Input: Or we have a lot of folks signed up to testify today. We'll see what we can do to get through them all. Let's see. Let's get a sense of who's here for what. If you were here for the confirmation of the public defender, raise your hand. Okay. If you're here for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Act here. Raise your hand the question. I am not calling it that. I if you're here for the Harborview Warrants issue, raise your hand. Okay. That's not so popular here. If you're here for the consent agenda, raise your hand. All right. That is. That's. That's helpful. Okay. Very good. Why don't we do a roll call? And I know other members are coming and joining us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Baldacci, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Garzon, Councilmember Colwell, Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember of the grill. Councilmember, phone own right there. Mr. Chair, here. Mr. Chair, you do not have a quorum. All right. We will get one, I think. And why don't we turn then to public comment and we'll start. I'll call the names as I've got them signed up here. And let's given the number of folks signed up, we're going to set it to one minute. There will be a one minute timer. It's going to be a suggestion. Normally we do 2 minutes, but a suggestion. So if you're a lawyer, let's really test your skills on conciseness here. Okay? All right. Now, let's see if we can't get through this so we can get to our business. I've got Brian silence, and I'm going to make some mistakes on some of your names. I apologize. BRIAN Silence. Then. Leslie DeSoto, Mark Putnam, Don Raines, Matt Griffin. You can come to either podium. Good morning. Good morning. Hi. My name is Dr. Brian Simons. I'm a professor at the University of Washington and Department of Pediatrics and at South Children's Hospital, also a resident of District one. Actually, I'm here on behalf of the C, where I be the Children Youth Advisory Board and the co-chair of that board. It's where you can be in 2016 to provide input regarding the Youth Action Plan and best starts for kids. But today, I want to talk a little bit about the Puget Sound Accountability Tax Tax Accountability Account and see where they considered over the past summer ways that we feel we can have input into that funding stream. And we strongly support the investment in the construction rehabilitation, maintaining facilities to support early learning programs. We support co-locating early learning centers with affordable housing. And we encourage these investments include tax flexible, mixed based uses. In addition, we're very concerned about spaces that are available for youth 9 to 15. We feel like these youth are left out of some policy decisions and want to support the construction of facilities that support programing for these youth. So we've encouraged the developing these facilities and thoughtfully encourages you to consider that and we look forward to working with you on those policies. All right. Thank you. Thanks for your service on the board. Good morning, Leslie. Good morning. Good morning, Chair. Members of the committee, my name is left Minnesota out here, speaking out on behalf of the Early Learning Facilities Stakeholder Group. Our group includes a broad range of stakeholders from individual early learning providers to parents of young children to large nonprofits, running a range of programs to parent advocate groups, affordable housing entities . The State Association of Head Start, kneecap, childcare resources, housing authorities, partners in school, aged care and others. We overlap with homeless foster care, school age and post-secondary interests and recognize and value a continuum approach to education, specifically working to address the needs of those historically furthest from opportunities in our system. To that end, the Early Learning Group has been providing the staffing and capacity to coordinate the state legislative work to protect these funds overall and ensure they reach children and youth in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties. Our group is engaged in ongoing technical work and ongoing stakeholder engagement to make sure we're consistently informed by community voices. We support grounding this work and racial equity principles that allow for transparency and community engagement. And we appreciate that. Our strategy assessment record reflects a recognition that investing in early learning facilities addresses an area of high need, and that investing in the early years is where we can have the greatest impact on education and life outcomes. Thanks so much. Thank you, Leslie. Okay, Mark, how are you doing? Good morning. How are you? Good. Good to see you all. My name is Mark Putnam. I'm executive director of the Accelerator YMCA. Today I'm here representing a group of King County nonprofit service providers focused on homeless youth and foster youth. Accelerator Wide Tree House, Mockingbird Society, Youth Care, Friends of Youth Team, Child Center for Children, Youth and Justice, the College Success Foundation and Roots and others. We believe the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. As a as a considerable opportunity to support proven programs and innovative new strategies to improve educational outcomes, particularly for vulnerable children and youth in King County. We're excited to be working with the Council and County on shaping this collectively. We urge the Council to make the educational needs of young people experiencing homelessness, foster care and or the juvenile justice system. Central to your consideration of any proposal. These young people and the people we work with experienced trauma and loss. Unfortunately, their outcomes are worse than many others 50%. Fewer than 50% of foster youth graduate. Fewer than 50% of homeless youth graduate high school on time and for youth with juvenile court dispositions, the four year graduation rates around 23%. So given these outcomes, we encourage the Council to focus on these populations and each of your decisions regarding this account. Rodney. Thank you. Thank you very much, Don and Matt. Jerry Weber. Lucien Jordan. Hi. Good morning. I'm Don Reines, chief policy and strategy officer at Tree House. I, too, am here representing a group of over a dozen King County based nonprofit service providers and advocacy agencies that work alongside young people experiencing homelessness, foster care or juvenile justice system involvement. We urge you to ensure that these most vulnerable populations of youth are at are the primary beneficiaries of pastor funding. In addition, we believe that if you prioritize these most vulnerable young people, you will also center the educational needs and outcomes of youth of color. Given that youth of color are disproportionately impacted by homelessness, foster care and juvenile justice system involvement. Recent data from Schoolhouse Washington indicates that of the 9500 students who experience homeless homelessness in King County, 82% are students of color. At Treehouse, 63% of the foster youth we serve with our intensive graduation strategy are youth of color. And over the coming months, we encourage the county to take the consultant step report one step further and meaningfully obtain input from communities of color, from community based agencies that serve these populations, and from youth and family themselves to determine how best to spend these funds for services and programs that work for these populations. Thank you so much. Thank you, Don. Okay, Matt, haven't you been wearing one of those layers? You can see this wouldn't work in my day job for sure. You wear it well, I get it. I'd get an ocean sighting for sure. So again, I've worked with a number of you on things for Best Art for Kids and for the YMCA, and I'm very interested in those kinds of programs for young kids and here today in particular to talk about preschool and early learning kinds of questions. And I'm part of the group that would like to advocate strongly for money for the fund from the SG three funds to go for those early learning facilities. It's a good match up. We know that basically they have the best are app high bang for the buck. The Thompson study shows them as a high priority and I think that the one time funds matching up with capital expenses is a good match. So I would encourage you to think about that and help us sort of get out in front of helping these young people in our community develop the skills that keep them from being homeless and keep them from helping them find good jobs. So thank you. All right. Thank you. Matt Kay, Jerry Weber, then Lucien Jordan and then. Yeah, yeah. That's an opinion. I'm sorry. I know. I'm asking that up. Jessica. The Barrows and Community Passageways. You know I've got Jerry. Okay. Good morning. I'm sure I remember president of Bellevue College, and I'm honored to be here to represent the many deserving students who would benefit immensely from a King County promise. More than 100 stakeholders have engaged in this process to bring this plan together students, parents, K-12 and college administrators, leaders of local nonprofits, representatives from the business community and government officials and the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness has fostered this plan. The whole region is in both economic and demographic transition. Bellevue College exemplifies this. In the last ten years, we've gone from a predominantly white institution to one where it's 50% students of color. And each year, we have a greater percentage of our students from low income families. And they're the first in their college to attend in person, their family to attend college, including Dreamers, immigrants and refugees. And so as we take that, we have students. We have students who are here. They have to go part time because they don't have the resources. Some of them are very fortunate, fortunate to be able to go. But at Bellevue College and at other King County colleges, we have this program, support programs and services we need. We've done the research. We need the resources to scale this up. Companies are looking for these students to come up and fill these jobs. Thank you. Thank you. The president. We're okay. Lucien. Hi. My name is Lucien Jordan. And as you may or may not know, now is the time to vote. And I feel when people vote on issues and representatives, a college education can provide a much more, better understanding and context of our system and understanding underlying social and economic issues. College also often exposes people to ideas and people of different backgrounds that are different from this. So taking down a barrier such as money for college would be a great first step. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Yeah. How do you say the. Opinion? Help me out here, sir. You listen. You can call me a. Now, he said you listen. You listen. All right. Thank you for being here. Go ahead, sir. You know, I never really come prepared with a plan or who I'm with, but I do know is when it comes to college, it's great for you to be free, because most of the time, being born, being born poor doesn't come with color or anything. You just have the hands with your dealt with it. Whether you have certain things actually have like, you know, free clothes on your back, food a to things that you don't have, you know, not worrying about going to school or your parents paying for school. It's not something that would be appreciated. You know, if you want to be a doctor, you have that opportunity to become a doctor. Or if you want to become, you know, a councilman, like one of you guys will have that opportunity as well or to become a president of any association. Then I'll be able to have that ability with the knowledge of through college. Thank you. Excellent. All right. Thank you, sir. Jessica. Tomorrow and then community passageways. Then Pat, you and me meet Laura Lee and Lisa Dugard. Morning. Learning terror and members of the council. My name is Jessica Burrows and I serve as executive director of communications, government and public relations with Puget Sound Educational Service District. We represent all of the school districts in King County, as well as Pierce County, 423,000 students. And I'm here today commenting on the county's needs assessment and strategy for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account. Puget Sound ESD is excited for this unique opportunity to invest in and make deep and lasting impacts in the lives of students across the region. Puget Sound ESD strongly supports targeted investment in early learning facilities, youth empowerment and the college promise. Puget Sound Isd's end or mission is success for each child and eliminate the opportunity gap by leading with racial equity. We really believe that investments and pasta could be a driving force for educational equity, and that's why we support these three targeted strategies. We also urge the Council to use a racial equity lens in determining the potential impact of each pasta investment. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Community passageways. Because we're a group. Do we get more than a minute? How about a couple? That'll work. All right, I'll take what I can get. First I had a couple. Very persuasive. Did see how you did that? Yeah. Hey, negotiation. First of all, I want to say that community passageways in the community that we represent is in full support of Anita. We are. We work hand in hand with her. We work shoulder to shoulder with her. We work side by side with her in the courtrooms. And we have given a lot of young people second chances and opportunities to be successful. And I just want to throw our support behind that. Now, the other agenda I'm here for, and I see everybody staying away from the work turn. Pastor So I'm using, I'm gonna call the pastor. So the pastor funding, right. We been lucky enough to be invited to sit at the table on this consortium of organizations for the last few months and have been meeting with them. But we're the only representation of the community of color, small group organizations, small community based organizations at the table. Right. And so I'm watching this process and learning a lot from this process. But in that when this report comes out and when the report was being done, no community of color organizations were represented at all in this report. And I'm saying there needs to be some equity and it needs to be some transparency to our community so we can be part of this process and not just a box check and part of the process. I mean, we want to be part of the main process. This is how our communities get the crumbs. When money comes out, we end up getting the crumbs in our community. We're out here on the ground with our sleeves rolled up doing the work, and every youth that we come across, we come across fits every category that we're talking about today. Right. And so I'm saying that we need to think about how are we going to get these black and brown small community organizations involved in this process at a deeper level so that we can build the capacity and have the resources to be more effective and have our own facilities operate out and align our work with other organizations on the consortium at the table. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, good morning. This is my first time doing this, but my name is Earl Barrington and I just recently was released while exonerated on the charge. But I was facing a life. Sentence and it was very rough for me. And since I've been home, I've been working with community pastors twice and I'm trying to do as much as I can in the community to make sure that the youth doesn't have to go down the path that I did and trying to stop the crime rate. So like, I mean, here, you guys, you know, I'm just trying to help them get funding for that. So thank you. Thank you and thanks for what you're doing in the community. I've got Pat, you and then me. Laurie, it's hard to see on DPD than Lisa Dugard, than Connor Moore on pasta. Any of those folks. Come on. Come forward, sir. Doesn't matter. The order. Pat U is on Densmore Avenue for DPD. That's you. It's a V. Of course it's a V. About my first pair of readers last week, and I should probably get them on film. Okay, let's see. Let's go with Pat and then here. Hi. My name is Pat Valerio, and I've been serving as a public defender for 30 years, so I've seen the evolution in the system. It used to be that if we went in and we did a good job in the courtroom, our job was done. But society has realized that people become our clients because of a system and we need to advocate within that system for our clients. The county has gotten behind equity and social justice. That's wonderful. Because of that, sometimes our voice in the system will agree with others. Sometimes we will be the sole voice for our clients, which is our job. And most council has done a wonderful job at that for a long time. There's been a void in the department and the office in actually stepping out and taking what might be viewed as unpopular positions. Our clients don't really have a voice. They don't have access if they manage to get their voice in the mix, particularly these days, they are discounted, misunderstood, ridiculed. We can't let that happen to our department. So I strongly support Anita and I hope that you will as well. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Pat. How bad did I messed it up? Bad. What's your name? Connor. More. Connor. Connor? No, I was just holding several things and. All right, then write it down. And then Lisa. And then there's still a mia Lurie on DVD with no address. But go ahead. Okay. Hi. My name is Connor Moore, and I've been going to ROTC for a few two years now. I mean, they're bachelor's program, and this is an opportunity I would not have had had there not been grants and funding available for low income students. I was I actually moved here from Montana and there my family also was very poor. And so I've been on like food stamps and financial assistance of that kind. And coming out here, there's already far more opportunities that have been presented to me simply because there's more money out here. But also I have found that the community really does care about the education of its students, and the movement from high school to college is becoming more and more key to having successful careers, especially in the more tech focused industries that are out here. So I think that this is a really good investment. Excellent. Thanks, Connor. Okay, Lisa. Morning. Good morning. My name is Lisa Dugard. I'm the director of the Public Defender Association, which no longer provides public defender services because the Department of Public Defense for King County does that as of 2013. I've worked with Anita Kendall well for many years in both places. I was briefly the interim deputy director at the Department of Public Defense when it first launched. And I just want to remind us that back in 2013, when this major shift happened, after 40 years of public defense being provided by independent nonprofit law offices, one of the main concerns of this counsel and others was that the strong , independent voice on policy issues be preserved. For decades, we had raised up issues that occasionally were we were alone. Occasionally we were at the forefront of building policy, and there was concern that that might not continue in an in-house executive department. Anita will carry forward that tradition and you'll have the benefit of hearing important issues that arise through the community and through representation and the ability to blend that in your policy directions. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Lisa. Okay. Me locally, DPD. I'm sorry. I'm not getting that right, but if that sounds at all close in, come forward then. I've got Ana Bonilla on pasta. You made me say it, Joe. I've got Dana Henry, Dustin LAMB, bro. Leslie Summers, Dean and Tara Ewers. Hi. Hi. Good morning. My name is Anybody. I'm with Enterprise Community Partners. I'm also an active participant in the Early Learning Facility Stakeholder Group, as well as the coalition that is collaborating across the cradle to college and career continuum enterprises at the table because we recognize the critical importance of access to quality, safe and affordable early learning and how its impact grows exponentially for both the child and family when they have a stable, safe and affordable quality of home. We chose to focus on early learning because there is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate that quality early learning education pays dividends over the lifetime of a child. Kids that are enrolled in quality preschool programs are less likely to engage with the criminal justice system, more likely to graduate high school, less likely to experience substance abuse as adults, and are even more likely to attend and complete college. Yet the lack of financing for facilities and capital improvements hinders our ability to increase the access to early learning. This issue is highlighted as a high need in the strategy assessment report that you'll be briefed on today. So in my final thought, I wanted to say that the pasta count could be a driving force to foster partnerships at the intersection of affordable housing, transportation, accessibility, educational needs, and to close the opportunity gap for children and youth in King County. Thank you for the support thus far for the county past the process. And we hope that the Council continues to support the targeted strategies that leverage investments that can help meet critical needs. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Hi, Dustin. Morning. Can I go? Yeah. Okay. Well, good morning, Mr. Chair. Members of the council. I'm Dustin Lamoreaux here today on behalf of Teamsters Local 117. As you know, we represent over a thousand employees here at the county, and one of our newest groups are the managers and the supervisors who work at the Department of Public Defense. And their life has been really chaotic the last number of years. And they they self-organized and worked under the previous leadership, worked together to raise their concerns about their work environment, about morale issues in the department under the leadership of the former director since Anita was was appointed by the executive as the interim in the last number of months. Our members have reported increased morale and open door policy from the director's office. And and we want to see that continued because we know from as a union, we know when workers are happier, that they're better, they're more productive, and they're going to be a better service to the county. So increase strongly encourage you to support Anita and confirm her as quick as possible. Thank you very much. Thank you, Justin. Hi. Good morning. Hi, Leslie. SOMMERSTEIN. I didn't prepare anything, but I just think it's important that I'm just a line attorney. I've been a line attorney with the Department of Public Defense since I graduated law school when it was near it. I've seen a lot of support changes, and I think you all would know that DPD as individuals, we haven't supported a lot of people that have. We don't support anybody until Anita. I mean, like, if we're going to be honest with you. But you got a little. Bit of a reputation. But I mean, I think that that speaks to like how she has earned the respect of everybody from legal assistance to line attorneys to management, which is not an easy thing to do with us. And I mean, we it's not our job to agree with you all. It's our job to represent the most marginalized people who don't have a voice. And she gives us a voice as well as our clients, which is not an easy thing to do and not something we let people do very frequently. So I think you should let our support speak for how impressive she is as a leader and confirm her. It's pretty important for us, I think. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi, I'm Tara IRS's. Good morning, counselor. I'm here to express my support for Anita Condo while as the director of the Department of Public Defense. And I'm here to speak actually as a person who spent my career in family defense, representing parents and children in the child welfare system. That's a state funded system. But we as county employees represent those parents and children who come through that system. And I want to say a little bit about one issue within that system that has not had a champion until Anita Condor became our leader. And that is the issue of run warrants in our state funded child welfare system. The state can incarcerate children who run away from unsafe foster placements. When you become a foster child, you automatically become marked for incarceration in a way that ordinary children who run away from home are not. That's an issue that we can't litigate on an individual basis in our cases, because for individual children it's much easier to admit to the contempt and go to jail right away rather than going to trial and contesting it. So it's an issue that's gone without representation and without advocacy for a long time. That's until Anita became our public defender. And when she has, she's partnered with the executive and she's used her role as our leader to advance that issue and to advance the needs of children who face incarceration in this county. I urge you to confirm her. Thank you. Thank you. So it's not a Dana or Dana. Henry Dana. Dana. Okay. And I. Dana Dr. Amy Goings and Dr. Kevin Maxie McCarty. All right. Good morning. My name is Dana Henry, and I'm here today representing the members of the Sound Alliance and the Society of Health and Physical Educators. I'm also an elementary physical education teacher in South King County. We believe that Project Engage Educating the next generation activity is the gateway to equity supports both coalition and King County values. We believe we can make a difference. Working by working with the Council to ensure a portion of the passage of funding is to support delivery of high quality, comprehensive physical activity and physical education programs. A Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program is a framework developed by the CDC to support the development of the whole child. It's an approach by which schools use all opportunities for students to be physically active before, during and after school with staff, family and community partnerships. Physical fitness is associated with improved school attendance, improved classroom behaviors, a greater ability to focus and better cognitive performance. We serve children who are in foster care, who have parents who are incarcerated or have been deported or experiencing homelessness, or are operating under different adverse childhood experiences. All of our students deserve access to high quality programs to gala's which school they attend. As an alliance, our members are passionate about this cause and are prepared to dedicate the time, energy and commitment necessary to support this initiative in the long term. We look forward to working with the Council to ensuring that this funding stays secure and that the investment in all of our young people becomes a reality. Thank you. Thank you, Dana. Okay, Amy. Good morning. Good morning. For the record, I'm Amy and Goings, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology. I wanted to underscore my good colleague, Dr. Webber's comments that the Coalition for College and Career Readiness College Promise proposal is robust in its support of underserved youth. It will put forth an unprecedented level of scholarship funds, as well as campus and campus student supports at our community technical colleges. Passive funding represents a once in a generation opportunity to serve our underserved students. But we realize that we cannot rely on past of funds alone and will work proactively in partnership with you to raise other public and leverage public and private funds to make this promise a reality. Please note that as you consider directing funds toward this promise opportunity, that our state's community and technical colleges are not sustainably funded. Currently, we are funded on a per FTE level at 2009 levels, and our advising ratios are 800 students to one. With that said, this is a tremendous opportunity to serve our youth. And on behalf of the King County Community and Technical College President, we're ready to make this promise a reality. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Okay. Dr. Kevin Artsy. Well, thank you for the opportunity to again address the Council on the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account Funds. I'm Kevin McCarthy, president of Renton Technical College and co-chair of the Puget Sound Coalition and clearly have poor handwriting, like my colleagues, Dr. Goings and Dr. Webber. I'm here to support these funds being employed on a few big ideas, and in particular to fund a King County Promise program, which is well aligned with the goals of improving educational outcomes for historically underserved youth and furthering the county's equity and social justice goals. As a joint K-12 and higher education proposal designed as a public private partnership, our comprehensive plan will support students most in need with tuition assistance, supplemental grants, and crucial advising and services in high school and college. This, of course, will supplement what students are already putting into their education. The King County promise is a natural expansion of the Seattle College promise. We've worked closely with the Seattle colleges to make sure the efforts are coordinated. It's no secret that low income communities are being pushed out of Seattle into other parts of the county with the council's help. We can make sure that the promise doesn't stop at the Seattle city limits. This will help many students transform their lives and strengthen our communities and economy. It'll have generational impact. Thank you for your time. Thank you, doc. All right, let's see. I've got Kyle Lachey on post. Eric Lopez, Diana. Burch Comfort Maria Comeau from DPD, Surrey and Juliana Fettig from Carnation. Colleen Lang Hi. Good morning. My name is kind of Lackey. I'm the director of post-secondary readiness at the Puget Sound Educational Service District. I was born and raised here in King County, and I've worked on behalf of young people in our region for the past 13 years. And unless we do something very different, we should expect to continue to see our current rates continue, where 29% of each ninth grade cohort earn a B.A. and AA or a technical certificate. We can and should do better, and we cannot wait. That's why hundreds of students, families, education leaders from K-12, higher ed community organizations have invested over a year to design the King County promise and believe that this ambitious plan can actually shift the current scenario, especially for students who are most currently underserved. Three things that I want to make sure to note today regarding the impact the King County promise is highly targeted to support historically underserved students and as well aligned with the positive priorities regarding affordability. It's really designed as a public private partnership with numerous funding sources and regarding need, there's a high need to help more young people who grow up in King County complete a post-secondary credential. When 2500 students were surveyed last year, 95% of them wanted to attend college, but currently only 29% do. We thank you for your leadership, and we look forward to partnering you with you to make a sustained change in our region. And here's there's additional details here on the on the brochure. Okay. Do you. Do we have that brochure? We've got it. Okay. Thank you. Good morning. Hello. Hey, everyone. My name is Eric Lopez, and I am here. I'm a full time staff member with the University of Washington Dream Project. We work with middle schools and high schools. With us are with all seven school districts in the road map region. And here to vocalize my support, the King County Promise Scholarship with a lot of the young people that we work with, a lot of our undergrads that go into these schools and support these young people. One of the biggest barriers that we see and we hear from these young people is financial, it's finances. And so within our program alone, within the past year, we've shifted our model. We were originally a very much a college access college heavy program, and we've shifted our language and our purpose to be more post-secondary planning. Just because a lot of our students want jobs, they want to engage and move forward and go to vocational technical schools, community colleges. And so we one of the biggest barriers, like I said, is finances that we hear back with in narratives and also in feedback and data that we collect. And so I'm here from a program to vocalize my support. Thanks, Eric. Thank you. Go, dogs. All right, Dana and then Maria, then Julianna and Colleen. Put that there. Good morning. No, the first one, politics. Do not put anything on your head. Well, it's doesn't stay on. All right. Good morning, council members. I am part of the early learning stakeholder group that is supports the allocating of the P. S T tiaa. Funds. For early learning facilities. I am the Executive Director of Child Care Resources and have worked there for over 28 years. Child care and early learning are my passion and my dream. We serve thousands of families across King County who are looking for child care, and we also work to improve the. Quality of. Care through coaching. The almost 2000 licensed child care providers that are in the county. The lack of licensed care in the county has become a crisis for. Many families who simply can't find. Care. Especially families who are homeless, families who are low income, and families who have children between the ages of birth. And three the most important years of. Development for children. The lack of affordable, licensed space in our county has made it such that quality child care programs can't find places to expand their businesses, and new potential providers can't find space to lease utilizing these funds to create capacity to meet the needs of these children in this way. Not only supports. Our economy so that families can go to work, but it meets the children's need in. Support of their education. Now. And in the future, which is what this whole. What everybody's talking about. So thank you so much. You came, Maria. Hi. Hello. My name is Marcy Como and I'm a senior attorney at the King County Department of Public Defense. I'm speaking on behalf of myself, and I'm asking you to confirm Anita Kendall was King County public defender. I spent most of my career also representing parents and children in dependency and termination cases. Cases in which parents are at risk of permanently. They're losing their children. For a year I represented Charlene allows and her loss impacted me greatly. Anita is the kind of public defender who calls you a year after your client's tragic death, just to make sure you're doing all right and to see if there's anything she can do for you. Now, I work in the jail in the Seattle Municipal Court five days a week. I represent poor, often homeless, in-custody clients in front of the Seattle Municipal Court, judges and probation officers who have been advocating against Anita Khandelwal appointment every day. My job is to tell my client story so that their presumption of innocence will be honored and my clients might be released rather than being held on monetary bail. Our public defender can't just simply be a good lawyer. She has to have a vision of what good public defense can be. And Ms.. Kendall has that, and she's had that for our office, and she's inspired us to do the kind of work that I have wanted to do. And your confirmation of Anita will say to the community that you value my clients and the work that I do on their behalf. Thank you. Thank you, Marci. Juliana? Yes. All right. Hi. Good morning. Thank you for having me here. My name is Juliana, and I am a mother of four, and our family lives in Carnation. When I was pregnant with my youngest child. My fiance and I both worked full time and our three children went to childcare thanks to the childcare subsidy. The problem we had was during my pregnancy I developed a heart complication and because of that I contacted child care resources and they informed me we no longer qualified. And literally overnight, I was stuck in bed at 25 years old, looking at the potential of a life long heart problem. I was also looking at the potential of going into pre-term labor and having a child too soon. It was a very, very hard time in our life and somehow we were able to manage through it. We had a healthy baby girl and shortly after that we found out our family qualified for the program. We enrolled our daughter Sabella, who was a little bit older, and that year was life changing for our entire family. It became our research, our resources. It kept being became our strength. ICAP helped us learn our potential. He also gave us our family, the voice, which is what brings me here today. And not only advocating for my family and advocating for other families that have suffered similarly, like mine and for our family. Access to affordable, high quality, early learning has made all the difference in the world. So as a parent, I urge King County to open additional facilities so that families like mine can have better access to child care. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm calling playing with the United Way of King County. And I'm pleased to be here on behalf of the five year old through Young Adult Stakeholders Group and also as a member of Justin Farrell's larger to the Stakeholders Group. And I'd like to thank the Council for its focus on youth of color in a memo and the work that you have done in setting the framework for the consultants work. And I'd like to bring up the concern that the strategy report did not engage directly with community of color led organizations, that the consultants did not seem to have the opportunity or the time allotted to them to do that work directly and relied instead upon a lot of the work that United Way of King County had done and other organizations and were quite concerned because of the council's focus on youth of color, that this work is essential. And if it does not happen directly in the strategy report, that's going to undermine the way this work does. And I'm sorry that it takes a little bit of time to say this, but this direct outreach and the lack of that input, it just isn't acceptable. And I want to give an example of community passageways. It's a best arts grantee. It's a juvenile court diversion contractor and who have not even spoken with them. Who knows what other types of critical information is missing it. We just we won't know until that kind of outreach is done. I think we have time for another round of outreach to specifically focus on communities of color and get that kind of feedback and give that some equal weight in the final report. So that's the focus of my ask. I also would like to say a couple of other things about the report, and I don't want to take too much advantage of your time. So maybe there's another opportunity to submit something written where because I know I'm over time. So thank you. Okay. All right. Mary Keefe and then Mona's. And then Mike Heinisch. And then Olivia Smith. And then Fatma Cazares. Good morning. My name is Mary Keefe. I'm the business agent at Teamsters Local 763. I represent King County employees and City of Seattle employees, and I stand in solidarity with Teamsters Local seven excuse me, Teamsters 117 and SEIU 95 and their support of Anita. However, I am here to raise a concern about any of us who work on policy that impacts Teamsters Local 763 Amputee's 17 members of the City of Seattle. There's a budget proposal at the city of Seattle right now to gut the probation department that impacts 45 representative employees that will lose their jobs in the next three years at budget is approved. What I would ask is that King County say that directors need to work with labor, and labor will work with the directors to create policy solutions that will help our community and our workers. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mary. No manners. Hi. Good morning. My name is Magnus, the shuttle. And I'm the executive director of Refugee Women's Alliance. In the past 33 years of working with multicultural, multi ethnic community, we have offered our services in an in more efficient and more effective way to promote integration and self-sufficiency of all the futures and immigrants. All of our services are designed to effectively and efficiently stabilize the clients and their clients and their families. I am here today to urge you to emphasize how important it is that a high percentage of the estate funds to be used to address the dire needs in this region for early learning facilities. I also want to express my support for your strategy to support the co-location of early learning facilities with affordable housing. Iran three schools in three different sites at our MLK office at our Beacon Hill, and now recently a Tony Lea building, which is located at Lake City Attorney Lee Building is a six stories Mr. Systems that's sustainably built and has a mixed use projects with 69 units of affordable housing and the lower level is contributed to our early learning center that that helps 8080 children and to about to receive grade education during their preschool years. It is critical and I believe it's a moral obligation that we give every child the opportunity, regardless of their socio economic and cultural background, background, to receive the quality child care in a space, an early learning center, in a space that fosters that education. So expanding access to preschool, particularly when co-located in affordable housing units, is the way to go. And I want to urging kind of the council to please consider that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Eminence. All right, Mike and Olivia. Sure. I thought he had one more excuse. We might have a we hear from Mary. I may have missed. Are you there? No. I'm Fatima. You're Fatima. Okay. Go ahead, Mike. So, good morning, council members. Thank you for your time. I make this exact director count you to the family, sir. So I want to commend you on your work to date on this and your due diligence around it. It's a it's a very important issue. As you know, I want to give you a real underground example of what early childhood facilities can mean, major modification facilities in the Kent School schools where the primary provider of Head Start kneecap can't use the family services. Oh, seven years ago, we were able we had capacity for less than 20% of kids eligible for Head Start except in the. Care school district. With the support of the state. And of course the state has made a commitment to fully fund ICAP over the next few years. I think by 2022 or 2023 we'll be able to move that. Number up to about. 30% of the three and four year olds who otherwise qualify. We have witnessed about 200 today. I checked, we have turned down in the last three school. Years now. Contracts, additional capacity would provide critical services during our funding through the state of freak out because we can't find facilities. We don't there's no facilities that are payable. If you want to talk about an area that's rich with diversity, who would impact me? The populations that we all talk about when it comes to equity and social justice and bringing us to 50% of probably capacity us or some provider in Kent, that's a that's a tremendous stake in the ground of real advancement. I also want to advocate quickly for. The coupling of affordable housing and really child education efforts. We have a wonderful example at Birch Creek and Kent Bridge Creek Canyon Housing Authority and Green Bridge over and what awaits. There is another example. So I fully support that as well I think you. Hi, my name is Fatima Cazares and I'm the owner and director of a preschool in a slum. And I strongly believe that children should be able to have access to education, to preschool programs that work together with school districts and provide trainings and opportunities for teachers in order to offer the best care. Early learning should be available to all children before entering kindergarten to help them build skills, achieve milestones and love. Learning childcare is a burden to many families who are not able to pay, who struggle every day on finding care for their children. I proudly offer a subsidy for families with low income. It brings happiness and joy being able to help. But waitlist not always allows me to provide care for those families. Limited space has always been a problem and we need support in order to be able to provide to more families, these parents should be able to find a place where their children are going to be treated with respect, love, and have a safe and nurturing environment where they can thrive. I hope you will take the unique opportunity you have before you to invest in early learning facilities, and growing more space for high quality programs like mine will help more children in King County and thrive in their futures. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Olivia. Yes. Hello. My name is Olivia Smith. I'm a lifelong King County resident and community organizer. And I'm with the Washington bus. The Washington Bus is a nonprofit that works to engage young people in politics. And we're here to support the proposal to make college more accessible, affordable and equitable. For about seven months now, we've been at colleges and high schools across the county and have spoken with more than a thousand students and community members who are in support of accessible and affordable college. We've listened and learned that it's not just about getting support with tuition. Students need support in high school, navigating our education system and getting to college. They need support continuing navigating the systems in college, and they need support with living expenses. Other folks have mentioned the cost of living in our region is so high and so many people are being pushed out of Seattle into South King County and beyond . And right now you all have the opportunity to make it a reality for all students in our region, to get a quality education and to continue to live and work in King County. And obviously, this is not the best time for students to come to a meeting. But we just want you all to know that we are paying attention. We're sharing this information with the young people we work with, and we're excited to hear the developments you come up with for improving our education system. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That's all I have signed up. Is there anybody that I didn't call or who didn't have a chance to sign up that wants to present testimony? Renee, go ahead. Come forward. Good morning. My name's Renee Murray. I'm with youth development executives of King County, a coalition of 110 youth development programs in King, as Colleen also is. I'm on the five young adult stakeholder group and the larger group that Justin Farrell has been convening to have a united voice in supporting the pastor funds. And we do support facilities for early learning and encourage the council to look at that as multi-use facilities that can also incorporate youth development programs. I think we're also hoping that in the further evaluation, as mentioned earlier, there's racial equity is considered. And in fact we look at a fair distribution, distribution of funds from early learning youth development services from five to young adult in order to help people access secondary education. So we're very excited. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak and for the work you're doing on behalf of this fund. BY Thanks, Renee. All right. Anybody else? Okay, sure. Come forward, sir. Good morning. My name is Matthew Covello. I'm a lifelong King County resident. I'm also a low level supervisor for the Department of Public Defense. I joke that I'm also a low level bureaucrat. I want to speak on that very briefly. The thing that I that all of you should be aware of is something that I, along with maybe 15 other people in the county, have a unique perspective on. Anita is a fantastic lawyer. She understands our issues. She understands the courts. But the other thing that she has that I have never frankly seen before with the six different directors I've had in my roughly 14 year career, is the ability to be a public defender in one shoe, but then also running bureaucracy in the other, that is, failings that occur with good attorneys. That's something that I'm learning. And one of the people I'm learning from is Anita. I can say that in the very short time that she has run DPD, she has been able to cut out middlemen in the bureaucracy. She has been able to expedite things in a way that my less experience attorneys have gotten the critical training they need within days versus previously. It had been months and sometimes not at all. So I'm going to leave it at that. But I want to make it very clear that not only is she qualified, but she can actually run a large bureaucracy in an efficient way. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Come forward. My name is Teresa Collins. I'm a paralegal with King County Department of Public Defense. I've been there for ten years. I can tell you from the last five years have been the most tumultuous and frustrating and very dark time in our department. In the short time that Anita has been our director of Department of Defense, it was like a cloud lifted. This dark cloud went away. And instead of worrying about what was going on within the department, where we were going, what we were going to be, we were allowed to focus on our work and representing her and our clients. I can tell from personal feeling that Anita has inspired me to renew my efforts at doing what I do. She's given us hope, hope that we haven't had in a long time, hope that things are going to get better. And we are so confident in her leadership. So we ask you to confirm her as the Department of Public Defense director. Thank you. Good morning. My name's Keith. Has passed on from Community Passageways. I'm a community ambassador and CPC coach with Dr. Truman now at the University of Washington Law and Behavioral Sciences. I've been in five Illinois state prisons. I have 52 retail theft arrests on my background. I've been in juvenile ran away from home 13 times when I was six, seven and eight years old. And I go through all of this process to come to Seattle two years ago to work with Dominick Davis and all the great work that Anita and her people have been doing working with us. But it's one thing that I'm finding hard to understand. And and and I'm not trying to say anything crazy, but. It's a lot it's a few things that I don't understand about King County because I was looking at the sign and it says King County, and we had Dr. Martin Luther King's picture up there. And and this county is named after Dr. Martin Luther King. And I'm and I'm trying to figure out why. Is any black organization or people that's working with black organizations struggling to try to get funded. And another thing that that I've that I'm trying to grasp in my head around is if Martin Luther King walked in this door right now, seriously, if anybody has a clue about what Martin Luther King stood for in our rights and all of this and said right there in that chair, I wonder what he would be saying. I wonder how he would be looking at how people are reacting to the whole issue about kids of color that are struggling with their lives. Community Past His Ways is the greatest program that I have ever worked with, and all the people that work with our organization are the greatest people that I've ever encountered. Because I work with a lot of organizations in Chicago and and for for the work that we're doing, we need a facility and we have a facility, a multipurpose facility. We could we could set Seattle and Washington on fire with the transformation, the changes that kids can make to our story and to our lives. Just like Dominique said, when we're in a field, I get up from 5:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night, and I'm working with kids, I'm in homes , I'm in court. I have such a big influence on the kid can RJC court system. When I walk in there, they treat me like I'm an attorney and I got a GDR Southwestern Correctional Facility. But I'm really wondering what Martin Luther King Jr say if he sat right there in that chair is saying that black organizations and people that are working with black organizations are struggling for fun. Thank you, sir. Okay. Is there anybody else? I will close. The public comment will turn to a motion by Councilmember Caldwell's to approve our meeting minutes from October 1st. Some movements. To call in favor say I. Think. Those that are approved will turn to the consent agenda. Clinical call the role if councilmember call or put the consent agenda before us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the consent agenda and it's all down there. Would you like me to read each? No, I would not. Thank you for that offer, though. All right. That's items two. Five through ten. Clerk will call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Dutchie. Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Gossett. Oh. Councilmember Cole Wells. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember one right there. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine eyes, no nos. All right. That's approved. And you need to expedite that. Leah. No. All right. We'll take it up next Monday at the full council. Turn item 11 today. Item 11 is a motion that would confirm the executive's appointment of Anita Kandel as the county public defender. We are joined by Jenny Jean-Baptiste. Our central staff will present the item, and then I think we're going to hear from the chair of the Public Defense Advisory Board and KC six Keller on behalf of the executive and Anita herself. A name? Yes. Oh, yeah. Casey. You can come forward as well. Good morning, Jenny. John Batiste, counsel, central staff. We're on page 121 of your packet. The motion before you is the motion that would confirm Mr. Khandu, while as the King County public defender and the director of the Department of Public Defense. I will provide very brief background information for you on this, and then I will turn it over to our speakers to introduce to you in more detail. Ms.. Condo So on page 121 of the packet, there's some background information for you on the code provisions that specifically spell out the process for the appointment and the confirmation of the county public defender. The process begins with the national recruitment of candidates by the executive. Then the Public Defense Advisory Board, known as P DAB, is then required to recommend three candidates to the executive and the executive must select one of those candidates for then recommendation to the Council. The Executive has the option to ask the board to recommend an additional three candidates and then choose from among the six. That option was not exercised for this appointment process. The executive's appointment is, of course, subject to confirmation by the Council on October 3rd of this month, following the selection process described at the executive announced the appointment of Anita Condo Wahl as the King County Public Defender and director of the Department of Public Defense. The appointment is effective January 1st, 2019, for a four year term. The reason why the appointment is effective January 1st is in order to match the term of the county prosecutor Ms.. Condo, while is currently serving as the interim public defender. Prior to serving as the interim public defender, she served as the department's deputy director of law and policy. She joined the department in November of 2015 and has been practicing law for more than a decade. She received both her undergraduate and law degree from Yale University. Her complete work experience is summarized in her resume on page 155 of the packet. The confirmation packet in your folder contains many letters of support. Those letters of support are on pages 136 to 152. Those include many letters from several letters from the Department of Defense, from labor and the supervisors. The packet also includes an H.R. D confirmation letter that confirms that the background check has been done and is clear, and there are financial disclosure forms as well. The questionnaire that the committee requires of all candidates is on page 169 of your packet. I do want to note an error in the staff report in the resumé summary. It includes. It notes that Ms. Condo, while served from January 2016 to July of 2016 as deputy director and policy director for the Department. That should actually be July of 2018. To speak more about Ms.. Condo Wall and introduce her to the committee, we have Mr. Casey six killer here who's with the executives to our office, as well as Paul Harlan, to my immediate right, who is the chair of the party. Deb Journey, thank you very much. This is a bit of a unique appointment because of the structure in the charter that the voters approved. And you highlighted some of those things. It's a different selection process than has a specified term that's coterminous with the prosecuting attorney. And that was all by design to make sure that we had independence and this position. So Paul, thank you for your service as chair of the Biodefense Advisory Board. Would you you were integral in leading the initial steps of the recruitment process here, and you've also been a leader with respect to the PD, have been overseeing the Public Defense Department and some of the challenges that they've had and giving feedback and direction. So we appreciate you being here. Go ahead. Okay, good. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, members of the council, I am excited to be here this morning to share with you the enthusiastic support that my board members have for this appointment. We have had the opportunity first to report, of course, to the executive at the conclusion of our search and then a subsequent letter that we submitted as part of the materials for this hearing, and both of which we tried to convey the what it has been like to work with misconduct while in this role, or her attention to detail, the way in which she makes strategic decisions about priorities develops. With high degree of consultation. Plans that will prove effective for meeting the challenges that the department faces. And then there was the simple fact that the way that she absolutely dazzled us in the interview, the combination of intelligence, vision, directness, humanity, it was it was just really incredibly impressive. And as I thought about that and having shared it earlier, I didn't know what I would say today exactly. I spoke with Ms.. Giambattista and she said, well, you know, the board had had a certain lens on the process and hopefully you could you could share that. And I was glad to hear that because as I thought about these remarks over the weekend, that image of a lens or multiple lenses came to me to describe what I need to bring to this position and what the petition requires, because to do this work, it really does require a full set of lenses, the telescopic lens , to see the future, to have a vision for the department that will take it beyond the immediate moment and make it the leading department in the nation, that it should be a wide angle lens to see the full field in which public defense operates, to recognize the multiple organizations, entities and individuals that must be included in the consideration of how to run the department. The microscopic lens. You heard about this from Mr. Cavallo a little while ago to understand case credits and FMLA and all of the the fine details that make an efficient department the read the race equity lens that one is implanted in her and she's never not using it. When you have a conversation with her, you understand how it is that the Department of Defense doesn't merely do the high quality work that all the attorneys and the rest of the staff do for individual clients. But the way in which they are championing the cause of justice through individual representation, through policy work at courthouses and through community based advocacy, the client lens is fundamental to the work of any public defender and then come at last to the staff lens. And the staff lens in this entity, in this context is itself multifocal. You've got attorneys and you don't just have attorneys, but you have the attorneys who are in-house, the employees of the Department of Defense. You have the assigned counsel panel who are equally important contributors to the work of public defense. And that is one of the areas that has been least well developed during this transition. And Miss Cantwell has been championing that cause, making sure that it gets the attention it needs, including during the current budget descriptions of budget discussions , I should say. But beyond the attorneys, the paraprofessionals, the clerical staff, the entire DPD team, they know that Anita thinks about what they're doing. She sees them, she seeks them out, she hears them, and they know that she has their back. And that is that combination of perspectives and abilities is what makes her the leader that the department needs at this moment. So again, I in conclusion, I just want you to know that the board is delighted to be working with her as we have been over these past several months, and we look forward very much to working with her over the next several years. Oh, thank you very much, Casey. Thank you for being here. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had not. Planned to speak today. But to, as I always do, as be here to sit in and stand in support of all of our nominees that we send over to the council. I think that Paul did a fantastic job of of summarizing Anita's qualifications. And as you pointed out, the very unique nature of this particular appointment, given the process that the Public Defense Advisory Board goes through. And in presenting those recommendations to the executive, I think for the benefit of the Council, I think hearing from the nominee directly is probably the best thing to do. But I'm happy to answer questions. Later. If you'd like. All right. Good morning, Anita. Thank you for being here. Congratulations on your appointment. The light comes on when there's a little red light, which is sometimes hard to see. Go ahead. Good morning. I am honored and humbled at the prospect of continuing to work as a public defender in King County. King County is unique in important ways. Our county has a deep and shared commitment to equity and social justice that creates opportunities for meaningful collaboration and change. We have strong unions that make for a healthy workplace. We recognize the importance of strong and independent public defense, and we are committed to good governance, to making sure that we are responsible stewards of tax dollars. Now, I want to discuss each of these a little bit further. First, our shared commitment to equity and social justice has resulted in real and meaningful change for populations in King County impacted by the legal system. A few years ago, DPD partnered with Councilmember Up the Grove to protect young people in juvenile detention from being interrogated. More recently, we partnered with the executive to advocate with the state to stop jailing young people who ran away from foster placements. We've also partnered with the King County Sheriff's Office and community groups to develop a simplified Miranda warning, a warning that our young people are more likely to understand. The sheriff's office has implemented these warnings and the Seattle Police Department is now poised to do so as well. It is only because of our shared commitment to equity and social justice and to reducing the harms of the criminal legal system that we are able to make these changes here in King County. King County is also unique in its commitment to working with staff and unions to build a healthier workplace culture. In my time as interim director. I've had honest and respectful conversations with unions and staff about shared concerns and the best path forward. These conversations both make the workplace feel collegial and respectful and will also lead to substantive changes that make it easier for our staff to do the high quality work that they are so committed to doing. I'm grateful for the county's deep commitment to its partnership with Labor and that DPD staff are represented by strong and collaborative unions . And I'm proud to have such strong support for them today. I'm no less grateful for the county's commitment to having an independent Department of Public Defense. Our charter is unique in requiring the department to foster access to justice and equity in the criminal justice system. As you know, I take this responsibility very seriously as it is an integral part of my responsibility to ensure high quality representation for our clients. This, at times has led DPD to take positions that are at odds with our elected officials. I want you to know that I don't take these positions lightly. I consult with our staff and develop a position based on their knowledge and expertize and my policy experience. And while I've learned that it is important to communicate these positions, to communicate them early to council and other stakeholders, I have also deeply appreciated the fact that the Executive and the Council have recognized that taking these positions is part of my job. In the landmark case, Tinker V Des Moines Independent Community School District, the United States Supreme Court recognized that discomfort and unpleasantness always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. But the court wrote that we have to take this risk because this kind of openness, this is the basis of our national strength. Here in King County, we have all exercised our right to dissent and to advocate for what we believe is a better path forward in our community. In our community of openness. Views that were once at the margins have been allowed to take center stage. Just this month, the Washington Supreme Court found the death penalty unconstitutional on the basis that it has been applied in a racially biased manner. That view has long been held by members of the public defense community here in King County and statewide, and it is now made its way into the mainstream and into our laws. Similarly, our Supreme Court has recognized that youth is a mitigating factor at sentencing because young people's brains are not fully developed. They can't make decisions and judgments in the way that adults can. Again, this is a view that has long been espoused by public defenders and is now become part of our mainstream knowledge and approach. In King County, we have the space to have difference, to have different opinions, and that allows us to find the best way forward . Many places in our country would not tolerate a person like me, a woman of color, taking positions that differ from those of local leaders. But here in King County, a woman whose parents are immigrants who came here not speaking English, whose father worked as a parking valet, and whose mother worked on an assembly line in a factory . That woman can be heard and respected. This is only because of our shared values and commitments to the independence of public defense and to our commitment to equity and social justice. Finally, our counties committed to best run government, to making sure we are providing the highest quality services we can to the people we serve. This is critically important to our clients. Annually we represent approximately 19,000 separate individuals who face a deprivation of liberty, whether that be prison or jail, forced treatment or loss of parental rights. We stand with those clients and we support them for those who want to fight. We go to trial for those who don't. We try to find an outcome that is the least harmful for them, possibly an outcome that helps them address their underlying needs. We have much work to do to make sure we continue to provide consistently high quality representation. DPD Audit Identified Areas of opportunity for DPD in the years ahead. The auditors have flagged the need for us to ensure that all of its clients get consistently high representation. This is a goal we share with the auditor and we've already begun working towards this goal. To this end, we have updated and completed several practice area guides so that our attorneys and their supervisors have a standard standardized set of best practices on which to rely. We have set up trainings, training sessions for managing attorneys of the four divisions regarding how best to use the case management system and how best to get data out of that system. We review caseload numbers with our manager attorneys on a weekly basis to ensure that workloads for each attorney are, relatively speaking, manageable and consistent from month to month. And to ensure that all of our managing attorneys are looking at caseload numbers in the same way. We are committed to working with the performance strategy and budget and refining our staffing model to ensure that we have the resources we need and we are able to stabilize the department while still working efficiently. We have offered an extraordinary number of new trainings on topics that directly relate to the work of the office. These include trainings on topics ranging from felony sentencing to the Indian Child Welfare Act. And it's only by offering these trainings on very concrete areas that we can ensure that our staff are trained in similar ways and then able to represent our clients in similar ways and to have a higher quality and to provide high quality representation . If confirmed, I look forward to leading the department through a strategic planning process that will help us build shared goals and shared commitments to measuring our performance to make sure we achieve those goals. If confirmed, I will also continue working closely with our county's new Department of Human Resources. That department has provided us with vital support in this time of transition. They have helped us develop transparent policies and procedures in hiring, salary, step, placement and discipline. More importantly, though, H.R. is working closely with us to help CPD develop a healthier workplace culture. There is no better place to work as a public defender than King County's Department of Public Defense. The shared values of this county, its commitment to equity in social justice, its commitment to a healthy workplace make me incredibly grateful for this opportunity. All right. Thank you very much. We'll now open it up to committee questions. And Councilmember Lambert had the first question. She signaled me early. And that was the question for staff. I think you said early on something about that it didn't go through the process at six, that it was different. I just want to clarify what you said on that. Sure. The King County code and this is on page one, 21 of the packet, the paragraph that describes this, the King County Code provides that the Public Defense Advisory Board must transmit three recommendations to the executive, and then the executive selects one. There is an option in the code that allows the executive to ask the Public Defense Advisory Board for three additional candidates the for this appointment process that did not occur. So everything was done consistent with code. I was just pointing out that the executive did not feel it necessary to ask for an additional three recommendations. Okay, good. That's what I want to clarify. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions, Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning and congratulations on the appointment. First, I have to say, you know, my soft spot. Anyone who's citing Tinker in their opening remarks is as someone who's passionate about student press freedom in particular. Oh, you know, I have had the chance to work on you mentioned one issue, several issues where I think we've done some great things and we've agreed working to make sure juveniles have access to attorneys when they're being questioned, when they're in county custody or work to decriminalize fair enforcement. They're also we don't agree 100% of the time there is an issue this last year that we have different views on. And and you sort of alluded to that, but I wanted to talk about a little bit this morning, and you had signed the department on to support a position, but one that's been kind of high profile . And you knew the council was on the other side of it. And I welcome differing opinions. I it doesn't even bother me that much that an agency would take a different position. But what concerned me in particular was finding out about it in the newspaper, and I was upset about that. And I know other colleagues were too. I was I'm just tend to be very transparent person. And so maybe I expressed it more. So I want to ask you, how do you balance you? On one hand, you have unique independence under the charter, and even if you didn't, we would want to create space for people to speak their truth to power on. And then also, on the other hand, you've spoken about collaboration and sometimes to be smart and effective involve some collaboration and communication. So how do you balance that? And specifically, if you could share your plans to how you plan to work with and communicate with the King County Council in your new role ? Thank you for the question. I so if I look back at that and we'll just talk about the CFTC, the letter and signing on to the moratorium, you know, while I we don't need to do to to debate the merits of the positions here, the things that I do regret in that we're failing to communicate better. And, you know, I thought that I was maybe 20 or 30 days into the job at most. And so and while I have, I think, a lot of policy and sort of operations expertize, the politics of the job were very new to me. And so I thought very literally in terms of the organizational chart and I gave my my track report here notice and thought that I had done my job of communicating. And I've understood that the organizational chart is one thing, right? But there are a vast number of stakeholders within the county who need to know about this. When deputies want to take a stance like that. And so I've been going forward, right. My my intent and my hope. And in fact, I already have in other instances communicate if there is if there's an ordinance that there's an issue on which DPD has concern, reaching out to council directly and saying, here's my concern, and then we may not agree and then I may still take a public position that is contrary to contrary to the one that you're taking. But we will have at least had that conversation. Thank you. Councilman Arthur Grove, Councilmember Dunn. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here today. And I am very impressed by your background and your willingness to serve. I don't think we've ever seen a a person prove up for confirmation, bring a constituency like this to the chamber before. So it's quite impressive. You know, the audit report that was relevant to your appointment just came out here on October 15th or just recently. And I understand it covers a period long before you were leading the agency, but some significant findings. And I kind of wanted to get your take beyond a little bit what you just stated in your opening statement. Give me a sense of it. The the auditor found the DPD and I want to quote here has not effectively managed just transition from four nonprofits into a unified, high performing department, unquote. And it made 13 different recommendations in a letter. It started October 11th. So I assume you got an advance copy of the audit report, is that correct? Yes. Okay. So, you know, I see your letter here. I mean, generally, I just kind of want to get your sort of drill down a little bit on is that a serious audit report? You take those findings seriously. Do you do you plan to implement them? The short version is yes. I think the first thing we really need to engage in is finishing our strategic planning process right? When they talk about our failure to have a high functioning, unified department, I think what they're talking about is our failure to build consensus, to collaborate with staff and unions on what high quality representation looks like and then how we measure for it. Right. And that's the first thing that we before we can do anything else, we need to do that. Right from there comes acquiring a case management system that allows us to pull data to see where achieving our our goals, right? So everything kind of flows from us. First, identifying what is it that we collectively at DPD think high quality representation looks like? So that will be my starting point. Is there anything in those 13 recommendations that you plan not to implement or you disagree with? I think the recommendation 13 regarding the structure gives me pause. I think that recommendation does not sort of recognize the operational realities of DPD. And so in their proposed structure, I think they have one very large division that takes a majority of the cases and then three smaller ones. And while that one large division would be possibly remarkably well functioning, you could have a unit of 1220 felony attorneys so that if one of them went out on FMLA, it wouldn't be sort of devastating because you would be able to spread some of that work among 19 other people. But then when you look at the other three tiny divisions and supposed to run and I have a felony unit of four people and one is in trial and one is on FMLA. What am I going to do with those four loads? I cannot put them on to attorneys. Right. And so the problem is great to how to theoretically have this one really high functioning division, but I also have to have three other divisions that are operational. And that's that's the challenge. And I think the orders they don't live in the operations of DPD. Right. And so they're not thinking about FMLA and trial and all the other things that pull people out of a unit and make it impossible for us to give them more work. And so I'm fully open to it. And the intent intend to have a conversation with PSP, which looked at the same question in 2013 and came to an opposite conclusion to see if anything on the on the ground has changed, to prove anything that that there is reanalysis but their analysis in 2013 it was sort of the transaction costs of this are high and it doesn't result in anything particularly meaningful. So that that's a recommendation that I have the most plausible. Structure that's fair, I think and I think it's good to have a dialog with this counsel as well as you think about that and the budget process so intimately tied to that, you know, as a federal prosecutor in three places across the country, Washington, DC, two and three crimes, Florida, South Florida do narcotics cases, and later in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Terrorism and violent crime unit here in Seattle. And the one thing I did learn is that if the Department of Public Defense or federal defenders aren't well funded, the whole process of justice grinds to a halt, the whole pipeline slows down and everybody loses across the board. So as councilmember now an elected office as opposed to a career civil servant, you know, it's really important that we fund across the board all of these. And if you block up in one area and don't in the others, then you actually grind it slower rather than faster, which is reverse the retention I saw. Speaking of money that in the in the audit report, the auditor found that the average cost per case increased by 93% without a corresponding increase in the number of cases handled. Do you see a way to improve that statistic or do you agree with it? I think that number is driven entirely by county salary benefits overhead. That is the result of the county pulling public defense out of the world of nonprofits and into county employment. Right. And it is wonderful that the county comes with benefits and pensions and higher wages, and all of that makes us more expensive. So I wouldn't expect us to be able to take on more cases just because we're now finally achieving parity with the prosecuting attorney's office. Okay, let me talk. Only since we didn't meet in advance of this and appreciate your effort to do to meet with me, I want to get a sense of sort of your management style, you sort of philosophy on on how to manage how well, broadly, I mean, let me hear from you. What is your overarching sort of management style and how do you how do you believe you should run that office? Broadly speaking, I believe in having a collaborative management style as possible. So when we talk about strategic planning and developing a definition of high quality public defense, that is something that we need all of our staff to have input on and to and to build some consensus around. Now, obviously, we're not going to agree to all things at all times, but where we can find consensus, we absolutely should, where we count. I will make a decision and articulate the basis for my decision with a recognition that some people will not be thrilled with my decision, but they will at least have understood why I made that decision. So I think collaboration and transparency would be sort of the two key keystones of my leadership style. And I think there's evidence of both in the policy positions we take. I talk to our staff before we go out and take a policy position, particularly because a lot of times the positions we're taking are difficult and unpopular. And before I go and walk out on that limb, I want to make sure that the people who are on the ground, who are in court, we're talking to the clients day in and day out, agree that this is the right way forward. And I take what the input that they are giving me and then act on that. Okay, great. I like to hear the collaboration. I think that's important. You know what? What about a situation where you have conflicts with other county managers? I mean, you're a significant cabinet level appointee nominated by exact confirmed by the council. What happens if you disagree with another cabinet member or an elected official? Let's say the prosecutor is doing something that you have a substantial disagreement with. How will you handle that conflict? The prosecutor and I already have many things that we disagree on. Any example? You know what I mean? But yeah, I mean, what do you mean? So it's great. The question is designed to kind of get a sense of how you're going to approach this. I mean, are you going to be an activist, an activist manager? A manager? Will you shift gears? I mean, there's a lot of different ways to to say you disagree with something that the elected prosecutor is doing. You can file a lawsuit instantaneously. You can do a slew of public disclosure requests. You can pick up the phone call and say, look, I have a problem with what you're doing. And I kind of want a sense of what what you will do, how you do it. Will you use all those methods? None of those methods. Preferred method. Preferred method is to pick up the phone and call and have a conversation. If I'm not having if I'm not making headway to pick up the phone again and say, look, I feel like we haven't made any headway, I'm going to do something more public or more serious. Here's my deadline. But we need to I need to hear from you that we're going to find some middle ground here or that we're just not going to, in which case it is okay for me to do what I need to do in order to pursue my issue. So you're comfortable picking up the phone? Maybe as the first salvo. I have learned that that is one of the most important things to do here. Okay, that's great. I'm really glad to hear you say that. I think that's important to pick up the phone and then, you know, gradually escalating. If you have a really substantial disagreement with the way things are done, it's kind of the fair warning thing. I mean, that things are going on. Everybody's busy. Your issue may not be the issue of the day for that particular person or manager. So starting there, I think is, at least in my experience, been the most effective. What about if you disagree with the will of the voters, like the older facility, how will you handle that? It's a little hard to talk in the abstract, right? I can disagree in principle with the will of the voters, because my the people that I'm responsible to. Right. Our clients, they're the poor people of King County who are charged with crimes. I'm not accountable to the voters more broadly. And so I make clear that when I take policy positions, I'm taking those positions that align with the communities that I think we are most responsible to. And so I can take that position. I've taken the position and I but it's not that I have done more to impede the construction of the building. It was important for public defense to have a position for that position to be heard by our clients and their communities. And we did that. You know, it's an interesting question. It's not a gotcha question at all because it's not designed to be or intended to be. It's just a really interesting question because there's a lot of autonomy given to your position in this job by the charter. And so what do we do in a situation where voters say X and you believe in the best interests of your staff and your clients? Why? And then how do we proceed forward? And so I don't know. I think maybe one of the ways to solve this issue is just maybe is in part and parcel with those audit recommendations, as you think about it, maybe formalize a little bit more how that structure looks, if there are going to be disagreements. I mean, I think I'm not saying you don't have the right to have a press conference in. Nothing like that. But I think there's a process moving forward that we could all get maybe comfortable with. It's sort of formalized, not really formal, but sort of informal, how that process might look so that we know, okay, well, this kind of how is this she's out there in this particular role that we've sort of understand moving forward. So it doesn't catch the executive off guard or the county council off guard. You know, and it may be something as basic as funding. I'm little concerned if we don't fund your agency in the way that you want. And what are we going to be looking at in terms of push back? So just trying to understand how that looks moving forward. Feel free to respond if you'd like. I could be wrong, but I thought the charter language actually explicitly excludes budget decisions from freedom, from interference. And so I have not treated budget as an area in which I have freedom and independence. How wise of us to do that? Okay. Well, you've answered my questions. I mean, this audit, you know, obviously just came out interesting the time right before your confirmation. I have started looking at it over the weekend. I have a few more questions. I don't want to hold up everybody here and their questions. And I'd like between now and the final vote of council, maybe to submit a couple of email questions to you or by letter or whatever you prefer, just to kind of take this conversation off line to get a little bit better sense of what your management plan will be moving forward. I had intended, given how quickly this is, sort of come up with the audit, to request a one week courtesy delay on moving this out of committee. But I'm I'm. Maybe willing to consider sending it out with our recommendation, not expedited. So I have a chance to have this dialog with the nominee, but we'll be happy to discuss this with the chair and other members of the council as they weigh in. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Councilmember Dunn, Councilman Boulder. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I just want to say congratulations and empathize with you as the only council member who's actually sat in that chair doing what you're doing right now. I have a bit of appreciation for how hard it is for us to be peering down at you, questioning you in this way. So good job so far. To get grilled. He has to get grilled to that, weigh down that they peer at you from three feet up anyway. Okay. So I just want to think. I had a hot seat moment down there to come onto the council as well. All right. I take it back. Not as a department head. Though. Many of us can empathize. We have had a chance to talk a couple of times in your acting role. And and I actually appreciate everything you've had to say today. And in those previous conversations about the idea of open communication and keeping in touch with each other on difficult issues, not only because of the element of not surprising each other, but also because I've been very surprised in my experience at how we can work together, even on things where we may start out thinking we are on entirely different ends of the spectrum. You can pull good out of that situation by not assuming how the other person will respond. And I feel very confident that you share that view and that you will be somebody who will who will work across many different aisles. We I don't know if you recall, but we've actually been in several meetings together years ago on issues around juvenile justice and different policies. And when I served at the King County Jail, we were still working with the agencies, not with the department. But I found it was very productive and healthy to have the we used to have the directors in once a month and we would sit and talk about different issues. It didn't mean we didn't have challenges. Some of you may recall policies around whether you can bring your cell phones into the jail or not, and how we would escort detention inmates to their court hearings in whether they were in shackles or not in shackles. These were some of the fun issues that we worked on back then. But but we worked through them and we didn't always agree. But we talked to each other. We heard each other. You always learn something from those conversations. So I think that that is a very important part of your role and important for you to then have the really challenging job of turning after having conversations with people like us or people like jail directors or sheriffs or prosecutors to turn to your colleagues and be able to share what you've learned about other people's positions, because all of this support is is remarkable, but it's also just a start. You're going to be in a position where you will have to talk to your your your staff and your supervisors and managers about things that they might not agree with completely as well. That goes in both directions. So I think that you've demonstrated the strength of character to be able to have those conversations in both directions. I think that's one of the most important things about the leadership of this role. My question is, as you know, one of my biggest concerns is the managerial challenge facing the person taking on this job is large as as I said when we met and I think people here may appreciate we're 25, almost 30 years into the merger of Metro and King County. And it kind of finally feels like one government right there 25, 30 years later. And this this merger of the Department of Public Defense has only happened in the last three or four years. So it's still very much a work in progress, and there's still many things to be done. My reading of the audit is that it is pointing out that fact that is not it's not the fault of anybody. It's just that this is a work in progress. And so can you just speak just a little bit more about your managerial path forward? You talked about building a strategic plan, but maybe just giving a few more details around how you will build a team to support you in this work, because no one leader can do this all on their own. Sure. But before I do, I do want to point out that the staff that are here are not from any one division. Right. All the DPD is in this movement. Right. Of the folks there. I know that I misspoke. I meant from the staff of DPD. I just meant that there are spaces right where we are moving beyond the divisions and have unity in the way we think about things. And I think you and I have talked about this or maybe not, but we see that in particular practice areas, especially in practice areas where where we are bringing in most of our new attorneys, we see a lot of alignment in in their practice and a lot of camaraderie and collegiality. And so I am hopeful that we are not going to be here with it 20 years. You said for Metro Transit that we're going to be here 20 years from now and say, oh, those four divisions are just starting to work in similar ways. I think there's reason for a lot more hope. Not I. I have my deputy, someone named Rick Lichtenstein, who I think is here, but who is a veteran of public defense in King County, worked at a nonprofit or TDA, and then came to the county. And I rely heavily on his nuts and bolts understanding of numbers and case loads to make sure that we are managing these cases in the same way. And the caseload management is, is in my mind incredibly important because it's where it all. It's where we begin to start building consistency, right? If we have divisions where some felony attorneys are getting 12 new cases in a month and some felony attorneys in a different division are only getting three new cases in a month, their practices are going to look very, very different. And we need to make sure that the work is spread in a in an equitable manner across the divisions, because that's that's a starting point for starting to have practices that look similar. We've also started looking at our felony credit youth and trying to develop more flexible parameters around how to earn those credits. And what's rebuttable limits on those credits could be recognized. If you're in trial, you're going to accumulate many credits getting a little bit into the weeds here. But the point is, it's in these weeds that we start to build that consistency of practice across the divisions. And so the plan is to work with Rick and others in management who have particular interest in looking at the numbers and the Excel spreadsheet that we spend our days staring at to try to figure out how to make sure the work is spread in a way that allows for everyone to engage in that same high level of practice. Hey, let's see, Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, first of all, congratulations on being a Yale graduate. Your resume is amazing. And I'm glad to hear you say that open communications is a really important thing. So I have three quick things I'd like to say and ask about. I was briefed twice by the auditor and the audit because it was surprising what was in there. The part that made me the most concern was the sentence that says The fragmented organizational structure and a weak management framework results in inconsistent case practices and caseload outcomes across the department's four divisions. So I had them come back and actually show me various criteria and how justice was different in the four divisions. That was startling to me and and frankly, a little bit disappointing. So I, I firmly agree that when it comes to the case, that there should be no interference with the Department of Public Defense. But when it comes to the process, I feel very strongly that we need to work together in the process. What I mean by that is sometimes a certain amount of paperwork or a certain way of doing something negatively impacts another part of the process. And in the Siege Council, where people bring their issues to the table, I have seen them say, I have a problem with X and another department say, Wow, I didn't realize that my doing this had that impact on you. How will you fit in to being able to listen to the process to see how you can help the process to work better? I think maybe the easiest way to try to approach this is a specific example. I know that there's been a lot of discussion right now about text messaging reminders for clients, and there are some concerns around the low enrollment rates. And we've talked to our lawyers about it, and I think there are sort of two possible fixes. Right. So one is that there's some reluctance to enroll because it could possibly be dangerous for a client to share their phone number with the court if it's connected to other things. If, however, Deped's case management system can find out those text message reminders itself, that poses no such problem because those communications are privileged and confidential and no one can subpoena those phone numbers from us. And so recognizing that text messaging is important to reduce FTA rates, what we're really working on is to find a quick way to get our case management system to try and send out those messages to meet that need. So it's been two years since we did the pilot on this, and as of last week, we were told that currently 14% of the people that are in the criminal justice system are getting a text message. And actually the quarter, the future conference that I went to six years ago, we still have not implemented all the best practices from the court of the future. That is disconcerting to me. We have a national group that talks about what we should be doing and we can't implement those in a more timely manner. So you and I have talked about this several times, and when one of the judges said that the 14% that are getting text messages are having a much higher rate of showing up in court, that's what we want. You don't want people getting more warrants. So I would hope in the future that when there's an idea that has comes from the court of the future or best practices or that superior court models, and it turns out to be good that you would find some way of making it work as part of the system, which obviously hasn't happened to date. The other thing that happened on Friday, that Thursday that concerned me was this and this is a handout that was on Thursday. And it was the little startling. 40.6% of the defendants were charged with a new criminal offense prior to resolving their original case. I was startled by that number. I had not heard that number before. And when I asked about it, your comment was pretty much. Well, tell me what your comment was on that. What do you think about that? What do you think about the fact that 40.6% of the defendants commit another crime potentially during their original case? Well, that's pending. I think it's actually really hard. This was a chart that this was a chart that we talked about. And you talked about also Thursday when you were sitting next to Judge O'Donnell and Judge and see who was sitting next. And Mark Larson, we talked about this particular chart on Thursday. All right. So this is Mark Larson's charge that 40% of the people who are accused are charged with a subsequent offense. I feel like insufficient information to really understand anything other than possibly we should be providing better services to people once we release them to help support them in the community. So it was, I think, Judge O'Donnell who said the data is very poor, that that's not collected data. And I think that even having that data out is disconcerting to the citizens. So my last question is what, if any, role do you have in protecting the general population? I think the role of public defense is very clear. We are accountable to people who are accused of crimes and it is our job to represent them and to pursue their goals when they are charged with a crime. I think as a policy matter, we can engage in broader conversations, but always with that lens, always with the lens of we represent the people, the poor people of King County who are accused of crimes. I think there's still plenty of room to talk about public safety because many of the things that we do to the individuals in the system are don't actually protect public safety. So I look at that number and it's the 40% of the people who are released are charged with additional crimes. What we also know, though, is that when you don't release someone, they are more likely to lose their employment. To have decreased family ties. To have higher rates of mental illness. And so even with that number, I can say as a matter of public safety, I don't think it protects the citizens of King County to needlessly detain individuals. While I am interested in having collaborative conversations about public safety, I can never forget that my job is the job of public defender and in my responsibility and my loyalties lie with the clients and their communities who are indigent and accused of crimes. So we you work with them, Judge? I think it was Judge Don. It might have been Mark Lawson. One of them said that we don't know exactly what percentage of that 40.6 is. A new misdemeanor is a new felony, is a new violent crime, although here it said 20.2 would be charged with a violent offense. But we don't really know that for sure. And we also don't know how many are a no show on another case or a case that was filed. But I think the overall citizens of this county need to know that when we release somebody that it isn't a 40, 60% chance that they will commit another crime and victimize the citizens of the county. So I do agree with what you said a minute ago about making sure there's more services around these people while they are out. But I think we also need to be aware that that is a very high number. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Nita. Again, we're all saying congratulations. And I can't remember being here with such an outpouring of support for a a confirmation hearing for an individual. And I think that really says a lot a great deal of the confidence that you're inspiring in your leadership thus far in the as the acting director. So very appreciated all that you're doing. And I've heard you say that, you know, you might do somewhat you might handle things differently in terms of whether you communicate and ahead of a press conference being held or, you know, that communication is very important. I'm I look at your resume and it's just stellar all your background and experience to prepare you for this position. But I'm wondering if when you've been thinking about this and going ahead, what might keep you up at night? I mean, what what is some or a challenge that you think is is really something that's going to be paramount for you, whether your personal attributes and experience will prepare you for taking on, or it's just something endemic to what is faced by the department. I'm just curious to hear from you on that. Hi for me, one of the my biggest gaps comes in the world of human resources. I don't have a lot of experience in dealing with H.R. issues. And when you have a department as large as ours, there are many of those. I've attempted to compensate for this gap, however, by leaning really heavily on the the new h, r d h r h r d I don't know the order of the letters, but the Human Resources Department, I have leaned on them heavily to give me and experienced strategic thinkers to help find the way forward in DPD, both on human resources sort of policies and practices, and then then also dealing with individual H.R. issues as they come up. I you know, there's rarely almost a day that goes by without my consulting with our human resources services delivery manager or or with Jay Osborne about some issue to make sure that I'm not that that I'm acting in a way that is sort of consistent with best practices, that I'm not creating liability, but that that is the area in which I have the least experience. What I'm very well aware of that fact. And so I lean heavily on the existing resources that we have to compensate for it. Thank you. And one other question. I hear different things about staffing needs, one, that there's a need for additional defenders, paralegals. There's just not enough currently there. I hear also that the public defense gets a lot more as compared to the prosecutors. Any comment on that one? I'm not independent of either budget, so I won't go into any particular details. But the prosecutor, unlike public defense, does not have caseload standards at the Washington Supreme Court, have set caseload standards for us to ensure that our clients receive high quality representation. If you have too many cases, you can't do a good job on them. So there are standards. There are also standards that create ratios for every attorney. You have to have point to five support staff for every attorney up to a point to five investigators. There are ratios for for all the work that we do. I can't I don't know the prosecutor's staffing and I can't speak to to their model. But what I do know is that we are driven by standards adopted by the Supreme Court and by our union contracts. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Caldwell's Councilmember Gossett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I wanted to first comment on the issues raised about 40% of of those who. All right. I fear public defenders end up committing a crime before they do any time in jail again. I think they were. I think that Mark or Judge O'Donnell was talking about. Seek out programs like that where several people have not come out to come in a couple of weeks. And we also had just come down from the Regional Justice Center, and it had been out 38% of everybody antsy got it sent by judges way out at the Regional Information and Regional Justice Center. And it's easy to see how they would discontinue trying to make it. I having to write about an hour a day. But most importantly in regard to this statistical point is that since 1985 and I think, you know this, Anita, there's been a tremendous increase in mass incarceration of low income Americans, particularly African-Americans, Latinos, native and very poor white people in our criminal justice center. And the corresponding recidivism rate, the number of times those folks have gone back into jail after getting out of jail, have been, up until recent years, 67%. A little over two thirds of them go back. So a lot of people are making the case that it's the mass incarceration of so many people and then the imposition of legal financial obligations that they have to it accrues in market state at 12% interest a year, the amount of money they owe us. And then when they get out, they start getting hassled by agencies that make it their business to go after folks who have outstanding debt. And those are very critical problems. I just think that the 40% is way lower than the 67% recidivism. So that doesn't concern me that much. Plus, it is judges that allow people into alternative to incarceration programs and the public defender's job just try to represent them the best way that you can. So that's something that we should keep in mind also. You have been the director. How long were you deputy director of public affairs? Two years. The year and a half. I think. I think I was August of last year, maybe. August of last year. I don't see how I love a public official in a department. They got an audit based on the last two, three or four years could be held primarily responsible for the 11 to 13 findings. Of course, you have some responsibilities that you're in, but the example I like to use is my office. Each council member has four staff. I have two staff that consistently tell me and you go to the King County Jail too much to see individual clients. You're supposed to be dealing with policy that help us to keep these cats out of jail. You don't have time to be going over to the jail to see individuals. But when a mother or relative calls me personally and said, Junebug is in jail, I know the outcome for asking somebody else to go see them. So I go always are leaders have them make have to do a balancing act between advocacy management and being out there with the people. I'd like to conclude by just sharing with my members two examples that I have had with you in recent weeks that I think will show that why I believe you be an outstanding public defender when we confirm you. One, you had a training about three weeks ago and you made it non-mandatory. Okay. Usually the public defenders say, I've got to be at this training. You're part of your public event. But you said these intelligent people, I want to make it non-mandatory. You asked me to come and speak to. I was impressed that on and 82 out of the 220 lawyers that you have in public defense on their own decided to be at this. And the rest of the staff that were there were, I guess, researchers and secretaries or whatever, but to me and me talking and so on , that was the respect that they had gone out for you during the couple of months you've been their leader and a couple of years they've been working with you. So that says volumes about how responsive your staff will be as you continue to improve the operations of a public defender. And lastly, I called you a couple of times about individual clients, and you've gotten back to me either the same day or the next day, letting me know specifically what the problem. And the last time you said, well, this guy's mistaken because he did have a ball during court, and I kind of raised my voice to you about a lawyer. And I've been there and you gave me the lawyer's name. He said you already had a lawyer go visit this guy while he's still in jail. To me are superb examples of very good leadership, and I hope that we respond. Yes, I guess, Mr. Chair, my state my comments have been more statements than questions, but thank you for giving me an opportunity to do that. Can I just respond very briefly, Councilmember Garcia? I just wanted to be clear that the people who were at our conference were not just attorneys, but our investigators, our mitigation specialist, our paralegals, our legal assistance, all of whom are really integral parts of the representation of each client. And I want to make sure that they know that they are valued as much as any of the lawyers. But I think Councilmember Garcia Arlington, a motion from you at this time. Oh. At this time. And I'm hopeful that we are, at least at the committee level, a vote on this motion today. I would like to move that. We had our proposed ordinance 2018 zero 5 to 7 staff. Is that the correct number? That that is correct. Mr. GARCIA. And this is this would be a recommendation on our motion that we forward to the full council, the full representation of King County Council members, nine of us, but at a final meeting where we consider and finally confirm her recommendation. So I want to move it out with this recommendation that should be concerned. Up for confirmed. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gossett. That motion is before us. I haven't spoken yet, but I want to just take a moment to say a few words. First, I want to thank the Public Defense Advisory Board. You know, you are more than just one of our typical advisory boards, and we have a lot of them here at the county. You take a regular active oversight and consulting role with the Department of Public Defense and report out to the community, the executive and the council about what's going on there. And there is no doubt that following the litigation over retirement benefits, that there's been tremendous turmoil as this function, this vital, constitutionally mandated function, has undergone tremendous change in the last few years. It was one of the first issues that I had the privilege to engage on as a new council member here at the council. In terms of what would the future of public defense look like in King County? Would we continue to honor the traditions of advocacy for policy reform, or would we revert to what most jurisdictions around the country have a bare minimum constitutionally mandated in the courtroom public defense system, and we chose the prior we chose to protect and preserve and enshrine in the charter of the county the obligation, not just the opportunity , but the obligation of the department and its leader. If you look at the ordinance, it's in two places with the department and everyone that works for it, and it's leader to advocate for equity and reform in the criminal justice system and access to justice. In fact, it was Councilmember Dunn who suggested the language in that charter amendment access to justice. To his credit, he has a strong view, being a former prosecutor, about the importance of a public defense, being in that adversary and active position. That mandate when brought to life can be uncomfortable. It can be uncomfortable for those in power, whether they sit on it in a courtroom, under a black robe, whether they are prosecuting from one side of the courtroom, whether they're policymakers who write budgets and fund programs and want to do the right thing. But I think that as the case that an interim director can do outside, that sometimes that discomfort and that cacophony of ideas brought into the public sphere, even ones that may at times be unpopular or the vast or sharp minority, help us get to a. Our result, and that's what we're all trying to do, I think here with our justice system in this in this community. And that is get to a better result. And I think we have to be confident and comfortable enough in our views and positions to hear dissent and to have those dialogs with folks of differing views and to a to account for why that Councilmember Baldacci made a very good point. Sometimes you start off, you think you're diametrically opposed, but you're talking, well, you think maybe we got more in common and we can get there. Councilmember Dunn mentioned about positions that may be opposed, for example, the CFTC, by the will of the voters. And there's no doubt that they voted to approve that. But, you know, as Councilman McDermott is fond of pointing out, sometimes voters don't necessarily comport with their views with the Constitution. They would have had him not be able to marry the person he loves. The Constitution of United States Supreme Court says that you can. And what I think in this function guides Ms.. Cantwell in my discussions with her is an unrelenting and uncompromising devotion and dedication to the United States and Washington state Constitution on behalf of those who need it most. And sometimes we hear things that, you know, are uncomfortable for those of us in the establishment personally. Your story is incredibly compelling to me. The daughter of immigrants, a dad who started off parking cars in this country, there was no inside recommendation to get you into Yale. None. You earned it. And I just and there was no no inside family member to go to that district court clerkship or that court of appeals clerkship. And those of us on or lawyers here know that those are tough to get and they only go to the best and the brightest. And so, frankly, I think we're lucky that you're willing to even consider doing this job. We're fortunate to have you here, and I know that there's differing views about that. And finally, me say this we all can do better at this, myself included. But I've heard a willingness and a commitment in personal dialog and here today to continuous improvement and to being a better leader. This is the new job. And you said, Hey, I've stumbled on occasion in the early start, but I'm committed to learning from those mistakes, like the best of us and being a better leader. The way I know that you're serious about that and are committed to that is the support of your employees, SEIU, the Teamsters, the folks here today. I've heard from them. This department needs needs you to lead it at this time. We cannot we cannot let persist the low morale. And we saw those employee surveys that has gone on and festered there. And I am confident that because of the support you've got with your team and your commitment to the individuals in your organization, that you're the right person at the right time for this job and that you'll continue to grow and develop and work with the rest of your peers in the legal community and the policymaking community to be an even better leader. So I'm looking forward to voting for you and I hope we get to do that. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve. Customer. We're done. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. And in the tenor and tone of the questions up here, I think we drill down and learn a lot about you as an appointee today. As I mentioned in my dialog with you earlier, I, I still need to get some answers to some questions relating to a report that just came out now . And that report come out a few months ago. I'd be derelict in my duties and not having those questions for you up here, but because it's just happened, I've got to get the answers to those questions. CHAIR And I've had a brief conversation up here in his it is his direction that we move forward with a vote today, which I certainly respect. That is his prerogative as chair because I don't have the answers to those questions. I can't vote yes today, but I'm I think I can get to a place where I can vote yes if I get the responses to those questions. And so and I'm not saying that halfheartedly or in jest that serious. So I'm going to just because we're going to force a vote today, I'm going to vote no for the moment and look forward to the chance to go ahead and get some answers, some questions related to that audit report that just came out, because I think, honestly, down the road, I think having fleshed out the vision for responding to that and making the department not only comply but exceed in terms of what you're doing will help everybody in your department and then the constituency and clients that you represent. So I just wanted to be real clear about where I was coming down. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much, Councilmember Dunn. Other questions? Council comments on final passage. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. You're obviously going to be appointed today. And so four years from now, you'll be back again for reappointment should your hearing not be on fire. So anyway, I just wanted to say that I will be looking forward to working with you on systemic things and how we can make this county work Tibet together better and making sure that the outcomes from each of the four units are fair to the citizens that you are protecting. And so they all have equal justice. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. Other questions or comments? Okay. The clerk on call the roll on proposed motion 2018 052 set of seven I made. The motion was made with recommendation in the ordinary course. I just to be candid, I had hoped that we could move it forward today. But Councilmember Dunn, I think, has once an opportunity to have some questions answered. So it would not be on this afternoon's agenda, but would be, I think, on next Monday's agenda. If it were on this Monday or if it were today, a councilmember with our condition can always ask for a courtesy delay anyway. So that would be the schedule if I got that right that I'm seeing some nods know help us out here. Mr. Chair, typically an expedited agenda means the following week. In this case, I think you should just clarify whether you mean a week from today or two weeks from today. On the right now. One always rules. One way or. The other can be a week from today I'm standing. All right. Okay. It seem not. All right. Help us out here with the roll call. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bellucci? Councilmember Dunn? No. Councilmember Garcia. Hi. Councilmember Caldwell. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott. Councilmember up the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. No. Mr. Chair. All right. Mr. Chair, the vote is 6 hours, three nos. Okay. We've given a do pass recommendation to the motion. It will be on the full council's agenda a week from Monday. That's in the ordinary course. And I just for folks awareness, it is the tradition of the council that a member can ask for a one week courtesy delay beyond beyond that. So that could happen. But members can also ask for a vote on that. So we would expect to take it up a week from this afternoon at 130. And there is an opportunity for public comment. Thank you all for being here. And Anita, thank you for being here and thank you very much for your help. Okay. We are given the nature of this item have taken and the public testimony more time than anticipated. Our pasta briefing item 12 really warrants more attention, I think, and time than what we've got here before. We should be adjourning. And we have had some dialog with the consultants that says they would prefer to have more time to spell it out. And Councilman Baldacci has kind of been the nut kind of has been the leader on this from the from the beginning when she chaired the committee. The whole. Does that work with you? If we were to bring this for a more fulsome briefing next time. I think that we should give it enough time. The question is whether we do a little bit here and a little bit then, or if that's too choppy. I would leave that up to the folks who are going to have to come back to do the presentation either way. Would it work better to do it all at once? It seems like it would. They're nodding after that. That being the case. We could move, I think our perhaps our other items on the agenda. We will we will work with you to get that scheduled this year. Thank you for your patience and we appreciate your patience. As you can see, we've been working on a hot, hot issue here with some time sensitive because of an expiring interim appointment. And it will also give members a little more time since we just got the report to read it in depth, which I think is going to be helpful to have a good dialog on that. Let's see, are we staff ready to take up proposed ordinance 2018 zero four or five six, which would authorize the executive to enter into an interagency agreement with the City of Renton regarding the Lake to Sound Trail, Councilmember Dunn and I are co-sponsors of this. I think it's fairly perfunctory and I don't even know that we need a detailed staff report. Because of the late hour. The staff for that item is not actually here. I'll give you. The very brief highlights. But as you said, you can. Kind of give us some briefing. Councilmember Dunn's ready to move it this important project and you're and great. Right? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. I don't need a whole lot of explanation, but I would propose order is 2018 0456. All right, that's before us. And a brief overview just quickly, what it does. I think there are two correct. There are. You want to get to them together because the item is for the same reasons I would move ordinance 2018 0456 and also Ordinance 2018 0457 together. Great. And just by way of a high level overview, both these ordinances would give the executive authority to enter into local agreements for construction of and maintenance of trail segments with our partner jurisdictions. Very good port and project. How's it going to end up as it is it happening? It's progressing. Okay. Councilmember Patterson was big on this, I think to make this trail happen. I'm saying not everybody's happy with this legislation. All right. Let's call the roll on those two items, 13 and 14 proposed ordinances, 2018 04560457. Excuse me, the two chair. I believe there may be amendments. Oh, would you move the amendments, Councilmember Dunn These are perfecting technical amendments. That were the direction they are in your packet. Mr. 573 What's the. Safety analysis and do? There they are. These are very long agreements and. What they are for each one of these markets. Sorry, would you say for anyone. Or any one in for 99? For anyone is Amendment One, which replaces attachments. Councilmember Doug. So. 84. I'm Sage page for you on just a memo. And thank you to the first one. And because there are another one. Which I think is that. For 99. And both amendments are technical changes recommended by the council's legal counsel. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now we sorted through the packet just reviewing changes of over 500 page packet here. We're trying to get through like kind of like your phone but anyway, open book. Yeah, that's right. That's obsolete. So should these packets be by the way? But anyway, so to ordinance 2018 0456, which I previously moved, I would move Amendment one and can I move them together now? We'll do it separately in. Favor of Amendment one. Say I, I any opposed? Number one hangs. Yeah. With respect to Ordinance 2018 0457, which I previously moved, I would also move Amendment one on favor. Amendment one, say i, i any opposed Amendment one to the second, ordinance four as hangs now to the underlying ordinances as amended, the clerk will call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Bell Duty Councilmember Dunn. All right. Councilmember Garcia. Councilmember Caldwell So Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember McDermott, Councilmember of the Grove. Councilmember von Richter. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight is one excuse. All right. To pass recommendation has been given to those two items all here. Is there any need to expedite that? No. Yes, I think we're ordinary course. So week from today, we'll call that. Yes, if that's ordinary course. All right. We're going to work it out with. All right. There's one more. Item content, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think they can we can say there's one more item related to review warrants, which we're not going to get to today. And I encourage members just to take a look at that. It involves a code change regarding authority to issue the warrants. If there's nothing further to come before us, we're adjourned and we'll see you for those caucusing with the larger caucus at 1215. So we have time for lunch. Get a lunch. Is that work? Yeah. I canceled it. Oh, we're not caucusing. It's canceled for the smaller caucus. And is anyone welcome or adjourned?

Output: AN ORDINANCE authorizing the King County executive to enter into an interagency agreement between King County, a political subdivision of the state of Washington, and the city of Tukwila, a municipal corporation in the state of Washington, regarding design, construction, ownership, operation, and maintenance of the portion of Segment A of the Lake to Sound trail that is within the city.