City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you so much. I'm calling this meeting to order. This is a Redmond City Council meeting, special meeting, excuse me, held on Tuesday, 04/14/2026, commencing at 06:30PM. All council members are in attendance. Mayor Bernie will not be in attendance tonight. This special meeting is being held to interview commission candidates. We have two batches, and we're gonna start with the Arts and Culture Commission. Chris Weber, cultural arts supervisor, will introduce the candidates. Thanks, Chris.

Thank you. Yeah. The Redmond Arts and Culture Commission is a nine member mayor appointed council confirmed advisory commission. The commission advises the city on arts policies and programming. All commission members are volunteers to serve up to two consecutive three year terms.

The two current vacancies on the commission are open to individuals who either live or work inside Redmond City limits or unincorporated King County. The candidates, we have two candidates tonight. Joyce K. Paul is a founder of two arts organizations, ARPAN Performing Arts, dedicated to promoting the folk and classical traditions of India, and Scarf Global, a foundation that creates and fosters art to galvanize awareness and action for social justice causes. The panel was inspired by the way she spoke about the importance of art and impressed with her background in board and committee leadership, understanding of arts governance, and the point of view she can bring as a dancer choreographer and anthropologist.

Rick Deskin is an actor, stage manager, and stagehand. He's also on the SAG AFTRA National Board for the Seattle Local and serves on various committees with Actor's Equity. He is also the former artistic director of Eclectic Theater and former interim artistic director of Open Door Theater. The panel was impressed with his firsthand experience as an artist working in theater and film, his connections to the local theater community, and most importantly, the passion and joy he expressed when talking about the benefits that arts and culture brings to our committee our community. Thank you. We're excited.

Well, thank you so much, Chris, and we're very excited to meet you both. I'll go ahead and give you a chance give you both a chance to introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about what motivated you to take on this experience and serve our community, and then we'll open it up to a couple of council questions. So Rick, would you like to kick us off?

Sure. So, Rick Deskin. As Chris said, I'm an actor, stage manager, and stagehand. And, I've long been an advocate for arts and culture, and within that, film and theater, both sides of the of two industries that I work in. And, when I found out that that there were two openings that were going to be on the Redmond Arts and Culture Commission.

I was interested. I love living in Redmond. I've been here since 2017. My family live with me, adult sons now, and my wife. And we just want to give back to Redmond and also find ways to increase opportunities, performance opportunities.

Thank you so much.

Hey, as Chris mentioned, my name is Joyce, immigrant been living here since the year 2000. So I've lived in Redmond for twenty five years. I'm a dancer. I'm a theater activist. I'm a social activist. I'm also a researcher, so I work in tech. My other life is working in tech and I have friends who have been on the Arts Commission. I've been on the board of various arts organizations like Kirkland Performance Center, YMCA, the World Seattle World Percussion Society that does the World Rhythm Festival. So I've been in these arts organizations and they've always been outside of Redmond. They have not been in Redmond.

So I thought, why not bring that here, bring the energy and the sense of civic pride here instead of reaching out to UW and Spectrum. I worked at Spectrum Dance Theater, Cornish College of Arts as faculty. And it was all outside of Redmond. So I was like, how do I bring all of that back into Redmond? This is the only city I've known in The United States. So why not?

Thank you both so much for sharing your passion for service and our city. Are there questions from the council? Councilmember Kritser?

Well, thank you so much to both of you for up to lead and volunteer in these positions. Our commissioners do so much work as as volunteers but bring such important voices from our community. I'm so excited. I will say I've had a lifelong passion for theater and performance art myself, and I'm just really excited to have both of you as candidates to bring those perspectives to our our commission. Curious if you can share more about opportunities that you see of ways that we could enhance and and support really our performance art communities and and increase opportunities?

What kinds of things, if you're on the commission, would you want to bring forward ideas, and places where we could do more in Redmond, especially to support our theater and performing arts community?

Right. So, with the opening of the link, we've got a huge, opportunity with, people coming into town. What I would like to see, is you know maybe turning abandoned spaces into performance spaces particularly in the Redmond Town Center that would be optimal with this proximity to the link and just figuring out ways to make Redmond the world class city that I know it can be, and doing that with the support of performance arts. And, we've already got great sculpture and visual arts already in place, but we need something that's going to keep the people that are coming in on the link here as a destination. And, also, I worked in Northern Exposure back in 1994 when it was filmed over on the other side of Redmond.

They filmed all their interiors. So, I'm in figuring out how we can either become a a film commission slash arts and culture commission. I you know there's so many questions I have about what we can do and and in order to support both arts in our community, but also in the greater Washington State community.

Thank you. Joyce?

So, I have four things while he was talking I was counting them. One is I've lived here for like I said twenty seven, twenty six years. We don't have a good high class performing arts theater. We either have to go to Kirkland to KPC or we have to go to Bellevue to Maidenbauer or we have to cross the water and go to Mercer Island and sorry Mercer Arena and all of those theaters. When I was at Microsoft long time ago in 2008, I actually wrote down a proposal and I also had a blueprint of what a Microsoft performing arts center should look like.

I got the approval of three VPs and then the stock market crash happened and then everything just tanked and there went my idea of a beautiful like ethnic sounding performance. I still have the drawings, I can share them with you. So one of the things I want to do is a public private liaison between all these IT companies that use our space here, that people who work in these companies live here. How can we partner with them so they contribute back to perhaps having a beautiful performing arts theater right here in Redmond, so that people come to us instead of me driving across the water and buying tickets to see a show. Let them come to us.

Let us be the space where we do a Swan Lake or we do a, I don't know, Shenyang Hill. What is it called Shenyang? Yeah. Maybe they will perform here. So that's one. Second, I think, like we all know, 44% or 40% of Redmond is born outside of The U. S. So we all have our communities. We all do our things within our own communities and we kind of feel happy about that. But I don't think we have enough connections between all of these little subsets.

We don't talk as much to each other. We don't have a give and take relationship with each other. So that is something I would love to work on, not myself, with everybody. And then the third thing is social justice, the way not just the way I do it through SCARF, but social justice as is needed by Redmond. A lot of my students go to Redmond High, Redmond Middle, and a lot of them struggle with mental health problems. I know mental health is a very fancy, cool thing to say. Everybody says mental health. Everybody says we are doing something about mental health. But the point is children still don't have a safe space to go to. Therapists are still very difficult to find and book.

And my dance studio becomes the space for them to talk and give vent to their feelings or discuss things that they can't discuss with their parents. Now I'm thinking how do I convert that into in or how do I operationalize that instead of it just being Joyce talking to her students and supporting them and saying it's okay child, I will talk to your mom or I won't talk to your mom, whatever the situation is. How do we operationalize that? I think that's super critical to build art and social justice and humanitarian relationships, pull them together. So that's my third thing and the fourth thing is fourth on my priority.

I was in New Orleans and I was walking through it. There are a lot of these little museums. Someone has turned their house into a museum and they have brought in carnival dresses that their grandparents stitched or their cousins stitched. It's a cute little museum. You pay $25 and you get a whiff of what New Orleans is all about. We can totally have a small museum in Redmond. This used to be a logging town. It's changed. Now, it's an IT town. What is our identity?

Identity is not our industry. Our identity goes beyond our industry, right? So, how can we capture that? We can possibly capture that in these little home museums or small spaces. So those are the four things I would like to do, if possible, if we have money and resources.

Wow. Well, thank you both so much. Council member Nueva Camino, council vice president, had the next question. Is it a rapid fire question, or would you like to have right of first refusal on the next, next round when we get to our human services commissioners?

They actually answered my question that I have.

Okay. Yeah. Awesome. And you have right of first refusal on the next slide. Beautiful. Councilmember Parsey, do you have a quick question?

What is the soul and essence of Redmond to you, and how do you plan to bring that to your work and priorities? What is the soul and essence of Redmond to you, and how do you plan to bring that to your priorities?

Well, as a theater artist, I believe that arts are what make better humans. So exposure to the arts, whichever art it is, makes one a better human. If that affects their soul, it should affect it positively. In the essence, you know, as a theater artist, my essence is about making art and also sharing the art. So I don't know if that answers your question, but that's

Sorry, I was asking what is the soul of Redmond to you? Just quick clarification. The

soul of Redmond? Well, I I think what Joyce said earlier about it being a former logging town now in IT City is part of it, but it isn't all of it. What I think is the essence of Redmond are the humans that reside here and that call it our home and walk all the paths and the river walks and, you know, basically make their lives here. That is to me the essence of what Redmond is. And that as an overall picture of a soul, that's that's what it is to me.

Thank you. Do you have a response choice?

The soul of any place is what we make it to be and that changes on a daily basis. So today's snapshot is going to be different from tomorrow's snapshot and I think what we need to do as human beings who represent the soul is to make sure that we follow principles that support humanity, principles that support community, a community supporting each other lending a helping hand reaching out asking for help. If we all behave like that, that will constitute to constitute the soul of Redmond and there is no single snapshot answer to what the soul of Redmond is like I said changes every day. All we can do is make it better.

Well, thank you so much. Chris, you always find the most wonderful humans to add to Team Redmond, I must say. Thank you both so much for spending your time with us. I know I am personally just very eager to continue the conversation. We are gonna move on for time. Council, are there any objections to seeing Joyce and Rick in our consent agenda on April 21? Councilmember Pokria has a question.

No. Not a question. I just wanted to add that it's wonderful to meet you both, and I was actually a former student of Joyce's back when I was, I think, seven years old, seven or eight years old. So I'm sure they will both be wonderful additions.

That is wonderful. Thank you so much. We do need to move on for time, I understand the council council member Kritzer. I just wanted to call

out because I think she got lost in the corner and is one of our former arts commissioners. I just wanted to call out. I know

we have to move on Councilmember Soni?

To get

You are recognized. For council

This is exactly what I wanted to highlight. Thank you so much, councilmember Kritzer. You know, being a former, Redmond Arts and Culture Commissioner, I'm truly excited to see both of you here on the table bringing the great values and your great new ideas. That's definitely is going to be fantastic for our city. And thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you all. We look forward to seeing you on April 21. Please bring your families. We'd love to meet them.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Bye.

And with that, we'll invite Alaric from our human services team to the table with his candidates. Alaric is introducing candidates for the Human Services Commission. Please join us. Welcome. Green means your microphone is on, and we'll have Alaric go ahead and introduce you.

Thank you. So I didn't prepare a whole big thing like Chris did. I was like, oh. And I and I realized we have a lot of new council members, and you may not know everything that the Human Services Commission does, but we will be back next week at the Committee of the Whole for an update on the application process and so we can fill you in. And if you have any questions between now and then, you can ask Council Member Prakria because he was on the commission as well.

But I just want to introduce our two candidates tonight. First is Sabrina Sevilla, and she's an occupational therapist and a new small business owner. Originally from The Philippines, but she's lived here in Redmond since 2018. And she really understands how difficult it can be for immigrants to navigate systems, including the human services system. And besides running her own business, she's also really active in her children's school.

So she's a busy, busy lady. And then we have Sonia Lawson Samasi, who's been in Redmond since 2021. She's from Ohio State, the school, where she was a lecturer in the English department, and she has her PhD in literature. She is a romance author and a mother of a newborn. And in her free time, all of her free time, she somehow manages to read three to four books a week. Well,

you Alaric, and congratulations on your new arrival. That is so wonderful. Would you both like to take a little bit of a moment just to tell us about yourselves and what motivated you to to seek this role?

Yeah. Thank you guys, for having us today. It's really great to speak with you all. So my name is Sabrina. As Ehlers said, I was born in The Philippines.

I grew up in Los Angeles, and I've been in Redmond since 2019, so about maybe eight years now. And I've really loved seeing just how thoughtfully it's grown. I was very interested in working in human this Human Services Commission because it feels very personal to me. Again, as Alaric mentioned, my family was immigrants, and I helped them access services a lot, especially my grandmother who is elderly, and had a lot of difficulties and barriers with accessing services. Also as an occupational therapist, I worked with a lot of families and was able to speak to the services that the city offered.

I actually was an occupational at Lake Washington School District. Through my business, I'm actually on my second business, but my first one, we provided special education services to public schools all over the country, including Lake Washington. So I just real understand how important it is for families to have these services, especially the more underserved communities. So, yeah, it feels very personal, And I feel really proud to be in Redmond, just seeing how far it's come. So thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Sonya. I came to Redmond via an academic life that has changed. But what has not changed is kind of my drive to foster community, to ensure diversity and equity in the communities that I inhabit. I want my very young six month old son to grow up in a community that values those things and a place where he can see change occurring in a positive light. In my personal life, my my husband is an Iranian immigrant.

There there are a lot of things that I have learned because of that in kind of navigating the world through that type of identity. As a young child, I was homeless for a short time, So I have a passion for making sure that voices that are often kind of marginalized are heard. Right? And those hidden communities are served and thought about in more concrete ways. I'm happy to be here today, but also happy to be a part of Redmond and seeing it grow and blossom even in the five years I've been here, and hopefully having a position where I can, you know, create a brighter path for all the people of Redmond.

Well, thank you both so much. And I particularly wanna thank you both for sharing your personal stories and your lived experience. It's not a requirement of the role to share your personal stories with us, but it does help us better understand your motivations and and why the work of the commission is important to you. So council council members, I I did give right of first refusal away, so I will turn to council vice president Nueva Camino. Do you have a question?

I do. Thank you. Thank you very much for for being here. My question for you is if if we could look forward in time two years from now, and you can look back at your celebrating two years being on the commission and the work that the commission has been able to do. I also know this is a little unfair because you haven't quite yet been immersed in it. But, if you could have achieved anything, and in two years, what are you celebrating? What work what really great work on the commission are you celebrating two years from now?

I I can go first. Yeah. If I had to look into the future, what I would want to most celebrate is kind of what I said a little bit ago, but giving, voice and space to every member of the community, even those that maybe are not as visible at all times because of, say, whatever intersectional identity that makes them less likely to come forward and be part of the forefront in the community. And those individuals that are not often considered by the community at large the unhoused, the disabled, the elderly. I think that giving people opportunity and voice is one of the most impactful things that we can do.

It's not just about giving someone a thing that they need that is very important but giving them agency so that they can grow and flourish in the life that they wish to live and feel like they are a part of this community as well, I think that that would be that would make me the happiest. Right?

Yeah. Thanks for your question. I love celebrations. So thanks for asking that. I think we just chatted a little bit at the meeting yesterday about nonprofits.

So I would love to celebrate nonprofits that are doing really good work in the community. I recently joined the board of directors at a nonprofit, so understand and appreciate just how much thought and work and effort goes into it. Starting to look at a lot of the proposals, I've been involved on the other side of the table writing those joined proposals. So I can appreciate just how much like effort it takes and to really move your mission forward in the community and feel like you are really effective so I think bringing those nonprofits and services into Redmond is something that's really important and something that I would love to celebrate.

You both. Is there another question from the council? Councilmember Prakria, our former Human Services Commissioner.

Thank you so much, Sabrina, Sonia, for your passion, for being here. You know, oftentimes on the Human Services Commission, you have to make very difficult decisions. I think I was just in an agenda setting meeting today for the Committee of the Whole next week, you mentioned, Alaric. I think there are something like 140, 150 applications for funds from the Human Services Commission already that are totaling over $8,000,000 which far exceeds the budget of the commission. So, you know, if you're sitting in the room and you've got one organization that's asking for that funds emergency food and one that funds, know, let's say, emergency legal services for folks who have been wrongfully evicted, and you don't have the money to fund both.

Like, what does your decision making process look like, when you have to pick which organization to fund and sorry I don't mean to put you on the spot, I'm just curious.

Thank you, that's a really tough question and a very real question. I think I would start with looking at a lot of the data and seeing are there looking at all the metrics. So it's great you know I was I have the advantage of having gone to one of or being of being able to observe one of the meetings yesterday so just looking at the criteria of like is this the only service provider in the area, the opportunity to collaborate with other cities and seeing if they're you know we're part of one big area so seeing if other cities what they're doing to address these issues how they can help as well. I think making sure that the organizations are effective and how they're serving their people is part of it. And I think you know having seven people in the group is really helpful to be able to collaborate and talk through some of these really difficult decisions so I would say looking at the data looking at the bigger community and also making the decisions as a team with all of those factors in place?

It is a tough, tough choice. And I think that oftentimes we like to say, oh, well, we could be objective in this. But we all are humans, and humans are subjective creatures. So I think that it is down to what you personally think is more more important. And I think that whatever the two organizations are, my concern is always going to be the reach that's going to have in the community and the tangible good we can see.

I know that most of these organizations have to have been running in the community or doing something in community for a certain period in order to apply, looking back at the data, as Sabrina said, and thinking back, Okay, this community organization has been able to do x. Will that money push them forward into helping more people? Because at the end of the day, that's kind of what I want, like the most people helped in the most dire circumstances.

Thank you both for your thoughtful responses. And the good news is you would never have to make that decision alone. You work with the commission. You're very well supported by the city staff. And, additionally, we have a human service strategic plan.

We are about to, and you will be a a big part of helping us refresh this, but a new human services plan that also integrates our housing plan, understanding that here in the city of Redmond, that these two needs are, intrinsically interlinked with one another, and so you all will have a chance to be a part of that. We are out of time, unfortunately. So, council, are there any objections to having these two new human services commissioners on our consent agenda, April 21. I'm seeing thumbs thumbs up and enthusiasm. Thank you both so much. We'll have you back on April 21. If you can come in person, for your swearing in, bring your families. We'll take a cute picture. It'll be really fun, and we just look forward to getting to know you better. Thank you for