Good afternoon.
Thank you for being here for a special committee, a special meeting for the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee.
I'm joined by Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who I do know has a conflict right around 2.30, so thank you for being here and making time for this.
And we have two appointments, the Chief Technology Officer Saeed Bashir, and then we have an appointment to the Ethics and Elections Commission from Richard Short.
Before we get into those appointments, let's have some public comment.
I'll call you out in the order with which you've signed up.
And we'll start off with, I'm going to give everyone two minutes, Mr. Monroe, joined by very capable staff, Ms. Samuels.
Alex Zimmerman, you are first, sir, followed by Stephen Kovach.
You got it.
Sieg Heil, my Dory Fuhrer, a crook and criminal.
My name is Alex Zimmerman, I am President of Stand Up America.
I want to talk about the appointment of a Chief Technology Officer.
For the last 30 years plus, and for the last 10 years every day, I come to this chamber and I know about all chiefs.
Director or CEO is all identical.
For 30 plus years, as I live in Seattle, I cannot find one, one, one man who works for government.
How we can change this?
This is exactly what it's supposed to be right now.
This is exactly what has happened right now, because Seattle right now is number one fascist city in America.
And all America knows this, from east coast to west coast, from the Atlantic to the stranger.
We need to change our business and political philosophy.
This is exactly what's happened.
And the consulate right now is criminal.
All criminal, court recognizes.
One consul violate constitution five times.
It's supposed to be when she's a French, she go in jail for lifetime.
Well, she at least not a French.
So, for many year, I come here and hundred times told you, okay, I'm not care who's director, I'm not care who's chief, and I'm not care who mayor, but, We need every month Q&A for every director, every council, and every mayor.
It's never happened.
Last guy who did this is five year ago.
What is his name?
I forgot this mayor, but it's very smart who have Q&A every two week.
I don't remember his name.
What is his name?
And after mayor come, Murray is a pure freaking crook and Nazi pig, and right now Durkan don't have too.
I demand what is you establish a policy so every director, every chief, Every freaking idiot who work for government and boss have a Q&A every day.
Thank you, sir.
Stephen Kovach will be followed by Kathy Putt.
Stephen Kovach and then Kathy Putt.
Hi, I'm Stephen Kovach.
I'm with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77. I was part of the selection interview committee the mayor put together to select Saad as the new CTO.
We interviewed a lot of candidates and Saad clearly stood out head and shoulders above the others.
He comes from the city of Ottawa where he inherited a department that was in total disarray, ranked one of the lowest departments in the city both internally and externally and in three years he turned it around to where it was one of the best and I believe he can do the same thing with information technology with the city of Seattle.
So I encourage you to send this to the full council with a strong recommendation to confirm SAAD as the new CTO.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Following Kathy will be Jonathan Coomer.
Good afternoon.
For the record, my name is Kathy Putt from Crown Castle.
So I'm here to support the nomination of Saad Bashir.
We look forward to working with you on 5G.
We commend your commitment to making Seattle an early adopter of the technology and look forward to working closely with you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Putt.
Jonathan will be followed by Gerard Edwards.
Gerard.
Gerard Edwards.
Jonathan, before you start, I just wanted to let you know that on April 2nd, April 2nd in our committee meeting at 930, we'd like you to join us at the table with the technology.
So we had that.
I didn't have that information.
I just got that information.
So that'd be April 2nd.
Please proceed.
Wonderful.
Thank you, Council.
First off, welcome, Saad, to Seattle.
We appreciate your leadership in Ottawa and glad to have you here.
That was actually part of the reason why we came.
We thought that we would, we just released some pilot outcomes from the 500 individuals who were on the street, who received a beacon, and I just wanted to make sure that the council was aware of some of the incredible stories of individuals who had received this smart wallet called The Beacon.
We have a couple people here who have either found employment or found housing or found their way into recovery as a result of everyday residents investing directly into their lives, as well as constant presence with incredible counselors at different agencies around the city.
We believe that the evidence from the first 500 unsheltered beacon holders justifies an expansion to provide access to 1,000 more people on the street this year with a beacon and 1,000 more people next year with a beacon as well to help an expanded intervention help 2,500 unsheltered individuals total.
But I'll actually give way for a couple people here who have used the beacon and just share their experience around how it's helped them advance their lives.
Very good.
Gerard Edwards, followed by Janice Wilson.
Good morning, City Council.
It's a pleasure to be here.
I'd like to start by saying six months ago, I was sleeping in your lobby.
Thanks to the Beacon program, I was able to attain employment at Nintendo.
I found mentorship from someone in the gaming industry, which has completely, completely turned my life around.
I also understand that it is more than just empowering us.
It gives back to the local community as well by giving capital to the homeless people who then spend it for things that they really need.
and exclusively things that they need.
Thank you for your time.
Yes, I just want to let you know that the Beacon has brought a phenomenal amount of courage, not just to have a little bit of extra finances to be able to go in the business place and start communicating in places that we wouldn't normally, to buy clothes, to buy, excuse me, weather, clothing, to have meals, even with a partner.
It's been a great courage.
Also, I'd like to share the fact that I was able, as an advocate of constitutional challenge, I am very interested in helping people who can't help themselves or people who have no voice or people that need to start communicating.
And the Beacon is highly recognized that they're able to help people, encourage them to go into the business place and start ordering something like a normal person.
Also, I was able to go to a meeting where I was representing the Beacon.
Samaritan and I was able to shed enough information that I gained $500 to help pay for my ability when I go in to rent a place now it's going to be covered $500 because somebody was compassionate enough to apply that application and put that on my beacon.
So I hope in all sake that the city and state recognize that this is a great opportunity to help people help themselves.
Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am.
Michael will be followed by Raven.
Good afternoon.
I'm Michael.
This is my friend Walker.
Currently now, I actually live in the city of Shoreline, but before that, I was homeless in Seattle for approximately 501 days.
It was the longest, hardest time of my life.
The beacon, Jonathan, more specifically, helped me out of it.
It was a very, very tough time, but that little blue chip was special.
It kept me based in what I wanted, which was to get off the streets, to go back to being normal.
It was a very, very important, powerful thing.
There are a lot of disillusioned people out there on the streets right now who really don't think people care about them.
but they just have problems reaching out.
And then on the other side, you have people who don't know how to help.
And that's the beautiful thing about the beacon, it's anonymous.
You get a chime on your phone, beacon holder's nearby, you read their profile, you give them a couple of dollars.
You've done something good for somebody.
I was talking to someone this morning about using the beacon and She asked me how would I feel if I was in need and someone went to the app and they gave to another beacon holder instead of me.
And I was like, well, that wouldn't bother me at all.
Because the point is somebody's doing something to help somebody else.
And that's what matters.
I talked to Jonathan this week and I've been off the streets for about a year.
And in that year, I was amazed at how fast I put that whole thing behind me.
And now I realize that, no, a lot of people helped me out.
I need to do the same thing.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Our last sign up speaker is Raven.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
So the beacon has helped me currently with many things.
It's helped me with my phone bill.
Right now I'm working for a job.
It's helping me with that.
It's a connection.
It's my responsibility to check in every month.
You know, everyone who donates to the beacon is like a relationship.
You know, they are coming in to our lives who we need.
They don't have to, but they do.
They choose to come and hang out.
They choose to help with what they can.
You know, I've been on the streets 15 years, still trying to get housing, still trying to get a job, but the Beacon's been helping me.
I can go to places to get what I need, not things I might want that are useless, but things I need because of the Beacon.
I've met Jonathan, and it's been amazing, just what him and his team does.
And so, like, it's worth it, and then some.
I really feel that way.
Thank you.
What I'd like to say for those testifying on behalf of the Samaritan application is the plan is this.
Thank you for sharing.
Those are some heartfelt stories, very inspirational stories.
What I'd like to do on April 2nd is a few things.
One is to show to my colleagues on the council And I will talk to our information technology groups, since many of them are here, on how the technology works, just from a technical standpoint, so the public can know how it works, how the medallion, if you will, allows people to connect with the medallion holder.
And then we'd like to, we'll also invite some people from the human services department to understand any policy issues that the technology may raise.
And I trust that there could be some issues that can be dealt with, but I'm actually, from what I know of it in research, I'm very supportive of the technology.
And so from that, from that meeting then will no doubt hopefully turn into us considering that as an investment that the city may want to consider as we look at those that are experiencing homelessness.
So thank you for sharing your testimony.
We'll have whoever would like to share these stories at the table.
and display the wares, so to speak.
So thank you for your patience, too, Jonathan.
You've been a consistent advocate, and thank you for your patience.
Okay, with that, we'll conclude public comment, and Ms. Samuels, please read the first appointment into the record.
Appointment 01252, appointment of Saad Bashir as Chief Technology Officer, Seattle Information Technology Department, for a term to January 1, 2023.
Okay, if you're associated with this matter, please come forward.
I've also invited some other folks that may be of interest.
If they would like to come forward, they are welcome.
They know who they are.
But we don't force anyone to come forward if they don't want.
And I'm particularly talking about members of the change team.
But you could watch from there if you'd like.
Look at those guys jumping at the opportunity.
All right.
So why don't we, I'm going to ask that you sit on that side if you don't mind, okay?
Because I may have colleagues joining.
Thank you very much, appreciate that flexibility.
Okay, why don't we just start with introductions all the way down, and then, Deputy Mayor, I'll bring it back to you if you want to start some introduction words.
And just for the viewing audience, this is a second meeting of the committee on this appointment, and appreciate the answers, the comprehensive responses you gave the committee chair.
We've shared it with all our colleagues, deeply appreciate that.
Why don't we start with introductions?
David Mosley, Deputy Mayor.
Saad Bashir.
Hi, Ted Weinberg.
Anthony Davis.
Okay, and I invited Ted and Anthony, if I could call you by your first name, to hear, just to make sure I'm covering all my bases, and feel free to add any insight or ask any questions you'd like.
Deputy Mayor, would you like to say any introductory words, or should we just dive in?
Just happy to have the second hearing, Council President and Council Member Herbal.
We're very pleased to present to you the nomination of Seb Beshear.
I think he's already started with a very aggressive program of outreach and input from both people in the department and people outside the department, and his clients who are the other departments in city government.
So appreciate the opportunity for him to provide responses to your questions.
Appreciate that.
And I'm sure my colleague and I may have some questions, at least I do.
And I want to thank again IBEW number 77 and those on the search committee for doing all of the hard work on producing such a, what seems to be a very well qualified candidate.
Mr. Bashir, would you like some introductory remarks or should we just cross examine you?
Okay, all right.
Again, thank you for responding to all of our questions.
Before I start asking questions, did Ted or Anthony have any questions?
Or do you want to just let the discussion grow organically, but I'll give you the mic.
Okay, so Mr. Bashir, in the question that we asked about where you and you've been on the job now for a few weeks at least.
Five weeks.
Five weeks.
You talked about nine areas for improvement.
I don't need you to go into all nine areas, but It was really an interesting sort of description on what you saw as where the department as a whole and the CityCat as a whole improved.
So can you elaborate on a few of those that you'd like to talk about in particular?
Sure.
And again, thank you, Council President and Council Member for the opportunity to come again.
Each one of those nine is, in my mind, you know, critical for the city to look at.
But if I had to select a couple, one of them for sure would be the skills, which is item number four on that list.
And this is question number two, I think, where I talk about which areas we need to focus on right away.
And I've met with about 250 or so individuals one-on-one over the last five weeks.
Most of them people who work in IT.
Many of them are client departments.
And the thing that is screaming back at me is, you know, a lot of passion that IT staff have to lead modernization efforts.
to help clients, and there's no shortage of work that needs to be done, but there is a bit of a skills mismatch.
There are many things that we are doing in the technology space that, where we are doing a great job at implementing systems perhaps, but we may not have done an equally good job in training our own folks to be able to handle that work.
And so for me that is going to be the thing that will really be the secret sauce for the city of Seattle is how do we get our 750 IT team strong team to get the skills that they need for the next several years.
If maybe one of the other ones that I can also share is on processes.
And I have a feeling that the city of Seattle in general likes a lot of processes, but definitely Seattle IT.
Definitely Seattle IT is also no exception.
And so there are many opportunities.
And these are not opportunities that I'm identifying, Council President.
These are things that when I'm meeting with those 200 or so staff so far, many of them are just listing them, you know, one after the other.
And many of them make sense.
So I think those would be some quick wins to make it simple for our people to do business amongst themselves and how we interact with our clients.
One thing I'll sort of quote on page two of your response, you said, where employees may have years left in their career, But skills are already obsolete.
This would require a focus on skills development on an urgent basis.
And I read that to say that we have to invest in our own employees and that in technology, technology is constantly changing, constantly being updated.
And you have to stay nimble and we have to invest in our own employees.
And I think that's a different policy approach than just getting rid of folks and hiring new people.
I think that what you're emphasizing is an investment in our people.
And I was very pleased to sort of see that approach.
Am I misreading your intent there?
I think if skills development done right, you can see two clear outcomes.
One is you will be relying less and less upon external professional services, which is a huge drain in terms of our budgets.
And the second thing that you will hopefully see is lots of people who currently work in IT getting repositioned because they have now acquired new skills to be able to contribute in different ways, which will allow you to use your existing skill set versus trying to figure out how do I get rid of an individual employee and hire somebody brand new.
So those would be the outcomes that I would be hoping for.
Very good.
And, you know, you're being questioned by someone that actually worked in a professional workplace before the internet was developed.
And so many people in my vintage do have a resistance sometimes toward new things.
And I think in my mind, an effective leader understands that resistance that may be experienced by many, but still inspires them to be better.
And to me, that's about continuous improvement and self-development.
So I hope that we can see some real good outcomes there.
And Council Member Herbold, I'm just sort of going on, but just feel free to jump in.
I know your time is limited, so I could defer to you because I have other questions if you like.
Well, you asked some questions about question one.
If we can move on to question two, I have a follow-up on that one.
Please.
Thank you.
As it relates to question two, specifically the process question, you referred to the fact that the overall governance structures around IT can and should be streamlined and strengthened.
Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like?
Sure.
Decision making often gets obstructed when you've got as, you know, more than the right amount of layers.
And so in some cases, you know, there may be a need to see are we over engineered in terms of how many, management layers we have within the IT existing structure.
So that would be, I think, worth a look at.
Reducing management layers.
In some cases, that may very well be the answer.
But also, how that structure is currently structured, pun intended.
And by that what I mean is that there may be an area, for example, let's call it modernization of IT work, which might currently today be spread across IT under different management, under different divisions.
and may not be giving you the worth that you're looking for as the organization.
And so assembling some of those like-minded functions under one roof so that they can be, without adding more resources, just making use of the existing resources in a much better way, that's another aspect of structure changes.
Thank you.
I'm going to bounce around a little bit out of the sequence, if you don't mind, and on page nine, In response to a question, particularly a question dealing with RSGI issues and underrepresented groups, you said you wanted to create a department, a specific plan to recruit more interns from Seattle College programs.
It's on page nine.
Especially Seattle Promise students to provide volunteer opportunities at Seattle IT to high school students from underrepresented demographics and expose them to the technology sector.
And I've shared with you, of course, the RSA work plan, which is actually a very good work plan that was signed by the leads in 2018. I want to thank the members involved with that.
And what you saw earlier was the Samaritan software being talked about.
And one of the goals that I've always had is to really, double down on the use of technology to address both the digital divide communities that are underserved and underrepresented and deal with the homelessness issue as well and try to find the social good in technology.
So can you talk a little bit about your notion of reaching out to underrepresented groups, what your thoughts are and why you sort of flag that as some of the things you want to do?
Sure, you know, from my previous role back in economic, in the city of Ottawa when I was in economic development, one of the opportunities I had was to figure out how can we do a lot of social economic development work in the city and often that involved the use of technology for some social good.
You know, one example is that we had a couple of folks who started a company where they could give very similar to the Beacon program, but something where people who had, you know, eyesight issues and they were wanting to cross the road, it would actually talk with the sensor that was built into the traffic lights to indicate that it was okay, it was safe to cross the street.
And so being able to figure out those opportunities where technology can get married to social good is something that You know, we have been able to do back in the city of Ottawa a few times.
And so that is what I was thinking of as I was writing this response.
You know, I've spent some time with the RSGI committee at the Seattle IT, and I know there's already a lot of good work that has already been completed, but there's so much more that we can do.
So I'm looking forward to leveraging and building all the different plans that we have for 2019. Go ahead, please.
Thank you so much.
Throughout your response document, there are a couple of references to chatbots as a way to address varied issues, whether or not it's addressing customer service demands or language translation.
I'm wondering how you could speak to the potential labor implications of using chatbots and and how that might impact our workers and both the discussions with the workforce about that as well as how you see that fitting in just sort of overall for the city as being a city who uses Our good jobs here is a really important measure and lever to get folks legs up in career wage jobs.
That's a great line of inquiry.
Let me read for the viewing audience exactly the response that Council Member Herbold is talking about.
On page 8 you say, and I'll just quote your language, Unifying the call center technology footprint will also allow the deployment of common services such as chatbots, B-O-T-S, that can provide responses in multiple languages to the most common queries, creating further capacity for call centers.
Leveraging chatbots with a universal single sign-on capabilities will allow residents to complete many routine tasks in a shorter period with a consistent user experience.
Several examples exist in the marketplace, example in the banking industry where such innovations are helping boost client service.
And I think we all love to be put on hold for 20 minutes before we get a live person.
So I'm being facetious, of course.
So the labor implications of that kind of approach, I think Council Member Herwald makes a real good point.
So maybe you could respond.
Sure, and that's a great point.
And that's something that came up in my previous role as well.
And the idea is simple, that there are many, many routine types of questions that a typical call center agent or a service desk agent, let's say in IT, is handling.
And if I can speak on behalf of that service desk agent, those are not the fun type of activities that they do on the job.
they are wanting to add a lot more value when they're interacting with the client.
So really chatbots...
is a way for taking away many of those routine things so that you can free up the capacity and have your own employees, those same staff, do a lot more value-added work for the clients.
It is certainly not a measure to replace human agents, because that's never going to be possible.
But it will be for those typical requests And 80%, not 80%, but a large proportion of the requests that a typical call center gets are very routine.
It's the same question with the same answer.
And those are the kinds of things you want to address with chatbots.
Maybe I'll stop there.
And actually, I'll just add one more point.
It's not just about chatbots.
It's about any piece of technology that raises concerns that isn't going to take over human people who are doing this work.
You know, if I talked about automation, and there are lots of automation opportunities in Seattle IT, you know, the same question could be asked.
Are you going to replace five people with a software program?
And certainly that's not the case.
Any one of those areas where there is that perception perhaps that that may be the possibility, my goal would be is to work very closely with people like Steve.
and the, you know, the labor stewards that we have in IT to make sure that any of those concerns are addressed at the very outset.
Thank you.
So I want to ask you a little bit about employee morale.
We asked you a very specific question about how do you plan to approach employee morale.
And implicit in that was not a suggestion that morale is good or bad or high or low.
It was just what are your views toward that and of course within the city we try to gauge that and measure that.
My own take on morale has always been, it sort of starts from the top, and that morale becomes poor when employees see arbitrary and capricious decisions and unfair decisions and favoritism and those kinds of things.
But also, employees have control on their morale as well as a choice on what morale they continue to perpetuate.
So it's sort of a top-down, bottom-up approach has been in my experience.
But can you talk a little bit about your your assessment of morale, and your attitude of morale, and what do you do to keep morale at a optimum level?
I would say that if you can probably look at the workforce in IT as a spectrum, and there are 10 to 15 percent of the people that I have met so far, there's nothing that you can do to them that will decrease their morale.
They're just high energy, high passion.
You know, they just want to come and do everything that they can do in that seven, eight hour day.
So those are the those are great people not much attention is needed to them in terms of from a morale perspective.
You've got another 10% or so based on the sample set that I have currently sat down with who have sort of given up.
You know they have they feel like that they have been burned so many times they feel like they have a talked about all of their concerns and nobody has heard them, and they are in a really bad place.
And many of those conversations have been very tough, you know, for them also, they've been very open, I should say.
But tough for me to listen to, you know, this person really probably meant a lot of good things that they wanted to do, and now for whatever reason, whether it's their fault or, you know, whoever other that they worked with, the bottom line is they're not in such a good spot.
There is a significant number of people who are in a bit of a wait and see approach.
And those people that I'm meeting with are feeling very encouraged when they're being listened to.
They are waiting for skills development and talent development to be applied to them.
And they're the people that if we can turn a significant number of that, you know, 80% of our workforce who is in that holding pattern right now, I think you will see a sea change in terms of employee morale.
Often employee morale, I think, sort of gets affected when people don't feel like that they're being heard.
I think most people know that not all of their ideas are going to be accepted, not all of their concerns are going to be addressed, but they want to make sure that it's a safe place for them to talk about it.
And I think that is the kind of environment that I have already started and will continue to build.
Here's my intent at this point.
I'm going to actually have more conversation right now.
But I know Councilmember Herbold has a pressing meeting that we got for like another minute.
So I'm actually going to vote now.
But then I'm going to continue the discussion because there's some other lines of inquiry.
And what I've tried to do for the viewing public is try to do a lot of my homework before this meeting.
I appreciate how willing you've been to subject yourself to this kind of inquiry.
For me, because I'm a technology sort of geek, this is pretty important to me, and I appreciate your willingness.
So again, I'm going to call for the vote, but then I'm going to keep questioning you in this little, I don't think I've done that, like that before in 12 years, but it's always the first time for everything.
So, at this point, I will move for the appointment of Saad Bashir, which is appointment 01252. Second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
The ayes have it.
And I'll keep drilling you even though now I've sort of showed my hand, so to speak.
You don't have to have the awkwardness of motioning, seconding, and voting by yourself.
Thank you and congratulations.
Thank you, Councilor Herbold, and good luck in your meeting.
I wanted to talk a little bit about your, you said something interesting on page four, which you talked about avoiding five to 10 year long, you're talking about plans.
This is in response to the question.
What examples of lessons learned from your prior jobs do you have?
What specific expertise and experience from prior jobs do you anticipate you will apply in your new position?
And you talked about avoiding five to 10 year long and 100 million and higher transformation plan, and instead thinking of 18 month IT planning sprints, which I found sort of novel.
So can you talk a little bit about what does that really mean?
Help me understand that.
Sure, Council President.
So, as you all know that IT is creating significant disruption in every facet of our life, including the way we are running the municipality of Seattle.
And so to try to predict where technology is going to be in the next five years is going to be a bit of a guessing game.
And you'll have to sort of pick one over the other schools of thought.
So that's one reality that we are facing and so that is telling me...
that instead of painting a picture and making it sound very accurate that this is exactly what we need to do in technology and it will last us for five years, I don't think that would be a fair statement.
So that flux that technology is creating is making me feel that we should plan for shorter time cycles.
That's one.
The other is, IT, especially at the City of Seattle, is in the service business.
We're not telling Department of Transportation or utilities how to run their business.
They have to decide how they want to run their business, and IT wants to be at the table to support them all the way.
And not City of Seattle departments, but generally speaking, municipal departments are not really sure where their business is going.
They're also a little bit nervous about how technology is going to be disrupting how they deliver services to the citizens of their municipality.
So, because they're also not very 100% sure, it makes it difficult for IT to plan for that type of an environment.
And maybe the third last thing is that it's just the nature of the beast is that We work in a four-year, five-year cycle, you know, in terms of public sector.
And that creates a lot of uncertainty in terms of whether these plans that we create and we spend so much effort to create them, are they going to last the next political leadership cycle that may be on the horizon?
And so that is a lesson learned, not just for City of Seattle, but generally speaking in public sector.
This answer is not something that you will find a lot of support for if you were to speak with the top professional services company that deal in IT.
Because there's a lot of money to be made in terms of selling the city of Seattle, you know, a $10 million transformation plan that will last you for 20 years.
So it's not a popular answer in the private sector, but I think that is what the practical answer is.
Very good.
Whenever there's new leadership in an organization, it seems to me that a very rambunctious leader will come in and he or she will say, we're going to start changing everything.
Not realizing that a department like IT are already actually doing some pretty amazing work.
So how did you sort of go about looking at the gems in the department, the good work that's being done, the good projects, as opposed to just saying, you know, you guys are doing everything backwards here and I'm the new, leader and this is how we're going to do it.
I'm presuming that you did find some of the great work they're doing and I would remind you that I have been chairing the technology group for about 11 years now.
Definitely, Council President.
I have been carrying this notebook with me in all of those 200 plus meetings and at the end of every meeting I definitely make a point to ask the person, can you name me a few stars that you've encountered in IT?
And just this morning I was in a meeting with about 15 other people and I jotted down all of the names that they gave me.
And so there is no shortage of individual who in IT are doing a great job in terms of delivering the services that the clients are looking for.
And whenever I come across those, I'm making a point in either in person, you know, giving them a pat on the back or sending them a message.
Or even I think it was day before yesterday on Tuesday with my own direct reports, I just listed a bunch of names for them and I said, when you go back, if these people are on your team, make sure that you let them know how great of a job they're doing.
So, it's not all bad, no doubt about that.
I think what is missing is that team spirit.
You know, the ability to work as one single IT team is, I think, that's the issue at hand.
Very good.
Sir, my last.
line of inquiry would be, you know, the concept of, again, race and social justice or gender equity or anti-harassment policies, et cetera, are taken pretty seriously by the city.
Often we are criticized, however, for not practicing that with which we preach, that perhaps people could say we are either inconsistent or not.
as committed as we hope to be.
And I guess the truth is always somewhere in the middle, right?
That we can always improve.
I just believe in continuous improvement.
But how can you impress upon the viewing audience in this city that you are truly committed to these values as you continue to lead this department?
You'd have to take my word for it, Council President, because I haven't had a lot of chance to actually, you know, show you in action how I would be practicing these values.
But, Maybe I can talk about a couple of ways in which I make a point that I am being a fair, transparent manager of people.
One, as I've already mentioned, is being as transparent as possible to the people who work in IT.
You know, we may make some tough decisions.
We may choose a certain direction.
but making sure that people in IT at all levels, not just people of a certain title, are part of the decision making.
So that's important for me.
One other sort of principle I have is that to be fair to the people who are actually doing the job and who are doing a great job, one way to be fair to them is to make sure that you're putting a lot of attention to the people who are not performing.
And so that's another way for me to create fairness in the workplace is not just overburden the performers for all of the work that you have to get done within your team.
Building on the great RSGI plan, for example, that we already have, you know, that would be something, a commitment that I've already made to the mayor and to this council as well that I would be, you know, upping the game wherever I can and putting the focus on that type of work as well.
Very good.
Ted, you had a question or point?
Yeah, I wanted to amplify what he's saying.
So I've been one of the co-leads for the RSGI change team in ITD for about two months now.
And in his five weeks that he's been here so far, he's already met with us several times.
And he's been very supportive of the RSGI initiative.
In fact, he's asked us to put together a proposal that implements 10 truly transformative efforts to bring about measurable change for our underserved communities, which is going to include a workforce equity study, a service equity study, and then defining what he calls OKRs, the objectives and key results that we can use throughout the organizations from the director level all the way down so that each person can be thinking about our SGI and I think One of the ideas that we were just discussing before this meeting was the RSGI Fridays, of being able to have some dedicated time that everyone's thinking about RSGI and either reading a book or taking a training class or doing something to enhance their knowledge of the initiative and to really start making some measurable change out there.
Very good.
Thanks for those comments.
In fact, I don't have it cited, but you did talk about some small, informal, and fun-like events as well to keep the mantra sort of going.
So, I appreciate your creativity there.
Well, I'm very, I'll be very pleased to announce this and I, in full disclosure, you know, Anthony, if you'd like to say anything, I think I've known Anthony since before he could have a driver's license.
And so, now you're at the table with me.
But I'm very glad you're part of the IT family.
Now, did you want to say any words before we move on to our next agenda item?
I guess pretty much just second what Ted was saying.
I appreciate the opportunity to.
I have an audience with you, you know, so early to impress upon you how important the work is and to get the ability to bring forth more ideas for change.
And not to just to continue what has already been, you know, put in place, but to start anew.
Because just like technology, if you don't continue to grow or continue to educate, then you're stale.
And stale people is just as bad as antiquated technology.
It does no good for anyone.
Thank you.
So let me just sort of walk through the show again.
Thank you for serving the city and for responding to all of our inquiries.
So we'll, we're finalizing a council expectations letter that we always try to have.
And we will, that'll be part of the appointment file when we vote and the vote will be on March 18th.
It's just, I would generally do it next Monday, but I have a conflict.
And so I'll present this to the full council on March 18th.
at 2 o'clock, and we'll proceed from then.
And again, thank you very much.
And if you have any questions, just let me know, but we'll be in touch.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ted.
Thank you, Anthony.
Next agenda item in.
Appointment 01265, appointment of Richard F. Short as member, Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term to December 31, 2021. Okay.
Richard, come on forward, sir.
So Why don't we start with introductions on that end?
Mr. Burnett, and then we'll bring it back to you Richard So just for the viewing audience and and then and then after do that Wayne if you have any any introductory remarks We'll give it back to you.
Yes.
I'm Wayne Burnett.
I'm the executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission Richard short
Sorry, Richard Short, applicant for Seattle Optics and Electronics Commission.
Okay, Wayne, would you like to introduce the matter?
Yes, I'll introduce Commissioner Designate Short, who is a senior corporate counsel at T-Mobile.
Before that, he had a distinguished legal career on both here in Seattle and in Washington, D.C. And prior to that, and I think also relevant to the work we do, is he spent 10 years on Capitol Hill working in the House of Representatives.
So we're very excited to have Rich on board.
He'll be replacing Charlene Angeles, who rotated off the board after a single term.
I also want to thank her for her service.
Thank you.
And I thank her for her service as well.
So Richard, tell us a little bit about, you do a lot of compliance work and welcome to the Ethics and Elections Commission as a potential commissioner.
Tell me a little bit about what sort of drives you to that kind of work and a little bit about some of your experience at T-Mobile and other law firms doing compliance work.
Just a little bit about yourself for the viewing audience.
Absolutely.
So first, thank you very much, Council President, for your consideration, invitation, and consideration of my application.
As Wayne said, I have been a practicing lawyer for a little over a decade, and before that I had a career on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
for around a decade.
I think that, you know, currently, well, currently I'm Senior Corporate Counsel at T-Mobile where I am in our Compliance and Ethics Department and I'm responsible for building and developing really best in class compliance and ethics program.
We're responsible for a number of legal compliance issues including our whistleblower program, pay to play and political contributions.
policies, and I also work closely and advise our corporate internal investigations teams.
I think all those experiences at T-Mobile building a really strong compliance program really play well into the obligations the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has to oversee the, you know, the ethics, you know, parts of the code, whistleblower, democracy, democracy voucher program.
So that, the work there that I do is really, and my work in private practice, In my work on the Hill, in particular, I advised my staff and made sure that our office and my boss was in compliance with the House ethics rules and other obligations imposed on members of Congress and their staff.
Really, I've had the opportunity to have jobs that really, that allow me to approach decision-making in an ethics value-driven, value-based way.
I'm a very strong proponent of good governance, really doing things the right way, as we like to say.
Fortunately, T-Mobile, I work in a group with a very strong leader, a headstrong CEO, but they really encourage us to be creative and work with all of our teams and our business units to approach things from a customer-friendly standpoint, a employee-friendly standpoint.
So the bottom line is making sure that our customers are served correctly employees do things the right way.
And I think that the Seattle Athletics Elections Commission has a lot of parallels.
Our goal is to make sure that city employees are operating the right way ethically and in a good value-based way.
And we also want to make sure that our constituents, that your constituents, understand and have faith in government, have faith in the employees in Seattle, and also have faith that the, in particular, the elections process is transparent and and ethical, and that the candidates are acting in an appropriate way.
Very good.
Excellent response.
My interview wouldn't be complete without one curveball.
I'm ready.
One of the areas that continue to concern me, and Mr. Burnett and I have had countless discussions on this kind of issue, and that is the issue of intent.
We've all know from law school that the ignorance of the law is no excuse.
But if, in fact, there are violations that occur, either ethical violations or elections violations, because a candidate knowingly violated a rule versus one that inadvertently just wasn't quite aware, there's no educational requirement for a candidate in this example.
So some become somewhat more, aware of the rules than others.
So where in either in your professional job or even as you become a commissioner, where does the role of, do you think the role of intent has any place in this?
Because I, you know, again, Mr. Burnett and I've talked about these kinds of things for particular for candidates and new candidates.
There's a lot of rules.
There's a lot of regulations.
And so many are, Some are better than others in knowing everything.
So can you talk a little bit about the role of intent versus just mere negligence?
Absolutely.
And I think I would start by saying in my professional career and personal career, when I worked on the Hill, not only did I work for an elected official in our public office, but I also have a lot of experience on campaigns.
I worked, I either would take a leave of absence to work on campaigns or in my spare time I would volunteer on campaigns.
I've worked on campaigns at the state, municipal, and federal level.
I have walked door-to-door with some of my good friends who are running for city council.
I know that it is a hard job.
I know that new and inexperienced candidates don't exactly know what they're doing.
And I think that it is, I think the experience that I bring, the understanding of how hard and nuanced being a candidate, particularly a first-time candidate can be, will help influence some of the decisions that, well, at least will help allow me to educate and have forthright conversations with the fellow commissioners when we are asked to interpret new or novel questions, particularly as it comes to the Democracy Voucher Program.
I believe the last I heard there were at least 40 declared candidates for city council.
A lot of them are going to be first-time candidates, and hopefully a lot of them will take advantage of that.
of the program, but even if they don't, because the commission oversees the elections policy and the election code for the city, we may be asked to weigh in and obviously weigh in and his staff will have a difficult, hopefully rewarding time, you know, looking at a lot of the issues that come to him, but if we are asked to weigh in on any disciplinary decisions or ratify or have a hearing, I think that intent does play a role.
The code, certainly the code spells out what a violation is, There will be issues of credibility and sort of understanding what a person knew and didn't understand to be true, the steps that they took.
And they'll be allowed to explain, you know, their rationale behind some of the decisions.
And I think, although I don't want to say that there's a sliding scale.
If you're new, you get a pass.
And if you're experienced, you don't get a pass.
I think we do have to take into understanding all of the experience.
And my role as a litigator, I think, will help influence some of the questions that we might ask and understanding that As you said, you know, intent, it may not be a bright line rule.
It might be somewhere between negligence and, you know, or gross negligence or malicious intent.
And it is important to understand the purpose that somebody acted.
And my background, I think, my understanding of what it's like to knock on doors, what it's like to dial for dollars, what it's like to hustle and get paid media or earn media, just understanding the pressures that a candidate is under.
will help me better understand motivations and frankly assess credibility when they're providing their answers.
That was an outstanding response.
I'm not sure how I would have responded to that question.
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
And your experience on your grassroots experience, I think, will pay off in spades.
So thank you very, very much for that.
I didn't have any other questions, and I can't turn to my colleagues for any other questions.
And so again, thank you for serving.
Move the appointment of 01265, the appointment of Richard Short to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee.
I'll second that.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
and there's no no's.
And so again, I will present this on the same day I present Mr. Brashear's, which will be March 18th.
No need for you to be here.
You're always welcome to be here, but I'll present it and I'm sure the council will, you'll be warmly received to be my guest.
So thank you very much for serving.
Thanks Wayne.
Thank you very much.
With that, we will stand adjourned.