Public Safety & Human Services Committee 3/28/23

Good morning, it is 9.35 a.m.

March 28, 2023. I'm Lisa Herbold, Chair of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Welcome everybody for joining us today.

And Noel, can you call the roll please?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Vice Chair Lewis.

Present.

Chair Herbold.

Thank you.

I'm present.

I appreciate that, Mr. Clerk.

On today's agenda, we will hear the reappointment of Pasha Johnson to the Community Police Commission, the appointment of Richard Green to the Public Safety and Civil Service Commission, and Police Department Recruitment Plan and Shift Changes presentation.

And lastly, we're going to hear from the Office of Emergency Management on their community engagement plan.

I'd like to also just make a quick note that this morning, the U.S.

Department of Justice will be hosting a press conference at 10 a.m.

regarding the consent decree between the Department of Justice and the City of Seattle and a joint motion from the DOJ and the City of Seattle.

Moving along, we'll now approve our agenda for our committee meeting today.

There is no objection.

Today's committee agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing, no objection.

Today's committee agenda is adopted.

At this time, we'll transition into public comment.

I'll moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

Each speaker is given two minutes to speak.

I will alternate between virtual and in-person presenters, but I believe we only have an in-person presenter today, so I will not need to alternate.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but you'd like to do so, you can sign up before the end of the public comment session.

I will call on each speaker by name.

And once I call your name, if you are using the virtual option, you'll hear a prompt.

And once you've heard that prompt, please press star six to unmute yourself.

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

And speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

Once the speaker hears that chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comments.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's mic will be muted after 10 seconds so we can hear from the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line, but, of course, we welcome your continued following of this meeting, and you can do so via the Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

We have one person signed up for public comment, and I'll just move right into Pulling up the speaker's list, our first speaker and only speaker that we have signed up for public comment is Howard Gale.

Mr. Gale.

Good morning.

Howard Gale with seattlestop.org.

Just a few hours ago, the Seattle Times reported that the mayor and the U.S.

DOJ will be calling for an end to most of the federal oversight of the SPD, claiming in part, quote, strong community participation and civilian oversight.

At a time when Seattle's Community Police Commission has taken to attacking victims of police violence, shutting down any public comment at meetings, and has suspended their community engagement forums due to their fear of the community, the notion that we have, quote, strong community participation and civilian oversight is beyond absurd.

In its 11th year, 11th, the CPC has consistently eschewed any engagement with the victims of police violence.

In fact, the CPC has never had a commissioner that has been a victim of serious police violence.

In their decade of existence, the CPC has had directors and employees that have engaged in subterfuge, scandal, and malfeasance, and have sometimes simply disappeared, as with the recent director.

The CPC has consistently failed to uphold legally mandated duties and has, quite ironically, fought accountability for itself while claiming to fight for police accountability.

In the last couple of years, the CPC has fought against any attempts to have an outside audit and has fought the Seattle Human Rights Commission's attempt to give voice to those most impacted by police violence.

The CPC remains an undemocratic, non-transparent, and unaccountable body hostile to the community.

Seattle's entire police accountability system has fought to exclude the voices of those directly impacted by police abuse and police violence.

Despite the council having passed legislation last fall to create a program to give an official voice to those impacted by police violence, folks within the council and within the accountability system have unrelentingly tried to undermine this program.

With a quarter of the year now gone, this program has failed to progress, has not had a single legally mandated report in its first three months, and has, in fact, been set back via attempts to once more exclude from decision-making the very people this program was designed to serve.

Is this, quote, strong community participation and civilian oversight?

Thank you, Dr. DeGioia.

Clerk, please read in agenda item number one.

Agenda item one, reappointment of Tasha R. Johnson as member, Community Police Commission for a term to December 31, 2025.

Thank you so much.

Newell Aldrich from my staff will be joining the presentation.

We know that the Police Commission co-chair had confirmed to attend this morning, but has been called to the DOJ event taking place this morning that I mentioned at the top of the meeting.

Just want to note that the CPC provides ongoing community-based oversight of SPD and the police accountability system.

And I'll request that Newell present that appointment.

Thank you, Chair Herbold.

Tasha Johnson serves as the Associate Executive Director for Choose 180, building the infrastructure of programs, as well as implementation of programs with community partners, and co-creating the LGBTQ plus staff training workshop and manual.

She has a Master of Social Work from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science Magna Cum Laude in Health Sciences at Portland State University.

She completed the Puget Sound SAGE Community Leadership Institute.

This is a reappointment.

Thank you, Noel.

Tasha is a reappointment.

Our standard is not to require reappointments to attend committee, but I'd like to entertain any questions or comments that council members might have.

Council Member Nelson.

This was going to be a question directed at Joel, but maybe you guys can answer it.

I just looked at the matrix and I see that eight of the 21 positions are vacant.

So are there ever problems with quorum or do they track attendance or can you just

The CPC has quorum requirements that are followed.

And the issue of addressing vacancies is an issue that the CPC, the mayor's office, and the council are working together on.

And we do have some additional appointments coming forward in our six additional.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

But more to say on that because you definitely raised good questions.

Thanks.

All right.

Not seeing any other questions.

Looking at my virtual hands and real hands.

With that, committee members, I move the committee recommends the confirmation of appointment 02502. Is there a second?

Second.

been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointment 02502. If there are no further comments, please call the roll.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Lewis.

Yes.

Chair Herbold.

Yes.

Five yes.

Thank you.

This appointment will move on to the full council meeting on April 4th.

Please read in agenda item 2.

Agenda item 2, appointment 02501, appointment of Richard Green as member, Public Safety Civil Service Commission for a term to December 31, 2025. Thank you, Mr. Clark.

I appreciate

civil, Public Safety Civil Service Commission Executive Director Scheele for joining us on this item.

And I understand, Newell, you also are going to be playing a role in this presentation as well.

Thank you.

But if we could just kick it off, Director Scheele, by speaking, by your speaking briefly to the work of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

Just a quick overview.

Can you hear me?

My name is Andrea Sheely.

Thank you for having me here today.

I'm the Executive Director of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

The Public Safety Civil Service Commission is an independent body authorized by the revised Code of Washington and the Seattle City Charter.

The commission's work is making and enforcing rules for examination, appointments, promotions, transfers, and serious discipline for the Seattle Police and Fire Department's members of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission or system.

The commission provides sworn police and uniform fire employees with a quasi-judicial hearing process for appeals concerning serious disciplinary actions, investigates alleged violations of enabling legislation, and directs the program, which develops and administers merit-based entry-level and promotional civil service exams for most ranks in the Seattle Fire and Police Department.

The PSCSC consists of three commissioners and an executive director.

The mayor and the city council each appoint one commissioner and the third commissioner is elected by the members of the public safety civil service system.

The PSCSE is a little known part of Seattle's public safety accountability system by conducting independent review of serious disciplinary actions and providing a robust and independent process for evaluation of candidates for hiring and promotional consideration.

As executive director, I recommend Mr. Green's nomination.

and Mr. Aldrich will speak to his qualifications.

Thank you so much, Director Shaley.

Noel Aldrich from my office, please do present the appointment, but before you get to that, welcome Mr. Green back to the committee table.

Go ahead, Noel.

Prior to his retirement, Richard Green served as a prosecutor with the Seattle City Attorney's Office for 33 years, presenting briefs and oral arguments in municipal court and appellate courts, writing ordinances and performing legal research.

He previously served as staff attorney for the Associated Council of the Accused, representing indigent persons in juvenile district and municipal courts.

He also served as a law clerk to a state court of appeals judge performing legal research and assisting in writing opinions.

He brings extensive background and knowledge about public safety practices and standards.

Thank you, Noel.

Thank you again for being here, Richard.

Could you speak briefly to your interest in serving this role, important role, little known but important, Director Shealy, on the Public Safety and Civil Service Committee mission?

Well, thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I would like to be appointed to this commission because I think that it is vitally important to the prosperity of our city.

that we enhance the integrity and professionalism of police and fire department personnel and assure that those personnel reflect the values of the city.

The commission plays an important role in achieving those goals through its review of disciplinary decisions and its oversight of the civil service examination process.

I've had a fair amount of experience in reviewing disciplinary decisions of the chief of police through my work in the city attorney's office.

About once a month, I would get a report from the Office of Police Accountability regarding the chief's decisions on cases involving misconduct.

I'm familiar with the types of behavior that results in finding a misconduct and how the chief responds to those.

I've also had a fair amount of experience in applying and understanding the types of ordinances and statutes the commission enforces.

I've attended a couple of meetings of the commission this year.

I think I'm getting a good sense of what types of issues that they address.

I think those issues effectively are very intellectually engaging.

Last, because I am retired, I think I have ample time to devote to the work of the commission, which again, I think is of great importance to the city.

I would ask that you approve my appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Bean.

Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much customer herbal.

I am very excited today to vote to confirm Richard green to this position.

I had the pleasure and honor of working with Richard green when I served as an assistant city attorney and can just say that.

his retirement from that office is a huge blow to the city in losing his expertise that the council has relied on time and time again as well in the drafting of ordinances and laws and I'm really glad to have Richard before us coming back to continue to serve the city in a different capacity and the fact that he would be willing to spend part of his retirement in addition to spending his career in serving the city is a testament to his commitment to these critical issues and I'm really excited to have a nominee of this caliber before us and looking forward to confirming him.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I was wondering, I understand when we met, you talked a little bit about your role when you were an Assistant City Attorney on the Brady Committee, and I'm wondering if you can talk just a little bit about your role on the Brady Committee and how you think that experience will serve you as a commission member.

Well, again, as part of the Brady committee I would get reports from the office of police accountability regarding misconduct findings and then if there were findings of dishonesty or bias policing, we would then decide whether to put that officer on our Brady list which again is simply a If that officer is going to testify at trial, it was our obligation to disclose that information to the defense.

And so they could make whatever use of it they wanted.

And so we would have to decide whether, again, the finding of dishonesty or bias policing, or if there's a criminal conviction of the officer, that we would then disclose that information to the defense we weren't saying that it was relevant in any case we weren't saying it was admissible we're just saying it was it was a disclosure requirement that we had to.

that was our obligation.

So again, I've seen the types of behavior that results in a finding of dishonesty or bias policing, and I've seen how the chief responds to those.

So I think I have a fair amount of experience in looking at those types of cases.

Thank you.

I do agree that experience will serve you well.

Council Member Nelson.

Hello.

Yes.

So this must be the smallest committee, but with some of the greatest responsibility.

There are three people here.

And so I'm wondering, when you talk about the tests that civil servants take, can you give an example of any?

Are you interested in looking at any of the tests that are currently provided or how do cases How does the request for your input come to you?

Do you do you independently go through them?

And or are you asked by department heads?

We're going to be talking about streamlining the application process for police later on in this agenda today.

And I'm just wondering if that's part of your work as well.

Well, in terms of the oversight of the examination process, the Commission, if a person takes a test and has a dispute about a particular question, they can challenge that question and the Commission sort of reviews the validity of that question and whether the answers um, that were sort of the, the, the, the set answer was, was in fact accurate and reflects, um, sort of what, what that question was designed to get at.

And so what the commission does is review those challenges.

And then, um, here's from, from the officer involved sort of what, why he, why he or she thinks that the question was, was, was either improper or confusing.

And then here's from the examiners to determine why that, why that question was asked and why they think the answer that, that they believe what's correct is indeed the correct one.

And then the commission gets to decide whether that appeal of that question should be accepted or rejected.

And in the last meeting that I observed at the commission, they reviewed four questions that a a police sergeant had had had raised regarding the lieutenant examination and they went through each question sort of why why the officer thought that was a improper question and why that why the examiners thought that was a that was a valid question why the answer that they they gave was was indeed the valid one so then the commission decided on each of those questions whether that whether again the question was was valid so that's the process that goes through and sometimes the commission um now in this case as I think all all four of the questions the commission thought that the answers were were proper but I There was certainly one of the questions that I had rather serious doubts about, and I think that one of the other commissioners also had some doubts about that.

So it's not a rubber stamp of all the questions.

It's a very engaged process of looking at those questions and the answer and see if those, again, were proper.

Thank you for that introduction.

The commissioners serve as my supervisor, as the executive director as well.

And so as I am sort of the on the ground full-time executive director, the commission's overseeing and directing that work.

You know, if there's an additional level of supervision, though, you know, rather high up.

Thank you.

All right, just looking to see if there are additional questions not seeing.

I'm just wondering, before I call for a vote on your appointment, just wondering if you could speak a little bit too for the benefit of the viewing public to your understanding of Seattle's police accountability system.

I'm sorry.

I was just wondering if you could speak a little to your knowledge of the police accountability system for the benefit of the viewing public that this is an area that you have a lot of expertise in.

Again, I would get those reports from the Office of Police Accountability regarding that.

I've also spent a lot of time actually looking through the police manual actually in my work in responding to appeals, sort of figuring out exactly what the procedure is for a particular conduct.

If, say, a defendant would challenge a stop or a search or a vehicle impoundment, I would then have to go through the police manual and find out sort of what exactly it says about those things.

And so I've done a fair amount of work both in reviewing disciplinary actions and just examining sort of the police manual of how it's developed and sort of what its structure is.

Thank you so much.

There are no further questions, and I am not seeing any more of them.

Clerk, please call, I'm sorry, I like to first before asking the clerk to call the roll, I'd like to move confirmation of appointment 02501. Second.

So much.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointment 02501. Any additional comments?

Seeing and hearing none, I'm just really excited to have your expertise in this really important role that is integral to engendering community trust in our public safety and first responder systems.

So thank you.

With that, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Lewis.

Yes.

Chair Herbold.

Yes.

Five yes.

Thank you so much and congratulations.

All right.

Moving on to the next item on our agenda.

Will the clerk please read in agenda item number three.

agenda item three, Seattle Police Department recruitment plan and shift changes.

Thank you so much and we're being joined at the table by a number of presenters and we'll wait till everybody's seated and do some introductory remarks as well as introductions and then kick off the presentation.

I appreciate senior deputy mayor Harrell being with us from the mayor's office and the Seattle Police Department, Public Safety Civil Service Commission, all for our presentation on the long-awaited recruitment and retention projects status update for SPD.

It's a priority for this committee to support The expansion of our public safety network to include a variety of non police responses.

But this committee and the Council have also supported recruitment and hiring for SPD staffing needs.

Just as a little bit of background, last year we passed Council Bill 120389, creating new hiring incentives and funding additional recruiters for the department.

And in the budget process, we fully funded SPD's hiring plan.

Today, presenters will share with us an update on SPD's recruitment and retention project.

Presenters, I'll hand it over to you to introduce yourselves.

Thank you, and proceed with your presentation.

All right, thank you, Council Member Herbold.

We're just getting ourselves set up here.

I want to thank the committee for having us today.

My name is Monisha Harrell.

I'm the Senior Deputy Mayor.

And I would like to introduce the team.

We're going to be led by Sarah Smith, who's our Mayor's Office Project Manager today.

We'll also be hearing from Andrea Shealy, the Executive Director of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, and from Mike Fields, who is our HR Director at SPD.

We are looking forward to going through today's program with you today, where we will be talking about SPD recruitment and retention, particularly in support of the legislation that Council passed last year.

Thank you very much for that, to help us increase our numbers.

We're just giving you a little bit of an update on the process and where we are and what will be next.

So I'm going to hand it off to Sarah to take us away.

All right, and so I think I figured out the technology, so that's exciting.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Sarah Smith.

I am in the mayor's office, and I am the project lead on this pretty amazing project.

Today, we're going to be talking about several different topics and some updates.

And so general agenda is going to be background and context setting.

I want to explain why we're here.

I want to explain who the team is and what we're doing.

Then we're going to go through some updates on the candidate experience, and I'll explain more about what that means later.

We're going to go over our marketing updates and our recruiting updates, as well as retention.

Then we're going to talk about hiring totals, where we are right now so far, and then what's coming soon.

So that's our agenda today.

All the graphics you're going to see on this PowerPoint are actually graphics that are put out in our social media, and so you can see them out and about.

So this is one of those examples.

It's pretty exciting.

All right, so background.

So as we all know, we are experiencing historic staffing lows in the Seattle Police Department.

Since 2019, we've seen over 400 officers actually leave the department.

And in order to combat against this and to really move forward, the mayor announced his new comprehensive recruitment plan last year that focused on three main goals.

First, making hiring easier, faster, and more efficient.

And so that's really talking about building a better process and system that allows people to come in easily and quickly.

The second is to attract top recruits, high quality recruits with competitive compensation.

So talking about our incentives as well as talking about negotiations with our contracts.

Three, recruit candidates committed to our community because we believe that our community is our main priority.

It's a lot of work.

That's a pretty huge task in front of us as we all know, and there are some amazing people on this team.

And so, you know, the senior deputy mayor mentioned who's all here today, but our team is much larger than that, and consists of SPD civil service commission know Seattle Human Resources, the mayor's office, so a lot of different departments are are part of this.

And knowing that there's so much work that has to be really focused in on, we have actually split it into three different buckets.

And so that's what we're going to talk about today.

The first bucket is candidate experience.

And that is really talking about when someone applies through the Civil Service Commission, all the way up until they receive their conditional offer.

So that's going to be our candidate experience.

Marketing and recruiting is how do we get people to even know about us, to really want to join the Seattle Police Department.

Then we'll talk about retention.

How do we keep people?

So now I'm going to actually pass it on over and we're going to start with our updates for candidate experience.

And that's first going to start with some pretty amazing updates that have happened in our examinations and application process.

So I'm going to pass on over to Andrea.

Thank you, Sarah.

Hello again, council members.

This is sort of a high level, but also overview of the data as a candidate applies, and then moves through our testing process.

As you see, there are multiple steps.

And during the pandemic, we transitioned to an entirely remote testing model for civil service testing, as it was impossible, of course, to bring people together in the numbers that we had previously.

So this illustrates the number of applicants we received in 2022. This is to give you an idea of the funnel.

Not all of our applicants succeed in becoming Seattle police officers because of course we hire people who are dedicated, qualified and ready to become and do the work of a Seattle police officer.

But a great number of people may apply, although I will tell you these numbers for 2022 are significantly lower.

It will be no surprise to you than in pre-2020 application years.

But for 1,895 folks who applied, we had 494 folks who moved on to the Seattle Police Department for the pre-hire assessment parts of the evaluation.

Sarah, we can go to the next slide.

Before we move on.

So I understand that the total numbers of applicants in 2022 are significantly fewer than pre-pandemic.

Is the rate of people passing as a percentage of those who have submitted applications more or less the same or has there been?

That's a great question.

Thank you.

I would say for 2021 and 2022, the rate of people passing through to the pre-hire assessment phases was lower than it was pre-pandemic, pre-protests.

I think though, and we only have early numbers for 2023, those numbers are improving.

so people are passing through at a higher rate.

It looks like it's more or less one in four, more or less.

A little bit.

For 2022. But these numbers, yeah.

A little less than that.

I believe the rate was.

One in six.

Do you know the numbers on that, Mike?

OK, we can follow up on that.

That's totally fine.

And do you attribute any changes in practices that result in the change of rate of completion?

Or is it just more the change of the job seeking market or people in the job seeking market?

I think I can, I have for every 12 applicants in 2021, we hired one police officer.

I don't have the number.

I don't have the specific data for 2022. And for the second part of your question, I think that it is both.

I think that is probably more sort of in the zeitgeist.

It is, things are transitioning a little bit in the world.

You know, the economy is changing a little bit and hopefully, hopefully also, and it is impossible for us to know exactly a lot of the work that we're doing is having an impact.

Thank you.

All right, Sarah mentioned the candidate experience, and that is where we have put a lot of attention, especially for the Public Safety Civil Service Commission and its staff working with this fantastic team.

And I do have to call out Sarah's really excellent project management and support of this work.

We did simplify our job posting.

in a recent cycle and going forward, took out, there was not too much extraneous information, but we did repackage it so that it's more readable, flows more nicely, and that, you know, reprioritized, just reevaluated what information is most important to go first and what candidates really need to know.

So it does look a lot better.

And read a lot better I think we are doing more frequent exam cycles, thanks, thanks to the addition, the ordinance that passed last year, we are able to go from what was previously between four and five cycles per year to six or seven cycles per year.

Individuals can apply and test to be a Seattle police officer almost any day of the year.

That has not changed.

But what the more frequent exam cycles hopes to do is to provide passing candidates' names to the Seattle Police Department more quickly, more efficiently, so that candidates spend a shorter period of time in that sort of testing and then waiting to see how they scored cycle.

They do receive their, we also changed that they get their, Notice of whether they pass the exam immediately instead of having to wait for a period of time.

So hopefully making that experience better for them, and also more effective for the Seattle Police Department.

We changed our testing process.

After we went remote we.

We realized that there were some perhaps barriers for candidates requiring them to fill out additional forms or go to different sites.

We have streamlined that process, not only to make it easier for candidates, but to bring our application process into line with other public safety agencies that are using our consultant company.

This is really important because when people apply, we have found and we know that when people apply to be a law enforcement officer, they don't usually just apply to one jurisdiction.

They want to apply, they want to cast a wide net.

And they may have favorites.

And we hope that Seattle is their favorite, of course.

But by removing any additional steps, or different processes that candidates have to go through to apply to Seattle, we hope to see evidence that we are increasing the number of candidates who are applying.

Community service preference points I believe I've spoken to this committee before about, but this is something that will be implemented for the cycles after June 1 2023. This is an charitable, this is something that you have been working on for a very, very long time, and we finally brought to our bringing to fruition.

where candidates who have accomplished two or more years of direct service to their community, and that can look like a variety of things.

It is not a limited list of types of volunteer or paid work that candidates can have done to earn these points, but they will have an additional 5%.

If they apply and their work experience is verified, they will have an additional 5% added to the passing score.

of their entry-level police officer exam.

We're extremely excited about that.

And if I may, I would speak to that and one of the points above.

As it relates to community service preference points and language preference points, I think their biggest utility, and I hope we use this in the recruitment area, given that we, I think as a practice, hire everybody who makes it all the way through and is qualified, Preference points don't actually bump somebody up on the list of likely hires.

But I think they're very, very useful to notify members of the public, the job seeking public, that this is a city that values that experience.

And so I think preference points in our job market right now for police officers is a very, very useful recruitment tool.

And I hope that we're using it.

Not only can we be sending the message to people who might be interested working for the city, that we value these skills and these experiences.

But it also will help, if it works as a recruitment tool, it will help make sure that Our hiring pool also is reflective of those skills and experiences.

So really appreciate your work, Director Shealy, on expanding the preference point system beyond language to community service.

Again, the candidate experience application and examination.

It looked like from that chart that the biggest drop off was for the applicants who do not schedule an exam, and the applicants that don't complete the exam.

Can we.

Can we expect as a result of additional frequency of testing for that to maybe not be such a steep drop off in future reports?

I hope that we will see that as a result of that factor.

But additionally, my final point, we hired additional staffing.

We have recently brought in another staff person who will allow us to increase the communications between folks who are in that phase of testing.

We're thinking about multiple modes of communication.

We need to keep it very general because as it is part of a civil service process, we need to make sure that candidates are treated the same.

But this new staff person will not only bolster our existing testing process, including promotional, but be able to provide support for those candidates who, for whatever reason, get stuck at a different phase.

We cannot force them to schedule, but we can provide more information or whatever contact that they do need.

One of the things I'll add is that what we've seen with other jurisdictions is what we're adding to ours in terms of working with recruiters.

is that the recruiters that we have brought into SDHR to support this process, they will additionally be doing communications with the people who are applying so that they can tell them like, hey, the exam is coming up, give them reminders and let them know.

that like these are the next steps.

A lot of this process is demystifying what the next steps are for those people who are in the pipeline.

And so where you see some of that drop off, we're hoping to be able to reduce some of the drop off by demystifying what the next steps are, like the next is this exam, the next is this, helping them schedule, and then reminding them of when they've signed up and when they should be moving forward.

Thank you for delving a little bit into the role that the additional staff can play in helping us meet our goals here.

Thank you.

And if I could just piggyback briefly on that point, as we and other jurisdictions have transitioned to an electronic online portal, unlike years past where one would sign up to show up to Kane Hall in person, it's quite easy to click many jurisdictions in terms of who you want to apply for.

to senior deputy mayor's point, it's all the more important that we follow up with that group.

That is a big drop off.

And if we can address that, the bottom line throughput could potentially increase significantly.

And with that, we're actually gonna move on.

So in the new year, we implemented an all electronic backgrounding system, which converted several steps in our process to a virtual process.

For example, the system sends links to work and personal references automatically, routes files for approval electronically, and allows for more sophisticated applicant tracking.

Taking together, this has allowed us to reduce the time it takes to complete a background significantly, and now we're looking at 8 to 12 weeks, which is, I think in a, we have a chart in a moment here that shows that as a significant decrease.

In terms of the physical agility test, or PAT, through our partnership with National Testing Network, we've been able to add more locations throughout Washington state for candidates to take the test.

And in June, we're actually rolling this out nationwide.

So folks who are out of state can take the PAT without having to travel.

And I will say we found that those trips, which is on the applicant's dime, are a barrier.

So we're really hoping that that can help.

And these steps are all aimed at reducing those barriers and reducing hiring times.

Another one of the steps in the hiring process is a medical screening.

And with healthcare having its own staffing challenges, we have found it difficult at times to get our folks in as quickly as we'd like.

So we have onboarded Kaiser as another vendor who can help with that and reduce those times.

In terms of our out-of-state applicants, we've added virtual options for our oral boards, which are the interviews.

and background interviews.

And here again, this removes the need for folks to travel, even in-state applicants, you know, taking a day off, traveling across state, et cetera.

This has been a big help.

And then to piggyback on what was said earlier, SHR has onboarded both a manager and an experienced specialist, which we're really excited about.

That's going to help coordinate SPD and SHR's efforts and really provide not only more frequent contact with applicants, but a seamless candidate experience.

Perfect.

So now rolling that all up together, what does it actually mean?

And it means something very significant.

This is pretty exciting.

So previously, say just a few months ago, the process from applying to actually being given your conditional offer, that could be more than eight months.

And I don't know if people look for different roles.

That's a long time to be without any kind of employment funding coming in.

It's also easy to find something else.

And so that's such a huge, huge win for this team to be able to get that down to four to five months.

So we've halved it through all the work that everyone's just mentioned.

And that's pretty significant.

The other side of this, so outside of being more efficient in our process, we have simplified it as well.

So going back to that job posting, one of the major changes that happened is that we were able to change our summary of your steps as a candidate.

And so instead of having 20 different things that you have to do in order to become an officer, you have seven main ones.

It's streamlined, it's easy to understand, and it's easy to move through that.

And now as we bring in these new experienced specialists, we'll be able to continue to help people.

And so hopefully, we'll see people stay with us throughout that process and choose Seattle.

So some really exciting stuff on that end.

Are you referring to the pre-employment steps?

Yep.

Can you just talk a little bit more in depth about that?

Just give us a sense of what sort of things.

Yeah.

So it's very interesting.

And this is also in the job posting now, steps one through seven.

But your first step is you're going to be doing a NeoGov job application, which anyone would have to do for the city of Seattle.

Then you're going to go to NTN.

So that is our national testing network where everyone goes to the national testing examinations, your schedules for that.

It has more information on things that you need to do for readiness on your exam.

That is your second step.

You'll actually take your exam, so you'll schedule and take your exam.

Then our awesome team will evaluate that and build out a register if you are qualified and move forward and pass.

Once you have that, you then just go right on into our pre-employment steps with SPD.

So this is where it's so interesting, we have so many different departments.

So now you're at SPD, you have your oral boards, you have your PAT, which is your physical agility testing.

You will also start backgrounding, you'll go through your medical screening, all that within just What is eight to 12 weeks now before you're given your conditional offer?

So lots of different steps, but it's good to be able to bracket it.

And so it's easy to know what you're doing next as a candidate.

And so the the steps that have been either eliminated or streamlined into the seven steps, they aren't steps that by removing them from the process were affecting the quality of the candidate.

Not at all.

Just streamlined.

The other piece of that is the use of technology in order to help streamline these these tests so it's not that we are cutting any corners by any means it's that we are using.

Modern technology that was available, I don't know 10 years ago or more to be able to help shorten these processes for applicants and so they're not waiting as long so it's a little bit of a.

A reduction the postal service will be disappointed a little bit of a reduction in using physical mail to get information recommendations testing information back and forth, but certainly, you know, with our job.

job hunting public right now, they are more accustomed to doing things electronically.

And so this is a way that we can utilize technology to be able to speed up these process and implement them in the system.

Part of the reason that this might not have been done before is because it does take an investment, which again, I want to thank the council for making that investment in this system, but it does take an investment to pull all of these technologies and all of these systems into place.

And so the city has now begun to invest in those services we're seeing the fruits come forward.

And in particular on the recruiting side where we're able to utilize technology to touch more candidates to be able to have more of a direct conversation with them about what their experiences might be.

I do want to also highlight one thing, which is on step number two.

So step number two, the national exam, all recruits, all people who are thinking of getting into policing, they have to take the national exam.

And so this is something that Mike had pointed out that during this process, if somebody were to have selected Seattle and they maybe they selected a couple other jurisdictions around us, Our ability to speed up this process, if at that same time that they're testing, they're selecting several jurisdictions and they hear from those other jurisdictions much earlier than we do about the process and getting into their process, they may be several months ahead of us before Seattle would get to this candidate.

And so we might lose a really good candidate to another jurisdiction just on speed.

And so that's why it was really important for us to focus on this early process.

Thank you.

Alright, now on to recruitment and marketing.

So we just talked about the process, the behind the scenes work that's happening around our candidate experience.

Now we're going to talk about how do we get people to even know about us to know that we're wanting them to understand what this work is.

So we've have a built out timeline, which I'm going to go through in just a second, that really is focused on both getting the word out to folks, but also really educating folks, really rebranding the work and really helping people know how great Seattle is and how great the Seattle Police Department is.

So the first phase of this plan has been focused on surge marketing.

We've cleaned up our process.

We've made it simpler for people to apply.

Now it's about getting ads out there.

And so on January 31st, we launched our first ad campaign where we really pushed heavily on all the different social media platforms.

So we have Facebook, it's all the meta stuff, Instagram, LinkedIn, we're pushing ads.

And that was the first goal, getting people to know about us.

The second goal for the surge marketing is actually testing.

So during these different campaigns, we've been doing two week campaigns.

We've been testing different graphics and different messages to really understand what is effective and what really appeals to people and helps educate them.

So this may be an image of someone within a community and someone doing detective work.

This may be just a message around incentives or community.

Really just trying to understand what is appealing to people.

So we've been really just testing.

The second phase that we're moving into now is taking our lessons learned from all that work and actually applying it and expanding it out further.

So this month, we're going to actually be expanding our graphics, continuing social media, but now going into our radio and community publications from Lessons Learned.

And so that new campaign is actually going to be starting in just a few weeks.

The final stage of this, the third phase, is taking everything we've learned, all the relationships we've built with our vendors, and actually launching a brand new campaign.

So this will be new graphics, new media, new folks talking, and our new brand that will have long-term effects.

So those are the different phases of our timelines.

On top of all this, and I wish I put more on here, we've been doing our recruiting events.

And so this is where our recruiters are actually going into community and chatting with folks.

And so just recently, we did a public safety, women in public safety event.

all women officers came in and were able to start educating community on the work.

I was able to attend that session.

It was incredibly fantastic to witness people being able to learn about the work that Seattle is doing, but also working with our officers to actually learn what the role entails.

One really good example of something that happened at this event is We had a potential candidate come in interested in doing a ride along.

So like really learning about what it means to be an officer and Lauren was able to actually get that individual scheduled and get a ride along two weeks later.

So that's just some of the stuff that we're doing with both our marketing and recruitment teams to move forward.

We'll continue to expand that and we'll talk about that later in our next steps.

Okay, so if I wanted to hear more about the lessons learned in your testing that's coming up later.

Okay.

My question is that, yes.

The one thing I'll add is that in the specific recruitment, we're also still working through with our new campaigns, the efforts of SPD to, so SPD and the chief have signed on for the 30 for 30, which is 30% women in policing by 2030. And so that is also part of our goals is, to diversify the police force and to join national pushes forward in who we see serving.

And so all of this does take into account the additional goals that we've brought forward through SPD for recruitment and what the force will look like in the future.

All right, so now I'm going to talk more about what we've done.

So the third marketing phase.

So in building out these different graphics, so we can actually do real A-B testing, we've simplified them down and brought them down to simple messages.

So you can see as an example, this is an individual who's fingerprinting.

It has a really specific community message.

We've been focusing most of our images on either people within community, so talking with community, or actually doing the work that a patrol officer would be doing.

Our targeted audience with these graphics has been our normal traditional routes and then our non-traditional routes.

What's been pretty exciting about LinkedIn and doing our graphics on LinkedIn is that we're actually able to target different employment careers.

So if you are currently a nurse, we're able to actually to give you graphics for SPD and say, hey, we would love you to consider us and join.

So those have been some of our non traditional routes that we've been looking at so healthcare social services and teachers and education so really just looking for different pipelines and different audiences to bring into this work and then also lateral.

Now the stats.

So from February 1st to the 15th of this month, we have been able to, with these different campaigns, thousands of different unique individuals.

So that's 300,000 folks who've now been able to see what we're here to offer and actually learn more about us.

Out of those folks, most of them have been able to see our different graphics more than once, which is also really important.

It really takes more than just one ad, one moment, one engagement to really decide to, you know, change careers and try something.

So the more impressions we get, the better.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, we're doing A-B testing, where we're able to actually pull different graphics and how much their click-through rate compares to others.

So on average, we have about a 1.5 click-through rate, which means about 6,500 clicks.

That's the average.

When you actually look at the graphics, it depends on what we're presenting.

So here are two different examples of different ways that we've marketed.

So on the right, you can see that we actually have an ad that has the incentives that we've been moving forward on.

And then down below, you can see that we have a video.

And I was going to play that video, but I don't know how to make it work on here.

Yeah, so these are just two of the other types of graphics and campaigns that we've done.

Do you want to help me?

Thank you everyone for your patience.

I came from the Midwest where I was a police officer for seven years.

It may not work.

Oh.

So I came from the Midwest, where I was a police officer.

And we can leave this, this is in the agenda, so people can click on it.

It's a great story by Officer Boyce, though.

So I definitely recommend people would look at it.

Yeah, we can move on to the presentation.

Thank you so much.

So what's the takeaway here?

Are you saying that people engage more with video than with ads that push out information about the incentives?

Or I'm just really interested in the lessons learned about your marketing testing.

No, that's an excellent question.

So we are still working through data.

So we actually just launched videos in the last two weeks.

So I don't think that's enough time to really show if video actually works better than just general messages.

So we're working on that information right now.

So we've been running these for about two weeks and we're gonna have them for another two weeks.

And once we have that data, we're actually gonna pull it up into a table and actually have a dashboard so we can start seeing what is happening, how many applications are coming from these.

What I will say as well is click-through rate is helpful, but what it's going to be really helpful is to see in each exam cycle how many people actually apply and how different that is in comparison.

And so because it always is lagging per cycle, we are going to be a little bit behind in that data, but that's what we're going to strive to be able to put in front of everyone as a dashboard.

And so just to highlight, this is what we're talking about in terms of the A.B.

testing.

So before we launch the full brand, this will allow us to kind of say before we throw more money out into whether or not something works or hoping that it works, the A.B.

testing will allow our innovation and performance partners to be able to look at what works and what doesn't work and build the fall campaign around all of the data that we've gathered.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

First of all, I have to say thank you very much.

I commend the executive for all the work that you have done to address SPD's severe staffing shortage.

So this is amazing.

I have a question specifically on the monetary incentives.

It's been about, it's been almost exactly a year since I put forward resolution, let's see, 32050 calling for another staffing incentives program.

You know, involving a lot of things, but primarily hiring bonuses.

And it was at about that time that there was a report saying, oh, well, incentives don't work because there wasn't there.

Officers weren't hired as a result of the last incentives program.

And I push back on that saying, well, that's because the application process took a really long time and you cannot look at hires if it wasn't in place for a long time.

So I'm really glad that you're addressing the length of the application process.

And I think that a better indication of of whether or not incentives are working is is interest applications, letters of interest or the first response.

So I have a question about that because I'm seeing your materials in this ad right here on the screen does mention the incentives, the monetary incentives.

And I'm wondering if when when the.

The legislation that kind of resulted from the resolution passed in August, I was I was expecting that the incentives would be advertised or we'd get the word out that we're offering monetary incentives because everybody else I mean, all the other jurisdictions were.

And so I was thinking that we would get the word out there.

And, you know, I've been asking questions about that.

So.

I do see that you are advertising those incentives on Instagram and Facebook and et cetera.

Can where else have have those and how else have you gotten the word out from those?

I'm I drive by the the jail that has a banner saying fifteen thousand dollars if you want to work at the jail.

So can you talk a little bit about that before moving on to the next section?

Yeah, definitely.

So we have been really focused on social media as a way to really expand out.

So some of our audiences are really within Washington in the northwest area so that's continuing that one way.

This current.

The second phase that we're in right now includes having radio and so we'll be having radio, actually in language.

launching on the 15th of April, as well as in publications.

And so those will be another ways that those messages specifically are gonna be getting out to community.

So graphics, radio, and publication.

We also earned a ton of earned media when those incentives were announced.

I think that you all noticed probably the news picked up that cycle as well.

And so it has been pretty well advertised that we have the incentives other jurisdictions have definitely been paying attention to the incentives that we've been offering, and we are absolutely on the higher end of that.

That's where the A-B testing really does come in handy, though, because what it will tell us with having the two different campaigns in the beginning before we develop the broader campaign is How much do incentives actually sway people in their decision to seek employment with Seattle?

And so we'll have much more for you once we finish the first round of testing.

Just to follow up, can I absolutely I will put in a plug for doing both on parallel tracks, because I do appreciate the quality of these marketing materials.

I also think that it doesn't hurt to just Get the word out that we are in your right that the money isn't necessarily what matters I've often said that it's having a positive workplace to work at, but the.

We are, as noted, competing, and there are candidates that are making choices among a lot of different jurisdictions.

So let's get it out there that there is this extra thing.

There's one I think we missed telling you about, and it's important.

So on the portal, step number two, where you apply to become a police officer, we have been advertising on that portal.

So that is a pretty key one.

So imagine that you're taking the college testing exam, right as you go in to take the testing exam, it says apply to Princeton, you probably will be thinking about Princeton.

So we have been advertising on that portal.

And so we do expect to get a little bit more bang for the buck there, because there are people who are ready to take the exam.

And we're just saying of all of the jurisdictions, you're going to check to send your scores to also include Seattle.

And if I could just add the Seattle police jobs website was updated with this information and it's certainly a primary talking point at in person events.

Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, just to stay on the hiring incentives for one moment, because we did receive.

from the department on March 14th, 2023, a memo summarizing where we are currently with the hiring incentives.

I was expecting, since this is a comprehensive recruitment and retention project update, that some of that information might be included within the slide deck.

Is the reason for the delay that we need a little bit more time to fully assess where we are with that and the preliminary data wasn't enough to give an update.

As Council Member Nelson indicated, the only reference to the hiring incentives in this is, you know, sort of a transitory mention in the ad clip.

There's not really any critical assessment with the hiring incentive data.

So I just want to maybe ask about that choice of omitting it.

It is too early to draw a definitive conclusion with the data and the researchers.

So we are being, you know, our innovation and performance team is meticulous in terms of getting the data they need before they can draw a hypothesis and a conclusion.

So we are still in the process.

And when we have data that we feel, you know, tells a complete story, we'll be able to share that with you.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

All right, so now we're going to move on to retention and what's been happening.

So I would just say with retention, this is an absolute focus for the chief.

We talk about laterals being particularly helpful because they have a limited training time before their field deployable.

Our current employees are immediately filled deployable to the state, the obvious.

And so retention, the sort of leaky bottom of the bucket has to be addressed.

And really, at the end of the day, like we all do, employees want to feel valued and respected.

And so that is a focus.

And some of the issues associated with retention are wrapped up in items that have to be negotiated per state law.

But I wanted to talk about a few other items.

So in terms of retention, the department continues to build out the wellness unit, whose mission in a nutshell is to increase employees' quality of life both at home and at work.

so they can thrive and perform their best on and off duty.

This unit, which has been very well received within the department, focuses on providing services and resources promoting emotional, mental, physical, and financial health of our employees.

This includes in-person training, access to outside resources, and online services.

You'll see the picture of the dog there that is referencing our wellness dog program, which has been very well received within the department, similar to other departments programs.

The dogs are utilized during high stress incidents and roll call visits.

And it's amazing what one of these dogs walking into a room does to everyone's stress level, I will say.

In terms of health and wellness training, the unit has facilitated trainings in areas such as mindfulness, peer support, and sleep concerns.

The unit also puts on its own trainings related to fitness, nutrition, and yoga.

The unit also continues to build out the department's peer support team, which currently has 75 officers who are willing to step up and help their peers who might need it.

We have five part-time contracted mental health practitioners who are available to our employees.

And all of this built together is really working towards reducing and removing the stigma of folks asking for help when they need it.

In terms of the 410 schedule, last month, the department implemented a four-day, 10-hour shift schedule that provides three fixed days off in a row.

And this is a departure, I think, as you know, from the four nine-hour day schedule that had two rotating days off.

So this allows for three days off in a row, more recovery time, and some schedule stability with fixed days off.

And then lastly, I'll just mention the chief each week takes time to shoot a short video, usually about two minutes to the department, recognizing the great work that was done that week.

It just gives him that opportunity to do that and speak directly to employees.

And so all of this is aimed at, you know, getting at the well-established concept that when employees can bring their best authentic selves to work, feel valued and respected, engagement and ultimately retention goes up.

So we're excited about these efforts going forward.

Oh, there we go.

So now on to the hiring report.

And so I know that this is something that people are very interested in.

And so there are two different parts of this that speak slightly separate, which is why I have to have two different tables.

So the first is looking at this year's applications, the number of applications that we've received so far.

So as of March 16th, we've had 417 entry-level candidates apply to be an SPD officer, 165 in this current cycle that we are currently in, and then we've had 37 laterals apply.

Now, we have talked about what will happen with those individuals in that earlier graphic.

But again, all the changes that we've implemented hopefully will help some of those folks feel more job ready and more qualified to continue through the process.

Secondly, our SPD hiring data.

So looking at January 1st until March 16th, we are up 19 officers.

So 17 of those are entry recruits, and so entry level, and then the rest are returning officers.

And that compares to the 10 from last year.

So we're in a really small amount of time.

And that's something that's really important to remember about this data is all of those numbers are folks who actually applied last year, right?

So it's not like they've applied in the last week and then are able to move forward.

So these are all folks from last year and really before we actually implemented a lot of these changes in the system.

So really it's going to be important to be watching the new applications coming in and watching how they actually make their way through the process.

Can you just get a little bit more specific on the period of time, like how much into 2022 did these applicants go back?

Yeah, and so, Mike, feel free to correct me, but if our process was taking about eight months for folks to complete, so these new hires would have actually applied through the NeoGov process eight months ago.

So that's the lag that we've been noticing.

We're gonna catch up quickly though, because now we're down to four to five months, which is pretty exciting, but that's why it's just important to remember that kind of frame of reference.

And I'm asking because my recollection is that the, Hiring incentives program went into effect in July, August.

Summer proved in August.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And then one other thing I'm going to know is we have 56 individuals who are currently in the backgrounds phase.

And so that's 56 candidates who've gone through the register, have passed their exam and now are going through our process.

Now we won't keep all of those folks because they may be disqualified.

They may choose other directions, but that's 56 people who are in that step right now.

And then we have 10 individuals, eight, which are entry level, who are actually awaiting their first day orientations.

So those are more people who are coming online soon.

We have a hand from Council Member Peterson.

Oh, thank you so much.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Herbold.

Just trying to, I'm just looking at the slide here.

Let me just ask my questions in general which all relate to this slide so thanks to the executive team for this important report and presentation today and all the efforts going on behind the scenes to increase recruitment on a public safety officers and thank you Councilmember Nelson for continuing to advocate so strongly for this.

We've seen in recent surveys of the general public that the vast majority wants City Hall to prioritize safety including the restoration of the 400 police officers and detective positions lost over the past three years, along with other tools to effectively address crime prevention like alternative emergency responses.

that Councilmembers Herbold and Lewis and several of us are supporting.

And, you know, the Mayor's recruitment plan was announced eight months ago.

That plan had noted that as of May 2022, the number of trained and deployable officers was just 954, the lowest in over 30 years.

And the plan said its goal was to increase the number of Seattle police officers who were authorized, funded, fully trained and deployable to 1450. I fully support that goal to restore and add officers.

This PowerPoint showing some initial promising findings.

I'm confused though, because the slide that I was looking at just a day ago had different numbers under the hiring data.

And I'm wondering if, That's because there's a new point in time because originally it showed negative six for 2023 instead of a plus 19. What if we could explain that discrepancy, because obviously we're trying to get to a net gain of 500 so if we've got a net change of 19 for two and a half month period that's going to take several years to, to get to the 500, obviously a negative six would have been worse so just understanding that point in time discrepancy perhaps.

And then also, it looks like we're comparing it to the prior year to date, which is 2022, early 2022. And I think it would be helpful in future reports to compare it to a year, the most recent pre-pandemic year.

So 2019, I think would be really useful to see how are we doing compared to 2019 when we didn't have so many challenges facing us.

The budget, we, some other committee members mentioned the recruitment dollars.

I think it'd be really helpful to get a budget of maybe six of the line items associated with this recruitment strategy so we can see what was allocated in 2022 per that ordinance that we approved 126654 adopted in August of last year and then in the November 2022 budget for 2023 we approved more funding so if we could see all that that was approved and then the year-to-date spending for all those line items, advertising, the new human resources positions, the incentive bonuses, et cetera.

I think that really give us a good comprehensive picture of what's going on.

So if you'd be willing to provide that additional information, that would be really helpful.

And then letting us know the earlier draft of the slides versus this draft would be helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

I'm actually going to focus on that second part first and then I'll answer your first question.

That second part I think is spot on.

We do need to be tracking more of this information.

And so thank you for those suggestions.

I think we will be able to build that out and be able to give it out in our hiring reports moving forward.

What I would say and something that I'm going to be talking about in just the next slide is All this data is actually incredibly important for us to be watching as we're really trying new campaigns.

So I definitely agree with you, and that's why we're building out a hiring port dashboard that's actually going to help us with that.

And so we really can compare moments in time compared to last year in 2019 to really see how the work is changing.

So we can definitely make sure that we'll bring that forward in our next update.

I think that's very important for all of us to really be tracking what's happening.

Going back to that first question, the reason these numbers are slightly different, there's two elements.

One, this is missing the retirements and separations numbers, which have affected this.

And so this right now is only showing the people that have been hired this year, as well as the people who are about to come in.

So those are some of the numbers that are missing currently.

And so we did have some separations this year, which will bring those numbers down if you're looking at aggregate numbers.

Thank you, Chair, a follow-up?

Absolutely, Council Member Peterson, go for it.

Does the slide deck include the separations that have occurred during this time period, or is it just showing the hires?

It does not show the separations, but I can tell you that so far we've had 22 separations of officers and above, and three student officers.

compared to last year, which was negative 35 officers and three different recruit students.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm seeing that the presentation that we're showing now doesn't include information that we received and posted online.

And the information that we received and posted online did include the retirements and separations.

So appreciate that clarity.

We did receive it in the slide report, or the slide, it wasn't a slide report, it was a report on the ordinance earlier.

And this is by no means the takeaway from this report because you are all doing so much good work, but I think it's important to see the full picture and be able to look at the full picture as relates to our goals, because I think our goals are very much tagged to both what is possible, but in recognition that we have separations and retirements.

I think the goals for July 2022 to February 23 had been 68 hires.

It looks like from this report that we've seen 42 hires over that period of time, as Councilmember Peterson says that when you also factor in the separations and retirements, that puts those hires in really important perspective.

And then I also do want to echo his Councilmember Peterson's interest in some of the financial information.

So The council approved $750,000.

In addition to the $170,000 in the recruitment plan bill from last summer, it would be great to know.

of those dollars, what has been encumbered, what is yet to be spent.

Similarly, on the retention initiatives, council funded $450,000 in retention initiatives for 2023 and $400,000 for 2024. And I believe from this council budget action, that funding was intended to support 15 different retention strategies.

So just really getting a little bit more granular on which of those things we've been able to do with those dollars and which we might need to look at additional investments to be able to fund in the future would be very, very helpful to all of us here.

That sounds good.

No, I see Council Member Mosqueda's hands before we move on.

Yep, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you so much and I didn't want to interrupt the flow in case Council Member Peterson had an additional follow up Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, do you want me to wait?

Yeah, thank you Chair and thank you very much Council Member Esqueda, you're right.

My follow up is just to, when you are presenting this data to us, it would definitely be helpful to not only have the net number, because if the net number is minus six, And even though that's better than the minus 28 from the prior year, it's an improvement to have minus six, but it's still negative.

And I think we need to know that if we're trying to if our role is to encourage these plans, to fund these plans and to follow up with these plans.

And we all want to have a net gain in officers when it's negative six.

We need to know that.

And so thank you for providing that so we could post that online.

people have access to the agenda.

And then also, including the goals that customer herbal had mentioned, you know, where are we progress to to goal, I think that's that's really important.

So we can provide the oversight and support along the way here as you're trying to do good work here.

I think it's where we have all that information together in one place so we can really assess it and move forward.

Thank you, Chair Hurdle.

Thank you, Council Member Muscat.

Thank you.

Council Member Muscat.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Sorry about the back and forth there.

I appreciate the panel here today and thank you for the update.

I did want to also echo the appreciation for a desire to see more of what was included in last year's budget and, you know, frankly, the two year budgets before that.

I think it's helpful today that there's been public acknowledgement.

of the investments included in this biannual budget from my colleagues and also have that reiterated from the department and the team from the executive's office as well to remind folks about what was included in the budget.

Unfortunately there were some wild accusations and misinformation that unfortunately got picked up by members of the press and so there is still misunderstanding about what was included in this biannual budget let alone the two previous budgets.

So thank you for continuing to lift up the investments that were made specifically in retention, as well as making sure that every penny that was requested for the hiring plan, the individuals that the department wanted to reach out to and hire as a result of the hiring plan, that that original proposal was absolutely included in the budget.

And then on top of that, council members had included the bonuses, which was not part of the original package.

And I think that there's different data supporting different strategies, but I think that the original request and the original hiring plan, in addition to the retention strategies, we're included in the budget.

So I think that this is helpful clarification of what was there.

I too would love to see a report out of how those dollars are being spent, what's in comfort, what's still to be spent.

I think that's great for transparency as we've sought to do that since my tenure on the council as budget chair initiated with the inquest into the SPD budget in mid 2020. And that type of transparency, I think is great for not only policymakers, but also members of the public to know how we are doing with trying to do outreach on this national issue of having officers decline across the nation and a national issue of all the police departments looking for different ways to reach out to diversify their employment, but also to ensure that they are improving retention strategies.

I also appreciate that the recent survey was noted in the comments here.

I would also note that a higher percentage of respondents 10% higher percentage responded to say that they were actually interested in creating.

a different approach to public safety with unarmed officers to respond to low-level violent calls.

That corresponds with what we've seen from internal data that shows that a high number of those calls that officers are being deployed to don't actually require a badge and a gun.

And so I look forward to continuing the conversation that I know Councilmember Herbold and Councilmember Lewis have been deeply involved in and Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell as well.

leading on our efforts to make sure that we have a balance of solutions, that officers are really truly able to respond to high priority calls and for calls that don't require an officer, an officer with a gun and a badge, that we are deploying the right people to those scenes as well.

And that's why I think in addition to showing where we've invested in the recruitment and retention plan at SPD, It would be helpful to have a parallel presentation that shows how the dollars that we've deployed into mental health services, gun violence services, youth violence reduction strategies, and our suite of community safety-oriented solutions are also being deployed so that people can see that balance side by side to know that we are trying to make investments both in recruiting and retaining frontline officers, just as much as we're trying to scale up community-oriented solutions especially because of the dual investments that we've been making over the last three years, and to help combat some of that misunderstanding that's out there.

I'm excited about the upcoming levy.

This council has endorsed Proposition 1 at King County's levy to create the five behavioral health centers and improve access to workforce within the behavioral health sector.

And I think that this is critical because it responds to the number one issue I hear from frontline responders.

Both firefighters and police officers have said there is nowhere to take people when they show up and see people in moments of crisis.

They recognize them.

They know their names.

They're showing up and seeing people in crisis over and over again.

And I'm hopeful that as we create more places for frontline responders to take people in moments of crisis, it will help improve retention as well, because that is something that I continue to hear from officers and firefighters, that they feel demoralized that there's nothing that they can do for some of these people in crisis when they're showing up.

So let's make sure that when people are calling 911, they're getting the right person to respond to the type of crisis.

And then number two, when somebody shows up that there is a place to take them so that they ultimately get the help they need.

So it's not a revolving door at the jail or Harborview.

And I think that will help provide much needed assistance in terms of resources and tools for our frontline officers and firefighters.

And I think telling that full story in terms of the investments in retention and recruitment that my colleagues have asked for, along with The investments in community safety strategies will help tell the fuller picture as well when we have this presentation in the future.

So just with that, I wanted to say thank you and provide that additional context to where we're seeing the need, at least from the conversations I've had about how to get people into services once those officers show up.

And Senior Deputy Mayor, thanks again for your leadership on both those fronts.

Thank you for that and I also just want to, again, thank the council for their understanding and supporting fully comprehensive multi pronged approach.

This is certainly we're just presenting on one aspect of all of this work today and we have been doing a lot and all of the different sectors we've got gun violence awareness week that's coming up in June we've got a.

complete program that we're putting together for some of that work.

Obviously, we're doing the civilian assisted work that we are collectively doing together.

And we to support in the executive, we to support the crisis centers that are coming online, we see them as a critical component to this work that we're doing, they will be a benefit not only to our fire, our firefighters and our police officers as they will have places to take people who are in crisis, but not having committed a crime or anything like that.

But also it'll be an additional resource for our civilian department as we bring it forward.

We are hoping that Seattle will put itself in a very strong position to not only have an adult crisis center from the county's levy, but also we are doing the research right now to put ourselves in a position to be able to advocate for a youth crisis center for the city of Seattle as well.

And so we know that you've all been really strong partners in that.

And it is a multi-pronged approach, though we are addressing just one avenue of this today.

We continue to work on all of the different ways in which the community wants to see solutions for public safety.

Thank you so much.

Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell also want to before we close this item out want to thank you.

budget chair for uplifting the role of morale in recruitment and the role specifically of our first responders in having the sense that their work is actually helping people by ensuring that they have a way to ensure that people in crisis get an appropriate response.

I wholeheartedly agree that this is a very important element of a recruitment plan.

And I appreciate that the executive is aligned in those goals.

And then also, Budgeter Mosqueda, thank you for correcting the record on the council's funding for the media plan, which was at 1.5 million, I think, in error, said 700,000.

Can I just have a question about the application data here?

Absolutely.

Go ahead, council member.

So to to the to the effectiveness of this, I'm just curious about the the comparison from twenty twenty one year to date, because I believe that the news is good, that the that there has been more applications that have been received and just I think that you're hearing strong support from this committee at least and it sounds like for all of your efforts and for incentives and I just want to thank you it sounds like now most of us are on board so thanks.

All right.

Thank you so much for taking the time.

I know there's a lot going on here today around public safety and appreciate you being with us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is what's coming next.

So just so everyone knows, lots of very exciting things, more recruiting, more interaction, more reporting, I hear from you all, and more marketing.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

All right, Mr. Clerk, please read the next agenda item into the record.

Agenda item four, Office of Emergency Management Community Engagement Plan.

And while we're joined at the table, I will make some introductory remarks.

Every three years, the Office of Emergency Management's Community Engagement Team updates their Community Engagement Plan.

This plan details strategies for emergency preparedness, education, outreach efforts across the city.

We're joined by the Director of the Office of Emergency Management, and the Office of Emergency Management's Community Engagement Director to share the plan.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And just as soon as you're all set up, I'll pass it off to you to introduce yourselves.

and launch the presentation.

Thank you very much, Chair Hairbold and Council Committee.

We really appreciate the opportunity to present to you today.

My name is Curry Mayer and I am the Director of Seattle's Office of Emergency Management.

And as you might imagine, community engagement is top of mind for us all the time.

We seek or are always seeking new people to engage with and always looking for who are we not yet connected to.

This is our strategic plan for the next three years.

23 to 25. I also wanted to mention we have a small team that works at OEM specifically on outreach and education.

We also have a really wonderful program called Community Safety Ambassadors that you will hear about today, who are community members who speak 16 different languages.

And so they are able to provide training and education to the public in those 16 languages.

about hazards, about preparedness, about being resilient.

So that's really exciting.

We had funded that in the past through some grant opportunity through the Urban Area Security Initiative and that funding is going away in the next year.

But we are really proud of that program.

So I'd also like to introduce Sophia Lopez, who's the Community Engagement Manager.

This is her program.

And so she'll give you a lot of details about the great work that we're doing.

And again, thank you for having us.

Hello, thank you for having us and inviting us to speak.

As Director Mayer mentioned, this is our engagement, community engagement plan.

And so today I'm going to provide a brief of the documentation that was provided.

So there's a link in the agenda for those attending virtually.

My name is Sophia Lopez.

I am a certified emergency manager in the City of Seattle's Office of Emergency Management, and I oversee the Community Engagement Program.

So right off the bat, the document itself just kind of provides a brief introduction into our office, but highlighting specifically our overarching goals for community engagement in general.

The idea behind it is that we are trying to create Thank you.

A culture of preparedness citywide and this entails increasing self-sufficiency, recovering capabilities post-disaster.

We have a variety of resources that I'll cover as far as how we identify what hazards are most impactful to the City of Seattle and those who live and work here.

Throughout the program, we also make it a point to provide targeted and tailored education.

So we know one size does not fit all.

And so our approach is looking at the whole community and with the equity lens, using an equity lens in the work that we do and making sure that we're inclusive across the board.

And then thirdly, We focus on building relationships with community-based organizations and faith-based organizations specifically because we understand that in times of distress, those individuals and entities could be the primary voice for community members.

They're already trusted voices.

And so as part of this effort to build the relationship that government has with local community, we work through already existing trusted voices such as some community-based organizations.

some of the resources that we are dependent on.

So as Director Mayer mentioned, we have a staff of three, myself and two other community engagement coordinators.

But in addition to that, we also have a support throughout the office.

So OEM is a small team, but everyone supports each other.

And there's a lot of interconnectedness in the work being done.

For example, there's cross work with our plan section as plans are developed and written.

Community engagement takes those plans and circulates them through the public through focus groups, a variety of conversations that will lead to make sure that we're getting input and it's for the community by the community.

We also have a team of volunteers that provide outreach education for us on our behalf.

There's about nine volunteers.

These are members of the community.

A lot of them are thoroughly interconnected with already existing systems, such as the Seattle Emergency Communication Hub Network, as well as our own auxiliary communication support, which provide backup radio communication during disasters.

So a lot of those individuals are interconnected across the board and provide public education for us as well.

Um, in addition to basic disaster preparedness, education and hands on skills trainings, we also have a special topics class that we offer, which is a stop the bleed, which is a nationwide program.

And through the stop the bleed training that we're able pre cobit, we were able to offer it more.

Uh, readily available to members of the public to be able to just take a class and not necessary and have that training, but not necessarily have to worry about storing a kit somewhere.

Uh, in light of cobit, we adjusted the program and now have a application system in place for nonprofits specifically.

that house large gatherings of individuals over the course.

So, for example, around 75 multiple times a year.

And so through the application process, nonprofits that are 501c3 can apply to receive training and kits.

And as Director Merriman mentioned, we are grant funded.

So the same funding, it's an urban area security initiative.

And through that funding, we're able to provide anti-terrorism and other hazards training.

And so Stop the Bleed is part of that cadre of programmings.

And then the idea behind Stop the Bleed is that anybody can be someone else's first care provider.

And most people don't realize that the difference between life and death can truly just mean applying pressure to a bleeding wound.

And so one of a high note on the Stop the Bleed program, we recently, through a year long effort, have finally gotten into the Seattle Public School System.

And we're very excited for that.

This was in the last couple of weeks, we were able to train over 80 nurses.

And in the coming months, we're gonna be training security personnel, eventually getting to a point where we can train Seattle public school employees to be trainers themselves.

So as most organizations experience turnover, they can continue on the trainings, but also getting into other groups of professions such as custodial services, kitchen services, so that as many individuals as possible will know how to use the equipment and supplies in the event of an active shooter incident.

So we have our Stop the Bleed volunteers.

We have about a pool of five individuals that actively provide those classes for us.

And then we also have a community safety ambassador program.

And this is a program where these are contracted individuals that are members of the community that speak a different language.

Some of them also just speak English, not just, but they speak English, but they represent a cultural community.

And so we have representation for the black community but we also have individuals that are fluent in Vietnamese or Somali or Amharic.

So we have about 15 individuals that that span 16 different languages.

and we're actively recruiting for more representation.

These are individuals that are passionate about supporting the community and they're called upon to provide specifically 911 CPR stroke education, as well as supporting public education in other languages.

In the event of emergency needs, we tap into that program for translation support as well.

We know that outreach isn't done in a silo and every department within the city of Seattle has a variety, a form of community engagement in one form or another.

And so OEM is actively a part of the outreach interdepartmental group.

that consists of other educators from other departments and we actively work with our counterparts to develop, to make sure that we're working together to amplify each other's messaging, whether it's public events or specific projects.

The most recent project underway is a snow shovel project that was formed out of the latest winter events.

Some of the strategies that we utilize so I mentioned a lot about our education, really the most effective and impactful way to reach community members is with in person training.

So currently we pre coven we we reached probably.

At least 10,000 a year of individuals, we have yet to get back to those numbers but we're working on it.

So we have basic disaster preparedness as well as disaster skills workshops where we teach hands on skills training so we teach.

community members how to use a fire extinguisher, how to build an emergency toilet, how to purify water, as well as how to maneuver natural utilities such as turning off a natural gas meter or handling breaker circuits box in your home.

And so that's a workshop that we provide and we proactively schedule it throughout the community rotating throughout the city of Seattle to make sure that we're getting to as many community members as we can while also bringing it to community members that don't even realize or understand that this is a service we offer.

So, I mentioned are how important it is that we build relationships with community based organizations and we have this community partnership specifically because reaching vulnerable and traditionally underserved population requires a building of relationships with the communities and organizations that already provide service to them.

And so we, we regularly contract with these organizations and we train them.

so that they can go out and have that service offered to their constituents, to the participants that utilize their services.

So we have a variety of contracts in place.

For example, Via Comunitaria is a community, a local community organization that provides training on our behalf.

We are currently in the process of developing a relationship with the CHAM community organization.

And so we're actively working to increase our cadre of relationships with CBOs.

In addition to working with community-based organizations, we have a focus to ensure inclusive and accessible engagement.

So with that, we regularly partner through within the Seattle OEM office itself, with King County Office of Emergency Management, and as well as with other city of Seattle departments to engage with vulnerable populations in emergency preparedness.

We work from, at the state level, we're involved in a variety of work groups to make sure that our materials are inclusive and accessible, to make sure that we're taking every necessary step to make the program overall as inclusive and accessible as possible.

Our primary priorities over the next 3 years specifically in light of recent data that was released at the end of last year, we decided to take an active focus on raising awareness for the threat of tsunamis in the affected areas of the city as well as increasing citywide employee preparedness.

This is already actively underway.

And then I've mentioned repeatedly, continuing to build on the relationships we already have and establish new relationships with community-based organizations that provide services to vulnerable and underserved communities.

Some of the different methods that we utilize for identifying community needs as well as developing new strategies and evaluating our current programs and strategy strategies.

We rely heavily on data, data equals money, essentially.

And so we look at demographics.

Variety of tools available from the US census track American community survey, local information available through the office of community planning and development as well as the office of immigrant and refugee affairs, specifically looking at social vulnerability and emerging immigrant populations.

We look at the hazard data.

So we have a document is the Seattle hazard identification and vulnerability analysis.

This is another team member in our office, their primary project, so we work closely with them to make sure that we're providing up-to-date current information on what are the hazards that affect the City of Seattle, where are the most impacted areas to what hazard.

For example, we have, and I'll cover this a little bit shortly, but we have a tool that we promote which is our Seattle Hazard Explorer that was recently translated into Spanish, as well as our hazardready.org forward slash Seattle.

And at the hazard ready site is where an individual anywhere within King County.

So this was a partnership with the city of Seattle, King County, as well as the University of Montana, and it's currently getting updated at the moment.

But anywhere within King County, you can plug in an address, a physical location.

It can be your home, your place of business, where you where you go to church, where you frequent, mostly frequent, and you plug in the address, and then there's a series of tabs that correlate to a variety of hazards, the most commonly experienced hazards, and the system will tell you what is your threat level.

Are you at a low, medium, or high risk for that incident happening at your location in X number of years?

And it also goes on further to give you a little background on the hazard, the scientific data, and then what are some steps that as a individual who resides at this space and this is your, your highest risk, what are some steps you can take to be ready for the unexpected.

So hazard data, we also utilize after action reports.

Mostly this helps us identify lessons learned from real world events that can influence the content of public education messaging.

So we're really in tune with what's happening nationwide as well as globally and how are those, how are the communities impacted by said disasters and how does that reflect to the City of Seattle.

We recently started doing focus groups where we'll work closely with other team members in our office to take contents of our plans that are developed and circulate it through members of the public, through conversation and asking the question on, does this apply to you?

Does this relate to you?

And so in the past few years, we've had a lot of success in holding focus groups.

They do come with a financial obligation, so we're not as able to offer them as frequently as we would like to.

Um but we do have those as one of our um our strategies.

Um and then one thing I wanted to make sure I uh also included within the plan.

So, for those who have a copy of our plan, we have a variety of outreach and education tools and resources.

I listed a few of them um but there are print resources.

Uh I actually brought some.

I wasn't sure how many would be present today.

So, I brought a Which I'm not sure the best direction to point this in, but our be prepared handout is kind of like a gatefold booklet that is infographics.

So this is translated in a number of other languages.

I want to say at least nine at the moment.

And we're constantly reviewing what other, based on funding, what other languages can we get it translated into?

But it comes with a counterpart where this is an actual fillable document that, and it's short and brief and to the point where members or community members can write down, for example, writing down phone numbers.

How many of us are so dependent on our cell phones that we don't realize that in the worst case scenario, our phones might not be working.

And do we have phone numbers memorized anymore?

So these are just some examples of tools that we provide to community members in translated languages as well.

So we have our Be Prepared infographic.

We have a program within the city of Seattle that is called SNAP, Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare.

It's very similar to, for those who might be more familiar with the national program, Map Your Neighborhood, which is currently getting retired, and the state is gonna be developing a new program that'll be called Be Two Weeks Ready.

So there's a lot of resources and materials out there, but we try to package it nicely and make sure that whatever works best for whatever community we're going into, we're aware of what their needs are and what would work best for them.

We've developed some products over the years with variety of grants that we've been awarded on unenforced, sorry, unreinforced masonry, specifically for if you have a business in an unreinforced masonry, if you own an unreinforced masonry building, or if you rent an unreinforced masonry building.

We're currently getting involved further with working groups that are being developed to tackle that topic specifically.

We promote our emergency notification system, which is Alert Seattle to members of the public.

And then some other resources digitally, we have, I mentioned our Seattle Hazard Explorer and our hazardready.org tools.

We have a variety of videos available already on our website and YouTube that show the classes that we teach, the skill set, so how to use a fire extinguisher, how to build an emergency toilet.

And then we also have our earthquake home safety guide.

We regularly partner some of our primary partner resources.

We have materials that the state develops and is shared widely.

So there's a prepare in a year workbook.

We work closely with the Seattle Fire Department.

So we have home fire safety and workplace fire safety.

We also have a very close relationship with the public health Seattle King County.

department and work with them regularly to provide wildfire smoke or air quality information.

And so, and then lastly, in the plan itself, we cover the trainings that we offer.

So it's kind of, it's sort of like a little briefing.

So we have Classes that are available on request.

We have classes that we proactively schedule at designated community locations and then we have classes that are specifically and only taught by our CSA is our community safety ambassadors.

And those are the 911 and stroke education materials.

And with that, oh, and so one of the things I also wanted to cover and share an example of, so that was a briefing on the plan itself.

What you're looking at now, the next few slides are actually slides pulled from our basic disaster skills training class that is offered virtually and in person.

And so part of it is really promoting the building of community resilience.

and how that starts at the community level.

And so we provide these resources to community members so that they know how they can find their nearest hub, for example, their emergency communication hub, as well as there was an effort underway that was grant funded in 2017, where the Department of Neighborhoods division that oversees the pea patches, we're working closely with OEM to outfit some of the locations of the pea patches that would serve as natural gathering points.

So because it was grant funded that that effort did die down shortly after it was completed and then COVID happened.

So what we've been doing in the last year is trying to reignite that, updating the map.

It's an interactive map that is available on our website as well as the Seattle Emergency Communication Hub website to really show Where are the hubs that are connected to an emergency communication hub?

And where are the patches that are determined and designated as community emergency hubs per the city?

And so.

We're going to the next the next step in that effort is to train the gardeners.

those that would report there already with some basic emergency skills that could benefit them and then go from there and branching out to further reinforce the community resiliency development effort.

My notes say that a number of the community emergency hubs are not currently active.

Are those exclusively the locations that you're noting now?

Yeah, there are some patches that don't make for for good gathering points just based on the topography of the way it's established or the size.

And so if you look in a total, there's one hundred and sixty seven.

But in actuality, there's really only about 80, like half of that.

of the pea patches make for good community emergency hubs.

And then it's important to really emphasize these aren't locations where there would be emergency supplies.

They're locations where community members can go and get information, whether it's, I want to let someone know I need blankets.

And then someone else might say, I want to let someone know I have a lot of blankets.

So the idea is that they would report to that they be familiar with the location and know that they could go there to either give or get information.

And then the more of those that we connect with an active hub, that is an emergency communication hub that would have ham radio capabilities or other be directly connected to the Emergency Operations Center during an activation because they have an auxiliary communication support member.

So there's a lot of interconnectedness, but yes, we are currently in the works of updating that document, the interactive map, so that it reflects more realistically where are the hubs that are emergency communication hubs with hub captains that are established and where are locations that would be natural gathering points that now we need to do a little more work on getting those places.

If there was a citywide emergency and we have a map up that has 80 locations that are no longer, I understand it's an information location, not a location.

It should be updated already.

Oh, it is?

Yeah, it should have already been.

I misunderstood.

The update happened, I want to say, last month.

Okay.

And so the current, what is currently reflected on our website is accurate.

Yes.

So we promote, I mentioned our emergency notification system.

So Alert Seattle is a system that residents can opt into, but what's a great feature about it is that regardless if somebody is signed up or not, if there's an emergency that warrants notifying a location, it has geocoding capabilities.

So we have the capability to submit alerts through the iPod system where we can ping any cell phone within this range and they'll be notified.

And that helps us capture Tourists folks who don't live here or maybe they're just visiting, so they would be notified to avoid a certain area or to take action.

Generally, the system is used to to provide an action oriented item in that instance.

Otherwise, residents have the capability to choose.

what notifications they would like to receive.

So there's an option just to receive classes that emergency preparedness is offering.

So whenever a course is offered, individuals who sign up for that, who opt into that distro list will get notified every time we post a class.

And so there's a variety of topics that people can choose to be notified for.

But overall, the system allows us to reach everyone in a worst case scenario where we would have to let someone know, for example, you need to boil your water due to criminal activity or, and now the coast is clear.

You don't have to boil your water anymore.

So just an example of kind of message that would go out.

Just a clarification.

I don't think I quite caught what you said.

Alert Seattle is a system that you sign up for?

Yes.

How I thought I heard you say something about people who are visitors also being able to receive the information.

So you can sign up for it.

I'm I've signed up for it.

And then but in the instance that something happens where we need everyone to know something, whether they're signed up or not, we have that capability behind the scenes to be able to send an alert out using the federal system of similar to how the amber alerts are released.

So people can still choose to not have those on their phones, which is a personal preference, but that's the system we would utilize for an all, whether it's a specific geocoded location or the whole city, but we do have that capability to notify everyone of an action item.

And in that instance, the action item would be a life safety or infrastructure safety message.

Very good, helpful.

Thank you.

This is just an example of some of the classes that we provide.

This is our workshop where we teach you how to use a fire extinguisher, how to build an emergency toilet, how to control utilities.

Pre-COVID, we used to offer Stop the Bleed more frequently, and we're still in the process of training new instructors.

really trying to get Stop the Bleed into the more heavily populated areas, such as the school system and organizations that host large events.

So some of our accomplishments so far, in addition to the Seattle Public Schools, we've been able to provide trainings and Stop the Bleed kits to the Seattle Center.

And we're currently in the process of getting ready to work with the Seattle Pacific Science Center.

just to list a few.

And then this is our location where anybody can go and request.

There's a list of a variety of classes that can be requested.

Most of them are, whether if it's at an individual level, we would work with that individual to try to see if there's a class being offered near them and or if you're a member of an HOA or if you would like us to come talk to your PTA or your church or your workplace, whatever the case is.

So anyone can request classes.

And then we also have our proactively scheduled classes available on our website.

We have a variety of resources for information gathering.

So we always promote these to individuals ahead of a disaster to be familiar with them.

And these are some ways that we would be pushing information out.

And that is the extent of my briefing.

Any questions?

This is all such important, important work.

Just looking to see whether or not we have some virtual hands.

We do, Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

So when you talk about external partnerships, do you have relationships with any TV or radio stations where you seek to get free public information spots?

And if you had 30 seconds or 15 seconds, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but what would you tell people are the top one, two or three things they should do right now for emergency preparedness?

Yeah, so the first part of your question, we do have relationships with ethnic media.

So, for example, we recently had a spot that was not free.

Unfortunately, we paid for a spot on Univision, but it was well received.

And so in that, my biggest message to members of the public is that who depends on you and what do they need to make it through?

And at the bare minimum, we all need three things for survival.

We need food, we need water, and we need shelter or clothing or warrants.

And so I constantly stress as someone who's a survivor myself, part of my programming is I share my personal stories, but I can't stress enough how important it is to know what it is you have to be prepared for.

to keep in mind who depends on you and what would they need to make it through an unexpected event that has disrupted your normal routine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Oh, I saw your hand up, but maybe your question was covered.

If you're still considering that, I will watch for your hand to be up again.

But I do have a couple of questions.

I appreciate knowing about your partnership with Seattle Public Schools for the Stop the Bleed program.

I'm wondering how else you utilize the schools, specifically relationships with The student bodies, we know that young people are really effective messengers to everybody else at home.

And just wondering whether or not, I know there's at least one example at Ake Kurose, the middle school program, there's a youth in emergency preparedness program.

Is that something that you do at other schools as well?

I was like, that's us.

I didn't know if that's what you were, you knew that that was us.

But yes, so last year we piloted that program at Aki Russo Middle School, and we have a position that we're currently hiring for, which would oversee not only the Stop the Bleed, but the Youth Emergency Preparedness Program.

And so bringing the skills trainings, we always promote and advocate that any ages can come to our classes, as well as our workshops.

And then we have, HSD, the Human Services Department, they have a program which is the Student Youth Employment Program.

And so last year we hosted, made sure to host some interns.

This year as well we're applied to host interns.

And then we're looking at other organizations that work with youth in general.

So for example, the Boys and Girls Club, We're currently working on, we have a relationship we're building with the Seattle Housing Authority to bring training directly to them.

But the Boys and Girls Club and then working through the Seattle Parks and Rec Department, they have different programs for youth.

And so we're trying to become more familiar with what already exists so that we can tap into that and either partner actively or provide the information and training so that they can be an extension of our voice.

Great, thank you.

building off of the, the power to leverage, you know, not just traditional neighborhood involved people, but also, you know, as you're talking about young people in schools, but also young people at college campuses.

I'm wondering, again, we don't want you to duplicate efforts that our campuses are already doing, but can you talk a little bit about that if there's a space for OEM there?

Oh, definitely.

So last year we were able to provide a presentation to the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, which is primarily managed by young adults, people of color.

And we've been working to make sure that we can stay connected with that group, as well as the Rainier Beach Hub, which is the newest formed emergency communication hub.

So there's definitely an avenue there.

We regularly try to reach out and host interns, college interns.

I'm currently going to start hosting a master's of public health intern who is really interested in emergency management.

And we are very familiar with the AmeriCorps program as well.

And we we didn't have the funding to host our own AmeriCorps.

However, our partners at public health had AmeriCorps that they have on loan to us.

And so That's just kind of another example of how we partner and work with external departments to increase the message.

And then lastly, as it relates to the community ambassador program, what's the ballpark, the number of community ambassadors we have?

We have 15. 15. 15, and they span 16 languages.

And we're actively, each one is a contract.

And so we're actively working to tap into them as far as what work we can have them do.

But while also maintaining our budget, we're funded by the King County Emergency Medical Services Grant, as well as our Urban Area Security Initiative Grant.

The first one is pretty static.

The second one is what is going to be going away.

We're going to be starting with our current year, which is our last year of funding, is a regionalization of the Community Safety Ambassador Program, and that will hopefully help get the program more traction, as well as maybe garner more support for future grant applications to support it.

The issue of funding going away, given the 15 that we currently have, are there gaps that you've identified for particular vulnerable communities?

we were actively going to start recruiting.

We had actually started last year and we had to put a pause on recruiting for an ASL speaking ambassador.

We still have that on our wishlist, if you will, but that in itself will have more costs to it.

So typically each ambassador makes about, I believe it's currently $35 an hour.

It's modeled after the Department of Neighborhood has a program which is their community safety liaisons.

So the community safety ambassadors is modeled in a similar structure where they do work for us, they submit invoices, and then we provide payment.

But most of the projects they support us with are translation efforts.

So a lot of what we've noticed is community want materials translated by community translators, as opposed to us finding some company and hiring.

And we have the capability to have our translations directly vetted by the individuals that speak that language and are members of that community.

And so the message is one, it's one thing to translate something word for word.

It's another thing to make sure that it's actually being received well.

And so that's one of the highlights of the program.

How we plan to adapt it, we're still working on what it will look like in the coming years when the funding goes away.

Thank you.

1, last question I have is less about the community engagement work itself.

It's more of a follow up to an issue raised in past years.

The council passed a resolution related to the all hazards mitigation plan and included language in that resolution.

uplifting the need to strategize around extreme weather events.

Can you talk a little bit about where we're at in that process, just for all of our

Yeah, so one of the, one of the things that's happening this year that we're super excited about is that we got some funding for looking at resilience hubs that would serve in extreme weather events, but actually could work for any disaster.

So the planning for that includes a large amount of community engagement in terms of where those resilience hubs should be.

There's actually a nationwide initiative now on resilience hubs, so this is not just a Seattle thing, but looking at where those places that people currently go frequently so this is not like oh there's this place over here that no one uses except when there was a disaster and they're not familiar with it.

So places that people already go we found that was true in the last heat event that people didn't want to go to a community center that was just a big open room with a bunch of chairs but it had air conditioning.

They wanted something that was someplace they already went to even a place within their apartment building, for example, where there were people they knew, they were familiar with, the transportation wasn't difficult to get there.

So the mapping of that is the first phase, you know, the planning piece, what does the community think?

And then the next implementation piece for that will be what kind of supplies and things should be there.

If it's an established club, for example, or community center or even a school room, what things do they have and what are things that would make the people in that area more resilient.

So in addition to those communication hubs which serve only as communication, this would also provide resources a place that's safe from whatever the hazard is.

Extreme weather events, an earthquake, flooding, for example.

So we're just starting that work this year and we're super excited.

We're hopeful that once we get the planning piece done and we have a good map of this is where we could reach the most people, that then we can look at some partnerships with external partners, private sector folks, for example, of helping us make sure that they are supplied and resourced to make that a reality.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I'm keenly interested in this area, so I look forward to learning more.

I appreciate the status.

We'll be sure and update you, and I'm so excited that you're excited about it.

That's great.

Thank you.

All right.

Are there any additional questions?

Do you like me to leave you these examples that I brought?

Absolutely.

I'm sure take some to our offices and put them out front.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it and appreciate your taking time out of your day working on emergency management to come talk to us.

Yeah, you bet.

Thank you for having us.

All right.

Bye-bye.

All right, the next Public Safety and Human Services Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, April 11th at 9.30 a.m.

If any committee members anticipate being absent from this meeting, let me know now or whenever you have that information.

Before we adjourn, just checking to see if there are any other comments.

Seeing, hearing none, it is 11.45 a.m.

And we are adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.