Good afternoon.
Thank you for being here this morning for our governance, equity and technology committee.
We have a rather short agenda, so we have some appointments.
And so I'm going to dispense with the, uh, the, uh, any report that I have to give at the beginning.
I will say that if there's no objection, we'll approve of the agenda.
I'm not going to object to myself.
So we'll approve of the agenda and we don't have any public comments.
So I'm going to ask anyone associated with any of the, appointments or reappointments to come on forward to the table as Ms. Samuels reads it into the record.
Appointment 01373 through 01375. Appointments and reappointments for Renee J. Peters Jr., Torgy Madison, and Stephen Mahesri as members of the Community Technology Advisory Board for a term to December 31, 2020.
Good morning.
All right.
Let's take advantage of the informality of the situation and just start with introduction and have a quick discussion.
Please, Tracey.
It's on.
It's on.
Hi.
I'm Tracey Cantrell, a Seattle IT executive advisor.
All right.
I'm Torgi Madison.
I am co-vice chair of CTAB and co-chair of the CTAB's Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee.
I am Stephen Maheshwari.
I'm the chair of the Community Technology Advisory Board.
My name is Rene Peters.
I'm a newly appointed member of the board.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you.
I thought you were running for office or something, Rene.
So why don't we, if any of the co-chairs or leads of CTAB, if you've got some involved, is there any issues you just wanted to talk about?
being part of the group and showing leadership in there.
I'll start off with you Renee, so tell me a little bit about yourself.
I read your background, but tell me why you're interested in joining us.
CTAB, and I know you've been active thus far already, so please.
Yeah, absolutely.
When I first moved to Seattle last year, I was very excited to see that there was a forum where people could come and talk about issues that matter to them as far as technology and how it impacts their lives.
It's something that I've really seen a lot of different points in my career and educational life.
I started at MIT as a chemical engineer.
I worked in manufacturing for Procter & Gamble before going to business school.
And now I work as a technical marketer for Microsoft, working in artificial intelligence.
And through the manufacturing lens, through the tech lens, through studying chemical engineering and just thinking about technology as a whole, you really get to thinking about how it can impact people's lives for the better.
And a lot of different systems in this country affect people's lives, and technology really has the opportunity to improve their situations in many different ways.
through equity, through access, through information.
And when I got here and saw the discussions that CTAB was having, I was really excited just how open they were.
As a member of the public, I was able to actually just hop on.
Due to a question I asked one of the sessions, they invited me to come and collaborate with them on one of their efforts regarding the WS.2040 initiative.
You know, people really make their voice heard, and it is just very open, accessible, and very human, and I appreciate that.
So I'm excited to get to work, and, you know, I'm honored to be a part of this.
Well, I looked at your background, and this may seem stoic, but this is actually my excited face to have you, so I understand that.
I'm just very pleased.
Your background is indeed impressive.
One thing I did want to mention is that As I recall, I don't have it right in front of me, but there was some talk in your background about the smart cities initiative or some smart cities work.
And so just a little background that I think within maybe five, four or five years ago, we had sort of started a smart cities initiative and put some investments behind it and some personnel.
It sort of morphed into a different kind of initiative for the city, but I actually have this week, We are doing a lot of smart city work now.
We are not calling it as such.
It's not confused roles of your employer, but we'll at least let you know about these meetings and who the people are.
You probably would recognize some of the names.
This is actually a second meeting I'm having with them.
So I'm doing this purposely before our budget.
And so I will keep you in the loop on that work that we're doing.
Yeah, please do.
And on CTAB, I'm actually vice chair of the Smart Cities Committee, where we're focusing on predictive policing and AI management of infrastructure.
So I can definitely loop that into Microsoft in a hard way.
OK, we're meeting Thursday.
I know that much.
And so I'll make sure.
Again, I know the protocol is over there, so I don't want you to, why is Renee here?
But they probably would welcome any input.
And this way we have sort of an existing infrastructure through CTAP on what we're trying to do from the business side of things.
Perfect.
OK.
So gentlemen, what other thoughts should we talk about at CTAB?
What's going on?
What are the hot issues?
I know some of you are looking at the surveillance work we're doing.
And that becomes very challenging, because we're trying to get out at least what some of us think are good technology and effective technology, and particularly in public safety and other areas.
But then again, we know privacy concerns are legitimately very Intense and they should be because of the lack of the breach of privacy.
So we're trying to muddle through it ourselves But maybe you guys could talk a little bit about The issues at CTAB you're confronted with Yep councilmember Bruce if you don't if you don't mind or could permit us have some prepared remarks that I'd like to please On behalf of CTAB just to provide some transparency over at least my time With the with the board over the last two years.
Thanks, Stephen
So thank you today for your time and for your consideration for not just my reappointment, but all of our appointment and reappointments to the Community Technology Advisory Board.
I am proud to be a member and chair of the Community Technology Advisory Board, which is an active board that has been present in our community for 24 years, which actually surprised me. and we'll be celebrating its 25th anniversary next year.
And though I've been a resident of Seattle for six years, the last two years with CTAB has truly helped me connect with the broader Seattle community.
And as a board, one thing I've noticed is that we are truly dedicated to emphasizing the community in our board name, constantly advocating for the rights of those disadvantaged by a lack of access to broadband or technology, for those whose rights may be infringed upon by potentially overreaching cybersecurity technologies.
and for community-based organizations that can benefit from city resources when it comes to improving or creating digital literacy programs or access to technology.
And I'd just briefly like to highlight some of our accomplishments to provide visibility into our board's efforts.
In 2018, we hosted many public panel discussions on topics of AI, automation, impact to labor, on the Tech for Good public-private partnerships, broadband accessibility for low-income residents with members of WAVE and Comcast.
We've collaborated with organizations such as Urban League, the mayor of Mercer Island, Bellevue City Council, Microsoft, Deloitte, Lime, executives from those organizations, and more.
In addition, we have monthly presentations from various nonprofit leaders and members of city government present on the latest issues and initiatives.
This year, we've really stepped up our focus on, you know, the tech community overall and the tech for good sort of community.
We've co-organized a series of tech for good hackathons hosted by Democracy Lab, along with organizations such as Code for America, Open Seattle, and the Washington Technology Industry Association.
And this is a series of solution-driven hackathons where community volunteers come together to work on tech projects that impact issues ranging from housing in Seattle, school violence, providing greater transparency to government data, education, research on Orca whales, and more.
In addition, we have partnered with the Seattle Public Libraries to co-sponsor an emerging technology series where the public can learn about emerging technologies ranging from virtual reality and augmented reality to privacy technologies.
And recently, we've hosted discussions on areas at the nexus of tech and social impact, including low-income housing.
We recently had a presentation from Bellwether Housing on their new crowdfunding campaign on transportation and supporting the solution-driven tech for good community.
I think more relevant to the committee is that we've issued a number of advisory comments and policy reviews.
Torgy Madison, who is here as well, has been an incredibly active and stalwart contributor to issues of cybersecurity and privacy and co-leads our committee with Smriti Chandrasekar.
We've been an active contributor and reviewer of surveillance technologies and have been in meetings around these technologies over the last two years, including those outlined in the surveillance ordinance.
Some of the other highlights include our official statement to the FCC on net neutrality, our advisory comment on public benefits during the wave franchise renewal, our comprehensive review of the WSDOT's 2040 and beyond transportation plan that Renee mentioned, our recent surveillance ordinance group to public comment and more.
I'd like to pass along two comments that we recently approved to provide to City Council.
And one is regarding an analysis of the recent technology access and adoption survey to kind of highlight some of the findings around digital equity that we found through the sort of data set that was collected, as well as another letter in support of the critically needed Digital Equity Act legislation proposed by Senator Murray.
Alongside that, other digital equity efforts include making official recommendations on the technology matching fund, for the last several years.
One thing I'd like to highlight is that our board membership is significantly limited compared to other boards and commissions, as we only have six members and three vacancies of which we're waiting to be filled by mayoral appointments.
If three members are missing for some reason, we would not be able to vote or approve or make progress during board meetings, which would hinder the momentum and energy from our volunteers.
But even though we are a volunteer board, we are also lucky to have the active participation of many members of the public in providing valuable policy insight and review, organizing events, writing white papers, and more.
One of our subcommittees that Renee is on is also led entirely by non-board members.
In the last round of applicants interested in our three vacancies that were open, we received 31 applications from many who have been part of CTAB longer than myself.
I am grateful for the support and energy from not just our board members, but from the public as well.
And I hope City Council takes note of our vigilance, our productivity, and community interest, and could consider an official expansion of our board to a proposed 15 members, which would bring us to parity with not just the roadmap of things that we want to accomplish this year, but with parity with many of the other boards and commissions that have a community focus in Seattle.
We are seeking to have a balance board in terms of geographic, gender, race, ethnicity, and technology expertise, and it helps us achieve our goals and meet the demand and growing interests of the community to step up and become even more civically engaged.
This would allow us to be greater contributors to current and upcoming legislation, including for the surveillance ordinance.
And so while I'm here humbly for you to consider my reappointment, I hope this also provides visibility into our current progress and our needs to be a better board to serve your committee, city council, and the public at large.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Steven.
I'll respond to a lot of what you said, but thank you very much.
That was a very impressive presentation.
Torgy, did you want to chime in and co-sign that unreasonable request?
No, I'm just kidding.
Go ahead, Torgy.
Sure, yeah.
As co-vice chair of CTAB, I wanted to make sure that Stephen had a chance to read that.
So I kind of deferred to him real quickly there.
But I completely agree with that statement.
And my committee in particular has quite a bit of work cut out for it.
As you mentioned, the surveillance ordinances had kind of a long history with city council, and I was actually involved with the advisory group from the very start that was put together by Ginger Armbruster and was aware of it and participating in that well before I was ever in a leadership position with the Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee.
And so, in that spirit, The group two technologies were available for public comment.
The committee sourced volunteer effort from active members of CTAB and also active members of the community who weren't even necessarily attending the board meetings and put together an advisory statement that was submitted along with the surveillance impact reports.
And so I think that To Stephen's point, there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the privacy and cybersecurity sector.
And Stephen mentioned that the survey for technology access and adoption, we have a summary there in front of you.
And 80% of the respondents in that survey mentioned that the safety and security of their information was one of the top concerns that they had when considering the technology that's on their devices.
And so I just wanted to reiterate Stephen's point.
Thank you.
Thank you for your leadership too.
So let me respond to some of your comments.
First of all, I think I would agree with you that I rely on CTAB for a lot of work over the years, over the last 12 years.
And we cut down on a lot of the commissions during some tougher times in our budget analysis.
But I think that you're well within your rights to suggest we get more members.
And so, and this is not new.
This was not a surprise, by the way.
I was very aware of your request.
So thanks for airing that publicly so the public understands both your passion to do the work and ask for more resources and my receptiveness toward it.
So that's fine.
So we'll do some work offline about looking at those numbers.
I have to admit that I was, I didn't realize you had as many vacancies as possible.
And just for the record, they are all on the mayor side of the house.
All three of you are city council.
appointees and I want to commend my staff both Miss Samuels and Mr. Vin Tang for they take their outreach on finding CTAB members particularly not only talented folks but trying to reach diversity and underrepresented groups as well and they take it very seriously and they do an outstanding job.
So Tracy maybe you can help me out a little bit to tell me why we have so many vacancies on the mayor's side of the house and sort of what's going on there.
I don't have a specific reason to articulate today, but I can follow up with the mayor's office and find out what is the stemming the current round of vacancies.
Okay, so have you all, I don't mean to, we could have had a talk before this, but you are aware of the vacancies.
Did you make any inquiries about them or you come here for three appointees realizing that you're Six, I think you have seven actually, you said six, but my notes say- We just had one member term off.
Okay, so it's- We have four total.
Yeah.
One council, three mayor.
I think Renee is taking the city council appointment, and then we have three where the interviewers were finished, recommendations have been made to the mayor's office, and now we're just waiting for the mayor to make a final decision on the three candidates.
So it looks like we will have all 10 here pretty shortly is what I'm understanding.
Yes.
OK.
Well, we're not sure about the timeline on the mayor's side.
OK.
But through that process, the three The four slots that are open now should be filled in the next three or four weeks, assuming that the people meet the scrutiny that will be launched upon them, I suppose.
That sounds right.
Okay, so we're in the process of that.
I didn't realize myself, by the way, that I don't like it when I see so many vacancies, and so that's all of our jobs that come here.
Do you understand that?
Okay, so we're actually trying to meet the, it seems a little crazy for us to go up to 15 when we have 10 and we have so many vacancies.
It seems to be our first order of business to fill the vacancies, which sounds like we're doing.
I will say that in previous times when we've made this request, we've had as much as nine and found, or nine, or as much as 11, and have found that our workload greatly exceeded the capacity of our existing membership, which is why we do draw on a lot of outside members of the public to not just be an active part, but also just lead our subcommittees.
Understood.
And I think, I don't recall off the top of my head, but What was the high number of CTAB members?
At one point, they were chartered to have many more.
I think it was the 15 or 20 or something.
So we scaled it down when we thought it was necessary to do so.
So I hear you loudly.
So we'll talk off record about what we have there and double down on our recruiting efforts to get some good talent like Renee here.
So OK.
Message received.
Two things I'd like to share with you.
One is, One of the with the innovation advisory council one of the chore one of the Ideas that we've had as a city or try to see with our with the issue of homelessness and housing how we can best use technology More effectively to help with the problems and there's one particular technology known as the Samaritan and app or Samaritan medallion, if you will.
It's called something else.
The name escapes me, but it's a, it's a, it's a device, a beacon.
I think it's referred to as a beacon.
And So we've had the, I think the founder of the company meet with us and display his product and actually brought homeless, people that experienced homeless that are no longer there, really tell some incredible successful stories on the software, how it's used.
So when I met very briefly with our human services group, I'm not, they get a lot of ideas, probably weekly on how to solve homelessness, right?
But just as you and your respective companies have a pretty smart evaluative process for new products or services, new apps.
I mean, it's a process in another life.
I played a role in that too at a company.
I'm not sure they are equipped to do that.
I mean, we traditionally use RFPs, and we say, here's the need, and people respond to it.
But in terms of some of these ideas, I'm not sure we have the right process.
And perhaps you could play a role in looking at that particular Samaritan did raise some issues of privacy, did raise some issues about potential for sex traffic.
I think you know how it works is that it's a beacon that can activate through Bluetooth.
And it allows a person in the public to understand who this person was.
who they were before they were experiencing homelessness and what their personal story is.
And it allows this person to transfer dollars to this person through one of our agencies, like Mary's Place.
And so this person then can receive the credit, the monetary credit, and go there and sort of cash it in, if you will.
So it's not panhandling.
And then associated with that process is a mentoring and a social service aspect to it.
So we're getting this person not only some financial help, which they need, but the other types of wraparound services.
So it's a communication.
And so many people that might be willing to help now have a portal by which they can help, even to a complete stranger.
So it raises some issues.
And so perhaps one of the ideas that I have is perhaps you guys would be so kind as to have the app demonstrated to you and come up with a recommendation.
It's a little different for, the council to budget this item without it going to the department that are experts in this area.
So my process is to anticipate any objections to the, I particularly like it, and I think that he was on a shoestring budget, and I think it's cutting edge technology, and I don't think it could hurt things, and I think it can drastically improve things, and we saw a real life example.
So this is an example of where the issues you're concerned about, privacy, security, that kind of thing could help for this Samaritan technology.
So I may send him your way, and you've been forewarned.
We've actually had Samaritan present at CTAB, and we had a similar experience to what you mentioned, and we also were kind of floored by the app.
And I believe the founder is Jonathan Kumar.
Yes, very good.
And so, yeah, we're aware of it.
And if there's some sort of way that we can give an advisory statement.
That'd be great.
We can definitely do that.
So, well, you guys are patient.
You let me go on and on like you didn't know anything about it.
And you guys already listened to it.
They're very good.
I wish I married someone.
Thank you for allowing me to interrupt you.
So a nice weather, and see here's the thing, here's the beauty of I think CTAB is I don't think you all are politically motivated anyway.
It's not like you're sitting on someone and you have this political agenda.
I think you guys are pretty pure to the technology and have good hearts on what you're trying to do.
So I think coming from you all, it's less politically charged.
It's just here's the issues, here's what we're trying to do here, the technology issues.
your backgrounds in technology.
Surely you guys are subject matter experts.
And so some kind of statement from you, if I don't think I have it.
So that may, to me and Human Services and to the executive, because I'm really interested in trying to deploy this on some kind of trial basis this year.
And but it's just like how I was with body cameras when I started in 2010. Now we have them deployed, but it's a little jarring for some folks.
So yes, I'm kind of whether endorsement or even non-endorsement or any issues you see that we should be careful about if we deploy.
But I'm really interested in trying to fund that this year.
And that was actually the last point I was going to make was that to me that you're chiming in on certain issues, particularly with technology, I think, again, strikes the right balance because you're not seen as what I call a politically charged group.
You're seen as someone that's neutral on these issues but coming in just as subject matter experts on technology.
And that's why I think adding people to this great group makes sense to me at least.
Okay, any other comments, Tracy, or do you want to close out?
No, I'm just thrilled that this is a new area of responsibility for me, and this has been a long-standing group, and there aren't many organizations that have stood the test of time.
And so, just, you see activism, hard work, and dedication, and I think that's wonderful.
Yeah, yeah.
And thanks for your comments, Stephen.
I'll take them hard.
And just so you know, the way the budget works on these kinds of things, any kind of even smaller budget impact, it comes from the mayor and comes to us.
And so I'm hopeful that you take, it's not just a council, right?
You guys could come and propose it in the budget, and all I do is endorse it.
Okay, so you got two groups here.
You can go across the street to the judicial side and tell them too, but there's no litigation involved.
Okay, so with that let's uh vote so i'm gonna move the appointment of renee peters and the reappointments of torgy madison and steven my hesh wary Probably slaughtered that steven.
I apologize.
Okay.
I will second it all those in favor say aye I oppose, there's no one opposed, so I'll present this to the full council.
I'll most likely also, when I present it to full council, Monday at two o'clock, articulate this conversation about the concerns we've had and about additional members because of the work you're doing.
Tracy, thank you again for your leadership.
I was a little blindsided on the vacancies part, so I don't like seeing that.
It's on my watch, and so thanks for your help there.
Thank you.
OK.
With that, thank you, gentlemen.
We'll stand adjourned.
Thank you very much.