Loading...
2021-04-28 Youth Commission MinutesPage 1.1.1 Youth Commission Meeting Minutes, 4/28/2021 Commission Members Present: Chair Owen Lee Co -Chair Jacob Sawyer Treasurer Sydney Pearson Secretary Brook Roberts Hunter DeLeon Brooke Rinehimer Audrey Lim Finn Paynich Grace Kamila Commission Members Absent: Aaron Nateephaisan Staff Present: Casey Colley, Youth Commission Coordinator Councilmembers Present: Laura Johnson I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Owen Lee called the meeting to order at 6:04 pm over Zoom. Audrey Lim read the land acknowledgment statement. II. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA Chair Owen Lee moved to approve the minutes of the April 14th, 2021 Youth Commission meeting with one revision. Grace Kamila seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. III. DEBRIEFING DISCUSSION WITH MICHELLE BENNETT Concerning that half of the Police Department only had about 3-5 years of experience, but that is not a specific concern with Chief Bennett. o Perhaps the fact that most of these officers are new could lead to the officers thinking that they are "changing" the system or being a "good cop", when in fact they might not be. o Important to realize that the officers only have less experience; they are not untrained or undertrained. Her answers were okay for someone who doesn't have the power of an actual Chief in the role, but we would have to look at the other options offered to us before making a choice of who to support. How is she going to get involved within the schools when there is such a major stigma against Police and a big divide within the realm of policing? Page 1.1.2 It seems that to guide community engagement, she would be wanting to hear directly from the stakeholders of policing in Edmonds (residents, business owners). How will she engage those who don't usually engage in these types of things? o Events such as neighborhood meetups with potential bike cops, a potential Highway 99 police station, and introducing herself to local businesses. Liked what she said about the role of Police in mental health, especially delegating these types of issues to the specialists that can actually handle these crises. IV. EDMONDS' EARTH DAY EVENT DEBRIEF Lots of engagement within the community, and on the Marina Beach side, there was much less trash than expected so folks returned home early. The partners of the event enjoyed working with us. V. REVIEW OF COMMISSION ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES Agendas will be posted the Friday before the meeting; emailed to Commissioners on the Thursday before the meeting. D Minutes will be sent out the Friday after the meeting by Casey, send any corrections or edits to her. If Casey sends out a message, send a thumbs up or interact with the message so she knows that you received it. Meetings should be prioritized and when the majority of members aren't present, productive and diverse discussion cannot occur. If you can't attend a meeting, email her. D Committee Chairs are responsible for setting up meetings with their committee every once in a while either to discuss city -related events and committee projects. VI. YEARLY PRESENTATION TO CITY COUNCIL Each year, the Youth Commission presents an update about its activities to the City Council. This year, our presentation will be at the June 15th Council meeting, which begins at 7 pm. We'll cover what the ordinance establishes within our Commission, our actions that we took to reach those goals, methods of engaging the youth, and what was learned. It's typically 3-4 minutes long, but the Council spends more time afterwards asking basic questions and complimenting us. We can include past and future achievements: Meeting with Edmonds School District staff to discuss the existing measures in place to support student mental health and well-being, relayed important points of students to the staff, and relaying what we learned from the staff to the students so they can take advantage of the support when needed. Maintained an active role in the Police Chief selection process (participation in community interviews). Established the Youth & Government, Diversity & Equity, Environmental, and Mental Health Committees to streamline work within important issues to the Commission. Page 1.1.3 Based on experience in the first year, we improved the workflow of Commission meetings (moving recruitment to Fall, only having meetings during the school year, changing meeting dates to accommodate the Diversity Commission meetings). Collaboration with Councilmember Distelhorst on suicide prevention in September. Meeting with Mindy Woods and discussing what occurs within the Human Services Program. Council passed the pronouns inclusion request, highlighted in MyEdmondsNews multiple times because of it. Started an Instagram account to reach and engage the youth better. Collaborated with the Puget Sound Regional Council transportation staff to communicate youth needs in future transportation. Volunteered at the city's Earth Day event in 2021. Invited speakers from other boards and commissions to potentially collaborate with them. What do seniors want to see the Youth Commission keep on doing? D More environmental activities, especially relating to education, which the Environmental Committee can do. Continue to meet with District staff about mental health and hold the District accountable for the safety of its students. More outreach to underrepresented groups from outside of the Commission (EWHS student groups, google forums, always being open to them). D Achieve more measurable change within Edmonds. Audrey, Jacob, Sydney, and Owen will design the presentation. Owen, Brooke, Sydney, Audrey, Finn, and Jacob are interested in presenting. We will be spending some time at each of the next meetings looking over a draft of the presentation to properly engage and give feedback before it is presented to Council. Chair Owen Lee moved to add final comments as the 9th agenda item for 3 minutes. Co -Chair Jacob Sawyer seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. VII. WHAT DO WE WANT ACCOMPLISHED? At this point, we have four meetings left. More committee time implemented in regular meetings is critical to accomplishing goals. Keeping members limited to serving on a single committee would allow members to be more focused on projects and would prevent confusion about committee meeting time built into meetings. Audrey and Brook will be on the Youth & Government Committee. Sydney, Hunter, and Grace will be on the Mental Health Committee. Jacob and Brooke will be on the Environmental Page 1.1.4 Committee. Finn and Owen will be on the Diversity & Equity Committee. Aaron will be asked to choose his committee later on. Chair Owen Lee moved to establish the list above as the updated committee roster for the remainder of this Youth Commission session. Hunter De Leon seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. Over the summer, it would be great to set up work parties where Youth Commission members can volunteer at certain events, 2-3 times per month would be optimal. We could also do icebreaker activities on the beach (masked and socially -distanced) to get to know each other more before the seniors. VIII. COMMITTEE MEETINGS Youth Commission members met in their respective committees to discuss projects. IX. FINAL COMMENTS Casey: there is a new tab under our Youth Commission website that is home to the pronouns resources; more can be added there, with the option for a tab for each committee to post resources. Let her know if there is anything that should be corrected. Additionally, Zane has resigned from the Youth Commission. He was appointed by Council President Susan Paine, and she is deciding whether to appoint someone before the end of this Youth Commission session or not. Lastly, she will be sending an email to graduating seniors. Owen: instagram takeover videos for Brook, Hunter, Brooke and Jacob have not been submitted yet. Brook: feel free to branch out and attend meetings of other commissions and boards. Many of them want feedback and more engagement from youth. X. ADJOURNMENT Chair Owen Lee adjourned the meeting at 7:30 pm.