned to start shortly after the lease is executed and occur over the course of the year the county That is the lead agency for the overall project will probably manage some of those logistics So we haven't been directly engaged in those conversations They will certainly go through normal permitting processes with SPU with parks that also administers the facilities to ensure that That they're in compliance with current city code Okay.

Thank you

Very good.

Great questions.

Council Member Mesquite, are we prepared to vote?

We're good?

Okay, thank you for presenting, and again, I appreciate your inquiry there.

So, thanks for being here.

So, I will move to pass Council Bill 119454. Second.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

The ayes have it.

So, I'll present this to the full Council at our next meeting.

So, thank you very much for this work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lise, very much.

Okay, with that, thank you, colleagues, and we will stand adjourned.