Remarks by Lydia Assefa-Dawson
27 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 12:01
“Yes, thank you for your presentation. My first question is slide five, the OMF South details. So compared to the Bellevue facility, what's the scope or how does it compare to that facility, the size and the scope?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 14:21
“So I do appreciate the economic and community support. part of it and if it really does generate 600 jobs like your presentation says and they're livable wage jobs I do support that and I appreciate that actually but also we've heard those types of promises in the past from different programs and so I would hope that Sound Transit would uphold at least 600 POSITIONS OR JOBS, ESPECIALLY LIVABLE WAGE JOBS THAT OUR COMMUNITY COULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AND BENEFIT FROM.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 50:03
“Thank you. Thank you. So with the earlier and late trips that are the increase, I appreciate it. However, the areas that were already transportation desert continue to have shorter time frame. For example, 182, the area that I live. And yes, there has been a little change, but especially on the weekends, it starts at 7, but A lot of people work, go to work before 7. And so how do we meet those needs? Because they need their jobs. And so even getting to transit center around 7.30 or 8 may not work for them. And I have two young ladies living with me who now have cars, but I used to take them…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 30:36
“Councilmember Sefa Dawson the councilmember coach Marta councilmember more Thank You mayor and thank you for your presentation and thank you for the work that you're doing and it's we've been waiting for this for a very long time so we truly appreciate your effort and also appreciate the report that we heard I mean it sounds very positive I also want to caution us when we're asking questions around The increase of crime around these facilities, I get a little frustrated because I don't want homelessness or people experiencing being unhoused to be criminalized. And so to be looking for that…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 45:11
“Yes, thank you, Mayor. In your service plan, I think you have financial literacy also? And that's something I'm very interested in personally, and I would love to even be a part of. So just a comment.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 56:28
“Yes, thank you Mayor. We, unlike the other committees, we did have a meeting in August. We had it on August 13th, and we kind of had like a retreat to just go over the budget and talk about other things regarding the grant applications and the review process. So our next meeting is on September 8th at 2 o'clock, and we're going to, again, go over a little bit over the budget. And we have 10... tourism enhancement grant applications to review so it's going to be a long meeting and with regional reports with the PIC meetings the next meeting is Wednesday September 9th from 7 to 9 and there are…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:18:32
“Thank you, Mayor. And, yeah, I appreciate the Human Services Commission, the email that we received and them reading the letter. uh... boys and men commission and i think it's i just wanted to talk about it because i'm a mother of three sons and uh... they happen to be black and so i've always made sure that they understand their values and their uh... ability to make positive change in the community so that was my main focus when they were uh... when they were growing up And I also wanted to live that by example. So actually, that's why I'm here on the council is one of the reasons how I…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 37:42
“Councilmember Safford-Dawson. Actually, I don't have a question, but I was on the Highline Transition Board. Wasn't it interesting? When I worked at CTAC. But you went to Columbia, and did you go to Federal Way High by any chance?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 42:34
“So do they start in September, next month?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 43:30
“Go ahead. Harrington Griffin for position five.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 43:38
“Yes, that's what we were missing. So, yeah, that gives us the balance that we need.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 51:06
“I do agree with a lot of things you said. And I believe Tom has been on the commission for the longest. But that said, yeah, what I would like to see happen is Mike alternate three and Joseph alternate two and leave the rest as is.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:04:42
“All right. Can I make a comment? Yes. I don't know if it matters whether it's position one or two, so can we see who the top two are first, at least, based on what you got?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 22:05
“Yeah, I also wanted to say thank you. This has been a long time coming. And so it's great. I happen to work for Housing Authority. people being unhoused is not okay. And so I think it's a human right issue. So I'm glad that the 90 day is really flexible because otherwise we're gonna see people back on the streets. And so I do appreciate that it's 90 days but loose. I do have a question. Do you have any kind of agreement or partnership with either transitional housing or permanent housing where people could transition into from your program?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 23:14
“So is there any kind of an MOU or anything in place with the other parties if Catholic Community Services doesn't have a spot?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 23:44
“So there's a referral process or is it self-referral?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 29:21
“Yeah. I think this is an issue that's very dear and near to my heart. So I will again push back to us trying to define where people are coming from. If you're homeless, you're homeless. If you're experiencing, if you're unhoused, You're in-house. So that is not, to me, it's irrelevant. In terms of emergency shelter as in extreme cold weather, if there's, I mean, I don't think they can hold a room just in case we need it. And how many people are you going to serve with one space or one room? So I think it'd be like somebody said, maybe there's a space or, you know, like a lobby or whatever…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 30:29
“AND I THINK THAT'S WHAT SHE BROUGHT UP. I THINK I HEARD YOU SAY THAT RIGHT.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 33:16
“that they you know need for that and so I think that that's the relevancy there with the ties to the community but but I also appreciate thank you I'm not gonna push back but I would say they clearly said that priority is given to by the way and they're gonna come from the day center so I think we'll still have the majority of Sir, but when this is the only facility in South King County, I think it's hard for us to make that determination.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:02:04
“Thank you, Mayor. We have a new person being appointed tonight to join the LTAC Committee. And that then makes our committee full. And this committee is a little bit different. For those of you who don't know, we have to have equal number of taxpayer or revenue generating and then same number of tax receivers or what is it called? Yeah. And so if there's one missing, then we have to make sure that is fulfilled before we can make any decisions because we have to have that equal balance. So now we have the balance. And our next meeting is going to be this Thursday at 2 o'clock. Regularly we…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:50:37
“Thank you, Mayor. I move to appoint Harrington-Griffin to position number five for a term to begin immediately and expire October 31, 2027. Second.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:53:32
“any further discussion all right yeah I have a question yes so I thought we were going to discuss the other two positions position alternate position two and three when we last when we left earlier that's what we had said so did those two get more the most votes is that what happened or During the special meeting we had a discussion a motion needed to be made so that we could continue on the discussion so if you'd like to discuss you're certainly welcome to My question is I thought we were gonna discuss this further and then we didn't mention position 7 at all so we're waiting I think we…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:54:44
“No, I, yeah, I'm asking because I know we all voted differently and I really didn't know where it went, so I thought that we were going to have that discussion here to either vote or... determine who the other two are because I did not know so my question again is did these two names get more votes is that what happened it's a question I'm asking for clarification”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:55:39
“Yeah, I was just asking a question. I know we were going to discuss it here, and I'm still asking for clarity, for clarification. Okay, good. Did those two people that you just mentioned get more votes?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 2:17:57
“It could walk over to Paris again. Because you usually see those, the ones that kind of wave around.”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026