Seattle City Council Finance & Housing Committee 6/9/2022

We are now recording.

Well, good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

Today is Thursday, June 9th, 2022. And this is the special finance and housing committee meeting.

Thanks to my colleagues for making special accommodations to attend this meeting today.

On a Thursday, we usually meet the first and third Wednesday morning.

So appreciate your rearranging of your schedules, colleagues.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Peterson.

Madam Clerk, I just want to make sure your microphone is on.

It's on.

Okay, great.

Council Member Peterson.

I see Council Member Peterson on the screen.

He might just be having some technical difficulties.

Council Member Peterson.

Here, thank you.

Present.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Madam Chair, that is five present, none excused or absent.

Wonderful.

Well, thanks so much, colleagues.

I did want to just take a few seconds to thank you again for the special accommodations to meet today.

As we get started with our hybrid committee meeting, I want to thank the clerk's office, the folks from IT, security, the members of the Seattle Channel team who have all been helping us to operate in a remote public comment period as we enter into hybrid public comment and in-person meetings in a hybrid or in-person way.

I wanna thank everybody who's made the last two and a half years possible for us to continue to have remote meetings, public testimony and conduct orders of business really very much appreciated.

As we start to gather in chambers again, we will continue to encourage people to sign up to provide virtual public testimony.

Our intent is to make sure as many people as want to provide public testimony have the option to do so, but we wanna make sure that the emphasis is really on dialing in whenever possible.

We are gonna continue to make these remote public comment options possible in the future.

If you are entering this room, I am asking you to wear a mask.

I wanna repeat, if you're entering this room, I'm asking you to wear a mask.

Public comment is going to be conducted in the following manner, where we're gonna have the folks who signed up for remote public comment first, and then the people who are commenting in person comment after them.

Again, thanks to all of the people who are here in person, we are asking you to wear a mask if you are in the chambers.

I want to also thank the members of public health who have been working around the clock to make sure that we have the best and possible public health guidance for our community.

This is the epicenter in our country for when COVID first hit and where we have asked people to make accommodations on a personal level, like wearing a mask and socially distancing, making sure that we're staying home as much as possible.

And our public health team at Public Health Seattle King County has been working around the clock in partnership with the state level folks to make Washington State, Seattle and King County, one of the best places to have a public health guidance roll out and be accommodated.

So I wanna thank them for all their work.

As we continue to meet now in a hybrid manner, I wanna point to the guidance that was issued in the Seattle Times just a week before we were supposed to go back to these in-person meetings.

And the headline said, health leaders renew push for indoor masks.

It says the state's public health leaders are again strongly recommending all Washingtonians wear face masks as some COVID-19 trends continue to steadily rise.

Case and hospitalizations have been increasing over the past two months as widespread indoor mask mandates end and Omicron sub-variants picked up.

Now, the reminders from public health carry a stronger message of urgency.

This is the time to remind ourselves this pandemic is not over, the Secretary of State, excuse me, the Secretary of Health said.

They go on to talk about the number of infections that they're seeing, especially among kiddos and a plea to maintain social distancing, mask mandate habits and increase immunizations.

They also note that immunizations have begun to wane in terms of boosters for folks, especially in BIPOC communities and the importance of recognizing that not everybody can get a vaccine.

This includes everyone who is immune compromised and also folks who are under the age of five.

Not a vaccine available for kiddos under the age of five means that many in our community are without the immunity that those who are vaccinated are able to carry.

So again, I want to thank you all colleagues and welcome Council Member Peterson.

We know you were present, but everybody's here in the room now for continuing to wear your masks in these public meetings, really appreciate it.

And for folks in the audience, thank you for wearing your masks.

We have some extra masks out in the front as well.

Today, we are going to show what our process is going to be moving forward in the finance and housing committee meeting.

All of the presenters are not going to be at the table.

They're going to be with us in the virtual room.

and we will not have anyone from central staff or any of the departments joining us in person.

This will continue to be a presentation that happens remotely for all of the presenters.

And that even includes for joyous moments like today, where we have a great opportunity to appoint our new director of the office of housing who will be joining us remotely.

So thanks again to all of our colleagues who have joined us remotely and to all of the community who has joined us as well remotely.

We have the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin for the director of office of housing, the office of housing representing race and social justice initiative report, and also the city budget's office presenting on their race and social justice initiative report as well.

Those are the three items on our agenda.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

And before we move on, I want to thank Frida Cuevas, who is our clerk as always in these public meetings and has been clerking as well remotely.

She is with us and I appreciate you being here.

And I want to make sure your health and safety is also paramount in our conversations too.

but either thanks for all of the work that you've done.

This is also Aretha Basu's last finance and housing committee meetings.

If you don't mind joining me in a round of applause for Aretha Basu, who has been with us since 2017. Again, I got sworn into office in November of 2017, and she's been here now.

in the five years in this term, and is a mentor to me in many ways as well, helping guide us through some really difficult discussions on policy as it relates to public safety.

So much love back to you, Aretha, and for folks who don't know, we're gonna have a proclamation honoring her work that we will circulate at our Monday meeting for folks to sign on to.

So be sure to tune in for that, Aretha.

Thanks again for your work.

All right, with that, we're gonna go to public comment and we'll take the first folks who are signed up to provide public comment here today.

Again, public comment is gonna be two minutes of public comment.

The opportunity to provide public comment is listed on the agenda as always.

You're gonna hear a chime when you have 10 seconds remaining in your public comment.

That's your indication to wrap up so you don't get cut off.

If you've dialed in from using the number that you registered from, we will recognize you.

If you dial in from a different number, it will not recognize you.

So please do go ahead and make sure you've dialed in from the right number.

The first three speakers are Tinder Martin, Ann Pui, and Joel Ng.

Good afternoon, Tinder men.

Good afternoon, can you hear me?

We can, thanks for double checking.

Great.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda and members of the Housing and Finance Committee.

My name is Tiernan Martin, and I'm here today to share my support for Mayor Harrell's nominee for the Director of Office of Housing, Maiko Winkler-Chin.

This nomination comes at a difficult period in Seattle's history.

Rising housing costs throughout the region have led to widespread housing instability, involuntary displacement of low-income and BIPOC communities, and a crisis of homelessness.

The city needs to demonstrate its leadership in response to these challenges by allowing more types of housing to be built and making bold investments in community-based affordable housing.

As a member of the SCPTA Board of Directors, I have had the privilege of working with Maiko over the past two years.

Her leadership guided our organization and the CID community through many challenges, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recovery process.

Throughout good times and bad, Maiko showed a deep commitment to creating affordable housing, supporting the neighborhood's small business community, and building lasting relationships with everyone she worked with.

As a former SCIPTA employee myself, I can also speak to Maiko's skill as a boss.

She treats her colleagues in a caring, honest, no-nonsense kind of way that inspired me to do some of my best work.

She uses storytelling to build shared understanding and foster a sense of connectedness to community history.

She's a great listener and someone who is not afraid to take action.

While it has been bittersweet to see Micah move on from her position at Skippa's home, I believe the city needs her vision and strength now more than ever.

I strongly support her nomination to the Director of Office of Housing and urge you and your colleagues to move forward quickly through the confirmation process so that she can get to work.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

The next person is Anne and then followed by Joel.

Anne, good afternoon.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Anne Huynh.

I'm an employee of SCIPTA and providing comment on the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin as the director of OH.

I will be reading the following letter, which I've shortened for time on behalf of Grace Kim of Scamata Workshop.

Dear Council Member Mosqueda, Seattle has been in a state of emergency around homelessness for the past seven years And in that time, the median home price in Seattle has doubled.

We need more diversity in our housing options, both in housing type and tenure.

MICO has the housing experience and understanding of policy impacts to provide the necessary leadership to make a lasting impact.

As the Executive Director of SCIPTA, MICO has not only increased access for services to low-income people and culturally relevant businesses in the Chinatown ID, but has also strategically aligned with key institutions and legacy businesses to create more family-sized affordable housing options for multi-generational households.

Through her work at SCPTA, I have seen that Maiko understands the issues of immigrant and refugee communities, of hardworking small business owners, and of elders who want to live in the community that they have known all their lives.

As the leader of a community-based organization, I have witnessed her experience institutional and structural barriers to leading redevelopment efforts.

In the eight years that I have served on Seattle's Planning Commission, Maiko was my trusted advisor when it came to issues pertaining to the CID, She offered keen insights to policy issues that we were considering.

In those conversations, she was candid and direct and always fair, not self-interested, but wanting what was good for all and always with the lens of equitable outcomes.

I was very sad to hear her leaving her post at SCIPTA, but was heartened when I heard it was to join the city's Office of Housing.

I wholeheartedly support her in this role at a pivotal time for our city and in our nation.

I hope you will quickly confirm my go to the position so she can begin the urgent work of providing more affordable housing in our city.

Sincerely, Grace Kim.

Thank you so much.

Joel Ng followed by Amanda O and then Lisa Howard.

Good morning, Joel.

Good afternoon, Joel.

Good afternoon.

My name is Joel Ng and I'm a Seattle resident and affordable housing developer locally here in Seattle.

I've known Michael for over 20 years.

and today I'm here to support the mayor's recommendation for her to be the director of the Office of Housing.

Michael possesses all the qualities necessary for leading the city's effort.

She's unflappable, she's committed, she's a consensus builder, and she brings development experience and community experience to the job, which is critical given the issues that are facing the city today.

Often seen her over the years when she led Skipta, taking the lead and often being a spokesperson for both the neighborhood and addressing community needs.

I see her naturally moving into the role as leader of the Office of Housing, taking on similar difficult issues and certainly not shying away from them.

I've known her personally as well and she's who you see.

She does not change her personality when she's when the day is over, which is never over.

And I think that's a positive.

So there's no hidden agenda with Maiko.

She's very upfront with her, not only with how she feels, but certainly her personality, which again is a positive.

She continues through the years also to further her education and even through continued education and also serving on boards both locally and nationally.

So she brings a perspective that that goes beyond our community here.

So for those reasons, I strongly urge the approval of Michael as the next Office of Housing Director.

I think the city is lucky for her to be in this position and I look forward to her leadership.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, Mindy, followed by Lisa Howard.

Hi, everyone.

I am Mindy Allen board president of the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority.

I'm so excited to address this committee and speaking out in support of MICO's confirmation.

I've known MICO for 12 years now through our work and connections in the CID community.

Most recently partnered closely with her in her role as an ED of the PDA in our strategic planning effort.

In her time at the organization, she brought the right blend of growth and stability, addressing crises that were unexpected while building a strong foundation community for residents and businesses to weather and thrive.

She brings a strong commitment to partnership, working with neighborhoods and stakeholders throughout the city, knowing that no single individual organization can go it alone.

She's smart, bold, thoughtful and direct in how she works, not afraid to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done.

She has an understanding of how equity and justice center development can strengthen our city and neighborhoods and knows deeply how policy and programmatic decisions that the city can impact our communities, especially our BIPOC residents in Seattle.

I ask the committee to move forward with this appointment and thank you all for this opportunity to speak with you.

Thanks, Mindy.

Mindy is followed by Lisa Howard and then Diane Sigamora.

Good morning, Diane.

Oh, excuse me.

Good morning, Lisa.

Keep saying good morning.

Good afternoon.

Totally counts.

This is Lisa Howard.

I'm the executive director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment today.

I'm in support of the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin for the director of office of housing.

I just want to say quickly, you cannot make a better choice for this work.

We partnered with her many times during her time at SCPTA across neighborhood boundaries.

She's a great partner.

She's a strong leader, and her willingness to build bridges makes all of the projects that she touches better.

So thank you for your work on this, and thanks for the opportunity to comment.

Absolutely, thanks, Lisa.

The last three speakers are online, and then we'll go into the room here are Diane Sigamura, Jamie Lee, and Patience Malava.

Good afternoon, Diane.

Thank you.

Honorable council members, good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Am I unmuted?

Yes, thank you so much.

You are.

Okay, great, thank you.

I'm Diane Sugimura.

I'm speaking today to strongly support Maiko Winkerton for the Office of Housing Director.

I can't think of a better candidate particularly for these times.

Maiko is recognized for her proven leadership in housing and all things related to housing.

She brings a much needed perspective to city government.

She understands housing and housing needs.

She understands people and people's needs.

She understands community and why community building is so important and the impacts of displacement.

And she understands the importance of community-driven strategies.

Safe, healthy, and healthy housing is a basic right for all.

She knows the relationship between homelessness and housing.

It's all one continuum.

She understands the relationship between housing and small businesses and healthy people and healthy communities.

And not only does she know how to get affordable housing built, but how to operate and maintain it safely and efficiently.

She understands the importance of rental assistance and how to work with tenants and small landlords in particular.

I've known her for many, many years.

She helped us shape the comprehensive plan, bringing an equity lens to policy development.

Her work on the race and social equity task force as we were developing the equitable development initiative was immeasurable.

She held our feet to the fire, helping us make sure we had the capacity within the city, had partnerships with other people and organizations and making sure we had the resources so we could successfully implement the initiative.

In summary she is a creative and innovative leader.

A collaborator.

She fights for the survival of community.

Puts racial and social justice at the forefront.

And perhaps most importantly she cares.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Jamie followed by Patience.

Good morning Jamie.

Good afternoon Jamie.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Jamie Lee of SCIPTA and I'm here in support of Maiko's appointment to the Office of Housing.

I'm first going to read a comment on behalf of Lan Shiramizu a business owner in the Chinatown ID.

What can I say about Tita from Wahua that's grown to become one of Seattle's foremost women to watch.

That's Maiko Winkler-Chin a civic leader who combines spunk with aloha spirit.

She thinks big yet is never afraid to dig in and get her hands dirty.

to move a project ahead.

In serving with her on the Chinatown ID BIA board, I found her views to be thoughtful and sensible and expressed with grace and intelligence.

Razor sharp and funny, she can also deliver a comeback with precision and aplomb.

I know Maiko best as a customer at my former shop, Momo, in the CID.

It was always a bright day when she walked through the door with a happy hello, ready to support my small business.

I still appreciate that when we closed after 13 years, she invited me out for a drink and chat understanding the difficulty of the decision.

Her heart is as big as her personality.

Now this comment is for me Jamie.

I've learned so much from Mike over the eight years that I worked with her at SCIPTA.

Her passion and commitment to CID was evident in everything that we do and she taught me so much about community development housing and how to do work in this neighborhood.

I'm so excited and proud to see what she is able to accomplish in this new role bringing her uniqueness unique perspective to this work.

Michael truly wants to do what is best for the city and I know that she will.

She will bring real world experience as a BIPOC person that has worked in the housing world in the city.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much and patience Malava and then we'll go to end the room.

Patience, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Council Member Mosqueda and the committee.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am Patience Malaba, Executive Director at the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle King County, and here to speak in strong support of the appointment of Director Winkler-Chin.

During this time of unprecedented and great need for more affordable housing in Seattle, Michael is the right and qualified person to lead the way towards a more inclusive and equitable city.

As the Executive Director of HBC, I've had the pleasure of working with Michael on our Board of Directors.

And over the last four years on HBC staff, I've worked closely with her on advocating for affordable housing.

She is knowledgeable about Seattle's housing needs and possesses a demonstrated appreciation for the role of permanent affordable housing in fostering social inclusion, in reducing poverty and creating more resilient communities.

Has strong relationships with Seattle communities that you've heard on this call just today and that we know and can testify to in community really demonstrate who she is as a person.

Her experience of community-led development and expertise in leveraging city funding and resources will be instrumental in creating affordable housing that benefits all of us as communities.

On behalf of everyone here at HTC and many in our affordable housing community, we are thrilled to see the city move this appointment and look forward to continued partnership.

with you to address the critical need for affordable housing in our city and in our region.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Patience.

Thank you patients.

That concludes all the folks who have signed up to provide public testimony online.

I'm gonna call the names of people who have asked to testify in the room.

Please do not get up until you have heard your name called.

David Hines, you were the first to sign up.

Thank you so much for being here.

And I'm gonna wait to call anybody else's name so that there's not a queue.

And we just have one person at the microphone.

Thanks David and we're having folks testify at that one today because the plexiglass is a little higher.

I saw some of the public testimony before where it wasn't coming up all the way so.

Yeah you need like two or three as well so people have to line up in the same spot in case somebody doesn't have a mask they're going to be rude about it and bounces back by the time you get up there.

I'm going to start your time thanks David.

All right, first of all, whoever changed the call-in virtual line messed it up.

They put everybody in a green waiting room listening to elevator music and you cannot listen to any proceedings.

So people are like wondering, is this the proper number?

So they pretty much just hang up or just can't get through because all of a sudden while the music's playing, it says, star six so it's kind of cheating the people anyway we don't need any more extremist policies that are judging skin color and discriminating against people because of like a particular citizenship status we need 21st century housing to alleviate the oppressive suffering throughout the socioeconomics but you all have redirected a ton of cash from the american rescue plan dollars that could solve the homeless crisis and the public safety crisis and you'd finance i hate to say it i think 30 million dollars to the equitable development initiative and the community safety who's handling alternative policing and what they constitute as community safety, which seems to be running interference for and protecting and exempting from jail low level drug pushers who are not low level in their criminal destruction of another person's life.

When you commit a drug-pushing short change, you destroy somebody for 5, 10 bucks.

You shouldn't be listed low-level misdemeanor, low-level crime.

You're misinterpreting the impact.

And all these junkie thieves that are, like, financing an underworld, you all have created a cop system of leadership that's completely inept, like Yuvali's chief, who refuses to make commands proper.

It's a big and dispatched it.

sabotage the integrity of an emergency crisis that never verbatim specific release the message.

And I think it's probably because council created a questionnaire in the public safety of the civilian dispatch that dictated what constituted a crime that guaranteed the cops would not respond until you fill out a questionnaire and you got a wielding dangerous knife or a weapon.

Otherwise the cops are not showing up anymore.

I live four blocks down every single night, 365 days a year.

The criminals have reclaimed my neighborhood.

We've done nothing about it except lie for the tourist hours.

When the sun goes down and the tourist depots close, you're on your own in the resident.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, David.

David, thank you.

Okay, your time has expired, David.

The next person who signed up to provide public testimony is Ms. Richard.

Ms. Richard, you're welcome to make your way to the microphone.

Not that one, Ms. Richard.

That one is not available.

Thank you.

Ms. Richard, you have two minutes as well.

Anyway, my name is Marguerite Richard.

Well, let me offer your time back.

I'm sorry I mispronounced your name, Ms. Richard.

Please go ahead.

So anyway, what my concern is, is that the topic says something about race and social justice.

And I'm trying to figure out how that, goes into this housing thing.

I've been calling Andrew Lewis is representative of my community.

No word about anything that's been going on subject to the subject, because you're talking about housing.

And I've been dealing with that.

And I've been dealing with this racism and discrimination that I know is illegal.

It's unconstitutional.

and you have a civil rights office that I could say this unconstitutional also, because this is the 21st century.

We shouldn't be having any problems with how to get a home, how to get a loan, how to get a job or anything like that.

And that Jim Crow sign down there, Black Lives Matter, or downstairs, And over there at Seattle Municipal Tower, it needs to be taken down immediately.

Immediately.

I've been asking, who's responsible for that?

The same thing you do with that community police commission.

I guess you have to do an interview, get on there.

If they don't like you or something like that, you're not on it.

See, everything is a scam around here, and we need to deal with why this racism and discrimination is still prevalent in the 21st century.

I'm not an active participant in it, okay?

I'm gonna help Biden out because he said it's a poison, okay?

I'm gonna help you to eradicate this poison around here.

I'm gonna help you with everything that doesn't look right to the naked eye, because like I said, I made an observation.

It's not fair for us to be subjected to this harsh and this cruel and unusual punishment over and over again.

Thank you.

The last person to provide public testimony is Alex Simon.

Alex, you need to use the other microphone.

Alex, I'm asking you to use the other eye microphone.

That's it.

Your time starts now.

So I want to speak about budget for race in social justice.

Yeah, and because I live in the city for 35 years, and I'm a political, religious refugee, I'm a disabled man.

I'm a minority because I'm a Jew.

I don't know.

Social security, very low.

I'm old, sick.

I don't know.

I'm supposed to be qualified by 120 percentage for budget raised in social justice.

And I cannot feel this.

I don't understand why it's going on here.

You give me 12 trespasses for 1,200 day, four year.

I cannot come here and use money.

What is you give to budget for social?

in race justice.

I don't understand who I am.

I belong to everything what is you want for money, what is you care.

But nobody care about me.

I'm totally confused about this.

Why it's going up?

So I am thinking maybe you are mentally sick, a psychopath, you know what I mean?

Because it cannot be qualified like different.

It's supposed to be mentality, you know what I mean?

Is this mentality what you have?

It's more dangerous than communists and Nazis because you are mentally sick people.

And mentally sick people are more dangerous than Nazis or communists, you know what I mean?

Is this exactly what I want to explain to you?

Guy, how many mental sick people are in this chamber?

How many?

All nine?

No, not believable.

How is this possible?

You know what I mean?

So I recommend you, you need a mental evaluation.

You know what I mean?

This is very important because when you cannot stop this for 35 years, for another 35 years, thank you very much, my Fuhrer.

That concludes the list of folks we have to provide public testimony in person as well.

That concludes the folks that I think are signed up for public comment, just wanna double check.

I believe that Sejal Parikh wanted to call in to offer well wishes to Aretha Basu, but we will make sure to get that public testimony in writing.

All right, with that, we are gonna go ahead and move on to the first item of business on today's agenda.

Madam Clerk, could you please read agenda item number one into the record?

agenda item number one appointment of michael winkler chin as director of the office of housing for briefing discussion and possible vote thanks so much and i just want to confirm for folks on the seattle channel can you hear everybody okay

I'm gonna take that as a yes until we get notification otherwise.

Good afternoon, Madam Deputy Mayor of Washington.

It's great to see you.

I appreciate you being here on the line with us and for welcoming on behalf of the Merritt Hills Administration, the nomination in front of us.

We're very excited about the confirmation of this hearing.

And I wanna thank you and the mayor's office for putting forward such an incredible nominee.

I wanna thank Director Winkler-Chin as well.

We know that this meeting was postponed by a week.

So I wanna thank her for all of the work that she's done and the patience to have this discussion.

Interim Director Chin comes to us from an incredible wealth of knowledge on housing policy.

And as you can tell from public testimony today, an incredible sense of trust from community as well.

And also discussing public comment today and as evidenced by the numbers that we continue to see in terms of the numbers of folks who need access to housing, affordable housing, and the number of people who continue to come to our region and the need to build housing.

I'm really excited about the skills and expertise that we have in the nomination in front of us.

I'll say some of my comments about Director Winkler-Chin for the next portion after we get a chance to hear from Deputy Mayor Washington and then Director Winkler-Chin herself, and I'm sure my colleagues here on council have some additional comments as well.

We couldn't be more thrilled about the nomination in front of us and the most pressing issue in the city being housing, being in the good hands of Director Winkler-Chin if the nomination is confirmed.

Deputy Mayor Washington, thanks again for being here with us today.

I'll turn it over to you.

Hello, thank you council members for having me here today to present to you Mayor Harreld's nominee for Director of Seattle's Office of Housing, Michael Winkler-Chin.

As you on the Council's Finance and Housing Committee know better than most, access to housing is a major component to solving some of our city and region's biggest challenges, including transportation, homelessness, displacement, and climate change.

The creation and preservation of affordable housing has never been more essential for the people of Seattle, which is why Mayor Harreld nominated Michael Winkler-Chin to serve as the Office of Housing's next director.

She's someone whose stellar reputation precedes her, having served 17 years at the Seattle Chinatown International District PDA, and as a former member of the Housing Levy Oversight Board.

Before the mayor referred Michael's nomination to you, our office consulted with stakeholders, including two former Seattle Office of Housing Directors, the Chair of the Housing Levy Oversight Committee, the Chair of the Seattle Housing Authority Board, and representatives from the Housing Development Consortium, the Crescent Collaborative, Plymouth Housing, El Centro de la Raza, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and several employees at the Office of Housing.

The clear conclusion about Michael Winkler-Chin, which you heard through public testimony, is that she is a proven and compassionate leader, a competent manager, a person with deep roots in Seattle's diverse communities, an experienced housing provider who understands the dynamics when creating housing in a unique market like Seattle, and someone who has the reputation and integrity to lead the city through the crafting and development of the 2023 housing level renewal proposal.

Council Members, I personally can't think of a better choice for someone to lead the Office of Housing at a time when new housing has never been more essential.

And I thank you for your consideration of her nomination.

We've got big challenges ahead.

But with Maiko at the helm, those challenges present nothing but opportunities.

Before I turn it over to her for her opening remarks, Maiko, it's been a pleasure to work with you over the last few months and really appreciate the expertise that you bring, the passion that you bring, and we've got a lot of work to do.

Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor Washington.

Director Winkler-Chin, these are incredible remarks for someone who's already had an incredible career and trajectory.

So we're really excited to have you talk about what interests you in this role.

I also wanna say thank you to my colleagues who contributed to the questions that you received.

Thanks to Aaron House on my staff who helped compile those questions and share them.

And to you for filling out all of those important issue areas.

As you can tell from the depth of the questions you received, there's great interest from this committee and from the community who helped to contribute some of those questions around how we address the crisis of housing with urgency and really use a community lens, community driven analysis for how quickly and effectively we can bring additional housing online.

And not just housing, but as the office of housing has shown in the past, when we partner with community partners like you, when you were on the other side of these walls, and actually create a sense of place and belonging and community through the housing that we build.

If we do housing coupled with plazas and community space and other amenities like small businesses and childcare centers.

So really excited about the work that you have done at SCIPTA, the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation Authority, where you served as the housing manager, where you served as the executive director now for the last 12 years, and for the work you've done in the community, helping to bring together affordable housing advocates with folks who were interested in using all parcels, new real estate, older buildings to create a sense of community and place.

And also I'm very excited about the work that you've done to sit on task forces and advisory committees already within our city and the role that you've played in helping to shape public policy here in our community.

to have your expertise in community and then having that community lens carried into this role couldn't be more of a incredible note amongst many high profile accomplishments on your resume already.

So with the policy expertise and long sauce that you put on everything, in addition to your community driven approach to developing housing, welcome and please tell us a little bit more about what interests you in this role.

Thank you, Council Member, for that very kind introduction.

And thanks to all the community members.

You guys are gonna make me ugly cry, for those who know, let's not get too reflective, because I get a little bit too emotional on that.

First, I'm shocked, honored, and humbled to be with you all here today.

I would have never, ever imagined being in this position.

I wanna thank Mayor Harrell for asking.

I hope he doesn't regret it.

And I know that you all have my resume and have seen the paper version of me, and some of you have worked with me in the past, but I thought it would be good for you to know a little bit about why I'm coming to this job and what I bring to it.

So as I was reflecting, and I don't want to reflect too much because I get a little bit too emotional sometimes, at the heart of it, I think if you take care of community, community takes care of you.

My mother and I, when we moved to the United States, when I was five and a half, she was 46, we moved from Japan, and my father was in the military.

He was retired by the time I was born, but when we moved to America, my mom and I didn't speak English.

and we were pretty lost.

And we really relied on our community to get us through.

So for my mom, that community was the people that were from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, which is a little bit more remote.

They speak a very funky dialect of Japanese, not that very pretty Tokyo Japanese.

And they helped her get jobs as a dishwasher, as a restaurant cook, as a house cleaner, as a housekeeper.

They generally made sure that I tried to stay on track because I tended to wander.

They wanted to make sure that I was actually gonna graduate from high school and all that.

And they helped us both understand, or they helped us understand the cultural context in which we were in.

In my community, we're really, my school teachers, the kids that I grew up in the neighborhood, that sort of thing.

And they really helped explain America to us, just weird things like what the prom was, which is a very American thing, why I should learn how to drive, and actually ensured that I had the opportunity to attend college because my mother had different ideas and didn't think I should be doing that.

And I think it's because community was so important in the value that I placed on community, which has shaped how I look at the path of my work.

To be clear, you've heard a lot from the affordable housing community, and you've heard some people talk about community development.

And I am not an affordable housing developer.

I'm kind of related to them.

So as people that have known me for a while, I'll say that I'm that cousin in community development because we're somehow related.

I use some of the same tools that they do, but I come at it from a very, very different orientation.

And so some of the housing things that have fallen into the work that I've done is asset management, property operations, and some level of development.

I've always wanted to work for community and been extremely lucky to be able to do so, both in the Rainier Valley and in the Chinatown ID.

And the Chinatown ID, I will say, is a very good teacher.

You learn a lot of things while you're working in that community.

And I've had great mentors and great support around me that really helped show me just what the work needs to be and how we get work done.

I'd often thought that maybe I'd end up working sometime in the city as the daughter of an immigrant.

You know, working at the city seems safe and stable, and so that was my mother's dream.

But honestly, I never imagined I could end up as a director of a department, much less the director of the Office of Housing.

So if confirmed, I have the privilege of being in this job at this very specific time when the need for housing is great, as you yourself have just said, where homelessness and public safety are the biggest concerns of city residents and our staff and our partners, especially those that work on the ground, have been through very, very trying times.

And if confirmed, I look forward to working with you just as I have been with some of you for quite a while now.

I think you've heard from some people that said I'm pretty authentic.

I think that's the nice way of saying whatever it is that they're saying.

And honestly, I think as Joel Ng had referred to, I don't think I could change who I am at my core, even if I tried.

I do like to learn new things, but the inside of me is pretty well locked in.

I also want to thank you for the confirmation questions.

I appreciated spending the time thinking through the questions.

since I transitioned to this weird place known as the city, it's so different than Chinatown, but it's been a really good reflective experience to go through the questions.

And I think it's probably time that we just start this conversation.

Excellent.

Well, thank you very much, Director McClurchin.

And as folks know, we have a pretty robust application process.

We have codified in statute the requirement to ensure that there's community engagement, that there's robust analysis provided to each candidate, and that the council gets a chance to send around a questionnaire.

So for folks who haven't had a chance to look through that community packet, it is posted on the agenda.

And just want to call out some expertise that you bring previous to your role at SCIPTA.

Interim Director Winkler-Chin served in roles at Southeast Effective Development, otherwise known as SEED, including as asset manager overseeing SEED's commercial affordable housing and mixed use projects, and Main Street Economic Development Coordinator, working to promote support and support small businesses and local neighborhood business districts.

also served as a member of the Community Development, Transportation and Planning Advisory Committees, as well as other national and local boards, such as the National Coalition of Asian Americans.

I want to also note, excuse me, Asian American Pacific Islander Community Development and Seattle-based Crescent Collaboration.

Thank you for responding to all of the questions in our questionnaire.

There is a host of questions that you already filled out.

So I'm just gonna ask a few more and then see if many of my colleagues have any additional questions.

Thanks to the response where you noted the importance of bringing the development lens to this role focus on housing and.

Can you talk a little bit about what housing and means and what we can see in terms of priorities that you bring to this work since you mentioned you're not just focused on developing affordable housing it's housing and what does that mean in the narrow term for us?

Thank you for the question Council Member.

I think for me housing and is really Geez, I think I might be stealing a phrase from the Housing Development Consortium, actually, because I think they had a series with that.

Sorry, patients.

For me, because of where I've done my past work, it's never just about the housing.

It's really about the ground floor, commercial spaces, and all that, and how they intersect with the greater community, and what's the added benefits you can get.

from just the housing.

So as the City of Seattle is making an investment in the housing, what else do we need to think about for the residents that are living there in the building, for the residents that are living around the neighborhood?

How do they interact with the building?

Because I think the residents of the neighborhood really are looking at the other opportunities that the building can provide.

So in some of the work that my organizations have done in the past, it's small businesses, it could be a clinic, could be a branch of the Seattle Public Library, it could be community centers, and our city, honestly, is very, very expensive.

So you should be thinking about maximizing the space that you have.

So what is it that we should be bringing to this?

And I think in the Office of Housing, we're really, really good at building the housing, but it's really thinking a little bit, well, what else could be there?

What else should be there?

And who is it that holds that information?

So go over and speak with the people on the floor that's next to us, which is the Office of Economic Development, or go and check in with the people over at OPCD, or just figure that out, right?

What else is it that we should be doing there?

So that's a little bit of my lens on that.

Wonderful.

I'm just going to look around real quick to see if there's any additional questions.

Please go ahead.

not so much questions, just more observations and appreciation for some things that I saw in the packet materials.

But before I go into that, I do want to just mention that one of our testifiers today spoke to the long hours that Mayako spends working on Office of Housing obligations and I can definitely speak to my own knowledge of that.

I emailed her in return in response to an email that she sent me last night.

I think it was probably after 11 o'clock at night.

So definitely a hard worker and committed for as long as I've known her, which I think has been a lot of years now.

Really appreciate the strong support for using affirmative marketing in every office of housing funded project for coming to the city.

Really appreciate the work in helping us develop affirmative marketing programs and appreciate the willingness to push in this area to find out why there is some resistance to these policies and how we can work together with developers and owners to improve the policy and strengthen it and have more people participate so that we can really meet our critical anti-displacement goals.

really also appreciate the materials that speak to the interest in the city's notice of intent to sell policy and rapid acquisition program and how that can align with our keen interest in removing housing from the speculative market, particularly housing that is currently occupied by people who need affordable housing.

And we know that there are new opportunities with the changed legal landscape that may allow us to strengthen this policy moving forward.

So really look forward to.

working on that in the upcoming year.

And then lastly, just wanna plug an issue that I think I've mentioned before.

We really wanna see more affordable housing developed in West Seattle.

There's a coalition of community organizations there that have been advocating for years to try to attract development and OHS report show that investments in affordable housing have been concentrated in a handful of areas and not so much in in West Seattle.

Really appreciate that the response to the question about this challenge really points to the areas of opportunity in the comprehensive plan and in the housing levy development to create more equitable geographic spread throughout the city.

And as it relates to a sort of a, geographic specific effort, look forward to working more on the efforts around the Dumar, Seattle City Light, surplus substation, so that we can realize the neighborhood's dreams of an affordable housing offering with ground floor commercial space at that particular location.

So just really excited to, have the new leadership in the Office of Housing and to work together on some of these core shared goals.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

I see Council Member Peterson, and then I see Council Member Nelson, and then I believe Council Member Lewis as well.

Okay, Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and congratulations to our nominee.

also have some experience working with her many years ago when I was in the real estate finance world, trying to, or financing the construction and preservation of low-income housing.

Today, obviously homelessness is the crisis top of mind for everybody in our city and has been for a while.

And so I'm very interested.

I'm really glad that Mayor Harrell Deputy Mayor Washington's role to be looking at both the Office of Housing as well as addressing homelessness.

And so for presumably the new director of the Office of Housing, just wanted to hear more about what your connection will be with the King County Regional Homelessness Organization that is now you know, stood up and doing good work.

And so we want to make sure they're successful.

And so, you know, the notion of housing first, getting people into low income housing as quickly as possible.

We've obviously set up a lot of tiny home villages and other shelter options, but getting them into that permanent housing is so important.

And so, and we have 14,000 units that we subsidize.

So the question is, What will you be doing to work directly to help place people from, you know, Mark Jones has a list of people, they need to place the how is oh in there helping.

And then, second question is, you know, in terms of asset management of the portfolio and and work enabling those nonprofits that operate that housing that we subsidize, how are we making sure they're opening their doors to people experiencing homelessness and filling up all their vacancies so they're all 100% occupied?

Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson.

So I think the first question that you had is really related to the OH, Regional Homelessness Authority relationship.

I would say, I think you're absolutely right in having myself report up to Deputy Mayor Washington, who is overseeing homelessness and housing is very, very key in that.

I think in the time that I've been here, which is a little bit over, I think it'll be three months next week, that has been a big focus of the work and just understanding what role the Regional Homelessness Authority plays, what is our role in that relationship, and just trying to build a relationship and understanding what the different processes are for getting, for meeting everybody's needs related to the homelessness crisis that we're in.

which kind of goes back to the second question, which you have, which is really about the asset management portion in the portfolio.

The range of people who fall into homelessness at this point is much more diverse than it was when I first started working in the field 20, 25 years ago.

And depending on what the housing product is that we have and the supports that the individual may need, We have to be able to find match the right person with the right type of unit so last week we opened the dockside apartments or we just funded the dockside apartments with some rapid acquisition funds, targeting that for some state dollars on that.

that is not permanent supportive housing.

That is permanent housing with supports.

The building is a market rate building that was purchased before it got a certificate of occupancy.

And so there will be homeless housing provided there, but it is for those that are probably lower acuity.

than others that you may see out and about.

So it's making sure that you match the right people with the right places.

Otherwise, we are going to be stuck in the same place, if not worse than we are right now.

And I think it is just really building upon that relationship that we have.

I am not as knowledgeable about homeless housing as Mark Jones is. or some of my staff who have worked with that segment of the housing world, and as well as the people that are involved in the coalition to end homelessness, Alison Isinger and her team.

So for me, part of it's the learning, but part of it is just learning how to work together as a team, as a new governmental entity.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Peterson.

Thank you very much, Director Winkler-Chin.

Council Member Nelson, please go ahead.

Thank you very much.

Get a little closer to the microphone.

Pull it close.

There we go.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Peterson asked one of my questions, so I will pass.

And then I do have a question about permanent rental assistance as a support that I've just become aware of, but I can have an email exchange rather than taking up this time to talk about it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much, Council Member Nelson.

Director Winkler-Chin, anything off the top of your head on that topic, or you wanna do a follow-up on it?

Okay, no problem.

Thank you very much Council Member Nelson, and feel free to copy us if you'd like to as well.

Council Member Lewis, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Miscada.

I don't have a question, but do just wanna state that I'll be obviously voting in favor of the appointment today, and I'm really excited to vote to confirm Director Winkler-Chin.

Council Member Herbold and I had the privilege hearing Director Winkler-Chen give a keynote to a Habitat for Humanity gathering a few weeks ago, that was really a great opportunity to hear Director Winkler-Chen expand on the critical role of working in the space with non-profit partners, with private developers with government agencies to really come up with the mix of different strategies that are necessary and essential to make progress on our compounding housing crisis.

And we've talked a lot today about how it intersects with the homelessness crisis, but also all of the related challenges we're facing as a city and having adequate workforce housing, having adequate support and assistance for rent burden renters.

And I was really impressed with Director Winkler-Chen's presentation at that event and really look forward to having more opportunities like that to avail myself of the service knowledge and dedication that she's gonna bring to this job.

So I did just wanna lift that up as we're here to vote to confirm and just say, I look forward to working on many projects in my district and beyond.

with the director, so thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

And I'm going to go back to Council Member Nelson for a follow-up question.

It occurs to me that you started your comments by saying you're not an expert on affordable housing, or you're not an expert on developing affordable housing.

And what I wanted to echo was that which pretty much every single speaker said in the beginning, which is that when we're talking about equitable development and preventing displacement.

You already have all the experience with supporting community and also preventing the displacement of small businesses from community and supporting them.

So there is That aspect is such strong nexus between what the Office of Housing will be doing and also economic development.

So I look forward to working with you on that.

And basically Diane Sugimura said it much better than I could.

Good to hear her voice, but thank you very much for being willing to serve.

So thank you.

Excellent, thank you very much Council Member Nelson.

Okay colleagues, I really want to thank all of you for your engagement in this discussion today and Director Winkler-Chin, really excited about all that you put in the questionnaire, the robust answers you provided.

And to highlight that, as Council Member Herbold noted, you have also been on the community end, a strong advocate of some of the policies that we're really excited about, preference affirmative marketing and with some of the policies that now in this seat as the director of the office of housing you get a chance to forward is made possible because of the funding that you have been a strong champion of on the outside as well and now being a steward of those public funds I think we have a lot of opportunities such as jumpstart progressive payroll tax the mandatory housing affordability funding that's coming in, the local sales tax options authorized to the city using a portion of existing sales tax for affordable housing.

We're beginning to be able to scale the investments in affordable housing to meet more of the need that we see growing in the community going from just 44 million dollars total investment in affordable housing in 2016 to now being able to put forward $200 million in last year's budget.

And we know much more is soon to come with our investments going forward from Jump Start and then with the opportunity with you at the helm and in partnership with Council to increase the affordable housing levy that is going to be in front of voters next year.

Anything that you'd like to say in conclusion as you reflect on the opportunity for advancing some of the progressive policies that you've been able to help champion on the outside and now being on the inside, the priorities that you see in the near term to put those dollars into action as we think about moving forward on this confirmation?

I would say that the mix of dollars really, really helps with the policies.

right, that are created.

There's a level of flexibility there that the Office of Housing has not had 10, 15 years ago.

And so I feel that the moment is right with all the things that we've been working on over the past years to really think about what this work can mean and how we better support community, what the types of projects that we should invest in and how we should invest in them.

and what is the other infrastructural needs that we'll have to improve along the way as we do it?

I feel very lucky.

Let's be honest, the work's gonna be tough, but I feel really lucky for you to be considering this confirmation and for me being able to sit in this seat right now.

So thank you for that.

With that, I'm not seeing any additional questions from my colleagues.

Colleagues, I am excited to move.

The committee recommend the confirmation of the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin as the Director of the Office of Housing.

Is there a second?

Second.

Amazing, it's been seconded.

Is there any additional comments or questions?

Hearing none, Madam Chair, okay, great.

Hearing none, Madam Chair, will you please, Madam Clerk, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the passage of the bill to appoint Michael Linkler-Chin as the Director of Office of Housing?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Madam Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Madam Chair, that is a five in favor, none opposed.

Well, wonderful.

Michael Winkler-Chin, Madam Director of the Office of Housing to be confirmed by the full city council.

That was a unanimous vote.

So we are excited that the recommendation will be sent to the June 14th Seattle City Council meeting for final confirmation.

Congratulations to you.

We could see you all on our screen in front of us.

And I know the community could see well on Seattle channel as well.

So thanks so much for being here with us today and all the work you've already done.

in the city and with our community partners.

I see Deputy Mayor Washington applauding as well, and we'll celebrate you on the 14th.

That's the happiest she's looked, I think, since she's ever seen me.

So thank you very, very much.

Excellent, wonderful.

Well, we're gonna continue on with the theme of the Office of Housing as we continue into the Race and Social Justice Initiative Report.

Thanks again to your team for all the work that they've done during your tenure as interim director and also before your arrival.

And we're gonna continue on with the second item of business.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item number two into the record?

Agenda item number two, Office of Housing, Race and Social Justice Initiative for briefing and discussion.

Great, so that would be the presenters, Director Winkler-Chin, Charles Mason, Rosie Zhu, Bin Jiang, Sokha Dhan, and Alexander Chase of the Office of Housing.

Of course, feel free to correct my pronunciation as you introduce yourselves as well.

And Director Winkler-Chin, we do have a presentation that we will link to for the Seattle channel, I believe somebody in OH is gonna be managing the slides there, but welcome back Director Chen.

Thank you very much.

I don't know who's driving and I'm looking at all my staff and I'm sure that somebody knows that they're driving the slide deck.

I gotta say some of my best conversations at OH are with the change team here.

I've really enjoyed those conversations and they've been working at it way longer than I am, or I have.

And so I'm just going to turn it over to Charles, who's ready to go.

Thank you, Director Chen.

We are, Winkler Chen, we are so happy to be here today.

We also very much appreciate our conversations with you.

Today I'm joined by my colleagues, Rosie Zhao, who's actually going to kick us off, so I'm going to pass it over to her.

Thanks, Charles.

Hi, everyone, members of Finance and Housing Committee.

Thank you for having us today and allowing us to present the great work that the Office of Housing has been doing and is doing to advance racial equity, both internally and externally.

Before we get started on today's presentation, I'd like to start with introductions.

I'm Rosie Joan.

I am a senior lender on the Capital Investments team at OH and also one of the Change Chain co-leads.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am Charles Mason.

I'm a strategic advisor on the capital investments team, and I am also one of the co-leads for OH's change teams.

Alex?

Hi, everyone.

I'm Alex Chase.

I'm a community engagement and data specialist on the policy and equitable development team working specifically on emergency rental assistance, and I will pass it over to my colleague, Soka.

Good afternoon.

My name is so good on on the community engagement specialists here at the Office of Housing.

I'll pass it on to my colleague bit.

Hi everyone, my name is Ben Jung and I'm a strategic advisor on the policy and equitable development team.

So today's presentation will be broken into five segments.

The first segment will highlight the ways the Office of Housing is addressing equity issues.

Then we'll talk about the demographics of the communities we serve.

And then we'll take a look at the investments in affordable housing, followed by an update on policy and programs.

And lastly, we'll finish up by sharing what OH is doing to build organizational capacity in the community.

At the end of the presentation, there'll be time for questions.

Racist and discriminatory policies and investment patterns in the housing market, as well as historical systematic disinvestment in communities of color by government have produced an ongoing pattern of inequity and disproportionately burdened BIPOC communities.

OH seeks to address this in a few ways.

One is the way in which we invest in affordable rental and home ownership.

And what this looks like is partnerships is Through partnerships, OH has with community-based organizations, providing technical assistance to help them achieve the goals of their organization.

Another way is through our affordable housing policies and programs.

An example of this is our community preference program.

And lastly, but not least, supporting organizations rooted in BIPOC communities.

An example of this is providing pre-development funding for homeownership projects sponsored by community-based organizations with experience working with historically marginalized communities.

Next, my colleague Charles will share some demographics.

Charles.

Yes, thank you, Rosie.

I think it's important for us to take a step back and identify who actually lives in OH funded housing.

So we have 60% of our rental households are BIPOC.

72% of those households are extremely low income.

That's 30% of AMI.

42% of those are special needs households.

And I should point out that 30% of AMI is roughly $27,200 for a single individual or $38,800 for a family of four.

And we also want to highlight our home repair, weatherization, and homeownership programs.

45% of homeowners who are receiving homebuyer assistance are BIPOC households, and 58% of those households in the HomeWise program are 30% AMI households.

And if we take a step back and look at this with the larger context of the demographics of Seattle, 34% of renters are BIPOC, 55% are white, and 10% are Hispanic.

And for homeowners, 24% are BIPOC, 72% are white, and 4% are Hispanic.

Next slide.

Just as you're transitioning to the next slide, I'm gonna ask to pause real quickly.

If Seattle Channel, if you could pin the person speaking so that the projection shows the speaker, that would be fantastic.

Right now Council Chambers is pinned and I wanna make sure that the actual speakers are getting a chance to have their presentation broadcast.

All right, thank you very much, Charles.

Now I see you as pinned.

Please go ahead.

All right.

Thank you.

So now that we've talked about the demographic data, I think we should highlight some of the organizations that OH is funding.

In particular, if we look at our rental program for the 2021 NOFA, that's Notice of Funding Availability, we funded 15 different rental new development projects.

And of those projects, six of them went to BIPOC or BIPOC-led organizations.

So that's about 40% of the projects that we funded this year.

And I'll note that that is up from our 2020 funding round, which was about 25% of BIPOC or BIPOC-led organizations.

In addition to that, I think the Rapid Acquisition Program, which I believe was mentioned, Today is that we have funded the six newly constructed projects, and of those, all of the projects went to BIPOC or BIPOC-led organizations.

Next slide, please.

And so, just also kind of furthering highlighting some examples of what our investments look like when we work with BIPOC and BIPOC-led organizations.

And the rental program, so we recently funded El Centro de la Raza, the Latinx community, who is building 87 homes in Columbia City.

We funded Chief Seattle Club, which acquired the Goldfinch property.

And I want to thank my colleague, Rosie, for recently closing on that.

And lastly, we have the Filipino Community Village, which was funded in 2018. And I believe they started construction in 2019. However, they are now or recently opening their doors to residents.

And so I just think it's important that we kind of see what some of these investments look like and what these organizations can do when they partner with OH.

And now I will pass it off to Alex.

Thanks, Charles.

So as Rosie mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, one of the ways that we are advancing equity in the Office of Housing is through our homeownership initiatives.

And Seattle's Rainier Valley is one of the city's most culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods.

And it's also facing significant displacement pressures.

And the goal of the Rainier Valley homeownership initiative is to create at least 100 permanently affordable homes for first time homebuyers and to prevent displacement of current Rainier Valley residents.

This is being done through the acquisition of surplus property along the light rail.

that was utilized for construction staging purposes and which was transferred to the city at no cost to develop permanently affordable homeownership.

As part of this program, we are also building capacities for community-based organizations to participate in development and long-term stewardship of the land.

The Office of Housing and Sound Transit worked with Puget Sound SAGE and other community-based organizations to conduct community engagement specifically targeting BIPOC communities who live or have lived, visit, or have connections to the Rainier Valley to better understand priorities for the sites.

Next slide, please.

And so in addition to all of the other initiatives we've spoken about, we also had the opportunity to respond to COVID-19 with emergency rental assistance from funding from the U.S.

Department of Treasury.

And between July 2021 and March 2022, We have distributed over $30.1 million to over 7,000 households.

In order to do this, we've partnered with United Way of King County and numerous other community-based organizations.

The CBOs that we are partnering with are largely BIPOC-led and serving BIPOC communities.

This was an intentional decision with the goal of directing resources to BIPOC communities because these communities have been most impacted by COVID, the pandemic, and historically racist policies.

The majority of the heads of households that we've served through our Emergency Rental Assistance Program identify as people of color and 34% identify as white.

To put this in comparison to overall Seattle demographics, according to the most recent data available, which is from the 2014-2018 Five-Year American Community Survey, Seattle's general head of household population is 62% white and 38% BIPOC and or Hispanic.

So through the emergency rental assistance program we're meeting our equity goals by serving significantly more households of color compared to Seattle's general population.

The folks that we're serving through this program also are largely people with low or extremely low income.

So our largest demographic serve is households who make less than 30% of AMI, which at the time of the collecting the data and determining AMI, one person that was $25,100.

And for a four person household, that would be $35,800.

And I will pass it on to Soka.

Great.

Alongside the COVID-19 rental assistance program policy and programs, I'm here to talk about two other policies and programs we have or notice of intent to sell and also our clean heat program.

The notice of intent to sell is a preservation program focused on providing early notification to sell naturally recurring affordable housing to the city affordable housing providers and tenants.

The city and partnership community partners can use the notification information to evaluate properties and deploy a range of property preservation tools, including incentives and acquisition.

This notice can also help residents seek tenant protections and relocation resources if necessary.

Currently, OH is in the process of revealing gaps in the program with the goal to make it more accessible and equitable and responsive to community needs.

Secondly, the Clean Heat Program.

It's a relatively new addition to OH's suite of direct assistance program alongside our weatherization and our home repair program.

The Oil to Electric Program, also known as the Clean Heat Program.

It's a free program focused on converting oil heated homes to electric heat source, and this helps reduce energy costs and help the city achieve its carbon reduction goals.

Since 2018, OH has completed 56 OTE conversions in single-family residences.

Most of these households, as I mentioned about the weatherization program, also receive weatherization services because we leverage Seattle City Light funds after the conversion.

Outreach and engagement is focused on environmental justice in the BIPOC communities of the Duval Mission Valley, Beacon Hill, and Rainier Valley.

Recently, the Clean Heat Program received $1.3 million from the Payroll Tax Fund for the expansion of the program beginning in 2022, and the GOES covered 125 single-family homes each year.

Next slide, please.

Over the past two years, the change team has continually engaged in racial equity reflection and visiting, resulting in concrete ideas on how to further our work and prioritize racial equity in the Office of Housing.

This work began with our previous director, Emily Alvarado, and we are eager to excited to have the support of our new director, Michael Winkler-Chin, in the next stage of committing the work that the change team has led throughout the whole office.

Thank you, and next I'll pass it on to my colleague, Ben.

Thanks so much, Soko.

So continuing on our policy and programs that are focused on equity, I wanted to highlight our community preference policy, which has been in effect for the past year or so.

So our community preference policy allows affordable housing developers that are constructing affordable housing in high risk of displacement neighborhoods to set aside a certain percentage of the units for a specific preference.

The preference types that we've identified are folks that previously lived in the neighborhood, folks that currently live in the neighborhood, or folks that utilize services or have community ties to the neighborhood.

And this preference policy came out from community.

It was an ask from community members and advocates to have this right to return policy to try and work, fight displacement, and to bring folks who had been displaced or previously lived in the neighborhood back to these places.

So, to date, we've had two rental projects follow through and implement community preference, and you see them on the screen here.

We have Gardner House that is located near the Mount Baker Link light rail station, and we have Jackson Heights that's located in the Central District.

And both of these buildings implemented 50% of community preference, did thorough affirmative marketing, and both were successes and hit that 50% goal.

There are stories of folks who lived in the central district who moved out to King County and were able to come back and live in Jackson Heights.

And so we're really looking forward to continuing this policy as it applies to both rental and home ownership programs.

Next slide, please.

And then lastly, I wanted to talk a little bit about the capacity building of organizations and the support that the Office of Housing is providing these groups.

So we've identified a couple of opportunities and organizations that are deeply rooted in BIPOC communities throughout Seattle, and we're using our funds to help them either scale up their current operations or to reach and serve more community members.

We have an example here of Service is a Lifestyle.

They are specifically building up a database of homeowners that are at risk of displacement, working with their existing deep contacts and knowledge of homeowners in the Central District and assisting them with resources and information.

We're also working with the Central Area Collaborative.

They are partnering with Rebuild Together Seattle to provide homeowners with home repair grants.

And again, utilizing their deep knowledge and existing networks of Black homeowners throughout the central area to connect them to these opportunities.

We're also, lastly, partnering with LISC and providing capacity building for BIPOC organizations that are focusing in homeownership.

Again, you know, serving the communities that they come from, Black, Indigenous, and folks of color.

And there's also an opportunity for us to continue building this capacity of organizations through the jumpstart funds.

And that is going to come out later in this year.

But for now, we wanted to highlight these three examples of the assistance that we've been providing these groups.

And with that, I'll transfer it back over to Charles.

All right.

Thanks, Ben.

I think I will just end by saying, you know, I think myself and the other change team members cannot stress enough how excited and happy we are for Director Winkler-Chin's confirmation today.

She has continued to be very generous with her time in terms of talking through different ideas and things that we can work on both internal and external facing.

And we look very much forward to continuing to doing this work with her.

And so on that note, I will end and offer an opportunity for any questions at this moment.

Well, thank you all very much for the presentation today.

And I also want to extend my appreciation to all of you for your generous time and flexibility.

given last week's reschedule.

We're really excited about the work that the RSGI change team has done and your note of not only appreciation, but strong recommendation for Director Winkler-Chin is just so much appreciated.

And I think that will really seal the deal over here.

So thank you for helping to round out some of the policy considerations that you are currently working on and how those are really driven by your commitment to race and social justice.

Collins, are there any questions for members of the RSGI change team?

Okay, I am not seeing any questions.

I wanna thank you again for your presentation and really note that the Office of Housing's mission and the vision and everything that every policy that OH touches on is how we, I think in this city are going to be able to ultimately see changes to undo the historic racism and inequities that we saw embedded in housing policies in the past.

So, so thankful for all the work that the RSGI change team does within the office of housing and for our city at large and greatly appreciate your presentation today.

Please feel free to reach out anytime that there's anything that you'd like us to consider or bring up and Erin House in our office as well, as you probably know, is our lead on everything housing.

And I see Director Winkler-Chin giving a huge round of applause, so I will join her.

Thank you for all the work you do, and we will see you all very soon.

Anything you'd like to add in closing?

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Thank you, members of the Finance and Housing Committee.

Excellent, thanks so much.

We will see you soon.

Please pass on our appreciation to your entire teams.

Okay, Madam Chair, let's read item number three into the record, please.

agenda item number three, city budget office race and social justice initiative for briefing and discussion.

Excellent, thank you, Madam Clerk.

This is the opportunity to hear directly from the city budget's office race and social justice initiative work we have with us today.

Director Julie Dingley from the city's budget office, Jeanette Blankenship, Miguel Jimenez, Rhoda Shake, William Shen, and all of this is, these are representatives from the CDO.

I wanted to, thank Director Dingley for her interest in having this presentation today from the members of the CBO team.

We have not actually had a city budget office race and social justice initiative presentation before.

And earlier this year, we asked the CBO director if there was any interest in doing that and Director Dingley noted a strong interest in doing so despite having never had an RSGI presentation from CBO before said that they'd like to very much do that and initiate the process in a very transparent way.

So we really thank you at CBO for your interest in this and for engaging in the RSGI presentation here today and for all of the work that you've done in partnership with our office to move towards a really transparent system and collaborative engagement with CBO.

This is a huge part of that joint effort.

So with that, I wanna thank all the folks who are on the line here today.

And who would you like me to hand it over to?

I'll just- Director Dooling is trying to get in.

I wonder if our IT friends can help her.

Sure, great.

Director Julie Dingley is coming in the line here.

And as we do that, maybe I'll make a quick public service announcement as folks are joining into our screen here.

Just as a reminder, today was a special meeting.

So the usual course of business is the first and third.

Wednesday of every month, that means our next meeting is actually next week already.

We're gonna have a meeting next Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

That's June 15th, and we'll have on there a few items from the Jumpstart Community Driven Housing Fund, the WSDOT Royal Brom lease, and the HSD standalone grant ordinance.

Again, we won't miss a week between meetings.

So we'll see y'all next Wednesday.

But before we do, we have Julie Dingley with us and I am excited to have Director Dingley in the Zoom room.

I just wanna make sure that the audio or visual is working if desired.

And Director Dingley, we are thrilled that you're here.

Feel free to come off mute or your video if available.

I know we're all dealing with new technology as we move to a hybrid system.

So I can see you're off mute.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Council member.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

And we can see you now.

So yes, we got both.

Excellent.

I'm wondering if someone's available to share the screen or if you need us to share.

Sorry, madam clerk.

What was that?

Madam clerk is going to share on our end.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, madam clerk.

Well, Council Member Mosqueda, thank you so much for having us.

We are and thank you for that warm introduction.

We are so excited to be here with you today to share updates from the City Budget Office's Race and Social Justice Initiative work.

From the jump, I want to convey that as a core principle, we are building off of efforts that have been done for a long time, work that's already underway.

Our office is relatively new to this space and how we have organized.

Um, but we are aiming to add depth to the progress that has already been made citywide.

And I, um, you know, I joined the city in 2018 and in my four and a half years with the city, the budget offices work around RSGI has completely transformed.

So I couldn't be more proud and excited to be before you today.

Great.

I see that our presentation is up, so I'll keep my opening remarks quick, but, um, I wanted to highlight that, um, you know, CBO's work is unique in this space.

You heard from the Office of Housing just now and how they are building programs and direct interaction with the community.

And CVO is the recipient of a lot of that work.

And so a lot of our work focuses on how do we take in the work from departments?

How are we holding departments accountable to ensure that that's happening?

And then how do we look at ourselves to make sure that we're showing up in the space humble, eager to learn, and ready to take in that information.

I am joined today by four incredible leaders in CBO in the RSGI space.

And I'd like to take a moment to invite them to introduce themselves.

And we'll start with Rhoda Shaik.

Thank you, Julie.

Good afternoon, Council Members.

I'm Rhoda Shaik, Fiscal and Policy Analyst with the City Budget Office.

I'm also a co-lead for the Change Team.

I will pass it to Jeanette.

Thanks, Roda.

Jeanette Blankenship, Deputy Director in the Budget Office.

I'll pass it to Miguel.

Good afternoon, Council Members.

Miguel Jimenez.

I am Fiscal and Policy Analyst in the Budget Office, and I am CBO's Change Team Co-Chair.

William Chen.

Hi, good afternoon.

William Chen, Fiscal and Policy Manager for City Budget Office.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And it's also so exciting.

Typically, council members, you hear from just me.

And it is so exciting that we have my team members here today to be able to share this work.

So today, we're going to walk you through several items.

So if we can go to the next slide, please.

We're going to start out with some grounding anti-racist principles and RSGI truths that we keep top of mind as we enter into this work.

We're going to walk you through race and social justice and our budget changes, the overall budget process changes that we've implemented, some internal changes that we've worked on internal to CBO, our newly formed change team and the change team's work plan that was just got its big stamp of approval and vote in the last month, and RSGI and budget development and evaluation, we have a draft rubric we're going to walk you through that has been, in addition to our collaboration with CBO and OCR, it's a product of that collaboration.

So we're going to talk you through all those elements as well.

So first, if we go to the next slide, please.

First, just some groundings in in the anti racist principles and RSI truths that we discussed within CBO and then also with department finance managers in the areas that you know this is, these are where these ideas show up for us.

So, the, the two that we wanted to highlight one is gatekeeping.

And this is persons who work in institutions often that function as gatekeepers to ensure that institution perpetuates itself.

By operating within anti-racist values and networking with those who share those values and maintaining accountability in the community, the gatekeeper becomes an agent of institutional transformation.

So this is what I was talking about at the jump from how do we show up in this space and make sure that we are letting in, like we are not being an inappropriate gatekeeper.

And then truth number four that shows up here as part of something that came out of OCR is that we're all part of this picture, and none of us asked for this, but we all have roles to play.

And the full link to all of the RSGI truths as developed by OCR are linked here as well.

And in this one, it's that it's not possible to live in the United States and not experience the impacts of colonial racism, structural racism, and other intersecting forms of oppression.

or disadvantage of our lives, on our lives rather.

And none of us are responsible for the past, but all of us have a responsible, all of us are responsible for the present and to some extent for the future.

So with that, we can go on to the next slide.

And here, pass it over to Rhoda.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So to give you an overview of how the Budget Office centers equity and race and social justice, we asked departments to submit an assessment of equity impacts with any budget requests.

So the questions that you see on the slide is what they respond to.

You know, how does a budget ask impact racial equity?

Is it impacting historically disadvantaged communities?

Does it have negative racial justice impacts?

And if so, what are some things that you've considered to mitigate that?

And then it also touches on language access needs.

So is the proposal incorporating, does it have a language access plan component to it?

And I think it's important to ask these questions for many reasons.

but it's especially a great opportunity for departments to reflect on how they're engaging with equity, how they're engaging with disadvantaged communities in our city.

And it also gives the budget office an opportunity to be clear in our commitment to, in centering equity in the review and analysis process of each budget proposal.

And so these kind of three questions are, you know, have some sort of, have a double effect in some ways.

It's a point of reflection for departments and it's a great information for us to have in our, you know, deliberation process as we review those budget asks or requests.

Go to the next slide.

So another point of equity and inclusion is in the way that the budget process is crafted within departments.

Historically, the budget process has been a closed off one where senior level staff are involved in the crafting process.

And so that raises a lot of equity concerns.

And so the budget office, we've been actively thinking about what our role is in making the budget process more transparent.

what is, you know, our role in reducing the barriers for city staff at all levels to have access to the budget crafting process and to be more knowledgeable about the budget process and what's included in their department's budgets.

So one way that we've taken action on that is to encourage departments finance teams to include equity leads within their departments and change team members in the budget crafting process.

And so one way we've kind of facilitated that is to create a tool where they could assess their transparency.

And we'll cover that later in our presentation.

But we've been actively thinking about what we could do to run a more transparent process and into a more equitable one.

And, you know, within that, we've also been, you know, engaging with departments to see what they need, what their needs are, what levels of support they need to make that happen.

And so it's definitely an ongoing conversation where we receive feedback and incorporate it into any changes we make.

So that's just a look at the budget process.

CBO's also been working on internal changes, and I'll pass it on to William to cover that.

Thanks.

Right, so we've also made internally focused changes for CBO.

And first on that, we established a new CBO change team.

And that was to sharpen our focus on the equity issues that are directly in CBO's sphere.

We adopted a change team charter to give our new change team the structure to continue working over time.

And we elected co-chairs, Rhoda and Miguel, who are presenting, you've already met, and stood up a core team with members representing each division in the department.

And we created an annual work plan through discussion with CBO staff to direct our energies and increase engagement of staff on our artistry priorities.

Now, we also took a critical look at our hiring procedures.

So here we updated our job postings to remove barriers.

In particular, we revised the language and the criteria to focus on talent and alignment with our mission, rather than just looking at previous experiences and educational background.

CBO also now promotes more actively to underrepresented potential applicants by, for example, reaching out to policy schools that are at HBCUs or universities with high Latinx populations.

And also, these changes have resulted in a more diverse staff, both ethnically and with the experiences that they bring to the table.

And on the next slide, I'll pass it over to Miguel to speak more about the change team.

Thanks, William.

So, you know, CBO's change team is a relatively new change team.

And as part of my role as co-chair and Rhoda as the other co-chair, we have attempted to establish a unique culture for what fits our department.

I'm going to go a little bit out of order here.

First for us, it's really been important to recognize the historical effort that our co-workers have been engaged in for decades now in organizing their teams, their divisions, their departments in this work and elevating issues that will impact race and social justice within the city and for the city residents.

And so we acknowledge that work and we recognize that we are new to this space and that we're here to build off of all of that effort that's come before us and all of those leaders that have come before us with deep gratitude.

For our department, we are established in a strict process, the budget process.

And so for the change team in particular, we've been building a culture of experimentation.

One where colleagues can bring new ideas to the table and we can discuss them together.

One where we can listen to finance managers, directors, staff members from across departments in the city to hear what their thoughts are and receive their feedback and build these new ideas into how we can change these kind of internal bureaucratic processes, but in ways that really impact equity in measurable outcomes.

And finally, we recognize that our role in this process is really aligned with being the stewards of the city's resources here.

And our ability to bring an equitable analysis into that conversation is really one of our chief responsibilities.

And so we discuss that and press upon that with our colleagues and try to figure out how we are sharpening our own internal ability to reflect and analyze this work so that we can deepen the city's equitable outcomes, both across the internal structure and as well as externally for all of our residents.

Next slide, please.

So over the span of several months, our change team met to discuss what our work plan priorities are.

And so we've identified three areas that we're actively working on.

The first is creating or establishing an internal equity forum.

So the idea here is to create a system of holistic analysis that we could use during the budget process.

And our main kind of I think the goal is to just have a holistic analysis at the beginning stages of the review of the budget review process.

So currently budget analysts focus on their specific department portfolios and we make recommendations accordingly.

And I think the hope is to have a holistic view at the beginning stages where analysts have an overview of the citywide asks.

So that's the first item.

The second is identifying equity indicators, and I think the goal is here.

We want to be able to answer the question of how do we know that we're doing an equitable job within the city?

And how are we measuring our progress in centering equity?

And so there have been, there are a lot of ongoing efforts in the city to standardize data collection on demographics.

And, you know, our innovation and performance team within the budget office is working with various departments to help departments.

create a way of, you know, a standardized way of collecting that data.

And so that same team is helping us craft tools, specific tools that budget analysts could use in our analysis process.

So we could, we have a way of measuring equity in sort of kind of a program evaluation scope.

And then the third item is working on what is the budget development evaluation rubric.

So I mentioned earlier that CBO, in collaboration with OCR, collaborated on a self-assessment tool that departments then use to assess their transparency levels, their level of budget transparency within their department internally.

And, you know, this specific item is working on enhancing that tool using the feedback that we've collected from departments at the end of last year.

So those are our three main items, and I will pass it on to Jeanette to cover the rubric in detail.

Thanks, Rhoda.

So I'm going to share a little bit more about more of the context for the budget development evaluation rubric and what it is.

After we received the department input in the summer of 2021, so last year, the budget office and the race and social justice team over at OCR debriefed together these responses.

We want to understand both where departments are in considering racial equity in their budget changes and what resources would be helpful in defining and understanding, like what does progress look like?

How can we better define this?

So the race and social justice team at the Office for Civil Rights developed a rubric inspired by the continuum on becoming an anti-racist multicultural organization.

And the continuum was adapted for kind of budgeting purposes to considering resource allocation, ranging from a closed process where just a few decision makers are engaged to a more transformational process.

And along that continuum, you get to kind of transactional, to racially inclusive, to structural change, and finally transformational.

The rubric was developed by our partners really to guide conversations, right?

So what does progress look like?

Who's asking that question?

So thinking about how we engage our race and social justice advocates like equity leads and change teams here in the city, as well as department leadership and finance teams in the budget office.

So in this year's budget development process, as we look ahead to 2023 and 24, the budget office asked departments to try using the rubric during the budget process, asked them to provide feedback on how it was applied, how it could be improved or made clearer.

Want to recognize that different departments are at different places in their budget development process when that request was made.

And I think the most important thing is like, this is not a solution of itself, but it's a framework to start having these conversations.

And we know we're gonna continue to build on the progress of the past, to really have an anti-racist approach to how we think about the city's resource allocation.

We anticipate learning from how the rubric is implemented and want to continue to refine the resource to really meet departments where they're at and help define what progress looks like.

I'll go to the next slide then.

All right, so we want to close this time by recognizing the deep partnerships that this work requires.

This is not just the city budget office presentation, but really given our team's role in advancing the goals of the city.

And this is about how we partner to push for progress.

So I want to highlight just a few of the partnerships that have helped advance this work.

So it wasn't mentioned here, but the very last meeting that the Budget Office had before anyone went home in this pandemic back in March 2020 was a training for the Budget Office held in partnership with the Office for Civil Rights.

So since that time, since we all said this is the last time we're in person, and throughout the pandemic, we've continued to partner with the Office for Civil Rights.

Last March, we provided a training for finance managers across the city to provide more context for our work and train on the anti-racist principles and RSGI truths that Julie opened us with.

And then Rhoda mentioned that we held feedback sessions with the departments, and we were able to provide a training for the RSGI summit in January, which OCR said was one of the highest attended presentations at that summit.

Last year I also want to highlight that we partnered with the city's Workforce Equity Planning Action Committee to develop a staffing equity tool and develop questions for departments to consider.

They can consider these questions during budget development, thinking about how they approach engagement, how they heard from community, how they thought about WMBIE investments.

Rhoda also mentioned that over the last two years, we've asked departments to engage with their RSJH teams and co-leads and other RSJH advocates to take on a larger consulting role in budget development.

I want to recognize that building these relationships, which traditionally have not been strong in some departments, especially when we've been working remotely, takes time and it's iterative over the years.

And our goal is really that we're deepening those relationships.

We're starting wherever we're at and moving from there.

The department responses to our state questions and last year's budget process were analyzed and used to inform future policy considerations, including that draft rubric.

And finally, I just want to note that the city budget office team like this is ongoing work.

We have a broad team that supports those that you're seeing hearing from today.

And we're meeting biweekly with this office for civil rights to deepen those relationships and really advance our collective progress.

And finally, before I close, I really want to thank Kelly O'Brien, Iman Ibrahim, Mariko Lockhart, and Jason Eastman, among others, for their partnership on behalf of the Civil Office for Civil Rights with CBO over the last couple of years to help support and advance our progress.

All right, next slide, and we will open it up for questions.

Thank you all.

Wonderful.

Thank you so very much.

I want to thank all of you for the presentation today.

I wanna make sure that folks can hear us okay.

My screen appears frozen.

So if you are still on there, oh, there we go.

I see Jeanette smiling.

Thanks Jeanette.

Thanks to everybody who presented today.

And thanks to your entire team, because we know that there's probably more folks who made this work possible.

So please pass on our appreciation.

And again, to Director Dingley, thanks for your interest in this.

We know that this has not been done before on behalf of CBO, so really excited about your leadership and your interest in making this a routine practice to have the City Budget's Office Race and Social Justice Initiative Team present.

Are there any questions or comments for our RSGI Change Team from CBO?

Vice Chair Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Just a real quick question.

I think it's a clarifying question.

On one of the slides you wrote about creating an internal system of holistic analysis to use during the budget process, is that the rubric that you developed and then asked the departments to use?

Is that what you're referring to there?

this.

Thank you, Councilmember.

So those are two different aspects of our work plan that we're focused on right now.

The internal forum that we're discussing is something that we do at a high level of the budget process on a regular basis.

Obviously, we must consider the budget process holistically.

But at the analyst level, we look at our individual departments within our portfolios.

And occasionally that creates kind of a siloed approach to budgeting.

And so our goal within the change team is to build a secondary forum for analysts to do cross-cutting work to look at issues that impact various departments and how we can think more equitably about the entire budget process holistically and not focus simply on the departments in our portfolio.

The rubric that we went into detail on is an opportunity for us to support departments across the city as they develop the budget on their side before it gets to the city budget office.

When the departments build their budgets, it has traditionally been a relatively closed process.

We don't believe that creates equitable outcomes.

We are working with those departments and being advised by OCR on how to build a more transparent budget creation, from the department level.

The rubric is kind of a tool to measure where departments are right now and what their long-term goals will be for the future.

And then to be a starting point for a conversation on what do we need to get those departments to that end goal?

What are the resources they need?

Not necessarily monetary resources, but just support, information, knowledge, education.

What can we do as partners to build a more transparent process?

That's really helpful.

Thank you.

And I think it just emphasizes the potential transformation under this particular department and with the work that you're doing, because you touch the work of every department of the city with the, the budget process and with your shepherding of the department's needs.

And then as it relates to the external piece, you're working with residents in the city who have different needs from different departments in the city as well.

And so there's, again, a lot of power and a lot of potential for transformation with the work that you're doing and I really appreciate it, so thank you.

Any additional comments or questions?

Okay.

Any additional closing comments from you, Director Dingling, or anyone from the RSJI Change Team?

I just want to say echo Jeanette's thanks to the partners that helped get us to where we are today.

There are many people that took a lot of time to educate us as a team, and we are indebted to that, that time that they gave to us, and we're just so excited, frankly.

the team in front of you is the CBO change team is sort of a misnomer because it's really the whole office.

It's been a really incredible experience to see it come together and play a role in it.

And so I'm just deeply, deeply, deeply proud to be here and really excited about the work and grateful for the opportunity to share the incredible progress we've made.

I also want Miguel, William, Jeanette, Rhoda, anything else that you guys would like to add?

I just want to thank you for this time and opportunity to lift up the great work that all of my colleagues have been doing.

So thank you.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Well, thank you all again very much for your presentation today, and we'll continue to look forward to getting additional updates from the RSJO change team and from all of you.

If you ever feel like you want to reach out on anything, we're always available.

Sejal Parikh in our office is the lead liaison on all budget related issues.

And we're happy to continue to engage with you all either in committee or at any point.

So just let us know.

Thanks so much, Director Daley.

And thank you all for joining us today for this inaugural RSGI Change Team presentation for the CBO.

With that, we are at the end of our agenda today.

I already mentioned that our intent is to stick with our first and third Wednesday meetings of the month at 9.30 a.m.

And again, that is next Wednesday at 9.30.

At that time, we will have the Jumpstart Community Driven Housing Fund discussion, the WAS.Royal LeBron lease legislation and the HSD standalone grants ordinance.

I also just wanna note for the good of the order, I will be asking the Council President to allow for us to waive the rules next Tuesday to allow for the Office of Housing Director nomination to be considered next Tuesday since it's afternoon on the Thursday proceeding.

So that will be our parliamentary motion so that we can consider her on Tuesday next week.

Colleagues, it's really good to see you.

Thank you very much for everything.

That concludes our meeting.

Take care.

you