City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. I now call the March 17th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Before we begin, I'd like to announce that during the month of Ramadan, we will be breaking briefly after sunset so that our brothel community members can break fast without missing out on participating in council meetings. Ramadan holds significant religious importance for Muslims and is often recognized through fasting, acts of kindness and devotion and personal growth. If you would like to learn more about Ramadan, consider reading more on the city's DEI educational resources web page. Our break this evening will be at approximately 7:18 p.m. At this point, we'll take a moment to take a roll call of the council members by position number. Please say here when the city clerk called your name.

Thank you. Council member Angular here. Mayor Thompson here. Deputy Mayor Alder here. Council member Kurd here. Council member Miles here. Council member Dodd here. Council member Alcabra. Did I hear him say here? Council member Okal, are you there?

All right. Well, we can um I will mark him out until he joins. Perfect. Yep. Thank you.

All right. The um first thing on our agenda tonight is meeting agenda approval. Are there any changes to the agenda tonight? Seeing none, we'll move on to public engagement opportunities. Grow your small business applications are now open for the 2026 2028 pop shops on main small business incubator and mobile food incubator programs. These programs support small businesses with retail space and hands-on support to grow at both Triangle Junction. Applications are due March 23rd. And come explore downtown and share ideas. Join a guided walking tour of downtown both as part of the city's downtown sub area plan update. Starting at city hall, you'll explore what's working, what could improve, and share your ideas. The next one is Thursday, March 19th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. You can also help shape both's housing future. Both's updating its housing action plan, and we want to hear from you. Share your housing story to help shape future policies and strategies. Your voice will help guide how both addresses current housing needs and expands diverse, affordable options. We have um two proclamations today and um I will be reading neither of them. I'm going to turn um the mic over to Deputy Mayor Alder to read our first proclamation. Thank you, Mayor. It's an honor to be able to read this. Um whereas transgender day of visibility is observed annually on March 31st to celebrate the lives and contributions of transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people while raising awareness of the discrimination, challenges, and violence the transgender community continues to face. And whereas all transgender people have inherent worth and are deserving of respect and dignity from well-known historical and public figures to those for whom it is not safe to live their authentic lives. And whereas the lives and human rights of transgender people are under attack with multiple legislative attempts to restrict the rights of transgender

people, agency websites erasing references to historic historical contributions of transgender people, and numerous anti-trans bills passed and pending across the country that seek to define transgender people out of existence, cancel identity documents, and restrict access to public space. And whereas celebrating transgender lives, recognizing the accomplishments of transgender people, and fostering transgender joy are critical to countering the attacks, ensuring that each and every transgender person in the both community knows that they are seen, valued, and welcomed here. Now therefore, I, Jenny Aldrich, on behalf of Mason Thompson, mayor of the city of both, do hereby proclaim March 31st, 2026 as transgender day of visibility in the city of both and encourage all both community members to uplift their transgender family, friends, and neighbors, focusing on their strength, re resilience, and accomplishments through the adversity they face, and to actively work toward building a community where transgender people can live openly, safely, and with full and equal access to opportunity and belonging.

Thank you. Um I believe we have folks from East Side Pride and P Flag. I saw some of them earlier. Yes. Um you can come up and accept. Mayor Thompson, council members, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today and accept the city of both's proclamation in support of transgender day of visibility. Um, you know, I was I was thinking about what I was going to say today, and what came to me was something that I read uh from a rabbi who said that none of us is truly human in isolation. And I think that all by itself is incredibly wise. The the sadness, the depression, the grief of not being a part of a community is is immense. But this is not such a simple statement because I think it speaks to the intent and the responsibilities of communities and leaders as well because isolation it takes two to tango. And as I think about that concept, I think it also robs us of our human dignity and humanity if we are willing to passively accept isolation endured by others or if we fail to take steps to reduce isolation in an active way that's suffered by others. So I think it's really important to remember that isolation is something that would thrive in the absence of sincere efforts to

create community. And I'm very happy to see that the city of both is standing up in a meaningful and thoughtful way in its proclamation in support of visibility and in support of joy. So as the chair of P flag east side, one of my favorite experiences is to see the families who come to our organization who have tried everything that common knowledge has taught them, that their family has taught them, that their faith has taught them to support their family members, their loved ones, their friends, their children. And for one reason or another, it hasn't worked. And just as we find that kids learn differently, people choose different careers, people's artistic expression takes different forms, it really is not our place to impose confinement upon the expression that is meant in the pursuit of joy and the pursuit of one's unique place in the world. And so to see some of the families come through our organization and to see them talk about how their children's lives were saved by acceptance and by the simple joy of being visible and even more so of the immense gratitude that the kids feel by knowing that their parents see them. That's the message behind transgender day of visibility. And on behalf of P flag east side, thank you so much for maintaining this intention because in silence different messages will fill the vacuum. Uh my name is Susan Bosler. I'm representing East Side Pride. Uh we are

a nonprofit that advocates, educates, and most importantly celebrates the LGBT plus community on the east side. I am the mother of a transgender son. When our son came out to us, we didn't understand what it meant to be transgender. But just because we didn't understand didn't mean that we would misunderstand. We opened our hearts and our minds and we watched our son become the person he so needed to be. People are telling my child and fellow trans people that they don't belong, that they should not drive, travel, play sports, vote, live fulfilling lives. It hurts. So when cities like both proclaim that trans people are valuable and worthy members of their community, believe me, it matters. So on behalf of East Side Pride and as a mother, thank you very much. Thank you so much. We're going to do one more presentation and then if you would like a picture um we're happy we're going to come down and we can do that. Um for the next uh proclamation, I'm going to turn it over to council council member Miles.

Thank you, Mayor. Um we're going to have a proclamation for Washington's first teenled mental health summit. Whereas mental health is a critical component of overall well-being and youth across Washington state must face increasing challenges related to stress, anxiety, depression, and access to timely and culturally responsive mental health support. And whereas nationally recognized mental health data demonstrate that more than one in seven youth ages 6 to 17 experience a mental health disorder each year with half of all all of lifetime mental illness beginning by age 14 and 3/4 by the age of 24. While suicide remains the second leading cause of death among individuals ages tw 10 to 24. And whereas school increasingly serve as frontline support systems for students with mental health, yet only 56% report having the capacity to effectively meet the mental health needs of all students, demonstrating a significant gap in access to care. And whereas Washington's first teenled mental health summit highlights the importance of ensuring that youth are not only included in mental health discussions but are actively engaged in shaping solutions that support students well-being in schools and community. And whereas the summit convenes students, educators, health care professionals, policy makers, nonprofit leaders, and community advocates to foster intergenerational collaboration and elevate youth voices through education, storytelling, and interactive learning. And whereas the event represents the first statewide youthled mental health summit of its kind in Washington, underscoring the growing role of young people as leaders, advocates, and change makers in advancing mental health awareness and community well-being. Now therefore, I I on the behalf of Mason

Thompson, mayor of the city both do hereby complain complain comp proclaim March 21st, 2026 as Washington's first teenled mental health summit and encourage all residents to recognize the importance of youth mental well-being, reduce stigma at surrounding mental health, and take meaningful action to support young people in our schools and communities. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and I believe we have Tandi here to accept. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mayor Thomson, and members of the council members. I'm so honored to be here today to accept the proclamation for Washington's first teen led mental health summit. I know the numbers in the proclamation speak a lot, but as someone who's been personally impacted by mental health every day, I think the understanding of students and what they face isn't talked about enough, but we do struggle daily. Like in my own mental health journey, when I was 9 years old, I moved from RN to the US. And the struggles that I faced of feeling um like I didn't belong, alone, isolated, stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, all added up. But I had to fake a smile because it looked like nobody else was struggling. Everyone seemed happy in their daily lives and like they were feeling excited about every day. But I was internally struggling and felt isolated. Took me months before I realized I wasn't alone. And that made me think, does that mean millions of youth globally are struggling with mental health challenges every day that aren't talked about, addressed, or even given solutions to support them? So from that, I was like during co especially seeing that my peers online were struggling faking the smile. I wanted to do something to of course help my own mental health journey, but also help my peers. And

that's when I started the teen empowerment club in sixth grade. Then I published my first book um uplift teen today coping strategies for mental health. The first teen to teen mental health book out there an international bestselling book. Then the emotion cards deck um for youth and also for adults. And recently published Nexus which is an online mental health hub by students vetted by adults for the community and um it's launched in the city of both as of last year. We're grateful for the support there as well. Um and so that's really the goal of that is reaching the 1.2 2 million youth, letting them know they're not alone. And across the years of doing this for the past 5 years, going to these different um events and summits and conferences throughout this journey, a lot of the summits I've been to were for youth mental health, but oftent times I was the only youth in the room. Out of hundreds of people, I was either the only speaker, exhibitor, or attendee in the audience. And that made me realize that how can we ever make change for youth directly to impact the ground level students who are struggling if youth aren't the one driving the changes sharing their experiences and getting to talk with the adults who have the power to make that change. And so it's an amazing opportunity to have Washington's first teen mental health summit. And my goal of this organizing this summit is really to bring youth together to bring adults together to make that change to change the narrative and to have youth on stage, youth speaking, youth in the audience along with adults to let us know action starts with us and that's the theme of the summit. Um, and I brought this idea to our youth board that I created last year for the middle and high schoolers and they were super excited to support with this event. And having a group of passionate youth leading the summit, leading the change for me every day just inspires me and super excited. We've been planning this event for the past couple months and to think it's this Saturday is just so exciting. Um, it's on March 21st, this Saturday from 10 to 4:00 in Reton,

Washington. If any adult or youth is interested, we'd love to have you join us at the event. And um to end off, I wanted to say the three pillars of this event is one awareness, two empowerment, and three is action. So awareness is for the youth who are struggling. A lot of them don't know how to first help themselves, help their peers. And as we all know, peer-to-peer support is the biggest thing that's happening. Like for example, if um tomorrow at school one of my friends is struggling, they would tell someone their age, not a therapist or adult first. But then if someone came to me maybe 5 years ago, I would not know how to help them. And so the goal is to teach youth and give them the awareness of first of all, what are the struggles? How can you support those in need and change the way youth are feeling confident? Like that leads to the second one of empowerment. empowering youth to help themselves, someone they know struggling, their friends or family, something that's not taught in schools but should be is like how do you talk to someone, let them know they're not alone, and connect them to a trusted adult. And then the third one is action. Our goal is to make this summit not like any other, but like really give clear action items that youth and adults can take away to support those in their communities, their families, someone they've ever heard say they're struggling. So, out of out of this event, we want them to feel confident, excited, and like they know exactly what to do if someone's struggling. The event is sponsored by um Google. We have City of Both support, and the Seahawks are also supporting this event with a keynote speaker. We're super honored to be able to accept this proclamation, and there's um a Nexus Youth Board member who's excited to share a bit more about his thoughts about the summit as well. Thank you so much.

Hello, my name is Neil Kanani and I'm part of the Nexus Youth Board. Um, it's really interesting that this summit that we've been working on for a couple months now is just less than a week away. And I think one main thing that I wanted to highlight about Nexus for all of you today is Nexus is built primarily by teens and it's directed towards teens. It's so um it's made so that look teens can get help from their own peers in a way that a lot of other programs don't do. Uh I think Nexus is really important in that way and our summit this Saturday is really supposed to highlight that. It's supposed to highlight that we have teens here who are helping other teens or who seek help from other teens. And it's just going to help teens be better to each other, better to help each other. And I'm really excited for this Saturday. And I hope any adult or youth who is able to come comes. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It's so fun to hear from the folks accepting our proclamations and just hear what cool things folks are doing in the community. Like, it's really encouraging and thank you for coming. Um, do you guys want pictures? All right, let's do pictures. Um, we'll head down there and do that thing. I just realized I was talking, but I wasn't. And then we're gonna get real cozy. behind this not awkward in this weird curvy little thing. So like if it feels awkward it it just that's that's how this works. Yeah.

All right. We're gonna we're gonna get even we're gonna Yeah. We're going to move towards our curve to try to avoid our table as much as possible.

All right. One, two, three. Lots of smiles. Awesome. Thank you. And then our team

two Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Next up is public comment. The city has accepted public comment in writing as well as accepted signup sheets for those who wish to speak at tonight's meeting. Written comments submitted to the city clerk no later than 3 p.m. today were forwarded to all city council members and are part of the record. When the clerk calls your name, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please note that council will receive your input, but we do not engage in discussion of these topics. Staff will make note of items requiring follow-up. City clerk.

Thank you, Mayor Thompson. We did receive one written comment from Sarah Gustoson in support of council's immigration safety plan. And we do have uh Deanna Pierce signed up to speak. If you would step to the podium, Deanna, you'll have three minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Um, mayor, deputy mayor, and city council, all of you, thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is Danna Pierce, and I have been a resident of both for many years. I am grateful for what I experienced in coming last week. Um, I it was my first meeting to attend um here in both. And I appreciated the chance just to hear from each of you and the thoughtfulness that you use to address matters as well as all the time you give. I was surprised at 4 hours of council meeting. Anyway, it made me even more hopeful of speaking today as I heard the respect you give and the honor you desire to promote. Recently, my friend Lisa, and she is here with her husband, um, and I wrote a letter to each of you requesting consideration not to fly the pride flag alongside the American, the state or city flag. I have come today in part just to give a face to the letter and say that is still our valid request to um that you revisit what in fact is representative of all the people in

both. Um my question is is it representing all of both? um to lift up a symbol um like a flag and put it at the same level as our American and state flag. Um yeah. Um I just want to close actually um just saying um because you have the letter I don't really need to do anything more or say anything more but it's a privilege to be here and I know I came on a really interesting day a day when you're pro proclaiming um transgenderism and all this stuff. So, um, but I I do appreciate coming and I do appreciate that you would hear me and take note of what, um, has been sent. I wanted to leave on a lighter note, too, and just say that my early beginnings were at a city hall. I was left at a city hall in Soul, Korea on the steps and rather than being aborted or left um left to be without a family, God gave me one here in America. So I am very thankful to be an American, thankful to be here in Washington, thankful to live here in Bathlau.

Thank you. Um, is there anybody else in the audience who wishes to speak? Please step to the podium, state your name. You'll have three minutes. If you are on uh in the virtual audience, please use the raise hand function if you want to speak and I will panel you in. Go ahead.

Uh, good evening. My name is Justin Buffard. I work in tech and I know folks across uh, five Washington areas right here in both, Enimclaw, Monroe, Sultan, and Kamino Island. Over the last few months, I've been talking to many of these residents in these communities. Um, I'm here to share an uncomfortable truth about uh Washington state's tax system. It works great for people like me. Um, and that's exactly why it's broken for everyone else. Between property taxes and both 10.3% sales tax, a median working family is paying up to 10% of their income just to survive. But because of the way our tax system works, my household pays about 3.3%. You are paying three times more as a percentage of your income than me. And that is completely backwards. and is the root cause of why our residents are tapped out and fighting about things like Northshore school uh district loveies. It's not because they don't care about kids. They just simply can't afford it anymore. I'm proposing a solution called the grand bargain. Here are the uh tenants. We cut actual property tax bills in half. We cut the sales tax in half. We completely eliminate the BNO gross receipts tax to save our small businesses as it causes some businesses who are losing money to still pay taxes. And we replace it all with a graduated income tax and a corporate net profits tax similar to most other markets in America. Under this model, someone in my income level would pay about $11,000 more per year, but the median home uh both homeowner, median income, medium home value would save over $3,000 a year through the property tax c property tax cut and the sales tax cut. And it doesn't just help homeowners. Through these community discussions, um we've added a renters's credit for up to $1,000 to offset the levies landlords pass down onto their rent. They have to pass the property taxes down. I ran the math with a married household in both brothel renting on a $70,000 income. Under this proposal, their tax bill drops by over $1,000 a year, cutting their direct tax burden from 3.3% down

to just 1.9% of their income. This reform generates $7 billion in surplus and finally fully funds our schools, including special education, transportation. It fixes our roads and ends a levy cycle permanently. Now, I know what people are saying. Olympia has a spending problem. This is why the model locks it in via a constitutional amendment. The taxpayer bill of rights. They cannot legally collect um more revenue without mandating the cuts nor change the model without a vote of the people. An independent independent accountability office uh will um investigate spending and give public reports for journalists. The model is not new. It's borrowed from a red state, Idaho, and the constitutional taxpayer bill of rights from the blue state, Colorado. It doesn't matter where good ideas come from, only that they work. I built a calculator on fixwah.tax a website. I have cards to share as well and you can calculate your own savings. I'm hosting a town hall tomorrow and invite everyone to the baffl library at 7 p.m. If you want to help drive an actual solution Washington's issues, uh come to the town hall or you can also join online. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? That's all I have. Mayor Thompson. Thank you. Um, next up is our city manager report. City manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, city council members. I don't have a formal presentation tonight, but I do pleased to have good news and an announcement, and that is to welcome Claire Corey as our next deputy city manager. Uh, Claire joins us after following a very competitive search that was a national search and a lot of interest that began late last year. Um, as council knows, but if anybody is watching at home, the deputy city manager is responsible for day-to-day operational leadership at the city and helps work across departments as an executive leader and specifically is going to be overseeing our parks and recreation, community development, and public works portfolio. Um, in addition to our economic development function in the executive office, Claire joins us after most recently serving as the chief of strategy and planning officer at TRAT, which is transit agency in Portland, Oregon. Prior to that, Clare spent over six years with Sound Transit uh advancing from chief of staff for operations to deputy executive director of portfolio management and integrity after relocating to the Seattle area from Michigan where she also had roles in the Michigan state government. We're really pleased that to bring that grouping of experiences here to both um not only on the delivery of projects but also then constituent relationships and really um just being able to look at what are the things that we're working on and how do they connect together and being out in the community. Um the the position itself, one of the things that I think has made being a deputy so much fun in my career and I think Claire's going to enjoy is also playing a clerical role in turning vision into action. And so the council vision is a big part of that and really uh making sure that our work aligns with council priorities. So you'll see Claire a lot. She's here tonight with us and might have a few words. Um but again looking forward to seeing how we benefit from her expertise in operational excellence. Claire, welcome to both. And if you'd like to say a few words, please do.

Good evening. Um, thank you, Kyle. Uh, I'm just really excited to be here. Um, what sold me on the city of both is how welcoming everyone was. And I I think I told Kyle it was like you felt the both bug. There was just a lot of love from this community. Um, and just very welcoming. And that's not something that you get these days. And so I'm just really happy to be here. really excited to work for this community and alongside all these good people. So, I just look forward to our work to come. Thank you. And with that, I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you. Welcome. We're really glad to have you. And Kyle was right like it was a very competitive process and we had a lot of applicants. So, good job. Um, next up is council committee reports, community reports, and conversations. Colleagues, council mayor Angulari.

Thank you, Mayor Thompson. I wanted to briefly share an update from our lodging tax advisory committee. Uh we had a productive committee meeting today and I'm encouraged by the strong alignment across committee our committee around a shared goal. Ensuring our lodging tax investment truly drive tourism outcomes for both. As a reminder, uh these funds are specifically intended to increase visitor activity, especially overnight stays and I believe we have an opportunity to be even more strategic in aligning our spending with measurable impact. One area we are focusing is on how we evaluate our current investments. Understanding what's working well, where we can improve and how we can optimize available resources to support destinationdriven events, local bottl storytelling and partnership that can bring more visitors into city. We look forward to bring more structured recommendations very soon. Uh we would also welcome the opportunity for future agenda item to present our findings and receive councils and uh city's guidance that's on the uh Eltech committee and I also had the opportunity to attend state of the port of Seattle uh event last week where leader shared a $6 billion capital investment that's being uh planned for the next 5 years which is really great. Of course I heard there are a lot of federal because of federal un uncertaintity on the tariffs there are a lot of challenges as well port is facing so all it can reinforce both bottl future is also closely connected to this border regional efforts that's all I just wanted to share thank you very much all right well we'll move on to projected agenda discussion we're going to move through this agenda quickly I like it. Um, if uh nobody has anything to say, I would love to council member Dodd, you know what I'm going to say.

I'd like to move to approve the consent agenda. Second. I have a motion from Council Member Dodd and a second from Deputy Mayor Alder. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? Seeing none, city clerk. Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angular. Yes. Mayor Thompson. Yes. Council Deputy Mayor Alder, sorry. Yes. Council member Kurt, yes. Council member Miles, Council Member Dodd, yes. And Council Member Alcabra, yes. Thank you. Passes 70.

Thank you very much. Next up is a familiar agenda item. Um, it's agenda bill 26041 on SCA membership. City manager. Thank you, mayor, and with apologies for not transitioning over to the table. As you as you uh as you noted, this is a familiar item. So, I'll keep the presentation brief, but just as a reminder for city council, uh at your first meeting, organization meeting of the year, um as directed uh at the towards the end of last year, there was a discussion about membership and roles of who would be assigned to committees related to the Sound Cities Association and whether or not continued membership in the association was desired. Um following that meeting, the mayor and the deputy mayor uh were um appointed by council to meet with the executive director of SCA which took place on January 9th. Council further considered continue part continued participation on Tuesday, January 13th and decided to give time uh for to see um this really what information was available and uh to see if if uh more time just to make the decision. Uh the decision was then delayed to February 17th uh and again to tonight on March 17th. And with that once again in your packet is a resolution. So if council so chooses that would um direct staff to provide notification to the Sound Cities Association of the City of Baffl leaving. Um you don't need a corresponding action to stay. We are already members. Um, what the direction I'd be looking for there is a motion to uh remain as part of Sound Cities Association and pay our membership fees for the year 2026, which is listed in your agenda bill at our last update. Um, we were not certain of status of billing. I think uh due to um the use of accounting software and good filtering systems, we had not received that, but

our dues are at just a hair over $25,000 a year. that I'm happy to answer any questions, but we'll leave it up to council to deliberate on your future participation.

Thank you. And I will um break our normal protocol and kick this off because uh just to reiterate to folks in the community that haven't seen this before. Um when I was on the board, I observed board leadership acting in a way and making decisions that uh I didn't feel reflected the values that we have committed to as a city and a council. Um we'd had some initial conversations with SCA leadership and hoped to find a way to resolve that. Um but it's been a couple months we've kicked this off a couple times and there hasn't been a resolution um or anything like that communicated to us. Um so I am comfortable taking action on this tonight. Um we aren't making a decision that can't be walked back should there be some sort of resolution that happen in the future. um and uh happy to answer any more questions, but um you know, we've we've seen this a couple times. Council member Do.

Thank you. Um I would support a motion to withdraw from the Sound Cities Association. And I don't say that lightly. I think it's unpleasant to end a relationship that is long-standing that every other King County city um except for one is um also in. But um just being made aware of the questionable conduct that really truly to the mayor's point does not meet the values that we all espouse. Um, I did have a chance to meet with the executive director who was very kind and and heard my concerns and heard all of our concerns, but the board itself hasn't taken action to correct that member's conduct. And I just can't support money going to that organization and implying that we're okay with that. So, I that's kind of where I'm leaning, but I'm curious to hear from everyone. Council member Kurt.

Um, thank you, Mayor. I um am also very troubled by uh the findings of um of our team on the conduct of the the board. Um I think regionalism works when we're working from the same set of values, but it breaks down really quickly when um those values aren't shared. Um I also just am have been thinking a lot about the value added by participating in these regional boards. Um, it seems like a lot of the conversation is information sharing, which is helpful, but I'm um hoping that us as a council um and our city is able to um direct more um uh intentional regionalism like collaborating with neighboring cities on shared priorities or problems rather than um attending um kind of uh meetings for meeting sake um and to add to a political resume. Um that just doesn't seem like it's um providing a lot of benefit and value to our constituents and our our neighbors. So with that, I move to approve a resolution of the city council of both Washington terminating membership within the Sound Cities Association.

I'd like to second that motion. I have a motion from Council Member Kurd and a second from Deputy Mayor Alder. Would anybody excuse me like to speak to the motion? Council member Dodd.

Thank you. Um, sorry to go again, but uh, wow. Okay. Um, I wanted to do a quick temperature check with everyone. One of the things we do benefit from with both the Sound Cities Association and with Snomish County Cities and Towns is that they both have the authority to put people on regional boards and committees, including pretty important PSRC boards and committees. I have vocally not been a fan of how with Snomish County cities and towns, whoever from any city shows up at the first meeting of the year gets to vote on who goes on those boards. So there are councils where all seven people show up and that city gets seven votes for who shows up on the regional boards and committees. It's not very equitable. There aren't a lot of guidelines in place to ensure that that voting power and that policy setting power across the region and actually gets shared amongst different cities. Um, I would love to explore with our staff and have a conversation with the Puget Sound Regional Council about ways that they could make that selection process more clear. Um, and that it's not part of an organization where dues are a part of it because that seems bad to be blunt. So, um, if we are leaving the Sound Cities Association, we should really really push for a re-evaluation of how all that works. All right, city clerk.

Thank you. Excuse me. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angulari. Yes. Mayor Thompson. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alder. Yes. Council member Kurd. Yes. Council member Miles. Yes. Council member Dodd. Yes. and council member Alcra. Yes. Passes 70. Thank you very much and welcome to the meeting. Council member Alcabra's microphone. Always a pleasure.

All right. Um, next up we have 2026 council subcommittee recommendations for board and commission interviews. It's agenda bill 26042. city manager.

Thank you, mayor. And uh yeah, tonight we'll have a brief staff orientation around a subcommittee of council who may wish to speak to fill in any gaps. But um just to remind council of the process that we're in the middle of in terms of uh board and commission selections, I'm going to turn things over tonight to our deputy city clerk, Amy Ross, who is here representing the city clerk's office and can uh we'll walk you through the process, but also is available to answer any questions or take directions on how you would like your evening to go next week. With that, I'll turn it over to Amy.

Thank you, city manager. Good evening, council. We have a real brief recap of this year's board and commission recruitment before we ask for council action which will be to approve the subcommittee recommendations for board and commission interviews held on March 24th. The events so far we um accepted applications between January 20th and February 20th. We uh staff hosted a an open house on January 27th for folks interested in learning more about serving on board and commissions and we um deployed a social media campaign with posts staggered throughout the the recruitment period. Um and I can say that there was a noticeable influx of applications immediately following those posts. So shout out to the communications team. Upon closing, the applications were provided to the board and commission application review committee who met on March 9th. Um following that meeting, the committee sent their selections of those applicants to move forward for interviews to the city clerk's office and um the applications were all provided to full counsel as well for an opportunity to review. Some numbers after an eligibility review, we wound up with 40 total applications. on your screen there are some or the reminders of the number of open positions. There are the numbers of um applications received for each board or commission and then finally the subcommittees um selections for those to move forward for interviews. So we wound up with four for arts, the one landmark applicant, all four for ELTAC, eight for parks and recreation and six for planning.

Next, um again after tonight's approval by council for the subcommittee's recommended applicants, the identification of any additional applicants that council wishes to move forward, and the approval of the um interview questions which were provided to council in your agenda packets last week, the city clerk's office will not well will notify all applicants of their status and will notify those that were selected to move forward. word that the interviews are scheduled for March 24th. We've sketched a um estimate of a of of a schedule with just the subcommittee's recommended applicants. Keeping with that five minute interview slot um and meeting beginning at 6:00 p.m. puts us at the last um the last applicant beginning at 8:30 just for information. And so again, we're asking for approval of the subcommittee's recommendations um for interviews and I'll turn it over to council for discussion and we're here to answer questions.

Thank you, Council Member Dog. Thank you. Um we did receive notice after our meeting that current parks and rec board member Manny Okmpo would like to renew his service and um I would like to nominate him to be added to the list of interviewees. If that needs a second, I will do it. Is that something we need to vote on as a council or how do we I think with the list because you're you're you're really not making a final decision. You're deciding who you want to is if there's consensus.

I served with Manny on the parks board, so you know, I'm probably a little biased, but I'm happy to interview him again. Anybody else? I have no objection to that. I support in including him in the interviews. Same. No objection. No objection. Well, in that case, if somebody wants to make a motion um explaining the recommended action and to add Manny, um I would love to do that. Council member Dodd.

Thank you. I move that we approve the subcommittee recommendations including the addition of Mano Compo for board and commission interviews on March 24th, 2026. I'll second. I have a motion from Council Member Dodd and a second from Deputy Mayor Alder. Would anybody like to speak to said motion? Council member Kurt.

Thanks. Thank you to the subcommittee for spending the time reading through all the applications. Um we're obviously in alignment that um these are great candidates. Thank you to all the applicants too who um whether you hear back or not uh this week from our city clerk's office. Thank you for spending the time um to write an application and share your story with us. Um quick question on this is that um 8:30 is kind of I mean reasonable to ask if people are going to be volunteering for evening boards and commissions. Um, but um, is there a possibility that we might be able to meet a little bit earlier and move the window of time a little bit earlier? I thought I'd throw it out there. I'm available um, as early as 5:30. Um, if that's something that others are willing to jump in on as well.

I can do 5:30 as well if it's needed. I can make myself available as well. Same. I can be available. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Let's do it. Um I just want to say thank you to the subcommittee because this is a decent amount of extra work and thank you in particular to council members um Alcabra and Miles because you stepped in and pinch hit um when a couple of us that were going to be on that subcommittee weren't able to do it. So thank you very much for stepping up and doing that both of you. And I I say this every year, like this is maybe my least favorite part of this job because we get so many wonderful applicants who are incredibly qualified that want to serve their community and we only have so many spots on boards and commissions. Like this is something that I was so excited to do when I first started and then I got in here and I was like, "Oh no, it's mostly telling really cool people no." Like, so we're apologies if you're watching this and your your name wasn't moved on. Um, we really do appreciate it and we just only have so many spots and only have so much time to interview folks. So, um, thank you to all. Um, and I guess with that, we're ready to call the role.

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angulari, yes. Mayor Thompson, yes. Council member Alder, yes. Council member Kurd, yes. Council member Miles, yes. Council member Dodd, yes. Council member Alcabra. Yes. Passes 70. Thank you very much. All right. We have next up is a study session that is probably going to last significantly longer than 7:18, but we are a ways away from that. So, can we take a break in the middle of the study session for Ramadan? You can take a recess anytime you want.

Perfect. Um, we will uh do that. Let's go do a study session. All right, welcome to the study session table. Um, next up is agenda bill 26043, bodywn camera project. City manager.

Thank you, mayor. And yes, we'll uh we'll be able to get things kicked off and hold that thought or perhaps you'll Perhaps you'll wrap this up in 30 minutes. We'll have to see. Um, tonight the first conversation is a uh is an update uh for information before uh work progresses around potential uh exploration of body warn cameras for the police department. This was something anticipated in the budget and you'll hear a little bit more about that tonight. Um, what I wanted to also introduce though too is joining us at the table tonight with along with police chief Ken Suberck is Callie Rian who joined the city in January is part of the executive office in a a position that was created in this budget cycle. And Callie's role is senior management analyst and that position looks primarily at um doing some policy development work. So things that council initiates, we're trying to to move those through the pipeline a little bit faster for you. Uh as well as project management over projects that do cross multiple departments, which is most everything we do at the city because there's very few things that um don't impact another stakeholder group. um as well as doing some um other work like uh her first week was you know a few days before the legislative session and we had her working with Shelley Helder on tracking bills and uh she and I tag team on that and I'm I'm looking forward to to her being ready and sharp for the next legislative session. So Cali um previously had roles at Seattle Children's Hospital as well as the state of Washington and King County and has uh in her two and a half months made a huge difference already for the city. So, we're looking forward to having her as well. With that, I'm going to turn things over to Chief Sulick and Cali Regan for the presentation.

Well, thank you, City Manager Stannard, uh, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council members. Uh, this will be a quick handoff, um, because she is doing the intro and I'm bringing up the end. So, Kelly, go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Good to be with you tonight. So, we're here tonight to share some preliminary information about bodywn cameras, what we've learned so far in this process, and seeking your input that will inform the next phases of work. I'll be kicking things off with some background information to contextualize the conversation tonight and covering some project management details, uh, specifically how this work would be phased, um, what goes on in each phase and where we are in that process today. And then Chief Sublick will be covering the benefits and risks of bodywn cameras, talking through program and policy considerations that agencies work through as they consider implementing bodywn camera programs, and then a legal summary mostly focused on the public records act and what it means for uh residents and their privacy um as it relates to the footage from bodywn cameras. So, as Kyle mentioned, the exploration of a bodywn camera program and its implementation uh was identified as an activity for the 2025 2026 budget. The activities that we've done so far and what we have planned for the next couple phases that would happen over the next several months are covered um in that allocation. And this is a highle overview of the project phases. So we are on the cusp of the initiation phase um which uh serves to set the project up for success. So in that phase, you get all the right people at the table, build your core team, identify all of your stakeholders, create a project charter to make sure that everyone's on the same page about the purpose of the project, the scope of the project, um, and set up all of your tools, um, and just make sure that you're organized and ready to move

forward productively. The planning phase is where you start to answer all of the questions that remain in a greater detail. So, one major piece of work in the planning phase would be collecting really detailed requirements for the project, including technical requirements, policy requirements, um, making sure we understand from all of our stakeholders what their expectations are and use that information to uh, put together things like an RFP, for example, and make sure that throughout the project, we're checking back and uh, ensuring that all those requirements are met. This is also where we'd understand in a much more detailed way the budget uh the timeline, how long things are going to take, by who um and by when. And you can see there's that stop sign there because the end of the planning phase is where um the 2025 2026 allocation ends. Um the execution phase would be part of a future budget discussion as would the following phases. Um but that phase is where you carry out the plan that you made in the planning phase and monitor and control happens in tandem with execution. So making sure that the project is going as planned. Uh monitoring for any new issues, mitigating your risks, making sure things are staying in scope, in budget, and then finally um wrapping things up, transitioning to your operational team, um doing your lessons learned, and closing out the project formally. And this is a visual representation of that. I want to make clear that these are not dates that are being proposed. This is just to give you an idea of what the timeline would look like. Um the accurate piece of this though is where we are today which is at the end of phase zero. What is titled here is preliminary research and um about to begin a more formal initiation of the

project. And that's it for me.

Thank you. One of the first steps in determining if we move a program forward is to ensure that it aligns with our city values. So with that, we want to ensure uh under a welcoming community that our officers are communicating with respect and kindness during interactions with community members with common purpose. We want to ensure that we are building trust through collaboration, honest communication, accountability, and integrity with sustainable future. Help the city and department defend against frivolous lawsuits and complaints. And lastly, with impactful services, we want to capture and document that we deliver quality professional services that make a difference. And I believe our body warn camera program will meet all of those objectives. Next slide, please. So why now? In short, the criminal justice system and law enforcement as a whole has evolved dramatically over the past decade. As such, it is important for us to continually evaluate and update our practices and procedures to better serve our community and uphold our commitment to the city and department values. While we have managed to fulfill our responsibilities without body warn cameras thus far, the introduction of this technology has forever changed the landscape of how law enforcement documents police interactions and how we document police interactions is becoming of greater significance. Today, approximately 80% of US law enforcement use body warn cameras according to Politico. In 2016, that was around 47% according to the Bureau of Justice. The growth of the bodywn camera program over the past 10 years has a lot to do with President Obama's 21st century and policing program where they recommended the use and issuance of bodywn cameras for police transparency and accountability.

Locally, we are one of four agencies within King and Snowomish County that do not have body cameras. Those do that do not are Mil Creek, Snowqualamy, Mercer Island, and both. And of those, we are most assuredly the largest. When discussing uses, benefits, and risks, I will be referring back to President Obama's 21st century in policing program. The use and implementation of bodywn cameras has become a national b best practice for the following reasons. Bodywn cameras increase transparency and accountability between police departments, the city, and the communities that we serve. This transparency is also a cornerstone to maintain or increase public trust. Without bodywn cameras, there are fewer mechanisms to provide objective accounts of police interactions. This can lead to decreased transparency and make it more challenging to hold officers accountable for their actions, potentially eroding public trust in law enforcement. Not having body warn cameras can impact community relations and we have seen this throughout the region and within our own community. Back in 2020, we had two officer involved shootings. one where we lost an officer and another officer was injured. We were only able to capture that on a dash cam from a vehicle that was following our patrol car because we did not have bodywn cameras. That dash cam was able to identify our suspect for us. The second situation happened 10 days later and that particular situation um drew a lot of community uh input shall we say and there were a lot of uh requests that I terminate that officer and that I charge him with murder. That particular situation was caught on

a Ring doorbell and what we learned is my officer was exonerated. Now, this does not include the shootings that we've had since then, and we've had people shoot at us since then. So, I think it's important to acknowledge that as well. I call those near misses. Bodywn cameras can reduce legal and financial risk. Departments without body warn cameras have greater risk of higher legal costs. In instances where misconduct is alleged, video evidence is invaluable in determining what happens. Without this evidence, law enforcement agencies may be at a disadvantage in civil litigation, potentially leading to higher settlement costs and damages. These costs are then passed on to the city. I believe we would have seen this in that second shooting if it wasn't for that Ring doorbell camera. And those settlements are in the tens of millions of dollars. Body warn camera programs improve operational efficiencies. Body warn camera programs are often the first to identify training needs. Audits and review of body warn camera footage can identify procedural inefficiencies and pinpoint areas of improvement. Our community deserves to know whether our officers are following policy procedures local, state, and federal law. Further, bodywn cameras assist in determining whether our customers are being treated professionally and with kindness. Without body warn cameras, opportunities to or for improving officer performance and safety will likely be missed. Body warn cameras leverage technology with modern policing tools. Body warn cameras are seen as a standard tool in modern policing. Not adopting this technology will leave our department and city lagging in

technological adoption which will impact overall effectiveness and ability to solve crime. Our department is finding that prosecutors are less inclined to take our cases because we do not have bodywn camera footage to support the report. Examples would be on viewed crimes where cases are viewed in real time and it turns out to be more of a they said they said in our report us against a suspect in court. Another key advantage of having body war cameras is in uh the crimes of domestic violence. Oftentimes having body warn cameras in those situations can help reduce the likelihood of a victim having to testify in open court. I also think it's important to identify what law enforcement does at the state level. The Washington State Patrol, who I consider to be one of the premier law enforcement agencies in the state, has body warn cameras and they answer to the governor. The second agency is the officer involved uh investigation team who investigate officer involved shootings in deadly force. They also have body warrant cameras and they don't use force. They use it for accountability purpose and transparency. And I think it's important to look at that of what we do at the state level. Other areas of note would be current state law requires that we audio and video record felony interviews because we do not have body warn cameras. This requires us to transport individuals back to the police department where we can record them in a interview room. Body warned cameras allow us to interview people in the field and determine if they are actually a suspect or not. If we view them as a suspect in a felony, we have to transport them in the back of a patrol car to our police department to be interviewed in a little room. If we can do this in the field, it

reduces stress and uh frankly um I don't think anybody likes to be put in the back of a patrol car if they're not a suspect just to have it cleared up. I would also like to note that most res residents that we speak with believe we have body cameras. Um oftent times I'm noted when I have my light on my vest or I've got little flashy things like oh that's your body camera. No it's not. Um, and we recently heard people come to our council meetings asking that we turn on our body cameras when we interact with ICE. We don't have those. Lastly, when addressing risk, it is always best to have strong policies and procedures that meet best practices, community expectations, and adhere to state law. Let's speak to that on our next slide. When it comes to developing bodywn camera policy, we'll be looking for community and council input. The good news is that when you're one of the last in the state, a lot of it's already been done. So, it allows us an opportunity to come forward with best practices that has already been tested through legal channels and give us the options of how we best want to have a policy that suits our community that we serve. In your packet, I included the ACLU's body camera model policy. That model policy uh is what most agency use as their foundation for their policy. I will say Kirkland, our neighbor, follows it exactly. Other agencies such as Belleview and Seattle add a little bit more flexibility. And what I mean by that is they allow the option for officers to turn off the camera if they find that having the camera on is inhibiting their investigation. An example would be we have a victim and the victim does not

want to be videoed. They allow them to turn that off if it's inhibiting the investigation to get a statement. So when we look at you know the flexibility in policy that's just an example of how other agencies have done that. Most things in policy are pretty clear and they have to do with records retention and the like which we don't control. Any body warn camera policy for an for an accredited agency would address oversight who has access how cameras would be issued and when they would be activated. Again, other people have already tested this and that's all part of the ACLU model policy if you had a chance to read that. And these policies would be created with community and council input slide. The purpose of this slide is really to draw your attention to the fact that public records act is driven at the state level and we follow those guidelines. Thank you. Sometimes the fact that bodywn camera footage can be requested through a public records act can cause concern. I don't want to go into great detail on PRS because that's not my area of expertise. Uh but I just want to provide some real highlevel information to kind of help set the table so we understand what for the most part would not be released. From the law enforcement side of the house, we can exempt the following under certain circumstances. open investigations and a line that's called essential to effective law enforcement which really comes down to wrap sheets or bolos things that that we have out be on the lookout for sheets and witness requesting anonymity. Other examples under the privacy section would include medical facilities, counseling offices, therapeutic offices, protected health information, HIPPA, the interior of residences. That is a common concern among people. Will the inside of my house um be videoed? No, that's

redacted. Intimate images, minors, children, the body of a deceased person, the identity or uh communications from a victim or witness of domestic violence. Those are all redacted and we'll get into that in the next slide. I just want to remind council these are exemptions that already exist within the public records act at the state level and we adhere to those requirements currently and this would not change with the implementation of a bodywn camera program. Next slide, please. Uh, we did provide some examples to provide context to what gets released under certain PR examples. So, if you start with the photo on the upper left, you will note that it is titled non-disclosure juvenile victim and witness. As noted, the redaction process requires that we utilize a blurred 50% blur intensity on that individual. Exemptions to non-disclosure include if the requesttor is the victim, witness, juvenile, or the attorney. Those are the exemptions. The photo at the bottom left display. Let's see. Uh the photo at the bottom left uh is a domestic violence call. DVs require full blackout of the screen as well as all audio of the victim and or witness when talking about the incident. It that is nothing gets released on that. Exceptions would include the requesttor who is the victim or the witness. I believe also attorneys apply to that as well. Lastly, the photo the photo in the upper right is an example of a I use it as a before after so you can see clearly what you're looking at and then it's redacted later. The officer is inside a private residence. This would include other

things such as hospitals that I listed on that other part as well. Under the PR guidelines, the full screen would be blacked out with the text redacted uh on the screen. The audio would continue. However, you just wouldn't be able to see inside the residence. Let's see. Exceptions would be the requester is the homeowner. So, we could release it to the homeowner. Or if we have an example would be like a use of force that occurs inside a house. Next slide, please. So, with that, we have some questions. What are the policy and program questions you'd like us to explore more deeply during the initiation of the planning phases? And as community outreach efforts ramp up, which individuals and groups should we include?

Hey, Council Member Alabra, we have seven minutes to go until dusk. Do you want to start a break now or do you want to start this process? Um, we can start. It's okay. Okay, I can we can continue. I'd like to propose that we start with the second question. Um, as community outreach efforts ramp up, which individuals and groups should be included? I feel like that will Yes. That and that will guide the discussion. I had a question that's outside of these two. Can I ask that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we can always ask questions. Go ahead. Okay.

Ah, questions for everyone. Um, so I remember hearing that there was a grant for these body cams. Is that something that happened in the way back before I started on council? I just wanted to get a little bit of clarity on the history.

That is a great question. So, just to be clear, we used to have cameras. We had them in cars. Um, and that was back in the day when we had videotapes and yeah, and we transitioned to a hard drive system and you can only imagine that we were struggling mightily to keep up with technology. So, and with the intro of PRs on those type of things, we opted to discontinue our car camera program. Uh there have been a number of grants both federal and local um that I'd be happy to get into. I believe the Criminal Justice Training Commission currently has a grant process in place right now um that I can apply for. Um but yes, the short answer is yes, there are grants out there.

Thank you. Is there ongoing shared revenue to help fund the just the overhead of the technical implementation or is it all grant-based and working off the budget we already have? You

want me to take that? So, um I believe the the grant program that's available would be sufficient for startup costs. And then, you know, the overall what I'd say is is that if there's the termination that body worn cameras are an essential essential tool for law enforcement, then we'll that'll factor into the budget, right? That's how we make the decisions around where do we prioritize our money. In terms of ongoing um the same the same program that launched the grant funding did also um create a a sales tax option, which and we've heard about tonight and certainly at the state level. Um it may not be the perfect solution, but it is a solution. Uh where in order to be eligible for there's council manic, so council control ability to pass a sales tax that would cover um more than body cameras, but different different elements of public safety. Um and uh but in order to qualify, you have to meet uh a number of conditions of uh in terms of your law enforcement program and have completed a successful application for the grant. So, it's kind of a follow-up. Um, we are planning on having a a budget workshop with council in the month of May and um can cover that in more detail as an option, but I would say, you know, I'd be reluctant to u qualify the decision on whether or not to move forward with body and cameras as a if there's a dedicated um funding. I think ultimately those are the decisions we can make too.

And I'm not predating my decision on that. I think it's just like when you need a new roof, you're going to get a roof no matter what, but you also have to pay for it. And that's exact exactly better way of saying it than than I articulated. It's the matter of it's a yes and of there there are options, but it wouldn't deciding to move forward with body warn cameras wouldn't like compel you that you have to do something else. So, at the end of the day, we'll follow council direction and figure out a way to pay for the tools that we need to operate the city. And I never expect a revenue answer to be like ideal or perfect or exciting. There are very few that are the free money option has not quite come to us.

Um, with regard to the question you asked. Um, I would ask the I I know that for Snowomish County is domestic violence services of Snowomish County. I'm going to guess and probably be wrong. Domestic violence services of King County um or whatever that one's called. Um, and then I think where we saw a lot of success in other big changes was reaching out to like East Side for All and other um like specific groups that especially focus on people who have been left out of government decisions historically. So groups that represent and bring together historically marginalized comm marginalized communities would be very appreciated in this. And then they may also know a more appropriate group related to their work that deals with um not just domestic violence but people who are involved in the criminal justice system and just have developed more guidelines. So I I'm glad you asked that cuz I had written down um for the community input would it be your advisory board or further than that? And I'm glad to hear that that's already on your radar.

Yeah, thank you so much. Uh great points. Uh this is something we represent the whole of the community when we're out there doing our job. So as many people that we can get input from is what I'm looking for. And we will be I I will be working with Gabby on this as well. And we are looking for any additional groups or people that we may not capture when we're talking about this. So that was really the the premise for the question. Oh, I just I'm going to ask another sort of outside question. So, I know you are heavy into the data and I'm just wondering what happens to the footage and where is it stored and how is it stored? Who has I'm just thinking the chain of custody. So, beginning of shift, end of shift, who has it and who does what with it in the interim?

Sure. Great question. So, with every bodywn camera program out there, the police department city owns the data. Now, how you own the data has evolved. It used to be we had a massive server room up above the police department. Most of those systems now go to the cloud. It is your cloud account. Um, so I don't know of top three haven't had any data breaches on body camera footage that I'm aware of. Um, but those security measures are things that we're looking for. When you go out for contract, you're going to be looking who owns the data, how is it released, it's not sold to third parties. It's all it's all the things that um I will just say Eileen and the city manager will be looking at very closely if we get to that point. So, I don't want to get out over my skis too much. All right. And with that, um we have reached time to take a break. Um it is 7:18. We will reconvene at 8:15 p.m.

Oh, yeah. No, I meant to do Hold on. How much time are you looking for? I was looking for like 25 minutes. How about 45? That's what I was trying to do. Thank you for mathing and my lack of ability to do it. 7:45. Thank you.

All right, we are going to get going here. All right, we uh took a break in the middle of um agenda bill, so I don't really have anything to announce other than um we are here and asking questions and I will open it back up to the council. I remembered what I was going to say before the break and I would just like us all to acknowledge that. Um so adding on to Council Member Miles um tech questions, I think once you are vetting vendors, you have a particularly technically inclined council who will probably have a lot of questions. So I was going to say feel free to I don't know sometimes we do sessions with a couple of council members where we can ask just an absurd amount of questions to dive deep on stuff. Um, but I would love not only a session on the underlying technology that's proposed and the differences between different vendors, which I realize we wouldn't pick the vendor, but I think that might save you a lot of individual emails asking about it. Um, but then also I'm staring at our city attorney because I would love a deep dive um on the intersection of the public records act and body worn cameras so we can get into that. And same thing with maybe um we did this with um with the bothl urban project and with some other projects where we just had sessions with less than a quorum of council members where we could just go ham on asking like I said an absurd amount of questions. So just to let you know what I'm holding back

and I third that request because I am highly technical and I always have questions. So I would love to get deep in the details. We can plan on council briefings prior to uh any proposed solutions coming forward. I'm not highly technical, so if we wanted to do it in a briefing, that'd be fine.

Um I have plenty of questions. Um and then I will share some of my thoughts to your questions. Um so when we were looking at the slide around you know stages of of development and and the process to to bring this forward um my like I saw the stop date when the budget runs out. Um I'm just wondering after this often we have the process of there's a study session and there's a public hearing and then there's a vote. Is that the path that we're going to see with moving this forward or is like at what point do we vote next to move forward? Is that in the budget? Is that

in a discussion? I'm curious sort of like where's the next time like we're cuz we're just discussing tonight. We're not taking a vote. Um and so I'm wondering when like when are the the times when we might be voting along the the path towards this?

Yeah. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And so tonight, as as noted, tonight is really to make sure council is grounded and up to speed of the activities that were part anticipated as part of this budget, which is the exploratory phase. Um I believe uh according to the slide, while it does uh align with budget decisions, it um it could or could not potentially align with the budget process itself. I think we're on a path where it probably will, but if we were sooner, um ultimately the the decision of coming forward would be um certainly before any any steps were taken towards acquisition. So that could include I mean unless there's strong feedback otherwise that can include um prior to an an RFP, we would come back and say here's what we've heard, this is what we're looking at the recommendation. Um if the recommendation is to move forward, we would kind of have that conversation with council and um again that would be for direction. Um council's uh primary uh areas of authority in this process are around um authorization for use and approval of policy. Um and that is by RCW. It talks about in that RCW also of council may um approve outreach plans. So, that's part of the question tonight about who would you want to have included um so we can make sure we're following your will and then certainly um the as as you know all contracts over $100,000 come to the city council and um the this this contract will certainly meet that threshold. So, you will also nothing nothing is deployed without you. I hope that helps. So, uh the intent tonight again is a checkpoint as opposed to to a vote. the decisions uh the decision points would be around um moving forward past exploratory phase and that acquisition and certainly approval of the policy as well.

I have more questions, but if this is a line of inquiry that you want to follow, go for it.

Oh, no. I was just going to say I they're they're bringing us a briefing before they get started working on it. So, I have a feeling that we are going to be regularly communicated with throughout this process. That's what I wanted to hear on that one. Um around the my next questions were around the engagement process and um and you anticipated that question with your own question. Um and so in addition to what council member Dodd said around uh domestic violence services in both counties and east side for all. I would also add NAMI East Side, ACLU of Washington, the Racer Advisory Board, the NAACP in both counties, and um and the Chief's Equity Council Advisory Committee that that you have. Um and you may have already had all of these folks on your radar, but I just wanted to

This is precisely why we're here. Yep. Thank you. Yep. Um, and then I also wanted to ask about what are other plan strategies to involve the broader community around this topic? Like are we going to put something on engage both? Will there be a survey of some kind? like is there going to be like an open house or you know the our our community has or our the city staff has found a number of really creative ways to bring the community into community discussions and I'm wondering if there is any kind of an engagement plan con being considered that might use some of those strategies.

Again a great question. Just to be clear the body camera program for a police department is not a police department program. It's a city program and so that'll involve all the stakeholders within the city and that means we have a pretty robust community outreach program plan already set up and so we will be working uh with Becky and the other stakeholders to uh do community outreach. Okay, great. Um thank you. And now privacy questions. Ready?

You knew these these were coming. Um, so I specifically heard not like so there's redactions for inside a person's house. Um, does that also include front yards and backyards? The a person's property that is not inside their house. So no, it would not apply. Okay. Um, are uh are there redactions for mental health calls and like is that considered uh protected health data?

Yes, with an asterisk. um because police are not medical professionals. Uh so we can't make a diagnosis when we're out in the field. Um so we'll be responding. The the nice thing is with um the PR process, and there are other people that are way more wellversed in this than me. Um this isn't we're not the first agency to ever have to deal with this. Um so we would follow what the state requirements are for PRS. Yeah, I was um you know just to jump in I think for tonight if there are questions around what are the use cases I think what we can do is capture them and then hearing the request for a deeper dive I think we can address them. The caveat is always going to be is the the the public records act in the state of Washington um is really you know written from the standpoint of promoting transparency uh of of access to information and then exemptions are what closes the door on it. And so what we'll always do is in in the case of a request is staff looks at uh the the exemptions and we look at case law and we put it all together. And so there's a number of scenarios. So it gets a little complicated to say if then in different scenarios. But again, if there are specific use cases the council wants to know about, speaking them tonight will be helpful because we can then do some research and bring back more detailed responses. Stump the chief is fun though. But I think we can probably uh we'll bring in we'll bring in additional uh individuals and as a reminder too of I think a couple years ago council had a training from Ann Marie who's a a partner at Madona Law which covers city attorney services for the city. She's also on the state sunshine committee which are evaluates um uh exemptions and helps advise the the legislature. So, she's she's probably our expert we'd call in to to answer scenario questions

and she's great at it. I would love to see her again if she were to come back. That would be great. Um, and then one of the one of the things you mentioned was that uh victims don't have to have their statements recorded. They can request for it to be turned off. Did I understand that correctly?

So, yes. And so when we look at the ACL use model policy, theirs is pretty rigid. It's turn it on, leave it on from beginning to end. Some of the This is the wiggle room that I was talking about when we create a policy for our community. We, the council, and the community has their opportunity to put input into how that's addressed. Do they want a hardfast rule or do you want to create carveouts under special circumstances that are really clear of when you can turn the camera off? And uh Belleviews um I do like it because it allows for the human element I like to say where not everything fits in a box. And so if if you have something where um it's inhibiting the investigation, and I'll just say it's being hurtful, um then maybe we can turn that off and get that statement because what what are we really there for? So it's the service element. And go ahead. Oh, just to that point, I think too if we revisit that in a discussion later, please feel free to bring multiple options that we can talk about. Like I don't want you to think you have to like figure that all out and anticipate what we're going to support beforehand. I think if you craft a policy that has those exemptions and you feel like you can stand behind it, we'll want to hear that. Um and then we can just talk through that, you know, especially with all the feedback from our community that would have been gathered.

So apologize. I'm kind of visual like in my head of what I see. I my idea if I was to bring forward policy ideas it's like you have the stuff you can't control like this is what we got to do and then you get down to these subsections and it's like the buffet style do you want A B C or D as you work your way down through that and make your decisions that you know again best fits the the community and the council I really want to make a baked potato fries sweet potato fries sort of analogy but I'm not going to do it but yeah same I think we're on the same page I would like to see those um alternatives options presented to us. Um, so to

if you um, for those that were in the group, I think if you have the the Belleview policy and I think the Seattle policy, you'll see some of the those are the the policies that have the most carveouts that I've been able to find.

Got it. Um and so really the one I wanted to check my understanding so that I could then ask the correlary to my previous question. Um which is is there a situation or is there a policy that you know of where victims are asked for positive or affirmative consent consent for recording? Um so that would be a situation of you do not need to have the like your rights are you this does not need to be recorded. Would you like to offer your consent for recording? Yes. There there are some carveouts depending on the call for service. Um so yes. Okay.

Um thank you for that. Um because I would like to avoid a situation where people don't know that they can ask for it to be turned off and it's not turned off because they didn't ask. Um, you know, I when it comes to basic rule of law, people need to be informed what their rights are, it needs to be clearly communicated. And I promise you, uh, the majority of us do not read law books. Um, we are not reading code to see what our rights are in a a specific jurisdiction, you know, when somebody crosses from Kenmore into both and how does that change. So, I would heir on the side of positive or affirmative consent rather than expecting our community members and visitors to just know that they can ask for it to be turned off.

Yeah. And again, I just want to be clear, some of those carveouts are very specific. If you're in public, you are in public.

Okay. Um, yeah. Yeah. And so I'd be really curious just through the process to Council Member Dod's point um to just walk us through some of those carveout situations so we know so we can get a pretty clear sense of like what situations um is the option available? Are people you know being prompted to would you like this recorded or not? you

I think the important thing is you know we do our best to um treat people with kindness. Okay. And when we talk about um having body cameras activated like the Belleview example which I do prefer it allows for those carveouts. The ACLU policy does not allow for that. It's on it stays on until they're booked into jail or we leave it. It that's just how it goes. So, um I like the carveout section, but again that I just want to be clear, it's fairly narrow and and it's also the best practices have been tested. So, we when we come back with when we get to the point where we're talking about policy, we can come back and show you the the tested part. What is the best practice? What are agencies doing? So, I think that'll be helpful. Okay, that reaches the end of my questions and what I look forward to you guys bringing back to us.

All right, thank you.

I'm wondering um you mentioned that there are there's risk that prosecutors don't accept a Yes.

Yeah. Um, are there cases in which it would be helpful to understand? Well, it would be helpful for me to understand, but I don't know if it's really weighing too heavily if there's risk involved. Um what um a program might what guard rails on a program might make it difficult for prosecutors to um admit body warn camera footage as evidence or is that pretty much like every other jurisdiction uses it and so it's kind of just rule of law right now?

Well, I I think the carveouts typically that you see it has to do with victim statements. um that that is key or when we uh ask somebody if they'd like to remain anonymous. Um and those are things you build into the policy to I'll just say to protect the innocent so to speak. When it comes to uh filing cases, it's kind of all the same that the attorney the prosecutors get get the video footage to go along with our police report. I don't know if I'm answering that correctly.

No, I think um I think it's a non-issue. Uh I was just wondering if there are examples like there are examples obviously of maybe our uh us not having enough evidence, right? And

yeah, we we've had that already and that's kind of been the thing. um the the past well the past 10 years since 2016 that's really when you've seen the big push for body cameras in the United States and over that course of time um like anything don't work right and then people figure it out and they fix it. Um so I I say it jokingly but it's really true. It's it's kind of an advantage to be one of the last. Um other people have figured it out. The prosecutor's office has it figured out from the state level. we have best practices. Um, so I feel pretty comfortable on that end. I know it's kind of, you know, bottom of the ninth I feel like in this process, but um, I I feel really good that so many of these things have already been answered um, locally for sure in King and Snow County where we do file our our reports. And I I'll be honest, it is one of those things where it it already has come back to us a few times like, "Oh, you don't have body warn cameras footage of this?" No. And what they'll say is, okay, and what that means is it slides over to this pile. And just to be fair, it's not a matter of them not wanting to take these cases. There's not enough prosecutors, just like there's not enough defense attorneys, right? And so what cases do they run with? They run with the ones that they have everything they need. And the other ones go over here and they either get pled down or they just dry up on the vine and they are just dismissed. So that's kind of my experience with it.

Could I ask maybe a slightly silly question, but with all the redactions which I think are important, do we lose any valuable data from that um to make our cases at all? So with the prosecutor's office, so redactions typically it's um that's public consumption. Um when cases are dealing with the prosecutor, they see it like we see it. Um and the same with defense attorneys. So um with maybe some redactions in potentially uh to protect victims. Um but no and as far as losing data like metadata. Um you always have your original uh digital piece of evidence and then you have your copied redacted version and both of those are saved in the the digital evidence file. So you have the untouched one and then you have the one that we sent out to the prosecutor's office that has been modified because it's been redacted and we have to keep that a chain of custody for the case.

Hopeful. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

Council,

thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate this. Uh in general I don't have an issue with my colleagues have asked the lot of the questions I had in mind. So that's good. The question I had is maybe I don't know if it's for you chief or for maybe for Cali is the phase breakdown. Um there is a it says initiation planning and then stop and then carry out the plan. Uh are we stopping only to talk about the budget or is that a stop? Is it a fork in the road? Do we continue or not continue? Are we moving forward regardless or are we just going to stop and re-evaluate where we're at after you do your um planning?

Thanks for the question. Um we're not moving forward regardless. The stop is a stop for um what's covered under the budget this year and then also um at least at that point, but likely several times before, we will be returning to the council to talk through progress, answer questions. um share uh additional details that we've added to policy, budget, timeline. Um so it will it represents one of many checkpoints. Okay, cool. Thank you. So and then looking at your uh Gant simplified Gant chart, the next example schedule you have uh it says example. Is that the actual, you know, project plan or is that going is that uh just a sample because it says we have an August recess and then you say the planning date is on September 11th. Are you do you will you also be getting back to us in April, June time frames?

Yes. So I would say um almost every date in this visual should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Um we're just now recruiting members to join our core team and talking to stakeholders and input from all of those groups and from you all is going to inform what the schedule actually looks like. So, this is more just to visualize how these phases work together and maybe kind of a very very rough guesstimate of um the timeline for a project like this. Um so, yes, none of these dates are uh real.

Yeah, I appreciate No, thank you. I I know. And even when you have dates, they will probably shift because there'll be some new information. So, which is fine. I I ask because uh there is when we had our uh committee subcommittee meeting I know that the chief uh and maybe I misunderstood but I sensed some urgency in trying to get this program up and running. So um that's what I was wondering about as far as the dates are concerned. Is there like a drop dead date type thing?

Yeah, if I may. A great question, Council Member Alcabra. One of the things I key talking point is our uh community advisory committee that we've formed. Now we will be talking about this as well at those meetings and we'll be sharing information um as we go along. Uh the idea and again just kind of rehashing the timeline is just to kind of give you a visual that we want a timeline uh that there is a goal, there's a finish line and a starting point. Now how those individual places um get farmed out and where they land that's all open. Um but that's that's we just wanted to know that there is a process a start and a finish that we are shooting for.

How's that? Cool. So ju just to just to follow up. So the finish is the 21st uh next of next April next year like when you have the deploy cameras deployed.

Not necessarily. Um, probably the only dates on here that are even in the ballpark are that initiation and planning phases. And even those are subject to change because at this point very few stakeholders have been engaged. Very few team members have been onboarded and they're all going to have a lot of information that will inform what the timeline looks like. And then of course there's still a lot of decision points between um now and uh if and when uh acquisition happens for example. Um so yeah this timeline is more just just an example.

Yeah I mean this is what you get for showing dates like you know I I when I work the corporate world I have the same issue. So I I get it. I get it. the I just was wondering when the the start date is today obvious you know and then the end date if we have one if we don't have an end date and we're going to TBD until some of the early things are figured out that's that's fine too I was just wondering

that is absolutely correct council member and we'll figure out that date together I would note that you know if we do if things do line up with the budget then that kind of imply implies of too of like you know that it'll acquisition and contracting and everything like has a certain cadence but um I I think mainly what that we'd want to convey to council on schedule is two things. One is is it's not happening tomorrow and the second is is that you have multiple decisions on the decision path before we get to implementation. So I think if if anything we want to to leave with the impression on is that this is something we're working on that we will be starting to have conversations out in the community. So we always want to come we commit to coming to council first and that um yeah you're you're the decision makers. So we will be back.

Yeah, that wasn't my intent of behind my questions. I was trying to figure out how do we balance the need to come to council for, you know, to get, you know, past the different gates and and the need for police to have something that they can use, you know, uh on the on on the field. So that was really my question. It wasn't about it was I wasn't questioning whether you're going to come to us or not. That was figure out what the balance is. Thank you. That's very helpful. I'm really looking forward to September 11th when we will absolutely be done with the planning phase.

I just Oh man, you just I was just going to ask is 20, you know, 27 even realistic? Yes. I believe so. Okay, I'll take your word for it.

You know, like the city manager was saying, uh, there's a cadence, right, to these projects. And, um, what I have learned with projects, if I don't give an end date or an assigned end date to people, what happens? It just doesn't get done. So, it's part of the one of those things you want to have kind of a projected end date. And, uh, now things can happen. You never know what tomorrow brings. So, you got to be able to pivot and adjust accordingly. So, um that's my plan as we move forward. The the one thing that I would just add to my colleagues, like you heard the chief's presentation, they want these. I don't think they're going to be doawling. Like, well,

I think they're I think they're going to be thorough, but like you're not going to put this on the back burner and just forget about it for six months.

No, but but along the process, I mean, it's super important. We have to have community input. We have to have your input. We have to make sure I don't want to have a policy then then I've got to correct you know 90 days later. Um it's super important that we do our homework on the front end of this so it we have a smooth transition. The easiest thing for me on this whole thing is once we get out to an RFP once that goes out fine. But it's all the the getting the policies in place. And it started two years ago with our tech and surveillance policy and trying to set that up to make sure we're protecting civil liberties, make sure we have policies and practices in place to make sure we get good contracts and that we're protecting our people along the way. So, this hasn't been something I just came up with like a couple days ago. I mean, this is this has been a process, but we had to lay the foundation. That takes time,

and I really appreciate that process and this conversation. And I think it just explains why you and your department have earned a lot of trust from us over the years. Like we really appreciate the way that you go about these decisions. And I mean, you could just tell on the presentation that like it's clear you knew who your audience was. I was like, "Oh, that was good. I see what he did there. I like that." But like you you know us and that's good. I sit over I sit over there every Tuesday.

Yeah. Like like you want to make a case for something like do it the right way. And um and I know that we're not the easiest council to have these types of conversations with, but I really appreciate just the way that you have gone about this, the way that you've set this up, and I'm really looking forward to the process because I think that bodyborn cameras can be a really big asset to our community and our department and our officers if we do it right.

Thank you. I I I've spent most of my adult life working here and trying to make this community safe. And um I don't take that lightly. Um I mean, I've got relatives. My my uncle who got me into law enforcement, his stepdad was Pop Keiny. Um so I've got roots that go back a ways here. Um, this place matters to me and it matters that we do it right and it matters that we listen to people when we develop our policies and we provide that level of law enforcement that our community wants. Not what Kent Superlick wants, but what the community wants. So, uh, I appreciate your comments.

I had a question about procurement, which is not glamorous. I wish I'd gone before you guys did that. Um, although I agree with the mayor. I think it's very clear that you've been laying really good groundwork as this has unfolded and that is very appreciated. Um, but anyway, back to procurement. Um, so I'm wondering I I know it's a very regulated process for very good reasons. Is there an opportunity where you can talk to other agencies and their tech folks and hear because I think having worked at companies that sell tech products, there's the sales process and then there's using it. So, are you able to find out from folks how their experience has been, whether it's the officer's experience, whether it's the IT experience, public records officers. H can you find that information? Are you allowed to just run out and be like, well, not run out, but about call and be like, how's that going?

You know, that is a great question. Uh, the city manager and I have a number of things in common beyond our initials. Is u it has a lot to do with salespeople and not a dig on sales, but um I've been promised a lot over the course of my career and a lot of times it's pixie dust. So um what we would do here and uh I am not a pro on setting up RFPs but we design we tell them what we want in a system and then we see who can meet that requirement. That's what we're shooting for. Um so beyond that um I would defer to my boss.

No I think the only thing I'd add to council member Rod's question is is that one of my favorite things about working for city government is that we have no secrets. Right. So, um our we have good networks, we have good colleagues and absolutely that's uh one of the benefits of Callie's role in this too is to help give us the additional resources in addition to chief to chief. But um Cali will be able to work with um other police officers, police staff and city manager staff for other organizations to find out exactly what you're saying. That's the what did you go into this intending to do and what did you find out? And those, as the chief said a few times, if there's a benefit to being towards the end of the line, we should be able to prevent um uh some, not all unforced errors, but we're going to do our best.

And that's targeted for September 85th. Just kidding.

All right, it's getting quiet. Anybody speak now or forever hold your peace or at least until the the next meeting? Yeah, the next meeting which I think is going to be on May 15th at the exact end of the formal initiation period is going to go crazy. Okay. All right. Um, thank you guys. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate you all. Yeah,

sit down.

It's at YMCA. All right, council. We have one more study session tonight. And yeah, as observed, I think early in my tenure in both, we had a an evening where the fire chief presented three times, which was sort of like a record. The the police chief handle in two two out of two study sessions is pretty good, too. He's going to be applying for a job as a senior planner later on. So, with that, our second um study session is a return to council after some initiation and some work through a a subcommittee. and that is um related to immigration safety and support. And with that, I'm going to turn things over to Becky Range, our assistant city manager, who is joined by Chief of Police Ken Super. Thank you, city manager Stannard. So, tonight uh we will uh be having another study session and we won't be asking for any formal action, but we'll seeking we'll be seeking some feedback from you as we step through the conversation on immigration safety and support. So, we'll just give a quick um overview of the recent background and some actions we've taken in the last few months. And then we'll review kind of our current conditions and landscape of where we are in our community and where we are in the region on a couple of issues. And then we'll spend the bulk of the time tonight stepping through some action items that we've prepared. um some things that are happening happening currently, some things that we think could happen really eminently, and then we think some actions that you're going to be seeing uh really soon over the next few weeks. And um if at any time you have any questions, please just let me know. There's also an attachment in your packet that has the full matrix and list of all the different actions in a little bit more detail than what will actually be on the slides tonight. So, just real quick, you probably

remember that in the last few months, we've talked a lot about immigration safety. It's becoming a high priority topic for our community um in our region and across the nation. So, the bulk of the work that's happened has happened since December. If you remember, in December, council passed a resolution for immigration safety specifically and directed staff to do a couple of different things. So there's been a lot of work and activity since December. Um in February on February 3rd, there was a subcommittee meeting of three council members that gathered to talk about technology safety, ALPRs, and then the next meeting on February 10th, um that same conversation was discussed with the full council. And also on that same meeting night, there was a community petition that was brought forward that had several requested items that um many people in the community asked for you to take a look at. And so we've incorporated that entire list into our work plan um to study and evaluate each of those items and those will be highlighted tonight. Um and also in that February 10th meeting, all of you decided to form an official community safety subcommittee. And so that was formalized. Um that meeting actually then happened with the three new members of the council safety committee on March 5th. And in that council safety committee meeting, um, we had our human services coordinator who regrettably couldn't be here tonight because onend um, and Gabby are really responsible for most if not all of the leg work and the research that happened in all of this work, but he's um, out of town this week. So, in the last few months, um, we have done a lot of listening with our community. There's been a lot of community engagement. We have, and I say we, collectively, um, several staff members, including staff from the police

department and myself, have met with uh, more than 30 of our nonprofit service providers. We've joined community activist meetings that are happening and that are getting organized in hyper local neighborhoods and areas. We've attended meetings at the Both Library with community volunteers. Um, three staff members have also attended regional advocacy events, know your rights trainings, um, a lot of coalitions that are now starting to form and get a little bit more organized. Uh, we've also had individual meetings with volunteers and leaders in this space to really listen and hear what's happening. and the police departments actually had several meetings with immigrant families as part of um the NSD school district. And so we spent a lot of time listening and planning. We already started to put together some of the work items that you had asked us to do in December. And then now we're starting to refine those. So part of our charge from you was to make sure that we were publishing FAQs, publishing resource information, starting to send those out, starting to think about how know your rights training would be offered. So the first version was, oh, here's all the things and all the resources and all the groups. And then as we meet with community members, we decide, oh, this is a better resource. The community groups are telling us this is a better training. And so all that kind of gets shaped as we move along. and the one uh web page that we've been using, it's recently been updated to reflect a lot of that. So, I tell you that background to say there's a lot going on in our community. There is a lot of anxiety in our community that you're well aware of. Um there are some really delicate conversations happening. Um, as I don't need to expand on that, all of you are well aware of all the different things

that are happening. Um, in our community when anxiety levels are high, it's really really critical to make sure that we have clear and accurate information. So, one of the things that we've talked with our community about, we also talked a little bit in the council um safety committee about is really understanding what our conditions are. And it's important for us as we plan work to know where we are right now, what's happening, but also to plan for what could happen. I'm not, you know, always a negative person, but I do believe that if you don't plan for what your worst conditions might be, then you won't be as effective in how you're serving your community. So, we plan for different things knowing that potentially your conditions won't be heightened or um you won't experience more anxiety uh higher levels of enforcement or um violence. But but those are the things we plan for. So, when we want to think about uh myth busting and helping with rumors, we often say, "Okay, let's if we hear something that's happening in the community, what actually is the condition? What's being reported? what's being verified. So, we talk a lot about levels. Uh right now, we feel like we're a little bit in level one. Community anxiety is really high. If you're an immigrant in this community, your personal and family anxiety could be very, very high right now. We recognize that. Um we have little to no reported or verified new immigration enforcement in our community. We are following and tracking and talking to other cities in the region and we we know what's happening. We're following all of that. We don't have a lot of enforcement activity right now in our city. That could change. Uh but what we do have and

because you know this as well as I do, the both community is amazing and they look out for each other. There are calls for volunteer action. There are local neighborhood leaders who are starting new volunteer and advocacy efforts. And there are people that have potentially never volunteered in any kind of neighborhood coalition or any kind of resource fair that now they're looking for a place to volunteer and that's pretty amazing. So that's what's happening right now. Uh it's potentially we could have more reports of um enforcement and those could be verified. Uh I do think we will have more and more community members organizing and what we're starting to see a little bit now is the organization efforts are moving from simply resource sharing moving more to community response. And by community response I mean how does a volunteer choose to actively engage with law enforcement or a federal agency if they choose to do that as a volunteer on their own time? Um, and then level three, you know, we we could have higher levels of enforcement. Uh, we could actually start to see so much enforcement in our community that you start to see engagement of volunteers and activists. Um, potentially engagement of volunteers with law enforcement. Um, we could we have no indications that there's any requests for physical staging of any law enforcement agencies in our community. We've had no interaction with them at city hall facilities, but potentially that's further down the road. And then level four is really a challenging uh community situation where there's physical organizing uh the highest levels of an anxiety and the highest levels of interaction between volunteers and law enforcement officials. So not

not to be too scary, but that's what we think about when we plan. So when your charge to us was to go back and look about and think about immigration safety, you said very clearly, please think about everything, every action that we could take. And that is exactly what we did. When we met with groups, we've met with volunteers, we've done some research, we decided that the safety and support items generally fall into about four buckets. The first one's community preparedness. Second's public spaces and facilities um which includes public rideway, city facilities, parks, and also facilities owned by private owners. There's this area of kind of an administrative area of policy and legislation and how you can impact legislation that would help support your immigrants. And then employer actions. And when I say employer actions, I mean us as an employer, the city of both. We of course engage with businesses, but there are also actions that the city of both as an employer maybe could and should take. So, what we're going to do now is we're going to step through some of the action items that are either already ongoing, you've already asked us to do, or things that we really know should be done based on what we're hearing from our community members and our immigrant population. And when we step through these, uh, be thinking at the end, what we'll want to know is, uh, the subcommittee gave us some feedback on what they were comfortable with. Nothing was taken off the table. There was no item that the committee said they didn't like. Um, I'd also like to hear if everyone's comfortable with what we're currently doing and what we want to do. Now, there is also a few other items that we'll

talk about that are the next steps, and a few of them have even progressed a little bit. So, we'll be thinking about that and hearing from you if you're also comfortable with keeping those on the list and moving forward. Again, nothing was struck from the original list, but also it was a pretty big list. So, if but there may be something that you're thinking of that wasn't on the list. So, a lot to think about, but so just real quickly, the community preparedness bucket is becoming really clear to us that there's education and support and then there's response. The education and support right now is very clear one of the most important things we need to do in this community because what's happening is we're seeing in other areas and we know this that for a community to really be safe and to protect each other. People that live in this community and our neighbors with each other have a lot more ability and power and influence to keep their neighbors and their community safe than we do as city staff. So sometimes that's hard for us because we want to do everything. This is not a situation where we can do everything. So community building, I will tell you right now, is high priority for us. Um we're already partnering with different organizations to disseminate information. like many other cities. Um you have already asked us through the human services grant cycle to prioritize immigrant service providers and make that a criteria for the typical human services grant cycle. So we're doing that. We're we're kind of improving to how we partner with the nonprofits. You know, we like to think, "Oh, let's host a workshop at city hall and everyone will come." And then our nonprofit providers very gently tell us, "We don't want to come to city hall."

And the people that we're serving don't want to come to city hall. But we say, "Well, can we help you find meeting space? Is there ways we can fund you in your efforts?" And so, we're getting a little bit better. And we're also learning which materials they really do want and which materials they don't find helpful. So that's going pretty well. The different aspect of community preparedness that is a little bit more challenging, also more stressful is this response notion. So if I could kind of explain it, what we're hearing from the public and the the immigrants that are that are feeling this. There's community preparedness. This is I need family safety plans. I um maybe need resources and I need to think about if there is actual uh if people are detained or if people are deported, I'm leaving my family behind who don't have resources. I need legal aid. I need the those types of things. That's community preparedness. um that support response is more the when elevated immigration tactics or enforcement actions happen, what's happening right then. So there were two items um that were actually a part of the community petition that we've taken a look at and one of them was can you please establish a verification of authority dispatch protocol and the expectation was that does our police department did they dispatch officers when someone is here and they're unbadged they haven't given their credentials does both the police department respond to verify identity and legal authority and the answer is yes. So, and jump in at any time, but that is that is absolutely that is done. And we encourage community members to call 911. Uh the BA Police Department um

really does have a lot of trust from this community and we're Oh, that's sure. Yeah. I was just going to say this is new for us. Um since I've been in law enforcement, people have pretended to be law enforcement. So, um this isn't a new problem. It's just different. Um, so it's it's one of those things where I keep telling everybody in the community, if you see something that doesn't look right, you see something that's concerning, call us. This is what we get paid to do. Let us go out there and figure it out. Let us be the ones to investigate who they are, what's their purpose, um, and determine if they're legitimate law enforcement. That's that's the key thing.

Yep. And then another item is there's a lot of talk about um verifying um judicial warrants and the standard there. And we know instinctively the police department's very well-versed in this type of activity. It's not unknown to them. It's not foreign to them. Um we also know that city staff do not grant access to non-public areas based on administrative warrants. What we we do know though is there's training that needs to be done to help everyone really understand that and so we're working on that and having some more concrete guidance. Um but we feel pretty good about that and we're getting a good response from community members that they know if they see something that makes them uncomfortable, if they see someone in their community that they don't not really quite sure who they are, they know well we're really encouraging them to call 911. So, some other areas that um they seem a little administrative in nature, but just policy and legislation. We'll continue to review and adopt new policies. We've already talked a little bit about the tech surveillance policy work that's been done. Um we are updating contracts to make sure that when new vendors come online, there's like this thought of is personal data protected and what does that look like? And you also had the ability to influence state legislation and we do that quite often with the help of our lobbyists. And so we do track uh potential legislation and how that might impact immigrant safety. And then some of the current actions that uh we're already thinking about. I mentioned this before. Um there's we it's like we think that people know what to do and we have some policies in place, but now is a really good time to have clear employee roles and actions. There's FAQs. Um Gabby and Anon have been really great about working with different departments to put that guidance together so that

everyone's really clear. We don't we don't get any requests right now, but but what if we did get requests for um you know access to recorders or different things. So uh those protocols are a little bit more firmly documented now. Um some of the other things that we're discussing and this was talked about a lot in the community uh safety committee. Uh we think that as an employer we do have a couple of areas that have lobbies that are front-facing to the public. Um we believe that we are probably at a time where we'll post some signage just like we're doing with our businesses that says very clearly what the access is for any uh federal law enforcement agency that they're not allowed to access areas that are not open to the public. So, it's it's important for us to do that, we think, right now. And then also, we're looking at maybe formalizing a little bit more. Like I said, we don't get requests for data or information, but if we do, you know, they normally come through as PRs, but but what if there's someone that works a front desk and they get a call or something like really firming up um that you're actually prohibited from sharing information in a couple of different ways. So, probably the the biggest item that I want to talk about and get your feedback on is so when we think about the community preparedness and the education and that's really the most important thing for us right now in our community is that we hear from the nonprofits. They're doing a lot of work. They're doing a lot of organizing on their own, but they are trying to meet the needs of immigrants and they often need more funding. So, one of and and that's not that's not surprising. You

know, they already do a lot um with what they have. And so, other cities have provided rapid response funding and that's just some out of cycle funding. It's not associated with the typical grant uh process for human services. it's just out of cycle. And it could potentially be a contract with a immigration provider that's really skilled at immigration law or they're really skilled in cultural or language services to be able to help immigrants with exactly what they're facing right now in the moment. And we really like that idea. We know that a lot of um nonprofits can only hire they can only do so much work if they can't hire skilled professionals. So that's really appealing to us. And then the other item is when we met with all of our nonprofits, it is becoming really clear they all have needs. They're all standing up volunteer efforts, but there's a lot of them and they're overlapping each other. They want to be a little more strategic. they want to be a little more focused and it's really challenging to do that when they all have their own uh nonprofit missions and the work they're doing. So, a few weeks ago we met with a group that's a part of East Side for All. They're operating on the east side. They're called Safe Haven. Safe Haven is a coalition of just immigrant service providers. And so they have been organized for quite some time. And what they do is they each have um an area of specialty. And so there's a group that's helping with day laborers. There's a group that's helping with postdetainment uh property uh securing property. There's a group that's helping with immigration law. There's a group that's helping with food delivery if potentially someone's detained and

there's financial issues and the kids at home need food. Safe Haven on the east side has been very gracious and they spent some time with us, but they cannot expand to the north side. So, when we met with our nonprofits, it seems as if that we could take a stronger role in helping them be organized and helping be a little bit more strategic. So that could happen if we invest in like maybe a community organizer or a a community planner to help um deconlict some of those efforts and also to help publish a lot of the information. There's some information that we can publish and share as a city, but there's some information that perhaps it's better for nonprofits to share. We can also assist with uh printing and funding of some of their supplies and printing and that sort of thing. So, I believe that there are organizations that are kind of overarching umbrella organizations that would take on this effort to establish a north side safe haven, but they really need capacity to do that. Any questions about that one?

Oh, yeah. Go ahead. So, I was thinking about um and this comes from some of my early job experience just answering phones and giving people answers and then the calls were recorded and they would be like, "Did you give them the right answer? Were you nice when you did it?" Um when you muted, were you actually muted? Um and so I I'm going to call it secret shopper, but that's not the right term, but I think that's something everybody's familiar with. Do we ever um after we train sort of test by having someone unrecognizable come in and and ask or call in and ask to try and get information that is privileged and should not be shared? I'm not aware that we do. Um we could look at that. I think if we have a very clear training program and if we have training objectives, I think we'll get a sense of how that will go, but we're open to anything.

Well, and I think this is not my area and you can tell me to be quiet about it. Um, but I think what can happen sometimes too is like the person who does that job 40 hours a week is out. So, the person who does it eight hours every couple of months is doing it, right? like just sort of trying to find gaps before it becomes critical that we know those gaps are there while we're in level one and not, you know, if if we ever get to a different level. Um, that's that's just something I'm thinking of is how we sort of check on the processes we're putting in place.

That is a great riskmanagement question. Um, I can say from the police department side of things because this is kind of our wheelhouse on making sure that we don't release um, criminal justice information and one of the things I've already talked to uh, a couple of the ELT members is working with their teams and uh, where I meet with their groups and just talk about uh, procedures. Should somebody come in inquiring about criminal justice information, what do we do? Who do we call proper process? I think that's kind of the first step. Um, that's for me that was probably the bigger concern.

Thanks. I I don't know if that's a normal thing, but I was just thinking about it because I I think a a process it's great in isolation and then life happens. And so that's maybe that's just cuz I have a 10-year-old and life always happens, but that was where my mind went. I love the idea of the out of um cycle funding support and had a question about safe haven um because that sounds like kind of exactly what we're looking for. Have we reached out to them to have a conversation about their willingness to come up if there were funding provided and if they had more resources so they could extend their reach? We we spoke with them about a lot of different options and a couple of the nonprofits that are a part of Safe Haven have said yes if we have more funding we could also serve uh both residents. The overarching coalition of Safe Haven is a little bit more challenging. they they think that that coalition kind of makes sense just to stay where it is with those organizations. But not to say that some of the nonprofits that provide some niche services couldn't come up and be a part of our north side coalition, but it's more like the organizational effort of it that they think it's better if we just do a north side.

Is that underneath East Side for All? Yes, it is underneath East Side for All. East Side for All was a part of that meeting. And then there's the Safe Haven uh coalition of immigration service providers. And then there's also a group called RISE, which is more of the actual real time response group. And so we've met with them and talked with them as well. That's a little bit um easier just left with the community groups and advocates. Got it. So the the safe haven sphere of work is not necessarily exactly the same as the east side for all sphere of work.

Exactly. East Side for all um from what I can remember from working in that area for a while and then from the recent meeting it's a much larger organization that promotes equity and does policy influence. So it's it's a lot a lot larger. And then Safe Haven is just the immigration component of that. Okay. And do they get their funding from East Side for All or do they I'm actually not sure about that. I believe a lot of the nonprofits that are a part of Safe Haven um many of them get city grants um have contracts with different agencies. Okay. But it's it's something we're really uh we can explore. Okay. For sure. Awesome.

Thank you so much. for everything uh you put together and what you guys are trying to trying your best to do the community immigrant community on the community preparedness if there is anything that we can do or please let us know once we finalize however I I know DI committee lot of other nonprofits already reached out if there is any way we can circulate the information once we finalize I'm happy to circulate to all the nonprofits that I know of or my friends So, so just want to let you know that's all. Thank you. That's very helpful.

So does it before we move on to the some of what could be the next steps the so the thought of rapid response funding we generally support that. Um, and then do we generally support the idea of playing a more active role in the organization of the immigrant coalition? And that may mean investing in a contract or an umbrella organization that could kind of step up and kind of fill that organization role to help us build the north side. Uh I am I'm not interested in uh mixing the city up in that response and effort. Um I think it makes more sense to have it come from an NGO in the area. Um, I can think of several off the top of my head who might be interested um and have the capacity and the passion for that work and I would then encourage them to apply for human services funding um as a way to address those needs. So to specifically answer your question, that's kind of where I stand.

Are you comfortable with the funds that they're applying for being the rapid response funding? Yes. Okay. Are you also comfortable with outofcycle funding for human services grants being used for that? Yes.

Thank you. Uh same as deputy mayor. Um which I said I think in the subcommittee meeting which is how we got here but just like for the record um council member Angulari your offer made me remember a conversation that the deputy mayor and I had at the subcommittee which was that Jenny was born in California. I was born in Edmonds. Um, I do not have experience as an immigrant. Like, I moved to Seattle once and that's as far as I've gotten and then I'm back here. Um, if you want to be on the subcommittee, we will happily step aside to make room for you at any point. So, please let us know.

Absolutely. As long as it doesn't uh conflict with any other one if I So, we need three, right? Do we three is the max and um because it is a city subcommittee, they'll work around your schedule. It's not like a set time where there's staff from another county or city involved. Sure. I can I I can absolutely join. Yeah. So, we can uh the three of us can chat about the makeup and however however it works. Thank you so much. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. We would just have to be careful about making like you know quorum issues and and like how to transition somebody off and read in a new council member. council. Uh, if I can interject, this is a this is something that the council set up in a public meeting and so in order to change the composition of that committee, you guys also need to do that on the record in a public meeting such as the one you're in right now. Do we need to take action or can we give direction from down here? I mean, I think I think as long as we understand where you're going, that's that's how this got set up in the first place. So, as long as we is there's consensus, then that's good enough.

Does it need to be brought back at a ne like once we figure out who's replacing who, we could make that official at a next meeting? If you if Yeah, you can make the decision tonight, but if you do want some time to consider it, I would suggest bringing it up under a council business at the next meeting. And it's not a quorum issue for Jenny and Prasad and I to just figure out who's stepping aside and who's joining. It would be better to do that at the meeting. Yeah, that's fair. I want I would like to do it legally. So, thank you. All right. Any other questions about just like the community building efforts and the supporting of the nonprofits? Do you want feedback on what we've covered so far?

Sure.

Um before we move on. Okay. Um uh we've sort of gone through my list. I feel like um when I am ordering food for my entire family, it's like multiple menu items are available and appealing to me or my group. Um so um I do support the building procedures um and can working with staff to develop those and post those. Um, I am interested in um pursuing an ordinance prohibiting non-public info being shared like um with from staff. Um, and I we're not necessarily at this level yet, but I would like to address this before we are at that level, which the level system is so appreciated. Thank you for like kind of like what level of alert should we be on? Um, I really appreciate you developing that. So, I am interested in pursuing like restrictions of or bans on detention facilities. I don't know if we're at that level right now, but if we see an increase in um intensity, I would like to bring that as something to consider. Um and then one question that I had is that on the policy and legislation section, um you know, you referenced that like when this was written, the session was still ongoing. We didn't know what would pass, but now we know what has passed and been um and or is being signed into law. Um and so could we get a recap of the state bills that passed in the session that just ended?

Absolutely. And I believe that's actually coming to a really imminent council meeting, but we can for sure. Yeah. So, if if um Shel's going to be um coming in to do that, um it would be really great to have her like have a section on immigration parse out. That's great.

Thank you. And absolutely as a process just reminder too is that yes when um now that we're we're done with this bium so Shel will be meeting individually with each council member this summer and then in the fall we'll start a process of bring uh putting together a legislative agenda for the next two years. So, I think that's a great transition to one of the things that we talked about with the council subcommittee was that there were a few other additional steps that staff was still uh researching and studying and we we've even made a little bit of progress on those since the subcommittee meeting. And so, I do want to draw your attention to just a few that are still on the list um that we didn't dig in already. Uh there was a request for immigration enforcement free zones, constitutional protection zones, restricted restricted use of city-owned or managed properties, and then the restrictions or bans on detention facilities. So, if I could just drop right to the bottom, the restrictions or bans on detention facilities. We've had a lot of conversations with our community development department and legal and we know a little bit more about those and we do think if that's something that you're really interested in even though we we don't have any indication um that any facilities are intended for that use or that anything any private property owner would wish to do that or there's any you know new construction plans that is something uh that we've researched with other areas that we could I believe we have already started to draft it and move it forward. Um I think of these that's probably the next one that we would really start to move.

I mean yes because by the time we have an inkling it's too late. And again the other ones aren't off the list. It's just um there's a little bit more complexities and and and part of some of these it's like we want to think about community impact and what message things send to the community and how that might increase anxiety. And so there's a lot of different things we're thinking through. Uh council member Alcabra,

uh thank you. Uh I appreciate this. Thank you for uh the presentation. As C deputy mayor said the levels is very helpful in thinking through that framework and as the mayor said by the time things happen in our city it's too late to do anything. So uh it will be good to um uh to get started on some things you know before god forbid something bad happens. So, I appreciate the move on the last one. Uh, and you are right about we don't want to elevate anxieties, although I would argue that they're already extremely elevated right now. uh and I think it would actually be maybe slightly comfort people even though anxiety might not get reduced to demonstrate that and make it very publicly known that we are doing something with regards to or may at least considering those other three bullets over here. Mhm.

Um it will I think it will be good at least for me to understand what are the we didn't we in the subcommittee meeting we didn't have time I mean it was the first time we met and we had limited time and we didn't dive deep into everything and uh we talked about community anxiety but and we also talk about risks and all that. It will be good to have another meeting diving deep in deeper into th those risks uh legal risks, community risks, you know, um uh reputational risks, any all of the above, liability, all these things so that we can fully understand the full picture. So it will help so that it will help us uh make a better decision. I I I um I would love uh you know to see a um that happen because I would love to see for example something to uh immigration enforcement zones, free zones, constit you know those three things over here. uh especially the third one where we fully own uh and operate the properties, how we can uh help with these um at least in my mind reduce some of that or maybe not reduce anxiety but make people feel more comfortable, you know. Um did that make sense?

Yes. So, I think from what I'm hearing and from talking with staff, just real quick on the restrictions or bans on detention facilities, I think we can start to move that forward. And essentially, just a little bit more on that. It's just enacting a temporary uh land use moratorum that would prohibit the creation of new or expansion of detention uses within the city. And there's a component and this was is what would have to be worked out um restricting private property owners from leasing to certain agencies um or entities for detention purposes and in commercial industrial or residential zones across the city. So I think of these items that's probably the next one on the list. And then what we can do is continue to bring you updates on the community preparedness and resource effort, bring you more information on a little bit more information on the detention bans and restrictions and then we can talk a little bit more about the others. Um, one of the things that keeps coming up and it is very confusing and we we struggle with this is that um, when we talk about city-owned or managed properties, a lot of times people will say, well, everything is city like parks are owned by the city or you have, you know, buildings. There's a real big difference between what is open to the public and what is not open to the public. So, some facilities we own, you know, they're not all open to the public. Like, you know, here at city hall, floors 2, three, and four, that's not open to the public. We might own a park space, but that's open to the public. It's a

public space. It's open to the public. So, when we start to step through some of these, you'll hear us really clarify terms um because that's what becomes really important when we evaluate the different things. So, some things are a little bit easier, some things are a little bit more challenging if they're open to the public. So, when it comes to parks, we have processes that detail if you're having an event above or below a certain amount of people, it's good. If it's above a certain amount of people, you need a special event permit.

Could we work within that framework to create no, you need a permit to do this kind of staging here, and also we're not going to grant that permit? Yes, there's things we can theoretically uh administratively do. Um, we don't really think that right now staging in a public park is it would be a weird choice. I'm just thinking about like we can't stop people from being like, "Oh, we don't like the cut of your jib. You can't go to this park." But it's not I'm trying to think of, you know, at another level where that might be. Yeah.

Yeah. Great questions. I just want to add to the to to the uh assistant city manager's presentation that she's been referencing that this requires careful study. This is a complex area of law. Um you can expect to hear more from me through privileged memos and maybe executive sessions andor you guys are always welcome to call me too as individual questions come up. I just want to make sure that that you guys know that there's a piece piece to this that we can't really talk very publicly about, but be aware that there's there's resources. As you guys have questions, let me know. We can we can accommodate you however you however you need that information, however you can best process that information.

Can I uh jump in? I'm not hearing anything. Um I I saw your hand go up, mayor, so I assume that's a yes.

That's a yes. Please jump talk. We want to hear from you. the uh so there were a couple and I appreciate you city attorney mentioning this and I understand that there are things um I mean it's a complex situation u complex issues I guess and I would love to learn more about this maybe all of us in council maybe within in an executive session to learn more because I feel like we do need to have we it would be good to have that conversation uh about what's the uh the risk uh and and liabilities um that we are willing to accept uh at some point. Um, I personally I know it's not hasn't happened in the city, but I like by the time it if it happens, it's too late for us to do anything. Like I worry about that personally. And um I I'd love for us to move on certain things given an acceptable, you know, threshold that you help us define. Uh but if that needs to happen within um uh an executive session or something, maybe that we can have that conversation uh sooner rather than later uh if that's uh okay.

That's great feedback. Thank you. Um the other qu the other topic I wanted to mention is the I know last time or when we talked about ALPRS uh I know there's ones that we talked about the city controlled ones but then there is the uh private property ones like the Home Depot and others um which are being used for immigration enforcement um so uh it's not listed here and we didn't talk I don't I think we talked I don't remember if we talked about it in the subcommittee meeting

but it will be good to have also have a conversation around what are the parameters and uh uh you know within the legal b like what's the threshold within the legal boundaries that we can touch without exceeding you know uh so that's the the other question that I have in my mind about this because those other cameras are being used for enforcement whether in our city or elsewhere Yes, we did speak a little bit about the cameras in the tech and surveillance um subcommittee. So, we did have a little bit of discussion that on private property um we really have almost zero control over cameras on private property. However, there are community groups who choose to engage with property owners. uh we we don't really get involved in that, but that does happen if they would like to see those companies change their policies. One of the areas, and we haven't really talked about it tonight, but one of the policy areas that we're proactively reviewing is we do have um rightway and permit processes. So, if anyone would ask to put a camera in public rideway and we're reviewing those policies to make sure that we can pull whatever levers we have there, but that's just also something that we're thinking about. But yeah, it's really challenging to impact any private property cameras. So, so one thing uh um when somebody wants to build something or do something on their private property, we do have rules and regulations for them to do stuff on their property even though it's private.

Correct. Do you mean more than just cameras or just cameras? In in general, we do specify what can and cannot be done on properties in general, right? Yes. I can't speak intelligently on all of those things, but yeah, there's a variety of permit processes. There are certainly limits to that. We can't there are things we can we can put into requirements around building safety and um that sort of a thing, but we don't have full control over what a private property owner does with their property. And this is what I uh my question earlier is can we get what is that list of things that we can and cannot do.

I I definitely don't want to encroach on people's privacies and private property. I mean that might be one as a next step of maybe having you meet with our city attorney to talk through some of the thoughts that you have and then being able to share that with the full council. I think the coming up with an itemized list would and I'm not hearing you say that, but it would be difficult. So, I think knowing like the types of parameters and I do think that that would be a a productive conversation one-on-one with the city attorney. Sounds good. Thank you.

I had one followup. I forget if it was a study session here or the technology subcommittee, but we had talked about creating a page on the city's website that listed all of the um surveillance vendors that we use plus the ones we're aware of in the community and sort of the associated risks and how they might be encountered. Um is that live? Is it in progress?

It is in progress. some new and expanded web content um that relates to the technology and surveillance. I know they've updated block camera FAQs that are there now. I I don't know that it intends to talk about the technology by in use by other private property owners, but we can talk a little more because I may just not understand your question. Were you thinking that it would um talk about tech that's being used by other agencies? I not so much. I mean I what we

that's a lot of words that weren't anything. Um so we know what we who we contract with and how that data can be used. We also know of specific locations of flock cameras. We know in general people use Ring doorbells and is it simply safe? I don't know. lots of different, you know, like we can talk about the different data risks and and and I think there would be a section for what the city uses. Sure. what agencies active in the city use public agencies and then what we've seen or have reason to believe is in the community privately used that we can't control but so I think if we if we make a page about surveillance and we don't put somewhere like yes there are flock cameras in both no they are not the cities right like just things that common questions yes

I'm not saying we need to cover every single doorbell camera that ever existed but that web content is in the works actually

and if I One of the things that we developed with our tech and surveillance policy and I'll just kind of hit the high points. Um I talked about that being kind of that foundational uh policy and other things would be tied to that. So um body cameras get tied to that. So and we post our policies online once we have those. Uh our drone is another example that would be tied to that. Uh our GPS tracker that we use on Star Chase would be another one. So, those are all things that we post online that all get tied to that tech and surveillance um policy. So, as we roll those things out, they happen. Um our ALPR policy um it's kind of been a draft note because we kind of wait and see how the landscape worked out of uh Olympia and so we can make sure we're adhering uh with the updates on that. But those all get tied. That's what we're doing at the police side of things

and that's awesome. I think adding in what other departments use to secure sites and you know govern and manage the city um into one just one spot where people who are concerned about surveillance I think anytime there's like a big 60 minutes or do people still watch 60 minutes but like a big thing people are like what about in both and then we can point them to the information versus like here's something here's something there here's something there um so I really appreciate it

council member the one caveat I'll give again just so there's clarity of those making sure we have clear expectations. I'd be reluctant to get too into detail of the security surveillance that we have for city- owned property because it's there for a reason is to keep that property safe. Right. So, I understand what you're saying. I think we would not be very specific,

but but maybe address the fact that the city uses a variety of tools to accomplish the following things. The things you're going to find in public spaces are the are as follows or something to that extent. But but definitely we don't want to and I know you're not saying that, but some might hear what you just asked for and think that we're giving an inventory and that's not quite what we're that's not what we would do. And I and I don't think that's confusing, but I want to make sure it's not. Should we be saying what's available on the in public? Should we have on our website Home Depot and Evergreen in, you know, Snowomish because then we'd have to update it every time somebody, you know,

I don't think that's the place of the city. I think saying if you see because people track that. Yeah. So being able to say we know that they've been in the city in the past without being like here's a list is kind of the balance there to me. But I'm not the city's professional communicator. So I'm I'm curious what our staff will. Right. And I didn't know if Home Depot could then be like, "Hey, why are you, you know, giving up, you know, blowing up our spot?" That would be a wonderful conversation to kick off. Oh, no. I understand. No, and I think that's more for Eileen like there is that fine line. What do we do?

I appreciate that dialogue. That's helpful and it's the community is sharing, you know, there's a several internet resources where it shows a location of flock cameras and the community is sharing a lot of that information. So, it's really helpful to hear the feedback. Thank you. I just want to say thank you for all of the work that has it's been obvious it's obvious that a lot of effort has gone into this like that you brought us back something that's really thorough that's really well researched and I really appreciate that like this isn't just lip service to it and it shows um this is not a small portion of our residents that we're talking about like this is one in four or five people in both this is I just on our demographic page this is 11,000 of our residents like that are really nervous justifiably and and I they're not all watching council meetings. Maybe two of them are someday, but I if if they Okay, good. Five. If if they were, I I hope that they would be proud of how we are representing and caring for them. And um I am just really pleased with everything that has been done and the work that we're going to do. And this is really important. This is not a little thing. And um I thank you. Can I pile on to that? Uh thank you. Yes, indeed. I just want to say I appreciate all the work. It's not easy work and we are going to we have we we are having difficult conversations and because the topic is very difficult and uh and I appreciate uh your patience and grace in all of

this and definitely all the work I have to say over the past five years since my first interaction with the city till now I feel like uh uh my my amount of respect and appreciation for the both of the police department, city staff has increased tremendously because I see how much uh we all care about our community and our well-being. So, thank you for all the work you do.

I also want to add to that um because it's very clear that our community has been listened to. We've probably heard, would you estimate hundreds of community members about these concerns? We actually don't hear a lot from the community members. We hear a lot from the the service providers and the nonprofits and they really take that serious who they're serving and what their needs are and they share that with us which is important. I'll chime in. They talk to me which is weird. Um but it's not weird knowing who you are. It's not but we Good job, Chief.

Yeah, it is. Um we we have pretty open communication with groups uh that are being deeply impacted. And it it started weirdly a little over a year ago when I had my first meeting over at UDub uh both and we did a little forum over there. And so it's nice it's nice to have that relationship and trust and we value that. And um you know it's again if we don't have that trust we have no real power as a police department. So

and when I did want to mention um that Gabby also as you know works a lot with the DEI advisory committee and that is community members and both Gabby and Onend um have some really built some really strong trusting relationships with community members and so that's also a great way for us to understand what's happening. I'd also want to um so not just shout out to the community members who wrote in with the petition um but there's also you know every Saturday protesters and we have had some massive protests when we're looking at you know they're not all from both but when we're looking at 5% of our community is showing up to to speak up in support of our immigrant neighbors um I think it's incredibly important that we take their concerns seriously and I have seen that reflected in the quality of the work that's being done um here in in the community and just the preparation that you've put into bringing this forward to us. And so I greatly appreciate the um the level of concern and um just sensitive intention that you bring to this work. So thank you very much. I do apologize because the community petition did have oh I think more than a hundred and so I apologize that that absolutely is the community talking to us. I just kind of didn't think about it. Thank you for reminding us. Thank you.

I'm going to adjourn this real fast unless anybody has anything else to say. We are adjourned.