A MOTION making an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the west division, west electoral district, judge position number five of the King County district court.
Councilmember Bell has moved approval of the minutes. See? No discussion. All those in favor please signify by saying i i. I opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The minutes were approved. That takes us to item six in today's agenda. This is where we make an appointment to fill a judicial vacancy in the West District of King County District Court. The process governed by King County Code for the appointment in front of us today, the West in the West District members will recall that the county advertised the vacancy last year in accepting applications through January 21st, 2021 . We received two applications from four eligible candidates during the application period. Since there were four applicants, a subcommittee process was used to narrow the finalists to be interviewed by the committee of the whole Council members. Following Caldwell's and I held interviews for all four candidates on February 24th and 26th to narrow the field to three candidates who are with us today. At this point in time, I would entertain a motion to select contender Dylan, Rebecca Robertson and Christian Shotwell as the finalists to be interviewed by the committee consistent with King County Code two 1720. So moved Councilmember Dunn has moved to. We consider Dylan Robertson and Shotwell in today's meeting saying no discussion of those in favor of the motion please signify by saying I am. I. Those opposed nay. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Before we proceed any further, I want to provide members of the attendees with an overview of how the process will work. Members who have received the application materials by email on Monday and those materials were sent around again this morning by email to be close to the top of your inbox. We'll begin to today's proceedings with a brief staff report on the proposed motion from Porter Central Staff. And after the staff report, the committee will interview each candidate one at a time. During the interview, the candidates not being interviewed will be placed in a zoom waiting room so as to not get an advance review of the questions or the other candidates answers. Each once each candidate has been interviewed. If there is interest among council members, the committee may go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of candidates. We will then rejoin the Zoom meeting and take up the legislation. Are there any questions on how this will work for me, their members or our candidates? Before we get started. See none. Miss Porter. The line is yours for Mr. Presentation. And Mr. Chair. Sam Porter, Council Central Policy Staff. The documents for this item began on page nine of your packet oppose motion 2020 10056 would make an appointment to fill the current judicial vacancy and position five in the West District of King County District Court. Under state law, the King County Council, as the legislative authority is directed to fill district court vacancies by appointment. The King County Code provides a merit selection process for filling such vacancies. District Court is the county's court of limited jurisdiction and has responsibility for traffic infractions, small claims and misdemeanor criminal offenses in counties, unincorporated areas in cities that do not have municipal courts and contract with the court to provide those services and for the adjudication of state offenses, which are violations of state statute in the county, or when the arresting agency is the Washington State Patrol or other state law enforcement agency. Approximately 134,000 cases were filed in the court in 2020. Position five in the West Electoral District was made vacant by the retirement of Judge and Harper. As the chair mentioned, four eligible individuals submitted applications and there was a subcommittee process to determine the finalists last week. The finalists who will be interviewed today current bar association ratings for the final candidates can be seen in a grid on page 15 of your packet, and I will note that in its current form, the motion has a blank space for the name of the person being appointed, and a verbal amendment will be needed to insert the name of their selected appointee. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Are there questions of Miss Porter? Very well. I expect each interview to take roughly 20 minutes and ask each candidate to provide opening and closing remarks to be limited to minutes after time and their opening and closing remarks. Members should have received a prepared set of suggested interview questions by email this morning. In accordance with best practice, I will ask members to volunteer to read the prepared interview questions. Before the meeting, we randomly assigned an order of the interviews and we begin with and we will begin with Kristen Shotwell, followed by full gender Dillon and then followed by Rebecca Robertson in all three questions. Now, in a moment, I'll ask the clerk to place Ms.. Dillon and Ms.. Robertson in the zoom waiting room. And as a reminder to members and staff, please note the clerks admit people from the waiting room to avoid the temptation to click on the admit button questions. Seen none, Madam Couric. If you'll make the appropriate. Break out adjustments. You let me know when we're ready. Mr. Chair. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Hartwell. Well, welcome. To the committee. The Hall. We want to thank you for your interest in serving in District Court and welcome you to our meeting this afternoon. This morning hasn't gone on that long yet, and I invite you to begin with opening remarks and ask you to limit them to 2 minutes. Thank you and good morning to the entire council. I really appreciate this opportunity to be here today to talk with you all. I am a community minded, hard worker and I just want to tell you briefly how I believe I became that way. I grew up on a farm in eastern Washington near Yakima in a small farming community. My grandparents were farmers. They had a sixth and eighth grade education. My parents were farmers, but they had the opportunity to go to college and they both became schoolteachers. So they farmed and they taught school. On the farm I grew up on, which I worked with my twin sister and my parents. I learned very quickly the value of hard work. If we wanted heat inside our home, we had to chop wood and bring it inside. If we wanted food on the table. We had to turn the garden and turn the animals. That really stuck with me about how I grew. Up. Was the kind of community I grew up in, and that's the kind of community that took care of each other. Neighbors helped each other as the neighbors animals got out. You went out and you helped round them up no matter what time of night and no matter how cold it was. But then you also helped your neighbor mend fences so that it didn't happen again. And that's the kind of community I grew up I grew up in, which makes me community oriented. I left the farm at age 18 to play basketball at Yale on scholarship. And you can imagine, I'm sure, that I was a fish out of water there having just left the farm. It took me a while to find my place there, and I eventually did learn to trust in my ability to learn almost anything. But most importantly there I found my calling in public service and. I noticed, I began to notice and I began to really bother me. The wealth disparity I saw between my classmates and the many homeless people in New Haven. And then as I studied sociology and history and kind of became awake, I realized it was part of historical racial injustice. And I see that one time went really fast. So I'll skip to the conclusion. You know, I love the district court. I've had many experiences that were positive as a pro tem, as a lawyer. My wife and I chose to be married there, and I've had many excellent teachers there in terms of the judges and the court staff. And I would be honored to serve on the incoming district court. Thank you. Colleagues to someone want to step up and ask the first question. Council Member Col Wells. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Greetings to you again. Thank you. What do you see is the most critical issue the court is facing and what you believe the role of the district court judge would be in addressing this? Well, you know, we talked about that in the subcommittee. I have thought about it and I thought about it some more, actually, since the last time we talked. You know, one of the critical issues in our society has always been the role of inherent and structural racism in our institutions and in our society and in our courts . The role of the court is is critical in that we have a moment now, I think, where we are all as a society, re-imagining how we want to be and what the court's role is going to be in that. Some really important things are happening now. For example, Court Rule 3.4 has been changed, which really eases the burden of defendants charged with crimes from having to come to court. Every month we'll see childcare and missed work and roundup transportation. And so the court should embrace those changes that move toward equity. The court needs to study its own practices and policies, and before any policy or procedure is adopted, the court needs to ask, you know, is it just is it fair, is it equitable? Does it promote equity? Of course it has to be lawful, but that goes without saying. And then, you know, always there's the budget impact, of course. But we can't we have to start asking our questions, asking ourselves on every policy, every decision, does this promote equity? So that's the role of the court. I can address the role of the judge or or what I personally have done later, if that's a question. But I'll leave it at that right now. But certainly self-examination for the organization as a whole is really important. Thank you. Next question. Thank you. Councilmember Belushi and myself a moment. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome. It's very nice to meet you and to hear from you. I want to say I was very taken by one of the anecdotes in your reference letters that concluded with Kristen. Shotwell knows it all by virtue of knowing the price of tomatoes. I thought that was said a lot in a in a very and very pithy way. This question is, please describe how you have incorporated equity and social justice principles into your work in the justice system and how that work would be furthered if you are appointed to this position. Thank you. So really important question. And I asked myself that for 25 years as a practitioner, I have stood as a social worker and a lawyer side by side clients for 25 years, nearly who face everyday the impacts of structural racism, blatant racism, implicit bias. And so aside from examining that, in every case, as a practitioner filing appropriate motions, asking what you're doing on implicit bias, asking for instructions, you know, the District Court and Superior Court judges made a wonderful video for jurors on implicit bias. Of course we ask that to be we played in an every jury trial the the. And so as a practitioner I've made all of those appropriate motions and talked about that in every case. But this is not as I said it, this is not academic for me. This is really important because it affects my clients and my work. And so I have when DPD formed its Equity Society and Justice Committee, I signed up right away, particularly the community outreach part, because that's something I really enjoy and working on that body. I worked with a group of wonderful people and and kids who've been involved with law enforcement before and who have negative experiences. And we produced a series of videos aimed at kids, teaching kids kids to know their rights when they come into contact with law enforcement and as deeply satisfying and so on. PROJECT Ultimately, the goal is to take that kind of know your rights assembly your presentation into schools codes delayed that a little bit but that's the goal. The other type of work that I do around race equity is that I'm on the legal foundation of Washington's Race Equity Grants Panel, which is work that is really satisfying to me because we that panel meets at least twice a year and reviews grant applications for programs designed all over the state, actually designed to promote access to justice and equity in the courts and justice programs. And so the panel I'm on gets to review all those applications and make funding decisions. And it's satisfying not because I get to figure out how to spend money, but it's it's satisfying because I get to hear all the amazing work being done statewide on that issue. And I've done that, I think, for two or two or three years now. And then additionally, I, I volunteer in the lab and see mock trial judging and the mock trial judge. And I really like to focus my outreach to students in those settings on students who might be interested in public service and make myself available to them. Thank you. Right. Thank you. And colleagues, next question. All right. The next question is. How is it? Maybe I'm getting it off the hook. No, no, no. Okay. In the subcommittee, you were asked to describe what your previous coworkers and would say is your greatest weakness. Yes. Please describe what you believe to be your greatest strength and how it would make you successful if appointed to this position. Okay. Well, I think I think a couple of things. My. I think one of my greatest strengths relevant to this position is my decades experience working with people who have substance abuse and mental health issues. Because I and I guess we can put that all under the rubric of social work training, because as a social worker, I'm trained to think in systems and systems and organizations and then think in terms of how individually how a person interacts with all of the systems in their lives. So I, I can't help but think in terms of a work flow process, operations way to do things the way we do. And I have a really strong sense of the treatment resources in our community. I understand that we don't have treatment on demand. Maybe one day we will. But I understand the barriers that, for example, criminal defendants sentenced to participate in those services. I understand the barriers they may face in accessing those services. And then to take it down sort of on more of a micro level, I think my social work training and my experience as a public defender really are going to enable me as a judge to see clearly the person in front of me and see what it is that we need to do to help that person so that we can reduce recidivism and make us all safer. Those are those are things I've been doing for over 20 years as a lawyer and social worker is trying to interrupt the recidivist cycle. So I think that's a particular strength. Thank you. Colleagues, are there any follow up questions? Then I would invite you to share your closing, if you will. And again, ask you to shoot for 2 minutes. Okay. Thank you. So, you know, each of us is the sum of our choices and our experiences and. I'd like to share with you on experience. I had that stayed with me now for almost 25 years because it's deeply meaningful to me when my first job out of social work, graduate school was as a social worker in a Latino nursing home, and one evening a patient was dying. And one day I called the priest. We customarily use his Spanish, but he wasn't available. So I called the next time I'm down on the list and that priest came very quickly, but he did not speak Spanish. And I showed him to the patient's door. And as I turned to leave, he waved me inside the room and then asked me to interpret last rites. And I froze. I was terrified. I had never done that before. What if I can stay Catholic, etc. but I didn't really have long to contemplate that because the priest grabbed my hand and began speaking and direct and he grabbed the dying man's hand. And so I began interpreting and I spent a little bit of time worrying I wasn't doing this right, etc. Since I've mentioned it pretty quickly , I looked at the man and I saw that his face went. It went from pain and fear to comfort and peace. And I it struck me in that moment, this is not about me. This is about doing it perfectly. It's about showing up in a moment. That's scary and challenging for somebody who needs me to be there and. It's not about me, and that's an experience I have taken with me through the last 24, 25 years in public service. And I guarantee you that if I get on the district court bench, if I should be so lucky that every person in front of me who appears in front of me. I'm going to see them. I'm going to show up and be present. And they're going to know that. I know it's not about me as a judge. Thank you. Thank you very much. No, thank you. I will now ask the clerk to admit Mrs. Shotwell into the waiting room and invite back in. Miss Dylan. Is the shot well in the waiting room now. Yes, Mrs. Thatcher. Thank you. We are ready with the second candidate. Miss Dillon, thank you very much for joining us today. Again, thank you for your interest in serving on the King County District Court in the West District. I want to welcome you to the full committee, the hall today. And I begin by inviting you to share your opening remarks and ask you to shoot for 2 minutes. Thank you so much. Good morning to you and the rest of the council. My name is called Gender Dillon. It is an honor and a privilege to appear before the council this morning. I am the daughter of East Indian immigrants who left India to find work and opportunities to build a better life for themselves. My parents settled in England in the 1960s. My family faced discrimination because of how they looked, what they wore, and how they sounded. In England, my father drove the city bus and my mother was a seamstress and raised three children. My parents dream was to open their own business. They instilled values of hard work, education and giving back to the community. My parents were able to buy their first home with grants from the government. My parents saved and were able to achieve their dream of buying their own business. A small grocery store in Edinburgh, Scotland. Unlike many clients I have represented over the last 17 years as a public defense lawyer and a private defense attorney. My story of coming to the United States is a story of privilege. My uncle sponsored our family through the family lottery system, and in 1990 we received our permanent residence cards. I moved to the United States when I was 17 years old. My parents followed a few years later. I'm the first person in my immediate family to get a college degree and an advanced degree. During college, I gave back to the community that I lived in by volunteering at a domestic violence shelter. I started to understand the power of a new language, the language of the law, and how that how the law could be used to ensure safety for those escaping abusive relationships. When I moved to King County 30 years ago, it was not the multicultural county it is today. Today, King County ranks as one of the wealthiest counties in the country. However, wealth and security are not equally distributed. Today, King County faces problems of homelessness, a looming eviction crisis due to the global pandemic and racial disparities. We see many of these issues playing out in our courts. There is much work to be done, but it is my hope that we continue to reevaluate and reimagine the justice system and use recent development and technology as an access to justice tool. I believe my unique experiences and perspectives are a valuable addition to the King County bench, and it is my hope that the parties who come before me and the community as a whole see in me a reflection of our diverse county. And I hope this leads to people having a greater trust in the legal system. And I am happy to answer your questions. Thank you. And our first question. Pardon me. It's a member of Cowell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome. And very good to see you again. Good morning. My question is, what do you see as the most critical issue facing or is there crisis facing? And what do you believe that the role of district court judges is in addressing this most critical issue? Thank you so much and nice to see you again as well. And. I believe there are a number of critical issues that the district court faces at this time. And just to give you some background, I have been sitting as a pro tem judge for the last three years in the King County district court system. I have been invited to sit in each division, and I usually sit for 2 to 3 days a week. And during the pandemic, I have been sitting for weeks at a time in all the different divisions. And I do sit in the West District as well. What I what I have noticed is that COVID 19 obviously has had a tremendous impact on our courts. And the COVID 19 pandemic has caused a tremendous backlog of the cases that are waiting to be tried. It is my understanding from the bench bar meetings with defense counsel, private defense counsel at the prosecutor's office that there are over 2000 unfilled misdemeanor cases in King County District Court that have not been filed. Obviously, that will take a number of years to work through this backlog. Another issue that faces the district court is the lack of alternatives for incarceration. There is no work that is active. There's no work community work crew. As an alternative to pardon me that the judges can use. There's also limited places that court users can do community service and perform their community service hours. Also, the community court has been closed, but it is going to be opening hopefully fairly soon. And the court and the community court has also expanded. I also believe that another issue that the district court faces is the digital divide that folks are struggling with. In my experience as a pro tem judge, the people that I'm seeing who are physically coming to the court are from the Bipoc community and English language learners. Some of those issues the courts have addressed, and in my role as a judge, I've addressed the issue regarding the digital divide by speaking with using interpreters to let people know that they are welcome to use digital platforms and if they have capabilities. I've also spoken to people about alternate, how they can use digital platforms with their substance use treatment providers. We've had a number of substance use treatment providers who have logged on with their clients, and that has been really a terrific. One of the ways that I educate people in non-English speakers about the digital platforms is to ask interpreters if they have the time to and if the court doesn't have the digital platform instructions printed in their native language to go into one of the Zoom breakout rooms and help users understand the instructions on how to log on . And the interpreters are very happy to do this very quickly. In terms of community service, the Court has we have gotten very creative with what community service means. In the past. Community service was done at not for profit organizations in the community, but because of the COVID 19 pandemic, a lot of community service organizations were not able to have people do community service. And in the ways that people did prior to COVID, I have engaged with people who I have sentenced to do community service and helped them think outside of the traditional box. And I have helped them figure out what things that they are interested in. And then using the skills that I have developed in my private practice and as well as my knowledge of community services, I have helped court users understand that they are able to do community service and organizations online. So the court has been creative of accepting online community service with organizations that have helped benefit people such as community passageways. Thank you. Colleagues, council member Balducci. And Mr. Chair, and it's very nice to meet you and thank you for replying and congratulations on making it to be a finalist. I like to call out one thing in each application that that really spoke to me in ten years. I was I was taken by your experience working with victims and domestic violence advocacy and your involvement with the immigrant and refugee community right after that really tragic shooting in our own courthouse and just below where we would be sitting if we were doing this in person. So thank you for your work in that regard. And I think that gives you an interesting view on the entirety of the criminal justice system. Like often is, please describe how you have incorporated equity and social justice principles into your work in the justice system and how that work would be furthered if you were appointed to the position. Thank you so much for your words and. I have. I think before I answer your question specifically with examples of what I've done to address disproportionality and bias in the justice system, I do want to take a moment to say that I have been affected emotionally by the horrors of what we have seen over on our television screens and our cell phone screens over the last year. And I do appreciate you, council member Balducci, for making a statement about the fact that people who were from Asian-American communities have been singled out and have been assaulted and racist vitriol has been lobbed at them. So to answer your question, when I was a defense counsel, lead defense counsel in juvenile drug court, which is a therapeutic court in juvenile court, superior court, I worked collaboratively with the prosecutor and to restructure policies regarding sanctions and drug courts and violations and terminations from drug court in order to reduce youth incarceration and racial disproportionality. I also worked collaboratively with the drug court team to implement evidence, evidence based interventions and supports to make sure that services that the youth were receiving were culturally appropriate. I also worked in juvenile court in the juvenile system with prosecutors, defense attorneys, schools and probation counselors to end incarcerating youth on status offenses and specifically truancy cases. And I worked to strengthen interventions prior to those cases actually coming to court. Some of the community organizations that we worked with were Choose 180 and Community Passageways. And through that work, the number of truancy cases that were actually filed in court dropped dramatically. I've also taking taken a number of trainings in cultural competency and bias, particularly implicit bias and its impact on jurors. I've used the information that I've learned through those trainings in my practice and as a pro tem judge, and I work very hard to recognize my own biases and to set them aside when when they're influencing my decisions. Also, in the work that I that I do as a pro tem, it's really important to me that the people who come before the court understand the resources that are available to them. I will say just anecdotally, my parents have lived in English speaking countries for 50 years and they are very proud of their their ability to speak English. But there are still times, and especially in the medical system, that they too need interpreters. I use that anecdotal story, too, to tell people who come before me that that even though they are they speak English quite well, it is imperative that they use an interpreter to understand what is happening in court, and so that I can understand what they are trying to say if they are representing themselves. So I remind court users that they are entitled to use interpreters for their probation appointments as well as during the entire court process. Also, I'm active in the community through the South Asian Bar Association. I also mentor young lawyers, and when I say young, I should say I'm sorry. I should correct myself and say folks who are just entering the legal profession or or who are just are still in law school. And and that's really rewarding work. So I think all those experiences and the work that I've done collaboratively help me, will help me in my role to work with the partners in the justice system. Thank you so much. Thank you. And colleagues. All right. I'll have the last prepared question, and that is in the subcommittee. You were asked to describe what your previous coworkers would say is your greatest weakness. Please describe what you believe to be your greatest strength and how it would make you successful if you were appointed to this position. Thank you so much for the question. I don't know if it was if it's cheating to use the same weakness as a for but I do think especially with the backlog of cases that the King County District Court faces, I do think that my strong work ethic is definitely needed at this time. And but to answer your question directly, I think that my coworkers probably would say that one of my strengths is the fact that I am able to listen to people and connect with them on a deep level. I pride myself on being able to speak to people and make them feel comfortable. I've had a number of jobs that have helped me do that. I've been working since I was 11 years old. First at my parents grocery store, I sold shoes. I have made sausages. I've waited tables at some of our finest restaurants in Seattle. So I have held a number of jobs. And I think that that perspective and the perspective of having a number of jobs in the legal system. Councilmember Baldridge, she mentioned that I had been a domestic violence victim advocate. I've been a domestic I was a domestic violence victim advocate, advocate first in the community and then as part of the King County prosecutor's office. And I've also worked as private as a private defense attorney. So I understand some of the challenges that the private bar faces. And I also have work to the public defense attorney. I think these different roles that I've had will make me a strong partner on the bench. And I believe that my the letters that I've had written that that is included in my materials are varied there from judges, defense attorneys and prosecutors and community partners that I've worked with over the last 20, 24 years. And I think they all speak to my strengths and I look forward to being on the bench. The future. I'm Councilmember Lambert. Thank you. I know you said. It was last question. I couldn't get my. And you've written and you've. Relative safety. Thank you, sir. I would like to know. A couple of weeks ago, there was a calendar of 70 people that came before one of the judges, and most of them had been arrested for a different crime within the last couple of weeks. How will you handle something like that when you see a recidivism coming through like that. In such a short. Timespan? Thank you for your question, Councilmember Lambert. You know, that is an issue that we struggle with every day. I do sit on the felony first appearance calendar as well as the first appearance calendars in the district court and arraignment calendars. And we do unfortunately see recidivism and people who have come before the court on a short period of time. And undoubtedly the council is aware that our crime statistics have increased dramatically. Many of those cases where the crime statistics have increased are under the purview of the Superior Court. I can assure you that with respect to violent crimes, the judges are bound by the rules that govern pretrial release, which require that I make specific findings of either a danger to the community or a likelihood of flight. And if I'm appointed, I will commit to be bound by those standards and rules in making bail decisions. And obviously, it will play into the step into my decision making, the number of times that a person has appeared in court in terms of nonviolent offenses, I will say that the district court is does a very good job . In our community court program to address recidivism and. It's a program that is proven to reduce recidivism rates. It's increases it. The research that I have done on community courts show that there's a decrease of costs to crime victims. There's a reduction of the use of jail, and there is a reduction of recidivism. So I hope I have answered your question. Thank you. Thank you. See no other follow up questions from colleagues. I would invite you to share your closing statement and ask you to shoot for about 2 minutes. Thank you so much. In my opening, I talked about why my personal experiences, my values and my unique perspective will enhance the King County District Court bench. I have served the community as the judge pro tem for the last three years. It's been a rewarding, challenging and enriching experience. I have a reputation. Pardon me? I have earned the respect of the judges. And I am asked to sit on voluminous and difficult calendars, both criminal and civil. I have a reputation for honesty, integrity and fairness. I've been rated exceptionally well qualified by six bar associations, including the King County Bar Association. I am proficient in all the technologies in the court, including the new case management system that the King County District Court rolled out in October of this past year. I've sought out training during the pandemic and so that I am fair regarding procedures in remote hearings and the trainings that I've taken. Help me make sure that I'm fair to not only folks that I can see on platforms such as this, but also if people just appear on the telephone. My experiences as a pro tem judge will allow me to step in on day one to address the backlog of cases caused by the COVID pandemic. I look forward to administering the court with my colleagues. I also come in to work side by side with my bench mates in King County and across the state to dismantle the policies and structures of racial disproportionality and and inequality. So we truly have a justice system for all. I want to thank you all for your time and your commitment to this important process. Thank you again. Thank you very much, Mr. Dunn. And Madam, critical invite you to excuse Mr. Allen from the Zoom meeting and invite Miss Robertson to join us. We're ready, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much. Miss Robertson, welcome. Thank you again for your interest in serving on the King County District Court in the West District. And welcome to the full committee the whole this morning. I need to check and make sure it's still morning. I will invite you to share your opening comments and ask you to shoot for about 2 minutes. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. I was just about to write a note to show you that I could not unmute. Thank you so much for having me. I very much appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to you all. I am Rebecca Robertson. For the last 11 years, I have been a full time elected judge in the City of Federal Way. I am a former president of the District and Municipal Court Judges Association, and I'm currently the representative from the District and Municipal Court Judges Association to the Board for Judicial Administration. For the last 11 years, my job has been to provide equal, fair and thoughtful and compassionate justice to the people of federal way and statewide. I had the experience and the passion to do this job and to bring these this experience to King County District Court. I grew up in King County. I was raised by my mom, with my sister in Bothell. When my sister and I decided to go to college, my mom decided to go back with us and we all went to college together. And I have to admit, she probably studied harder and she did get better grades than both my sister and I. My family raised me to believe that my job should be to help other people and to help to make the world better. And what kind of job would I do to make that happen? I did a lot of internships to find out what my interests were, where my skills lay. And I landed as a victim advocate for both the Seattle Police Department and King County District Court. I realized that the criminal justice system was where I wanted to be. I was a prosecutor for cities of Kent and Seattle for nine years, and while I was a prosecutor, I realized that I really could effectuate better justice as a judge. I started to protest in King County District Court, and in 2009, I was elected as a full time judge in federal way. As you may know, Federal Way is one of the busiest municipal courts in the state. We process thousands of thousands of cases per year. It is a very diverse community with all of the issues that King County is currently experiencing, including racial inequity in the justice system and society as a whole, and how we are going to address that. Homelessness. The Opioid Crisis. As a judge, I have dealt with administrative and budget issues as well as all of the other issues that I would handle as a King County District Court judge. I've been a leader in the District and Municipal Court Judges Association throughout the years, and I would like to take this experience and leadership and court administration to King County District Court. And I very much welcome the opportunity to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you very much. For the first question. Council Member Wells. Thank you very much and good to have you with us again. Thank you. And I have a question that is, what do you see as the most critical issue facing the courts? And what do you believe the role of the judges is in terms of addressing this most critical issue. In current times? The most critical issue is how we respond to the pandemic and all other times are most critical issue is handling the mental health, homelessness, drug addiction crisis is happening all over the country. The pandemic simply makes all of these things harder. The judge's role is to work with all of the executives and the councils across the state to really make the courtroom a safer place so that we can continue the business of delivering justice. That we have had a difficult year doing that, but we have risen to that challenge. Most of us are on Zoom court or doing a hybrid Zoom court. We are allowing people to continue cases out longer. We are making our courtroom safer with various PPE devices, etc. And we are also understanding that as it is harder for us, it is also harder for everyone appearing before us. Those who are addressing their mental health or addiction issues are having a harder time because those organizations have been affected by the pandemic as well. The judge's role is to really lead the entire court in responding to these issues, to understand the issues that the defense attorneys and the prosecutors are having as well. And certainly to understand the issues that this pandemic is causing for the folks who appear before us. Most of them have been economically affected by this pandemic, and that's something that we have to recognize and address as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Maneuvering to my own unmute button. Thank you. Next question. Council member Banducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Judge Roberts. And it's very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for being interested in this position at King County. And I'd just like to make an observation about each of the candidates. You obviously stand out by virtue of your judicial experience. You have a lot. And I was taken, by the way, in your recommendations, you see that you're kind of a judges judge, that other municipal judges look to you as a a resource and a supporter. And that that speaks, I think, to the level of respect that you have developed in your career. So I think you just wanted to share that. I had noted that. And that's that stands out. The question is you're welcome. The question is, please describe how you have incorporated equity and social justice principles into your work in the justice system and how that work would be further if you were appointed to this position. So I think the first thing is to acknowledge that racial inequities and social inequities exist and they exist in the justice system, they exist in society before people even get to the courts. They have experienced a number of these inequities, and that's something that courts always have to recognize and look beyond what you see on paper to understand what someone has gone through, what their experiences have been. So a simple recognition is the first step. Secondly, I have educated myself as much as I can on what these social and racial inequities are, how I may recognize them, how I address implicit or explicit bias in my courtroom, and the best practices for having to dealing with those inequities. It's very scary for anyone to appear in court, but when you feel that society has everything stacked against you and you've never been treated fairly, it becomes even worse. So it's part of my job to explain the process to people, to explain to them that they are going to be treated fairly, to do so at every opportunity to acknowledge what they've gone through in the system. And I will take my 11 years of experience doing this and learning about this and federal way to King County, where I would hope that I would assist my colleagues in continuing this learning process about how to best address all of these inequities. Thank you. Thank you. And in the subcommittee, you were asked to describe what your previous coworkers might see as your greatest weakness. And please describe what you believe to be your greatest strength and how it would make you successful as appointed to this position. So I believe that my greatest strength, and I've heard this from people who appear before me is my ability to listen. I don't believe that the job of a judge is to lecture. The job of the judge is to listen to the people who appear before, before the judge. So I really spend a lot of time listening to what people have to tell me so that I can make a more thoughtful and appropriate decision when they appear before me. One of my other strengths is being able to efficiently run a courtroom and run a calendar. And when you have an extremely busy court such as Federal Way or King County District Court, that's important because. How long a court runs or how well it's run does have effect on the rest of the court and on the attorneys and on the defense attorneys and people who are appearing before you are taking time out of their busy lives to appear in court. So respecting that and I feel I'm very good at running a courtroom. Thank you. Thank you. Are there other questions from my colleagues? Same night, I would invite you to share your closing remarks with us and again to shoot for about 2 minutes. Thank you very much again. Thank you, all of you, for having me. I know that this is a very well thought out process, and I appreciate you doing this and recognizing the importance of the judiciary. I have the experience and the passion and the leadership that would work well with King County District Court. I could work well with my with the esteemed colleagues I have already on King County District Court. I've had the demonstrated skills and leadership abilities throughout federal way and in the statewide system. And I would very much look forward to bringing that to King County District Court. I live in the West Division. My family is lives in the West Division and we have for 20 years and I very much care about the West Division in this community. And again, I thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. Thank you. Thank you very much. And. I'd invite all the can ask the court to have all the candidates come back into the main zoom call. They are ready, Mr. Chairman. All right. And colleagues for the executive session to discuss the qualifications of the candidates. Be valuable. I'm seeing some nods. We will we will now enter executive session. The grounds for executive session are under RTW 4231 ten. Though the committee is going into executive session to evaluate the qualifications of the candidate for appointment to elective office. The committee will be in executive session for approximately 10 minutes until about 1155. We'll post until 1155 and the committee will be off this zoom call for the executive session, together with only those county employees directly necessary for the discussion. Members, please note the executive session today is a separate Zoom meeting. This should be on already on your calendars for possible executive session. I will see council members there. And just a note to council members. You will have to exit this Zoom call before you can get into the executive session, zoom call and then do the same on the way back in. Thanks. I'm. It's. The chair has asked me to announce that the executive session will be extended an additional 10 minutes to approximately 12:05 p.m.. Thank you. But she was asked me to announce to the listening public that the executive session has been extended an additional 5 minutes to approximately 12:10 p.m.. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. The executive session has been extended an additional 5 minutes to approximately 12:15 p.m.. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'm in many ways, you're doing the heavy logistical work today. We are back in session, and I would entertain a motion. To adopt a motion. 2020 156. Mr. Chair? Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm a proposed motion 2020 156 making an appointment to a judicial vacancy in the West Division West Electoral District Judge Position number five of the King County District Court. Thank you councilmember Caldwell's this moved we give it to pass recommendation the motion 2020 156 making an appointment to the west district district Kim County District Court. Councilmember Caldwell's Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have an amendment to this motion. This is the appropriate time to commence. It would be. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we add the name of Kristen Shotwell to be hereby appointed to fill the judicial vacancy in the West Division West Electoral District Judge Position number five of the King County District Court. Thank you. Councilmember calls this move. We insert the name of Christian Shotwell into the motion to make making the appointment. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I we were very impressed with every candidate who applied, and several of us have stated that, in fact, this probably has been the most amazing, outstanding roster of individuals who have made application for district court appointment. So it was very, very tough decision to make. And we certainly would hope that the other candidates would apply for future positions because we were so impressed with all three of you. We did come down to making our recommendation or I am making the recommendation that we select our Kristen Shotwell for this position and I will leave others to speak to their positions or perceptions. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, Councilmember Bellevue Cheek. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to echo Councilmember Caldwell's statement. We've been appointing an awful lot of judges since since I've been on the council in the last several years. And I, I can't recall and I don't think any of us can recall the time when we had three exceptionally well qualified applicants who I, I could very happily appoint all of you. And I do hope that when additional vacancies come open, because they seem to come open relatively frequently, that you will apply again if you're not the recommended candidate today. Because I really think our district court would benefit from this Dunn and Judge Robertson being on the bench, and I absolutely would support that because you just all bring so much to the table. So thank you for that. But we can only select one. And and I think that you'll find that we're all we're all we're all very supportive of the recommendation. And I will vote yes for this recommendation. Yeah. I mean, this is just an incredible panel. It really, really is. There's no there's not one bit of daylight where I would say one is better than the other, but we have to select somebody. And there's some good reasons for each of you. So thank you. And I'm happy to vote yes on the amendment and the motion. Well, the discussion. Of all those in favor of the amendment inserting Christian Shotwell was named into motion 2020 156. Please signify by saying I. Those opposed. Nay, the ayes have it. The amendment is adopted. Further discussion on motion 2020 156 as amended. I would on my own behalf concur in the comments that councilmembers Caldwell's and Covenant Council Member Bill Dewji have already made or exceptional candidates. Three We heard from today and the work of District Court, as we so often hear, is the People's Court. We have very strong people seeking to serve in the court. We're blessed by having them serving already in pro tem or other capacities. And this motion I'm appointing the sharp well will serve King County District Court well. And the conversations I've had with people interested in engaging in the bench over the last two weeks makes me more confident in the ability to address the pressing needs we have within our criminal legal system and our civil legal system. And I look forward to being able to work with, perhaps soon to be Judge Shotwell and also the other three people we've had very meaningful conversations about our judiciary with. Further discussion. Being known. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member Belushi I. Council member Dombrowski, I. Council member done. I council member calls. I Council member Lambert. I council member of the group. I council member. Gone. Right there. Now. Council members. Hello? I. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight i's council member upon my thorough votes. No and no one excused. Thank you. By your vote committee to pass recommendation to Motion 2020 156 as amended. And unless there is opposition objection, we will expedite that to full council this coming Tuesday for adoption by the full council seat. None so ordered. We are going to give him the time today and the pressing need of or the timeliness, if you will, of item eight. Our agenda. We're going to advance to item eight, ordinance 2021, 93, which would require grocery stores in unincorporated King County to provide hazard pay for their workers.