A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Carlos Michel, who resides in council district nine, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.
Thank you very much, Commissioner Paula, for being with us today. And I'm sorry that we did not get to hear from Commissioner Surridge, but we're now going to move on to three appointments to the commission there in the agenda item seven, eight and nine. They're going to be briefed together by Melissa Bailey on our central staff. We have, I believe, two of the three appointees with us today. We want to hear from them. We are going to be short on time. We still have another agenda item on the even year election ordinance, which does have some urgency because we do want to have that in time to be placed on the ballot if that is adopted. So, Melissa, please go right ahead. And this begins the staff report begins at ten. Thank you for your calls and good morning. Council members Melissa Bailey with central policy staff. As the Chair noted, this is a combined staff report for the three appointments which are item seven, eight and nine on the agenda, and they begin on page ten of your packet. As noted, the proposed motions are to confirm the executive's appointment of the following three persons to the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, who also became resident of Council District three for the remainder of a three year term expiring September 30th, 2024 five Wilhemina, who resides in Council District five for a partial term, expiring September 30th of this year. And Carlos Michel from Council District nine. For the remainder of a three year term expiring September 30th, 2024, are in the background section of the staff report that included some basic information about the commission, since you've just received a briefing straight to the section with Appointee Information, and I believe we have two of the appointees here who are eagerly waiting to talk with you . So I'm just going to give a little bit of information on appointing. So who wasn't able to be here today? Appointee and information for the appointees begin on page 11 of your packet. On page 12 is information for appointing yourself so based on rent in Highland area. He's currently a senior at Haven High School where he serves on the Associated Student Body Executive Board as the ACP parliamentarian. He will be attending Seattle Pacific University to study nursing. According to his application, Mr. Michelle is looking forward to bringing a youth perspective to the commission and he would serve on the commission as an organizational representative as he was nominated by a Lima fund out of Pueblo. That concludes my remarks that I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much, Melissa. And is there any question? Okay. I've given a short time. We do have two and two of the appointees with us today, and I'd like to have each of them introduce themselves and see if we have any questions. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for your appointment and which is very exciting. And we hope to be confirming you at the full council meeting coming up. But let's start off with, let's see, the dual. Saidu Sadiki I'm saying that Ron, I'm sure that welcome very much and we thank you for joining us and we'd like to hear you give us a little bit of background that you have and what your thoughts are about during the commission. Yes, thank you. My name is Gul Siddiqui and I have been very excited to join the commission. I have been living actually in Arizona for the past 15 years, very actively involved for eight years with the International Humanitarian Organization, moved to Seattle, Washington, and was blessed to continue this work and this passion of working with refugees and with immigrants locally as well as internationally. Here in Seattle. I live in Sammamish and am. Also working as the development manager with the International Rescue Committee, which is a humanitarian global organization responding to the needs of refugees and one of the largest resettlement organizations here in Washington, bringing in a variety of refugees from many, many different countries . I have joined them since January this year. And in fact, it's interesting. I'm sitting outside their Redmond Hotel as we speak because I had an appointment to meet with the site director there. And we are serving and. Helping with their resettlement and the education and the medical services very needs that we are seeing for the families here . So I'm very excited to be part of the King County Commission to be able to channel this effort and bring the voices of the refugees to the commission. Thank you very much. And again, congratulations. How long have you been meeting with the commission? Just this year. Okay. Yes. Very recently? Yes. And do you have any thoughts on what you would like to focus on in your work in serving on the commission? Yes. So I would primarily. The need is to bring the voices of the refugees who are underserved and who have needs that many times are overlooked. Like Lily mentioned, there is hesitation in sometimes speaking of their needs. And we are seeing a few challenges, for example, of Afghan women who are not seeing medical doctors, even though they may be pregnant because of their hesitation of seeing male doctors. So there are a few very sensitive needs that we have to determine how to. Best, you know, bring the resources to them, help with education in this aspect and mainly like connect the dots of what are the resources that are available here in Washington to serve them, but do it in a very empathetic way and do it in a way that shows compassion from Washington. And really, you know, help them in rebuilding their lives here in Washington. Terrific. Again, thank you for your wanting to serve. And you seem to have an outstanding background for being a member of this commission. I'd like to turn now to our second guest appointing Gray Hyman. But he others who I believe like prefers to go by type and excuse me, prefers to go by check like a checklist. So welcome and congratulations to you as well for your appointment. And we'd love to hear from you about your background and as being able to serve on the commission. And you've got a Newt yourself, please. I forgot that. Thank you. Thank you. As you correctly said, my name is Amanat and. People want to call me tackler but shorten it so I can go by tackler. No problem. I am from Eritrea and I went to school in Ethiopia, so I have the passion to help people who speak. Amani and Teresa this are people who live in East Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and as a refugee, I. Would share. My. Experience with. Newcomers to this and my profession. I am a teacher. I have been teaching for the last 30 years. At five. Years. I am. I came to send to the United States and now I am working for open doors for multicultural families. This is an agency who specializes with. Different cultural people getting services for their children with disability. So we. We, we. Kind of unite disability and the cultural diversity that means people from different cultures having their loved ones with disability need culturally responsive services and in open doors we help with this kind of services. My focus is on Amharic and Greek speaking families, though there are other families from East Africa chicken in Tanzania that are included in my caseload. So what would I focus is I would focus on the resettlement of these people. As I said earlier, there are a lot of issues in Ethiopia, Eritrea. Other areas in South Africa, Yemen. All these people, they come to America and when they come here, they find very complex process. As earlier said, they were thinking to succeed easily and to be to integrate easily into the community. But when they come here, they find a lot of problems. So I would share my experience of resettling into the system and trying to be able at least to be self-sufficient on your own and then to help others as well. So that is my intention coming to the commission. I think that would be suffice. And I think you. Thank you very much for your willingness. And I can tell enthusiasm in serving on the commission. You bring an extraordinary background to that role. Are there any questions of my colleagues from my colleagues, council members and asking? Thank you, Chair Coe Wells. I'm sorry for talking so much today. I know we have a packed agenda, but this is a terrific agenda. You. I want to thank both of the appointees for their willingness to serve. And just to do a little advertisment here. A few years ago, the council, as we all know, the county owns our hospital. It's run with you, Doug. Medicine and the council a few years ago took steps to make sure we protected the clinics that are offered up there. And Harborview offers a very unique, as they describe it, International Medicine Clinic for high quality primary and mental health care services for refugees and immigrants 16 years of age and older. They have tremendous and broad language expertize and really have developed an expertize in this area. And I just given the presentation here, an update from the Refugee Commission and this new appointee. TS I thought I would mention it and perhaps encourage them to reach out for a presentation to make sure that the clinic is being connected with leaders in the community who are in direct contact with folks who maybe could use their services. It's a tremendous service we provide here and is more important than ever, I think, given the strife and dislocation around the world, much of which is landed here on our doorsteps in King County. Thank you, Councilmember Dombroski. And are there any other questions or are you all ready to move on for action on these appointments? I assume that's already. Let me just say something. Between. The expenditure, the the other appointee, Carlos Michael. He is a is taking on the remainder of a term and he was raising rent and goes to Hayes in high school as a member of the SB executive board and is the ACP parliamentarian, which is a very useful thing to happen, is attending and going to attend Seattle Pacific University to study nursing next year. So supporters amendment as well. Cool. That's in my district where he will be attending college. So any unless there's any concern expressed, we will go ahead and take action on these three appointments. And Andy Nicholas, can we combine these into one vote or do we need to take them up separately? I think taking off separately would just be the easiest. Okay, we will do that then. So, Councilmember Dunn, as vice chair, I appreciate you're making these motions. The first one would be proposed motion 2020 20130. A proposed motion. 2020 20130. Okay. Any discussion? Will I please call the roll? Thank you, Jeff Caldwell. As I'm able to achieve I. Councilmember DEMBOSKY. I. Councilmember Dunn. I have. Councilmember Thurmond. All right. Councilmember Berry, I. That's the of the girl. Does the member ban Dybala? Councilmember. Hello. I. Chuck Hall Well, I the board is ayes, no nos. The council member bonded by our excuse. Very good. With our vote. We've approved proposed motion 2020 20130, which we will send with the due cast recommendation for the consent agenda at a June 14th Council meeting. Okay. Next Council Member Dunn proposed motion 2020 2013 to be proposed. Motion 2020 20132. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Well, please call the roll. Thank you, chef. Caldwell Council member. Balducci High Council member. DEMBOSKY, I council member. Done. I. Council Member McDermott, I. Councilmember Perry, I. Council member at the grow i. Council member Van de Boer. Council member, Sally. I. Scott Caldwell I know what is air no nos in council member Bundaberg Bower. Excuse me. Thank you. With our vote we have approved proposed motion 2020 20130. Where am I? Three, two. We will send with with the Duke's recommendation for the consent agenda to the June 14th Council meeting. And then lastly, I council and return proposed motion 2020 20133. View Proposed Motion 2020 20133. Okay. Any discussion? Okay, Bill and Kirk, then please call the roll. Thank you, Chair Caldwell Council Member By the time I council member DEMBOSKY I council member Dunn I had. Councilman McDermott. I. As a member. Perry, I. Council member Afterglow II Council Member Van de Boer. Council member, Sally High. Chuck how well on the boat is ayes no nos in council member type our excuse thank you with our vote we've approved proposed motion 2020 20133 which we will send with the deepest recommendation or the consent agenda to the June 14th Council meeting. And thank you both of the appointees who are here today. I really enjoyed meeting with you, reading about your background and am very, very. Impressed. And believe you're going to make very strong commissioners. You do not need to attend our June 14th meeting because we placed the appointments on consent for confirmation and we will be notified. You, of course you can you can tune in as well, but congratulations. Okay. Our last item on the agenda is proposed ordinance 2020 20180, which proposed to the King County Charter to move elections for state and county offices from odd numbers to even numbered years. And we would by passing this, we would send this to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection of the November eight, 2022