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Equity Board Auto captions

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

6:00 PM · 1h 56m
Topic tracked across meetings:
March 21, 2022 City Council Meeting Presentation - Report Out (I) 2/2
Section
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
Board Membership
packet pp.3
Staff report:
EQUITY BOARD Staff Liaison Monica Negrila, Human About Services Manager Created in 2021, this board is to support and Email cultivate the voices of the diverse communities in Issaquah by advising the Regular Members Mayor, City Council and City departments on 2022 - Cristina Abonce the City’s plans, policies, regulations, and 2023 - Megan Reichley* programs related to equity initiatives. 2023 - Alisa Stewart 2024 - Lorna Gilmour 2024 - Hellen Kibenge Membership 2024 - Lucrecia Choto The Equity Board is comprised of nine 2025 - Ray Manahan regular members, with four-year terms; 2025 - Tony Curry and three alternates, with two year terms. 2025 - Shalanda Curry Initial terms of the board are staggered. All member are appointed by the Mayor and subject to confirmation by the City Council. Alternate Members Terms expire April 30 of the year listed. For 2022 - Jacob Rubenstein* more…
4. AGENDA ITEMS
4a
March 21, 2022 City Council Meeting Presentation - Report Out (I)
10 min · Shalanda Curry, Equity Board Chair Tony Curry, Equity Board Vice Chair · packet pp.13–16
Staff report:
I - Information Page 13 of 35 AGENDA ITEMS b) 2022 Equity Board Workplan - Draft
4b
Draft Workplan - Review & Brainstorming (D)
30 min · Monica Negrila, Human Services Manager
5. STAFF REPORT
5a
Acknowledging Cultural, Diversity & Religious Holidays in April
Monica Negrila, Human Services Manager
Topics: EquityArts & Culture
0:00 bring our meeting to order it is now 604
0:06 oh i'm sorry i forgot the date april 6th
0:09 so 2022
0:12 and we want to remind everyone that due
0:14 to the government governor's
0:15 proclamation on 2028 um park relation
0:18 2028 related to the covet 19 emergency
0:21 and open public meeting this meeting is
0:23 being held remotely
0:25 um via webex um so we asked that well
0:28 will actually address some housekeeping
0:31 rules um following roll call and i want
0:34 to just um
0:35 actually turn over to monica and ask her
0:37 can you confirm that we have quorum
0:41 good evening shay this is morning canada
0:43 yes you do have quorum tonight
0:46 thank you so very much and do we have
0:48 any members who weren't able to make it
0:49 tonight
0:51 yes we do have a couple of members who
0:53 are absent and they were excused they
0:56 let us know in advance that they cannot
0:57 attend
0:58 so um kelly mann um let us know she
1:02 cannot attend tonight she's traveling
1:04 and megan uh riley uh richly i'm sorry
1:08 she's also absent tonight and she cannot
1:10 make it i do see however that we still
1:13 have a couple of board members who are
1:15 not um in the attendance yet tonight in
1:19 attendance
1:20 um and they may join us a little bit
1:23 later but i don't see
1:24 christina um i also don't see helen
1:29 and
1:30 i think that's it
1:32 that's it thank you
1:34 all right
1:35 well if that's okay we can go ahead and
1:38 move forward
1:43 so we'll start um with the approval of
1:46 last week of the minutes for last week
1:48 march 2nd um or i'm sorry actually
1:52 monica do we have any public comments
1:56 uh thank you say no we don't have public
1:59 comments nobody signed up uh tonight for
2:01 public comments and i don't see anyone
2:02 in the attendance either
2:07 wonderful and then it looks like
2:11 we have okay in in that case we're ready
2:14 to move forward um so now we will
2:17 actually do the approval of last uh last
2:19 month's meeting um for march 2nd 2022
2:25 does anyone need time to review the
2:27 minutes from
2:28 march
2:30 say if i may i have one quick um
2:33 clarification for the board
2:36 tonight board members you are reviewing
2:38 two sets of minutes you are reviewing
2:40 the minutes from the regular meeting
2:42 that we held on march 2nd and we are
2:45 also you are reviewing the minutes that
2:47 we held we had for the special meeting
2:49 that we held on march 14th
2:52 and so um if you have no
2:55 um edits to the minutes you can just
2:58 approve them all together um or
3:00 separately as well if you have um edits
3:05 thank you
3:06 everyone had a chance to review the
3:07 minutes
3:10 all righty then if we're ready um we can
3:12 go ahead and vote to approve the minutes
3:15 with no adjustments if we don't have any
3:17 do we have any adjustments that we need
3:19 to make
3:24 all right it looks like no um so
3:27 uh and i'm sorry monica should i propose
3:30 a vote
3:32 you can also do just that shortcut if
3:35 there are no objections and no one wants
3:36 to make edits you can just um say say
3:39 that okay if if there are no no
3:42 amendments or objections to the minutes
3:44 i'd like to propose the minutes be um
3:46 unanimously approved is that correct yes
3:49 it's presented yes absolutely
3:52 all right wonderful okay i'll say it one
3:55 more time if there is an if there is no
3:57 amendments or objections to the minutes
3:59 i'd like to propose the minutes be
4:01 unanimously approved
4:06 thanks everyone
4:09 the minutes are approved and then we
4:11 will move forward
4:12 with our agenda items and our first one
4:15 is actually the march 21st 2022
4:18 um council meeting that tony and i
4:20 attended um and i think tony is actually
4:22 going to be our presenter for tonight
4:25 welcome tony
4:27 thank you very much shay um so actually
4:30 um nothing visually to to present but i
4:33 will just now again just talk through um
4:36 the the thoughts of the um city council
4:39 members um the first thing i'd like to
4:40 impart on the meeting in which
4:43 we wrote a great um
4:46 i guess would call it maybe a public
4:48 relations release or if you want to call
4:50 it a resolution um the all of the city
4:53 council
4:54 they all made great personal comments
4:58 some made comments about
5:01 their own personal experiences
5:04 in dealing with what their
5:07 their family members have dealt with
5:09 during world war ii and
5:11 their their culture uh in that and
5:15 the different types of
5:17 things that happened to to them as well
5:21 them that the city council really
5:23 imparting uh our work you're just really
5:25 imparting their their their love of our
5:27 work what we've done what we
5:29 painstakingly put together in that
5:32 message that um
5:34 that they really so much enjoyed what i
5:36 liked about it within the meeting from
5:38 before the meeting started
5:40 is that every council person that um
5:43 had a chance to to to meet um and talk
5:46 with me they all love the fact that we
5:49 as an equity board are doing something
5:52 you know we're not just sitting on our
5:53 hands we're not spinning our wheels i
5:55 know sometimes we feel that maybe we are
5:57 because we're not really
5:59 proactively doing a lot of things
6:02 but they were very appreciative of our
6:04 work especially the mayor as well very
6:06 very appreciative of our work um
6:09 but but
6:11 back to the message that uh that we put
6:13 on our resolution and our that message
6:15 about ukraine what they loved about that
6:18 message is not only that we talked about
6:21 the war going on in ukraine but also
6:24 that our
6:25 our plight and our fight is not with
6:28 russian citizens it's not to blame all
6:30 you know russian citizens so that was
6:32 great to actually have that in our
6:35 letter to the community as well as that
6:37 call to action about equity in our homes
6:40 and equity in our places of business and
6:42 equities in our places of worship
6:45 so they were all very moved and that's
6:47 the the right uh uh i guess maybe not
6:50 the right but that's what i would
6:51 actually really say about uh how they
6:55 enjoyed the message uh that they were
6:57 very moved by our work and uh very
7:00 excited about uh seeing what comes next
7:03 from us in our married group here in the
7:05 equity board so i'm really really very
7:07 very excited about uh it made me feel
7:11 very honored not that i didn't feel
7:12 honored before but just hearing it from
7:14 outside of our group i felt very honored
7:17 to be a part of this this very very
7:19 fascinating team of of one mind for
7:22 equity but yet different personalities
7:25 and different experiences and different
7:27 passions and uh you know that's just my
7:31 take on the meeting
7:34 thank you so much tony i 100 agree i
7:37 think the meeting went phenomenally um
7:40 we did get a lot of great feedback
7:42 um i felt like everyone kind of saw
7:46 themselves in the statement
7:49 so i must commend you all for putting
7:51 such great wording and making it just
7:54 feel welcoming it was a really really
7:57 phenomenal message and it was very clear
7:59 that we wanted to support ukrainians
8:01 while still supporting our russian
8:03 colleagues as well so that was actually
8:06 really quite moving and it came through
8:09 very clearly
8:11 in addition to the fact that we wanted
8:13 to highlight some of the ways that
8:14 people could actually get involved and
8:16 people saw value in that and
8:19 i i can't tell you how appreciative i
8:21 was in in presenting but
8:25 also
8:26 very appreciative in seeing how everyone
8:28 reacted um
8:30 it was just very joyful and really
8:32 reminded me how important this group is
8:40 did anyone have any questions or
8:42 concerns
8:49 all right we're quiet tonight
8:51 that's
8:52 okay well in that case then we will go
8:56 ahead and move on to our next agenda
8:57 item um but before we do that i do want
9:00 to do um come back to just take a quick
9:03 step back just to remind everyone to
9:06 please um remember our housekeeping
9:08 rules
9:09 and of course if you have a question or
9:11 a comment be sure to
9:14 write question or comment in the chat
9:16 and not ask or state your question or
9:18 comment in the chat so that way we are
9:20 able to all share in the answer for
9:23 those who call in
9:25 also we'd like to remind you to just
9:27 please be sure to speak clearly
9:30 concisely and slightly slower than
9:32 normal so that our interpreters can
9:35 actually go ahead and provide that
9:37 interpretation piece
9:39 and then lastly of course just try to
9:40 make sure that your comments are
9:42 relevant um courteous and fair to the
9:45 group
9:47 alrighty so our next agenda item for
9:50 tonight
9:51 um is gonna go back to monica actually
9:56 oh i'm sorry oh and monica i'm sorry did
9:59 you have any comments about the special
10:01 meeting we had
10:03 oh thank you so much
10:05 no i was just gonna say yes i just
10:07 wanted to say a big shout out and thank
10:09 you to both you and tony for attending
10:12 that meeting i know that lots of evening
10:14 meetings in addition to the regular
10:16 board meetings are not easy but it was
10:18 just so wonderful to uh to have you both
10:21 there one virtual wanting person and so
10:24 yeah i just wanted to add plus one it
10:27 was really really
10:30 heartwarming to see the support from a
10:33 mayor paulie and city council so
10:35 definitely a great atmosphere that that
10:37 evening although of course we know the
10:39 the war is not um
10:41 not positive um for sure and it just
10:44 continues so thank you thank you
10:47 thank you so much monica um and i see
10:50 tony had a comment i'm sorry tony would
10:52 you please share with us yes actually
10:54 just a one quick comment like it was and
10:57 piggybacking off what you said monica it
10:59 was great to actually be there in person
11:01 and to finally meet someone from our
11:02 equity board in person so i wish more of
11:06 you could have been there i mean i hope
11:07 we're able to
11:09 um sometime in the near future even just
11:12 get together and
11:14 talk hang out whatever so
11:16 i enjoyed actually being there in person
11:20 thank you so much tony i'm sure we all
11:23 are looking forward to the time when we
11:25 can all be together and
11:26 get to know each other a little bit
11:28 better
11:28 yeah
11:30 all right our next agenda item is going
11:32 to be um the work plan review and
11:35 brainstorming monica are you ready to
11:38 share with us i am good evening again
11:40 thank you so much before i move into
11:43 talking about our work plan for 2022 i
11:47 want to just pause and welcome this
11:49 evening also christina i saw that you're
11:51 about to join and helen um and just
11:54 wanted to know that since um you're not
11:56 quite there early at the meeting
11:59 um but good to see you and good evening
12:02 so boardman members for the work plan
12:05 conversation i don't have a powerpoint
12:07 presentation but with your permission i
12:09 would like to share my screen just to
12:11 share the
12:12 uh the actual work plan draft with you
12:16 um i would love to speak for a few
12:17 minutes uh to just provide like a
12:20 reminder of where we were where we
12:22 started and the ideas moving forward and
12:25 then after that i'm gonna stop sharing
12:27 the screen and i have a couple of
12:29 questions for for you all brainstorming
12:32 um as a follow-up from suggestions uh
12:35 received from you last month um so with
12:39 that
12:41 allow me give me just a moment
12:47 i had it all open just right and now all
12:50 of my word documents are not
12:54 like i want them to so
12:56 give me another moment here i go
13:01 okay
13:05 i believe you should be able to see the
13:08 blue table document
13:09 is that what you see on the screen
13:12 yes you can get a little bit larger
13:14 monica please yes so i would love to
13:16 make it larger i'm wondering is that the
13:19 only thing that you see on the screen or
13:20 do you see other documents as well
13:23 i see another document i was going to
13:25 ask if we needed to put them side by
13:27 side or if you can put them on top yeah
13:29 no and that's why i i apologize and
13:31 thank you i got upgraded to this very
13:33 big fancy screen and i'm not sure how it
13:37 um how it shares if it shares my entire
13:39 screen is this a little bit better
13:42 yes we can see the document or at least
13:44 i can
13:46 i don't want to speak for the group here
13:47 but yes i can see it
13:49 and then lucretia is the font large
13:51 enough where you can see
13:55 or not
13:56 let me okay bye
14:01 let me just increase it even more
14:06 is that better
14:08 perfect
14:09 okay
14:11 thank you so much
14:12 so what you see on the screen board
14:14 members it's i just started putting
14:17 together the the draft work plan for us
14:19 for the year um and then side by side i
14:22 also added some of the community
14:24 conversations this is gonna be our next
14:26 agenda item so with your permission i'm
14:27 just gonna
14:29 talk just briefly about this part
14:31 because we are gonna talk a little bit
14:32 in more details in in a little bit later
14:36 um but just wanted to to remind you as
14:39 as this board formed in november with an
14:41 opening um meeting and then followed by
14:45 that in december
14:48 we had
14:49 we've been quite busy we had quite a few
14:53 topics assigned by the administration
14:57 and so we worked on on quite a few
14:59 things but one of the first
15:01 um assignments that we received from
15:03 mayor paulie if you may recall early on
15:07 was to conduct an um equity
15:10 gap analysis
15:12 and so that's something that we really
15:15 did not have time to tackle yet and i
15:17 would like to talk about that uh before
15:20 we go there and i just wanted to provide
15:22 a brief overview if you remember we
15:24 worked on rules and regulations in
15:26 addition to basic trainings and opens
15:29 meetings act in in january you adopted
15:32 rules and regulations for the board
15:34 um then we started having an equity
15:37 conversation this was like a member
15:39 proposed tony led us in some great
15:41 conversation on equity versus equality
15:44 uh then we didn't have time so we had to
15:46 postpone that a little bit
15:49 and then part of that
15:51 starting that process of the equity gap
15:54 analysis
15:55 if you recall we had jeff watling the
15:58 director of parks and community services
16:00 provide an overview of the parks
16:08 thank you so much interpreters i
16:10 apologize for that
16:13 so yes so then followed by that we had
16:17 jeff wattlings provide an overview of
16:20 the parks and community services
16:25 and then we were assigned a great topic
16:28 on the cultural and religious calendar
16:31 we worked on that topic for two months
16:34 in january and february
16:38 during that time
16:40 we also started working with our human
16:43 resources director
16:45 on the city's equity framework
16:49 as a brief reminder that topic will come
16:52 back to you next month
16:54 as um per your request with a training
16:59 um if
17:00 you recall
17:02 a training was requested to dive deeper
17:04 before making a recommendation so next
17:07 month we will continue that
17:10 so for two months we discussed the low
17:12 balance equity framework
17:15 then we continued with community
17:17 engagement process we had black history
17:20 month as an event hosted by you
17:23 as the board
17:26 and so
17:27 that takes us now to where we are today
17:30 um in conversations with our board
17:33 leadership shay and tony
17:35 um we were discussing that really we did
17:38 quite a few things but we really did not
17:40 have time to focus on long-term planning
17:44 and developing a longer term
17:47 plan for the board and so
17:51 therefore what i would like to propose
17:54 for your discussion tonight
17:56 is to go back to the initial assignment
18:01 that
18:02 we received from mayor paulie
18:05 which was to
18:07 do a gap analysis
18:10 for the city
18:12 and for that what we had planned
18:15 initially to do
18:17 um was to
18:21 first is the first step to really learn
18:23 in more depth what the city is doing
18:26 internally and what are the resources
18:29 available in the community so both an
18:31 external external and an internal
18:34 component
18:35 for the internal component
18:37 we are going to invite
18:39 each
18:41 department director to come and attend
18:44 an equity board meeting
18:47 introduce their department the services
18:49 that they provide so you as an equity
18:52 board you have a more in-depth
18:53 understanding of what the city does
18:57 and how things work at the city
19:00 the second thing that we proposed for
19:02 that was the external the community
19:04 component to that
19:06 and for that we were gonna invite um
19:10 community equity groups in issaquah
19:14 and in the
19:15 east side region
19:17 for us again as an equity board for you
19:20 learn in more depth on what work they're
19:23 doing
19:25 so then once we
19:27 learn um of of the existing services
19:31 within the city
19:32 both internally and externally then we
19:35 can talk about an approach on how to
19:38 really go about identifying what are the
19:41 equity related gaps and
19:44 those would then help us
19:47 create a plan for
19:49 a longer term
19:51 action item for the equity board
19:55 so with that i think i just as you may
19:58 have seen also in your agenda packet i
20:00 just drafted for the upcoming months
20:04 when you see city department and or
20:07 community equity group introduction
20:09 it's basically inviting different
20:11 departments and different community
20:13 groups
20:14 in the upcoming months to come and visit
20:16 you
20:17 to introduce themselves
20:22 also left as i mentioned you started
20:24 working on the equity framework with our
20:27 human resources
20:29 director
20:31 and as i mentioned there's a training
20:34 scheduled for
20:36 next month for may
20:38 um and then depending on how the
20:40 training goes and the discussion
20:42 if you are going to be ready to make a
20:44 recommendation at that meeting then you
20:47 you can make a recommendation for city
20:49 council uh at that meeting otherwise uh
20:53 we'll add either another special meeting
20:55 or we'll move to the meeting in june to
20:58 make a recommendation for city council
21:04 these are
21:05 for now kind of like this is um the
21:07 draft plan
21:09 um and the way we've been thinking about
21:12 starting the work for the equity board
21:14 so we really we can start diving a
21:16 little bit deeper
21:18 instead of just having the short
21:21 um timely
21:23 topics which i'm sure we are still going
21:26 to have short and timely topics
21:29 however it would be also great to kind
21:30 of like focus a little bit on long-term
21:33 action items and so with that
21:36 i think i would like to pause
21:38 and um ask for your thoughts on this
21:41 proposed plan for for the next few
21:43 months
21:44 and then my second question is
21:46 and after this discussion
21:50 ray brought up last month um a great
21:56 idea
21:57 since
21:58 you had a chance to introduce at the
22:00 very first meeting
22:02 but because everything was so new
22:05 i think it may be worth revisiting that
22:08 introduction ray suggested last month
22:10 that perhaps it would be great to hear
22:11 from each of you on
22:14 why did you decide to choose the equity
22:16 board and kind of like what would you
22:18 like to see accomplished
22:21 as part of the equity board and then i
22:23 think we can make the list and kind of
22:25 like add those wishes
22:28 to uh the work plan and then see how we
22:31 may incorporate it with the other things
22:33 that were assigned to us so those are my
22:35 two questions for you tonight
22:37 um and
22:39 i'm gonna
22:41 hand it back to you in case we'd love to
22:42 hear questions and comments
22:45 thank you so much monica it looks like
22:47 ray is ready to jump in and i encourage
22:50 you to come off mute and
22:53 tell us your comment
22:54 hi yeah good evening everybody just to
22:56 piggyback on what monica said i think
22:58 that's really critical for our
23:01 our equity board here to really just
23:03 share
23:04 what brought us
23:06 to the table what is it that inspired us
23:09 to be want to be part of the
23:11 of this committee of uh serving the city
23:14 of issaquah there's something must have
23:15 driven us to the table and i think that
23:17 might open up some avenues on which we
23:19 want to pursue
23:20 whether that be our involvement with
23:24 activists or organizations or special
23:27 events that might have occurred in the
23:28 city of esqua or outside the city of
23:30 issaquah some of us are transplants
23:32 right we're not really we haven't been
23:34 here that long so what was it that we
23:36 may have seen outside of our city that
23:38 we feel would be appropriate to
23:41 expound upon and apply to our our
23:44 community so i mean i have some things
23:46 in mind and i thought it would be a
23:47 great um venue for us to share some of
23:49 that
23:50 with some ideas
23:54 thank you so much ray
23:57 and um
23:58 before i actually comment i would like
24:02 to just ask the group is anyone ready to
24:05 actually answer monica's questions and
24:09 to raise point share why you decided to
24:11 become an equity board member and what
24:13 you'd like to see
24:21 well if no one's ready i look ahead and
24:24 jump in um just to give some people some
24:27 ideas
24:28 um and of course i'm also of the mindset
24:31 that it's better to be to volunteer than
24:34 to be voluntold
24:37 i'll jump right in
24:38 um okay so um i moved here from st louis
24:42 about four years ago
24:44 um and
24:48 saw a pretty significant need to help
24:52 others
24:53 become more educated about the things
24:56 that are happening outside of issaquah
24:59 and then of course
25:01 once
25:03 life started changing um
25:05 with the
25:07 presence of the pandemic and all of that
25:10 found a whole lot of concern with how
25:13 issaquah was actually handling
25:16 equitable issues um
25:18 and
25:20 i found it hard to understand how they
25:23 could address those without having a
25:26 member of the community that experiences
25:29 some of those things that we
25:31 see as opportunities to grow the city
25:34 and help us become a better community
25:38 i of course decided to apply
25:40 and um it was probably one of the
25:44 better experiences i've had with just
25:48 convincing people that i love doing dei
25:50 work um it's something i do in my job
25:54 it's something that i like doing in the
25:56 community and it's definitely something
25:58 that i feel is necessary to help our
26:01 community be better be better um
26:04 there's
26:05 i'm raising two small citizens that
26:08 intend to
26:09 um one day be a part of isopod's future
26:12 and i want to make sure that they
26:14 not only know the struggles and the work
26:17 that it takes to make these things
26:19 happen but also
26:21 help preserve those things and help
26:23 bring our community forward as
26:26 life changes as our community changes as
26:28 things begin to adjust and people start
26:31 even change in their perceptions so i
26:33 want
26:35 my my part of the community to be ready
26:38 for that because change is happening and
26:41 it's happening a little bit faster than
26:42 i think a lot of people think um
26:45 but any either case
26:47 my goal
26:48 or my hope for this group is that we are
26:52 able to not only make issaquah more
26:54 equitable
26:55 but make it a very welcoming place for
26:58 all kinds of people
27:00 and um i think i share in the experience
27:02 that it hasn't always been as welcoming
27:04 as i'd like it to be or as much as i
27:07 wanted it to be and i think that that is
27:09 changing
27:14 all right and then i will go ahead and
27:16 throw it to tony because it looks like
27:18 he also has a comment or he's ready to
27:20 comment sure i'm ready to comment so
27:23 good evening everyone i didn't say that
27:24 before when i was talking about the
27:26 meeting with uh at the city council but
27:29 so yeah i'm going to answer those same
27:32 questions so for me i mean i moved here
27:34 to issaquah in
27:36 2015. um but
27:39 i always heard what i'm not always heard
27:42 um i had been to issaquah many times
27:46 before i worked for a company called lg
27:48 electronics and in my job as a regional
27:52 corporate trainer i would come out here
27:54 to issaquah and i would come out to talk
27:56 with the folks at at t and folks at
27:59 verizon and t-mobile and whatnot and
28:01 talk with them about our devices and
28:03 whatnot so i never really thought of
28:04 more of issaquah
28:06 as other than maybe kind of a closed-off
28:09 community
28:10 until actually moving here in 2015. and
28:13 so when i moved here in 2015 for me um
28:17 i was the only person of color i saw
28:20 every day i go to the safeway in the
28:22 highlands i'd go to emerald city
28:24 smoothies down on gilman i go to the ups
28:27 store where shea and i almost got a
28:29 chance to meet each other um i'd go down
28:32 and i would be the only not the only
28:34 blackface but the only person of color
28:36 that i'd pretty much see but over the
28:38 years i've started to see it change so
28:41 the reason why i got involved in the
28:42 equity board is actually i would love to
28:45 say that i saw a need in issaquah but it
28:48 really wasn't an easy it's a for me for
28:51 me personally it wasn't a need of just
28:53 an issaquah it was a new enter in the
28:55 world and i saw that that i mean
28:59 everyone has a lofty goal of maybe i
29:01 want to say everyone but some people
29:02 have a lofty goals they'd love to change
29:03 the world and i would love to be able to
29:05 change the world in terms of like equity
29:08 and love and unity and
29:11 caring for your fellow person you know
29:13 and so that's why i wanted to get
29:15 involved i found myself like after i
29:17 left the military i loved service i
29:20 loved like my time spent in the military
29:23 even though
29:24 what i did in the military was more
29:29 i just say was of a violent nature but
29:32 we kept the peace
29:34 and i miss that service that service to
29:37 not just my country but my service to
29:40 keeping the peace into the world and i
29:42 sat on the sidelines too long and i felt
29:45 like it was just time for me
29:48 and you know and i will admit and then
29:51 just outing myself
29:52 it really took what happened with george
29:54 floyd for me to say
29:56 it's time for me not just to speak up in
29:58 my home because you guys have heard me
30:00 talk like my wife she's white and so
30:04 there's a lot of conversations that we
30:06 did not have
30:08 until george floyd and it took those
30:11 conversations for me to realize that
30:14 wow
30:15 a lot of people here in issaquah
30:17 definitely need to know about equity
30:20 need to know about you know get a true
30:23 education
30:24 on true history and then that i think
30:27 that if we can all just like get there
30:30 get there to the fact of true history
30:33 get to the fact of
30:34 true lived experiences
30:37 in the world if we can just start one
30:40 with our homes and then two start with
30:43 our communities which in issaquah maybe
30:46 that will just spread and spread and
30:47 spread and spread and just balloon out
30:50 and hopefully you know to washington
30:53 state to the united states to the world
30:55 so for me that's why i really wanted to
30:58 want to get involved and i'm so
31:01 very appreciative of
31:03 the camaraderie that we have as a group
31:06 that's why i really want to meet all of
31:07 you in person because you know we talk a
31:10 lot about you know the things that we
31:12 want to do and we talk about the things
31:14 that we are doing as an equity board and
31:17 sometimes we have a little fun with each
31:18 other before call begins but it's nice
31:21 to actually be a part of this great
31:22 equity board that wants to see change
31:25 happen
31:26 and that's what i
31:28 that's the biggest reason
31:30 why
31:31 i joined the equity board is to make
31:35 change
31:36 happen and i think i see that in every
31:38 single one of us
31:40 so that's my take on it
31:45 thank you so much tony there's so much i
31:48 want to say
31:49 but it is not my turn
31:53 lisa would you please come off mew and
31:55 join us and with your comments
32:03 i grew up in a community that was um
32:07 almost 99
32:09 african-american
32:11 and
32:12 um when i then went to college was
32:16 in an environment that was almost 99
32:19 not african-american
32:21 and
32:24 my experience in college was that i felt
32:28 that
32:28 i was around a lot of really good people
32:31 who had just never had the chance to
32:34 interact with an african-american person
32:37 as a peer
32:39 and i felt that it was
32:42 my responsibility to be an ambassador
32:46 and
32:47 and and to bring that opportunity
32:50 because there wasn't anyone else that's
32:52 a little bit like the expression you
32:54 might be the only jesus someone knows
32:56 well you might be the only black person
32:58 that someone knows
33:00 and
33:01 i moved to issaquah
33:04 i went to washington state from the east
33:07 coast in 2020
33:09 [Music]
33:10 and i moved to issaquah in 2021
33:14 and
33:16 i really haven't seen any particular
33:18 things missing or lacking in this aqua
33:20 you know
33:21 but
33:22 certainly during that time and and
33:25 during the time i've been in washington
33:27 all of the um protests for black lives
33:30 matters
33:31 you know happened and and
33:33 so much political polarization happened
33:36 and
33:37 you know i think some of the gains that
33:39 i thought we had made it just seemed
33:41 like wow there's a lot of gains that we
33:43 still really need to make and more than
33:46 maybe i even realized that we needed to
33:48 make
33:49 and
33:50 also begin to appreciate that
33:52 change really happens
33:56 the
33:57 individual and local level
33:59 much more so than at a national level so
34:03 i think that the conversation i have
34:05 with
34:06 the person who i meet at the store
34:10 just this week i was at the pharmacy and
34:14 the pharmacist was an asian woman who
34:16 said to me
34:18 you know someone came in the other day
34:20 and said to me i need to speak to
34:22 someone who speaks english
34:24 i don't want to speak to you
34:27 and
34:28 you know
34:29 i think that my conversation with her
34:33 was more impactful than some of the
34:36 things that might happen on a national
34:38 level my conversation with her won't
34:40 make headlines but i think it makes more
34:42 of a difference
34:44 and
34:45 so when the opportunity to join the
34:47 equity board arose i said okay you know
34:50 this is an opportunity
34:54 just be
34:56 be a part of that change on a local
34:58 level
35:00 and
35:01 i i think
35:02 you know change i think change happens
35:05 on small levels but that make big
35:07 changes ultimately
35:09 and that's all i'm hoping to see and
35:11 accomplish out of this group
35:15 more small steps towards positive change
35:20 that's it
35:24 thank you so much alyssa that was
35:26 beautiful
35:28 i love it thank you so much you both
35:30 have given me so many things to talk
35:32 about um but i'd like to invite monica
35:36 back because i think we have someone in
35:38 attendance today
35:40 thank you very much um shea and board
35:43 members yeah i just wanted to pause for
35:45 a moment i noticed that we have someone
35:47 in the attendance and just welcome them
35:50 for the evening
35:51 uh julian uh we see you in the attendee
35:54 section thank you so much for being here
35:56 with us tonight um
35:59 and feel free if you have any questions
36:02 or follow-up comments to follow up um
36:05 via email or even just let me know via
36:08 chat
36:10 if you would like to make a public
36:11 comment while that section passed i'm
36:14 sure that if
36:16 if you would like to make a public
36:17 comment i'm pretty sure that the equity
36:19 board members would love to hear your
36:21 comments
36:23 um so feel free to just send a chat or
36:26 use the
36:27 raise hand feature um otherwise we'll
36:30 just assume that you're just here
36:32 listening which is absolutely
36:34 uh fine and we welcome that so just
36:37 welcome
36:40 thank you so much monica and i'd also
36:42 like to welcome julian we are happy that
36:44 you are here
36:46 um and i see lucretia you had a comment
36:50 would you please come on mute
36:54 thank you shay
36:56 so the reason that i came on to um the
36:59 equity board was
37:02 it takes me back to when i first joined
37:05 the commission of human services
37:09 i joined the commission
37:11 with the intention of
37:14 doing the work that it would take to get
37:16 this board up and
37:17 up and running and so i came onto the
37:20 commission to make sure that this board
37:23 took root
37:25 and did
37:27 the work with the other commissioners
37:30 as well as monica to get us to where we
37:33 we where we were when we when we all
37:36 first became the equity board
37:38 prior to that um
37:40 i have a long history of
37:43 activism wherever i have lived i
37:46 consider myself an activist rather than
37:48 just a private citizen i'm i'm always
37:51 been pretty active in any community i
37:53 have lived in
37:55 and um
37:57 i worked in higher education for about
37:59 15 years
38:01 and my role there was to send
38:04 u.s students
38:05 overseas so i designed all of the study
38:08 abroad programs for a small liberal arts
38:10 college in portland oregon
38:12 but
38:14 when i first started at that institution
38:17 i was one of two people of color
38:20 in administration
38:23 the faculty was made up of 98 men
38:27 and so there was a lot of there were a
38:28 lot of issues that i saw coming from the
38:31 outside i was kind of a
38:33 i was kind of like the underdog in that
38:36 um i didn't come from higher ed i came
38:39 from social from social work
38:42 and so i um worked really hard at the
38:44 small liberal arts college
38:48 join different committees and and ask
38:51 the questions that needed to be asked
38:53 such as you know where are the students
38:55 of color why are we counting foreign
38:57 students as
38:59 in the numbers that we're using for
39:03 represent representing people of color
39:05 um why why don't we offer scholarships
39:08 to more students of color and or
39:10 students who come from
39:13 limited income backgrounds etc
39:16 and so i feel that i i have i have that
39:18 history under my belt
39:22 i am not as uh emotional in public about
39:26 the work that i have done historically
39:31 but i am in my own way enjoying up and
39:33 doing the work and doing the research
39:34 and
39:35 making sure that when we go to make a
39:38 presentation that we have
39:40 solid data to back up what it is that
39:42 we're asking for
39:44 because i believe that yes there is a
39:47 place for our emotions
39:49 to to kind of be the foundation that
39:52 guides us
39:54 but unfortunately that that isn't always
39:57 enough to get us from point a to point b
40:00 and moving in the direction that we need
40:02 to be going
40:03 and so i always go back to kind of like
40:05 the work that i did for my master's
40:07 degree
40:09 my master's work was around recognizing
40:13 social um
40:15 social capital and what that looks like
40:17 and what it means
40:19 because a lot of us take that for
40:20 granted we don't know what our social
40:22 capital is worth because we don't know
40:24 what we don't know
40:26 and we also don't know what other people
40:28 don't know
40:29 um and so my work was around addressing
40:33 access
40:34 funding
40:36 college going knowledge and social
40:38 capital
40:40 and so when
40:41 we decided to you know bring the
40:43 proposal to the council
40:46 as monica can attest um the work that i
40:49 contributed was more around getting
40:51 people to understand
40:53 the importance of
40:55 getting
40:57 all of us across that finish line and
40:59 why that matters
41:01 so currently if we look at the numbers
41:03 in issaquah we we will see from the 2010
41:07 to the 2020 census
41:09 a huge change in the demographics of the
41:12 community right
41:14 and with that change we are
41:16 one of the the things that i want to
41:19 keep drawing our attention back to
41:21 is how our children are faring in our
41:23 schools
41:24 our children of color okay because they
41:27 are the future they are the ones that
41:28 are coming up
41:30 and whereas we may see a lot of success
41:33 in our european-american students um you
41:35 know who are getting you know
41:37 very high
41:39 ap scores and ac sats and they go to
41:42 college etc
41:43 i want answers to where are our children
41:46 of color why are they not
41:51 competing at the same level as their
41:54 peers
41:55 because at the end of the day what we
41:57 need to remember is that those youth
42:00 who are outnumbering our european youth
42:03 in terms of numbers
42:05 if they are not equally educated if they
42:08 don't have access
42:10 then
42:12 the community will be impacted
42:14 and that's why it matters right um and
42:17 so anyway so
42:19 basically um
42:21 i have a long history of doing the sort
42:23 of work before dei was a thing
42:25 i yeah i still kind of laugh about the
42:28 fact that we now have a you know an
42:30 acronym for it
42:31 um and i just want to keep asking the
42:34 question of
42:35 the work that we're doing today
42:37 needs to include the younger generations
42:40 i want to hear their voices well
42:42 represented
42:43 and for us to keep asking okay when we
42:46 retire right because we all shared more
42:48 or less our age tonight when we retire
42:51 in a few years there has to be people
42:54 who have
42:55 the same level of education or better
42:57 than we have
42:59 to keep this
43:00 this agenda alive well and moving
43:03 forward
43:04 thank you
43:08 thank you so much lucretia i
43:11 loved your backstory it was so good
43:13 hearing about what you've done prior to
43:15 this
43:16 so thank you for sharing
43:18 um and i also see that rey has a comment
43:22 followed by lorna
43:24 and
43:25 helen
43:27 oh and jacob
43:29 so we'll start with ray if he's ready
43:34 oh i don't know how i ended up back on
43:35 the list but since you called it
43:38 all
43:41 since i got this opportunity shea i
43:42 wanted to share some things that brought
43:44 me to the table i i work in healthcare
43:46 and one of the things that i'm
43:48 passionate about is um how challenging
43:50 it is to get health care in this country
43:53 so uh for those of you who don't follow
43:55 trends healthcare now accounts for the
43:57 largest um expense in our gross domestic
43:59 product and you can see that with people
44:02 especially ones with families so
44:04 i worked for the healthcare institution
44:06 here that resides in issaquah which is
44:08 swedish medical center so i thought
44:10 opportunities where our equity board can
44:12 work not only with the hospital system
44:15 that's largest here
44:16 and we talk about healthcare systems
44:18 it's not just swedish it's physically
44:20 present here we also have clinics from
44:21 the university of washington we have
44:23 clinics that are associated with um
44:26 multicare down in tacoma they all have
44:28 clinics here that serve our communities
44:30 so i think if there's opportunities to
44:31 partner with them if they understand the
44:33 makeup and going back to
44:35 lucretia's comments are these these
44:36 organizations need to be involved in our
44:38 strategy so that if there's ways to
44:40 connect with them and show that people
44:43 are in need of better and more
44:46 affordable health care
44:48 using our population as a sample that
44:49 might be a good target for this equity
44:51 board
44:52 so thank you
44:54 thank you so much ray and you make such
44:56 a good point i would love to hear more
44:58 about your work and how we can support
45:02 um even more
45:03 but of course i know that we're a little
45:05 limited on time so i'll jump right over
45:07 to lorna if she's ready
45:10 yes thank you so much and rape was my
45:12 fault i thought we'd missed skipped you
45:15 um in the comment section of like okay
45:17 wait anyway um so this is my 22nd year
45:21 living in issaquah and i have watched
45:23 the city of physical change quite a bit
45:26 uh through that time my sister actually
45:28 moved here in 87 and
45:30 in between that time even in the 90s i'd
45:32 stayed with it several times as i was
45:33 going to school
45:35 and so again watching your support grow
45:37 and i suppose very much remote very much
45:39 considered rural community
45:41 and even when i got hired i was
45:43 literally one of two teachers who were
45:44 not white so my district was pretty much
45:47 all white teachers
45:50 you please slow down your pace oh sorry
45:53 including the students um
45:56 but things started changing and as
45:58 things started changing in my work
46:00 i started hearing experiences
46:03 from students and staff about the
46:05 experiences in the community
46:07 comments made by parents about
46:10 people of color about our
46:11 african-american students
46:13 and at that time i was working as a
46:15 teacher and so it didn't imp it impacted
46:18 me but i unlike lucretia i never saw
46:20 myself
46:20 as an advocate
46:22 as someone who would you know fight for
46:24 social justice i was very much
46:27 all about just being an educator a
46:29 teacher type
46:30 but in this job right now i am doing a
46:33 lot more work
46:34 in equity and that is something
46:37 different and it opened my eyes to a lot
46:38 more
46:39 and one of the very first things that i
46:42 learned and i heard from students was
46:44 you know you guys are doing all of this
46:46 great work
46:47 to support teachers and students but
46:49 what are you doing to the community and
46:50 that's where we are feeling the so much
46:52 impact they're coming to school after
46:54 having people neighbors you know you
46:57 know community stores
46:59 say things to us and what are you doing
47:01 about that and it hit me because i
47:02 wasn't i couldn't
47:04 i didn't know how to help that
47:07 and when you hear students crying out
47:09 for that you know you have to do
47:11 something to help because that's painful
47:14 and so i wanted to do more work and so
47:18 while i'm not in this role as a employee
47:21 of the square school district and
47:24 working here and doing this work as a
47:26 community member it's more because i'm
47:29 i'm very committed to students and
47:30 children still
47:32 and i want to have those conversations
47:35 with our community members with our
47:38 neighbors but people that our students
47:40 interact with so that they are not
47:42 saying in doing things that are harmful
47:45 and damaging
47:46 because if they're going through these
47:47 microaggressions in the community when
47:50 they come to school they're not ready to
47:53 learn
47:54 so we the teachers in the schools cannot
47:56 be fully responsible
47:58 it is a community responsibility
48:01 and in working with the community very
48:03 often it was like oh no this is issaquah
48:06 this doesn't happen here
48:07 so then i had to tell all my you know
48:09 horror stories
48:11 they're like what no way
48:13 and it's hard because you don't have to
48:15 tell them and teach them every single
48:17 time
48:18 it has to be a community effort people
48:20 have to recognize
48:21 and lead into this work you don't you
48:24 cannot constantly be having to
48:26 defend and say yes this is why the work
48:29 is needed
48:30 we also need more allies white allies i
48:32 know they exist but they don't i think
48:34 there's a hesitancy like me to get
48:36 involved like other people are fighting
48:38 this fight
48:39 so how do we make this more about a
48:41 community kind of
48:43 conversation
48:45 and pull a whole bunch of people in
48:47 to start off by saying yep this problem
48:50 does exist
48:51 and yes as a community we're going to
48:54 recognize that we need to be aware
48:57 and address this issue because we want
48:59 all kids
49:01 to be successful
49:02 and so i truly want to lean into the all
49:05 kids
49:06 not just the privileged few
49:08 and so how do we do that
49:14 thank you so much lorna um i
49:17 wholeheartedly relate to your comment
49:20 because i absolutely experienced
49:23 all of that including the
49:26 microaggressions all of it and
49:28 people not believing me when i said that
49:30 this has happened in this city um
49:34 with these people with my students who
49:36 go go to school alongside yours so thank
49:39 you so much for sharing um
49:42 i i just love this conversation so thank
49:46 you
49:47 um helen i see you were next
49:52 there you go
49:53 hi everybody um thank you for the
49:55 opportunity grateful this one
49:59 um i moved to issaquah from uganda in
50:02 east africa
50:04 february of 2016 i moved with my husband
50:07 and my my daughter um
50:12 for work so i've been a stay-home mom
50:14 all this time and uh
50:18 yeah coming from a place of course in
50:20 africa where
50:22 some of these issues are not very
50:24 they were not in my face are not
50:26 prevalent i was coming into a community
50:28 where
50:30 it was obviously going to be glaring in
50:31 my face and in my daughters that um i
50:34 was standing out as the different one
50:36 but i didn't make much of it until i
50:38 started to have experiences
50:41 for myself for my daughter and for my
50:42 husband within the community
50:45 i think the first that stood out for me
50:47 was my daughter in preschool
50:49 who got told by a kid they can't play
50:51 with her because she's black
50:53 um a preschooler this is three year old
50:56 it got me a bit scared if i'm living in
50:58 a good community for my kid and if she's
51:00 going to be safe
51:02 in public school this was preschool i
51:03 was more worried actually about public
51:05 school
51:06 um a lot of uh the other community of
51:09 ugandans and africans live in other
51:11 communities not in issaquah so we kept
51:14 hearing comments like what are you guys
51:16 doing in izakaya like can't you find the
51:18 rest of us where we are
51:20 but we had our reasons for coming to
51:21 issaquah we haven't left um we've
51:24 weathered the stones um
51:26 and and we love it we're happy to be
51:28 here
51:28 so when the opportunity came a friend of
51:30 mine told me about it she couldn't be
51:32 part of it and she said look helen you
51:34 have an opportunity to make a difference
51:36 instead of ranting on calls this has
51:38 happened to my daughter this has
51:39 happened to me
51:40 come and be part of a community or group
51:42 of people who will make a difference it
51:44 might be small but over time by the time
51:46 your daughter maybe is in middle school
51:48 somewhere
51:49 there might be something better so
51:52 and then i was also in dear and i i just
51:54 started also the interest and i took a
51:56 course in it
51:58 but aside from that i felt i need to be
52:00 a part of a change especially for my for
52:03 my daughter um
52:05 and another thing i i volunteer on on
52:07 her on her school pta so on one of the
52:10 times i was in for um recess help
52:12 there's a
52:13 child who saw me in the corridor wearing
52:16 a reflector jacket a kid of color and
52:19 she was shocked she was happy she didn't
52:21 know what to do with herself she was
52:22 literally like
52:23 i was like no but i don't know you and
52:25 of course you have to be careful because
52:26 you're within a school community
52:28 and i just she waved to me but you know
52:31 she turned back still looking at me in
52:33 almost shook that i took it that she's
52:36 not seen anyone in as as a racist helper
52:39 of color or a parent taking interest
52:41 anyway to come in and help theresa and
52:44 it stayed with me for a long time and i
52:46 felt okay i i think
52:49 like we can't keep hiding and
52:50 complaining behind the scenes we have to
52:52 come out and be a part of this
52:54 and then other incidents happen with my
52:56 daughter in school so we got to meet the
52:58 principal and we spoke about it
53:01 there were issues of course just being
53:03 picked on because she's just black
53:06 and what the school was open to learn
53:08 and i felt like wow they were like we
53:10 don't know these things we need to hear
53:12 from you guys we don't get to have
53:14 conversations with parents of color
53:15 raising these issues you're raising a
53:17 black girl in a community where she's
53:19 being picked on by boys like what does
53:21 that mean for her so
53:24 they were open to hear it but the school
53:26 i didn't have an avenue i don't know i
53:29 didn't even know that the school
53:30 district had um a community of this kind
53:33 or where we could share some of these
53:35 experiences and just make our points to
53:37 them so when the opportunity came i
53:39 thought wow this this is it for me i i
53:42 have to be part of it if not for
53:44 anything for my daughters i have two
53:46 girls
53:47 and we've been in issachar all this time
53:49 they're going to a public school
53:52 they must make it because we've made it
53:54 but we made it because we are outside of
53:56 america they cannot not make it because
53:59 they are here
54:00 and and we made it because we are away
54:02 from here for our education and for our
54:05 career growth so i'm in it for my
54:07 children and for every other child of
54:09 color
54:10 yeah
54:12 oh helen you touched my heart because
54:15 that is my story dear
54:18 and as i'm sure it's most people's
54:20 stories or a lot of people have had that
54:22 experience and maybe hadn't had an
54:24 opportunity to share it or didn't know
54:26 who to share it with
54:28 so thank you so much for sharing that um
54:31 again it it really touched my heart
54:34 because
54:35 that was my experience and i came from
54:37 the united states it wasn't even a
54:40 i didn't even come from another country
54:44 to know that you're having some of those
54:45 same experiences it's heartbreaking but
54:48 um it's also nice to know that there are
54:51 others out here and we just have to find
54:53 each other and get together and try to
54:54 fix it
54:56 so thank you for sharing
54:58 um yes jacob i see you were next
55:02 oh yeah um thank you
55:04 um i guess i just wanted to say that one
55:06 of the reasons i joined um was because
55:08 as i was talking like as i talked to
55:10 like a lot of different people about a
55:12 lot of the things happening in our world
55:14 with relation to like race and equity
55:16 and diversity it like every time i have
55:18 a conversation it like expands
55:21 my point of view and like even within
55:23 and so one of the reasons i wanted to
55:25 join was to expand my point of view even
55:26 more for one um like i just did with
55:29 listening to helen's story um so that
55:31 even after all of us it assuming that
55:34 there's a
55:35 time and place when some of us aren't
55:37 able to be on this sport anymore we can
55:39 take all this experience with us to
55:40 other places
55:42 um where we're able to have
55:44 a widened perspective and then
55:46 one of the things that i want to um
55:48 another reason why i joined the board
55:49 and one of the things that i look
55:50 forward to as we move forward with the
55:52 board and i know this is something we've
55:53 talked about in past meetings is having
55:55 more touch points with the community
55:57 because i think having conversations
55:58 with the community is a great way to
56:00 like um like some of you have mentioned
56:02 is like
56:03 a great way to widen you know everyone's
56:05 perspective including ours and theirs um
56:08 and i know that's something we've talked
56:09 about and like the meetings are open to
56:11 community members and so that's one of
56:12 the reasons i was most excited about the
56:14 board and that i still am as we move
56:16 forward
56:21 thank you so much jacob and i am so
56:23 happy you are here
56:25 um i don't i'm sure everyone else is too
56:28 um but it's always nice to have the
56:30 younger generation with us um it is also
56:33 even better to know that you're wanting
56:36 to learn you're coming into this with an
56:37 open mind and that is key
56:40 so thank you so much for sharing your
56:43 story with us we are happy to have you
56:45 here
56:46 um preethi i think you are next
56:49 yeah thank you um
56:54 so i guess
56:55 you know for my story i've always been
56:58 interested and passionate committed to
57:01 issues of social justice and so even
57:04 through school
57:06 my first job out of uh well graduate
57:09 school was
57:10 similar i think to what lucretia was
57:12 saying was in higher ed i was
57:15 doing research and program evaluation
57:17 work on programs that were designed to
57:20 increase diversity in science technology
57:23 engineering and math fields so looking
57:25 at students as well as faculty and staff
57:27 and advancement
57:30 and somewhere through that journey
57:32 kind of flipped a switch and said i need
57:34 to go upstream
57:36 not just look at kids when they're
57:38 starting university so then i went fully
57:40 in the opposite direction to early
57:42 learning and looking at access and
57:43 readiness to kindergarten things like
57:46 that and then um shifted over into
57:49 government about five years ago so i
57:51 work for a different local government
57:54 doing issues around
57:55 data-driven decision-making and using
57:58 more data
58:00 in management and operations but
58:03 i would say about three or four years
58:05 ago
58:07 i heard
58:08 john powell from berkeley talk about
58:11 othering and belonging
58:13 and um
58:14 that made it more personal to me because
58:16 then all of a sudden i realized my own
58:17 personal history
58:19 and you know family history about like
58:24 being a model model minority and
58:26 assimilation
58:27 and so
58:28 um it just made me think more about
58:31 being othered and what it would take for
58:33 folks to feel like they actually belong
58:35 and so that
58:38 made me want to engage more hands-on in
58:41 the community and over the last couple
58:44 years i've had some direct roles
58:45 supporting
58:47 the pandemic with public health
58:49 supporting schools and child care
58:52 managing through the pandemic and so now
58:55 i'm just kind of
58:56 from that experience just wanting to
58:58 engage just more personally and directly
59:00 in this work so that's why i'm here
59:04 thanks
59:06 thank you so much preethi um
59:09 everyone has
59:11 so much good stuff to say and it's all
59:14 stuff that i've experienced um i love
59:16 that talk by the way
59:18 thank you for sharing
59:21 oh my goodness uh let's see um we still
59:24 have uh christina christina are you
59:26 ready
59:29 i think
59:31 oh i know you are so please share
59:35 okay
59:45 well there's a um of reasons that
59:46 brought me here but first and foremost
59:48 my personality
59:56 i mean ever since i i was a kid growing
59:59 up i found that there's there's no
1:00:00 justice
1:00:07 you know i saw that i was treated
1:00:08 differently just because i was a female
1:00:11 and i didn't like that
1:00:20 my mom would say no you can't watch tv
1:00:22 no you can't play sports no you can't do
1:00:24 this that or the other because you're a
1:00:26 female it'd just be a waste of time for
1:00:35 you need to learn how to cook and clean
1:00:38 and do the housework and do the things
1:00:40 you need to need to learn for being a
1:00:42 housewife
1:00:49 i i think from that point forward i felt
1:00:52 like there needed to be change and i
1:00:54 needed to raise my voice to it
1:01:07 perhaps my mom wasn't a fan of my
1:01:09 opinions at the beginning but i think
1:01:10 she got she got used to it and
1:01:12 and she understood
1:01:30 so now
1:01:31 i'm happy to say you know my brothers
1:01:33 don't just sit around but they do help
1:01:35 their wives with cooking and cleaning
1:01:37 and child care and and i feel like i was
1:01:40 part of an influence on them
1:01:48 i think i'm just a rebel by nature
1:01:55 and when i see injustice i just can't
1:01:57 keep my mouth shut
1:02:04 is i'm coming here to issaquah has
1:02:07 really opened my mind and and i'm really
1:02:10 appreciative
1:02:21 not everyone has the opportunity to to
1:02:24 experience so many great cultures in one
1:02:26 place and to see all the things that
1:02:28 life has to offer
1:02:45 and i really want them to feel like they
1:02:47 belong here
1:02:56 and you know not even just here but
1:02:59 anywhere in the world i want them to
1:03:00 feel that they have their place that
1:03:02 they feel confident and they feel sure
1:03:04 of themselves
1:03:10 and and i feel like god is speaking for
1:03:13 me because this is all just beautiful
1:03:15 sounds beautiful
1:03:20 i don't know i just really like it
1:03:28 excellent
1:03:38 and i feel like my daughters are having
1:03:40 the opportunity to grow up in a
1:03:41 wonderful place and it's going to be
1:03:43 helpful to them
1:03:44 and i think
1:03:46 if there's change it's we're we are the
1:03:56 changes i remember the experience you
1:03:59 know when i was in high school i did not
1:04:01 like math
1:04:03 no i know
1:04:04 not at all
1:04:23 and i remember a teacher i remember our
1:04:25 teacher he
1:04:27 he pushed each and every one of us to
1:04:28 participate whether we wanted to or not
1:04:30 even when we'd say no no no he'd say no
1:04:33 come on you can do it
1:04:40 and i feel like sometimes our own
1:04:42 securities are what actually hold us
1:04:44 back from doing things
1:04:49 but that math teacher he changed my life
1:05:10 and i really want to be a contributing
1:05:13 factor so that these children can see
1:05:15 and not just my children all children or
1:05:17 my children
1:05:30 that they can all feel that they belong
1:05:32 that they can all feel that they're a
1:05:34 part of this community and of this world
1:05:36 and there was the question what do what
1:05:37 do we see differently in this community
1:05:42 different
1:05:44 that's something that i see that's
1:05:45 different
1:05:47 aqui quando for preschool
1:05:52 here when my kids entered preschool and
1:05:54 only spoke spanish
1:06:01 they didn't want to play they were
1:06:03 pretty unsure of themselves i believe
1:06:13 she was all by herself and she wasn't
1:06:15 able to learn how to speak english
1:06:23 there was no one there for her there was
1:06:26 not one teacher there for her to push
1:06:29 her forward and tell her to come here
1:06:32 and join the group and play
1:06:45 i hope that the reason why that didn't
1:06:48 happen
1:06:49 it was because of the covet situation
1:06:52 and not because
1:06:53 just that's the way life is
1:06:55 here in this community
1:07:04 but if that's the case i want to
1:07:08 uh make changes and that's why i joined
1:07:11 i want this to change
1:07:17 and i'm here really to learn a lot from
1:07:20 you all
1:07:26 because when i'm able to i will do
1:07:29 whatever it takes uh to do so
1:07:33 gracias thank you
1:07:38 thank you christina um
1:07:42 i may say this wrong but i'm going to
1:07:44 try it anyway
1:07:45 um me and contentus
1:07:52 espanol pero um
1:08:10 love to hear you speak your spanish
1:08:14 gracias
1:08:15 um yes in a group all i told her was
1:08:18 that i really love when she comments and
1:08:20 i'm still learning spanish but i i love
1:08:23 to hear her speak and i'm so happy that
1:08:25 she's here so um thank you uh for your
1:08:28 comments christina i think that you
1:08:31 really spoke to a lot of us with what
1:08:33 you said so thank you again
1:08:36 um and i don't see anyone else
1:08:39 um but did i miss anyone
1:08:43 and if not i'd like to hear from monica
1:08:46 if she is available
1:08:49 thank you very much shay and thank you
1:08:52 so much board members
1:08:54 it was so so great to to hear your
1:08:56 comments i took some notes
1:08:58 as you might have learned so far from me
1:09:00 if you have ideas i always want to
1:09:04 to bring them to life and see how i can
1:09:06 elevate those voices so um thank you um
1:09:10 going back circling back to the initial
1:09:12 question and conversation on how we
1:09:14 continue to develop our work plan um for
1:09:18 the equity board i think as and then it
1:09:21 was just again so so great to hear your
1:09:23 thoughts and comments and introductions
1:09:25 please continue to think about now that
1:09:28 you you are a few months into the board
1:09:31 um bring those ideas contact me directly
1:09:34 between now and the next few months as
1:09:36 ideas come
1:09:38 to you so then then we can add them to
1:09:40 the work plan you might have remembered
1:09:43 mayor paulie
1:09:45 really wanted to look at you as a board
1:09:48 saying okay as you conduct this gap
1:09:50 analysis of what's needed um she does
1:09:53 want to hear from you and i hear a lot
1:09:55 of definitely a lot of cumulative
1:09:56 conversations that need to continue to
1:09:58 happen and so that's our actually next
1:10:01 agenda item i'm gonna transition to that
1:10:03 if i have
1:10:05 your permission but then to close this
1:10:07 one um i think we don't need a decision
1:10:10 but i would like your permission is it
1:10:11 okay then for us to continue as as we
1:10:15 to invite
1:10:17 community groups uh that do equity work
1:10:20 in in uh issaquah in the region to
1:10:23 invite department leaders from the city
1:10:25 to come and introduce themselves as you
1:10:27 learn more in that while also we are
1:10:29 adding
1:10:30 um other topics to the work plan is that
1:10:34 a good plan for the next few months
1:10:36 um and like here i see a question from
1:10:39 prithee so i'm gonna pause there
1:10:43 yeah thank you sorry um my my question
1:10:46 is when i hear a gap analysis i think
1:10:49 you know there's what's the current
1:10:51 state and where do we want to be like
1:10:54 what's our aspirational state and um i'm
1:10:56 not sure have we
1:10:59 do we know where we want to be or is
1:11:01 that part of what the plan needs to help
1:11:04 kind of clarify what's that future state
1:11:07 so we know what how to articulate the
1:11:09 gap yeah so that's exactly i'm so glad
1:11:12 you brought it up because that's exactly
1:11:13 i think we identified the first step we
1:11:15 need to see where we are and so that's
1:11:17 why by inviting uh internally department
1:11:20 leaders and inviting the community
1:11:22 members i think we are going to see
1:11:24 where we are at and once we are going to
1:11:26 see where we are at i think then that's
1:11:28 when probably we need to talk um as a
1:11:31 board again to see where do we even want
1:11:33 to go and what's realistic within the
1:11:36 the scope of this board so then in the
1:11:38 end then we'll identify the gaps right
1:11:40 so great i think and you put it so much
1:11:42 better into words uh pretty you're right
1:11:45 i don't think we identify that
1:11:47 um but i i also believe and i may be
1:11:50 wrong but in my thinking was i don't
1:11:52 know that we can identify where we want
1:11:54 to be before we at least learn
1:11:57 where we are right so that's that was
1:11:59 like let's do the initial
1:12:02 learning
1:12:04 right
1:12:05 um i i thought that that would
1:12:07 help us right okay thank you
1:12:11 and shay you also have a question
1:12:14 yes um just because uh
1:12:17 as i'm sure you probably know i have um
1:12:20 a pretty vast network of people that i'd
1:12:23 love to share with the group
1:12:25 um that may be able to help us along
1:12:28 this journey um however uh my question
1:12:33 whether or not we would be expected to
1:12:35 bring those group member or to bring
1:12:36 those members to the group or say hey
1:12:38 you know i i'd like to invite a speaker
1:12:41 to just talk to us for a little bit
1:12:43 about some of the issues we want to
1:12:44 address
1:12:46 so absolutely send me ideas i think on
1:12:48 my end we were gonna start initially
1:12:50 with issaquah internally the city
1:12:52 departments and in the community with
1:12:55 the issaquah community and perhaps the
1:12:56 east side but yes i don't think that i
1:13:00 all the groups in the region so please
1:13:02 do send ideas and and the
1:13:04 connections as you have
1:13:07 so great great
1:13:09 thought thank you so much
1:13:15 okay i see no other questions so
1:13:17 i think if you don't mind giving me a
1:13:19 thumbs up that we are going to proceed
1:13:21 as as mentioned
1:13:23 and with that thank you so much
1:13:25 board members then with that with your
1:13:27 permission
1:13:28 uh we can move to the next agenda item
1:13:31 that dives a little bit deeper in the
1:13:33 community engagement and community
1:13:35 conversations
1:13:38 so wanted to separate them just because
1:13:40 it seems like a little bit complex so
1:13:42 with your permission i'm gonna share my
1:13:44 screen i do have a brief
1:13:46 powerpoint presentation to to keep me
1:13:49 focused here so i'm gonna
1:13:51 share that and then after that i'm gonna
1:13:54 open it up for discussion
1:14:11 can i have a confirmation that i'm
1:14:13 sharing this live show
1:14:17 i can see it yes um but it looks like
1:14:19 you have a your presentation mode up
1:14:22 it is a presentation load up
1:14:26 yeah cause um i can see your your main
1:14:28 slide and then also your next slide
1:14:35 i'm not sure if i know how to
1:14:40 there you go
1:14:43 yes thank you
1:14:46 okay so
1:14:48 in in talking about community engagement
1:14:51 would love to discuss with you board
1:14:52 members and this would be also taking
1:14:55 action so you will be voting hopefully
1:14:58 um at the end of this
1:15:00 tonight on what we previously discussed
1:15:03 uh regarding creating a committee uh
1:15:06 that will address community
1:15:09 conversations and community engagement
1:15:13 so as a brief reminder we talked a
1:15:16 couple of times in previous meetings
1:15:20 about
1:15:21 how to work as a board
1:15:24 in um engaging more with the community
1:15:27 and also having more uh cultural
1:15:30 conversations or community conversations
1:15:32 around equity
1:15:34 and so
1:15:35 we discussed um a few options uh we
1:15:37 discussed the idea of creating a
1:15:39 committee um and this
1:15:42 would be um
1:15:44 because on one end we meet once a month
1:15:46 as an equity board and perhaps there's
1:15:48 just not enough time for us to have
1:15:50 community conversations and also focus
1:15:52 on on advancing equity so um on one end
1:15:57 we considered creating a committee uh we
1:15:59 also considered
1:16:01 adding special meetings or additional
1:16:03 meetings to the board or you know we
1:16:05 brainstorm a little bit other
1:16:07 options but i think if um
1:16:10 i understood correctly the preference
1:16:13 was for us to land on a committee
1:16:15 um and so again just as a brief
1:16:18 reminder of why
1:16:21 addressing community engagement um
1:16:24 and why
1:16:25 by the equity board i think i'm
1:16:27 preaching to the choir to all of you but
1:16:29 in case anyone in the community wonders
1:16:32 right um equity conversations in the
1:16:35 community are really important um
1:16:38 because this is
1:16:41 about engaging with the community and um
1:16:46 are very very important in order for us
1:16:48 to really advance equity we want to
1:16:51 engage with the community we want to
1:16:52 talk with the community we don't want to
1:16:54 do it for the community right
1:17:01 with that
1:17:05 the recommendation tonight and the
1:17:08 proposal for you tonight is to create a
1:17:11 committee
1:17:12 on community engagement
1:17:15 i'm going to talk a little bit about
1:17:16 what would mean in terms of a timeline
1:17:19 what would be the scope and membership
1:17:21 of the committee
1:17:24 so when you create a committee
1:17:27 as part of the board you have the option
1:17:30 to have an ad hoc committee or a
1:17:33 standing committee
1:17:34 the standing committee would be a
1:17:37 permanent committee
1:17:40 and as you may know or guess the ad hoc
1:17:43 committee it's a short term
1:17:46 specific committee let's say you can
1:17:49 create a committee
1:17:51 for three months um
1:17:54 you have a specific start time and the
1:17:56 specific end time or you can have a
1:17:59 standing committee which basically would
1:18:00 be a permanent committee
1:18:02 you can still at some point review the
1:18:05 scope of work of a standing committee a
1:18:07 permanent committee let's say on an
1:18:09 annual basis and you can still decide at
1:18:12 some point to say oh if the committee um
1:18:15 met all the its initial scope you can
1:18:19 sunset it um but um a standing commit
1:18:23 committee um
1:18:25 what it's understandable would be a
1:18:27 longer term one than just one that would
1:18:29 be a couple of months long so with your
1:18:32 permission our recommendation would be
1:18:34 then for this community engagement
1:18:36 committee to just create a standing one
1:18:39 because i think there's quite a bit of
1:18:41 work that could be done
1:18:43 that would warrant the standing
1:18:44 committee
1:18:46 um the scope specific scope we need to
1:18:50 define it and our recommendations would
1:18:52 be to the scope of the
1:18:55 committee to
1:18:58 address cultural conversations that the
1:19:00 equity board will be hosting
1:19:03 and to come back to you as a board with
1:19:06 recommendations regarding ongoing
1:19:09 community engagement opportunities
1:19:12 so if you choose to create a a committee
1:19:17 the committee would not take decisions
1:19:20 on its own it would be as part of the
1:19:22 equity board so the committee would need
1:19:25 to come back to you
1:19:27 for any final decisions
1:19:30 and also come back to you with reports
1:19:32 so the committee would make
1:19:34 recommendations to the board would not
1:19:36 be a separate entity that would take
1:19:38 decisions and actions outside of the
1:19:41 board
1:19:43 um so a membership you can have for the
1:19:46 the committee no more than four members
1:19:49 as you might have guessed and you know
1:19:51 by now
1:19:52 if you have five members of
1:19:55 the equity board you have a quorum uh
1:19:57 which then that
1:19:59 creates um other needs and rules and
1:20:01 regulations that we need to follow in
1:20:03 terms of open meetings act
1:20:05 so um you will have to have no more than
1:20:08 four members
1:20:10 um the members will be determined by
1:20:12 nominations you can self-nominate or you
1:20:16 can nominate someone we'll discuss that
1:20:18 just in a few minutes
1:20:21 and then also the committee would have a
1:20:23 chair that would be selected at a first
1:20:26 meeting of that committee
1:20:30 our recommendation to keep it simple
1:20:32 would be number one tonight then to
1:20:34 create a committee on community
1:20:36 engagement
1:20:37 and then if you are okay with that as a
1:20:40 board then our also recommendation would
1:20:43 be then to appoint
1:20:45 four members to serve on that committee
1:20:50 so in terms of what would need to happen
1:20:52 next um if you agree as a board tonight
1:20:55 to take action on creating the committee
1:20:58 we would go and move forward in
1:21:00 forward with implementing the committee
1:21:03 um and so that committee will start
1:21:05 meeting outside of the regular equity
1:21:08 board meetings
1:21:09 and the committee will return someone
1:21:12 the chair or representative of the
1:21:14 committee would return to the board with
1:21:16 recommendations let's say
1:21:20 because we had one
1:21:22 cultural conversation back in february
1:21:25 regarding black history month
1:21:27 perhaps the committee can go and discuss
1:21:30 what other
1:21:31 cultural conversations um
1:21:35 we have capacity and um
1:21:38 interest in doing for the remainder of
1:21:40 the year and then come back with those
1:21:42 specific recommendations to the board
1:21:45 ask permission for implementation
1:21:48 and then start hosting those
1:21:51 conversations
1:21:53 the recommendation is also to provide
1:21:55 monthly updates to the board
1:21:57 perhaps if the committee let's say does
1:22:00 not meet for one month the the report
1:22:03 can be just as as simple as this month
1:22:05 the committee did not need
1:22:07 um or of course if it's more active and
1:22:12 depending on um
1:22:13 what the tasks were then the report may
1:22:16 be um
1:22:17 more comprehensive
1:22:20 so with that i'm gonna pause this is
1:22:22 just a repeat on what the recommendation
1:22:24 is tonight
1:22:26 and that is to create a committee on
1:22:28 community engagement and then if
1:22:31 you take action on that to also appoint
1:22:34 members to that
1:22:37 with that i think the first
1:22:39 ones i'm going to stop sharing
1:22:42 we even have a proposed motion for you
1:22:45 before discussion
1:22:56 so the proposed motion and if um if the
1:22:59 motion
1:23:00 uh sounds professional i want to give a
1:23:03 shout out to our city clerk tisha gizer
1:23:06 um i did not come up with this on my own
1:23:09 i'm very very grateful for having
1:23:11 great um
1:23:13 support from our clerk's office
1:23:17 who can walk us through the legalities
1:23:20 so i'm just gonna put it
1:23:23 give me a moment so i can read the
1:23:24 motion to you
1:23:28 so you can start discussion
1:23:30 the motion to establish a committee
1:23:32 would be a move to establish a standing
1:23:35 community engagement committee to be
1:23:37 composed of four members who are to be
1:23:40 nominated by the board
1:23:42 the purpose of the committee will be to
1:23:44 make recommendations to the board
1:23:46 regarding cultural conversations to be
1:23:49 hosted by the board
1:23:50 and ongoing community engagement
1:23:53 opportunities
1:23:54 and provide reports at the monthly board
1:23:57 meetings
1:23:58 so we need someone to make the motion
1:24:02 and someone else to second the motion
1:24:05 once you have a motion and second then
1:24:07 you can start conversations questions
1:24:11 around this
1:24:15 we don't put typically things in the
1:24:16 chat but we do have permission to put
1:24:18 the motion so everybody can see it
1:24:22 in there
1:24:26 so i guess with that do we have a motion
1:24:28 a formal motion
1:24:32 before we do that
1:24:33 so typically we want to have the motion
1:24:35 and then you start the discussion around
1:24:37 it so you can have questions yes if you
1:24:40 don't mind having a motion and second
1:24:42 and then you can have yes
1:24:45 you can also have without
1:24:46 right
1:24:48 okay i moved to establish a standing
1:24:50 committee community engagement committee
1:24:52 to be composed of four members who are
1:24:55 to be nominated by the board the purpose
1:24:57 of the committee will be to make
1:24:59 recommendations to the board regarding
1:25:01 cultural conversations
1:25:02 to be hosted by the board
1:25:04 and ongoing community engagement
1:25:06 opportunities and provide reports at the
1:25:09 monthly board meetings
1:25:12 thank you
1:25:13 i'll second
1:25:15 thank you
1:25:16 and yes now thank you so much so yes
1:25:18 please bring comments and questions
1:25:24 okay so can i go then
1:25:28 okay so i guess my question is um have
1:25:33 given any thought as to what other
1:25:35 committees may be coming down the
1:25:37 pipeline
1:25:38 that we have identified either either
1:25:40 through
1:25:41 um some of the conversations that we
1:25:43 have had and or some of the comments
1:25:45 that we have made to either you monica
1:25:49 the the two chairs
1:25:51 and the reason for my
1:25:53 question is because
1:25:55 this seems like a very interesting
1:25:57 opportunity
1:26:01 you know
1:26:02 i guess people should know
1:26:04 if a different committee comes up are we
1:26:08 allowed to change to the new committee
1:26:10 what are the logistics
1:26:12 around committing now versus committing
1:26:14 to something
1:26:16 that may be a closer match later on
1:26:19 such a great question lucia thank you so
1:26:21 much and actually i know tony brought up
1:26:24 and say we did have conversations about
1:26:26 perhaps down the line having
1:26:28 a need for additional committees um so
1:26:31 rightfully so as the
1:26:33 board develops i possibly we may have
1:26:37 other committees my recommendation the
1:26:40 staff was let's start with one
1:26:43 just because as we are still developing
1:26:45 as a board and as we still have quite a
1:26:47 bit of work to do it seems already
1:26:50 overwhelming
1:26:52 so um so that's where we are we don't
1:26:54 have it figured out and i think that's
1:26:56 why it would be great to hear from other
1:26:57 board members and as we developed to see
1:26:59 what the need is
1:27:01 now to the second part of your question
1:27:03 lucrecia
1:27:05 nothing stops you from let's say serving
1:27:08 on a committee
1:27:09 and then later serving on a second
1:27:11 committee as well if you have the
1:27:13 capacity as long as you as board members
1:27:16 are also okay with just having if there
1:27:19 are more people interested in
1:27:22 multiple committees just like making
1:27:23 sure that everybody has a chance to
1:27:25 serve but
1:27:27 um there's nothing that would stop you
1:27:28 as long as you have capacity to serve on
1:27:30 more than one committee or even changing
1:27:33 later
1:27:34 um let's say like we say
1:27:36 even something happens and you don't no
1:27:39 longer have capacity to serve on a
1:27:40 committee you can only step down and
1:27:42 someone else may step in
1:27:44 um or change this did that answer your
1:27:47 question
1:27:48 yes thank you
1:27:50 and then
1:27:52 tony and ray
1:27:55 yeah i just wanted to just a quick
1:27:57 comment just to make sure that um
1:27:59 everyone understands who might um
1:28:01 be thinking about participating in you
1:28:04 know this this committee is that um
1:28:07 one thing that we talked about monica
1:28:09 shea and i is that um
1:28:11 if this is something you'd want to do
1:28:14 that doesn't mean that you actually have
1:28:16 to be a panelist let's say on a cultural
1:28:18 conversation it's really planning out
1:28:21 the um everything all the logistics that
1:28:24 go forward in
1:28:26 making those cultural conversations
1:28:27 happen that doesn't mean it doesn't
1:28:29 preclude you from being a panelist but
1:28:30 it doesn't mean you have to absolutely
1:28:33 be a panelist in a cultural conversation
1:28:36 as well so i just wanted to make that
1:28:37 clear
1:28:39 great clarification tony thank you for
1:28:42 and then i think to add to that um i
1:28:44 remember our conversation as well let's
1:28:47 say since you we can all have we cannot
1:28:51 have more than four members serving on
1:28:53 the committee um depending on
1:28:56 on the conversations or on the topic
1:29:00 you know it might be where the committee
1:29:02 will come and say hey we don't have the
1:29:05 expertise for this topic but we would
1:29:07 like to invite someone who has that
1:29:09 expertise right i'm gonna use myself as
1:29:12 an example it which is silly maybe you
1:29:15 want to have something on romanian
1:29:16 hungarian heritage i don't know i'm just
1:29:19 saying that because i'm i have both and
1:29:22 maybe you know if you don't know someone
1:29:24 maybe we'll reach out to someone who's
1:29:26 of hungarian heritage too to provide
1:29:28 that that input right on the board so
1:29:33 so i guess it's like just because the
1:29:36 committee has four members it doesn't
1:29:38 mean that they're not going to be
1:29:39 opportunities for others to weigh in and
1:29:41 provide their
1:29:43 professional input right
1:29:48 so thank you for that and array
1:29:52 yeah thanks monica um just one question
1:29:54 about the
1:29:55 hierarchical structure um from this
1:30:00 establishment so if we create the
1:30:02 community engagement committee
1:30:04 and i can see that as an opportunity to
1:30:07 bring forward other issues so let's say
1:30:10 as an example
1:30:11 this by engaging the community
1:30:15 by engaging this creating this community
1:30:17 and engaging the community
1:30:20 we find the need to focus on let's just
1:30:23 use an example homelessness right so
1:30:26 by creating that homelessness group
1:30:28 through this
1:30:30 community engagement committee do they
1:30:32 report up to that community or they can
1:30:34 they report directly to the board
1:30:36 because we find that this is an issue
1:30:39 that should be of equal stature to this
1:30:41 community engagement committee
1:30:43 that's my question such another great
1:30:46 great question ray thank you so let's
1:30:48 say that through the community
1:30:50 engagement committee you identify
1:30:52 another um important
1:30:55 issue of equity that you would like to
1:30:57 address so as the committee that as
1:31:00 the committee cannot take decisions on
1:31:03 its own without the equity board so it
1:31:05 would be the committee to come back to
1:31:07 the entire board to make that
1:31:09 recommendation and let's say they're
1:31:11 gonna make their account they come back
1:31:13 and say you know we identified
1:31:15 homelessness this is a really a big
1:31:17 equitable issue that we want to address
1:31:19 in in the in the community so they can
1:31:21 come to you with a recommendation and as
1:31:24 i foresee and i understand the options
1:31:26 at this point they could either
1:31:28 recommend a subcommittee to the
1:31:29 committee so it would be then the equity
1:31:32 board committee and the subcommittee or
1:31:34 they can come to you and recommend a
1:31:36 different committee so you would have
1:31:37 the equity board committee on engagement
1:31:39 and committee on homelessness for
1:31:41 example but again they would come to you
1:31:43 as the larger board with the
1:31:45 recommendation and it would be the
1:31:46 entire board who may take that decision
1:31:49 or maybe there's going to be a totally
1:31:50 different option maybe they're going to
1:31:52 say you know what human services
1:31:53 commission you are dealing with human
1:31:55 services issues we want to collaborate
1:31:58 with you and let's work on homelessness
1:32:00 something like that right so did that
1:32:02 help answer the question yes thank you
1:32:05 thank you
1:32:08 and lucrecia
1:32:10 that question was answered thank you via
1:32:13 the other question that was asked thank
1:32:16 thank you
1:32:17 board members any other questions about
1:32:20 the motion and the recommendation in
1:32:22 front of you tonight
1:32:26 actually do have another question monica
1:32:28 can you please remind me and anyone who
1:32:30 doesn't know the answer to this
1:32:34 the people who are
1:32:37 not voting members do they count as a
1:32:40 whole
1:32:43 as a whole member when creating a
1:32:46 committee
1:32:47 meaning like do we reach quorum with
1:32:50 someone who is a non-voting member
1:32:54 um let me see if i understood your
1:32:56 question so for example in this case you
1:33:00 will be voting tonight on creating a
1:33:02 committee so technically the non-voting
1:33:05 members if if there's no alignment and
1:33:09 let's say we have a an alternate member
1:33:12 and they don't agree with the rest of
1:33:14 the the group in that case their vote
1:33:17 really doesn't count so we don't we we
1:33:20 want to encourage you to see if you get
1:33:22 to an agreement but if you don't get to
1:33:23 an agreement those who are alternate
1:33:25 members their vote is not
1:33:28 counted in although i would hope
1:33:30 and i would encourage you as a board to
1:33:32 really hear their voices
1:33:35 um so
1:33:36 however
1:33:38 we do have
1:33:40 um in terms of voting and that's a good
1:33:42 reminder when it comes comes time to
1:33:45 voting we do have one of the youth
1:33:46 members who is
1:33:48 absent tonight so actually jacob who's
1:33:51 an alternate would step in in that
1:33:54 role and he will be voting so he will be
1:33:56 a voting member tonight although he is
1:33:59 uh an alternate regularly
1:34:01 um so did that answer though your
1:34:04 question chrissy about
1:34:06 the following part but what about
1:34:10 you said that we needed four members to
1:34:12 have a committee and not reach quorum
1:34:15 so can we have a fifth member that is
1:34:18 who is not a voting member be a part of
1:34:20 that okay that was okay thank you yes so
1:34:23 then uh alternate members can also be
1:34:25 part of the committee but you cannot
1:34:27 have more than four members no you
1:34:28 cannot have a fifth yeah you want to
1:34:30 have four and that can include
1:34:32 alternates and regular members great
1:34:35 question got it
1:34:38 because so the way it works is
1:34:41 on alternate automatically steps into
1:34:44 the role of a regular member
1:34:46 when when a regular member is not
1:34:48 present right
1:34:50 so then if you had a fifth member they
1:34:52 would be automatically representing the
1:34:54 board
1:34:55 so it would be a quorum
1:35:00 it so yeah four yeah
1:35:04 thank you other
1:35:06 questions
1:35:08 before
1:35:10 we move to
1:35:11 voting
1:35:15 i see no
1:35:17 other questions
1:35:19 so in that case actually before so you
1:35:22 can do two things board members you can
1:35:25 first on the creation of the committee
1:35:28 and then you can nominate members for
1:35:31 the committee or
1:35:33 we can now nominate members of the
1:35:35 committee and you vote at the end once
1:35:38 for both for creating the committee and
1:35:41 to also um
1:35:43 acknowledge the members of the committee
1:35:46 do you have a preference
1:35:49 if you don't have a preference
1:35:53 no i don't feel free to put comments
1:35:55 questions if you don't have a preference
1:35:56 then instead of just voting now once i
1:35:58 would
1:35:59 um recommend that we
1:36:02 talk about
1:36:03 um nominating so feel free to nominate
1:36:06 someone for the committee or
1:36:08 self-nominate yourself if you're
1:36:10 interested in being part of the
1:36:12 committee
1:36:15 so we would need
1:36:17 four members
1:36:22 interested in
1:36:24 the community engagement
1:36:36 we need a committee
1:36:37 or we need to minimally nominate some
1:36:40 people in order to then vote whether
1:36:42 it's going to pass so
1:36:44 i would like to express interest if
1:36:46 people feel that
1:36:48 they're comfortable with what i bring
1:36:50 and offer to the table then i would like
1:36:52 to nominate myself
1:36:57 thank you lucrecian any other nomination
1:37:01 self nominations for nominating someone
1:37:04 for the engagement committee
1:37:06 community engagement committee
1:37:16 can we nominate multiple people
1:37:21 i don't see why not
1:37:23 okay uh the first person i'd like to
1:37:26 nominate is christina
1:37:29 um the second person i'd like to
1:37:32 nominate is prithee
1:37:35 the third person look i'm just going
1:37:37 down a list here the third person i like
1:37:38 to nominate is helen
1:37:41 fourth person
1:37:43 is alicia
1:37:48 yeah i gotta nominate ray
1:37:52 and you know and i'm using this based on
1:37:54 like when we were putting out that
1:37:56 message everyone who spoke up is
1:37:58 literally on this call and lorna as well
1:38:01 everyone who was like really
1:38:02 contributing the most to that message is
1:38:05 on this call right now
1:38:09 so thank you so much i nominate myself
1:38:12 as an alternate member
1:38:16 thank you shay so before i'm gonna go to
1:38:18 ask all the nominees to see if they
1:38:21 accept the nomination then i see alyssa
1:38:24 has a comment
1:38:28 unfortunately what i was going to say
1:38:29 was just that i don't know that i will
1:38:32 be able to commit the time
1:38:34 so i appreciate the nomination but
1:38:37 after
1:38:39 uh decline
1:38:40 thank you
1:38:42 thank you alisa and that's totally
1:38:44 understandable this is an extra time
1:38:46 commitment so
1:38:47 so we have lucrezia we have a lisa
1:38:51 nominated but she she cannot make the
1:38:54 time commitment we had christina
1:38:56 as one of the uh
1:38:59 person who was nominated christina would
1:39:02 you like to comment on that are you
1:39:04 interested in
1:39:06 the committee
1:39:10 maintenance
1:39:22 i am i am interested there's
1:39:25 some limitations that i do
1:39:28 uh for instance the language barrier and
1:39:32 also i don't drive but if those aren't
1:39:35 any uh impediments then i'm interested
1:39:38 in participating yes
1:39:42 and thank you tony
1:39:45 thank you christina and i see tony has a
1:39:47 comment before i respond to one of your
1:39:50 questions i was just i was just going to
1:39:52 say um
1:39:53 but i shouldn't be trying to convince
1:39:55 anybody to be a member of this committee
1:39:57 but um
1:39:59 christina i uh in my personal opinion
1:40:02 with your your
1:40:04 uh experiences here in issaquah
1:40:08 the experiences from your daughters the
1:40:10 experiences that you face um as well um
1:40:14 i i think your voice will be a very very
1:40:17 important voice on this committee in
1:40:19 terms of
1:40:20 equity um
1:40:22 all up i mean oftentimes we don't think
1:40:24 about is one thing i'm doing at work at
1:40:26 microsoft is thinking about language
1:40:28 barriers that that occur and the
1:40:31 different trainings that we have and i
1:40:33 think that that's a very big factor in
1:40:36 these community conversations that occur
1:40:39 i'm glad that you
1:40:40 thankfully would like to be a member of
1:40:42 this committee
1:40:47 that's it for me
1:40:48 thank you very much tony and uh
1:40:51 christina if you are okay uh we will
1:40:53 figure out the um interpreters so the
1:40:56 language should not be a barrier and the
1:40:59 same with driving
1:41:00 um access should also that not be a
1:41:03 barrier so we'll work
1:41:05 through those details
1:41:07 um so thank you next we had um pretty
1:41:14 what are your thoughts about the
1:41:16 nomination
1:41:19 i am honored to be nominated um
1:41:22 i don't feel like community engagement
1:41:27 a strength for me
1:41:28 so i would
1:41:31 i would like to decline because i think
1:41:34 other folks could contribute in um
1:41:37 more creative engaging ways than i could
1:41:41 but i do appreciate the nomination tony
1:41:47 thank you so much pretty and um tony for
1:41:51 um i think helen
1:41:58 how are you doing
1:41:59 i hope i got all the nominations
1:42:01 correctly
1:42:02 please stop me if i didn't
1:42:05 go ahead helen
1:42:06 thank you tony um
1:42:09 i i i accept it with a lot of honor
1:42:11 thank you so much i i would be glad to
1:42:13 be part of it
1:42:15 thank you very much
1:42:17 thank you so much helen
1:42:19 and then rey and lorna
1:42:25 uh this is ray i respectfully accept and
1:42:28 i look forward to working closely with
1:42:30 this committee one caveat i i um the
1:42:33 time constraints when it comes time to
1:42:35 decide i would prefer not to be chair
1:42:37 but i would love to be part of the
1:42:38 committee
1:42:40 thank you so much ray
1:42:42 and lorna
1:42:47 at this time i think i would love to be
1:42:49 a backup person
1:42:50 after shay
1:42:52 but um sometimes with my work it gets
1:42:55 confused with the work of the district
1:42:57 especially it since it is so community
1:43:01 visible within our community and so
1:43:04 with this kind of community engagement
1:43:06 i'd rather be
1:43:09 part of conversations as a member a
1:43:11 community member rather than
1:43:13 organizing just to make sure i'm drawing
1:43:16 boundaries
1:43:18 and eliminating my role in the district
1:43:20 versus
1:43:21 with this working with the city so i
1:43:23 will decline thank you for the
1:43:25 offer the nominee tony
1:43:29 thank you so much all of you and i know
1:43:31 shea you also offer to be an alternate
1:43:34 any other nominations before i summarize
1:43:37 everything i heard here
1:43:40 or self nominations
1:43:47 it goes once twice
1:43:51 it actually it seems like it works all
1:43:53 just kind of like perfectly because
1:43:56 unless i um did not do my math correctly
1:43:59 i think we have nominations that were
1:44:02 accepted we have lucrezia christina
1:44:05 helen and rey
1:44:07 and then alternates possible backups
1:44:10 being lorna and shea
1:44:13 correct did i get that correct and then
1:44:15 tony can be also an alternate if needed
1:44:18 but i think we do have the four members
1:44:20 so i think now with your permission we
1:44:23 can move to the vote so
1:44:27 the actual vote would be for you in
1:44:29 front of you tonight board members
1:44:32 part one
1:44:33 to um
1:44:35 vote the creation of an engagement
1:44:37 committee and i'm gonna go back to
1:44:41 to the motion because tisha reminded me
1:44:44 that we need to be very specific with
1:44:47 putting all the details so
1:44:53 oh i lost my comment about where is the
1:44:55 motion
1:44:57 there you go so the vote for you tonight
1:45:00 would be creating a standing community
1:45:03 engagement committee to be composed of
1:45:06 four members which will be lucrecia
1:45:08 christina helen and rey
1:45:14 they are nominated they were nominated
1:45:16 by the board the purpose of the
1:45:17 committee will be to make
1:45:19 recommendations to the board regarding
1:45:21 cultural conversations to be hosted by
1:45:23 the board and ongoing community
1:45:26 engagement opportunities and then to
1:45:28 provide reports at the monthly board
1:45:31 meetings
1:45:34 um we would proceed with a roll call for
1:45:37 this and so when i call your name please
1:45:39 just tell um as how you vote so you can
1:45:43 vote that you agree i or yes or if you
1:45:47 don't agree
1:45:48 you say no or nay
1:45:53 so with that i'm just gonna
1:45:56 please vote when i call on your name and
1:46:00 the first person
1:46:01 to vote will be christina how do you
1:46:09 can i vote for
1:46:10 any other person right so now you just
1:46:13 need to vote yes or no so whether or not
1:46:15 you agree to create the committee and
1:46:17 the four members so basically you vote
1:46:19 either yes or no you vote yes if you
1:46:22 want to create the committee with the
1:46:24 four members that we mentioned lucrecia
1:46:26 yourself helen and ray or you vote no
1:46:34 okay thank you
1:46:37 megan is not here so instead of megan we
1:46:39 have jacob who's gonna vote
1:46:44 thank you
1:46:45 alisa how do you vote
1:46:48 thank you lorna how do you vote
1:46:52 yes thank you
1:46:55 um helen how do you vote
1:46:59 thank you lucrecia how do you vote
1:47:04 thank you ray
1:47:07 thank you tony
1:47:17 tony i'm sorry i did not hear sorry
1:47:19 talking on mute sorry yes there you go
1:47:22 thank you
1:47:23 and say how do you vote
1:47:27 thank you
1:47:29 and um i think that passes unanimously
1:47:32 thank you very much my query board
1:47:34 members and congratulations
1:47:36 you have now a community engagement
1:47:38 committee
1:47:42 yes congratulations
1:47:44 so committee members again thank you so
1:47:46 much to christia christina helen and ray
1:47:48 i will follow up with you
1:47:50 directly and we will proceed to schedule
1:47:53 the first meeting and um
1:47:57 we'll go from there
1:47:59 congratulations again thank you
1:48:03 say back to you i think we can move to
1:48:05 the next agenda either
1:48:08 all righty so thank you so much monica i
1:48:12 we are actually at the end of our agenda
1:48:15 um other than that i think the only
1:48:17 thing we have left is the staff report
1:48:19 do you have anything for us today
1:48:23 thank you very much say i have just this
1:48:26 it's not small i think however it would
1:48:29 be nice this is
1:48:30 uh on
1:48:31 based on recommendation from tony on
1:48:35 acknowledging starting perhaps for us to
1:48:37 acknowledge religious cultural heritage
1:48:40 related
1:48:44 holidays for the month um so i would
1:48:47 just like while we and
1:48:50 definitely we will rely on the community
1:48:52 engagement committee in the future to
1:48:54 see how we may acknowledge the the
1:48:56 religions or the different holidays not
1:48:59 just the religious holidays um i think
1:49:01 that i just wanted to take a couple of
1:49:03 minutes to highlight
1:49:05 a few holidays for the month of april
1:49:09 um and again this can be heritage month
1:49:12 type of events or cultural religious
1:49:14 holidays
1:49:16 and it's just um an opportunity for us
1:49:19 to read more or to reflect upon those
1:49:22 so with your permission as i was looking
1:49:25 we have quite a few holidays in the
1:49:28 month of april
1:49:32 so in terms of heritage type events
1:49:37 allow me just a moment to bring up my
1:49:39 notes
1:49:40 um so
1:49:45 perhaps not as known in the community or
1:49:48 i want to acknowledge that i was not
1:49:50 aware but april is also
1:49:53 a national
1:49:55 arab american heritage month um
1:50:00 i also know um april is autism autism
1:50:04 awareness month
1:50:06 um it's national deaf history month
1:50:10 sexual assault awareness month
1:50:13 uh national child abuse prevention month
1:50:18 and so these are a few highlights in
1:50:20 terms of heritage months
1:50:24 in terms of cultural and religious
1:50:26 holidays
1:50:28 we just started earlier this month a few
1:50:31 days ago
1:50:32 ramadan started and it's being observed
1:50:35 by our islamic community members
1:50:39 um started on april 2nd it's going to go
1:50:42 ramadan until
1:50:44 may 2nd so you may see as if my you may
1:50:47 have friends co-workers
1:50:50 or yourself um
1:50:53 i know that the
1:50:55 community um often
1:51:00 observes fasting from sunrise to sunset
1:51:04 um so um just a note on that
1:51:12 multiple
1:51:13 other holidays throughout the month uh
1:51:17 the jewish community members start on
1:51:20 april 15th passover begins
1:51:23 between so um april 15 to the 23rd
1:51:27 um the baha'i community members observe
1:51:30 a couple of holidays
1:51:33 the first first day of read fun
1:51:38 christian community members celebrate
1:51:40 easter
1:51:42 in april
1:51:43 um so you're gonna have holy week easter
1:51:46 on april 17
1:51:48 um also following
1:51:51 the the week after
1:51:54 the regular easter
1:51:56 those who celebrate are the eastern
1:51:58 orthodox
1:52:00 dogs church celebrates easter a week
1:52:02 after
1:52:03 so similar they will have good friday
1:52:05 and the holy week and easter just the
1:52:08 following weeks so the orthodoxy starts
1:52:10 on april 24th
1:52:15 another baha'i um holiday at the end of
1:52:18 the month the ninth date of reid van
1:52:22 um also another jewish holiday at the
1:52:24 end of the month
1:52:26 the day of remembrance
1:52:30 earlier actually just in a couple of
1:52:33 there's the national day of silence
1:52:37 observed by the
1:52:38 lgbtqi plus community members
1:52:43 hindu community members
1:52:46 um also celebrate on april 10th
1:52:50 um ramana
1:52:52 bami i apologize i'm not sure if i
1:52:54 pronounce it correctly
1:52:59 punjabi new year's
1:53:00 is next week on april 14th
1:53:03 um so many many holidays
1:53:06 at the end of the month at the very end
1:53:08 of the month the mexican community
1:53:10 members celebrate the children's day
1:53:15 so just wanted to highlight these at
1:53:18 this point would love for us to continue
1:53:21 the conversation how we can acknowledge
1:53:24 all the holidays in the future
1:53:26 and perhaps how the community engagement
1:53:28 committee can choose in advance
1:53:31 um perhaps holidays that um we can have
1:53:34 community conversations around
1:53:38 and so with that i'm just gonna pause to
1:53:41 see if there are any comments or
1:53:42 questions
1:53:43 but that would conclude i think
1:53:49 my portion of the small presentation for
1:53:51 staff
1:54:00 thank you
1:54:01 no comments no questions
1:54:04 thank you for that
1:54:06 i think that concludes my presentation
1:54:08 in that case equity board members
1:54:10 thank you so much for a great meeting
1:54:12 tonight
1:54:14 oh monica i'm sorry i did have a
1:54:16 question i was just typing really slowly
1:54:18 um i wanted to ask um
1:54:22 i guess i was more so concerned on how
1:54:25 we would be
1:54:27 um reflecting um is this something where
1:54:30 we would actually post a comment
1:54:32 somewhere or
1:54:34 have a statement much like we did with
1:54:37 ukraine or something in that realm of
1:54:38 things
1:54:41 and and i think my recommendation to
1:54:43 that shay would be i would love to take
1:54:45 the opportunity now that we have a
1:54:46 community engagement committee to
1:54:48 discuss this at the community level and
1:54:49 perhaps we can come back with a
1:54:51 recommendation to the entire board
1:54:55 because um i think
1:54:57 yeah just one there are just so many
1:54:59 things that we should be mindful of and
1:55:00 how to best do that so
1:55:02 is that okay with you if we come back
1:55:04 from the community
1:55:06 engagement committee with a
1:55:07 recommendation how to best do that in
1:55:09 the future
1:55:13 absolutely thank you so much yeah thank
1:55:23 all right last opportunity folks we're
1:55:24 coming to the end of the meeting
1:55:29 all right if there's no one else
1:55:32 then um monica said okay if i give you
1:55:35 all four minutes back
1:55:37 oh you're right
1:55:40 no questions no comments well as usual
1:55:43 it was so good seeing all of your faces
1:55:46 i'm so happy you're here
1:55:48 um our next meeting is going to be may
1:55:50 4th 2022
1:55:53 i look forward to seeing everybody then
1:55:55 but other than that we are adjourned
1:56:01 bye everyone remember have a good night
1:56:04 you too
1:56:06 good night everyone thank you bye