Remarks by Rod Dembowski
45 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 18:53
“I think this mic there, the other reason it's hard here is we have a distraction here. Maybe we could bring order to chambers chair.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 19:10
“Thank you so much. Well, today we are really honored to be joined by a number, I think four of our 2025-2026 Ruth Wu Fellows. As folks know, our Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program was started in 2017. The idea was brought forward to council by two tremendous community leaders, Joan Yoshitomi and former Seattle City Council member Dolores Sabanga to honor a true community legend, Ruth Wu. Ruth never was in elected office, but she knew many elected leaders. She helped get folks elected. And then perhaps more importantly, she helped connect young people, particularly young people who…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 23:53
“All right, colleagues, this year we have something very special and new to the program. Dolores Sabanga, who I mentioned, has just completed her autobiography. And every one of our graduates is going to get a copy of her autobiography, The Best Adobo in Town. Yes. And she has some very straightforward but powerful lessons, and there aren't that many of them, but I think they're very representative of the program. Number one, you need a seat at the table. If you or someone who shares your values isn't there, your message is blowing in the wind. Learn who makes decisions, then persuade them.…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 26:58
“Okay, our next graduate is Abby Bronson. Abby, come on up. Abby has played a key role in the program, in part in refining the youth works experience, enhancing communication workflows, and helping young interns navigate the complexity of entering the workforce. Your steady presence and sincere encouragement created a safe and welcoming environment for participants. Your contributions are embedded in the first KCYW cohort that you supported, leaving a legacy of trust, guidance, and connection. You also supported the executive office budget team, providing a key role in process managing the…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 28:52
“Our next graduate is Nada Ramadan. As a fellow in the program, you were placed with the Department of Executive Services at the airport, like we saw in the video. What a fun assignment. I'm kind of jealous, actually. You focused on extending the outreach programs to underserved communities around the airport, and you developed relationships with many neighbors living in the area. This is one of our biggest challenges here at King County. Council Member Mosqueda and Council Member Lewis recently held a proclamation just last week here with airport communities, so we know the importance of the…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 30:16
“Thank you. There you go. OK, our fourth and final recipient today is Analei Andrea Hofschneider-Santos. Analei?”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 30:37
“As a fellow in the program, Ana Ley was placed with the Director's Office within the Department of Human Services, where you supported enterprise-wide initiatives through cross-departmental coordination and project management. You helped to keep complex countywide work moving and also contributed to facilitation and leadership development, bringing care, cultural humanity, and a steady collaborative presence to every group. You brought your Chamorro heritage, is that right? Chamorro, okay, heritage, and your upbringing in the Northern Mariana Islands into your service, reminding colleagues…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 31:59
“Sure, that would be great. I think Andrew is, what do you prefer, Andrew, down here or up on the... I think we might be able to squeeze it in down there.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 32:09
“I won't read the whole recognition, but as you know, we are presenting a formal recognition signed by all members of the county council and naming all of the participants in the program. I also want to just take a moment. I know with a number of our fellows, your colleagues here from the department who helped partner with you and oversee the program have joined us. Would you all stand up if you were involved in the program today? We want to just thank you for helping it be successful. It just doesn't work without the mentors taking the time to invest in these folks. So thank you all for…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 33:53
“One, two, three, one more. One, two, three. Great, and then look at these people.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 55:38
“Thank you. I think this is for division staff.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 55:49
“There's an adjust... A year or two ago, the county solid waste division negotiated with the Teamsters to change some scheduling issues. The Teamsters warned us that it wasn't going to go well. It didn't go well through work slowdowns and things like that. That triggered a lot of problems for the haulers. And we came forward at the time I was involved with providing some relief. If there's something basically that we do that causes the haulers to maybe not be able to go to a station or whatever drives the cost, we would give some kind of a financial accommodation. This legislation on page 26…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 59:00
“With all due respect, Director, the legislation says exactly the opposite. It says a closure resulting from causes beyond the control of the division, dot, dot, dot, strike, SHALL NOT TRIGGER A CREDIT.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 59:21
“THAT'S WHY I WORKED ON THE POLICY BECAUSE A HALLER BIDS A CITY CONTRACT BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT FACTORIAL WILL BE OPEN AND THAT THE KIRKLAND ONE WILL BE OPEN. SO THEY, YOU KNOW. RIGHT. YEAH. I get the general notion of, hey, if something like an act of God is beyond our control, but it seems like... Yeah, the intent was if it's within our control, that those haulers would be compensated for that.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 59:55
“This just feels like a tightening of the policy that we adopted here in the last year or two.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:00:07
“I wouldn't want to try and legislate this. This seems like this is quite an unusual event, and I would suggest, colleagues, it's probably not worth holding up this... legislation I think there's some timeliness to it if I sense that this could be worked on and refined later because it's it doesn't happen very often so if it needs some further that would just be my suggestion but I just my observation is this feels like quite a narrowing we were trying to be a responsible partner with our haulers that to say if there's some change in the assumption upon which they bid their city contract that…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:01:04
“And just while I have the floor, if I might, I'm probably a reluctant no on this today for the reasons I've stated in committee. It's really around an asset management issue in Harbor Island. This entire replenishing of the reserves and increasing costs for the entire year, this whole rate increase, wouldn't have been necessary if we had surplused that parcel and sold it and received the revenues I'm appreciative that the department I think now is headed in that direction as I understand it and when we get there and get that revenue in I'll look forward to being more supportive so hopefully…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:04:42
“Well, it may need some more work because strike says standalone, and then it says or solid waste collection entity service disruptions, which might be inclusive of strike on their side. Anyway, I think there's some maybe work to do. I've heard the opposite answer now given a couple of times, and so I would just respectfully suggest that folks that have an interest in that piece of the puzzle work on it but again i don't think it needs to be solved today and i think it would benefit from some non-spur of the moment engaged legislating thank you”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:13:08
“Thanks so much. Well, we have a little civics lesson here today. It doesn't take a simple majority of this council to adopt an ordinance because our charter requires a minimum of five affirmative votes. And we have some attendance issues and some no issues. So my commitment to the executive is going to put me in the end. tenable unfortunate position of keeping my word to him even though it isn't really how i would like to vote uh... but there's an issue i care about i want to get a little bit more uh... understanding of it from you director singer and that's the harbor island facility I…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:14:09
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:14:23
“I wouldn't shorten. I put a year on there, but let's.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:14:52
“I'll just say again, when I came here 13 years ago, it was listed for sale, listed with Kidder Matthews. We've sat on it now for 13 and a half years. I know we have some revenue from it, but we put millions of general fund dollars into it. It is at this point a mismanagement of solid waste division assets, and it's going to affect every rate payer outside of the city of Seattle with today's vote. Okay, I'm sorry to be a broken record on this, but this is poor management of county assets directly impacting our rate payers. On August 19th, I received this email from constituent Dale L. from…”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:36:14
“It's one of the great mysteries of council service. How we balance a budget and nine months later there's tens of millions more. Just wondering. I'm just asking the question. Adjustments change, there's underspend. It's a big denominator.”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:39:45
“How many votes does this take as an emergency?”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:39:55
“And what this does is change the EAC meeting time to the fourth Wednesday?”
Metropolitan King County Council · Sep 8, 2026