Seattle City Council Governance, Native Communities & Tribal Governments Committee 5/19/22

recording.

Thank you and good morning.

This is a meeting of the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

The date is Thursday, May 19th and it is 9.33 and I apologize for being three minutes late.

My name is Deborah Juarez and I chair the committee.

Thank you all for being here today.

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

Hearing no objection or seeing no objection, the agenda is indeed adopted.

I'm going to move over to the chair's report.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry, Chair Morales.

May I call the roll?

I know you mentioned everyone was there, but for the record, I'll just call the roll so we have it.

Sorry, Madam Clerk.

I wasn't trying to do your job.

I just realized that.

Go ahead.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Present.

Council Member Peterson?

present.

Chair Juarez here.

Three present.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I was on a roll there.

Part of the pun.

OK, so we have three items today.

Actually, we have four items today.

We have an update on our missing murdered indigenous women, also known as missing murdered indigenous people.

And we have three appointments.

We have looking at Danielle Alvarado for the Labor Standards Committee.

We have Mr. Dustin Lambrow for the same committee, the Labor Standards Commission.

And then we have, looking at an appointment of Chalaya Stallings-Ala-Alima for the Ethics and Elections Commission.

So before we get started, I have some notes here that I want to go through for the record.

So the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women Peoples has been going on for a couple of decades, if not longer.

And what we have today is a response that we put forward in the Statement of Legislative Intent, that is a slide, SPD-002A-001, and it was approved by Council in 2021, and we basically were asking the Chief to come back, the Interim Chief, Adrian Diaz, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person Advisor, Luis Gomez-Ventura, to come give us an update of the legislation and the ordinance and the person that was hired to do the missing murder data.

And today, we'll also hear from Esther Lozada, the president and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board.

And Esther will be joined by, let's see, Policy Program Coordinator, Director Christina Diego.

I see Christina's here.

No, Christina's not here.

OK.

Yeah, she is here.

OK.

And Shannon, Keene, the research manager for the Urban Indian Health Institute.

So with that, let's see, that's the president's report.

I think that's all I have right now.

I just wanted to give you all a kind of an overview of where we're going to be today with the two presentations.

And my understanding is SPD has a 10-page PowerPoint, and the Seattle Indian Health Board has a PowerPoint as well.

So with that, let's go to public comment.

Chair Juarez, there are no speakers signed up for public comment today.

Okay, seeing that there are no speakers signed up for public comment today, I will close the public comment section of our agenda and we will go right to items of business.

Nice of you to join us, Ms. Lucero.

So why don't, Jody, can you read item number one into the record?

Agenda item 1, update on statement of legislative intent, SPD-002A-001 for briefing and discussion.

Right, before I introduce the interim chief, I want to say a few words and I'm going to hand it over.

First of all, thank you, Interim Chief Adrian Diaz, and thank you for meeting with me yesterday for an hour on all these issues.

I really appreciate that we can just walk across the street and sit down and go through these issues and for joining us here today.

And of course, it's our first time getting an opportunity to meet Luis.

So the Seattle, the city of Seattle has launched its first targeted effort to collect data on missing murdered indigenous people cases.

And these cases have been largely forgotten, not by the families, but mainly by greater society and law enforcement, which we've been addressing for a couple of decades, as I shared.

In 2017, the Seattle Indian Health Board's Urban Indian Health Institute published a report titled Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Detailing the Crisis Nationwide The report identified the city of Seattle as having more of these cases than any of the other ones in the United States.

That sentence doesn't read right.

So anyway, so we were responsive to this report, what we were working with Abigail Elkohock and Esther Locedo, and we had worked on this regarding Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Violence Against Women Act and the Savannah Act.

Those are the things that we were lobbying on back in DC.

And, of course, what happened in Washington DC got back to our state of Washington and, of course, city of Seattle, we took it upon ourselves to move forward and implement some of these policies and actually fund them.

and work with local law enforcement, which I understand Chief Diaz also works with local tribal law enforcement as well.

So I'm excited because this is our first rollout to hear the presentation from SPD and the San Leonid Health Board.

And I'm anticipating we're going to have a few more follow-ups because we're not going to let this go.

We're one of the first cities in the country to do this.

We've had a lot of other cities and tribal governments that have asked for our ordinance and our resolutions.

the fiscal notes and all the background information on how we how we put this together and myself and again who's not with us she's somewhere else now but she used to work here again and I were on a couple podcasts explaining how we work through this could not have done it without the city of Seattle Council could not have done it without staff without SPD with that Seattle Indian Health Board and all the tribal leaders that were just there for us every step of the way.

So with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Interim Chief Diaz, and I will let him introduce his folks, and then we'll go from there.

Thank you, Council President Juarez, and to the Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee for hosting this presentation.

And we're here to update the work that has been done on Resolution 31900, Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

And over the course of my career, I've had the honor to work with our Native tribal communities in Indian country.

And for many years, I was able to support the canoe journey when a childhood friend helped organize a journey with the host tribe.

When I was working in the community outreach, we would bring our Police Activities League program to engage Native youth.

And we've had the opportunity to work with the Urban Native Education Alliance to support their basketball program, as well as being engaged in the various powwows that have happened throughout our region.

Over the course of my 25 years, I've worked with many of the tribal police chiefs, many that were just officers, but rose through the ranks like myself.

And I've had the privilege of learning and being educated on many of the challenges our Native communities have experienced.

But I must admit that for many of those years, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls was never discussed.

We truly did not know the impact that was being felt throughout our Native community.

And to learn and understand missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, has been so important to raise awareness to this human rights crisis.

We're thankful to the Council President Juarez for putting forth the legislation, for hiring a special liaison that will improve data collection, and taking the steps to have a better understanding of these issues.

We're so appreciative for the work of Abigail Echo Hawk, Chief Research Officer, for her work.

And I can't thank both of you enough for bringing awareness and identifying ways to ensure no voice is unheard and misclassified to the Seattle Police Department.

As an assistant chief, I worked with your office, Council President, developing this project before moving it into our performance analytics section.

So I'm deeply committed to the success of this program.

We're working to revamp the policy regarding HB 1725 on the creation of the endangered missing person advisory designation for missing indigenous persons.

As you might know, the governor just recently signed this into legislation as an extension to the Amber Alert System, the Silver Alert, and now the MMIW Alert.

I want to highlight 10 years ago our community lost Nicole Westbrook to gun violence in Pioneer Square.

She was Native.

Her murder has continued to go unsolved but we cannot lose her voice and we must ensure her voice is loud and that brings justice to the family that's been impacted.

And I know we have many more.

It is important for Seattle to be a leader in this work to reduce further victimization build trust with our Native communities and develop our work so we do not have a missing murder in indigenous women and girls.

I do want to highlight, as you mentioned earlier, this is the first of its kind to have a partnership like this.

I don't know another police agency in the country that has a partnership that we're developing like the one we have with Seattle Indian Health Board.

It is crucial for us to develop a five-year plan, and we know we will have challenges throughout that time.

Since this has never been done before, we're developing the road ahead.

So I want to thank you, and I'm going to turn this over to Luis Gomez, who is our Missing, Murdered, and Indigenous data analyst.

and COO Brian Maxey for a further update.

Morning.

Thank you, Interim Chief Diaz and good morning, Council President Juarez and council members.

I am happy to be here to give a brief update on some of the work that we have been doing in collaboration with the Seattle Indian Health Board and the Urban Indian Health Institute.

And I have a brief briefing on the work that we did in year one and kind of get an update on what it is we're hoping to do on the next couple of years.

Hey, Luis, before you start your PowerPoint, council colleagues, my understanding that me and Luis met ahead of time along with the chief.

So if you have questions of him, you don't have to hold them, you can ask them as we're going through the PowerPoint.

So go ahead, Mr. Gomez, it's all you.

OK.

Is somebody teeing up your PowerPoint for you?

Yes, I'm trying to see it.

I think that's what he's working on.

Well, I printed mine out, so I don't trust technology at all.

OK.

Let me see, I'm going to get off camera really quick to see if I can try to figure this out.

Apologies on the delay.

OK.

So since we have a little bit of time, Interim Chief Diaz, Well, can we talk a little bit about, just so people understand, we started this process almost two years ago and it took a while to get it up and in place and do the connection with SPD and Seattle Indian Health Board.

And as we were talking yesterday and this morning, I had a chance to go through the five-year or the contract deliverables and the work that the Seattle Indian Health Board has put in and the staff that they've dedicated to getting this done.

So thank you for that.

Oh, we're here.

Great.

You ready to go, mister?

Are you ready to go, Luis?

I believe so.

Okay, good.

We're good.

I think so.

Yeah, we can see it.

Having me present in a different manner, which I do not want to do so.

Council President, you are right.

This has been a couple of years in the making to hire and go through a process.

It takes a little bit of time.

We actually worked to set up a contract with Seattle Indian Health Board, as you know, and that obviously has a little bit of time.

But this is really exciting work that we're doing.

And I think it highlights as we start to get the MMIW alert system up and running, really will allow us to be much more responsive to community needs and how we're reaching out when somebody is missing that is Native and that falls in alignment with this project.

I mean, as you know, at the very beginning of the year, we had a death in the Native community, and I had reached out to you because There were certain things that I was very concerned about that needed to be highlighted that might be impacted with Native community.

And so having a program that actually has a full structure to this will really help bring awareness to what's going on in our Native community.

Thank you.

Are we ready to go, Luis?

Yes.

Technical difficulties, as always, but we are ready to go.

I'ma blame Esther for that, so.

So good morning.

So here's my PowerPoint.

As I said, I'm hoping to do a quick brief on the program and what it is that we have been doing here at Seattle PD.

So my name is Luis Gomez.

I am the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Data Advisor for the MMIP program here with Seattle PD.

I am working under the Performance Analytic and Research team.

And this is our team PowerPoint slideshow.

So a quick overview on what it is I plan on covering during this PowerPoint.

So hoping to do a really quick background.

Council President Juarez, thank you, and Interim Chief Diaz for sharing some of the background in regards to the work that has been done prior to my joining this effort and this work.

So my background will be very brief.

From there on, I plan on doing a program overview.

then present on some of the work that was accomplished during year one, as well as go over some challenges and areas of improvement that we're hoping to approach.

And then last but not least, I'm hoping to share some next steps, looking at the work that we're going to be doing the rest of this year and the remainder of this contract.

So as mentioned, as was mentioned before, there has been a lot of interest in terms of bringing light to some of the ongoing concerns with regards to missing and murdered women and girls.

And so I'm sharing here three key points starting in 2008. which the Urban Indian Health Institute, who we have here represented the research division of the Seattle Indian Health Board, published a report titled Missing and Murdered Women and Girls, which brought light to some of the work or some of the concerns specifically related to Seattle on missing and murdered women and girls.

They're on in 2019 the Seattle City Council passed Resolution 31900. And this resolution made it a point to ensure that Seattle, the city of Seattle was doing all they could in order to ensure that they're tackling and joining in bringing light to some of the concerns and problems of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

And then December 2020, I was hired and was brought on board as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Data Analyst.

So two key points that I want to highlight here with regards to our mission and vision on the work that we're doing.

I think it's very important for us, as was mentioned before, to not only tackle the aspect of understanding the scope of the data problem, but also on creating a model for collaboration.

So as part of this, our mission with regards to the MMIP program here in SPD is to raise awareness and address a national data crisis as it pertains to missing and murdered indigenous people.

But as I mentioned, the vision has two points, and that is understanding the scope of data problem, bringing light to the stories of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaskan Native women, but also, and it must not be forgotten that we are the first program of its kind in the nation.

And so we do really hope to create a model for collaboration between agencies and community organizations And thus far, our collaboration has been in part with the Seattle Indian Health Board.

And I have here listed the individuals from the Seattle Police Department, including myself, the chief executive director, Rebecca Boatwright, and our director of PNR, Lauren Atherly, who are assisting within the SPD to on this contract.

On the other side, we have, with regards to the Seattle Indian Health Board, we have Esther Lucero, President CEO, Abigail Echo Hawk, who has done a lot of work with regards to missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, Adrian Dominguez, Chief Data Officer, and my counterpart, Shannon Keene, as the Research Manager for this program.

So we had a couple of deliverables with regards to my position and my contract with what it is we were hoping to tackle for year one.

Part of the deliverables for year one in Q2, we had two key points.

The first one was to do some subject matter expert discovery sessions.

The second part of that was a discovery phase consultation.

So kind of look a little bit in talking with individuals that are part of this process from the data collection all the way to anything having to do with cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Towards the end of 2021, the goal was to create sort of a five-year plan consultation that would sort of outlining the work that we were hoping to accomplish in collaboration with the Seattle Indian Health Board.

In addition to that, tackle some of the data collection, data sharing recommendations, which are recommendations that I believe the Seattle Indian Health Board will go into more detail later on.

These recommendations we recently received and we're in the process of reviewing.

Hey, can I stop you for a minute?

Can we go back, because this was a sticking point and I learned a lot from Abigail Echo Hawk and folks.

and the women that have been working on this, on this national crisis.

The data sharing, recommended data, what, what did you guys, was that synced up with you guys on the same, was your expectation the same as theirs on the data collection and data sharing recommendations?

I saw some of that.

Yeah, so as I mentioned, the recommendations, we recently received them last week.

And so we're in the process of reviewing those recommendations.

And the ultimate goal of reviewing those recommendations is to kind of have a conversation of what is the work that the Seattle Indian Health Board wishes to do and what is the work that SPD wishes to do.

And so thus far, I think the the aspects of being succinct in some of the work that we're doing has been great.

And so as we review these recommendations, our goal is to kind of get to a middle ground in regards to the work that we're hoping to do as part of the data sharing and data collection aspects.

Just, I don't want to completely hold up your presentation, but I know we're going to have Salient Health Board speak as well, but does Christine or Shannon or CEO Lucero, is there anything you want to add to that?

before we, are you saving everything for your presentation?

Okay.

I think we'll save it.

Okay, thanks.

Go ahead.

Go ahead, Luis.

Not a problem.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

So a couple of things that we worked on with regards to year one.

So a couple, I think first and foremost, as I mentioned before, one of the key points of our contract and our work is to create that collaboration.

And so, Shannon King came on board towards the end of Q2 and starting Q3, we started working on developing that relationship and growing our collaboration.

And so part of that was establishing regular meetings and setting up ways of us to be able to communicate, talk to each other and and be able to answer any questions or collaborate on any work that we need to do to accomplish.

We started off meeting bi-weekly and eventually we shifted to meeting weekly in order for us to be able to have that ongoing conversation and communication.

Second part of the 2021 accomplishment was doing a data orientation session, which is basically taking a look at the architecture and data discovery of Seattle PD and the data that we have.

The first meeting that we had with regards to the data discovery session happened a couple of weeks after I was hired.

It was determined later on by mutual agreement between the Seattle Indian Health Board and ourselves that we needed to go a little bit back in regards to the start of the data collection in order for there to be a full understanding of what exactly was happening with the the aspect of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

And so we ended up shifting our focus a little bit more to the subject matter experts discovery session.

And this was really great.

The first session that we did was with the CSDC here, having Brian Smith, the 9-1-1 administrative manager, have Shannon Keene and myself go into the the dispatch center to kind of witness and see how a 911 call comes in from a call taker to dispatcher to having them assigned a level of urgency for all of the calls that are coming in.

So this allowed us to be able to get on the ground insights in terms of of determining how a call is coming in to 911. Thereafter, we saw the other aspect of a call coming in, which is seeing a police officer attend to one of these calls.

We had Captain James Britt take both Shannon King and myself on a ride along to hear some of the calls that were coming in and how they are addressing on the patrol, on the patrol side boots on the ground, how they're addressing some of the calls that are coming in.

From then on, if a call was to come in with regards to somebody that was missing, we shifted gears towards looking at the missing persons units, and we had Detective Amy LeClaire help us through, guide us through the process of what it is, all the steps that are necessary in order to fully tackle aspects of a missing persons case.

Last but not least, we also had to take a look into the, data elements that are needed in order for this information to be fully tracked.

And so we had Lauren Atherly walk us through the Mark 43 platform in order for us to, as I said, see how all of this information is being tracked.

What does Mark 43 mean?

Um, but mark pretty three is our sort of our database that collects all of the information from the calls that are coming in from from the dispatchers and so it basically mark.

collects all of the information with regards to the call.

So when the call is coming in, at what time is calling in, what patrol is is attending to this call, whether any information is being collected with regards to use of force or what patrol officers are engaging into these calls.

And so it basically collects all of this information.

We were focusing specifically on any reports with regards to the missing person cases.

And so Mark three as a whole, it's our record management systems, our RMS.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, not a problem.

And so we, towards the end of Q3, beginning of Q4, we started working on developing some of the workflows in order for us to fully track the system of when a call comes in.

And ultimately, the end goal is to determine at what point within this process, information with regards to missing and murdering indigenous women is coming in.

And so Shannon Keene and myself worked on creating a dispatch workflow, a non-emergency workflow, which we're still in the process of completing, a patrol workflow, and a missing persons workflow.

And so some of the challenges that came up with regards to year one, as has been mentioned, this is a first of its kind in regards to the work that we're doing, working in collaboration with the community organization.

And so it was very important for us in the first couple of meetings that we had with Ms. Keene to fully understand the goals and objectives of the work that we were doing.

develop a solid communication collaboration in order for us to get all the work that we had before us and also ensure that the exploration of SPD and workings was established.

And so part of that with regards to the SPD and workings is why we decided to kind of go all the way to the initial reception of a 911 call in order to follow the the call from beginning to end in terms of how it's being documented.

And next steps for year two and beyond.

So we are, as I mentioned before, we recently received the deliverables and recommendations from the Seattle Indian Health Board and we're in the process of reviewing these.

And so basically the deliverables and recommendations are going to, have us or allow us to be able to fully evaluate what it is that we're hoping to accomplish in the next couple of years.

And so part of that has been ensuring that we finish some of the work that we didn't get a chance to complete by the end of year one, which was finalizing some of the workflows.

Additionally, I have listed here some of the Some of the goals that SPD has in regards to the work that we hope to accomplish which is potentially launch a public data and dashboard that represents that fully shows the cases of missing and murdered indigenous women.

and also potentially include some infographic information on there that could be helpful for the general public.

We would also like to create some cultural competency e-learnings for SPD, and we're really hoping to collaborate with the Seattle Indian Health Board and have them take the lead in terms of helping us create these since they are the experts in these areas.

The end goal, as I mentioned,

Luis, I'm going to hold you up there for a minute, because I have a few things I want to ask before I get you to go to end goal and future collaborations, because I'm glad you put the state stuff on there.

Thank you for doing that.

This is my favorite page on your PowerPoint when I was looking at it last night and again this morning.

Because in the beginning, I was worried, like, when we first were putting the resolution and the ordinance and the budget request and getting the person hired, getting them an SBD, working with the LA Health Board, making sure the contract got into place, making sure we're paying attention to what was happening.

on the federal level and the state level for obviously a national crisis.

I was concerned, I was looking like, how do we, this to me seems like this is the page that we would look at to determine how we're gonna measure success.

And the things that I really am excited about, and I mean that, I know politicians say this all the time, but I really mean this, is the launching the public data and dashboard.

So the public sees it, which is important.

And also the, The misclassification piece, which I'm guessing the Saline Health Board will give us more information on that.

I learned a lot about that from Abigail Echo Hawk and the misclassification, how we classify people that are missing, that we don't always acknowledge that they are indigenous women and using, working with and leveraging tribal law enforcement and working with tribal governments and finding their people.

So on the tribal side, The misclassification, I don't want to get there in a minute.

Did I say that correctly?

Is that where you're going to go with that one or did I jump the gun on that?

No, no, no.

I think the ultimate goal, which is why there is the end goal, is we're collaborating with Seattle Indian Health Board and the Urban Indian Health Institute to take a dive into our data and determine whether there is any misclassification.

And the goal is to see and do an analysis of our data to ensure that we are not misclassifying any individuals that are go missing or.

are murdered that are within our database.

And so specifically we're focusing on the data that we have here within that SPD to determine whether there are any problems.

And so that is definitely what we're hoping to do.

So launching the website, I mean, the dashboard is important because it's going to have the data and everything, but just the website itself.

And I want to give a big shout out to Converge Media, to Omari Salisbury, because he's allowed us and a couple other folks to come on his show and put up and talk about So, and the problem was we didn't have like a real media platform, if you will, dispository to like put up pictures and converged media has been phenomenal coming through for us and providing us a space to actually reach out.

So I'm guessing that when you work with Sales Indian Health Board, and we do have a website, a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons website, and I'll wait, I keep having all these questions, I'm hoping Esther's writing them down, that we share that website and take input from I know Chief Diaz and I talked about this from local tribal law enforcement as well and their social services.

I mean that's going to be a big part.

I don't want to see you kind of siloed off where your only contact with Indian country is Seattle Indian Health Board.

There's nothing wrong with that but we need the whole point to address a national issue is that in Indian country with people missing there we don't distinguish between city limits and state lines, or for that matter, Canada and the United States.

And so I'm going to really push hard on that.

I think Esther has her hand up.

Go ahead, Esther.

I think the one question I have here is, is your misclassification analysis project going to include a forensic review of MMIP cases?

Because that's something I'll have to tell you that we at the Urban Indian Health Institute don't have capacity for.

No, yeah, yes, definitely.

That is included within our misclassification analysis project.

I did want to answer some of the concerns that Council President Juarez was mentioning with regards to the collaboration.

I don't want to jump ahead and I believe the Seattle Indian Health Board is going to be presenting on some of the recommendations.

But the overview that I have done thus far with regards to the recommendations that they have shared with us, it is definitely included within their recommendations to collaborate with some of the other tribal agencies and organizations.

So I believe that is definitely something that is on our to-do list in terms of what the direction we're hoping to go specifically with regards to the MMIP website.

So that is something we're hoping to to collaborate on.

Well Luis I got some news for you buddy.

I plan on taking the show on the road so you'll be packing up with us and heading out so get ready for that.

Ready to go.

I'll let you go ahead and finish.

Yeah, so as I mentioned, that is our ultimate end goal.

And the only other thing I had on here was there is a lot of light currently on, there has been some light on regards to this ongoing data crisis.

But I think in the last couple of years, there has been more light on on some of this and so luckily for us there has been a big push from not just the city of Seattle but also the state as a whole to try to work in collaboration with some of the potential problems that are stemming from whether it's misclassification or just the resources available for indigenous people.

And so some of the aspects I've had here with regards to future collaboration is we're hoping to see where we fit with regards to the Washington State alert system for missing Indigenous people.

In addition to that, the Washington State, as part of the alert system created the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force That we're hoping to team up and partner on the work that we're doing in order for us to not be duplicating the work and last but not least, work more closely in collaboration with the city of Seattle's indigenous advisor council liaison, who I've been in contact with and so We're just excited for some of the work that is ahead of us and really excited to dive in into some of the recommendations that the Seattle Indian Health Board shared with us to see what the remainder of year two and the remainder of the contract has in store for us.

So Luis, on the Indigenous Advisory Council, are you talking about our friend, Francesca?

Yes, yes.

I had a couple of calls with Francesca thus far, and we're in the process of determining, I know Ms. Keene has been in contact with Francesca as well, and so we're in the process of trying to determine how we can all jump on a call and start working on trying to determine how we can cooperate.

and include our policy person Sarah Mays on that, but obviously she's been working on that, but Francesca, I hope she's listening, but I'm trying to make her blush.

She's phenomenal.

She's amazing.

She was an employee at Salient Health Board, so they did train her well, and then she came over here, and she's just been the linchpin that is holding together Indigenous Advisory Council and other issues, so she can, and the Department of Neighborhoods can, have a collective group of people representative in this region that will advise not only the legislative branch of government, but the executive branch as well.

And also Mayor Harrell hired Tim Ranian, as you know, former tribal council member at Puyallup.

So having Tim on board and Francesca has just been, it's made my job 90% easier.

So we have a great team of people and we're anxious to welcome you and continue working with you in Indian country.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think both Ms. Keenan and I have been pretty excited and we've been brainstorming on determining how we fit in with all of this work that's happening.

And I think we definitely feel the support and no longer feel like it's us two, the only ones that are working on this work.

So we're excited to be able to grow our team in collaboration with regards to the MMIWG crisis.

Thank you.

Okay, so I'm going to let you counsel our Chief Diaz.

Do you want to wrap up and then I'm going to hand it off to Esther Lacero, the CEO at Saline Health Board, and let her introduce her team.

Is there anything you want to have in closing, I was going to say arguments, closing statements, Interim Chief Diaz?

No, I think that exactly, I think we've said it all what we want to say.

And this is the first of its kind.

Again, we're going to have challenges throughout building this program out, but I am excited for the partnerships and collaborations and really for us to build trust within the Native community.

And I think this is that kind of starting process.

So I will turn it over to Executive Director Lucero.

But before we do that, hold up, Esther.

I just want to say one thing, Mr. Diaz, Adrian, my friend.

You're the first person in law enforcement when we would have our conversations early on, and you said it again this morning, and I didn't tee you up for that.

You totally did it on your own.

I'm really glad that you said what you said, that missing murdered indigenous women and girls and people is a human rights issue.

And you've been saying that.

You said it privately to me and you said it publicly today.

And this is a city's response to a national crisis.

I wanna thank you, my hands up to you for those words.

That really means a lot.

I think it contextualizes it.

It puts it in a narrative that people need to understand that this is happening today.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Let's set our own.

Chief Diaz, it's good to see your face.

I think I remember our first meeting on this when we were trying to write the job description for this position.

So, Louise, it's good to meet you, at least virtually.

And I think, Chief Diaz, you and I will probably have to have a conversation along with City Council around budgeting for the future.

related to this.

I'm thinking about resources that we've allocated and resources that you've utilized.

And so we'll have that discussion moving forward.

I would like to give tremendous gratitude to our team.

Shannon Keene has been our research manager on this project, really kind of leading this effort, dedicating her time.

Adrian Dominguez has been overseeing her work, and that allows Abigail and I to do that work to continue to educate the public, and to make sure that we bring in vital resources to support the initiatives.

Christina Diego is our policy program manager, and she is brilliant, and we're lucky we have double brilliant since he took Francesca for me, Councilmember waters and.

it will continue to really build and strengthen our Native policy folks.

So anyway, with that, I'll hand it over to Christina, and then we can have a good discussion.

Christina.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you, Esther, for the introduction.

My name is Christina Diego, I'm Nimiipuu and Diné, and I'm an enrolled member of the Colville Tribes Mental Policy Program Director with the Seattle Indian Health Board.

And I am here today with Shannon Keene, Research Manager of the Urban Indian Health Institute, who laid the groundwork for the resolution in year one, and with Esther Locero, President and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board.

I would like to thank City Council members and the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee for holding this meeting today.

I would like to emphasize that the presentation today focuses on American Indian and Alaskan Native populations.

As part of our research, we recognize data collection practices and local efforts must continue beyond the resolution to serve the unique needs of each Indigenous population.

In year one urban Indian Health Institute assess Seattle Police Department's workflow for identifying missing persons by observing their current data collection processes from 911 emergency call initiations to missing persons detective follow up investigations.

And due to the limited time we focused on how Seattle Police Department process missing person cases.

And in year two we will observe how Seattle Police Department processes their murder cases in relation to American Indian and Alaskan Native people.

Our observations can support recommendations for Seattle Police Department to improve their data collection practices and investigation policies to more accurately capture the missing and murdered indigenous women and people crisis through their policies, processes, and interventions.

The Urban Indian Health Institute recently worked with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to improve the accuracy of data collected on American Indian and Alaskan Native people.

The case study offers recommendations to update their databases with fields for race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, and tribal land information.

Our work with King County has brought national attention from the Department of Justice and FBI and can be replicated with the Seattle Police Department.

In our work ahead, we recommend five targeted areas for the Seattle Police Department, which includes improving their data collection methods, practices, and processes.

First, we would like to recommend that they ensure American Indian race and ethnicity are being accurately captured.

From our observations, we found that there is a lack of standardizing the collection of American Indian and Alaska Native race and ethnicity within their protocols.

We would also like to recommend that they collect the self-identified race and ethnicity of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The current Community Safety and Communication Center and Seattle Police Department data collection processes rely on caller's perceptions of the individual, and this significantly erases the race and ethnicity that the individual identifies as.

We'd also like to ensure the collection and analysis of multiple race and ethnicity categories.

American Indian and Alaskan Native people are the fastest growing multiracial population across the nation.

and current community safety and communication center and Seattle Police Department data collection processes do not allow callers to describe individuals as multiracial and this is an issue that needs to be fixed.

We'd also like to recommend that they collect tribal affiliation when appropriate as determined by tribal consultation and urban confer processes.

We'd also like to recommend that they conduct a forensic review of missing and murdered indigenous women and people.

From the Urban Indian Health Institute report, we know that missing and murdered indigenous women is very high in Seattle, and to correct this, we need to conduct a forensic audit to correct cases of racial misclassification.

We'd also like to recommend they develop a codebook that defines current data elements in plain language.

For data and research, this is very important, and we found that Seattle Police Department currently does not have a codebook that explains data elements, and this is critical for ensuring proper data collection, analysis, and quality.

In the next section, we would like them to improve training for Seattle Police Department by providing training on best practices for collecting and inputting data.

And this is just important for standardizing a process across the agency.

We'd also like them to provide training related to American Indian and Alaska Native communities, the missing and murdered indigenous women and people crisis, and cultural humility.

We would also like to review existing trainings to increase and sustain compassion and empathy among Seattle Police Department.

And the next key area, we would like to observe non-emergency call takers to improve the collection of race, ethnicity, and tribal affiliation.

We also recommend conducting observations of non-emergency calls to increase the awareness of missing person investigation processes to support community members efforts related to missing and murdered indigenous women and people and improve transparency with our community members.

In the last section, we would like them to develop a unit manual to set communication standards between the missing person detective reporting parties and tribal nations when appropriate.

Currently, there is no unit manual that standardizes communication expectations, and this is important for improving communication with our community members.

Lastly, we would like to recommend that they clarify investigation expectations of patrol officers and the missing person detective across Seattle Police Department.

This will clarify data collection practices and support quality assurance to properly document American Indian and Alaska Native individuals impacted by missing and murdered indigenous women and people.

To support our efforts on the resolution, we would like to request the City Indigenous Advisory Council host an urban confer to discuss the reporting and collection of tribal-related data.

As an urban Indian organization, we recognize the efforts to improve data collection practices on tribal members must be informed by local tribes, American Indian and Alaska Native community members, Native leaders, and other Indigenous led organizations in the presence of the Seattle Police Department.

We look forward to our continued work to support survivors, victims, and families affected by the missing and murdered indigenous women and people crisis.

Thank you.

Thank you, Christine.

Esther, I have a few questions I want to ask, but I want to loop back to if there's anything from you, Esther, that you want to follow up on the recommendations.

No, I thought the team did well.

And then obviously our report is something that you'll be able to work from.

So I think that that's fine.

But I do want to reiterate that we're not just doing this to solve some of our local challenges and to really inform the state, but we're also trying to build a system that can be duplicated across the nation to really address this.

So I want to make sure that as we continue into this work, that we keep that in mind.

And so we're going to have to be innovative.

We're going to have to challenge systems.

And we need to work in tandem to make that happen.

So with that being said, Christine, I want to go back to you.

So I was trying to write notes and you were moving along pretty quickly there.

I have a few questions.

So you were working with the King County Prosecutor's Office.

There's an individual there that you're working with.

Do you have the same rapport and relationship in working with the city attorney's office, Ms. Anne Davidson's staff?

Because obviously, SPD, on the ground, local, Do you have the, are you developing that relationship as well?

Yes, I would say that we're developing that relationship right now.

I think with the King County prosecuting attorney's office, it was a different process because they reached out to us after seeing the work that we were able to do.

And we were just happy to start working on the resolution with the Seattle police department.

Okay.

So I think on our to-do list, and I know that my staff is taking notes as well, We would like to talk again offline about the connection between King County Prosecutor's Office and you folks.

And of course, help the relationship between the city attorney's office and you guys as well.

I think that's real important.

And then the question that I want to just kind of kick over back over to Chief and also Louise, is that do you have within SPD and I I think they do within the sheriff's office, but it's been a long time since I've been over there.

Is there some mechanism in which SPD works with tribal governments and tribal law enforcement?

Because that's a really big issue for us.

We do, and it's usually on very specific cases.

And typically, if there is somewhere where there's a missing case, a detective from a tribal police might end up reaching out to our detective.

If there is communication gaps, then sometimes we end up it goes up to a higher level.

Sometimes our lieutenants and captains and chiefs are involved.

But typically we we use it on an individual basis and not necessarily it's not necessarily uniform across like we're reaching out to the tribal police.

even when there's no cases in existence.

Right.

And I think that underscores the problem that I've seen over 30 years as a lawyer in any country and dealing with prosecutors and Department of Justice and U.S. attorneys is that I'm going to push hard on some recommendations that I think are important.

I think I brought some of them up with Christine and that we have some kind of goal of connecting with the King County Prosecutor's Office and the city attorney's office.

But I think we need on the SPD side I think we need a more institutionalized and formalized approach that there is somebody at SPD.

I don't, I mean, who am I?

I know that their job, they are in connection with and talking to and providing information to tribal governments, at least locally, and also to tribal law enforcement.

I know that you and I know a lot of the chief of police, like at Tulalip and Suquamish, Muckleshoot and Nisqually and Yakima, but should be relying on personal relationships.

And I know you and I talked about that yesterday.

That is something I would like to see before I leave office, is that there's some kind of institutionalization of that.

Because leveraging Indian country is phenomenal when you see the resources that are there.

Tribal governments are just like any other government.

They have hospitals, they have jails, they have police.

They do everything a city does.

And what I don't see the non-Indian world doing is leveraging those resources to actually find and to do other things.

But more importantly, for what the mission that's in front of us today is to find and identify missing murdered indigenous people.

Yeah.

And I don't like being the city that has the most number of missing murdered indigenous women and girls.

I think it's 71 or 72. That is not something I like to brag about with my other colleagues in other cities.

So.

Chief Diaz, that is something I'm hoping that you and I can start, at least on a legislative SPD level, and I'll talk to the mayor about it as well, because I think that is sorely needed.

I know people do land acknowledgments all the time, and I'm like, okay, thank you, but what I really want are really good, more than a land acknowledgment policies, and this would be one of them, to have SPD online with tribal governments and tribal law enforcement.

I think that'll go a long way.

Esther?

Yeah, I think I would also like to reiterate that tribes are deemed public health authorities as well.

And so from a data perspective, I think that we have like a different tier of responsibility with them.

And I think that, again, the ways that we define our data sharing agreements with the tribes and our responsibility to reporting accurate data to the tribes is going to be really key.

And I'm glad that you keep bringing up King County prosecutor's office, because I think that that will be the key to the success of this overall transformation.

So yeah, and we're happy, Abigail and I are happy to do anything that we can to make sure that those relationships are established beyond the personal relationships that you have now and help create like an infrastructure, right?

A system that's sustainable.

And I think we should use as an example, this is like 30 years ago, but we push hard for the U.S. attorney to have a Native American assistant U.S. attorney.

And we have one now because we were like, there are jurisdictional issues and there are federal crimes and there's a jurisdictional issue whether or not local law enforcement can go on a reservation with federal law.

And we had no federal prosecutor, a U.S. attorney that understood Indian law that could do that, and now we do.

I think he's still there, and I'm hoping he's still there, but that was a long time coming, so I would like to see the county and the city replicate that, quite frankly.

That's just something I've been working on probably for over 30 years, so hopefully we'll see that happen.

Okay.

Go ahead, Esther.

One last thing.

So, you know, sometimes we see systems created and then there are no systems of accountability that accompany that creation, right?

And so I want to make sure that we think about that, that there are rules, right?

And there are consequences to not abiding by the new systems that we develop.

You know, that's something that we've seen at the state level.

We've certainly seen at the national level where just folks just don't follow through.

And then there are no consequences to that.

So I want to keep that on our minds as well.

So we have a lot of work to do, and I know we're going to have another presentation before the August break.

So I know that Luis and team just got the recommendations from Salient Health Board working with their team.

We're going to meet again.

Luis and I are going to meet again.

Chief and I are going to meet again.

And then I'm going to try to, like, bring all of this together and have some stronger recommendations that I think we can deliver on the legislative side.

And then when we get our Indigenous Advisory Council online, then that'll be one of their chief issues to deal with is how we start working and collaborating.

And like you say, Esther, knowing what the deliverables are, how do we measure success and that we hold people accountable?

Okay, so does anyone have anything else on this topic before we move on for the good of the order?

Christine, you good?

I can't hear you.

I'm good, thank you.

OK, well, I want to thank Chief Diaz and I want to thank Luis Gomez.

Thank you, Luis.

It was nice meeting you and going finally seeing your face.

Hopefully I'll see you in person.

Thank you, Christine.

And we didn't see we didn't have Shannon here, but I guess we'll catch up with her later.

And Esther is here.

We just can't see her face.

I don't know if you're in this place where you can show your face.

But she doesn't have to, oh, there you are.

Hi, Shannon.

We're throwing your name, venting your name about, but thank you for being here and all the hard work you do.

I see your name on everything and Christine, so thank you.

I know how hard you guys work.

And thank you, Esther Lacero, so much for all the hard work you've done.

And we always talk offline.

Council Member Musqueh, is there anything you want to share?

Thank you so much.

I, you know, I've been very, excited about this presentation, knowing that it's been years in the works and more than just the two years that I know Council President Juarez noted, but I wondered if there was any emphasis or movement in the recommendations that you think will be forthcoming to have something that could be used across the state or the nation like we have with the amber alerts or with the silver alerts.

And I actually did not know that statistic, Council President, that we have the highest number of missing, murdered and indigenous women in Seattle compared to other large cities.

So if that is if this is groundbreaking for us to have this approach already, if something like a like an alert system on our phones could help bring more attention to the issue, and hopefully save lives and more resolution as well for these cases.

That'd be something I'd be interested in.

And to Esther's point, I'm sure that that would take resources, but I'm very interested in that as a possible recommendation too.

Great, thank you.

I didn't mean to put you on the spot, Council Member Mosqueda, but I always- Anytime.

I'm ready for it.

Thank you.

And I might just note to Council Member Mosqueda, so that is HB1725 on the alert system.

And that is one of the things that we're working on on our policy update.

So we have already our amber alert or silver alert, but the MMIW alert will also be noted as well.

That does get run out of the state patrol because once we have an alert system, then we then notify state patrol and then that's how it goes out statewide.

So we're working with them as well.

So we don't need to pilot something sooner than the state plans to run something?

No, we're just incorporating our policy right now and that way we're trained up and being ready to implement.

Well, thanks for all the recommendations forthcoming.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Luis.

Good job.

Good job.

OK, so we are moving on in our agenda for our three appointments.

So, Jody, can you read item number two into the record?

Yes.

Would it be all right if I do items two and three together?

Yes.

Let's do two and three together.

Agenda items two and three, appointments 02209 and 02210. The appointments of Danielle Alvarado and Dustin Lambrow as members, Labor Standards Advisory Commission for terms to April 30th, 2024 for a briefing discussion and possible vote.

Great, thank you.

Do we have, oh, there you are, Kareem.

Am I saying your name right?

Is it Kareem?

Yeah, Kareem.

Kim, Kim, you're going to introduce yourself and then you're going to introduce the two potential labor standard commissioners so I'm going to hand it over to you.

Thank you very much, Council President and the committee.

My name is Karen Levitas.

I serve as the Senior Policy Advisor at the Office of Labor Standards and as Commission Liaison to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission, LSAC.

LSAC serves a really valuable advisory function for our office, for the executive more generally, and to City Council as well.

It's unique in that it brings together business owners, business advocates, workers, worker advocates, and community members to provide insight on advancing labor standards in Seattle.

LSAC has advised city policymakers on the recent independent contractor protections ordinance, as well as providing guidance on numerous outreach and policy priorities to our office at the city more broadly.

Commissioners come from a wide range of backgrounds that are invested in improving with labor standards.

And as this committee knows well, Seattle is often not merely advancing best practices for labor standards, but creating them.

And the two appointees here today, I think, are going to be key voices in that conversation.

So I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the two appointees before the committee, Danielle Alvarado and Dustin Lambrow.

They'll both say some words about themselves, but I'm going to introduce Danielle at this point and then Dustin, I think, in a couple of minutes.

So I've known both for many years.

Danielle Alvarado has more than a decade of experience working in movements for racial and economic justice across the country.

She's worked as a legal services attorney in both immigration and employment cases.

and understands the many barriers low-income communities face enforcing their rights.

She's passionate about access to justice for immigrants, speakers of other languages, and communities of color, and brings a focus on racial equity to everything she does.

For the past three years, she's worked at the Fair Work Center and has partnered with OLS of many of the things she's done.

I think she'll say a few more words, but I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Danielle, potentially as an LSAC commissioner.

Danielle, we had a chance to look at your application packet and I see that I know all kinds of stuff about you.

But why don't you go ahead and share what you want to share with us today.

And I see that you and Dustin both graduated from Whitman College, but Dustin wouldn't write down what year he graduated, but you did.

So thank you for that.

You know, I might pretty soon I might start taking that note from Dustin.

Good morning, everybody.

So happy to be here.

Kim, thank you for the introduction.

In addition to some of the things I've worked on professionally, which I can elaborate on, I want to say that, you know, and I'm sure many of us here have this personal connection to this issue and to the work that LSAC is involved in.

I have a lot of family members with connections to low wage work, including my husband worked at a grocery store throughout the pandemic and so both as a city resident and a family member of someone who has benefited from our labor standards in addition to my professional work so want to say it's a great opportunity for me to be able to make sure that we continue to lead in Seattle.

Like Karen mentioned, one of the skill sets that I bring I think is working as a legal aid attorney and I think working with low income clients and understanding the barriers people face to navigating well intentioned but poorly set up structures you know and making sure that what we pass is actually meaningful accessible to people is something I'm very passionate about.

I'm fortunate that in my current organization we work closely with all us in a variety of ways including on individual worker issues supporting the domestic worker standards board thinking about implementation of some of the ordinances that we have recently passed and so I think.

That is really helpful insight for us thinking about going forward, how can we continue to build on the successes that we've had so far to make sure in particular as we're thinking about an equitable recovery from the pandemic that we are setting ourselves up to have an economy that's thriving and thriving for everybody and not leaving immigrants, people of color, and women behind.

I think there's a lot of opportunities.

There's so many things in the works right now that council and the mayor and OLS are already thinking about.

And so I'm optimistic we'll be able to provide just some of that implementation expertise, that insight into what low-income communities and workers need to make sure that our protections are really accessible to them and to help continue to make sure that racial justice and equity is centered in our thoughts about what comes next for us in terms of economic development and workplace protections.

So I think there's there's so much that we have already done in Seattle.

I'm really proud of that work.

I'm proud to be a resident of the city and also see there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to lead and look forward to the opportunity to supporting that that progress with the rest of the commission and all the other stakeholders.

You know, what district do you live in to D2?

OK, so before we how do I do this?

Do you want me to?

I have a couple of things I want to say and then And then do you want to go over to Dustin?

I see he's here.

He's got a suit on, ready to go.

So we talk about Dustin first, then we'll talk about everybody at the end.

How do you want to do it?

I won't certainly defer to you, but I can, I can introduce Dustin now and then, and then move, move that way.

But let's do that.

Let's let you introduce Dustin.

And then we have some questions or I just want to let, and then open the floor for my colleagues to talk about both of you.

So go ahead.

Great, yeah, so Dustin, like Danielle, has really so much experience, it's hard to introduce him sufficiently here, but he has over a decade of experience working on Seattle Labor Standards.

He serves in leadership at King County Labor Council and UFCW 3000, and has been a voice in the policy conversations around Seattle Labor Standards, for really every labor standard that our office enforces, and going back to before our office even existed.

Most recently, I personally worked with Justin on issues around the groundbreaking work around labor standards for Uber and Lyft drivers and TNC space, and continued conversations around the forthcoming cannabis equity policy work.

And I really look forward to the opportunity to work with him in this, potentially in this new role.

Great.

So, Mr. Lambrow, would you like to share?

CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His): Any kind of Council President, thank you so much, and thank you Karen for that fantastic introduction, I would be happy to continue listening to all the great things about me it's very.

CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His): Very nice.

CoB, Jay Sugnet – He, Him, His): I am proud of all of the work that.

I've got to engage on here in the city of Seattle, and I'm proud of the progress that we've made as a city and setting some really groundbreaking labor standards legislation.

over the years, and particularly how we've created a model for other places across the country, excited about the work on cannabis I'm doing right now.

And although it wouldn't be necessarily a model, since most other cities in the West Coast are already doing much of it, excited about continuing to partner with you all as we advance that ball forward.

I would love to continue doing labor standards work with some other colleagues that are already on the Labor Standards Advisory Commission and as well as with Danielle so would love to have your support here as you deliberate about whether Daniel or I can be appointed to the committee, but we would certainly appreciate the support and look forward to continuing to partner with all of you as we advance the fall forward on labor standards.

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to be here today.

Thank you.

I'm going to open up the floor, Kassar Mosqueda.

Is there anything you want to share?

Well, I just want to thank the folks from the Office of Labor Standards who've done a lot of work with the Labor Standards Advisory Committee over the years and the two individuals that are interested in joining us today.

I know bring a wealth of expertise and experience within working directly with folks on the front line and also have done a really tremendous job of working with employers as well to make sure that we have actionable policies that result in workers getting better wages and benefits and treatments in the workplace.

So happy that they're interested in this role.

And thank you for your past work and look forward to continuing to work with you on this.

Thank you.

I just have a brief, I had a chance to go through the application packets and I was, and so I, I mean, I, what more can I say?

You guys are a Dustin and Danielle, incredibly amazing people.

And what we're seeing now is this really First of all, I've seen at least, correct me if I'm wrong, in a long time, a real resurgence of labor and unionization.

I mean, for a while there, I was worried back in 15 and 16, like, you know, where's labor at now?

What's gonna happen in this gig economy?

How are we gonna, you know, galvanize and have labor unions and unions, and have real, you know, not just, you know, just straightforward talk on how we get these things done.

And I know both of you have been working on a lot of these issues, and you're also very collaborative.

And I like that you understand business and you work with elected officials and you're pragmatic and you have common sense.

And you know that from your work on the $15 minimum wage and the other union issues that, you know, consensus has to be made to move forward and you continue to move forward.

And I, I just, uh, both of you and I'm glad that, you know, with Danielle's background and legal and Danielle looking at your resume, it's obviously you understand how you move these kind of issues forward, that they don't happen overnight, just because people chant, I want it now.

It's not how the world works.

And I appreciate that.

And Dustin, watching you, I've known you for years, and you're always so even-tempered, common sense.

What's the long game?

What are the incremental games?

Don't act like you're embarrassed.

So I appreciate that OLS and the, And the labor standards advisory commission has this kind of well of knowledge and maturity and experience.

So I want to thank you both for stepping up and wanting to serve.

I noticed that counselor Peterson signed your city appointments.

I wasn't here, so I was kind of mad that my name wasn't on it, but that's okay.

I'll let that go.

So, um, with that, is there anything else from any of my colleagues?

Oh, go ahead.

Can't hear you.

Thanks so much, Council President.

And I was just remembering that sometimes with the long agendas that we have, we have a consent agenda on our full council meetings.

So I'm going to just take this opportunity if I might, Madam President, to say a few more words.

Because this might be the chance for folks to really tune back in and say, hey, who are some of those folks?

So I really want to just lift up how excited we are to have Daniel Alvarado as a member of the Labor Standards Advisory Committee first.

I've had the chance in our office through stage of freak as well chief of staff we've had the chance to work with Danielle before being executive director of working Washington and the Fair Work Center.

And I want to thank her for all of her work and congratulate her for their executive director appointment.

I really do believe Danielle will bring some really strong relationships and collaboration to the work of the commission and I'm honored to support the, the appointment here today.

And to our good friend and colleague, Dustin Lambrow, who is a strong labor champion, first within the Teamsters, SEIU before that, and now UFCW 3000, and leadership at MLK Labor, which is our central labor council.

for Seattle and King County.

It's just so exciting that you're interested in bringing your expertise and I know you don't have a ton of extra time as an elected member as well.

But we do appreciate that you are spending your time coming to the Labor Standards Advisory Committee and bringing these deep roots that you have in labor and bridging, you know, building trades and some of the retail and service unions, I think is a really a deep wealth of experience to have at the table.

And as Council President Juarez noted, the ability to work within systems and to help find solutions for workers means pushing and finding strategies that will make sure that businesses implement and can comply with what we're trying to push forward.

And that ultimately leads to better conditions for workers.

So thank you very much for your interest, Dustin, in serving in this role.

I know that you will be a leader at that table and continually making sure that folks not only in Seattle, but across King County in the state have improved working conditions.

And the folks in King County who recently voted you as a hospital commissioner, I think agree with us since you won that seat and congratulations to you as well on that.

Wow.

Anything else?

So anyway, Dustin, I am more than a tribal real estate lawyer for the record.

So, Madam Clerk, how do we do this?

Do we go through each appointment or do we do them together?

How does that work?

With appointments, you can confirm recommendation of both at the same time, if you'd like.

That's what I would like to do.

OK, so let me get back here, get back on this, put away your applications.

I'm going to keep Dustin's right by me, though, to follow up on that later.

OK, so Here we go.

I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 02209, Ms. Danielle Alvarado, and appointment 02210, Dustin Lambrow.

Second.

Great.

It's been moved and seconded.

If there's no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the two appointments?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Chair Juarez.

Aye.

Three in favor.

None opposed.

So do we go to Mr. Lambrow now?

Do I do the same thing and move it again?

We just did them together.

Right.

So that's it?

That is it.

OK, great.

We got it both done.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

All right.

Madam Clerk, we have one more item, item number four.

Can you please read item number four to the record?

Agenda item four, appointment 0-2-2-0-8.

The appointment of Chelya Stallings Ali Alama as member of Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for a term to December 31st, 2024 for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

So at this time, I would like to invite, and I see he's here, our executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee, Wayne Barnett.

So Wayne, you can speak to this appointment and we'll go forward.

Well, thank you, Council President.

I'm here today to introduce Shalia Stallings-Ali-Ulema.

She is the nominee of the mayor to sit on the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

I'm very excited to introduce Shalia.

As you know, the Ethics and Elections Commission is responsible for everything from the conduct of city employees, to the democracy voucher program, to elections, lobbying.

We're very We're very powerful.

We have a tremendous book of business.

And Shalia comes to us from the Attorney General's office.

She has been there since 2008 and since 2016 has been working in the Civil Rights Division.

So that's very impressive.

We're very happy to have her.

She's also a past president of the Lauren Miller Bar Association.

Just can't say enough good things about her.

Very excited to meet her.

I met, I was talking yesterday with Jeremy Rocca, the mayor's council.

We were both kind of very excited that Shalia had kind of dropped into our laps.

So that's good news, but I'm happy.

Shalia, I'd love it if you could introduce yourself, say a few things as well.

Oh, there she is.

Shalia.

Hello.

Good morning.

Hi.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I am pleased and honored to be considered for appointment before you today.

As Director Barnett indicated, I do work for the State Attorney General's Office, and that's one of the reasons why I think this position would be a good fit for me, just because my career is public service, and that's what is near and dear to my heart as our voting rights and representation.

I care deeply about racial equity and social justice.

And as a resident of South Seattle in District 2, this is something that is personal to me and also helps provide a way that I can connect, you know, my legal career and my experience with my personal life work basically.

So I'm also a strong believer that brevity is the soul of wit.

So I will keep it short, but I am pleased to be considered and I'm happy to answer any questions you all may have about me.

I will say I have had experience working specifically with the city of Seattle.

When I worked on the force review board for the Seattle Police Department, I was the mayor's alternate observer on that board and found it very important and educational and it was a very meaningful experience for me.

And then I also pro tem for the Seattle Municipal Court occasionally and so enjoy being connected to Seattle and I am excited about the idea of being just this much more involved with our city government.

Thank you.

Um, I have a few comments to say, um, Julia, I hope you don't mind me calling you by your first name.

Is that okay?

Okay.

Okay.

So we had a chance obviously to, to go through your application packet and your mayoral appointment and your resume is so stellar.

Um, you spent the 14, first 14 years of your legal career and continue to be a public servant.

And as a former person that spent 14 years in the public sector before I went to the private sector, and also pro tem in Seattle Municipal Court, it's incredibly impressive to have you be part of this.

And also I was looking at your resume.

and the work that you did at DSHS for the Indian Child Welfare Act.

I don't think I've ever seen any AG who's actually done that work.

It's been a while, but so I'm so impressed that Wayne found this jewel and the work that you've been doing and having the background that you have for this, for the ethics.

I mean, I'm just, I'm very impressed and I don't, I can't say much.

I mean, and also you were the president of the Lauren Miller Bar.

me being when it used to be the Hispanic bar, I just remember all those crazy days.

I have a lot of respect for you and where you're at and what you're doing.

And also you volunteering to do this.

I don't think the public realizes that when people sign up to be on these commissions and committees, particularly something like the ethics board, it's a lot of time and it takes a lot of time from your family.

But your continued commitment to public service really speaks volumes about who you are, not only as a mother or, I'm sorry, a mom, I don't know if you're a mom or not, I shouldn't say that, but as a lawyer.

I am a mom.

Okay, so I remember those days too, and not having to leave my babies for meetings and signing up for too much stuff.

So I really wanna thank you for stepping up and doing this because this kind of commitment, at least from the way I look at it, I always appreciate people like you who step up and actually do the work.

So thank you so much.

Is there anything from any of my colleagues?

Okay.

Wayne, do you want to close this out before I move to a vote?

Anything you want to say?

No, I don't think so.

I think everything's going well, so.

I should sit down like a good attorney.

I'm gonna, I'm winning so I'm gonna be quiet.

This group is not known for brevity.

So, okay.

Let me go ahead.

I'm not seeing any.

All right.

So I moved the appointment.

I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 0-2-2-0-8.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

I do not see any other hands up or discussion.

Okay.

Madam clerk, will you please call the roll on the recommendation?

Council member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Chair Juarez.

Aye.

Three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommends that City Council, full City Council, uphold the confirmation of, I just want to make sure I get your name right, I keep saying that wrong.

Shalia Stallings-Alama.

So close.

I'll let you Lima, but everything else was there.

Thank you so much, I appreciate you all.

Thank you.

All right, this item will, all three appointments will come before full council on Tuesday, May 24th.

Thank you.

Okay, with that, moving on in our agenda, before we move to adjourn, is there anything else for my colleagues before we move on?

Oh, yes, Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you Madam Chair.

And I know you and your staff member, Sarah mayors did a lot of work and want to thank you for the due diligence that you went through to work on all of these appointments today.

And no, Sarah's not with us today, but want to extend our appreciation to her as well for me and safe.

Oh, thank you.

She's very kind of you.

Okay.

That concludes our items of business.

All items passed as I shared will be on, on city council agenda.

May 24th and our next committee meeting is scheduled to be held on June 16th.

And for that colleagues, thank you for being here this morning.

And with that, we stand adjourned.

Bye.