Community Economic Development Committee Special Meeting 121021

Thank you, everyone.

The December 10, 2021 special meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 9.33 AM.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Peterson?

Present.

Council Member Sawant?

And Chair Morales?

Here.

That is three present.

That is quorum.

Thank you very much.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

At this time, we'll open the remote general public comment period.

I ask everyone to be patient as we operate this online system, and it remains the strong intent of the council to have public comment regularly during meeting agendas.

I understand there is not anyone signed up.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay, in that case, I'll dispense with the very long script about public comment, and we will close the public comment period now.

So, Darazel, will you please read items one through five into the record?

Agenda items one through five, appointments 2064 through 2078 for the Seattle Human Rights Commission the appointment of Alexander F. Tang as member for a term to January 22nd, 2022, the appointments of Rupali Dhingra, Amanda Richer, Jackie Schultz as members for terms to January 22nd, 2023, and the appointment of Skylar Reed as member for a term to July 22nd, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

I am excited that we've got some new human rights commissioners coming on.

As a former human rights commissioner myself, Council Member Lewis was also a human rights commissioner.

We really appreciate your willingness to serve and to step into leadership on these issues.

And I know the commission right now is doing a lot of really important work to make sure that we're They're holding us accountable as a council to some of the issues that we're facing in the city.

I'm going to go ahead and pass it to Janet Stafford, and Janet, let you introduce us.

Introduce us to the appointees.

Thank you, Council Member President Morales.

Yes, my name is Janet Stafford, and I am the Advisory Commission Liaison for the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

Before I introduce our first appointees, I just wanted to share a little bit more about these commissions that are housed under the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

We have the Human Rights Commission that was established in 1963 to advocate for justice and equal opportunity and advise on human rights issues and collaborate with public and private sectors to eliminate discrimination within the city and citywide.

We have the Women's Commission who addresses issues facing economic opportunity for women and women's health disparities and health outcomes for low-income women and women of color.

Affordable and high-quality childcare, women's role as caregivers, violence against women and the unique challenges that immigrant women face in our community.

We also have the LGBTQ commission who will be represented during this meeting as well.

And they have recommended policies and legislations.

Some of their recent work has included a video series surrounding Pride Spirit and working to propose a budget increase to fund for trans-centered programming within the city.

And last, we have the Seattle Disability Commission.

Some of their recent work has included their annual Jubilee event to collaborate and distinguish folks in the disability community, as well as implementing policy changes such as the closed captioning and the Seattle straw ban that we see today.

With that, I'd like to pass it on to our appointees.

I believe Alex Tang can share a little bit more about himself.

Hi, everyone.

Nice to see you all.

My name is Alexander Tang.

I usually go by Alex.

I am really privileged to be in this space.

I am really passionate about human rights.

If I can share something, 2019, the Hong Kong protests uproared in my home city, Hong Kong.

And it just really made me think of human rights around the world.

And I want to give my resources and what I can do for the city and the city of Seattle, and just add more to recognizing human rights violations around the world and even within our city and As a commissioner, I believe that I can be charged with the responsibility to just amplify the voices that need to be heard.

So thank you very much.

Great.

Thank you so much, Alex.

I guess we will share, give a few minutes to Rupali Dhingra.

Hello, everyone.

Good morning.

My name is Rupali Dhingra, and I am really honored and excited to be part of Human Rights Commission.

I immigrated here as a young teen kid to Seattle, and I have firsthand seen how poverty impacts and shapes one's lives.

And I have dedicated last 15 years of my professional work in working with folks that are impacted within criminal system and other systems.

And so I'm really looking forward to collaborating, amplifying voices and continue to grow the city as it has been an amazing house for me thus far.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rupali.

We can pass it on to Amanda Richard.

Hi, I'm Amanda Richer, she, hers.

And it's huge to me that Seattle reaches a point where all of our citizens have access to basic human rights.

When I first came here, I had to go almost two years with no housing, food insecure, no fresh water, living under a bridge while I got medical care.

And through that experience, I realized that we can do so much better.

And it's very important to get involved and make sure I came out and I'm alive.

So I need to make sure and go back and make sure that I can save as many or we can save as many as possible because without human rights, it is deadly.

So that's why I joined.

Thank you, Amanda.

How about Jackie Schultz?

Hi, good morning, everyone.

I apologize for having my camera off.

My connection's been unstable all morning, so I don't want to lose you in the middle of this meeting today.

Thanks for having me.

It's great to be in this space with all of you.

I am very excited to work with the Seattle Human Rights Commission Just a bit about my background.

I immigrated with my family from South Korea in the 70s, and we moved to Eastern Washington.

We grew up quite poor in an environment that did not have any services for families like ours at the time.

So I recognized an immediate need for families like mine and dedicated my life to help first with my education and now with my work to support families like mine and immigrants and youth particularly.

I have been working in philanthropy for the past 20 years and recognizing that we participate in silos, philanthropy, government, business, general society, and having access to grass tips, I recognized that I needed to get involved in grassroots in order to connect my networks, my experience and my lived experience to help to redistribute power and resources specifically to focus on racial and social justice.

So I hope that my contribution is Significant and I am excited to work with all of you in the coming years.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Jackie.

We will pass it on to Skylar Reed.

Hi everyone.

My name is Skylar Reed.

I use she or pronouns and live in West Seattle.

I've spent the last seven years working in organizations dedicated to advancing civil and human rights, currently with Human Rights Watch.

I'm thrilled and humbled also to join the Seattle Human Rights Commission as a commissioner.

And I'm particularly keen to work on bolstering the relationship between the commission and local activists, organizations and community builders.

I want to help to create a powerful coalition of human rights protectors and to engage in the exciting and challenging work of decolonizing and expanding human rights in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Those are all the new appointments.

Is that right, Janet?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, I do want to say again, thank you so much.

I know we've all, you know, had a chance to read through your appointment packets, and you each bring such important perspective and lived experience and professional experience to this work.

So I'm really excited to have all of you joining.

I do want to open it up for colleagues if there are any questions or comments anyone wants to make.

I do not see any.

So in that case, we will move.

Colleagues, I would like to move that the committee recommends confirmation of the appointments for the Human Rights Commission appointments 2064 through 2078. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of these appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

And Chair Morales.

Yes.

That is three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

Congratulations.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be approved will be sent to the December 13th city council meeting.

You are certainly welcome to listen in, but your presence there isn't required.

We've appreciated having you here today.

So I want to thank you all and look forward to working with you in the future.

Thanks very much.

See you later.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, let's move to the next appointments.

Darzelia, please read items six through eight into the record.

Agenda item six through eight, appointments 02069 through 02071 for the Seattle Women's Commission, the reappointments of Jennifer Gordon, Zoe True, Marsha Wright-Soyka as members for terms to July 1st, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Okay, Janet, I am going to pass it back to you if you've got some comments that you wanted to make.

Yes, thank you so much.

I'm going to just share a few words regarding these individuals.

Jennifer Gordon has been with the commission since September 2020. She is a military veteran and a registered nurse and public health graduate student.

She has brought voice to the commission to highlight the needs of her community and looks forward to her continued advocacy on the commission to ensure that women always have a seat at the table in creating the best and the brightest future possible.

We also have Zoe True.

During her time on the commission, she has led the Community Health and Wellness Committee, has organized community awareness events, and published op-eds and advised community leaders As the chair of the Community Health and Wellness Committee, she's coordinated a team of three to five fellow commissioners as they've focused on the health impacts of experiencing homelessness and on disparities in mental health access and quality.

She's contributed to the local and statewide policies on eviction by providing writing and publishing op-eds in the Seattle Times.

which has instigated the Senate Bill 5600. She's honored to continue her work and advancement in community conversations through the commission.

And we also have Marcia Wright-Soyka.

Marcia has been with the commission since September 2020. She was previously the chair of the Equitable Development Committee, focusing on supporting the policies and processes that that alleviate the impact on sweeps and amplifying solutions for safe permanent housing.

Marsha is looking forward to her continued work on the commission and the overall commission goals to support a post-pandemic equitable recovery for women in Seattle.

Thank you very much, Janet.

And these are all folks, as we know, who have been serving in their positions already.

These are reappointments to them.

So we're eager to have them continue serving the city in that capacity.

Colleagues, are there any questions for Janet about the reappointments?

Seeing none, I move the committee recommends confirmation of the appointments 2069 to 2071. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the December 13th city council meeting.

Okay, I think we have two more.

Is that right?

Yes.

So, please read the next item into the record.

Agenda item 9, appointment 02079, the reappointment of April Snow as member of the Seattle Disability Commission for a term to October 31st, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Council member, you're muted.

Janet, I'll hand it back to you.

Great, thank you.

Just a few words about April Snow.

April's been with the commission since earlier this year.

During this time, she has had an interest in advocating for universal design to improve accessibility for everyone citywide, as well as specifically within commission meetings and city public facing events.

She has recently supported the planning annual jubilee event and nomination event and is beginning to also support the annual recruitment of new commissioners.

She is currently serving and has been leading with a great face forward and really supporting the rest of the commission.

She is looking forward to continuing this work and has already stepped into leading as co-chair of the commission.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, any questions or comments?

Hearing none, I move that the committee recommend the confirmation of appointment 2079. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's three in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries, and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the December 13th City Council meeting.

The clerk, please read item 10 into the record.

Agenda item 10, appointment 02077, reappointment of Victor Liu as member of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to October 31st, 2023, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Very much.

Please go ahead, Janet.

Yes, thank you.

Victor Liu has been part of the City of Seattle LGBT Commission since November 2019 and is currently co-chair of the commission.

Besides his passion to ensure Asian American and Pacific Islanders, besides his passion to serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, immigrants and refugees, he also is a great and active community advocate, leader for the LGBT community, and homeless, unhoused, unsheltered individuals who lack access and higher disparity.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Janet.

Colleagues, any questions or comments about the appointment of Victor Liu?

Okay.

In that case, I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 2077. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to the December 13th city council meeting.

Bennett, thank you so much for being here and for sharing the good news about all the folks who are willing to continue serving the city in these capacities.

Really appreciate you being here.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Have a good day.

Okay, let's move on.

We do have one agenda item that is actual legislation.

So will the clerk please read the short title for item 11 into the record?

Agenda item 11, Council Bill 120241, an ordinance relating to human rights, including protections against discrimination based on citizenship and immigration status, adding a definition of race for certain purposes, and amending certain sections of the Seattle Municipal Code for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, you'll recall that in September, we did hear Council Bill 120180, which would have incorporated the addition of citizenship and immigration status as a protected class.

We set that aside for budget and also had some conversation about adding funding to the addition, but I'm going to ask Asha Venkatraman, who's here with us from central staff, to kind of walk us through what we had talked about before, some possible amendments we had considered, and what we're doing as the next step.

Good morning, Council Members.

Asha Venkatraman of Council Central Staff.

So as Chair Morales described, we did discuss Council Bill 120180 back in September and at that time discussed potential amendments to that bill to incorporate the protected classes of citizenship and immigration status as well as the definition of race into not only the sections of the code that the Office for Civil Rights has jurisdiction over, which were titles 3 and 14, but incorporating the updates to those protections throughout the code.

And so the bill you're considering today is Council Bill 120241, which does retain all of the same proposed changes that were in Council Bill 120180, but also incorporates the appropriate definitions and updates to the remainder of the code with regard to citizenship and immigration status.

Many of the sections in that code had not been updated recently to account for the addition of many other protected classes, and so we went through an exercise with the City Attorney's Office and with the Office for Civil Rights to make sure that all of those sections that you see amended in the proposed legislation do have the correct protected classes included.

And so you will see additional amendments to the sections around prohibiting discrimination in public corporations, the policy around affirmative action plans, business license regulations, license code regulations, and parks use regulations.

So because of the change in the the sections that were to be amended, there was a change in title, which is why you're seeing a new bill instead of just amendments to the bill considered in committee in September.

So all of that is described in the central staff memo that was attached to the agenda, and I'm happy to answer any other questions that you all may have.

Thank you, Asha.

And in general, this is really about bringing us into compliance with some of the changes that were made.

Thank you for that, for the memo.

Are there any questions for Asha or comments on the legislation?

Everybody really understands immigration.

Excellent.

Very good.

In that case, thank you again, Asha.

If there are no further remarks, I will move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120241. Is there a second?

Second.

Council Member Peterson, it's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 120241. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

That's three in favor, none opposed.

Very good, thank you everyone.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to the December 13th council meeting.

Colleagues, if there's no objection, council rule 6H4 relating to referring legislation to a council meeting when the committee is after Thursday at noon, is suspended, allow for referral of agenda items 1 through 11, the appointments, to this Monday's December 13th council meeting.

Is there any objection to that?

Perfect.

Hearing no objection, the rule is suspended, and agenda items 1 through 11 will be referred to Monday's city council meeting for final consideration.

I believe that is all.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions?

I think this was the lightning round of committee meetings for the week.

No comments or questions.

Okay.

Well, thank you, everyone.

I know everybody's eager to start moving toward the holiday season, so we will conclude this meeting of the December 10th 2021 Special Committee of the Community Economic Development Committee.

We are adjourned at 10.01.

Thanks everybody.

Thank you.

Have a good day.