Community Economic Development Committee 22621

Good morning, everyone.

The February 26, 2021 special meeting of the Community Economic Development Committee will come to order.

It is 930 a.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Peterson?

Council Member Sawant?

Present.

And Chair Morales.

Here.

For a present.

Thank you.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

Okay, before we start public comment, I just want to say good morning to everyone.

Thank you all for being here.

Today we will be making appointments and reappointments to several commissions.

We'll also be voting to appoint the first group of members of the new Equitable Development Advisory Board.

I'm really excited to hear from Director Assefa and Patrice Thomas from OPCD.

as well as from Monisha Harrell, who has been helping bring this board to fruition.

We will also be hearing the final presentation of the Black Brilliance Research Project.

Just as a reminder, Council's stated goal with this project was to identify some key issues in overall community safety concerns.

as part of a larger scale participatory budget process that we want to begin.

And we're doing this because that is really a democratic way of allocating public dollars.

The research project identified what community needs in order to participate in the program.

It helps establish a framework for an equitable process, budget process, and also includes some recommendations for priority investment areas.

These recommendations can be used by the council, by city staff in different departments, and by community members in the development and implementation of the participatory budget program.

For example, digital equity is a clear need in our community to ensure equitable participation in this process.

And so the report includes several recommendations on what more the city could be doing to close that divide.

We know there's lots of questions about this.

And today we'll be hearing about the priorities identified through the research.

And we'll also be hearing about some next steps to begin implementing the process itself.

So I'm looking forward to hearing from the research team And with that, we will open it up for public comment.

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

I'm asking everyone to please be patient as we operate this online system.

We're always looking for ways to improve.

It does remain the strong intent of the council to have public comment regularly on our meeting agendas.

But the council does reserve the right to modify these comment periods at any point if we deem the system as being abused or as unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently.

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

The public comment period will be for up to 20 minutes.

Each speaker will be given 90 seconds to speak.

I'll call on two speakers at a time in the order registered on the council website.

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can still sign up before the end of the public comment period by going to the council's website at Seattle.gov slash council.

The public comment link is also included in today's agenda.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it's their turn to speak.

The speaker must press star six to begin speaking.

Please state your name and the item you're addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left.

Once you hear the chime, please wrap up your comments.

And we ask that at the end of your comments, if you would still like to listen in, you can do so on the Seattle channel.

So please hang up so that we can move on to the next speaker.

The regular public comment period is now open, and we'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

That is, we have first Akiya Beshay, and then we will have Ahmed Hussein.

Akiya, please go ahead.

Hello, everyone.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Yay, good morning, everybody.

My name is Akia Vishay.

I am a 30, basically 31-year-old non-binary person living in South King County.

I am privileged enough to be here to speak with you all about participatory budgeting.

And my organization, Sacred Community Connections, was a part of the Black Brilliance Research Project, which was able to write the report essentially informing participatory budgeting.

We had an amazing time.

We were able to reach so many beautiful people and collect so many stories and get resources out there.

I really don't think that I've been a part of something so massively impactful in these communities in a very, very long time.

We've been able to make countless partnerships, get a bunch of data that can inform how the community actually wants things to move instead of how we think they want us to move.

And we believe that the city should follow the community's roadmap, because it's very, very important that the community is able to see their voices represented in the next coming laws, the next coming funding, the next coming way people are cared for and services are provided.

And I really hope that we take that into consideration.

I am so excited about PB&J.

I just wanted to say that, and I look forward to hearing about all of the next steps and being a part of it.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Akia.

Before we move to Ahmed, I do want to note that Council Member Peterson has joined us.

Good morning, Council Member Peterson.

Okay, we have Ahmed Hussein next and then Jason Thomas.

Hi, good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

We can hear you, but now you are muted.

I see you muted.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yes, please go ahead.

Okay.

My name is Amar Hussain with the BCG.

I'm someone who worked with the Applied Equivalence Research.

My role was to collect data in a field and interact with the community members face-to-face.

Even though COVID restrictions hampered those efforts, my team and I took on those challenges and employed different methods of reaching the community.

As someone who have lived and grew up in Seattle, I take pride in making sure that our community's voices are heard We are often an obstacle and voices as a community when it comes to those in position of power and elected officials.

I'm looking forward to the participatory process and that being equitable to our community as it moves forward.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you Ahmed.

Next we have Jake and then I have Triana.

Sorry Trevona on the list but is not present.

So Jake why don't you go ahead and we'll see if Trevona joins us.

Hi.

Good morning.

My name is Jake Dana.

I use he whom pronouns.

I'll be speaking in support of participatory budgeting today.

I'm a queer renter living on Beacon Hill in District 2. Go, Tammy, go.

We love you.

On the traditional land of the First People of Seattle, the Duwamish Tribe, I'm a long-term volunteer of the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

And just a quick reminder to everybody listening to visit the new virtual gift shop on the duwamishtribe.org website.

I can't speak for the Duwamish tribe, but I can as a member of the wider community and would love to say thank you to Councilmember Herbold for all your support, especially securing funding for the sidewalk and crosswalk project on West Marginal Way.

Also, as a member of the Trans Brothers Union, I was invited to be part of the Solidarity Budget Coalition of 196 local community organizations that have called on Seattle City Council to not only defund the Seattle Police Department, but to invest in community led public safety especially within Seattle's historical disenfranchised communities.

A huge thank you shout out to Nikita Oliver for leading us forward and always advocating for the Duwamish tribe to be included in a meaningful way.

OK at first I admit I didn't quite understand what participatory budgeting really was.

But my first teach in it started to kind of click.

And I could see how the scope and scale will actually be able to begin to transform our city by encouraging civic engagement and ensuring an equitable distribution of public resources.

Thank you, Jake.

So I see that Trevona is still not present.

Is that correct?

Okay.

In that case, we're going to move on to, sorry, I'm clicking too many buttons here.

So next we have Hussam Al-Mutawwa.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

Good morning, council members.

Thank you for this opportunity to allow me to give my public comment on this matter.

My name is Hussam Al-Mutawwa.

I'm a 35-year-old male of mixed race origin.

child of an immigrant parent and lifelong resident of Seattle.

I'm here to show my support for the Black Brilliance Project and participatory budgeting.

I worked with the Black Brilliance Project as a researcher with bridging cultural gaps.

Our goal was to research and record the opinions and ideas of difficult to reach local communities on a number of topics all revolving around how to increase public safety and equity in their community through increased funding.

Our work shined a light on the ability to make positive changes locally with individual participation and effort.

I enjoyed having conversations with many people who previously felt that they had no personal effect in matters relating to funding or how their taxes are utilized.

We won over several opinions by proving the old adage, a closed mouth doesn't get fed.

I'm excited for the future of PB and our success in getting input from previously marginalized populations.

and after our success in getting input from previously marginalized populations, I know a number of other people are also excited to have their voices heard and take part in a more equitable process of governing.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Sam.

Next, we have Polly Davis.

Good morning.

My name is Polly Davis.

My pronouns are she, her, hers.

I'm a white woman who lives in the Central District and works with community groups to provide opportunities for restorative mediation in which justice-involved youth can meet with those that they have harmed.

I have been closely following the development of the Black Brilliance Research Project since its inception and have been continually impressed by the broad, impartial reach they have had in such a short period of time.

I've seen the Black Brilliance Research Project reach out and involve organizations and people in Seattle and King County who have not been asked to participate in such opportunities before.

They've taken innovative, diverse, and nontraditional approaches in reaching out to communities and giving them voice and made spaces for them in ways that we have not had the opportunity to learn from them before.

I've attended their teach-ins.

and have watched the participants who have been part of this research project grow and become more confident about what their contributions have been and how they see their space and the opportunities that are available in King County now.

I've really appreciated that the City of Seattle has enabled and funded important work and provided people who have not had access to such a venue before.

to be part of an encouraging project in these very discouraging times.

I'm really excited about the roadmap that's being brought forward at the meeting today.

Thank you, Polly.

Next, I have Christopher Thomas, but he's listed as not present.

Christopher, are you here?

I don't think he is.

So we will move to Penny O'Grady.

Good morning.

Are you hearing me.

Yes please go ahead.

OK.

All right.

Hi my name is Penny O'Grady and I want to state my support for both the Black Brilliance Research Project and the participatory budgeting cycle which will build upon and enhance the significant work of this research.

Let me say up front that I'm a white woman in my 60s in North Seattle and I've been volunteering with the project which has been a pleasure.

The expertise, enthusiasm, innovation, commitment, and results of this group of researchers has been truly energizing.

I feel proud that this city council was moved to work with the Black Brilliance Researchers on behalf of greater equity and justice in Seattle.

And I look forward to the next steps with participatory budgeting, or PB.

I was involved in past PB projects for city parks and for pedestrian and bike infrastructure.

The PV process that is recommended by the Black Brilliance Research Project builds on this history while making the further recommendation that this site will be community-led.

And I heartily concur.

Seattle is known for its citizen involvement and initiatives.

There is huge momentum now for building social infrastructure toward the common good of public safety and including everyone in the process.

I urge City Council to build on this momentum and follow through on the recommended roadmap.

It's an exciting time for our city.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Thank you, Penny.

Next, we have Anthony Powers, although he is listed as not present.

Anthony is not here.

Okay, so we have Peter Shalito followed by Emma Lower.

Good morning, my name is Peter Shelato Condit, and I use he, him pronouns.

I'm a scientist, researcher, and abolitionist living in District 4. I've been helping to coordinate volunteer efforts with the Black Brilliance Research Project, and I've heard some of my friends speak already.

I've met an incredible number of talented individuals in the past months.

The Black Brilliance Research really is an incredible team of teams.

The researchers and volunteers have enriched my life in this dark time and shown me not only that another world is possible, but also that I can be a part of co-creating it.

We all have things to offer.

I'm a 34-year-old white man.

I'm excited for Seattle's future and excited about working to create it through the participatory budgeting priorities that the Black Reliance Research Project will lay out for you today.

We can defund the police and live in peace.

We have so much wealth in this city.

PB allows us to fund the people, the structures and the services that make our community healthy.

It allows especially for our black and brown neighbors to take ownership of resources that they continue to be systematically excluded from by racist present day zoning laws that are holdovers of redlining.

Thank you council for your support and please take as much money away from the SPD as possible.

They are violent and harmful, hold them accountable.

The $5.6 million of unallowed overtime from last year should be put into participatory budgeting.

Defund SPD permanently.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Next, we have Emma Lower, followed by Gerald Bradford.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, Emma, go ahead.

Hi council members.

Thank you so much for taking the time this morning to listen to Seattle residents.

My name is Emma Lauer and I am speaking in support of participatory budgeting.

I am a 23-year-old White woman born and raised in West Seattle.

I attended Garfield High School and went on to study at Yale and Berkeley.

I'm speaking to you as a longtime resident of Seattle and as someone who has volunteered with the Black Brilliance Project.

It is evident that this past has shown us the need for reinvestment in Seattle's historically Black and Brown communities.

and has proven that policing as a system is failing us.

Legal scholars and economists have shown this for a long time and this is supported at the federal level by the Biden administration.

The crucial question is how do we get there.

We start where we are.

Participatory budgeting happens through organizing and there are many people in the city who have been harmed by Seattle's wide ranging inequities who know what the city needs.

The Black Brilliance Researchers have led teach-ins, podcasts, one-on-one conversations, and reached out to churches and other community spaces to organize support for this process.

I support participatory budgeting because it has precedent, and the process embodies a more inclusive democracy.

This is a process happening in cities around the world.

New York has been conducting participatory budgeting since 2011, in recent years on a scale of more than $35 million.

This scale creates impact.

It is funded technology updates and science programs, park renovations, bus countdown clocks, and many other projects.

Participatory budgeting works through a democratic process.

It increases the participants' likelihood of voting by 7%, and the Black Brilliance Researchers are organizing to include.

Thank you, Emma.

Next, we have Gerald Bradford followed by Nadia Miller.

Gerald, are you here?

We also have Trayvonna and Chris on the line.

Okay.

Gerald, I have you listed as present.

If you're speaking, you need to push star six to unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Please go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

Sorry about that.

Yes, good morning, City Council's community.

I stand in support for the PV process and the Black Brilliance Research Project.

My name is Gerald Bradford.

He and him pronouns.

I'm a 52-year-old Seattle resident, community member, graduated from Garfield High School, University of Washington.

I may wear multiple hats in the community.

I'm the re-entry manager for the Department of Correction at Renton Technical College.

In addition, I'm a founding member of the Seattle Peace and Safety Initiative, and I am the vice president of the Central District Preservation Authority.

The data that the Black Brilliance Project has gathered is super important so that we as a community understand our holistic needs.

This is the first time that there's been a concerned effort to try to hear the voices of the community members through a survey and data collection.

I've been working in the Puget Sound community with undereducated and underemployed persons for over 20 years.

During my time of service, there's never been a true system that was able to deliver services and resources directly to the community.

Historically, black and brown residents have felt powerless when it comes to the financial decisions that affect their community.

We have not had a seat at the table with a real equitable voice.

The participatory budget is a process that is needed to make sure that the community has a voice in how resources are allocated and identified needed services.

I believe that the project will need to develop guiding principles, community covenants, and working agreements in order to make sure that there's a solid foundation so that the community is not fighting over funding that is truly needed to the community.

Thank you, Gerald.

Next, we have Nadia Miller followed by Tana Yasu.

And I do see that a couple of people have come on the line now, so we'll get through this list and then I will go back to Trevona and Christopher.

Nadia, if you're on, please go ahead.

Hi good morning.

My name is Nadia Miller.

I am a 31 year old raised in Seattle.

I am also wear many hats in my community but I'm showing up here today as a Black mother of two Black boys and in support of the Black Brilliance Research.

I'm also a researcher with the Forever Safe Spaces team.

I want to express gratitude for the support that we've already seen from council and for everyone who's showing up in this call today.

and urge city council to follow the participatory PB roadmap that has been created by our community, by community through this research, and to continue to support this because it is truly letting those who have been most impacted by systemic racism and violence lead the way.

I have been overwhelmed with the reality that this is a solution to not only, you know, the issues that we face here in our city, but this is also a blueprint for the rest of our nation.

That's extremely powerful that we're leading the way in this.

And I, again, just urge council to continue to support this program that is putting, is addressing the economic crisis and the triple crisis that we face as black people, brown people in this community in a real way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nadia.

Next, we have Tana Yasu followed by Nikita Oliver.

Tana, I show you as present.

You need to press star six to unmute yourself.

Hello.

There you go.

Hello.

You can hear me now?

Yep.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Good day.

Good day, everyone.

Speaking on two things, and I only have 90 seconds, so I got to be quick.

I am up for reappointment on the Seattle Women's Commission.

That's still to be voted on, and I just want to say it's been four years, and it's been fabulous.

Many of the people here today, I know, of course, I am an African woman, Seattleite, and I just do want to say, also in support of the Black Brilliance Research Project, I'm glad to see the interest In righting the wrongs of the past, when black and brown skin was demonized, the solution was to militarize the police and lock people up.

But now that systemic racism has been exposed, there doesn't seem to be an exit strategy to reallocate funds and energy into healing the community.

The reparations will take more than just money.

We have emotional trauma, our housing is not stable, our education is lacking.

We have no reliable health care we can trust.

We have no nutritious food to sustain our communities.

We have been pushed out.

Seattle is the sixth whitest city in our nation.

And just years ago, the city claimed to be progressive.

And I challenged the city at our losing home press conference to pull back the veil.

Now I challenge you to dig deeper, to do not oil the most squeaky wheels when it comes to our community leaders.

You may not hear from our most hard workers because they're.

Thank you, Tana.

It sounds like you had more to say.

Please email your comments to us.

We're happy to take the rest of your comments in.

Let's see.

Next, we have Nikita Oliver followed by Trevona Thompson-Wiley.

Nikita, please go ahead.

Peace and good morning, Council.

I'm very excited to be speaking with you all this morning about participatory budgeting and the Black Brilliance Research Project and the innovative steps we're taking forward.

I know that we have so much work to do speaking as a Black non-binary member of District 2, 35 years old.

I know that we have a lot of work to do around repair and reparation, but I'm excited about this first step forward.

What excites me about the Black Brilliance Research Project is that it's giving black and queer led community researchers and organizations, the opportunity to set priorities for something that should transform our lives.

When we think about the defund movement, the goal is to continue defunding the police.

So where did those dollars go?

How do we build a public health and public safety system that works for the most impacted people, black and indigenous people, queer and trans people, low income communities.

And this is an opportunity for us to set those priorities and ensure that money, resources, support, and policy shifts reach the things that we most need to see.

I want to urge the city, both council and the mayor, to follow the roadmap for participatory budgeting that the community has created through this research.

I cannot think of another research project that has been led by the most impacted in any city or place on Turtle Island.

And this is really an opportunity to set a standard for what it looks like to take steps forward.

want to encourage us to remember that we do have to continue to focus on repair and reparations because Black and Indigenous people deserve more.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nikita.

Next, we have Trevona Thompson-Wiley, followed by Christopher Thomas.

Hi, can you hear me?

Hi, my name is Trevona Thompson-Wiley.

I'm a 29-year-old Black woman from Seattle.

I'm calling today to support the black brilliance project and the participatory budget.

I am proud of the research from the black research.

I mean black brilliance research project because it provides opportunities for solutions to drive investments into the black community.

This is important because the research is being led by the black community and this is extremely important.

I'm excited about the participatory budget, and this can and how this can truly help change, especially in equity because the community will decide how to spend 30 million based on the priority set by the black community.

I urge the city, both the council and the mayor to follow the PB roadmap created by my community.

Let those who have been impacted by systematic racism and violence lead the way.

I urge that this is implemented because this is the great way to really promote change.

If you truly care about the black community, if you truly care about the indigenous community, you will put the money to where the resources need to go to the most.

The pandemic has extremely impacted Black and Indigenous communities, and they need support more than ever.

They are done waiting for what it is that is already owed to them.

And I'm also here for reparations because we need to make sure that those who have been harmed by the system actually get the funding and get the resources that they need to repair the harm.

Thank you.

Thank you, Trevona.

The last speaker I show present is Christopher Thomas.

Christopher, please go ahead.

You can push star six to unmute yourself.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

I am, uh, been living in Seattle for about eight or nine years now, and I am in support of the black brilliant projects.

I believe that members of the community of the black community should be able to choose where the money gets allocated towards and not people who don't live in our community, making all the decisions for our community.

So I think funding the black brilliance project is the best option to go.

And, uh, I yield my time.

Thank you, Christopher.

I don't see any other speakers present.

So I believe that concludes our public comment period.

Thank you everyone for calling in.

I understand it's challenging to get up at 7.30 in the morning to get yourself registered.

So I really appreciate all of you doing that and being here this morning.

Okay, let's move on to our first agenda item.

Will the clerk please read items one and two into the record?

Items one and two, appointments 1797 and 1798, the reappointment of Christina M.

and Jessica Williams Hall as members of the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities for terms to April 30, 2022, up for briefing, discussion,

Thank you, Darzel.

We're having a little bit of trouble hearing you.

But thank you for reading that into the record.

I'm going to pass this to Molly Brewer to present the appointees and just let my colleagues know that we do have quite a few reappointments.

So I don't believe that the folks who are getting reappointed are on the line.

We do have some new appointments and those folks are here.

But do want to give our presenters the opportunity to speak briefly to the folks whose reappointments we will be voting on today.

So Molly, please go ahead.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I'll be really brief with these.

So Christina is seeking reappointment for the Disability Commission.

Christina is a Seattle University senior working on an interdisciplinary studies degree with hopes on going to law school.

She's a disabled veteran and is active on many issues, including homelessness, transit, food insecurity, and grassroots organizing.

Since 2018, Christina has been serving on the Seattle Disability Commission and looks forward to her continued work.

And I can move to Jessica.

William Hall is also seeking reappointment on the Disability Commission.

She has attended the University of Washington, where she received her bachelor's degree in early childhood and family studies.

and obtained her master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from Western Washington University.

She looks forward to continuing her service on the Disability Commission.

Thank you.

Thank you, Molly.

Colleagues, any questions for Molly?

I don't see any.

So council members, I move the committee recommends a confirmation of appointments 1797 and 1798. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Any final comments, colleagues?

Will the clerk please call the roll?

More.

So I think you're having a hard time hearing you.

On one sec.

Jody, can you step in?

Council Member Juarez?

Thank you, Jody.

Yes.

Hello?

Thank you.

Did you lose me?

Council Member Juarez?

No, we have you.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the March 8th City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Jody, I'm gonna ask you to step in.

It sounds like Darzel's phone is not working.

Yes, thank you.

Agenda item three, appointment 1799, the reappointment of Annabelle Backman as member Seattle LGBTQ Commission for a term to April 30th, 2022 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

Molly, do you want to present?

Annabelle, please.

Yes, thank you.

Annabelle is seeking reappointment on the Seattle LGBTQ Commission.

Annabelle educates those with relative privilege on the impact that design decisions on policies can have on those without privilege.

Beyond the workplace, she brings these skills to the 43rd District Democrats, where she is the chair of the Technology Committee.

She is the co-chair of the Commission Operations Committee on the LGBTQ Commission since 2019, and looks forward to her continued work.

Thank you.

Council members, I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 1799. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Any comments from my colleagues?

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Four in favor, then opposed.

Motion carries, and the committee recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to the March 8th City Council meeting.

Will the clerk please read items four through six into the record?

Agenda items four through six.

Appointment 1800, 1-801 and 1-802.

Oh, sorry.

I think I messed up our little script here, but thank you.

So Marta, it looks like you are presenting for Liz and Jackie.

Yes.

Please go ahead.

OK.

So the Seattle Human Rights Commission consists of 21 commissioners appointed to serve in advisory capacity to the Mayor, City Council, and Seattle Office for Civil Rights and other city departments in matters affecting human rights issues.

Liz Pashut is currently one of the co-chairs of the Seattle Human Rights Commission and is interested in continuing to do the work necessary to call attention to human rights issues.

Liz has a history of serving on boards and has always been passionate in the public service and has served on previous boards and commissions.

She is a member of the Seattle Small Business Community with a personal stake in the current and future vitality of our city.

She hopes to be reappointed so she can continue to do work on human rights issues in Seattle, calling attention to the concerns of our community and holding our city officials accountable in her advisory role.

She looks forward to continuing her work on the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Jackie Turner is currently one of the co-chairs of the Seattle Human Rights Commission and is also interested in being reappointed to continue to do the work necessary to call attention to human rights issues.

She would appreciate the opportunity to continue to bring her experience as a transplant to Seattle, a constituent, a business owner, and as a parent to help serve justice and fairness to everyone.

She hopes to continue her work and echo the concerns of the community and advise city officials in a positive and meaningful way.

Thank you, Marta.

Colleagues, any questions for Marta?

Okay.

I move the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 1800 and 1801. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

I don't see any questions.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

4 in favor.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the March 8 City Council meeting.

Okay, we've already read 1802 into the record.

Marta, can you please speak to Tana?

Yes, yes.

Tommy Yasu was born and raised in Seattle.

She's an active member on the commission and has been attending meetings and participating on committees during her time on the commission and has recently become a new co-chair and already getting the ball rolling with her enthusiasm and passion about domestic violence issues and giving voice to the voiceless and collaborating with the community partners around these issues.

It has been a pleasure for Tana to volunteer on the Women's Commission, and she feels honored to be on the commission and looks forward to continue to do the work that the community expects of her.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marta.

Colleagues, I move the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 1802. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Are there any comments or questions, colleagues?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

And the committee recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to the March 8th City Council meeting.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone.

Let's move on.

Will the clerk please read item seven through nine into the record.

And the item seven through nine appointments 1803 through 1805, the reappointment of Quentin I. Morris and the appointment of Vanessa C. Villalobos as members of the Seattle Arts Commission for terms to December 31st, 2022, and the appointment of Vivian Hua as member of the Seattle Art Commission for a term to December 31st, 2021, up for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

Calandra is here to introduce these appointees.

Calandra, I will pass it to you, please.

Thank you, Chair Morales.

So we are pleased to recommend Dr. Quentin Morris for reappointment.

He is currently serving as co-chair of the Arts Commission.

He is a associate professor at Seattle University and is executive director of Keys to Change, which is an organization that connects underserved youth with classical music education.

We would like to present him for reappointment.

Very nice, thank you.

Let's go ahead and do all three of these then.

So I know we have Vanessa here.

Vanessa, you probably don't remember me, but we actually met at the Chicano Museum when Senator Saldana was hosting an event.

Fantastic performance.

Please go ahead and tell us a little bit about why you're interested in this position.

Yes, thank you.

Muchas gracias a mi comunidad latina que esta escuchando ahorita.

Hi, my name is Vanessa.

I'm just giving thanks to my Spanish community that might be listening and doesn't see the video.

I am super excited to be able to add to the wonderful work of the Arts Commission and specifically representing Latino, Latina, Latinax voice that is much needed in our community and super excited to to align with all the wonderful things happening in the city to thinking about this post-COVID world.

So art is it, and we need all of our communities to come together.

So super excited.

Thank you so much for affirming this.

Thank you.

And we're particularly appreciative of Vanessa's ability to represent working artists.

That is an area we have a lot of arts administrators on the Arts Commission right now, but it's really wonderful to have working artists on there and have those voices represented.

So we're really happy to have that voice there.

Thank you.

That's terrific.

Do we have Vivian on?

Vivian is on, but we need to upgrade Vivian over to a panelist.

I see.

Vivian is NWFF.

Son, can we make that happen?

While Vivian is getting added, I can just add that she's acting as the executive director of Northwest Film Forum and has worked really extensively with us on our creative economy work over the last several years, and I see her on now.

That's great.

Welcome, Vivian.

I do want to say, I did just watch Searching Skies, your short documentary that is on your website.

So I just want to thank you for creating art that reminds us to respect humanity of our neighbors, even if we think we disagree with them.

So thank you for that.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you want to serve in this position?

Thank you for watching my work.

That's highly flattering.

I appreciate it.

So I'm a writer, director, I'm a community organizer, and I'm super passionate about creating access for other artists.

Some of you may know about Northwest Film Forum, but if you don't, we're a film center and interdisciplinary community hub that has over the years become more and more of an interdisciplinary art space rather than serving only filmmakers.

So as someone who's both an artist and an arts administrator, I get to have the privilege of seeing the inner workings of a lot of different types of institutions at a number of levels.

And I think that's a privilege that the Arts Commission allows me to be able to utilize some of that perspective and make meaningful change, which I think is very important.

And yeah, I think people who can connect the levels between higher levels of government and the grassroots communities are extremely important.

And perhaps there aren't enough of us who are in that position who are able to do that work.

So I'm very passionate about it and about systemic change in general that builds bridges.

So thanks for the opportunity and have a nice day.

Thank you.

Very good.

Colleagues, any questions or comments for our guests?

Okay.

In that case, I move that the committee recommends confirmation of the appointments 1803 through 1805. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Very good, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the March 8th council meeting.

Before all of you leave, you're welcome to stay, but I do want to say thank you to all of the folks who are interested in serving on these commissions.

It's really important that we have the work that you're doing and that as commissioners, you're sort of the liaison between the council and community.

the work that you do is really important to holding us accountable for civil rights in the city.

I just want to thank you again for your willingness to put in volunteer time and to serve in these positions.

Thank you very much.

Your appointments will be finalized on March 8th.

Thank you so much.

Somebody say something.

Yeah.

Council Member Juarez.

Sorry, Madam Chair.

I did do the raise hand feature.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's OK.

I don't like using that.

I'd rather just raise my hand and you see me, because that just, it's another screen.

I have so many things up right now.

I know.

Two screens going in a tablet.

Just briefly, so I was looking at all the appointments, and I know we got this big one coming up, your Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

And then the last ones, I noticed on each one on the last page, it would be helpful if the residential council district or what district our folks hail from, if that could be filled in, because we're looking at trying to do more indigenous and performing arts and stuff up in the north in districts four, five, and six.

So when I'm looking at all the packages or the appointment packets, I'm not seeing where they're from in the city.

So I kind of want the equitable geographical, you know, we want to see it everywhere, particularly since we've opened up a couple of performing places up north for our kids, low-income BIPOC in our high schools.

I'm just asking if at some point we can, you know, get it updated with the districts in there.

Sure.

Yeah.

And I don't, yeah.

Cause I know that you did, I know that your next board coming up is 13 members and you're going to fill eight of those seats and the mayor will have to fill the other, the remaining.

So, um, if we can be helpful in that way too, and getting you some candidates are getting the mayor, some candidates and also looking at where our folks hail from, that'd be great.

Very good.

Thank you.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Okay, so yes, we are now moving into the last set of appointments here for the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

Will the clerk please read items 10 through 17 into the record?

And the items 10 through 17, appointments 1806 through 1813, the appointments of Willard A. Brown, Gregory Davis, Regina May Dove, Lindsay Goes Behind, Quinn Pham, Maria Jose Sorens, Yordanos Taferi, and Abdirahman Yusuf as members of the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board for terms to February 28, 2023, up for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

OK, well, I will say I'm very excited about this.

I know all of you have been working so hard to make this a reality.

And I do want to give each person a few minutes to share why this is important.

But first, I will hand it.

Is Director Assefa here?

Director Obahid is here.

Sorry.

I'm signing in for him.

I'd love to see you.

Please, go ahead.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Obah Kadere.

I am the Equitable Development Initiative Division Manager.

And those of you who don't know what EDI is, it embraces two broad goals with the dual purpose of both preventing displacement and increasing access to opportunity while building on the local cultural assets of Seattle's most marginalized communities And in EDI, we strongly believe to achieve racial equity.

We need strong communities and strong people.

And this also means community stability and resilience in the face of displacement pressures.

And great neighborhoods throughout the city with equitable access for all.

The EDI Interim Advisory Board was established in 2017 as both an external accountability body for the EDI and OPCD an advisory board and has done an extraordinary work to help stand the EDI program.

City Council asked us for legislation to create a permanent structure and significant work went into designing an appointment process that allowed for more community control of appointees.

I want to give a shout out to my colleague Patrice Thomas and also Michael Blomson for leading this work.

We invited members of several other boards and commissions to participate in the varying of applications as a way of breaking down silos and supporting collaborations within the city.

The appointments to the now permanent advisory board will continue to move, deepen and champion the value of the EDI program.

And I would like to introduce Manisha Harrell, who has been in the trenches as we have been building the EDI program.

with the EDI Advisory Board as a facilitator to introduce the appointees today.

Thank you so much, Uba, and thank you, Council Members, for allowing me to be here today.

My name is Monisha Harrell, she, her pronouns, and I have been working as a facilitator for the Interim Equitable Development Advisory Board for several years.

I could not be prouder today to actually be a part of introducing our permanent advisory board members.

When we asked many of these members to join us in this effort to move from an advisory board to a permanent board, we anticipated that this process would last about a year.

It has lasted about four years and they have stayed with us this entire time.

I want to say it has been an honor to sit in the space with the EDI advisory team.

Much of the progress and pride of the city of Seattle is because of the work of this group.

When I see people who talk about what makes this city what it is, especially the things that we have done as a city over the last few years, I can look back to the Equitable Development Advisory Board and I see their work.

I see their fingerprints all over it.

And it is truly the pride of the city When I see people who are talking about whether it's the executive branch or the legislative branch the things that they point to that give them the most heart comes from the work and the sweat and the equity of the people who some of the people who I'm going to introduce you to today.

This is a group that is led by their values.

They are constantly engaging in real conversations about how to build and support this city that they love.

And I believe me when I tell you they love this city.

They would not give so much of themselves if they did not love this city and love the people of this city.

The depth, the breadth, the commitment of the people who have stepped forward is remarkable.

They've done it all for the little sandwich or soup that I could give them over the course of many years.

And in the last year, I wasn't even able to deliver them a little bit of nourishment and they stayed with us.

They stayed at the table and they stay committed to the city in a way that makes me feel better about the work that we all do.

Every resource, this is my personal plea to our council members, every resource that you provide The equitable development initiative is an investment directly into the underserved communities of the City of Seattle.

I have seen them take a dollar and spread that dollar throughout the community multiple times to ensure that the results that we really want to see from the city are actually occurring.

They they discuss how that dollar is spent so intensely and they care for every single investment they make, not just the resources, but the people.

And for that, I strongly urge you to support the candidates that we're bringing before you today.

And to Council Member Juarez, we are bringing you candidates from the North.

There are a few open spots.

They are left there for a reason.

We've been thinking about you too.

We know that all of Seattle is a part of this equitable development solution.

And so, I just want to thank you all for getting us to this point.

And I assure you that the investment that you make in EDI will be worth it for the city of Seattle.

Thank you so much, Monisha.

Therese, are you introducing our...

I am.

So we will go down the line and introduce our appointees that we have with us today.

Thank you again, Monisha and U for such an illustrious introduction.

Let's get started with Mr. Willard Brown.

Please share a little bit about yourself and why you have chosen to continue to serve.

Thank you, Patrice.

My name is Willard Brown.

I go by the pronouns he and him.

I am a resident of District 1. I live in the beautiful part of Delridge known as Puget Ridge.

I have lived here for 20 years.

I represent the interests, the goals, and the struggles of the people of the District 1 and of Delridge in particular.

I came to the interim board three years ago as a representative from the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, from which I retired shortly thereafter, but have continued to represent the interests of the Delridge community.

There are many things that are of concern to this community, a lack of investment in infrastructure, stormwater issues, a lack of stormwater controls, housing discrepancies, and a lack of investment in other infrastructure in this part of the city.

And so as I sit on the interim board, we look to those community members who are recommending projects to serve this community and to serve it well.

And so I have thought strongly for projects for District 1, for Delridge, and they've not all been funded.

So you know that you know I've learned to just say okay maybe next time and to keep encouraging our community groups and others to put their best foot forward.

My participation on the board has enabled me to learn these things and what is happening across all communities and there are some shared experiences that need to be addressed everywhere where displacement is a huge issue.

So investment in the built environment, providing opportunities for enhancement and wealth growth and creating wealth in these communities is what drives me to do this.

And with that, I'll stop, but I will say this.

I have been doing this for over 30 years.

I worked with Seattle Housing Authority for 34 years as part of the development team that redeveloped the old Holly Park to new Holly, Rainier Vista, and High Point, as well as projects out north.

And the last project I worked on before retiring in 2010 from Seattle Housing Authority was figuring out how to retain some kind of resident structure and presence in the redeveloped Yessler Terrace.

So I come to you with a wealth of information of experience working with marginalized communities, and I have worked to give voice to those communities for a very, very long time, and I look forward to continuing that work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Next, we will call up Ms. Yordanos Teffrey.

Yep, you're still muted.

Yes, thank you.

Apologies.

I was having a hard time getting off mute there.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Yordanos Teferi, and I serve as the executive director for the Multicultural Community Coalition.

Our organization is a cross-cultural partnership among Black immigrant and refugee communities, and our mission is to build power, combat displacement, and preserve culture through collective ownership and shared programs.

And I was introduced to MCC through I'm Eritrean through the Eritrean Community Center for which I was serving as board chair.

And the Eritrean Community Center is one of the partners of MCC.

And so that was my first introduction.

But just to highlight the importance of being part of a cultural community center, having that community center to belong to, to serve my family, many families that were able to call it home to find To just find those cultural connections.

And so that was my first introduction to MCC.

And then, as I said, I I got more involved and now serving as the ad and MCC is a project originator of an equitable transit oriented community development project.

located at Othello Square.

We have been working on that project for a greater part of a decade.

The MCC project is one of the five EDI demonstration projects.

And MCC has also been an active member of the Race and Social Equity Task Force since its inception.

So it's through those affiliations that I first learned of the EDI Interim Advisory Board, which I joined in 2019, and my experience serving on the Interim Advisory Board has been both very meaningful and quite enriching.

There's a great deal of co-learning and deep collaboration that took place on the Interim Advisory Board, and I feel honored to have shared that space with such esteemed colleagues who themselves are very committed to furthering equitable community development, as you heard from Monisha.

And I look forward to joining and serving on the Permanent Board.

Thank you.

Thank you, O'Donnells.

Next, we will call to the table Ms. Regina May Dove.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, everybody.

Good morning.

My name is Regina Dove.

I use she, they pronouns.

I'm a black Filipina currently residing in district three.

I'm in the Atlantic Judkins neighborhood.

So it's that little tiny slot right between Judkins Park and Dearborn and Rainier Avenue.

Really busy place.

So I'm also a member of the Puget Sound Stages Community Leadership Institute, which is where I learned about the EDI Advisory Board, and I wanted to come on board as soon as I learned about it.

I'm also a member of the Healthy King County Coalition's Governance Team.

And through the coalition, I'm also a manager for a program called Youth for Equitable Streets, which is a youth-led cohort of young women of color dedicated to learning about mobility justice issues in South King County.

So a little bit about me.

I grew up in Kent, but the Seattle Central District and the South End is what I've really called home for the last 15 years.

It's also where a lot of my community resides, slash resided before they were all displaced as a result of gentrification.

The only reason I'm able to stay and remain in District 3 today is because I was actually able to secure more permanent housing through the Community Homestead Land Trust before permanently being displaced as a result of not being able to afford rent.

I'm serving on the EDI advisory board because while I was able to secure more affordable long-term housing, many of my black and brown neighbors, family, and friends have not.

We need more opportunities for our businesses to thrive, to share in co-ownership and stewardship of this land, and to thrive and age in place.

I believe in the initiative's vision to advance economic mobility and opportunity for Seattle's Black and Brown residences, which is why I'm really excited to serve on this advisory board.

Thank you.

We are so excited to have you at the table, Regina.

Next, we will call to share a little bit out around why you've chosen to continue to serve, Ms. Quinn Pham.

Hi, good morning.

Quinn Pham, I am the Executive Director for the Friends of Little Saigon.

I go by she, her pronouns.

Friends of Little Saigon, we're actually going on our 10 year anniversary, which is also the same amount of time that I've worked in this neighborhood, which is crazy.

I started as an intern and now I'm ED, which kind of tells the journey and my commitment to this work in this neighborhood.

The Friends of Little Saigon, we're a community development organization.

that really focuses on supporting small businesses in the neighborhood and to support the thriving commercial district that is the CID.

And so a part of this work is really just to bring the voices of small businesses to the table, specifically those of immigrant refugee backgrounds.

I myself come from a small business family.

And so I know the deep struggles of opening, maintaining and growing your business, Um, and during COVID that experience has been exasperated over the years.

So EDI has really supported some of, um, continue to support that work.

And, uh, my passion continues to grow in this area.

And so, um, I'm really looking forward to continuing to be on the advisory board and look forward to, um, our new members that are joining the team.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Quinn.

Next we have Ms. Kote Sorens.

Buenos dias.

I'm from District 1, from South Park neighborhood, and it's been the honor of my life to serve on the interim advisory board for the EDI since 2017. I live in South Park.

My children are growing up in this neighborhood.

I'm the owner of Resistencia Coffee in South Park, and I was previously the founding director of Fuentes and Immigrant Advocacy Group on Mental Health.

And I'm currently a co-founding director of community initiatives for Cultivate South Park, which is a community development organization of BIPOC residents of South Park working together for a more equitable South Park by bringing together neighbors around equitable development.

And the equitable development initiative is one of the most urgent tasks of the city to prevent this, not only prevent displacement, but there's been so much displacement that there is a lot to repair in the city on behalf of communities of color that make this city the great city that it has been and should be and it should be into the future.

And the blend of innovation and values, it's something that It's worth giving your life to, as far as building the city together with centering communities of color.

And access to place and to ownership of land is often overlooked in policy.

And I feel like the Equitable Development Initiative has done an incredible job at highlighting how central access to space and access to just land is for the flourishing of any community.

incredibly honored to be able to apply to continue to be part of the advisory board.

And also for our neighborhood in particular, also it's been such an incredible way of building capacity to be aware, to learn about what all the groups in the city are doing, who are part of the movement around equitable development locally.

It's been incredible to be able to learn, make connections, and concentrate that knowledge back into the neighborhood and speak back to the city.

It's been incredible.

Thank you.

Thank you, Cote.

We have three appointments that were not able to join us today.

Monisha, I'm going to do you a solid and read their bios in their stead.

We will start with Mr. Gregory Davis.

These bios, of course, are written in first-person, so I'll do my best to So Gregory manages strategy for the Rainier Beach Action Coalition.

RBAC stewards the Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan and is focused on neighborhood engagement and empowerment.

RBAC operates initiatives focused on food justice, non-arrest crime intervention strategies, economic development, and the use of power of social media to change the narrative of how people see and speak of Rainier Beach.

RBAC prides itself on the fact that 60% of its workforce are young adults and Rainier Beach neighborhood residents.

Davis's strengths are relationship building, consulting, advising, project management, and facilitation.

He declares improving the lives of society's most vulnerable are a driving force for him personally and professionally.

Current affiliations for him include the Our Best Advisory Council, City of Seattle's efforts that are being put forward to blackmail achievement, Rainier Beach Economic Development Roundtable, Rainier Beach a Beautiful Safe Place for Youth Quarantine and Rainier Valley Communities of Opportunity Steering Committee, the City of Seattle Intram Equitable Development Initiative at the time, and King County Communities of Opportunity Evaluation Advisory Committee.

I will stop there.

That is Mr. Gregory Davis.

Second, we have Abdi Youssef.

He, over the past five years, has experienced working as an advocate and community organizer for local community-based organizations.

He is also an active community member and would love the chance to give back by lending his advisory skills to the board and the work that we have before us.

He is highly experienced in community advocacy as stated, specifically in the realm of education, and low-income immigrant communities and communities of color and the nonprofit and public sector overall.

He enjoys supporting communities and civic engagement, affordable housing advocacy, and land use policy, in addition to community-based participatory planning, race and social justice issues as well.

That is Abdi Youssef.

And then lastly, We have Miss Lindsey Goes Behind.

She's a member of the urban Native American community here in Seattle, comprised of over 300 indigenous nations and about 90,000 people.

She brings forward the traditional teachings and values in addition to her professional experience to the work going on right here with regard to inequities throughout the city and rampant gentrification and commodification of housing and land access, which too often leads out the LGBTQ as plus low income and communities of color and pursuit of self-determination and prosperity.

She desires to serve on the EDI advisory board, because she would like to support the strategic vision, wisdom, and creativity that is found there in determining access to resources that are vital to combat the systemic support of land development, which seeks to build and contain wealth within a small sector of the population.

That is Miss Lindsey goes behind.

And with that, we've covered all eight of our recommended appointments.

the end.

Very nice.

Thank you, Patrice.

Thank you, Monisha.

Your introductory remarks made me cry.

Thank you, Uba.

And I want to thank all of all of our soon to be appointees for joining us today.

Colleagues, do we have any questions or comments for our appointees?

I am not seeing any hands raised.

Okay, but did you want to say something else.

Okay.

Okay, so I do want to thank all of you for your commitment.

I know it's been a very long time coming, and your willingness to stick it out so that you can lift up the voices of your community is really important, particularly because too often these are the voices that are left out of the conversation about how neighborhoods should change and grow.

We know that EDI is all about ensuring that new investment comes into our neighborhoods.

Those who are already here, those who are already living in these neighborhoods get to benefit from the prosperity that's coming rather than get pushed out.

So I know you've got important work ahead of you.

And I just want to give you my personal commitment, use the power of my office to help elevate your work and to ensure that racial equity is is a part of every conversation in our development decisions.

So with that, if there are no more questions, colleagues?

Okay.

Colleagues, I move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 1806 through 1813. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

And Chair Morales?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the March 8th City Council meeting.

Thank you all again so much for being here.

Really look forward to working with you to finish getting your board seated and to continue the work that you're doing.

Really appreciate it.

Okay.

Good to see you all.

Thank you.

Good to see you guys.

Okay, let's move on.

Will the clerk please read item 18 into the record?

Agenda item 18, Black Brilliance Research Project, final presentation for briefing and discussion.

Very good, thank you.

Okay, so we've got several presenters here.

I do wanna just say before they get started, we have spent the last six months discussing the need for greater equity in how as a city we allocate resources.

We've talked a lot about these kinds of issues in relation to everything from homeless services that have disparate impact on our indigenous and black neighbors, We've talked about equity in terms of how we invest in public health and equitable access to COVID vaccines.

And of course, we've talked about it in relation to public safety and how much we should be investing in our communities who suffer disproportionately from some community safety issues.

In all of these conversations, community is telling us the same thing, and that is let communities implement their own strategies.

Recently, we heard from Dr. Ben Danielson at our recent committee on vaccine access, who said that the city must be clear about what power we're transferring to community.

We must be clear about how we're transferring it.

mostly because folks are sick of being at tables where decisions have already been made.

As Dr. Danielson said, bold equity is community naming the process itself, the city naming the power that we're willing to shift.

So we're here today to listen to what community is asking for, namely a shift in how they access resources and decision-making power.

So I just wanted to clarify a few things.

The city has been doing participatory budgeting since 2015, so this is not a new thing we are embarking on.

We already have online tools for submitting ideas and for voting city staff already have some experience supporting neighbors through the project development phase.

We already have a system for paper ballots and online voting.

So we can certainly learn some things from how we've done this in the past, but it's really time to scale up all of that work and to increase access for communities that have been left out of our decision-making processes.

So I'm very excited to hear from our presenters today.

I know we will have questions for them, but want to go ahead and it over now to Sean and LaTanya.

Thank you Councilmember Morales.

Thank you everyone who's listening.

I also am just incredibly moved to be presenting this research because community has really entrusted us with this process and with sharing stories with us.

And I also want to give a shout out at the top of the hour to the EDI team.

They do great work.

We heard over and over again from community, just how crucial they are, how trusted they are to be able to really get why following community voice and making sure that the folks who should be making the decisions around important investments like land acquisition, affordable housing or front and center.

So I just want to say that.

And I'll go ahead and get us kicked off with the land acknowledgement.

We are on the ancestral and current lands of the Coast Salish people.

I am here in Beacon Hill, so Duwamish tribe is the tribe that I'm most excited to represent and to, or rather to bring into this space to say thanks, appreciation, gratitude.

And I'm also starting there, not just because doing things like paying real rent, real rent realrentduwamish.com is important, but also because Native sovereignty and Black liberation are intertwined.

And as we present on the Black Brilliance Research Project, as we talk about what we've heard from community, including Black community, Indigenous community, people of color, white folks, everyone, I just want to put first and foremost, how we have been in this struggle together.

And now we're able to present what people want to see happen next.

So with that said, my dog's whining.

I'm going to walk with y'all and talk with y'all.

Hello.

Welcome to Friday, February 26th, where we are presenting the findings from our Black Brilliance Research.

We know that this research didn't just come out of nowhere.

It came out of decades of struggle by black and brown folks saying, hey, will you please stop investing in killing us and instead invest in what we know keeps us safer, healthier, and what we need to thrive.

In summer of 2020, this all came to a head in part due to the police murders of George Floyd and several other black community members.

It is important to note that people continue to face harm by police, including by our police here in Seattle and in King County.

So all of this organizing happened, protests, thousands, tens of thousands in the street marching every day.

And without them, we wouldn't be able to have this research because enough pressure was put into place that we were able to, using a blueprint, come up with a plan.

And the plan said, let's do research and then ask community what they want to see, ask community what they need in order to be safer.

to be healthier and to thrive, and to turn that information into a plan.

So we're not just doing research for research's sake, we're doing it to really develop a plan, and not just any plan, a plan that is rooted on the experiences of black and brown folks who are most harmed by policing violence and by our systemic and current investments in systemic violence as we try to build out a roadmap for what to do instead.

And so spoilers, what we're doing instead is participatory budgeting, which as Councilman Morales, we've been doing since 2015. It's a democratic way of sharing resources, deciding where they go.

And I'll be turning it over to Leitania and Savir for the next couple of slides to walk us through some of the key points.

Thanks, Sean.

Sean, can you put the slides up?

I'm not sure.

I absolutely can, because I thought I was already sharing my screen.

No worries.

Awesome.

Leitania and Savir, I'm one of the co-leads of the Black Brilliance Research Project.

And we'll go to slide number four.

So community is eager to build a better world.

Most people are not interested and continue to invest in policing.

They're interested in learning how to keep each other safe without police coercion or the threat of systemic violence or oppression.

Some of the things that we've been hearing are listed here on the left.

Invest in lived experiences.

That's what we did with this research.

Those closest to the problem are best suited to find the solutions, and they are the experts in this work.

Address root causes of harm.

We need to create healing, connection, nourishment, safety, and support to prevent harm.

We need to invest more in proactive and preventative solutions.

Stop punishing individuals for systems failures.

We need to transform failing systems such as housing, education, mental health, and employment.

And last, fully embrace a new normal.

Listen, follow, and normalize leadership from those closest to the issues.

Foster solidarity across oppressions that typically divide communities, such as anti-Black racism, transphobia, ableism, ageism, and sexism.

We can go to the next slide.

Go up one.

Back one.

Thank you.

So throughout this research, these are the takeaways that came up repeatedly in the research across communities.

And I'll start with a quote here.

Black women share with everyone.

When black women get resources, everyone gets fed.

This is something we heard a lot.

This is from a black woman.

age 35 to 45, living in Seattle, council district number two.

But we heard this a lot.

And that's why having this research led by black folks means that everybody will have an opportunity to see improvement in their lives.

But some of the things that, recommendations that we heard was stop causing harm.

Divert criminal, legal, and foster care investments.

Eliminate workers and work that causes harm.

Cut police, court, corrections, and probation funding and reinvest that into community.

We heard create inclusive policies.

This looks like prioritizing workers with empathy and lived experiences and simplifying contracting so that organizations can get funding to do the work that they do.

Follow black leadership.

Partner with Black-led community organizations that specialize in the work and stop pitting Black leaders against one another and communities.

Pay for community expertise.

Fund Black community expertise.

The city invested $3 million into this research project to set priorities for participatory budgeting and to create a roadmap for an inclusive, equitable PV process in Seattle.

As you heard many times in the public comment this morning, it's extremely important that the city, both the council and the mayor, follow the roadmap that the community has created.

We must end the practice of elected officials and local government asking for community input and then ignoring it and doing something different.

Last, we need to invest in thriving solutions.

Make it easier to find existing effective resources and programming.

Invest in anti-gentrification and permanent housing.

We'll go to the next slide.

So what are the priorities that came out of the research to set the buckets for participatory budgeting?

These are the five focus areas that were identified as the priorities that will be guiding the 2021 participatory budgeting process.

First, we have housing and physical space.

I don't think it's any surprise to anyone living in Seattle that housing and physical space is here, number one.

Number two, mental health was very close to housing.

I think prior to the pandemic, it was an issue.

I think it's exacerbated over the last year as we've had to really change the way that we live.

Resources are hard to access for folks who don't have access to Internet.

It's extremely difficult to access.

We've seen a lot of inequalities around getting care and vaccines.

So housing and mental health were at the top of the list, followed by youth and children.

Obviously, folks are working from home.

I know Sean's got a kid over there trying to Trying to do work while in your house and not having access to childcare or being able to focus on your work can be very difficult and for folks going out to work and are essential workers.

Child care is just a really big issue.

I think that, again, like mental health was exacerbated by the pandemic.

Economic development, also not a surprise, especially here in Seattle.

The urgent need for economic relief to address the triple crises that we're in right now.

We have COVID-19, economic recession, and systemic racism.

via hyperlocal cooperative solutions that build new capacity and opportunities and community is what folks are saying.

And last, we have crisis and wellness.

We need alternatives to the currently harmful 911 and crisis response system.

These should be staffed by trained and skilled community members.

I'll pass it on to you, Sean.

Great.

Just wonderful.

Okay.

Thank you, technology.

And also, thank you for listening to some of the key findings.

And all of those should sound familiar.

Why?

Because we have been presenting on our findings weekly, every Monday in teach-ins.

We've been sending out email updates.

We have twice a week open to the public office hours.

So none of that should sound like a surprise.

Also, the next slides won't sound like too much of a surprise either.

But here we are with PB, the main event, participatory budgeting.

Some people also called people powered budgets.

We heard someone call it PB&J for participatory budgeting and justice.

And all it is is it's about having an annual process where we, the people, get to decide how public money is spent.

So we've been doing it here in Seattle since 2015, smaller scale, focused on parks and streets and other investments like that, sidewalks.

And that's really important.

And now, instead of relying strictly on parks and streets and those kinds of capital investments, We said, hey, community, again, you told us that you know what it takes to create true community safety, health, and thriving.

You told us it's housing and physical spaces, it's mental health, it's youth and children, it's economic development, and it's crises and wellness.

Those are the areas for investment.

So now it's time to design it out.

So here I have for y'all this slide that really shows the different steps.

We are in the design phase, and that's when the community talks and says, here's what we wanted to look like, hence the research.

It's also where outreach starts, which has already kicked off.

We've heard several people have been doing teach-ins and training the trainers and their communities.

People are excited.

And it's also the stage where the steering committee is selected.

And we'll talk more about the steering committee in the next few slides.

after the design, right?

After we get together and say, here's your roadmap, here's your 1,200, 1,300 page report that really outlines those buckets.

It explains some important considerations on reducing barriers.

It really highlights the importance of investing deeply in digital equity because everything is online right now.

This meeting is online right now.

Your ability to access healthcare, to find housing, To access many of these services to vote and participate.

A lot of this is connected to online to find information when the site changes.

So really making sure people have access to Internet and then can use it and that it makes sense.

That's all important, so design.

Next, the fun part of coming up with ideas related to those buckets, those investment areas.

That's going to happen next, where a community is going to brainstorm, just like we've been doing for years, what kinds of projects we want to recommend.

And then we turn those into things people can vote on.

We turn those proposals into issues on a ballot that people can say, yes, or, nah, two.

So the winning projects are the ones that get funded.

So the most votes wins.

And what's really exciting is we've heard from community several times about how sometimes when we say a process is democratic, We don't really consider the fact that we don't have a level playing field for just about any system that you can think of.

The playing field is not level.

So being able to ask about the specific ways that people have been locked out of the democratic process and identify solutions together, not just with community members, but also city workers who are able to give us insights in terms of how like institutional racism has functioned.

in terms of how they're able to make change or perhaps stop bad ideas from moving forward has been an incredible part of this research process.

Y'all want to talk about the steering committee?

Because I promise you we have looked at the frequently asked questions and the steering committee and how they're selected is number one.

So let's go ahead and launch into that.

And the design phase is when the steering committee is picked.

Who's the steering committee?

The steering committee is the group of people who make the rules for PB.

which is participatory budgeting.

And what we heard from community is that usually when there's some type of job that's important like this, the people who are evaluating the jobs don't often have the expertise and the experience to know who's good for this role or who's not.

And so what we came up with is when we talked to community is that people are interested in having a process where the job descriptions for the steering committee are posted widely, and then from the most qualified group of people.

we're going to call it like your candidate pool, like your top-notch candidate pool.

Some amount of people will be selected, 10 people will be selected from those most qualified to randomly to be on a jury.

So just like you get jury duty in the mail, you would get jury duty to serve to help select the steering committee.

That's really important because that means that the people who could have otherwise been on the steering committee based on the criteria, are also the ones who are evaluating who makes a good fit for the steering committee.

So job descriptions, candidate pool, a small number of them become a jury, and then the jury reviews the applications of the other high scorers.

So that's really exciting.

And then Laetania, am I supposed to pass this to you?

Am I bad?

Yes.

OK, I'm up.

Thank you.

So what are these criteria Sean's talking about?

Here they are.

So I'm going to just read these out because this is what they are.

So the steering committee criteria must include people with the following lived experience.

We've been talking about the importance of following those with lived experience.

And here are those experiences that people told us time and time again need to be very integral to the leadership role within participatory budgeting.

So number one, we have people who have been incarcerated.

Number two, people who are well connected to multiple community organizations.

Number three, people with lived experience of homelessness.

Number four, people with disabilities.

Number five, people who are trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.

Number six, black women.

Number seven, older adults.

Number eight, youth, at least two.

You may ask why two?

When you get one young person in a group of a bunch of adults, a lot of times their voice gets drowned out.

So we're saying at least two.

two young people an opportunity to work together and amplify their voice a little bit more in a group of other adults.

People from the African diaspora.

Number 10, a person appointed by Duwamish Tribal Services, at least one person.

And number 11, people from communities overrepresented in negative health outcomes.

Back to you, Sean.

I gotta chase my kid.

There we go.

So here we are.

So your steering committee is seven people.

And you know, seven people because that's a number that people said was small enough to make decisions quick, like nimbly enough in order to be successful.

But you know, it's not just seven people that are, you know, working to steward along PV.

Because in PB, everyone can be part of the solution.

So we have laid out other paid positions, steering committee's paid, jury's paid.

And then we have these other community members who are serving almost like a cabinet.

So several people serving together to make PB happen.

And then I'm sure there'll be hundreds, if not thousands of people volunteering their time to help move this effort along as well.

So here are your PB or participatory budgeting, your PB workgroups.

You have your steering committee, which we've talked about.

You also have your accountability workgroup.

Your accountability workgroup, they're looking for feedback about how the decision-making process is going.

They're helping to develop out those community agreements or covenants.

Some people use that language.

grounding principles in part based on the research itself, which has some information about that, and also in part based on their expertise in this space.

That's why they were hired into this position.

They're also the work group that's going to be bringing appropriate parties together to resolve issues because we're humans and we have conflict and we need to make sure that we expect conflicts and just expect that it's going to get handled.

Your accountability work group is that work group.

We also have your outreach work group.

If you are an extroverted person and you just love talking to community about what's up, you want to make sure no one's left out, your outreach work group, that's probably where your jam is.

You educate communities about PB, you invite them to participate in each stage of PB, and you are just passionate about spreading the word and making sure people are included.

We similarly have budget delegates and process facilitators.

So if you were someone who really loved office supplies and organizing things and getting files and filing cabinets, you probably would see yourself here.

Budget delegates and process facilitators take the information and make it easier to understand.

They take all these things that are like, this is the same idea seven times, and they make it into one thing so we're not all sifting through as much information.

And they also help make sure that the process is on track.

We can talk more about that work group or any of these work groups in Q&A.

The restorative and proactive safety work group is also crucial because they make sure that PB is on track in terms of the on the ground advocacy related to community safety and healing.

We started all of this because we knew there needed to be less investments in the things that hurt us and more investments in the thing that promote like health and healing.

So we want to make sure there's a work group that's hyper-focused on that and knows where the conversation is in community.

And then the last work group that I want to explain here is the lived experience work group.

There are a variety of different lived experiences that people said would be really helpful to have, add their voice, add their expertise to the PB process.

And so we want to make sure that our lived experience work group is where people can see themselves reflected there.

All of these work groups working together from community, we have heard that they should be paid well compensated for their roles, similar to the city employees who are able to do work like this as part of the city.

There's so many times we heard story after story of people being paid with like pizza.

Earlier we heard soup, right?

Maybe you get like a twenty five dollar Target gift card or a gas card.

Meanwhile, the other people in the room who are soliciting your feedback are making 40, sometimes $50 an hour or more.

And that's just, we really hear strongly that community wants to see pay equity in terms of doing this work, and that community wants to see community members themselves being the leaders, the architects, the drivers of this process, and that city employees can play an important supportive role doing things like writing checks, doing things like connecting these work group members with people who can advise them on a particular topic, and also offering some requested answers related to like a city process.

So in every one of these work groups, y'all, we are expecting that those who are most likely to be harmed or killed by systemic racism and violence are centered.

This helps ensure that the city honors its commitments to racial equity, honors its commitments to divest from systemic racism and violence, and that the people who are most harmed are front and center really leading this work.

With that said, I think I pass it back to Lei.

You do.

Thank you.

All right.

When are we doing this?

We're doing it right now.

Yeah, this process has already started.

I mean, obviously, we're in the design phase now.

We're also in the outreach phase.

There have been teach-ins happening all over the city.

Folks have taken PB Toolkit.

that was created out of this research and they've gone out and they are spreading the word to their family, friends, and networks.

And you too can do that.

We'll share that information with you so that you can spread the word of PB to any and everyone so that they can be involved.

So our idea, our goal here is to get started real soon.

So today is February 26th.

And you see March 7th on their idea collection.

We would love to get started on idea collection real soon and let that go through late April so folks can have an opportunity to start putting in their ideas that fall within those five buckets and the things they want to see to improve their community and bring safety and health and thriving to their community.

So then after that it would be project development.

Project development is where ideas become actual concrete proposals.

That would be with the help of folks who understand scoping and our budget delegates and process facilitators will assist with that.

That would be April through July 12th.

And then into voting.

So voting would be online and offline.

We want to make sure that we make this process as accessible as possible.

We've even put in some information into the report about how we can work with families of individuals who are currently incarcerated to give them an opportunity to participate in the idea portion of this process, as well as in the voting process.

So we have a few ideas of how offline voting can work in the report.

And then after voting happens, funding and implementation, hopefully late 2021, so later this year.

And this shouldn't be a one time process.

I know we got one time funding, but that's just the technicality.

I'm looking forward to the city opening up new funding opportunities to make this the way we do business.

I think the community should always have opportunity to decide how community funds city funds are being spent.

And we've heard from, as Sean mentioned before, we've talked to a lot of people in community, but we've also talked to a lot of people within the city and different city departments, and they have money that they would love to put through PV.

I think it just has to become the culture of the city that departments have the opportunity to put some percentage or some amount of their annual budget through a PV process.

It promotes a democratic and civic engagement and a democratic way of spending money and investing in community.

And so we look for the next process to start late this year.

We have a kind of a what do you call it?

You call it a succession planning that will allow for the people who are currently doing PB to kind of pass that knowledge on to the next folks who will be running it during that late 2021 through February 22 process so that we can get this whole thing going again in 2022. And with that, questions and we got answers.

Maybe.

Thanks so much.

There's obviously just a ton of work that's gone into this so really appreciate both of you summarizing it so succinctly for us.

I'm sure my colleagues will have questions.

I have a couple questions that I would love to just get us started with.

So I know that we have been working with the executive's office and with CBO to try to understand what the implementation plan might look like.

I wonder if y'all can just give a little bit of an update about how those conversations are going, the departments that we think this is going to land in.

Some of those details.

Sure, I can start and we can chime in.

I'll answer in reverse order.

So, in terms of the departments, we know that the department, the departments that community says trust lies have not changed even as we've continued to collect data, ask people.

So that is OPCD, specifically the EDI team, who were presenting earlier a little information, and I just like, yes, I can see why, absolutely, thinking about that long-term planning, thinking about racial equity, thinking about making long-term commitments, but also seeing how to visualize, how to understand, how to feel, how to smell, how to taste, how to touch.

Equity when it comes to city investment, so that's hands-down favorite favorite team And then we also heard people voice strong support for OCR and for the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Affairs.

So I would say that hasn't changed.

My understanding is that some of these decisions are still being made.

Ultimately, it's gonna be the mayor's call on how this gets implemented.

My hope is that it'll look something like what people are saying, which is that there will be a process where there will be co-leads who are helping to manage on the city side some of this.

That looks a lot like what the city workers might call an interdepartmental team.

Sometimes there's like work groups, y'all have different words for it.

But there's a group of people who will come together from several departments, and there'll be at least two co-leads is what community is hoping who can help steward and shepherd this along from different departments because we understand that the political reality is that sometimes people feel under pressure to do something that may or may not be consistent with what they want to do.

And there's another department that might not feel the same pressure.

So being able to share the pressure, because it is going to be a very visible process, is really important.

We also heard that community wants there to be like three subcommittees as part of that.

One that's just in charge of accountability.

making sure that the city side piece, which we're expecting to be fairly small, because most of the things that city has done before are now all things that community is excited to run.

Outreach, you know, excited to run, dealing with conflicts that come up, excited to run, creating the rules and the process and the getting the votes and all of those things are community side pieces.

And so we're really looking forward to seeing that.

And then in terms of the the budget, the budget, more specifically, how the city wants to implement it.

We did present a spending plan this week, and we have another meeting a little bit later today, actually, to nail down some details.

I can tell you through our conversations, again, with city workers and with their supervisors from various departments, even more departments than the ones I'm listing here, people have told us that generally they're not expecting to need more staff to do this work.

That generally they're expecting that one, adding a staff member actually means you have to like train them up and it's like kind of a wash.

But two, a lot of the things that we're looking for are things like writing checks, things like knowing who to connect you with.

Those pieces are things that people are expecting won't be a heavy lift.

And the report itself, you can see the kinds of roles that we're imagining.

But it sounds like communities expecting fewer than five FTEs to be added, two of them specifically on digital equity.

because we really want to make sure that that is expedited so that people can participate robustly.

And then other than that, the other three FTEs, I imagine, would be a conversation, negotiation when we meet with the budget folks later today.

Does that answer your question, Council Member Morales?

Yeah.

LaTanya, did you want to add anything to that?

I'll just add that I know, like, I think this process is a bit different for the city, and there'll be some growing pains.

I think that relinquishing some of the power that the city has had over processes in the past is we recognize this is very different.

It's putting trust in community and putting power into community's hands and allowing them to, all of us, to be able to steer this process along.

And I just challenge the city, city government, all those of you who are in council, as well as the mayor's office, and even within departments, to just kind of step outside that role and let and just follow communities lead because this is just a great opportunity to do something different.

At least last year, it sounded like folks were very excited about doing something different.

And so at least from the city side, and we'd like to see that given an opportunity to happen throughout this year so that, you know, we can make this process what community believes it should be.

Okay, so I know I know it's in the report, but I do would like to know if you could just sort of summarize the connection between the role of the steering committee and the role of the city, the kind of support or, you know, how you see that relationship working.

Absolutely.

Let me see if I have a slide in the Q&A for that.

I was thinking the same thing.

The yellow one?

Yeah, I know.

The yellow one is like the winner.

It's not in here.

Yeah, it's in the other one here.

I can...

Do you want to pull it up?

Yeah, I'll pull it up.

You talk.

Excellent.

That's the part I'm a little better at.

So we have a particular page that we have been developing and refining over time.

Conversations with community, conversations with people who work in the city, conversations with people who work as part of the participatory budgeting project.

which helps to support almost every single PB project in the United States works with PBP.

They're fantastic.

They can tell you things like, oh yeah, this is what happened in Albuquerque, and oh yeah, this happened in New York, and oh yeah, you might want to look out for this and this other location.

And so what we've come up with is this one pager that has on the left side all the different, the three key roles we're looking for and what those tasks are.

And on the right side, once you're able to share your screen, we'll have like the specific activities and tasks and all of that.

And then at the bottom, because we wanted to make sure it was super clear, is the sort of organizational structure that the city workers would have in order to help see this forward.

So it's like a very packed slide.

It's not as pretty as the other slides.

To address your question, though, the kinds of things that we're looking for are sharing data sets so that we can build out the visualizations for racial equity.

sharing, of course, writing the checks, because there will be about 35 folks who the city will contract with as part of the steering committee or some of these other work groups.

It'll be being available to answer questions when someone's like, hey, is there, does anyone know who was the city planner in 2019 for this particular site?

So things like that, and that most of the heavy lift will be on the thank you community side.

So if we can zoom in a little because my eyes can't do this.

That's okay, I can just read off what I can read.

So we see at the top we have, on the left side, we have three sorts of positions.

Most of these, again, are like existing positions, but that are existing people who are already city workers, but like the different levels within.

So your division manager, for example, who might be someone like Uba from the EDI team.

would basically help see her staff members who are related to this and just make sure that they have what they need.

She might be the one who's talking to other city departments on occasion, and then just making sure that everything's looking good and is transparent.

On the flip side, you might have other members of St. Ugo's team who would be taking point on supporting the steering committee.

So the steering committee has a question about a data set that OPCD has.

That coordinator person would be, I will find that data set or I'll find the information about that data set and get back to you.

It's that level of contact.

They might also be doing things like making sure that there are partnerships with PB groups so that the other PB groups know who they are.

Very light lift.

In terms of the key supports that I really want to make sure we do highlight, again, it really is like an administrative and particularly like financial management support compliance kind of role.

Technical support, one good example is the steering committee might say, hey, I'd love to talk to who served on the steering committee last time for PB and ask how they resolve this particular conflict.

The city workers are going to be more likely to have a record that says who served and what their contact information is versus community having to put out a mass call on social media or ask around.

At the bottom of this page, I want to highlight what I was talking about before about the two city project managers who are supporting.

What we're imagining is that they're going to keep the focus on community-led PB.

So we know that sometimes when we're used to doing things a particular way, this is not just government, it's just in life, it's families too.

When we're used to doing things a particular way, it can be hard to do it differently.

And so these two people in particular would be in charge of making sure this community-led process is able to be and stay community-led.

Ideally, the city would solicit some amount of feedback on who these two co-leads are, because they'd be recognized in community.

But in practice, we'll see what actually happens.

We do think that these people who are co-leading in the city really should be recognized for tangible benefits to community.

So these are people who are not just saying they're skilled at addressing institutional racism, but have had success there.

And when we've interviewed people to talk about what this looks like, honestly, what it usually looks like, and you city workers can laugh along with this, it looks like stopping bad ideas.

It looks like someone wanted to do a thing, and then you're like, nope, this is terrible.

So it's not always work that you're celebrated for.

It's often uncomfortable work.

And you might have colleagues that are giving you the side eye.

But if it's in the service of making sure that community benefits, then that's really key.

And this is an opportunity to really recognize and celebrate those workers.

We imagine that, again, that the IDT that they would be working with, the interdepartmental team, would identify a core team.

So it's not just a bunch of people showing up and be like, what do I do?

But a core team who will be really focused on those three things.

Education subject matter expertise.

So that makes sense.

They provide answers for the steering committee questions.

Implementation team.

They make sure things actually happen.

And then your third is your accountability team.

Again, making sure that people are soliciting feedback and that things get resolved and not just kind of left hanging.

So I'm really excited because Again, we've talked to several people, people who are outside of the departments that we've listed as well about what this could look like, people who worked in city government for decades and have seen several administrations and several changing as a city council.

and really refined what this could really mean in order to be successful.

And I think that my sense is that I'm really encouraged by the fact that the city seems to be moving in the direction of actually following the community's lead, and that's really exciting and really welcomed.

Thank you, Sean.

I am going to see if I have any questions from my colleagues.

I don't see any hands raised in the chat.

Anyone have, yes, Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Morales.

Thanks, everybody, for being here today.

I really appreciate and support the opening remarks of Shawn Glaze and her team.

Government at all levels needs to do a much better job engaging and empowering those impacted by how we allocate tax dollars and make policy decisions.

is especially important for those who have been negatively impacted by those government decisions again and again, and the historical harms have to be corrected.

And there's wisdom in the communities of lived experience for those solutions.

So thank you for all the work from your teams and all the research participants too, and for laying out the participatory budgeting process going forward for us.

I'm glad to see that participants are identifying housing and economic development and mental health and children and youth.

And we know government already has some good programs, but they need to be expanded and better targeted, not tone deaf to what the needs are in the community.

And I hear you and the participants calling for less reliance on those traditional and harmful carceral interventions that have become so dominant in the criminal justice system.

I think my questions are more toward, it might be to City Council Central staff, just for process.

Council members, we were asked to submit questions and there were a lot of questions submitted and answers provided.

I'm wondering if those are gonna be put online eventually.

I heard that they might be put online for the record.

So that would be good, the Q&A, pointing us to the document, where to look.

And I had submitted four questions three weeks ago.

And thank you, Chair Morales, for acknowledging that council briefing.

I had submitted those on time.

And I didn't see my questions listed in the internal list.

I just wanted to make sure that they get published for the record.

Happy to just summarize them now, if that's helpful.

That'd be great.

You want all your questions.

I know.

I'm like, we had a table.

They weren't in there.

Okay.

If they're not on the table, good.

Let's get them there.

Let's add them.

We use everyone's questions, even the public's questions to do teach-ins and fact sheets and et cetera.

So there's literally, you can ask us anything.

So what you got?

So, um, and again, these, these don't all need to be answered, you know, in real time.

Now it could be something where.

folks get back to us, central staff gets back to us, however, whatever's easier, or both, you know, whatever's easier.

One question was, we had talked a little bit about interacting with the executive departments and city government.

My question is about how can we be helpful as council members to encourage that collaboration with the mayor's equitable communities initiative.

You know, her task force has 25 or so experienced caring, I think caring stakeholders in this area.

And so it'd be great to see that, to leverage those experiences as well.

People have been working on police reform for decades and frustrated with the progress, but also proud of some of the achievements too.

So that's one question, coordinating with that group.

And I realize it takes two to tango, so I just want to know how we can be supportive of that.

The participants, I know I struggled with this.

So my district, everybody's district has 100,000 or so people in it.

And so as we try to represent them, I struggle with, when I speak, what does my district want?

I've got such a diverse array of opinions from my constituents.

And so it's hard for me sometimes to say, what does my district definitely want?

I have to synthesize all these different opinions and try to do my best.

And I hesitate to, you know, speak for community.

And so I'm wondering, you know, your participants who are actively engaged.

If you could give us an idea, it doesn't have to be now, but sort of the number of people you're talking to so that we see sort of what's the sample size of folks you're talking to to see how statistically it might represent a larger community that you're trying to engage with.

So just getting some of the numbers there.

The participatory budgeting process you outlined I thought was very creative in how you were trying to, you know, the jury selection and that in terms of randomly selecting people to lean into it and give more information.

I'm curious as to what, cause this all sounds like a good idea to me, but I'm curious as to what, how that's, um, do, do any of these other communities have tried this too?

I believe maybe not at this level or is cutting edge, but just knowing what are those national best practices for participatory budging?

Are you sort of making use of those as well?

Um, and the last thing is, um, You know, we talked about the housing, mental health, children and youth.

I know one of the things we're eager to do is to, as we set up a new, as we enhance 9-1-1 system and we start dispatching, not always dispatching officers with guns, but dispatching mental health providers and others in situations, will there be a deeper dive on those types of issues?

sort of crisis interventions where it's like people call 911 and somebody else might show up because some of these are more upstream solutions which we need to invest in, but just wondering if there'd be also that crisis intervention alternatives as well in a 911 type situation.

So those are my four questions.

I appreciate your grace in letting me get those out there.

I don't know.

It's excitement.

I'm like, yes, give me your questions.

We're researchers.

We love questions.

I can take a start.

So I'm going to start with your last question.

So we do have a crisis and wellness section bucket and a lot of discussion in the programs that are already existing.

A lot of them just need some capacity.

One of the interesting things is we also have the, it was $12 million that's going through HSD for some capacity building around programs that provide safety alternatives to kind of some community safety programming, as well as scaling up things that help to address those upstream issues, as you mentioned.

And so, but that's definitely in the report.

There's a whole section on crisis and wellness.

And that's where you'll find kind of that deeper dive on what it looks like to have different people showing up.

As far as the nine, basically making sure that when whatever it's, I don't know if it'll be 911, if it'll be a different number or who you're, you know, there'll be, we're trying to make sure that through the research that, that it's clear, like there are programs that are existing and there are ideas for new programs that are clear that just need funding and support.

Does that answer that question?

I can actually add a little bit more.

So for that one, one of the questions we did see that came through was just like, what about cahoots, right?

It's like, what about cahoots?

Tell me about cahoots.

Do people want cahoots?

Do people want...

And what I will say is that what people really want is to put as many of our crisis and wellness investments that we make towards little projects that aren't necessarily a city worker response to it, but that community's responding to it.

People also talked about the idea of, they've called it different things, but it's this idea of almost like 100 different pilots of how we do community safety.

What's my wife doing over there?

She was dancing earlier.

Oh, she's like, it's finally your presentation.

I'll get to see you again.

And so what that looks like is we have so many people that we've talked to, they're like, I actually run like a like a secret hotline, or I actually do relational health classes, or I do mental health first aid classes.

And like, this is the thing I do.

No one else like outside of maybe that vicinity knows about it.

But there are many people that are like, I really wish that there was an easy way like an app or a phone number for me to find these alternatives because I don't want to call the police because I don't feel safe with the police.

And I feel like I don't know what my alternatives are.

So one of the exciting wins that came out of last budget cycle was there to be an investment in the creation of this app, which community is saying should also be invested or tied to some type of hotline.

We're still figuring out what exactly they mean by that.

The most common example people give me is like, you know, you have 211 and you have like 411, we should have, you know, whatever 11. I was like, that I think takes state level.

But yeah, I'm hearing you, you know, some type of easy number that's attached to this application where you can see, I hear my neighbor arguing, I want to intervene in some way, I don't know what to do.

my phone is telling me here are my options.

There's actually, let's see, I have a mediator across the street.

We have a marriage therapist.

Maybe we have a person who is skilled at intervening in heated arguments.

You're just like, oh, that person.

So just knowing where to go for information.

And we also hear a lot about what Latanya said, just like the desire for many small investments to scale up these existing programs so that we can really see have just more people skilled at providing safety and health themselves so that we don't have to, say, pour as many resources into a program that people still might not trust because it'll still be like a city response, you know?

And people have been like, you have been messing this up for decades.

Why should I trust that somehow you have managed to undo all of institutional racism in a year?

Like, that doesn't sound like a fair thing to expect.

So that's a thing.

And we do see strong community support for there being something better than what we currently have in terms of the city's response and moving towards that.

So people are happy to hear that there will be a new 911 system.

They're curious to know how soon we can start to integrate that into all these little alternatives.

And they're really hoping that that's the direction.

There were other questions you had that I feel like we did have answered in the report itself.

I'm going to take two of them, if that's OK.

So you asked about jury selection process and how we are engaging with the Equitable Communities Task Force.

So I will say that throughout this last several months, we have been meeting fairly regularly with the PB National organization.

They were just on a call with us this week with Deputy Mayor Washington, Director Noble, to talk about what this process is, how it's worked in other communities, the kinds of projects that have been funded in other communities.

So we are really engaged with, and I say we, I should say, the researchers have been really engaged as they're looking at how to set this up in what has been successful in other communities.

And then we are also, as they mentioned this afternoon, I won't be there.

My staff will be there meeting with the executive again to talk about what the process is that's been happening with the equitable communities task force and how we can align these two processes, you know, I don't know if in the end we will have one pot of participatory budget money or how these processes will intersect.

But we're definitely talking about making sure that we are reaching towards the same goal so that we're not working at cross purposes and not sort of duplicating effort or duplicating work that really doesn't need to be happening.

on parallel tracks.

Does that answer your question, Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Also, yeah, I would love to add their pot to the PV pot, make a bigger PV pot.

And I think community, too, would also love that and integrate them into the work that we're doing.

So are there any other questions, colleagues?

So the last thing I'll say is there have been a lot of people working hard to make sure that we are getting these processes in motion.

The next step, Amy, I see you on the line from central staff.

You can confirm if I'm misspeaking here.

But the next step for us will be to lift the proviso for this funding.

My next committee meeting is March 16th.

So we are working now to get the implementation plan, the spending plan finalized so that we can draft that ordinance and get that done at the next committee meeting.

Is that accurate, Amy?

Okay, so yeah, I think this is a really exciting opportunity to increase civic engagement to really shift some power for decision making to our neighbors.

And I believe it's an important step for us as a city to begin to repair the harm done to black and brown communities.

And I'm just really excited about the opportunity to keep moving this forward.

Thank you, everyone, for the work that you've been doing, for your engagement with community and sharing all that you've learned.

If there are no other comments or questions.

Okay.

This committee is adjourned.

Thanks so much, everyone.

Have a good afternoon.