2019-02-06 Diversity Commission MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS
DIVERSITY COMMISSION
February 6, 2019
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
Pat Valle, Chair
Anabel Hovig, Vice -Chair
Ed Dorame
Maria Montalvo
Dean Olson
Sarah Mixson
Brian Potter
Mindy Woods
Councilmember Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, ex
officio
COMMISSIONERS ABSENT
Donnie Griffin
ELECTED OFFICIALS AND STAFF PRESENT
Patrick Doherty, ED/CS Director
1. Roll Call: Pat Valle called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.
2. Approval of Agenda: The agenda approved by consensus.
Approval of Meeting Summary of January 9, 2019: Summary minutes approved as
submitted by consensus.
4. Public Comment:
a. Jeanne Crevier from the Snohomish County League of Women Voters spoke, representing
their Diversity Outreach Committee, and promoting a Multi -Cultural Community
Listening Session on 2/28 from 5-7pm in the Senate Room at the Jackson Center of Everett
Community College. They are making a point of reaching out to people of diverse ethnic
backgrounds.
b. Donna Murphy spoke about the Edmonds Bakery "build that wall" cookie incident. She
would like the community, in particular the business community, to counter with actions,
statements and deeds of inclusivity and love. She suggested perhaps the Chamber of
Commerce could create an educational series for downtown businesses.
This led to a sidebar discussion among Commissioners on the topic, initiated by Maria,
mentioning that she has been speaking out through her business and has reached out to the
news media, Ed! and DEMA to spread a message of love and inclusivity. The Commission
and community members focused on efforts to counter any perceptions of racism in the
community. Local organizations and businesses are pursuing campaigns to demonstrate
love (throughout February) and inclusiveness in Edmonds. All were careful to clarify that
no hate crime or incident occurred and none were calling for any limits to exercising First
Amendment rights. Brian concurred that the message should focus on a message of love
and inclusivity and not rebut or in any way respond to the "cookies" — in effect, not to give
that issue any more spotlight. Anabel and Pat said they'd like to work on a message from
the Commission to be posted on Facebook.
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Diversity Commission
February 6, 2019
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c. Alicia Crank spoke about a screening of the movie Captain Marvel, featuring the first
female superhero, on 3/8/19, International Women's Day, for girls and women that she
personally has arranged. Many people have stepped up and helped with donations, etc.
She would like to offer free concessions to all attendees to even the economic playing field
and not leave some people out. Her estimate would be $1000. She wondered if the
Commission would be interested and/or able to help out.
5. Update from the City:
a. Patrick mentioned that 17 people applied for the Coordinator position. Pat and Anabel and
he reviewed the applications and narrowed them down to 3 for interview, currently
scheduled for Tuesday morning, 2/12. Pat will be unable to join for the interviews, so
another Commissioner is sought. Mindy volunteered.
b. The Senior Center may close down as soon as April, so Patrick mentioned that Commission
meeting will soon have to move. The default location is the Brackett Room, which will
require a monitor at the front door of City Hall, costing money. Another thought is the
Police Training room. Staff will look into this and report back in March.
c. As follow-up to the policy recommendations made to Mayor and Council last year, Patrick
wanted to mention that the Mayor and Directors had a session recently with a
diversity/inclusion consultant. It was a very good, constructive session, and there will be
follow-through. He has also spoken with HR Director about the Wellness Committee
taking up diversity/inclusion in its wellness mission. The Committee is strained right now,
with competing staff priorities, but Patrick will work with HR Director to pursue this,
suggesting that a Commissioner or two may be invited to meet with the Wellness
Committee members sometime soon to discuss this notion further.
d. Patrick mentioned that Misha's service to the Commission ended rather unceremoniously
at the end of 2018, and perhaps the Commission would be interested some sort of
recognition for Misha. An idea was to invite Misha to the next meeting, offer a certificate
and some gift. Anabel, Brian, Maria and Patrick will work on the details.
6. New Business:
a. Upcoming Events:
■ C3 North Puget Sound Conference on Race, April 20 at Everett Community
College
■ Youth Forum: tentative date 4/12/19 at Meadowdale High School. Ed contacted
Dr Kimberlee Armstrong at the School District about this event, and she is
enthusiastic. The events committee reps will work with her to publicize the event
more to get good attendance.
■ Fourth of July: No updates yet, but there is a desire to get the word out more
broadly to encourage more robust participation in the Diversity Commission
contingent.
■ World Cafe: Related to the Grand Alliance Project discussion (below), this event
may be supplanted this year by a capstone event related to the "Tell Your Story"
project.
b. Report to the Council:
Pat introduced the subject of the annual report to Council. It was decided that it would be
preferable to present the report after the Commission's retreat — so in the May -June
timeframe.
c. Commission Retreat:
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Diversity Commission
February 6, 2019
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Pat introduced the subject of a Commission Retreat — similar in format to last year's
retreat which was a four-hour program, starting at 4pm. No dates could be decided on at
the meeting, so Patrick will follow up with a Doodle Poll, targeting all Wednesdays in
March and April to start.
d. Hosts for the Film Series (Feb — April):
Feb: Ed and Mindy
March: Brian and Sarah
April: Pat and Maria
Adrienne mentioned that she is willing and interested in serving as host or discussion
moderator at any of these film screenings or to assist.
e. Grants — when are new applications accepted:
Due 4/19/19 awarded at May meeting.
f. Surplus Funds:
Pat introduced the notion of a policy or priorities for use of surplus funds at year end. It
was decided that at the March meeting there would be a discussion of this, with the intent
to create a set of priorities for use of such funds.
g. New logo:
Maria introduced the idea of creating a new Diversity Commission logo. She mentioned
that there are services that employ freelance designers for a flat fee to come up with
several logo designs to choose from. This issue was forwarded to the March agenda.
h. Communities of Color Coalition Grand Alliance Proiect
The Commission discussed this project, reminding all that the agreed -upon concept was a
story -telling project. The Events Committee had suggested a title: "We are Edmonds,
Tell Your Story." The Partnership Committee was asked to reconnect with C3 to finalize
plans for the proposed partnership, as well as follow up with Ed!. There was consensus
that some sort of ongoing program was preferable to a single event, although the program
could culminate in a capstone event (that might supplant the World Cafe this year since it
would be around the same time of year). Maria mentioned that story -telling projects can
be large and require a lot of work, noting that there are other large cities that have taken
on these projects. Patrick offered that perhaps the story -telling be encouraged via
multiple media (stories, poetry, video, photography) and posted to a web page curated by
the City/Commission (with help from the soon -to -be -hired Coordinator), and that the
capstone event might be an opportunity to showcase some select stories in multiple
media, etc.
7. Commissioner's Corner:
Collectively the Commissioners remarked that the MLK Day events at ECA were fantastic,
well attended, and a remarkable project.
Dean summarized recent meeting of the Partnerships and Communications Committee, which
will focus on external interaction with the community, media, and grant program
management. The 2019 sub -group members (Sarah Mixson, Dean Olson, and Donnie
Griffin) plan to focus on five main goals for the year, including more impactful
interaction with key influencers in the community, improved media communications
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Diversity Commission
February 6, 2019
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and website use, more grant program outreach, and a targeted approach to new partners,
such as Ed and the Communities of Color Coalition. He also mentioned the
Committee's recommendation to try to publicize the availability of grants even more
broadly. He mentioned that, while we have succeeded in listing our partners on the
Diversity Commission webpage, is there a way to get any analytics on hits/visits to the
various partner links and to the webpage from City IT? Patrick will look into this.
The City Policy sub -group will focus on internal stakeholders, including the City Council and
administration. The 2019 sub -group members (Anabel Hovig, Mindy Woods, and Maria
Montalvo) have three goals including more regular interaction with City officials, monitoring
of diversity -related data in the region, and promotion of participation in civic activities and
response by representatives, especially among folks from beyond the Bowl.
The Events sub -group will focus on the wide range of events put on by the Commission each
year, including the film series, world cafe, youth forum, 4' of July parade participation, and
is considering a new informal discussion series to provide opportunities for community
members to share observations or concerns in a less rigid setting. The 2019 sub -group
members are: Ed Dorame, Brian Potter, and Pat Valle.
Mindy mentioned that she attended the ReSound concert/event at Trinity Lutheran Church
that she remarked as "great"! This event received a Diversity Commission grant.
Ed mentioned having attended the first session of the 3 Practices program, produced by
Teresa Wippel, and the second event will be on 2/13. Brian added that the 3 Practices are:
i. I'll be unusually interested
ii. I'll stay in the room for the conversation
iii. I'll stop putting my best against your worst
He also mentioned that the conversational practice of inquiry employing the entr6e of "I'd be
curious to know..." is a good, unbiased way of engaging other people and perspectives.
Ed asked if we could forward the information to all our listed partners. Patrick mentioned
that logistically it is difficult and time-consuming to individually email each partner group
with every event that comes up. The Commission concurred that it would be best to list it on
our "Upcoming Events" list and post on Facebook.
Pat introduced follow-up to the request by Alicia Crank for funds to help offer free
concessions to the attendees at her screening of Captain Marvel for girls and women.
Commissioners discussed and concluded that 1) grants funds cannot be used for food and
give-aways, and 2) the request is out of order since we have to follow our prescribed grants
process.
Adjourn: Pat adjourned the meeting at 7:47 PM — Next regular meeting: March 6, 2019, 6
PM at Edmonds Senior Center.
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Diversity Commission
February 6, 2019
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