Public Safety and Human Services Committee 11/28/23

Thank you so much.

The November 28th, 2023 meeting of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31 a.m.

I'm Lisa Herbold, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Nelson?

Present.

Councilmember Peterson?

Here.

Vice Chair Lewis?

Present.

Chair Herbold?

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda is excused for present.

Thank you so much.

On today's agenda, we have two items.

The first is the appointment of Callie Ellis as Executive Director of the Community Police Commission.

And the second item on today's agenda is a property transfer for housing development of the former Dumar substation in the Highland Park neighborhood.

We will now approve our agenda for today's committee meeting.

If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, today's committee meeting or committee agenda is adopted.

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

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

Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak, and I'll alternate between virtual and in-person public commenters, taking the in-person public commenters first.

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website and the sign-in form.

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

Once I call a speaker's name, if you're using the virtual option, you will hear a prompt, and once you've heard that prompt, please press star six to unmute yourself.

We ask that you begin speaking by stating your name and the item on the agenda which you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime when there is 10 seconds left of the allotted time.

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

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time, the speaker's mic will be muted after 10 seconds to allow us to hear from the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line and encourage you to continue following the meeting, and you can do so via the Seattle channel or the listening options on the agenda.

We've got nine people signed up for public comment today, eight virtual, one in person.

And like mentioned, I will call on the in-person speaker first.

We have one person signed up in person to speak, and that is Michelle Witzke, speaking on the Dumar substation.

Hello, I'm Michelle Witzke, and I'm speaking about the Dumar substation.

You can pull it right down.

Pull it right down?

Yeah.

Hi, I'm Michelle Witzke, and I'm speaking about the Dumar substation.

And first, I wanted to start off by thanking Councilmember Lisa Herbal by working with our community for so long on this project and other projects in our community.

I think we started working on it in 2016, and the community identified the site We decided that a park wouldn't be a good location because there's drug activity across the street.

So it's a really good thing that this is actually in the public safety committee.

But what the community really, really needs is commercial.

And we also realized that we needed people were being pushed out of our community and we needed like low income housing.

And while this property isn't good for low income rentals.

It is a good location for low income homeownership opportunities.

So I'm here in support of having it transferred over to the Office of Housing.

And thank you for your time and consideration.

Our next speaker moving on to the virtual speakers, we've got Johanna Renfoe, followed by Kay Kirkpatrick.

Yes, hello.

My name is Johanna Renfro, and I'm here to speak on behalf of for the appointment of Collie Ellis as executive director of the Seattle Community Police Commission.

I am a former student in the MPA program at the Evergreen Elizabeth Meyers, The Capacity Collective, State College and Dr Ellis was my faculty advisor for my research during that time, so for my public comment i'd like to speak specifically to.

Elizabeth Meyers, The Capacity Collective, Leadership her leadership her commitment to equity, as well as the way that she empowered my performance as a student during that time.

So firstly, regarding leadership, I was able to meet regularly with Dr. Ellis during the course of my research project, and I saw firsthand how she was able to help our team grow in our abilities to do our research, to engage in those practices, the mixed methods practices that we were exploring.

And then also to share that opportunity with others and coaches along our way.

She taught and informed some of our leadership capabilities during that time.

One of the key parts of our program was that we were shown through her leadership how to weave issues of equity throughout all of our work.

So every assignment, every reading was focused on that.

And it was an important part of our program that we were able to engage in those conversations and learn how to do so fluidly.

And I do credit Dr. Ellis for helping coach us along in those practices.

And lastly, Carolyn Gallagher- Regarding student empowerment, I would like to share that Dr Ellis personally contributed to my growth and development as a student in the mta program as well as my career.

Carolyn Gallagher- I don't know a better person for being able to do that kind of work and for supporting me so well, so thank you very much to you, Dr Ellis and again, thank you for considering her for the appointment for the effective director.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kate Kirkpatrick and Kay will be followed by Camilla Kays Brown.

Okay.

Hi, thank you.

This is Kate Kirkpatrick.

Uh, thank you for, to the committee members for the opportunity to speak today.

I'm here as the co-chair from the Highland park action coalition, representing membership from our area, south delridge river view and Highland park neighborhoods.

I'm here to speak in favor of item two on today's agenda, advancing council bill 1 2 0 7 1 4. Sarah Silver, Transferring the doom our substation property at 16 Southwest and Southwest holden to the office of housing for the purpose of developing permanently affordable home ownership in the neighborhood.

Sarah Silver, In 2015 yes over eight years ago city light representatives attended an h pack meeting seeking input from our area on preferred just position of the surplus property.

Sarah Silver, At that time, and at numerous meetings since consensus has supported use of this property for development of some sort of affordable housing.

Highland Park South Delridge neighborhood is identified in the One Seattle plan as being at high risk of affordable housing displacement.

Residents here have long recognized the loss of affordable housing that we see enroaching on the neighborhood through up zoning and market pressure and looked at this property as one opportunity to help keep some level of this inevitable future development affordable.

We also strongly support the ground level development of commercial space that this zoning calls out.

as a needed improvement in the neighborhood infrastructure which lacks walkable neighborhood commercial spaces that provide business amenities residents now lack.

The other three corners of the intersection are already in use as commercial and as a fire station.

Please support the transfer of this property from City Light Surplus for the dual use as low income residential and neighborhood commercial that it provides.

We also strongly encourage timely coordination with Seattle Public Utility work on drainage amenities on the southwest Holden side of this property that is now in active design phase.

So we need to get this moving.

All right.

Thanks again for allowing us to testify by phone.

We really appreciate the convenience and accessibility that allows.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Camilla Hayes Brown, followed by Howard Gale.

Hello.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Seattle City Council for allowing me to place my comment on public record.

My name is Kamala Hassan Keith-Brown, and I am here to illuminate Dr. Callie Mortison Ellis's commitment to community and her tenacity as your next Seattle Community Police Commission Executive Director for appointment 02655. Dr. Callie Ellis was my graduate professor at the Evergreen State College in the Masters of Public Administration Public Policy Program.

Dr. Ellis unwavers in her ability to promote the conceptualization of public administration by acknowledging personal biases and redirecting them into concepts of the democratic governance.

She has exalted transparency, accountability, and strategic planning to do it to the community and equity concerns.

She has advocated for collaborative critical thinking to build bridges and promote public safety and trust.

Dr. Ellis has supported her scholars in policy analysis, performance measurement, fiscal analysis, and program evaluation.

All of this helped demystify public sector work.

She has seminar program constructive dialogue to reimagine and address inequitable policing as her scholars tracked and reported SB and HB fields in our most autonomous fashion.

In summary, Dr. Callie Mortison Ellison has forged critical thinkers and has mandated action in her students to produce authentic impact.

And she shall do the same for you.

Dr. Ellis will elevate her appointment as Executive Director of the Seattle Community Police Commission.

And you shall forever be grateful.

I thank you for this opportunity to speak, and I rescind my time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Dr. Howard Gale, followed by Lachazar Angulov.

Good morning.

Howard Gale with seattlestop.org.

Since starting their work over 10 and a half years ago, the Community Police Commission has consistently positioned itself as a gatekeeper between the community and the injustices it would give voice to.

That history took an inevitable dark turn over the last 14 months with the CPC, for the first time in its history, repeatedly attending numerous police conferences, including having a staff member attend a police conference in the dictatorship of the United Arab Emirates.

During this time, the CPC has witnessed the sudden and mysterious disappearance of its former director and numerous staff, who many believe were fired for questioning the CPC's hostility to the community and to the facts.

And it has become increasingly hostile to the community, going so far as to attack, slander, and threaten community members and public comment and station security guards at meetings.

Given this history, it was predictable but horrifying to witness the CPC's interim director, Callie Ellis, verbally attacked slander and tried to silence community members last spring, including a community member whose brother was murdered by the Seattle police.

It is no surprise then that the CPC's own commissioned investigation in 2022 concluded, quote, the CPC's engagement of the public is the subject of much criticism regarding who it engages and how, is lacking in depth.

The CPC is viewed as uninvolved and disconnected from the community, only engaging certain voices they agree with and transactional in their engagement, unquote.

Under Callie Ellis' leadership during 2023, the CPC has become even more uninvolved, disconnected, and transactional, leading to the kind of hostility and abuse she is engaged in, all captured in a video.

Chair Herbold and Council Members Lewis and Mosqueda, do you really wish to cement your legacy of turning a blind eye to the egregious failures of our police accountability system, of going back on your promises from the summer of 2020, by now actively approving the very person who is turning the Seattle Community Police Commission into the commission that polices the community, that goes to police conferences, that ignores the death and harm dealt by police, and that solidifies a culture of excluding the very people harmed most by police?

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lachsar, I think it is, Angulov, and feel free to correct my pronunciation, followed by Nora Salander.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak, and yes, pronunciation was excellent.

My name is Lachsar Angulov, and I am here to speak on behalf of the First Agenda item, which is the appointment of Dr. Callie Ellis.

I have had the privilege of working with Dr. Ellis as a faculty member at the Evergreen State College Masters of Public Administration program since she arrived in Pacific Northwest.

And in our time together, she has distinguished her exceptional leader and educator, as was already mentioned by a couple of our former students, Joe and Cam.

It was great to hear from them.

Dr. Ellis was a visionary in the curriculum development for MPA programs and instrumental in organizing changes that reflected societal changes, broadly speaking, particularly when it comes to integrating racial and social equity initiatives and pedagogical tools that can help our students become better equipped to navigate an environment where we seek improvements in belonging, equity, and revisiting some of the injustices of previous history.

In her capacity, she was recognized as a leader, not just by faculty and students, but also by administration.

And I'm really pleased to see her moving on and taking on that role for the City of Seattle.

So congratulations on making that decision and making sure that Cali is continuing to serve the community in the best possible way.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Nora Salander followed by Kathleen Hossfeld.

Good morning, Chair Herbold and members of the committee.

My name is Nora Seelander and I'm a Seattle resident excited to join you remotely and express my support for the appointment of Callie Ellis.

Dr. Ellis was my advisor in graduate school at the Evergreen State College and played a key role in preparing me for a career in public service.

In the MPA program, Callie led our cohort through the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a moment where the world felt so uncertain, she rose to the occasion, trying new tools and modalities, taking in our feedback, and making adjustments until we had a learning community that could continue on together.

In hindsight, the thing that sticks out to me most is that Callie struck the perfect balance between being decisive and flexible.

She was always prepared to teach and always present with us, but could make the necessary adjustment to meet students where we were at.

After graduation, I took a job as the Director of Government Relations for Evergreen State College.

And as her colleague, I got to see the work behind the scenes when Kali powerfully advocated for hiring adequate faculty in the tribal governance cohort and spoke up for necessary changes in the MPA curriculum, changes that students had been requesting.

I'm confident that Kali has the skills, experience and temperament to successfully serve our city in this important role.

Thank you for your time this morning.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kathleen hospital.

Thank you very much.

I'll remember her bald.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

My name is Kathleen hospital.

and I'm the CEO and Executive Director of Homestead Community Land Trust.

Talking to you today in support of the transfer of the Dumar substation property for permanently affordable home ownership.

Homestead Community Land Trust is a developer of permanently affordable home ownership and we can attest to the value of the transfer of such properties for affordable home ownership.

We have received three such properties which will create 38 homes in total, have already created 11 of those homes.

And over time, the value of those homes will create 260 first time home buying opportunities for income qualified households in our community.

I'm particularly excited to hear that the Highland Park neighborhood speaking through the Highland Park Action Coalition is in enthusiastic support of the transfer of this property.

Susan Peterson, And just look forward to the fulfillment of the Community's vision for affordable housing affordable home ownership and activating commercial space on the ground floor, thank you to all those who have advocated for this outcome.

Susan Peterson, And a special thanks to Council Member for bold for her work in mobilizing land and opportunities for home ownership in Seattle, thank you.

Thank you.

Our last speaker Alice Clark is showing as not present.

Just pause for a moment to see if that status changes.

Not seeing any change in Alice Clark's status as not present.

So with that, it is and we will conclude public comment today.

Will the clerk please read in agenda item number one.

Agenda item one, appointment 02655, appointment of Callie Mortenson Ellis as executive director of the Seattle Community Police Commission.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

As the presenters and the nominee take the table, I will just make a few introductory remarks here.

We're joined by co-chairs of the Community Police Commission, Reverend Patricia Hunter and Joel Merkel, as well as Interim Executive Director Ellis.

For this position, under the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance, the Executive Director of the Community Police Commission is appointed by the Community Police Commission itself.

and confirmed by the council to a six-year term.

Council confirmation is not needed for reappointment.

Council members may recall that we just recently added a new deputy director position because of the recent experience of needing a succession structure within the organization when there is a vacancy in the executive director position.

Prior to this recent change the Council made, there was no one in line under the ordinance to fill the vacancy, yet Interim Director Ellis did so when instructed to do so by the CPC and has been in this role ever since, since January.

Thank you.

The CPC voted to appoint Interim Director Ellis as the Executive Director, so the appointment is now before the Committee for confirmation.

And with that, I will turn it over to the co-chairs to present this appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you to Councilmember Herbold, Councilmember Nelson, Councilmember Lewis and Peterson.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning.

The mission of the CPC is to champion police practices centered in justice and equity.

Our commitment to our mission and to serving impacted communities of Seattle has been solid under the leadership of our interim director, Dr. Collie Ellis.

I'm here today as one of the co-chairs of the commission to support Dr. Ellis's appointment as executive director for the Seattle Community Police Commission.

And although Reverend Harriet Walden is not speaking today, all of the co-chairs enthusiastically support Dr. Ellis's appointment as executive director of the CPC.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ellis in October of 2022 when she was hired as the policy director of the CPC.

And only weeks into her hire, Dr. Ellis was tapped to be the interim executive director of the CPC.

She didn't seek the position nor lobby for the job as the interim ED.

But the three co-chairs saw in Dr. Ellis the skills and intellectual capacity to move the CPC through a challenging season.

And so we asked her if she would step up to the plate and she did.

Dr. Ellis is well-versed in the purpose and the worth of the CPC.

And let me add, she's also well-versed in the challenges to carry out its mandate as outlined in our accountability ordinance.

One of the challenges of the CPC is to bring clarity to what we do.

Our purpose is to listen to voices of marginalized communities and those impacted by unjust policing and recommend policies to ensure just and equitable policing.

What we are tasked to do is written in the accountability ordinance that directs our three-legged police accountability system.

Commissioners and varied community members, and at times even staff, believe our work to be something outside the scope of the ordinance.

Faced with these interpretive challenges, Dr. Ellis always returns to the ordinance as the compass for the work of the CPC.

Our work is about community engagement and policy development.

And under Dr. Ellis's leadership, our community engagement team is fully staffed.

Dr. Ellis's personal commitment to community engagement is evident as she volunteers to support domestic violence survivors here in Seattle.

The co-chairs are Dr. Ellis' direct supervisors, and she has shared with us the importance of having a strong community engagement staff who bring back to our policy staff and the commissioners the concerns of our multifaceted Seattle community.

Dr. Ellis has energetically and enthusiastically moved the CPC forward since January of 2023. And in July, 2023, after a national search, the commissioners voted to offer the permanent position of executive director to Dr. Collie Ellis.

The credibility of the CPC has improved greatly under Dr. Ellis's leadership.

Her passion for justice and her commitment to policy development bodes well for the future of the CPC.

I and other commissioners look forward to working with her as the next executive director of the Seattle Community Police Commission.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Co-Chair Merkel, did you have anything that you wanted to add, or should we turn it over to Dr. Ellis?

If I may, I just have a few things to add.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I think what's important to emphasize from Co-Chair Reverend Hunter's comments is the co-chairs were mindful of the ordinance and the requirements of the CPC, the mission of the CPC, And that's when we had a vacancy in our leadership.

We instantly looked to Dr. Ellis, and she didn't seek it.

She was hired as a policy director.

She had excellent credentials as a policy director, and she was already doing really great work as a policy director.

And given that the fundamental purpose of the CPC is to make policy recommendations and changes for changes to SPD, our accountability partners, city council, city government, with community engagement input, it was the obvious choice to select Collie, Dr. Ellis, as the interim executive director.

And my memory of it is she was kind of voluntold to do it.

And during this time, over the last almost year, she's been the interim executive director.

She's also still been the policy director.

She's essentially been wearing two hats and carrying a commission that has been short-staffed as a result of that.

And during that time, she has done remarkable work leading the organization, restoring our relationships with our accountability partners, with community partners.

And she's shown tremendous professionalism and leadership Just a couple other things I just want to note is, you know, since the 2017 accountability ordinance, this is only the second confirmation of an executive director.

And this last process, I think, appropriately focused on what our purpose is, what the ordinance says, what we're supposed to do, and engaged the community and commissioners alike.

And through that national search and also been able to observe Dr. Ellis's performance over the last year, the commission selected her.

And that's, as Chair Herwald mentioned, the CPC selects its own ED, and that's a function of the city council designing the CPC to be an independent commission.

And so I'm grateful that Dr. Ellis was willing to serve and that she is so keen on ensuring that we are always mindful of what the ordinance says and requires of us to ensure that the CPC is remaining on target in terms of what our work and responsibility is.

So I'm extremely impressed with her leadership and her professionalism and her work over the last year, and I'm excited for what the future holds.

Thank you, Chair Herbold.

Thank you, thank you to the co-chairs for this presentation and your putting forward Dr. Ellis.

At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Ellis to talk about what you are excited to fill this role and what you hope to accomplish in your time as the director.

Thank you so much, Chair Herbold, as well as Councilmember Nelson and Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Lewis.

I want to start by thanking all of the CPC commissioners and co-chairs who have worked diligently over more than a year to stabilize the Community Police Commission and bring the commission forward towards fulfilling its potential as a key oversight partner.

And I also want to thank the staff of the CPC who have taken on the challenge of stepping up the work of the agency during this period of transition.

So with that, I want to emphasize that this year is incredibly important to the city of Seattle.

After the shooting of John T. Williams by the Seattle Police Department in 2010, 35 organizations signed on to a letter to bring the Department of Justice to Seattle, and the community has been working under that for 11 years.

But as Judge Robart noted in his ruling in September of this year, now is the time to bring the responsibility back to us.

This is our community here in Seattle.

And that's why the CPC is so important.

Because everyone in the city of Seattle needs, as the governing ordinance states, effective constitutional policing and a police department that has the trust, respect, and support of the community.

So the CPC has a vital role to play in ensuring police accountability in our city.

We provide important policy analysis and recommendations that are meant to ensure the integrity of the law enforcement system, one in which police officers are entrusted with extraordinary life and death powers.

For myself, I am excited and honored to be part of this work.

I came to the CPC last year after a career in academia and public service.

I cared deeply about my students, some of whom you heard from, and I wanted to make sure that they were well-equipped to be leaders in the public sector.

But I left academia because I wanted to bring my skills and experience in public administration to the challenges of my own community, the city of Seattle where I've lived for six years now.

The challenge of providing effective constitutional policing, informed by the voices and values of the community being policed, was the critical and timely public challenge I was eager to bring my skills and experience to.

Living in Seattle, I saw and shared the concerns of the community who witnessed police brutality, especially in 2020. I am a Latina and the daughter of an immigrant from a country that has struggled with constitutional policing, that puts the community first.

From my mother, I learned what it is like when the rule of law doesn't work and when police are on the wrong side of the law.

That experience gave me an understanding of the necessity for constitutional policing.

As you are aware, this is a critical year and especially critical for the CPC and the entire oversight system.

In March, we filed an amicus brief in support of partially terminating the consent decree.

We agreed at that time with the DOJ and the city that the continued efforts and the court's continued involvement should focus just on two areas, use of force of crowds and accountability, an area of particular concern for the CPC.

SPD has made significant changes, as noted by Judge Robart.

SPD made improvements in policies, methods of operation, and leadership with regards to use of force, stops and detentions, and crisis intervention, as well as data collection.

But there is more that needs to be done, and this does go back to the community.

The 2012 original agreements that required the cities to establish a CPC recognize that the community is a critical resource and that ongoing community input into the development of reforms, establishment of priorities and mechanisms to promote community confidence will strengthen SPD and facilitate police community relationships to promote public safety.

But what you've noticed over the course of the past year is as much progress as SP has made on policies, there are serious issues that are of concern to the CPC with respect to police culture.

There have been a number of key issues that have indicated that the more difficult thing to nail down, police culture, making sure that the culture of police is actually focusing on the needs of the city.

has not fully come forward.

And that's why CPC remains interested in this and highlighted the concerns of the community over a pedestrian death in January of 2023 and the response that came out later this year, as well as the discovery in the East Precinct of a mock tombstone and other disturbing items.

These are culture issues.

This is soft, difficult stuff, but this is where we wanna focus going forward because it's really important.

I also want to highlight another interest and focus of the CPC.

It has to do with police contracts and accountability in police contracts.

So in 2018, the city did bargain away critical parts of the accountability ordinance it had signed just the year before in their agreement with SPOG.

So that is why the court that year ruled the city had fallen out of full and effective compliance with the consent decree regarding discipline and accountability.

This is a critical thing for the CPC going forward and something that I want to amplify the voice of for the community and the concerns of the commissioners.

Thank you so much for this opportunity and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much.

And I will have a few questions, but I'm going to hold them to see if my colleagues, council members, have questions that they'd like to get on the table here.

If not seeing any, I will maybe get us started then.

Maybe we need a little warm-up time.

So as mentioned, you've acted as interim for almost a year now.

Understanding that you have been in this role, would just be really interested to know what you've learned about not just sort of the context in which you're doing the work, but what it means to be a successful leader of the CPC and what you'd like to accomplish over the next year.

Thank you for that.

One of the things that I'd like to highlight is that I attended a conference just a couple weeks ago called the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

So this is the main conference for people all over the country who do this kind of work.

And I attended a session for an entire day that was just for executives, just for people in my role at small agencies, large agencies.

And the challenges that are being faced organizationally by the CPC, by the city of Seattle are nationwide.

It is not just us.

This is very difficult work.

It's difficult work for the staff.

It's difficult work for the leadership.

The challenges, even though there's structures of different community oversights, structures can be different in different places, it is very challenging.

So that really highlighted to me what I want to focus on going forward.

What I've emphasized in my written responses and my verbal responses is really the need for stability.

This is what the commissioners and the co-chairs really, for over a year, have been working to do at their level, at the commission level, and now we need to have more stability within the staff level, especially because there's going to be a new staff, a new position brought into this role.

As you know, the...

The Monitor has hired a consultant that is currently doing a systemic overview of the entire system, including CPC, OIG, OPA, and SPD, and how we all work together.

And one of the things that has really emphasized for me is the need for this stability within the system.

There are specific recommendations that we should probably implement.

This will take time.

This will take a lot of effort and connection with other city agencies, not just our partners, but other parts of the overall bureaucracy.

And that, for me, is one of the most important things that we can do to fulfill our promise as a CPC.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson, please.

Thank you.

Your mention of the conference that you attended brought to mind a question that has been percolating to me, or not a question, but a realization.

It's about the independent nature of CPC.

And it occurs to me that our...

our confirmation, should that be the decision, today, our vote toward the confirmation will demonstrate our respect for the decision-making and the understanding of the commissioners themselves about what the body needs and also signal our respect for the independent nature of Now, my question is, is this a unique model across the country that, in fact, the people sitting on the dais are not really in the same relationship that we usually are when we confirm a director?

Absolutely, that's one of the most important things that I learned and one of the things that's really valuable about how council and community members in 2017 established a CPC.

So I myself, I am not appointed by the mayor.

I'm not appointed by yourselves on city council.

I don't answer to anyone directly other than the co-chairs.

And the revisions to the ordinance that were passed by this committee and by council over the summer strengthen that.

So it's an interesting position to be in, to be a city employee where my bosses are volunteers, but that's what it is and it has to do with independence.

It is indirect.

I cannot be removed except for specific ways that are laid out in the revisions to the accountability ordinance by these folks here as well as the other commissioners.

So I think that's something that Seattle should really embrace and emphasize.

Because in other places, you might have seen in the news, but there's a chance that the winds of political change could shift the role of this important work that's ongoing.

And Seattle has this independent commission which prevents that from happening.

And I think it's a challenge, but it's also a very strong strength of the city.

Thank you for that answer.

One just follow-up comment.

I do want to also reinforce the fact that the work of the co-chairs and the whole commission is volunteer.

And I know that you put in a tremendous amount of work to window the field and to really think about what you needed.

So thank you very much for all of your work to the co-chairs that are present here and to the whole commission.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And just returning to some of the questions that you answered, the questions that council members collectively developed.

Really appreciate your tending with care to those questions.

I do want to lift a couple of them up because I know some of these issues are of interest to the public.

There was a community survey done to identify what the top qualities of an executive director is.

And in our Q&A, we identified those top qualities.

you know, qualities of a director are a little bit different than the duties of the director.

So I'm really asking about those qualities as opposed to the duties and responsibilities of the job.

But the qualities identified relate to creating partnerships and building bridges with disenfranchised communities.

connecting with those experiencing police violence, centering race and equity in processes and decisions, and leading people and operations to achieve measurable, equitable outcomes, and managing complex relationships.

I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to your model for embodying those types of qualities that the public has identified as priorities for this position.

Yes.

So I'll start with the first one about creating trusted partnerships.

This is one where a lot of damage had been done in the past.

And this was one where I had to spend quite a bit of time in the earlier parts of this role, and I continue to do that right now, creating trusted partnerships starting with the accountability partners that we are required to work with.

Now we are having regular quarterly partner meetings, including we have one tomorrow.

We have them every quarter.

This had not really happened for a couple of years.

I think that sitting down and having people get to know me, especially because I did come from academia.

Even though I was living in the city, I did not have an extensive record in the city.

That took time.

That took sitting down with meetings, setting up meetings with yourselves, other council members, Coffee was often part of it.

But yeah, really having them get to know me and what my interests are, what my values are, and what I bring to that.

And then that's also extend to building relationships with community members.

So the community engagement staff is actually part of, a key part of doing that work.

Reintroducing the CPC to the broader community, to a changing community.

to a community that often is representative of people that don't speak English or that are immigrants or that have had different experiences with police violence, either domestically or abroad.

And those are things that we've really prioritized is getting out in the community and letting them know who we are.

and then trying to learn about what their interests and concerns are because they change over time.

Also on the list, centering race and equity in processes and decisions.

That is something you might have caught from my students that called in at public comment, but this is actually very, very critical to what I do.

This is extremely important and has been for quite some time.

The ordinance is written structurally in a way that we are supposed to be representative of everyone in the city.

However, it's very important that we are, listening to people that are especially impacted by police violence.

And that is not equally distributed throughout the city.

And so that's another way in which I try to center race and equity.

And then leading people in operations to achieve measurable, equitable outcomes.

Now that our staff is becoming more stabilized, measuring the actual outcomes that are community engagement staff gets when they go out and do events or measuring the outcomes that the policy staff is able to achieve as we make sure that we're going through and getting every single thing that we're required to do under the ordinance.

I guess as a characteristic, it's something I've always done, but there is definitely a focus and I want to focus even more on making sure that we're measuring what we're doing so we can report to you and future members of council about how much we do.

Because, again, we are a critical part identified repeatedly of the system, and we need to make sure that we can show that and that people know.

Thank you so much.

Council members, any additional questions?

Not seeing any.

Just in closing, I just want to lift up that one of the issues that has been raised during these meetings, as well as CPC meetings, is the review by the CPC of the complainant appeals processes.

which the council did also request.

I want to recognize that the CPC has been doing this work this year and has been providing updates to this work during regular CPC meetings.

I understand this is something that the CPC will be presenting publicly when you're ready, but want to recognize here today that this work is ongoing and is work that you've been doing, doing so because sometimes we hear people in our meetings asking for the status of that work.

So I think it's important to lift up those important work items at every opportunity we have and really appreciate what you've been doing forging forward, appreciate the work that you've been doing with Mr. Rosenthal on the assessment of the accountability system.

And even though I won't be here, I'm really excited to hear what sort of recommendations might come out of that assessment.

So with no further questions...

Oh, Council Member Nelson.

I didn't know when the good time would be to make final comments or...

This would be a good time.

I was just about to call.

Okay, got it.

Okay, I'll make...

Just a couple closing comments.

And I wanted to express appreciation for the callers that called in to talk about your mentorship and your leadership in the department with curriculum development and all the other things that people mentioned, because I had forgotten.

I mean, I forgot.

Oh, right.

And forgotten the fact that before coming to the city, you were a professor of public administration.

And so that is a good reminder that your professional background is in policy and public administration, which is precisely the role that you are being...

elevated to.

And we have to remember that the mission of the CPC is to advise on policy with input from the community.

That's central to your role.

And so I just wanted to say that I feel confident that we've got the right person for the job right in front of us.

And I am I have a lot of respect for the work that you've done so far to establish stability for the organization.

And even before stepping into the interim directorship, what you were able to provide in terms of a policy perspective on behalf of the CPC as the policy director, I really appreciate it as well.

So thank you very much for being willing to step up.

And again, thank you to the commissioners for putting in the work to bring this forward.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

With that, Council Members, I move the committee recommends the confirmation of appointment 02655. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointment 02655. Interim Director, soon to be Director Ellis, really appreciate your willingness to step into this work when you were voluntold to do so at a time when there was great need and there continues to be great need, have enjoyed working with you.

Thanks to the co-chairs for shepherding this process forward and working with your fellow commissioners in making this decision.

With that, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Lewis.

Yes.

Chair Herbold.

Yes.

Four yes.

Thank you.

The appointment moves on to the full council meeting at the December 5th city council meeting.

And on occasion, people who are being appointed to roles like yours attend the full council meeting.

You're not required to do so, but let's make sure that we connect before the 5th.

In those cases that the nominees do attend, We'll make time, we suspend the rules and give you an opportunity to talk.

So just be good to work that out ahead of time if that's the case.

Okay, thank you so much.

Will the clerk please read in agenda item number two.

Agenda item two, council bill 120714. An ordinance relating to the transfer of city real property for housing development.

Amending ordinance 124917 to transfer jurisdiction of the former Dumar substation, 1605 Southwest Holden Street.

to the Office of Housing for the purpose of developing permanently affordable home ownership, authorizing the director of the Office of Housing or the director's designee to issue a request for proposals and to select a developer, and thereafter to execute and deliver a contract for transfer of land, deed, and related documents, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you very much, Mr. Clerk.

Appreciate the presence of folks from the Office of Housing here with us today.

Let's start with some quick introduction.

Just let us know who you are, who you're representing.

And then before we move on to the presentation, I have a couple of opening remarks.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

Good morning.

My name is Andrea Akita, and I'm the Deputy Director for the Office of Housing.

Hello, Kelly Larson, Director of Policy and Planning for the Office of Housing.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

So the origins of this legislation date back 10 years to the disposition of surplus City Light properties in West Seattle.

There was a disposition process, and at the time, in 2015, former council members Rasmussen, Lakota, and then-council member Harrell requested that the Office of Planning and Community Development study land use changes for this property.

This was a request that was made sort of together with the start of the disposition process because community members were really interested in ways in which this property could use to meet community goals rather than the property just being disposed to a property developer that might not be so inclined to work with community members on how to use the property.

And so, there was the, that sort of that, analysis by OPCD, and what that did is that led to some recommendations that we were able to take up during the process of creating the set of up zones that we did in 2019. And this particular property during that process was up zoned to commercial 40 and neighborhood commercial designation 40M2.

And at the time, again, the community's goal was to develop it with affordable housing and a ground floor commercial use.

Really appreciated the opportunity back in 2019 to support that effort to upzone the property for this eventual time that we are in today.

There has been a lot of other work done since that upzone.

We had worked with enterprise community partners and the Office of Housing to do a preliminary analysis of the site.

And both of the studies that came from Enterprise Community Partners and the Office of Housing concluded that this is a good opportunity for affordable home ownership.

such as townhomes or live-work lofts.

And I also, over the last couple years, facilitated meetings between the Office of Housing and community members through the Highland Park Action Committee had another set of meetings with Homestead Community Land Trust and Habitat for Humanity, Seattle King County, to talk about their potential interest in developing the property.

Homestead and Habitat both develop affordable homes for home ownership and have, in fact, done so in partnership with the city on city-owned property.

So with that, I'll Just a little bit of background, I'll hand it over to the Office of Housing to talk about what's next.

And I wanna also note, we've got Tracy Ratcliffe on the line here.

Tracy, before I hand it over to OH, Any background I should be deferring to you to add?

You've done a great job with the history in terms of the city and city councils involved in this piece of legislation, changes at state level that have helped facilitate it, as well as changes to our disposition policies that absolutely affirm this transfer, as OH will discuss right now.

Thank you so much, Tracy.

Thank you very much.

And Council Member Herbold, I want to thank you for your leadership and partnership in developing affordable housing across the city.

We really appreciate that.

It's our pleasure to be here to provide a little bit of background information on the legislation that's proposed to transfer jurisdiction of a Seattle City Light property to the Office of Housing for the purpose of developing permanently affordable home ownership.

It is a fact that our housing market has priced many people out of home ownership and the prosperity of our city is not distributed equally nor equitably.

And we know that in order to have vibrant and healthy communities, we need to have affordable housing options for all people as well as commercial spaces that serve neighborhood needs.

And supporting the development of affordable housing, I'm sorry, affordable housing and affordable home ownership has long been a city strategy to promote social justice, economic stability, and to address displacement risks.

So there are a number of ways that the city of Seattle expands affordable housing and Using publicly-owned surplus land is one of the tools that help us to achieve those goals.

With this opportunity, we're hoping to build on the Office of Housing's strong track record and our partnership with other city government agencies, state and regional partners like Sound Transit, like City Light, and nonprofit developers.

And before I go into the details of the project itself, I really want to acknowledge our home ownership team at the Office of Housing, Joy Hunt, Amanda Sahaly, and our Home Ownership Division Manager, Erica Malone, who's done most of the work on this, but was unable to join us today.

So the Dumar property is located at 16th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Bolden in the Highland Park neighborhood.

As I mentioned, it it is a city like property, which we're hoping will be transferred to the Office of Housing.

And this was a former substation site, Dumar.

With this opportunity, we are able to create eight to 16 new permanently affordable homes with neighborhood commercial space.

And all of the homes here would be affordable to households earning up to 80% of area median income.

This next slide, I will not go into the details.

I appreciate the highlights of the milestones to get us to this point and just underscore the fact that council and community members have had a vision to make this happen for close to a decade.

And they've been working to transform this surplus site The legislation before the council committee today would do three things.

It amends ordinance 124917 and it strikes references to Dumar property sale from that legislation.

This allows you to be able to transfer the property and the site from Seattle City Light to the Office of Housing in exchange for $424,000.

And then finally, the legislation would authorize the Office of Housing to conduct a competitive process, that's an RFP, to solicit proposals for the development of resale restricted home ownership, as well as negotiate property transfer to the selected developer of our RFP process.

We're happy to take any questions that you may have.

Thank you so much.

Council members, do you have any additional questions?

Council Member Nelson, please.

Before my question, I do have to say that for the record, as chair of City Light, I did feel it was incumbent upon me to do my due diligence and reach out to the utility and just confirm that they don't need this property in the future because in our effort to reach our climate goals, we are really encouraging and embarked on transportation and building electrification, which would And one could imagine that might require more substations, but I was assured by the utility that this is in fact, that they're fine with this and it's not going to be needed in the future, or they don't foresee that in any planning.

So just wanted to put that out there.

I also wanted to say that I really appreciate and also the feedback from the commenters that this is going to, this is focused on home ownership for, for people up to 80% of area median income.

And that's really important to me because it's a housing need that is dwarfed in the housing levy by what is primarily 30% and below AMI and in largely units that are not owned, but rented or provided.

So this is so I really like that this is filling out that portfolio a little bit.

And my question is, does the $424,000 come from proceeds that that are collected from the housing levy?

Or is it just from a different fund in Office of Housing?

Not that it's very much anyway, I would say.

Thanks, Council Member Nelson.

Typically, the assignment of funds occurs at a later stage once the request for proposals is conducted.

It is certainly likely that the housing levy will play a role in this site.

It's also possible that payroll expense tax will be utilized here, so we'll have to see where we stand at that point next year when this happens.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Let's see here.

Any other questions?

I'm not seeing any.

I just want to, before calling for a vote, want to again lift up what we've heard from community for their interest for this particular location.

through several different ways of communicating with community, through the meetings that we've had, from their advocacy for the Up Zones in I believe it was maybe 2016. But they're very interested in street level activation.

Neighbors are interested in adding liveliness to the neighborhood and increasing walkability, recognizing that there's a public benefit obligation.

Many neighbors are interested in providing a public benefit on the ground floor.

And we I think moving forward, I think it will be incumbent on us to facilitate conversations between potential developers and ground floor.

tenants and and community members um there's um obviously a strong desire for affordable housing on the site so really appreciate that this is a site that is appropriate for affordable home ownership neighbors have noted that it will be beneficial to have additional eyes on the corner and have expressed an interest in ensuring that in working with a developer to develop a site that we also think about traffic flow at this particular location.

And then want to keep first in mind the need to understand how desirable this site is to potential nonprofit or not-for-profit developers and lessees.

And so I think a lot of that is really focused on the work to come.

I appreciate the opportunity to talk with Office of Housing.

Should this vote be successful on next steps?

uh and with that i just want to thank thank you all again uh for getting us uh to this this place with uh this legislation and this transfer that um mr clerk can oh first i need to make a motion i move that the committee recommends the confirmation of council bill 120714 is there a second Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of Council Bill 120714. Are there any additional comments?

Seeing no further comments, Mr. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Yes.

Vice Chair Lewis?

Yes.

Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Four yes.

Thank you so much.

The council bill moves to the full council meeting on the December 5th city council meeting.

Please do also extend my thanks to Erica Malone.

Sorry that we needed to schedule this now in order to get it on the full council agenda, but really appreciate her work.

And with that, it is 10.32, 10.33 a.m.

The next regularly scheduled Public Safety and Human Services Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12th.

We will confirm whether this meeting will be taking place or not, depending on...

whether or not we have additional items to discuss.

If committee members anticipate being absent from the meeting tentatively scheduled for December 12th, we ask that you let us know as soon as you know.

And before we adjourn, are there any comments from my colleagues?

Seeing none, the time is 10.33 a.m.

and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.