A MOTION declaring King County's support for the Cities for Citizenship initiative and directing the executive to sign the county onto the initiative as a participating community.
I believe I referred to our analyst Derek and woman as clerk. That was unintentional and I apologize for that. And we will now move on to item number ten on our agenda, which is proposed motion see 2020 20153 that would declare a King County support for the Cities for Citizenship Initiative. And direct. The executive to sign the currency into the initiative and the initiative as the participating community. And we will have analyst Melissa Bailey brief us. We also have with this Nina Hashimi, who is the director of the Relations for the Executive Office and the Cities for Citizen Citizenship Initiative is a national initiative aimed at increasing citizenship for eligible permanent residents in the United States and encouraging cities and counties across the country to invest in citizen shift programs. So we will hear from Melissa there. And then Mina Hashimi is available for questions from council member Belgium is the sponsor of this legislation will also offer a verbal amendment to this one as well. Go ahead, analyst Bailey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Most Council Central Staff Materials for proposed motion 2020 20153 begin on page 39 of your packet. The proposed motion would declare King County support for the Cities for Citizenship Initiative and direct the executive to sign the county on as a participating community. It would also request the executive designate a county representative as the liaison to the initiative and express the county's intent to work collaboratively with both the national initiative and local community based organizations to increase citizenship. Immigrants and refugees in King County as well. Background cities for citizenship, as was noted, is a national initiative that works with both cities and counties to increase citizenship among eligible permanent residents in the United States. It goes by CPAC for short, started in 2014 and now has over 100 partnering communities across the country. In Washington state, that includes the cities of Kirkland, Redmond, Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima, as well as Kitsap County. The initiatives coordinated by the National Partnership for New Americans and chaired by the mayors of New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles City is the founding corporate partner. Supercedes Primary Focus is on lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders who are eligible to naturalize. In King County, there are approximately 75,000 lawful permanent residents eligible for naturalization. Moving to the analysis section of the staff report on page 42, local governments participating in the initiative receive free access to technical support, policy advice, best practices , research and demographic data and networking opportunities with other jurisdictions, all with the goal to increase the number of citizenship applicants. In return, the participating communities are encouraged to share information on their naturalization efforts, be an annual survey, participate in monthly partner calls and attend the initiative's annual municipal gathering. Local governments are also asked to provide a point of contact for the initiative. There are no membership or registration fees to join, and membership is not dependent on establishing certain programs or policies. CPAC states that participation is flexible and up to the capacity of the local jurisdiction. The proposed motion does direct the executive to designate a county representative to serve as a liaison. To see policy in the primary cost associated with the initiative would be the staff time necessary to participate. That said, executives have noted that while they have not yet developed an implementation plan, they believe these responsibilities would likely be handled by an existing FTT or TLT. The executive's office plans to work with the Office of Equity and Social Justice to identify the appropriate staff person to serve as the reason. That concludes my remarks, Madam Chair, I'd be happy to answer any questions. And as you've noted, we have executive staff here as well to help. Thank you. Are there any questions of analysts favor? And as mentioned, we have Nina Hashimi here from the Executive Office. And so, Director Hashemi, would you like to send. Thank you, Carol. Good morning, councilmembers. No further comments from me, but we appreciate council member Malcolm G sponsoring the motion and looks forward to partnering with the organization to organize the Minister and the Council should the proposed motion be passed. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Director How soon? Okay with that, let's go to Councilmember Belton. She'd like to make a motion and also speak to your legislation. Thank you very much, chair corrals and I'd like to move. Approval of motion 2020 20153. And then just to speak to it briefly. The report was was very it was thorough and good. We've been requested a number of times over the last few years to join this effort. It is a collaboration with some of the biggest jurisdictions in the country of which we are, of course, one. Several of our cities, as was reported, have joined already. And I know that this council is keenly aware of the challenges and the increased challenges that have faced the immigrant residents of our communities. This is one approach to one sector of that challenge, and it is the fact that there are many people in our county who are eligible for permanent citizenship who for one reason or another don't achieve that, that goal. And we know that people who don't attain citizenship are at a disadvantage or disadvantage legally with job opportunities and ultimately with economic opportunity and stability. And so this is a great opportunity for us to take the things that we are already doing. By the way, I want to remind the council that we approved in recognition of the fact that we have approved a number of things that make that address this exact problem, providing during the pandemic, $11 million in pandemic relief to immigrants and refugees, and $5 million to help defray the cost of applying for naturalization, both of which are right in line with the values of this organization that we're and collaboration that we are considering joining today. So I highly recommend that we continue down this path that we join with our colleagues in Seattle, Redmond, Kirkland and other places around the country in encouraging naturalization of those who are here, contributing to our communities and would benefit from completing their naturalization. And I urge your support. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Eldridge, I am very excited about this legislation. I appreciate your two words. Would you? Are there any questions before we go on to the amendment? Councilmember Perry. Thank you, Chair Colwell. So just to be clear, the immigrants in our community, our immigrant community members pay taxes, correct? That's affirmative. Right. Okay. Well, I just wanted to acknowledge that. And I also want to say, I just think this is terrific. I love it when people are given more and more opportunities to move closer in and participate as deeply as possible in their communities for the better of all. And so where folks are willing to do that, I'm eager to do that. Immigrant and refugee community that I've experienced specifically in Bedford and Spanish district are some of the most patriotic, patriotic and actively engaged community members that I've experienced in in this last year especially. And I just think this is terrific. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Yeah. Just a quick question. And I'm sure whoever wants to ask, is there a cost associated to the county with supporting this particular initiative? So you foresee. This from councilmember done. And so there is not. There's no there's no admission fee. We may decide to undertake activities, but we could decide that anyway. So. But there's no cost to join. I think. Are there any other questions? Councilmember Bowdich, who would you please offer you an amendment? This is a verbal amendment. Verbal amendment. So I move that on line four of the motion. The number 190,000 be changed to 290,000. And I'm happy to explain. Please go ahead. So line four through six currently states, whereas there are approximately 190,000 lawful permanent residents in Washington State and over 75,000 lawful permanent residents eligible to naturalize in King County. That was just a typo. There are actually 290,000 lawful permanent residents in Washington state. So it's just a factual correction. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions on the amendment? It's all in favor of this rebel amendment. Please. By saying. I like any. Person. All right. Okay. The amendment is seconded, and we now will move to a roll call vote on motion 2020 20153 as amended. Councilmember Jenny Concluding Remarks. We can hear your muted. I couldn't unmute for some reason there. I have finally got it. Sorry. No, no, no. Urge support. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. When I called around, please call the roll out. Thank you. Joe Caldwell, council member about the chair i council member DEMBOSKY. I council member done by. Council member McDermott. High. Council member, Barry. I council member at the Grille, i. Council member, Andre Bauer. I. Council members, Caroline. I. Chuckle. Well. Hi. The board is nice eyes. No nos and no excuse. Thank you. With our vote, we have approved proposed motion 2020 20153 as amended. And unless there are concerns, we will send this motion with the due process recommendation by the consent agenda to the April 19. Council. Meeting. And we are now on our final item item now, which is a motion sponsored by councilmembers Dunn and Dombroski that would request the executive to develop a comprehensive response to the crisis in Ukraine. We know that Executive Constantine has already announced and implemented many plans for welcoming and assisting refugees from Ukraine and for ensuring that we