A MOTION confirming the appointment of Allen Nance as the director of the department of adult and juvenile detention.
Okay, thank you very much. See no further requests. We will close public comment. The first item on our agenda today is confirming the appointment of Alan Nance as the director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. Mr. Nance served as the Director of the Trades Juvenile Division since November 2019 and has been acting as director designee ADHD Judy since his appointment on June 25th, 2022. We are. So is there a problem with that? I keep hearing these beeps. Okay. We also have with us Leah crackles IP from our central staff to provide the briefing on the site. And we are as well joined by the appointee who is on the zoom call with this, I believe, as well as Dwight Lively, who will introduce Mr. Nance when we after we hear the staff report. Sylvia, thank you for being here. And please go right ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, council members. I'm Leah crackles IP Council staff and the materials for this item begin on page eight of your packet. As the chair said, the proposed motion would confirm the executive's appointment of Alan Nance as director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. King County Code provides for the county executive to appoint the head of each executive department and for the County Council to confirm such appointments. As you know, Mr. Nance has been or have been serving as King County's director of the Juvenile Division of the D.A., Judy, for the last two and a half years. In that role, Mr. Nance was responsible for managing operations of King County's 124 bed secure detention facility, as well as programs for community supervision. Notably, Mr. Nance has served as Project Lead for the effort to close the juvenile detention facility by 2025. Mr. Nance began his career as a probation officer and rose to eventually become chief probation officer for the city and county of San Francisco. In that capacity, Mr. Nance led efforts to expand alternatives to detention and diversion, leading to a record low population in the city's juvenile justice system. Mr. Nance has also served as acting director for the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice for San Francisco Mayor Prior, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. And Mr. Nance has completed the necessary background checks, and his appointment appears to be consistent with King County code requirements. So staff have not identified any issues. This appointment. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of the. Okay. Let's turn now to Director Dwight Di Lee of the Office of Performance Strategy. And that's it. Yes, I'm sorry. I'm wondering if I could ask the question in. Sure. And I'm sorry. If I didn't see you, that might be helpful. Individuals have their hand raised on this because otherwise. It's hard to. Tell. Yes. Thank you, Chair. Sorry about that. My question is regarding the staff member who just stepped up to speak with us and to share the the request that we look further and then and then. Your description. That the the staff have not voiced any. Objections to this. And in information that has been requested. Now, can you talk about that discrepancy? Because I've met Director Nance and really enjoyed him. And yet. This is the. Third time that I have heard from staff. A request to look. More deeply specifically into the center itself. And I'm just wondering if you can help me understand that a little more. Sure. Councilmember Perry, when I say that staff has not identified issues, I am speaking of your council, central staff, your analytical staff, that is 100% nonpartisan. And I'm not referring to any other staff. No internal staff to the juvenile detention center. Correct. So it's just a matter of our role of reviewing county code and what the requirements are for any particular appointment. We have no role in who the actual person being being appointed or confirmed is simply making sure that the appointment complies with the code. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And Councilmember Perry, you'll have an opportunity to ask questions of the nominee, too. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Let's turn now to Director Dove Lee. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Can you hear me clearly? Yes. Great. So for the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, I'm also the chief operating officer for the county. And it is my privilege on behalf of executive Dow Constantine to bring forward the nomination of Alan Dance, to be the next director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. I was going to go through Alan's background, but your staff has already done that quite effectively. So I'll simply say two things. First of all, as I think all of you know. Alan is an outstanding leader. The department is facing major challenges, unprecedented challenges because of COVID, because of the backlog in our criminal legal system, because of all of the challenges we have faced with staffing and hiring. And Alan is the perfect person to bring forward the leadership. We need to address those challenges. And secondly, Alan is committed. To reform of the justice system. That showed in his work at the city and county of San Francisco and has showed in his work since. He has been with us here at King County. And I am confident that with Alan's leadership, we will be able to move forward with all the efforts that the executive and the council is making to make our justice system fairer and more efficient and more equitable. So that is my absolute pleasure to bring Alan's nomination forward. To the Council today. Thank you. Thank you very much, Director Divya. Are there any questions of Director Divya before we go ahead with Mr. Nantz? Okay. Well, welcome, Mr. Nance and Director Nance, and I appreciate your being with us today and congratulations on your appointment. We, as you know, we are taking up that appointment and will be making I will see a recommendation to the full council for confirmation. So you, our staff already gave you an introduction, but we'd like to hear from you too, in terms of perhaps why you wanted to assume this new position and why you believe you are particularly qualified to do so. Thank you. And go right ahead. Great. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. And I first of all, I'd like to thank Director Timely for the introduction. Jericho Wildes and members of the Council. My name is Alanis and I am humbled and honored to be considered for the appointment as director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. After 33 years of public service, all of which were in positions committed to community safety, stakeholder engagement, and continuous efforts toward organizational improvement and changing lives of those in the justice system. I am excited by the opportunity to advance the quality of the services provided in our institutions and the commitment to partnership with our justice partners and the communities that we serve. I want to thank Executive Constantine for this appointment and his confidence to lead this critical public safety organization. I appeared before you today with a strong focus on equity and inclusion for people in our justice system, and by extension, that same commitment to the amazing men and women who make up the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. I and our team continue to share the essential tenets of our work, which include creating and maintaining an environment where those in custody experience a place that is safe, secure and humane. I also believe that we need to leverage the opportunities we have while people are in custody to provide them with the resources that they need to address the factors that contributed to challenges in their lives that resulted in their arrests, while at the same time promoting and supporting their well-being as they contemplate the next steps in their lives beyond incarceration. I intend to focus our efforts toward building a sustainable workforce that leverages strategies to enhance recruitment, retention, and our capacity to hire and develop well-trained and motivated staff. We will prioritize risk assessment and mitigation approaches focused on reducing self-harm and incidents of suicide. This includes assessing structural, clinical and operational factors and acting with urgency and deliberateness. Our efforts must be trauma informed, grounded in best practices for behavioral health, medical care, and the safety and security required for modern day jail and detention settings. We must facilitate access to community agencies, programs and other resources while folks are in custody in order to effectively lay the foundation for reentry into the community once they have been released from our custody. If confirmed today, I look forward to working with the executive, the council, our legal system partners, the aged staff and community to operate jail and detention facilities, as well as community corrections program that serves the needs of our community and contributes to making King County a safer place to live, work and play. Thank you for this opportunity to make some remarks this morning. Thank you very much for being with us. I guess I should say, director designee designate. Would you please respond to Councilmember Perry's question? Absolutely. Thank you. First of all, I want to acknowledge the public comment that was made earlier today. I also want to acknowledge that we are dealing with some unprecedented challenges in our justice system. We spent we spent the last two and a half years managing COVID 19 in the institutions. We've been particularly successful in having relatively low numbers of our young people in custody at the juvenile facility that have contracted COVID 19. But it has continued to ravage that, and it continues to have additional impacts with respect to the morale of our young people, the morale of the staff. And, of course, it's reduced the capacity to have outside agencies inside the facility to the extent that we normally would. I understand Mr. Smith's concerns. We don't take them lightly. We've taken a number of very proactive steps to address some of the labor concerns. We're working with a workforce that is still relatively new to the juvenile justice system. Those folks require a lot of training, a lot of support before they get really good at what they do. But I will also say that we have a number of really committed, an incredible, tireless every single day to make sure that young people are able to be involved in programing, do have access to clinical supports, psychiatry, social workers, medical care and educational opportunities in our environment. And we'll continue to get better at that and will continue to be invested in improving our capacity to serve those young people up until the very day that we closed that facility in 2025. Our commitment is stronger than ever with respect to having trauma informed care for young people in custody, making sure that we partner with our other justice partners in solving the complex needs of our young people in custody. And with respect to gang interventions, we support strategies. But more importantly, we support partnering with community in solving those complex strategies. That's where our young people live. Those are the folks who can support them once they return to their homes. And therefore, we're committed to making sure that our staff are trained with respect to the dynamics of gang involvement in as you proceed into your conversation about gang violence. Far too many of the young people in our custody are there because they are charged with gang violence. And so targeting the core factors that affect what's happening in the communities where these young people live is in fact the goal for us. So while I would agree that staff shortages have probably created some of the most difficult challenges for our organization, and we're not alone. As we look at hospitals and schools and other institutions that are facing the very same challenges, we continue to work toward finding effective solutions. We've invested in recruitment and hiring strategies that include marketing, that include incentives. And one of the items on your agenda for today focuses on incentives as well. And so I would say that. While we have had some difficulties in keeping sufficient staff to to program our young people in the way that we normally would, I would say that when that when we have sufficient folks who are working from day to day, that is exactly what we do. And we will continue to do that moving forward. Thank you very much for addressing that question. Councilmember Perry, did you want to have any follow up? Thank you, Chair. Well, I can share that and thank you, director designee announce again. Very good to see you. And I've appreciated our conversations and and your interest in stepping up into this as a permanent position. I admit that I have not read the CJC Monitor report and I know that that gave the executives team some clarity around some of these issues. And so I commit to doing that. I also know that we are going to be visiting the center on August 31st. And as I came in and. The new position, I was encouraged. To visit the Seattle facility that I think it's the Kent facilities that it's in Kansas and and then the center, the Juvenile Justice Center. So I I'm interested or juvenile? Yes, I am interested in being able to take a look at their space and to hear the concerns. And my. Question, I guess. Is hearing everything that you've said and understanding that there since I started in January, there is just a huge number, additional number of residents in the Juvenile Justice Center. So I am now, you know, sympathetic to the combined lack of staffing and need for training and increased population and the challenges that that brings. So that said, I'm wondering what those who are bringing forward these questions or these concerns. Might. Say would be the unique. Concerns they. Have, knowing that this situation would impact any director. Anybody coming forward in that circumstance would have an untenable job, a very difficult job. And anybody stepping into that space is courageous, at least. And so so I'm wondering if there are distinctions that are being made specific to you as a director. And I don't know if you can answer any of those. I know that, you know, some sometimes there are politics or personalities or things like that that go into this. But I'm interested in that that question specifically knowing that all of these things are in play and would be in play for anyone. And so I do look forward to the visit and I look forward to doing my job of reading the Monitor report so that I understand more closely where those issues have been addressed and possibly where they have it. Well, we welcome the opportunity to have the council members visit the Family Justice Center. We're very proud of the work that we do there, and I'm extremely proud of the staff who are so committed to our young people. So I encourage you to have conversations with them when you visit. I think you will get a variety of perspectives from the folks who work there. But suffice it to say that I'm committed and my leadership team is committed to making sure that we tackle the challenges that we face each and every day with deliberateness, with urgency , with consistency, because we know that's the right thing to do for the young people that we have in custody. And I often say to my staff, I think about these young people as know you would think about your own child. What would you want for them? How would you want the system to respond to their needs? And that is the commitment that we bring to the work that we do. I remember that from our conversation as well. And it wasn't well. And I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you both. Are there any other questions of director designate Nancy? Dombrowski. Councilmember Dombrowski, go right ahead. Thank you. And as I've raised before, including most recently in our Budget Committee meeting, the smart broker got very serious concerns about the situation at the juvenile detention facility with respect to basically noncompliance with our with our law and state law telling ordinance and state law about making sure youth are not confined in cells. And I understand the cause of that is, is largely the staffing issue. But I. I but I want to understand more about is how it was, how we got to this crisis. Situation. You know, may be kind of the, the parable of the the frog in the boiling pot. The warm water gets warmer, warmer, warmer. By the time it's boiling, it's too late. But I don't feel we. I'd like to understand how we got there, but that we dialog a little bit about that and I won't be joining the visit on August 31st. In addition to the Monitor's report, I've also read the employee search base for the juvenile division of the adult division and the results aren't good. So just put it bluntly, the employees there are not happy. And turning to the adult jail, we recently had a few hour period where we stopped taking bookings. We've had five deaths at least this year, noncompliance with state law and reporting on those deaths as documented in the Seattle Times. And for years now, years later by the Council, our corrections officers have come to us with really what I point to legitimate concerns about forced overtime and some of the very severe and director designee announced. I guess my question to you is what is your plan at the adult facility to make sure we one, keep it open in Seattle and two, with respect to both of them, the catch your mailing a regional nurses center down there and then our Seattle one. What is what is your specific plan to address this chronic problem of mandatory overtime which degrades morale and really is a probably a problem with recruitment, too? I think it's time we really tackle this. Well, thank you for. The question, Councilmember Dombrowski. And let me say that first and foremost, we're extremely fortunate to have an office labor relations that is very engaged and has been working very closely with us and our labor partners, particularly the Corrections Skill Guild, with respect to the challenges we face with mandatory overtime. And we've been able to craft some agreements with our Adult Guild to be able to incentivize our folks to voluntarily work overtime. Unfortunately, we have a number of folks who have overtime restrictions that limits their ability to to work either voluntary or mandatory overtime or both. And since we've been able to craft some agreements to incentivize overtime, we've actually seen more folks voluntarily working overtime for those individuals who are working the mandatory overtime shifts or working multiple shifts in the day. We've created some opportunities for hotel stays so that they don't have to drive long distances to get home, only to turn around and come back again. We've been very committed to facilitating opportunities to ease some of the burdens that these folks have with respect to getting their their uniforms cleaned by creating some opportunities for some dry cleaning services. We've looked at a number of those strategies, and I will say that since we've implemented the incentives for folks to work overtime, that we have more folks working voluntary overtime. So that certainly reduces the need for mandatory overtime. But at the end of the day, we have to grow our workforce. We have to identify folks who are interested and committed to working in corrections as a form of public service to community to make sure that we have sufficient folks in those positions. Right now, we have 92 vacancies at our correctional officer ranks. And as you heard earlier, 22 vacancies at the June. The detention officer ranks. Those are huge holes to fill. And the fact remains that the over 1500 folks that we have in custody in our jail and the 42 young people we have in our juvenile facility, they're there 24 hours a day and we have to be there for them 24 hours a day. So that means we have to have sufficient numbers of folks working in order to make sure that we're fulfilling those obligations. So there is no singular strategy here. It is a combined effort with respect to recruiting, hiring and retaining the workforce that we have. But that also means that we have to find ways to consolidate. So we were able to move some of the folks that we had in custody at Kent down to the correctional facility in Seattle , so that we could also move some of those staff, consolidate and leverage those resources and staffing resources more effectively. And we will continue to look at other opportunities to to address these very vexing, challenging needs that we have in our justice system. But let me just say that. We spent every single day looking at ways to solve these problems. And as you are, director, I intend to make this a high priority, and I've communicated that to the Corrections Guild when I met with them on June 29th in their offices. And I'm committing that to to you and the public today, that we will continue to work on these problems because we are committed to solving them. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Okay with that, I. Councilmember Belge. Thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize that there's some interest in getting more information, and I hope that will put those requests on the table here today. I'm sorry. I was a little late, so I don't know if that's been done or not. But if there are requests for more information before we act, I hope that members will state them. In the meantime, I'd like to make a motion to move this out of committee with the do pass recommendation. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Bell Tucci, who did make a request to hear if there are any comments in terms of perhaps holding off. And so, Councilmember Perry, it's hard to see that hand on your background. Is it? Yes. Sir. Go right ahead. Thank you. I am very supportive of director designee dance and would love to see this appointment go through. I also am feeling like, you know, we have. A visit which has been requested. Of everybody that I've visited, different folks in Seattle and they are very appreciative as director Nance is of council visiting and hearing the different positions and I know that different people have different positions about this. Feel differently, some supportive, some some challenging. And so I want out of. Interest in. To support those voices and to participate as council members. In this process, knowing that we already have that visit set up for the 31st. It would be helpful to be able to go through that. But that experience and to do my due diligence, which I apologize for not doing it to this point, I'm reading the monitor report. I'd like to do that and I know that that nine Justice are having a presentation on that. I think it's next week as well. So I just would like to see the possibility of having the opportunity to visit and to have discussions and to read that report and then have the vote for the appointment. Thank you. Councilmember Perez. So the request is to defer action of to our next meeting, which I believe is September 7th. Councilmember Belge. Thank you. I think the the timeline can meet both of these both of these interests if we are willing to be flexible. I would strongly urge my colleagues not to defer moving this out of committee until September. But if we move it out of here today and we can do that without recommendation, we can take it up instead of taking it up in the normal course, which would be two weeks from today. We could take it up the week after that. That's two weeks plus a one week courtesy delay. And that would allow for the August 31st tour to happen whatever discussions and additional due diligence members want to have between now and then and then take up a vote on, you know, on on final passage in early September instead of it being in mid to late September. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember about two g. Councilmember Perry, do you want to respond to that? Yes, I think that's a great idea. Okay. Thank you. Does anybody else have any comment to make? Okay. And I think our councilmembers are. Hello. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Cole Wells. I'm also sorry for being late. I thought we were starting at our usual 930 time. That was my fault for not checking the calendar for the special. For the special time. But I also want to state my support for Director Nance and also validate all of the concerns that we've heard from our union members and the things that Councilmember Dombrowski listed. I think all of those things are true. At the same time, we're living through crisis times right now, the macro environment that impacts our jail systems, that is all very real stuff that is impacting our operations. And I take very seriously the things that we've heard from the Guild and I've met with them multiple times. I've requested an audit. You know, we have independent monitors, reports. We're constantly inviting the director to law and justice to report out the things that are happening in the jails and asking them difficult questions. We're honoring budget requests. We're meeting with the Guild multiple times. We're taking our oversight role very seriously. And so I just want to put that out there so that it doesn't seem like supporting the director is a dismissal of the valid concerns that we're hearing. Those both of those things can be true at the same time. I haven't heard an argument that would lead us to the conclusion that not supporting the director would lead to better outcomes, you know, going through a whole new system of further causing disruption to the operations, going through a whole new interview process and national search and all. To me that sounds extremely disruptive, especially toward a candidate who has been responsive to the requests that we've been making. And so I just wanted to put that out there as chair of law and Justice that we take all of these super valid concerns seriously. There don't seem to be easy answers that are that are just the silver bullet for how do we solve the staffing crisis, how do we solve the macro environment of a behavioral health crisis and a housing crisis and all the other issues that feed into extremely difficult operations in the jails? I don't have the clear answer to that, but I don't think the answer is to cause further issues through this process by not supporting the directors confirmation. So I just wanted to put that out there as a few thoughts. Thank you. Thank you very much, council members. I think that was particularly well stated and really eloquent and I appreciate everything that you said. Any other comments? Councilmember Bell, did she I'm sorry. Councilmember Perry I just wanted to share. Thank you. Chair Colwell So I just wanted to share my appreciation for Councilmember Hill's perspective and usual thoughtful depth of understanding and commitment to many levels of justice in the deliberation of these issues. So I appreciate the response and. And I. And then that carries a lot of weight as chair of Law and Justice Committee and because of the due diligence that that he has shared in that perspective. So I just want to show my level of appreciation for that. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. We will now turn to Councilmember Bell duty. Just before we vote, I wanted to make the change to the motion that we move it out without recommendation. Thank you. So that motion is before us. Is there any comment at this point? Okay with that. Will the clerk please call the RO on proposed motion? 2020 20269. Thank you for your Councilmember Balducci. Councilmember. Councilmember Dombrowski. I. Councilmember Dunn. I Council member McDermott. Councilmember Perry i. Councilmember up the growth. I. Council Member van ryk bauer. I. Council members alkali. II. Charcoal wells. I. Charcoal wells. The vote is. 8i0 nos with Councilmember McDermott excused. Thank you. And with our vote, we have approved proposed motion 2020 20269. We will send this to the full council without recommendation. And with that, we will now go on to our next item on our agenda. Number six, proposed ordinance 2020 20300.