Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development Committee 9/18/2026

Good morning.

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

It is 9.37 a.m.

September 18th, 2026. I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink, chair of the committee.

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

Vice Chair Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Saka.

Good morning, here.

Chair Rink.

Present.

Chair, there are three members present and two excused.

Thank you so much.

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

Colleagues, I'll be walking through approval or walking through the agenda shortly, but I do want to note for the record that we will be pulling an item off the agenda pertaining to commercial tenant transparency to take up at a later time.

So I'll be removing that from the agenda for today.

So hearing if there is no objection to that, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Good morning and welcome everyone to our final pre-budget meeting of the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee.

On today's agenda, we will be taking up five items.

With the removal of the Commercial Lease Transparency Ordinance, we will then be jumping to a briefing discussion and possible votes on four pieces of legislation from Seattle Department of Human Resources, also known as SDHR, which impacts several departments in employee positions.

Legislation includes an ordinance relating to correcting pay compression and inversion for certain non-represented classifications and adjusting rates of pay.

an ordinance relating to exempting and or returning positions from the civil service system an ordinance retitling existing title and automotive sheet metal worker to automotive sheet metal worker painter within the Department of Finance and Administrative Services and an ordinance retitling the plant ecologist to restoration ecologist creating a restoration ecologist senior classification title and establishing rates of pay with Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Finally, we will close with a briefing and discussion from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority on their 90-day corrective action plan.

For both my colleagues and the viewing public, as a reminder, this 90-day corrective action plan comes from the resolution passed by this committee and full council earlier this year in response to the forensic evaluation findings.

A similar update was provided to King County Committee of the Whole just a few weeks ago.

That was while City Council was on recess.

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

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

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?

Currently, we have two in-person speakers and one remote speaker.

Thank you.

Each speaker will be given two minutes and we will start with our in-person speakers first.

Kirk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

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

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left on their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Thank you so much.

Our first speaker is Joan Paulson followed by Chris Maykut.

Joan, feel free to use whichever mic at the front best suits your height or whichever one you want to use.

My name is Joan Paulson.

I'm a board member of the Central Area Senior Center District 3. I wish to express support today for the proposed changes to the low-rise zoning code that would benefit institutions like childcare, education, worship, arts and culture, and senior centers.

Please make these proposed changes to provide more community services within the low rise zoning areas.

Secondly, the Central Area Senior Center is just now getting reimbursed for the month of June, which still means that staff and bills for the center have continued to be slow due to the continued changes in how bills are, required to be provided.

Please help us speed this reimbursement process forward faster.

This is my second time that I have spoken about this subject and we need help.

Thank you for your help for District Tree and for Greater Seattle.

Thank you, Joan.

Next up, we have Chris Maycutt.

Chris, are you in chambers?

Final call for Chris Maycutt, and I apologize if I'm mispronouncing your last name, M-A-Y-K-U-T.

All right, perhaps Chris will join us in a couple of minutes at this time.

Why don't we move to our remote speakers?

So I'm gonna pass it over to the clerk.

Our first and only online speaker is David Haynes.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt, you've been unmuted.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt, you've been unmuted.

Hi, thank you, David Haines.

We still have a homeless crisis.

I want to hear some real questions posed to the King County Regional Homeless Authority about their leadership in solving the problem and their better oversight and all the non-profits that are subhuman, mistreating people and padding the cost.

But the only thing we see from the council is the encouragement of King County Regional Homeless Authority to finally get it right in making sure that they pay all the non-profits without any scrutiny of the bad services that people are being subjected to.

And it seems like council is just going through the motions to make sure that the voting block of government unions are going to be paid more money guaranteed for their voting block of loyalty.

So the integrity of the oversight is questioned considerably because there's a shitload of people that are suffering unnecessarily and people being subhuman mistreated and all these non-profits.

but yet there's no scrutiny from the King County Regional Homeless Authority.

There's still six-figure salaries and an attempt to get it right when it comes to just paying without ever scrutinizing the services.

It's revolting.

I wish I had to come down there today and give you all hell about it.

All right, there are no additional speakers.

Actually, I'll do one final call for Chris, just to make sure we haven't missed anybody.

All right, there are no additional registered speakers at this time, so I will be closing the public comment period.

I will note just to Joan, our first public commenter, my team's gonna come on out and get some information from you to see what we can do about the invoicing issue.

Thank you for coming today.

And with that, we will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Oh, pardon me, I misspoke.

We will be moving to item two at this time.

So could the clerk please read item two into the record?

Alright, another small change.

We are actually swapping items two and three, so we'll be taking up item three first for today, colleagues.

Thanks for hanging with us.

So will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Council Bill 121284, an ordinance relating to city employment, exempting positions from the civil service systems and returning positions to the civil service system, all by a two third vote of the city council briefing discussion and possible votes.

So at this time, I'd like to invite our folks from Seattle Department of Human Resources to the table for the presentation.

and as you get settled in, please take a moment to introduce yourself by stating your name into the microphone for the record.

All right.

Hello.

My name is Shane Eubank.

I am the compensation program manager for the city.

My team, the compensation and classification unit within Seattle Human Resources, is responsible for classifying all positions citywide and maintaining the city's classification and compensation pay programs.

Updating the city's pay programs so that they meet the current operational needs of the city requires my team to work in close partnership with our department and labor relations partners.

Today, we will be presenting four pieces of legislation.

The first authorizes changes in the civil service status for positions within Seattle City Light.

Seattle Public Utilities and the Seattle Municipal Court based on changes in classification titles due to changes in assigned duties and responsibilities for those positions.

The second authorizes salary range adjustments for five classification titles in order to support internal pay equity in conjunction with the city's coalition bargaining agreement.

The third expands the city's current plant ecologist classification title into a two-title series by authorizing the retitling of the plant ecologist title to restoration ecologist and creating a new senior restoration ecologist title, which appropriately captures important project leadership functions being performed within the ecology team at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

And lastly, the fourth will authorize the consolidation of classification titles used by the part and body shop within finance and administrative services in order to align the city's classification structure with the department's current staffing and operational model.

So to get us started with CB 121284, this ordinance authorizes changes in the civil service status for positions.

Per the Seattle, or per the SMC, council must approve all changes in civil service protections for positions.

Generally, the legislative criteria for exemption for civil service protections are that the position must have a high degree of professional responsiveness, a particularly high degree of individual accountability, or a confidential or fiduciary relationship with the department appointing authority.

In these cases before us today, in this ordinance, SMC 413-010 includes specific requirements related to these particular titles.

Specifically, executives must be exempt and our recommendations today adhere to those requirements.

Seattle City Light Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Municipal Court will now present their position changes and I will allow the presenters to introduce themselves as we go.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Kavya Seti, talent acquisition and compensation manager at Seattle City Light.

So for City Light, the next one, thank you.

For City Light, we are bringing forward civil service status changes for two positions.

a strategic advisor two position moving to executive one classification.

So this position oversees people operations within people and culture business unit.

And then we have a manager three position moving to an executive two classification.

And this sits within our engineering division.

The position oversees joint use and wood pole design.

These roles have significantly expanded in scope and now overseeing major utility-wide functions and policy direction.

These changes strengthen leadership, support continuity, and align authority with responsibility.

The total budget impact is minimal and it's fully absorbed within the existing City Light Fund because these positions now operate at an executive level or executive classification by legislation.

It is required that they be designated as service service.

Thank you.

Next, we have Seattle Public Utilities.

Good morning.

My name is Adrienne Thompson, and I'm the Human Resources Director for Seattle Public Utilities.

And thank you for allowing us to present today.

We are proposing two positions to be moved from SA3 positions to Executive 2 positions.

The two positions are the Government Relations and Legislative Affairs Director and the Corporate Policy and Planning Division Director.

Both of these roles are located in our General Manager's Office, and they oversee, on behalf of the department, significant legislation, confidential information, They help prioritize stuff across the region, work with federal partners, and work across the city.

Next slide.

They do meet what we call the apex criteria in the executive titles.

They have broad corporate responsibilities.

They make significant policy recommendations, and their authority ranges at a citywide level, regional, state, and federal level.

Next slide.

Why we believe these positions should be civil service exempt and are requesting that is based on their level of responsibilities and impact.

These positions require significant confidential relationship with SPU's general manager and our chief executive officer.

Incumbents are required to possess a high level of individual accountability to meet their positions' goals and priorities.

Also, as Shane had mentioned, executive positions are exempt from civil service, according to our SMC 4.13.010.

code.

Next slide.

The impacts, the body of work, there are two current incumbents.

They actually did request this in conjunction with the department.

They'll continue to perform this body of work.

The budget is actually minimal.

Impacts, as you know, we are an enterprise fund.

It is not generally funded.

and they have been at the top of their pay ban for quite a significant amount of time.

So moving from an SA-3 to an Executive-2 has a very de minimis impact to any of our rates.

Thank you.

And next we have Seattle Municipal Court.

Hi, my name is Amina Long.

I am the HR Manager for Seattle Municipal Court.

Dwayne McLean is the Deputy Court Administrator for SMC.

And I am here to let you all know that our bailiff, we had seven positions titled bailiff that were recently reclassed to court clerk.

and the ask here is to reclass the court or the court clerks all require returning to civil service.

Bailiff was previously a civil service exempt classification.

The court in full has gone away with the bailiff classification so that is no longer being used.

We now have 31 court clerks with the change.

And so we are asking for alignment, these seven positions with the court clerks within SMC.

The impacts to the employees, the work continues, but under the correct classification, which is now titled court clerk.

and ensures consistency, equity, and alignment with all court clerk positions.

There are no negative personnel impacts identified as this role supports the accurate role definition.

As it relates to budget, SMC has already absorbed the cost of reclassifying these positions.

The midpoint cost difference per position is approximately $6,300 and the total SMC cost absorbed is approximately $44,000.

There is no additional appropriation required.

Thank you.

All right, thank you all for walking through this.

Any additional notes before we open it up for the committee?

Wonderful, colleagues turning first to you.

Any questions you have?

All right, seeing, I'm seeing a few head shakes.

I'll ask just one short one for the record.

I know you touched on this point earlier, but I'm wondering if you can reiterate just for the record about engagement with our labor partners on shaping this legislation.

Sure.

This particular ordinance would not have had significant labor impact.

It's a evaluation.

My team would have evaluated the positions, the updated current body of work, the updated body of work, made determinations that they did meet the proposed titles.

And so this is more of an administrative piece to ensure that the civil service status now aligns with the position titles.

Thank you for clarifying that point.

Colleagues, I'm not seeing any additional hands, so I am going to move us to a vote unless there's any objection from a committee member.

Seeing and hearing none, I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121284. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It is moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Any final remarks?

I'll just say thank you to each of you for being here on a Friday morning and presenting on this.

And with that, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill.

Vice Chair Foster.

Yes.

Council member Saka.

Aye.

Chair Rink.

Yes.

There are three in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to the October 20th full city council meeting.

Thank you all again.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues, now we're going to backtrack and take us to our second item of business.

So will the committee clerk please read item two into the record.

Council Bill 121-219, an ordinance relating to city employment, correcting pay compression and inversion for certain non-represented classifications and adjusting rates of pay for affected titles, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Thank you so much.

I will invite again our presenter on this item to introduce themselves again.

We are just switching committee presentations.

Okay, for our next piece of legislation, Labor Relations Director William Winfield will present CB 121219. This ordinance authorizes pay range adjustments for five classification titles with the purpose of restoring and supporting internal pay equity in alignment with the 2023-2026 Coalition of City Unions Labor Agreement.

Great.

Good morning, Councilor.

members.

I'm William Winfield, Labor Relations Director for the City.

I appreciate the time and the opportunity to join you remotely to present this ordinance.

Next slide.

Today I'll be reviewing Council Bill 121219 which addresses pay compression and pay inversion affecting five non-represented senior and supervisory titles following the implementation of the 2023-2026 Coalition of City Unions Labor Agreement.

So simply put, compression occurs when the pay difference between employees and their supervisors becomes too small to appropriately reflect the difference in responsibility.

And on the other hand, inversion occurs when a subordinate classification is actually paid more than the senior, a supervisory classification.

So this legislation would correct those relationships for those impacted roles and recognizes the additional responsibility, leadership, and the accountability associated with those roles.

Next slide.

So as background, again, the 2023-2026 Coalition of City Unions Labor Agreement increased pay rates for approximately 500 represented classification titles.

Those negotiated increases established new journey-level pay rates, but certain related non-represented senior and supervisory titles did not receive the corresponding adjustments.

So as a result, established pay relationships were narrowed or in some cases reversed.

And we've identified those five classifications.

They represent 11 positions citywide where compression or inversion occurred.

So labor relations work closely with our compensation and classification colleagues and SDHR to develop the targeted corrections before you today.

Next slide.

So the primary outcome of this legislation is to ensure appropriate pay relationships between those general level employees and the senior or supervisory classifications above them.

The adjustments affect five titles across multiple city departments.

And in addition to correct the immediate compensation issue, maintaining those relationships supports recruitment, retention and career progression and certainly appropriately recognizes increased supervisory responsibility.

Next slide.

So this slide shows the five impacted classifications and the specific adjustments.

Two classifications are experiencing compression, animal control officer supervisor, and the safety and health supervisor.

And there are three experiencing inversion, cashier senior, beach and pool manager, and facility technical supervisor.

Next slide.

So there is no new appropriation required.

The 2026 adopted budget included $537,000 specifically for compression and inversion corrections resulting from the coalition agreement.

So again, this legislation impacts 11 positions across five city departments and funding has already been confirmed with the existing appropriations.

Thank you.

We'll open the floor to questions.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Colleagues turning first to you for any questions.

Seeing a hand from Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair Rank, and thank you for the presentation.

There was something you said during the presentation.

I just wanted to make sure I heard you correct.

So, the folks who are in the positions are moving up into the correct classification, and it's budget neutral, given this was adopted last year.

I wasn't sure if I also heard you say that there's then a vacancy created, or if I misheard that.

No, there are no vacancies created by this legislation.

Got it.

Thank you for clarifying.

Thank you for the question, and I appreciate that.

Great question, Vice Chair Foster.

I have one quick question just for clarification.

Are there other positions that are currently impacted by pay compression and inversion?

There are positions, and I will say going forward, we're going to continually work closely with comp class throughout our collective bargaining process.

just to ensure, again, any potential compression and inversion issues.

Whenever we negotiate weight changes that may affect those non-represented classifications, we're going to identify those early.

So I do know I'm working very closely in comp class with my colleagues there to identify those other issues.

And certainly, Shane, I don't know if you want to add anything further to that.

Yeah, that's correct.

This has been, you know, a good process opportunity for us to identify how can we identify these early.

Well, it's presented simply here.

I want to emphasize how complex this issue really is.

The city does not require departments, nor should they require departments to use classification title series uniformly across departments.

It's critical in order for them to meet their operational needs to be able to use whichever title is appropriate.

And so a department may use one title here, one title there.

And we have to look citywide when we do this to ensure that we're capturing all of that to avoid compression and aversion issues like this.

because as I understand it, it's unusual to have situations like this, correct?

That is, that is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you all for unpacking this.

Colleagues, any additional questions before I move us to a vote?

Hearing and seeing none, I will move us to a vote.

So I move that the committee recommended passage of Council Bill 121219. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Any final comments?

Hearing and seeing none, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill?

Vice Chair Foster.

Yes.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Chair Rink.

Yes.

There are three in favor and zero opposed.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill passed will be sent to the October 20th full city council meeting.

Thank you.

And thank you director Winfield for being here.

All right, we will move to our fourth item of business.

Will the clerk please read the item into the record?

Council Bill 121285, an ordinance relating to city employment, retitling the existing title automotive sheet worker to automotive sheet metal worker, painter, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Thank you so much.

It's a morning where we get to get a lot of Shane at the table.

So thanks for hanging with us, Shane.

and we have additional presenters joining us from FAS.

And as you all get settled in and you're ready, please take a moment to introduce yourself for the record.

Alright, next we have, um, let's see, Finance and Administrative Services will present CB 121285. This ordinance authorizes the consolidation of three classification titles to a single automotive sheet metal worker painter title to align the city's classification structure with FAS's current staffing and operational model.

And I will allow the presenters to introduce themselves.

Good morning.

I'm Chris Wiley.

I'm the city's fleet director.

I work in the finance administrative services division or department.

And I'm going to just go first here.

So I thank you for taking the time to consider this legislation.

I wanted to talk quickly about just the paint shop.

This I'm going to refer to it as the paint shop.

This is where all the work gets done for all the vehicles that are damaged in operation or of vehicle accidents.

The fleet has over 4,200 vehicles.

So there's lots of opportunities for things to go wrong.

And so this is a busy shop.

And right now we have three different classifications for only five skilled technicians.

And these classifications span two different unions as well.

So because of this, it causes a little bit of It causes a little bit of challenge in us delivering our services.

If you can imagine taking your car to the shop and you have a bumper that needs to be fixed.

Our guys in the shop are doing that.

They're fixing the bumper.

and ideally they'd be able to go into a paint shop and put the finishing coat on the car and be done with it.

That's how a very efficient process flow would look like.

In our case, because we have people in different titles, there can be some delays in getting service done.

In one particular case, that one staff member can only do the body work and can't go into that paint booth and paint.

So we're really trying to consolidate those positions into one classification where we can seek out the skills that we need to deliver, and that is having a combination of someone who can do body work and paint at the same time.

So this classification is important to our operation.

Good morning.

I'm Heather Hartley.

I'm FES's HR division director.

As Chris said, the impact of this legislation would be that five employees would be impacted by the elimination of two different classifications.

Three employees are currently classified as sheet metal workers and would be retitled to auto sheet metal worker painter, and there would be no changes in their pay.

Two employees currently classified as auto body worker painters would be reclassified to auto sheet metal worker painter, and they would receive a pay increase upon salary step placement.

The total financial impact is $34,000 annually, and this will be covered by salary savings in 2026 and by rates that FAS charges other departments for services in future years.

Our labor partners are in agreement with these changes.

And I'll add one point is that, you know, a couple months ago when I was here, we talked about updating the city's classification compensation structures and how important that is.

Um, I think this is an example of that where, um, in decades ago, the classification structure having these different titles, um, three different titles made sense and the nature of work has changed over time.

This is a part of that modernization and, um, delivering our classification structure to meet the current needs of the FAS.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Colleagues, turning to you for any questions you have on this bill.

Vice Chair Foster, you're recognized.

Thank you so much.

Just a quick question.

I really appreciate the presentation.

I think on your first slide you talked about the grievances that you received as a result of some of the classification challenges.

and then I heard a later presenter say the labor that you're working with is fully in support of the changes.

I just wanted to understand whether there was additional work, structural or policy work that needed to happen to cover the grievances you mentioned or if we feel that this is the complete package there.

To the extent that you can talk about it here at Council.

If I could interject,

Sure, thank you.

Can everybody hear me?

Okay, great, yes.

So I will say this resolves the union's concerns around this new classification to capture this full body of work as Director Wiley and HR Director Heather had talked about.

So it does address the concern.

Thank you so much, Director.

Thank you for your question.

Thank you for the question, Vice Chair Foster.

I'll hop in with a very quick question and can, whoever is most appropriate, can you all speak to any costs associated with not moving on this particular change?

Yeah, I can address some of that.

I think, you know, We talk about delays in delivering our services.

Most of our customers are in the police department and fire department.

So we're talking about turning over vehicles quickly to public and life safety services.

So there are operational costs by not having those vehicles to do those jobs.

But I think internally in our operation, in FAS, you know, I think if a It takes one hour a week to find some productivity.

Each of these, if they find one hour a week, it's paying for that cost difference.

And, you know, being able to find that and be more efficient in that handoff with our work just avoids the delays, which always compounds costs.

Thank you for speaking to that.

And I wanna thank also just the work alongside union partners to get on board with a proposed resolution here.

So thank you so much for the presentation and again for answering that question.

With that, colleagues, I'm not seeing any additional hands, so I'm going to move us to a vote.

So I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121285. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Any final comments?

Seeing and hearing none, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill?

Vice Chair Foster Yes Council Member Saka Aye Chair Rink Yes There are three in favor and zero opposed The motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass the bill will be sent to the October 20th full city council meeting thank you again to our colleagues at FAS for being here this morning have a great weekend and we will now move to our fifth item of business.

Will the clerk please read the item into the record?

Council Bill 121286, an ordinance relating to city employment, retitling the plant ecologist classification title to restoration ecologist and creating a restoration ecologist senior classification title and establishing corresponding rates of pay, briefing discussion and possible votes.

Wonderful, colleagues.

As we are moving to our next item, we're just going to be at ease while we switch those committee presentations and welcome our next speaker.

Last for compensation and classification today, we have Seattle Parks and Recreation will present CB 121286. This ordinance authorizes the retitling of the city's plant ecologist title to a restoration ecologist title and creates a new senior restoration ecologist classification title.

And I will allow the presenter to introduce herself.

Good morning, my name is Lisa Cicco, I'm the Ecology Team Manager with Seattle Parks and Recreation, and I'm here today to share a little bit about a change to one classification in support of our ecological restoration work at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

So, over the past 20 years, Seattle Parks and Recreation's ecological restoration work has expanded significantly through initiatives such as the Green Seattle Partnership, a citywide collaboration involving nonprofit organizations, volunteers, city staff, contractors, and community partners working to restore and steward natural areas.

throughout the city.

Seattle Parks and Recreation staff now perform a broader body of work, planning ecological restoration efforts at the park system scale and implementing restoration actions in over 130 parks annually.

These roles provide technical expertise on ecology and natural resource management that support citywide urban forestry and ecosystem management goals.

This work is often done collaboratively, requiring skills to support extensive community engagement, volunteer programming, and cross-agency collaboration.

Seattle Department of Human Resources reviewed the plant ecologist position and determined that the scope, complexity, and complexity of this work exceeds the current plant ecologist classification and would be more accurately reflected through a restoration ecologist series.

So we are here today to provide background on an ordinance relating to city employment that retitles the Plant Ecologist Classification to Restoration Ecologist, creates a Restoration Ecologist Senior Classification title, and establishes corresponding rates of pay.

So we will walk through an overview of these proposed changes, a review of how these changes benefit both community employees, and a summary of the position and budget changes.

So this slide outlines the current classification on the left and the proposed changes on the right to provide a side-by-side comparison.

Under the current plant ecologist classification, you will see that the classification focuses strictly on designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating vegetation management projects on city-managed properties.

This includes developing scopes of work and budgets for contracted work and producing research and reports.

The classification engages with immediate staff and regulatory agencies, limiting public engagement to sharing out project information.

This classification is currently only used by three positions with Seattle Parks and Recreation and not used in other departments.

Under the proposed classification change column, you'll see a restoration ecologist position.

This role will take on all duties currently outlined for the plant ecologist.

And in addition, they will provide technical guidance on terrestrial and aquatic habitat restoration, moving away from plant ecologist expertise on vegetation management to incorporate ecological systems at all scales, so from soil microbes to birds to humans.

This classification engages more broadly in eco-cultural restoration, linking restoration actions closely with community engagement and education related to the city's ecosystem health goals.

In addition, we have outlined a senior restoration ecologist level as well.

This position was created to distinguish advanced level lead work involving greater technical complexity, broader scope, and increased responsibility.

This includes identifying goals and monitoring programs in line with the ecological restoration principles and building broader partnerships across departments and with external organizations and community groups to jointly pursue ecosystem health.

Next slide.

These changes better reflect the current bodies of work, recognizing the technical complexity of ecological restoration programming.

We see benefits for the City of Seattle employees in the broader community.

Restoration ecology was a young profession 35 years ago when the original classification was developed.

This change helps recognize the skills and expertise outlined in the international standards for restoration ecology that Seattle Parks and Recreation references.

This shift also distinguishes expectations at different levels in the series and creates a career progression path, both of which support recruitment for the two positions that are currently vacant.

I expect that this will also improve the city's capacity effectiveness in delivering ecosystem restoration commitments that we've made to community, affirming shared priorities like ecosystem health, livability, and climate justice.

Next slide.

So as kind of a summary, this legislation affects three positions in Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Of the three positions currently classified as plant ecologist, one will be retitled to restoration ecologist.

The pay range of the old and retitled classification are the same, so there will be no financial impact as a result of the retitling.

The position is currently vacant and with approval of the ordinance will be filled as soon as possible as the new classification.

The remaining two positions will be reclassified from plant ecologist to the new classification of restoration ecologist senior.

One position is vacant and again will be filled as soon as possible with approval of this ordinance.

The second position is held by an incumbent who will receive a pay increase upon salary step placement and the newly created title.

The annual total financial impact is expected to be approximately 23,000.

This will be paid within the existing Green Seattle Partnership capital budget.

So with that, thank you for your time.

Any questions?

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Kali's turning to you first for any questions.

I'm seeing some head shakes, so I'll just pour our rhythm for today.

I'll ask one question just for clarification purposes.

Can you describe a little bit the basis for determining the pay for senior level positions?

Yeah, happy to.

So, um, there is no standardized approach to this.

Um, in compensation, we consider it an art and a science.

Um, the important, the important thing for this to answer this question and just compensation broadly is that we need to be able to attract and retain talent to get this work done, right?

That is a core purpose of any compensation program.

We usually look at a four-step difference, looking at our classification structure or grade structure, but it's important we would partner with a department to say, do you believe in your capacity as a manager you are able to attract people?

You know the work the best.

Are you able to attract people at this rate?

And then, you know, thinking about our last presentation, if we did that, would it create compression with another job?

So it's a balance of saying, are we able to attract are we able to retain the talent we need?

Are we creating other problems by, you know, choosing that and then finding the appropriate balance?

Thank you for unpacking that.

That's really helpful to understand.

Colleagues, I am not seeing any additional hands, so I'm just gonna keep us moving to a vote.

So with that, I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121286. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments?

Seeing and hearing none, will the committee clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the bill?

Vice Chair Foster Yes Councilmember Sokka Aye Chair Rink Yes There are three in favor and zero opposed Thank you the motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass the bill will be sent to the October 20th full city council meeting thank you so much for being in committee this morning All right, colleagues, we are moving on to our sixth item of business and also our final item of business for today.

So will the clerk please read the item into the record?

King County Regional Homelessness Authority, KCRHA, 90-Day Corrective Action Plan, CAP, update.

briefing and discussion.

Thank you, clerk.

So as stated at the top of the meeting, colleagues, this 90-day corrective action plan update comes as a part of our resolution passed by this committee and full council earlier this year in response to the forensic evaluation findings.

Our presenters today are getting settled in at the table, so I ask for your patience as we switch out presentations.

Welcome.

Please proceed by first introducing yourselves, and then feel free to start your presentation.

Thank you for being here.

Good morning.

It's wonderful to be here with you again.

I'm Kelly Kinison.

I'm CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and we are going to provide an update on our 90-day corrective action plan.

William Towey, our chief operating officer, will present that, and then we'll be available for questions.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair, Council Members.

William Towie here to give you an update on our corrective action plan.

I want to provide the update on where we are following the 90-day point in KCRHA's corrective action plan, and particularly how that work is now transitioning into the financial stabilization and implementation work being led with Turning Point Strategic Advisors.

At a high level, the immediate controls and processes established through the cap remain in cooperation, and a number of the original corrective action items have now moved from development into recurring practice.

The 90-day report largely completes the initial reporting cycle associated with the corrective action plan, but it does not represent the end of the work.

Turning Point has now completed its initial assessment and is embedded with our finance team, working directly on reconciliation, monthly close, financial reporting, internal controls and implementation.

They are also beginning to take a more active operational role in some of those processes as we stabilize the finance function.

So increasingly, the work that began through the CAP is moving into sustained implementation and independent validation through Turning Point, The important distinction is that while the formal 90-day cap reporting cycle is concluding, the underlying financial improvement work is continuing and is increasingly being incorporated into KCRHA's ongoing financial operations.

One area where that work has already materially improved our understanding is the approximately $8 million in receivables identified in the forensic evaluation as not reconcilable from the records available at that time.

Turning Point has substantially advanced the balance sheet reconciliation and identified historical accounting entries and reporting practices that contributed to that balance.

The work is still being validated against funder records, so I don't want to characterize the original finding as completely resolved.

but our understanding of that $8 million is considerably better today than it was when the forensic report was issued.

More broadly, the reconciliation work has advanced considerably since our August update on the cap, particularly on the cash side.

Turning Point is now moving from establishing the overall financial position toward understanding and validating what specifically makes up that position I also want to be careful not to over-read the progress on the original $8 million finding.

That represented a particular population identified through the forensic review.

Resolving accounting issues with that population does not establish that every historical expenditure was appropriately billed and recovered.

Turning Point and KCRH are continuing to reconcile receivables, invoices, advances and funder records.

It remains possible that eligible expenditures were paid by KCRHA but were not fully billed back to the city or county.

The broader reconciliation may identify adjustments in either direction.

That is why we're continuing the transaction level work rather than drawing conclusions from any single balance.

The administrative overspend identified in the forensic evaluation is also still under validation.

We aren't presenting a revised historical number today because the balance sheet, receivables and attribution work needs to be sufficiently complete before that exposure can be reliably stated.

In parallel, Turning Point and KCRH are refining the 2026 year-end budget and cash forecast and are beginning and in fact have advanced quite well the work necessary to establish some pro forma budgeting forecast for the 2027 future state KCRHA following the transition of the local contracts.

Mr. Towie, if I may, I wanted to wait till the end of the presentation, but you just shared a lot of really important information there that I think would be worthwhile to unpack very briefly.

So if I may, I just do have a question to clarify for the record.

So to be very clear, you have been able to reconcile $8 million in forensic receivables, correct?

The $8 million item, if you will, was clarified through reconciliation and resolved.

And there is no need for backfilling that amount from City of Seattle and King County, correct?

While that particular item has been reconciled, it's important to note that the complete reconciliation has not been completed and fully resolved yet.

So it's possible that there could be other similar items that we really want to make sure we have full clarity on before offering any final statement of where we're at in that position.

That is a fair response at this time.

And do we understand the reason for why this was on the books as receivable?

We do.

Any explanation to share on that?

The $8 million receivable that was identified stemmed from a transactional entry error in our financial accounting system.

One-time error or ongoing?

It was a one-time error, but I would note that it was reflective of some of the challenges that were clearly identified around how our historical accounting operations and financial ledgers have been operated over the years.

And so while that particular item was discovered and resolved successfully, it is indicative of an opportunity to improve practices and really to guide us into, it acted as a way for us to really lean into trying to understand, like, how could something like that happen?

How did it persist?

And were there any other transactions of a similar nature?

Okay.

Thank you.

And thank you for letting me jump in on that presentation just to unpack a little bit more on this slide.

I don't know, colleagues, if there's any additional questions on this point or we want to keep going.

Okay.

Please proceed with the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Finally, I want to distinguish the negative balance in the King County investment pool from established financial loss.

The negative KCIP balance is significant and something KCRHA takes seriously.

At its most basic level, it means cash outflows have exceeded reimbursed cash and advances over time.

But the cash balance by itself does not tell us what portion represents and actual unrecoverable deficit.

Since the August presentation, Turning Point has substantially completed the cash reconciliation of KCRHA's activity from the formation of KCRHA through July 2026. That is an important milestone because we now have considerably greater confidence in the overall cash picture and how it relates to the KCIP balance.

The next question for us is attribution.

understanding what actually makes up that negative position.

That includes outstanding and unbilled receivables, reimbursement timing, fund advances, historical accounting adjustments, administrative revenue and expenditure treatment, interest, and potentially some amounts that ultimately prove unrecoverable.

So while cash reconciliation has advanced considerably, we are not yet at the point where I would characterize the KCIP balance as a final financial deficit.

Turning Point is completing the additional work to make that distinction reliably.

And that brings us to the next phase of the work.

Turning Point and KCRHA are completing the reconciliation with city and county funder records and posting validated adjustments into NetSuite.

NetSuite is our general ledger financial software.

At the same time, we are establishing the recurring cash and balance sheet reconciliation and monthly close process necessary to make this part of normal financial management going forward.

That work will allow us to more reliably distinguish outstanding receivables, reimbursement timing, historical accounting adjustments and other components of the King County investment pool position from any actual unresolved financial deficit.

It will also allow us to complete the validation of the historical administrative overspend exposure.

So I would characterize the 90 day point as a transition rather than an end point.

We know considerably more today than we did when the forensic evaluation was completed.

Some of the original findings are being materially clarified, while other questions remain under validation.

Our focus now is completing that work and making sure rigorous reconciliation, monthly close, and reliable financial reporting become part of the organization's normal financial management, and Turning Point remain directly engaged with us through that next phase.

I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you for the presentation.

Colleagues, turning to you for questions to kick us off.

Vice Chair Foster.

Thank you so much, Chair Rink, and thank you so much, William, for your presentation, and as always to you, Director Kinison, and all the staff and the team at KCRHA.

and to the folks at Turning Point, I know that there's been a lot of work undertaken.

So I have a couple of questions that I want to kind of go through.

I'm going to sort of restate, I think, what a little bit of what Councilman Rink said just to start off, which is, you know, earlier this year, a lot of our conversation with the audit stemmed around the 13 million and then within that 13 million, this 8 million.

and my understanding is that that 8 million has now been accounted for through the reconciliation process and the partnership with KCRHA and there's an understanding that it's reflective of an error on operational challenges and data entry over the years.

And so I think that's helpful.

And my understanding is also that we have now, or you have now, gotten up to date through July 2026 with the work with Turning Point USA.

Are both of those correct before I ask my other questions?

Thank you for the question.

And Turning Point Strategic Advisors have been a great partner in this work, and it is complex work.

I can share that, and it's really important to be very specific about what is being stated.

So to that point, Turning Point has now reconciled KCRHA's cash from inception through June 30, 26. You know, we're into July already.

And roughly, you know, you have to think of the large, the big picture here is, you know, there's about 773 million dollars spent, 720 million dollars received, and with interest, that helps explain why we have a KCIP balance in the mid 50s.

This is an organization with a large cash flow.

So depending on the timing of cash flows, some of these numbers will move around on the KCIP balance.

And it's a significant milestone because it establishes that the cash side reconciliation is real now.

We have a solid handle on that for the entire history of the organization.

What remains is the attribution exercise.

how much of that difference is receivable, unbilled, provider underspend impacts, administrative revenue that's not earned, interest, genuine overspend, or something else.

And so that's this sort of final part of the process we're working through right now, which will really help us determine what the composition of that KCIP balance reflects.

Thank you for that.

Again, I'll do my simplified version, and I appreciate that you're making sure we've got it technically correct, but what I hear is the cash reconciliation is solidly handled, and there's still more work to do on other attributes that are in the system, and that is in process.

Do we have a date for that second body of work that you just mentioned?

Yeah, we're really close.

I would imagine we will have the attribution components of that completed in the next few weeks.

OK, thank you for that.

OK, and then now I want to turn to some of the questions that I had.

One thing I would love to hear a little bit more about is when we're thinking about the 2027, the look ahead, if you will, right?

So as I'm listening to the presentation and I had a great briefing with Turning Point and even hearing the source of the challenge, I want to understand the pivot or the changes happening inside the organization so that as we look ahead to 2027, we have or the agency is able to have the appropriate accounting practices to ensure that we don't have, if you will, a repeat of the same kind of, you know, incorrect data entry or operational challenges that led to this in the first place.

So how are we ensuring this doesn't happen again?

Deeply appreciate that question, because it's a really important one.

And I would note that financial best practices are well known.

Performance of them can at times be elusive and a struggle, particularly for a brand new organization grappling with the sort of complexity and scale and scope of operations that KCRHA was newly formed.

to take on.

It's unsurprising to me that there were challenges, particularly during the early years of KCRHA, relative to their ability to properly architect and execute the financial systems needed for the operation at hand.

But want to note that that architecture is well established in general business practices.

turning points engagement with us over the coming months will help our organization implement those best practices, those normal routinized activities, and ensure that our finance team is operating them then properly.

They will also be identifying some of the architectural opportunities, if you will, if I can turn a phrase there, particularly relative to the nature of some of these larger contracts for homelessness services that are complicated, is the reality of them in terms of their reimbursement cycles, compliance requirements, reporting, and while the future state KCRHA will be significantly smaller in terms of revenue, some of that complexity will still persist through our Department of Commerce contracts with Washington State, our HUD COC contracts, and continuing partnership with the city and the county around the regional impact and benefit of what is approaching 250, 300 million a year in homelessness response system investments.

So, the shorter version.

we feel like we'll be able to have this in good order and operating properly ourselves moving into 2027. Okay.

I want to ask just maybe to go a little bit more in detail here because I think what I'm looking for is to kind of understand you know, when we would expect to see that budget, that staffing plan, those pieces.

I'm hearing the commitment and I think I'm wondering if we have any additional information on timeline or the structural changes and obviously we're preparing to head into our budget season here and I'm looking to understand whether or not we'll see a budget from KCRHA that reflects two things, both the change in approach, obviously, given some of the contracts that will be returning here to the City of Seattle, and then also whether or not that budget is going to reflect, as you said, architecturally, the changes that need to be made internally, again, with that sort of prevention and best practices mindset.

So I'm looking for sort of an affirmation and what you can provide me on timing because I think that's really helpful given, again, heading into budget season next week.

Yes, and good luck to all of you that work.

I know it's incredibly intense.

We are working very closely with city and county executive partners to identify exactly what work KCRHA may hold in 2027. that is funded in part or in whole by the city and county.

We are clear on our HUD COC responsibilities, we're clear on our state encampment resolution responsibilities, but there's a lot around the edges of taking back local contracts that needs to be sorted out, including some of the data work, some of the monitoring and compliance work, and then the timing of when the city and county teams will be ready to fully take on that work, when KCRHA will be fully ready to ramp down.

So that's the ongoing conversation right now with HSD and DCHS in the executive's office and the mayor's office.

We've provided our executive insight into a vision for KCRHA in 2027. We understand that that's gotta meet budget realities for the city and county.

So we would expect this body to receive that information on the progress of that in the budget submission from the mayor soon, very soon.

And I think there's probably some sequencing things that need to be sorted out.

So of course, won't speak for the city.

but that work is active and ongoing.

And I think the mechanism for presenting that to city council will be through the mayor's budget.

Okay.

That's helpful.

Thank you.

I think so I look forward to get to digging into that in the budget and I'm sure we'll have more conversations moving forward.

I know one of the other things that we heard and again I'm looking to understand where this is being managed and one of the other things and I don't remember whether this was in the audit or a later report but was just around the responsiveness and the time for, excuse me, the time for completing invoices.

with partner agencies to KCRHA.

Is that something that you've been able to make progress on through either the internal work or the collaboration with Turning Point?

Yes.

We have had a particular focus on two immediate areas.

One is improving our monthly close processes, and the next big area is invoicing.

that represents an important opportunity for us moving forward.

There are many reasons why at times the invoicing cycle has been slow.

Part of that sits with us in terms of perhaps submitting invoices that are rejected for some reason or another by the city or the county.

Other times there have been just long periods of time where invoicing was on hold due to delays completing an MSA agreement.

and those represents important opportunities for us.

The tighter we can close the reimbursement cycle, which sometimes sits 90 to 120 days, that represents a large amount of cash that sits in the KCIAP accruing interest.

And if we can get a declination in the average payment cycle time, that will save money.

Yeah, I agree.

And anything you can share on new strategies to achieve that declination in response time?

You know, I can give you a couple of concrete examples.

One, from within, you know, to get into the kind of guts of the accounting system and practices, but we think we can have a little clearer understanding of what's causing rejections more explicitly and have tighter partnership with county and city.

But it's worth noting that those rejections exist solely within the local contract space.

We don't have that issue with HUD or Commerce.

So that problem goes away for KCRHA once those local contracts migrate.

Similarly, another example of where the delays in the past were, the MSA agreements articulate the financial considerations that are in play relative to the sums that are being ultimately invoiced, but they at times also integrate other operational characteristics around perhaps language around new legislation.

And what I've seen is that the MSA renewal process can get held up as language goes back and forth between different departments and council to get the right language, for instance, relative to immigration considerations, if you will, in shelters or something like that.

One opportunity would be to parse out the MSAs so that there's an MSA just for the financial components.

So those are settled quite quickly and we could have an MSA amendment that adopts those financial considerations done quite promptly while having a follow-on MSA for some of those more complex matters that take time and haven't historically delayed that process.

I think that's helpful and I think what I'm gathering is there's a couple of strategies that have been identified.

I'm gathering that the shift in some of the contract responsibility that we anticipate through the budget process will take care of some of those because I'm hearing that those rejections were sort of happening with the city so as we're taking those portions back that that should manage for that component, but then there's still the need to make sure that invoices are getting completed on time to the KCRHA partners, and there may be an ongoing body of work and improvements there.

Is that accurate?

Or, again, I want to make sure I'm getting it correct.

Yeah, no, I appreciate the circling in on it.

I mean, the key point is that for our remaining portfolio in 2027, with HUD and Commerce, we don't have these problems.

We get paid promptly very quickly with both of those organizations.

It is the local contracts that has been very challenging and difficult and it speaks to the overall project complexity of taking these two pools of contracts originally from county and city and trying to have a third party run them.

Thank you.

Final question on this.

I think what I'm just trying to make sure I'm hearing is I hear that you have the positive invoicing timeline with your other partners and I think that's great and I think that also reflects the new and refreshed and revamped role that the agency is going to play.

and what I just want to make sure I'm clear on is that I'm also hearing that the other part of that, not just with the agency, but with the provider, that because of that relationship you'll have with those agencies, are we expecting we'll see improved, increased responsiveness to the providers with KCRHA, not just the agency funders?

I appreciate that, yeah.

For several years now, KCRHA has been wholly responsive to paying provider invoices in less than 30, 45 days.

There's been no issue in that area for many years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

I may have a few more questions, but I want to review what I've heard.

Thank you so much, William.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

I appreciate that.

I know there's a lot of information to unpack here, so I'm happy to pick up the torch and ask a couple of questions as we're all absorbing that new information too, and I thank you for that line of questioning.

Just so I'm clear on this point as well, and just to bring into the conversation, as I understand it, KSRHA recently went through a series of layoffs and hearing that much of the work on the 2027 budget is to be developed.

I know you mentioned making sure that we're covering the continuum of care responsibilities that are legally obligated by HUD.

Just so I'm clear on the record, you're confident at this stage with current staffing levels, we are covering our bases and have the staffing plan to support the work to keep us federally compliant with continuum of care guidelines?

Yes, yes, we do.

We have just revised one of our last big policy pieces so that our COSO framework is in place.

We'll be rolling that out, the sort of refreshed, re-upped policies very soon, and so remain in strong compliance with HUD requirements.

All right, that's helpful to hear, and apologies for this point.

When you say policy, can you just expand a little bit on refreshed policies on this area?

Yes, so William's gonna have to jump in here, but the COSO framework really determines what kinds of standard operating procedures and policies need to be in place for the organization.

That includes financial policies, but also includes things like HR policies and signature authority and things like that.

And so as a part of the work I've been doing since I arrived, we've been surfacing policies, making sure that they were updated.

Obviously the forensic evaluation surfaced more policies that could be strengthened or perhaps some that were missing.

So, as we've been doing all of this work with Turning Point, our team has been going through every policy in that framework, ensuring that it is current, that it is in a place that can be accessed by staff, that staff will receive training on any updates.

And again, a lot of those policies were in place.

They may have been slightly outdated, had a title from a former organizational structure early in the organization.

So we've really done a thorough refresh of those policies.

Thank you for unpacking that.

And I'm realizing we're talking about two elements of federal compliance, and much of our discussion here has been around ensuring that we have those those solid accounting principles in place.

And so thank you for covering that component.

I'm thinking about some of our, how we are remaining federally compliant with just the activities of the COC and that body of work.

So in particular, coordinated entry, HMIS system management, our ability to conduct a point in time count.

Can you speak to a little bit of that?

Absolutely.

So our reduction in force did not affect team members who do those primary COC functions, in particular, coordinated entry, managing our application and our board, our governance structure.

We did have a couple of reductions in our data team.

We feel confident that we still have the correct staffing there for our systems group that needs to meet, systems committee that meets for the COC board.

And we're having to redeploy staff into different areas.

I think that's something that's very challenging for our staff, right?

To ask them to shift from something that they've been able to work on to something that's maybe a little bit closer to the core business of the CoC, but that's what responsible financial stewardship does.

And so we are making sure that we have sufficient staffing to take care of all of those HUD CoC responsibilities.

Thank you for speaking to that.

Just taking us in a different direction briefly, we've talked a lot about turning point strategic partners.

and the role that they've had in reconciling the financial challenges and working on fiscal health for the agency.

It's been a pretty large role.

Do you think KCRHA should continue their work with them into 2027?

I'm trying to get a sense of how we can support fiscal health moving forward.

And so can you speak to the need for that ongoing expertise?

The work with Turning Point has been really productive and useful.

They're an excellent organization.

They have done these engagements of this type many times, and the normal kind of cadence for work like this is that there'll be this embedded period of time while they work with us to update, remediate, and establish new operating procedures.

We anticipate that being largely completed in Q4.

of this year.

However, I think it would be, we are anticipating that we will stay in a professional services relationship with Turning Point Strategic Advisors in the future, and that we would include that as part of our professional services budget.

We would not see that as being a significantly burdensome fiscal arrangement, but more just sort of a healthy continuing relationship so that we have them available if there's further questions or any other updates that are needed.

But we believe that our current plan is for them to come in, do the work, get us stable, and leave, and then be available to us to support as needed.

You mentioned a larger workload in Q4.

I'm just drawing a dotted line.

I'm assuming that's because of the role to prepare the 2027 budget.

Is that correct?

No.

I mean, in the scope of work that's being undertaken by Turning Point, The great bulk of the work is around our NetSuite system, our finance department, how we're configured in that area.

Our budget work for the remainder of 2026 and our sort of pro forma 2027 work is quite nominal, really.

It's clean and tight.

We're aligning both of our work in that space, and we're already very, very close, as CEO Kinison mentioned.

There are some technical challenges around handing back, you know, transferring this number of contracts and this dollar amount.

There are meaningful questions.

So, for example, every year we monitor fully one third of the local contracts.

and so in 2026 we are monitoring, we're doing monitoring service to make sure that these contracts are performed properly, the services are correct, fully one third of the portfolio.

So in 2026 we are monitoring actively right now the 2025 contracts.

One of the questions that is at hand with DCS and HSD right now is who is going to perform the monitoring in 2027 of the 2026 contracts?

Is that going to be us or is that going to be the county or the city?

And so that's a question that would impact our 2027 future state, because it would be a certain number of FTEs that would be applied to that work, and who's going to hold that.

So some of those questions are still being finalized, I think, in terms of the contract transition.

But when we try and evaluate what we see as a future state 27 KCRHA, we have a pretty good idea of what that budget looks like.

Thank you.

Building on this point of just fiscal health, it's my understanding that the comptroller at KCRHA will be leaving the agency soon.

I think we can all agree it's a really critical role and ensuring that the person who fills that role has the expertise to be able to carry out those responsibilities, especially to carry through the new processes and procedures established by Turning Point strategic partners.

So can you speak to the plan for filling this vital comptroller role, timeline, process?

Will Turning Point be a part of that hiring process and would you welcome that involvement?

Yes.

So at KCRHA the controller role is the person who's largely responsible for the NetSuite financial general ledger accounting software.

And our current controller has submitted their resignation.

Turning Point will be assuming the duties of the controller during the coming months as they do the remediation of our NetSuite system.

They are also working with us to articulate, again, it's a substantial substantive change in our revenue model with the departure of the local contracts.

And so we are together determining what the ideal composition of the revised finance department will be, ensuring we have the correct job descriptions and positions in place, and ensuring we have the right people in those positions.

Sorry, I missed the second part of that question about Turning Point's potential involvement.

Turning Point are assuming the role of the controller function for the next coming months while they perform the remediation of the NetSuite system and hold that work and help us re-establish that, and then they will be working with us closely as we determine what the correct staffing configuration and role assignment is for that department.

Thank you.

Thank you for clarifying that point.

Colleagues, I've reached a natural stopping point in my questions.

Vice Chair Foster, do you have additional questions?

I don't think I do.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I believe I got through my questions.

So thank you again.

I think what I'm still thinking about, and this isn't so much a question as it is just a statement, the need to get to what I would say is sort of that next phase around this work, which is the re-establishment, the ongoing establishment of those strong internal practices to ensure that the forward-facing work continues to be strong.

So I think that feels really important.

What I heard from you today is that is deeply underway in the partnership with Turning Point and it seems imminent.

So I think that I'm looking forward to that engagement and we'll follow up I think outside of committee to get that update, because I believe what I heard you say is, you know, the next couple of weeks.

And I think that there's been a lot of work done to date to get the updated cash from inception to June.

And so I understand that it's taking just a little bit more time to get that final piece in place.

I'll be engaging with you all on that follow-up.

So thank you both so much.

And thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Foster.

And just as a follow-up clarification on my point, I'm hearing correctly.

You all are intending to hire a new comptroller.

You're consulting with a turning point to determine what that role looks like.

And in the interim, turning point will be serving in that comptroller role.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Yes, although I would just clarify it's a controller, not a comptroller.

Thank you.

Unless you're on the East Coast.

That's fair.

Little labels matter, I guess.

Yeah, absolutely.

We have a strong team of accountants internally and essentially, like many examples, how you get started on some of these things really matters.

and in the early days of the formation of KCRHA, the original configuration of the NetSuite system and the understanding of how policies, practices and operations and decisions made around how to implement those within the general ledger and the NetSuite system just turned out to not be ideal for the work that was at hand.

And it led to this kind of accumulating, you know, Clark Neuber described it as sort of compounding problems over years and we're really just untangling all of that at this point and resetting that system with Turning Point's help.

If I could add, so they speak to me in different language than they speak to Lilliam, and our partners there, I think, you know, they've sort of described it as we're coming, we're sorting it out, we're setting it up, and then we're gonna train your people or get the right people in to continue running it.

and again, this is not a novel, creative, super innovative thing.

It's just getting it set up correctly with the right folks knowing what to do and having the right controls that they're doing that and we've never had that.

and so that is really what they're intending to do.

I don't know if they're envisioning a controller position.

We're gonna go from a $200 million a year organization to a $40 million a year organization.

And so we may end up with a three person financial team.

So those are the kinds of things we're working out with them now, especially if we are not doing things by hand, in spreadsheets, in journal ledgers, in flux.

You might not need ten people.

You might be able to do three people when you've got a properly configured NetSuite.

I might just add on to that.

It is hard to overstate the nature of the change.

The vast amount of the challenges that we have faced organizationally historically as we look through this review have centered in and around the local contracts with the county and the city.

It was an aspirational goal at the formation of KCRHA to try and do this.

It ended up being quite complicated and difficult in some regards on that local contracts administration.

And all of that's going back.

those contracts are going back to the county and the city.

So the 2027 KCRHA is a much simpler, more straightforward operating environment.

And that's a really important thing to understand because a lot of the things that we've been engaging with relative to the corrective action plan, the landscape around all of that changed once the decision to bring those contracts back was made.

And in the spirit of us all heading into budget season, just so I'm clear, will we see a budget reconciliation for 2026 separate from the 2027 proposed budget?

I'm not privy to what the mayor will transmit to council.

Certainly with your hat as a board member, you will see that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

One final call for any final questions, but seeing and hearing none, I'm going to close out this item and thank again our presenters from KCRHA for being in committee this morning.

Thank you.

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

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

Seeing and hearing none, the next Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee is scheduled for Friday, December 4th, 9.30 AM.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

It is 11.11 AM.

Thanks everyone.