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2021-09-01 Diversity Commission MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS DIVERSITY COMMISSION September 1, 2021 Meeting conducted via Zoom COMMISSIONERS PRESENT Ardeth Weed, Chair Dean Olson, Vice -Chair Mindy Woods Sarah Mixson Alison Alfonzo Pence Sekou Kone Donnie Griffin Nikki Okimoto Glaros Councilmember Luke Distelhorst, ex officio COMMISSIONERS ABSENT Alberto Orej el Malfav6n - unexcused GUESTS PRESENT Brook Roberts, Youth Commission Diana White Will Chen Jessie Owen STAFF PRESENT Patrick Doherty, Director Megan Luttrell, Program Coordinator Economic Development & Community Services Arwen Marohn, Commission Coordinator 6:00 P.M. — Call to Order and Land Acknowledgement: "We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Sdohobsh (Snohomish)people and their successors the Tulalip Tribes, who since time immemorial have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water." - City Council Land Acknowledgment 1. Roll Call: Ardeth called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. Dean read the land acknowledgement. 2. Approval of Agenda: Agenda approved by consensus. 3. Approval of August 4, 2021 Summary: Approved by consensus. 4. Public Comment: Jessie Owen — Edmonds Yost Park is not accessible for people with disabilities. In order to park, you must call a number and wait for someone to let you access parking. Porta potty is not accessible, and you cannot get a wheelchair in there behind the fence. In the spirit of being more inclusive, we need to work on this. The ADA proposal was developed here and she hopes that it is something we continue to work on. Will Chen, who is running for City Council, mentioned the lack of parks on Highway 99. He lives and works there, and the only park is Mathay Ballinger Park with only three parking spots. There are no bathroom facilities, just a honey bucket. His idea to work with Mountlake Terrace Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 1 in creating an agreement with to share the park. Their section of the park is on the East side and there is a gate that you can fit through individually. Working together could help make the park more accessible. 5. Old Business: a) Diana White presented a slideshow presentation of her experience during the Blue Heron "Healing Waters" Canoe Journey. 6. Update from the City: Patrick Doherty ARPA update: Eight grants set for distribution to local non -profits will be going to Council for approval. A postcard was distributed in 5 languages to local businesses and applications are open until 13' of this month. Business grant focus is on businesses owned by women, minorities and that are located outside of downtown core. Shoreline and Edmonds College are working with the City of Edmonds on offering job training programs. Toward the middle of September, notices to provide funding will be sent to households that are delinquent on utility payments. The City will work with SNOPUD to offer home repair grants to those in need. C3 and WA Kids in Transition will be helping to administer a household support grant program. Qualified households are those that earn less than 40% of Edmonds median income. Uptown area will be hosting the third and final evening market next week. Included are two music acts, steel drum and Mariachi band, and food vendors. The last one was not as well attended because of the heat/smoke in the region. Community attending has shown gratitude in bringing this event to this area. Hwy 99 Area merchants meeting is happening every month and is well attended. Merchants really like the name Uptown. An online survey is available for feedback on the new Gateway Highway 99 sign options. This is budget season and all departments have presented their budgets to Council, no change for Diversity Commission. The Mayor's budget will be presented in a few weeks and then will go to Council and should be approved by end of November. City buildings are closing again this Friday, due to the uptick in COVID virus counts in Snohomish County. 7. Youth Commission Update: Megan shared an update on behalf of Casey Colley. The Youth Commission is seeking 4 new commissioners and applications are due September 22. Reach out to Casey if there are any questions or suggestions. Their first meeting will take place on Zoom on Sept. 28'. They will have a communications manager position added to the group. Jay Sandstrom will be acting as Coordinator while Casey is on vacation. 8. Budget Update- Megan There is $2600 available remaining in the budget. Since only one grant was awarded with the 2nd call for 2021 grants, $500 went back into the account. Mindy suggested we use some of the funds for the movies coming up. Patrick said we have reached out for conformation on Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 2 screening availability and we may have higher costs for some of these newer films for this season. This is something to consider is adding more money toward films in the budget next year. 9. Subgroup Reports: a. Policy — Dean said there was no meeting this month. He feels the ADA proposed recommendations sent to the Mayor and Council were timely. b. Partnerships & Outreach — Alison shared there was no meeting. She did comment on the reporting portal. The FBI now has their own call -in portal and King County is starting one as well. She was hoping for a meeting this past month to discuss the portal. Alison mentioned that she participated in a couple of PROS meetings and addressed ADA for Ballinger Park. There are four parking spaces, one is handicap, and you can't go anywhere because there is no pathway for a wheelchair. She also mentioned Marina Beach Park and that they do have handicap parking close to the water, but the porta potty is at the other end of the park. Donnie also wants to know the status of the portal and had heard it was delayed. Patrick said no, the portal is still there and clarified that people should not share names on the portal. Anything that is criminal should immediately be reported to the police. He mentioned the flurry of bogus reports the first two weeks. Thankfully, those have gone away. We did have one valid complaint and that went to the police department. He mentioned that in reading the ARPA funding rules, the Federal Government requires us to have a reporting system for incidents of discrimination in the City. King County and Seattle City Councils have also talked about starting an online portal reporting system. Dean said that King County has been tracking this for over 10 years. He encourages anyone on City Council to meet with Commissioners to discuss any of this. Luke thanked everyone for standing up to the values we believe in. Ardeth also thanked to City Council for this as well. c. Events — Mindy reported that the committee reviewed the diversity films that we have proposed to make sure they are appropriate for everyone. She also mentioned her conversation with Suni in Shoreline and that city does not have a portal for reporting hate incidents. There is a group of citizens that are looking at starting one and Commissioners are invited to speak at the meeting. She also wanted to let us know King County prosecuting office and Shoreline are having a response training workshop on the portal and they want someone from Edmonds City Staff to attend. Patrick mentioned Suni has been in touch with him and will work with her on having someone available. Patrick chimed in on the film selections. We have selected one for each month and are hoping to get screening rights soon. A poster needs to go out the middle of this month to begin advertising. Dean asked is there will be restrictions for attending in person? He does not want to have the films screened online like last season. Patrick shared that right now masks are required to attend the Edmonds theater. He does not know if they will require proof of vaccination. Dean recommended we should have proof of vaccination for attending the films. Patrick said that can be the call of the Commission and can be decided by the next Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 3 meeting. The events committee will discuss this at the next meeting. Patrick said he usually budgets $1000 for movies and then relies on donations to cover the rest, but not this year. We might need an additional $500 to accommodate movies in October/November and asked the Commission to approve. The additional funding was approved by consensus. Proposed Movie Lineup: October 16th noon - Language Arts November 20th noon - Honor Thy Mother & Glwa: Resurgence of the Ocean -Going Canoe January 1Sth noon - In our Mothers' Gardens February 19th noon - American-ish March 19th noon - This Changes Everything April 16th noon - Delores 10. New Business: a) Recommendation to Council to update the land acknowledgement to be more inclusive. This change was discussed at the events committee meeting as a result of discussions and research related to Indigenous Peoples Day. Patrick stated it became more obvious when talking about Indigenous Peoples Day with the representatives from the Snoqualmie Tribe. They pointed out the land acknowledgement only recognizes the Tulalip Tribes. Below is a sample of one we can send to council to consider. We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place and the lands in and around Edmonds, the Coast Salish people and their successors, who since time immemorial have hunted, fished and gathered on, as well as taken care of, these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred, spiritual connection to the land and water. Mindy would like to see it changed to be more inclusive. Donnie would be more comfortable if this came from native people and was expressed how they want it. Patrick said that Council approved this original land acknowledgement and had staff contact the Tulalip Tribes and this is what was created through that work. Last week we had a meeting with Snoqualmie Tribe in response to the letter from the Mayor. They responded and they asked whether we had a land acknowledgement statement and said this does not include them. They said we should say Coast Salish. They were happy that Edmonds reached out to them about Indigenous Peoples day and that this was the first time that had happen with any city. Sekou asked is Coast Salish covers all tribes along the coast. He feels we are going in the right direction, but that we have more research to do, so we don't leave out other tribes. Sarah mentioned that Edmonds Center for the Arts just adjusted their land acknowledgement due to the same issues with being more inclusive. Patrick shared that the School District calls out and identifies some of the local tribes. Ardeth said if this was originally the work of the City Council, then we need to get their approval. Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 4 Mindy shared the Neighborhood Action Coalition's land acknowledgement. Sekou wants staff to bring back the change for the Commission to approve before it goes to Council. Staff will bring back a final version to the October meeting. Donnie is asking why the Commission making the recommendation, why not go directly to Council. Patrick responded that there may be more power from the Diversity Commission in making this change. 11. Commissioner's Corner: Dean — He's been meeting with others on ADA recommendations and encouraging them to come up with ideas for Indigenous Peoples Day. Donnie — He has uneasy feelings on report from Jessie Owen and Will Chen made on parks that are not accommodating to people with disabilities. He suggested the Commission should invite the parks director back to the Commission and bring these accessibility issues to attention. He recommended the Chair and Vice Chair to invite the Parks Recreation Director to our next meeting. Luke — Last week a disability mobility initiative was launched from the state and he share those links with the Commission. September is suicide prevention month and there are two events happening in the city, Sept. 23' a community panel on suicide prevention and mental health and Sept. 30t' there is a "question, persuade, and defer" training available. Sekou — He appreciated Patrick's report on how the ARPA money is being distributed to the business community and also helping community with delinquent bills for utilities. Alison — She is going on vacation for two weeks and will check emails. Sarah — She encouraged the Diversity Commission to invite the new Chief of Police — Chief Bennett. Sarah is also part of the suicide prevention panel. There is a free event this Saturday at ECA — an East Indian dance recital with traditional dance and music. It begins at 2:30 and goes until 8:00. Sarah shared the new land acknowledgment from ECA: I want to acknowledge that we are standing on the traditional, culture -rich indigenous homelands of the Coast Salish Tribes. We celebrate the Coast Salish, who represent a large collection of many tribes with distinct cultures and languages that have been stewards of the land and sea in our region for 14, 000 years. At ECA, we are committed to working with local tribes to acknowledge and honor their ancestral lands. Mindy — She is also helping to coordinate the Suicide prevention month of events. One project includes painted rocks with messages of hope and suicide prevention numbers. These will be spread throughout Edmonds. She also mentioned that September 16t' recognizes Hispanic Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 5 American history month. She encouraged the Commission to send items to Arwen to post on I am Edmonds this month. Also, surveys in multiple languages were shared at neighborhood meetings and specific groups to get feedback on how we can better shape our parks and open spaces. Patrick — He brought up that next month is the time for Commissioners whose terms expire at the end of the year and may not wish to seek reappointment to announce their intentions by the next meeting so that we have time to fill any positions. Mindy, Donnie and Sarah all shared they will not be seeking reappointment. Adjourn — 7:56 PM Next meeting: Wednesday, October 5th, 2021, at 6:00 PM, Zoom Meeting Summary Diversity Commission September 1, 2021 Page 6