Speaker 0: Is there anyone here to offer testimony on the Immigrant Refugee Commission appointments? I'm seeing none in so meetings and Walgreens. I'm going to move to item six, seven and eight on today's agenda. These are proposed motions, 2021, 171, 172 and 173, which would confirm the executive appointments of Jenny Yang and Juan Cole LaHaye and Jacob Taylor, Mosquera to the Immigration and Refugee Commission. Application materials were sent out yesterday in a separate email to council members and Brenda Luskin and from the council staff will provide a brief staff report. Then I'll invite each of the appointees to introduce themselves and share some introductory comments. There's going on.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Members of the Committee for the Record, Randle, Eskom and Council Central Staff. The materials for these three items begin on page nine of your meeting packet for today. Just very briefly, these proposed motions, as noted by the chair, would confirm the executive's appointment of the following persons to the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, Jenny Yang, who resides in Council District eight for a partial term expiring September 30th of 2021. Khawaja or while Ray, who resides in council just before for a partial term expiring September 30th of 2022, and Jacob Taylor Mosquera, who resides in Council District four for a first term expiring September 30th of 2022 . Just as a brief bit of background, in 2018, the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission was established by Ordinance 18653, which is also codified in King County Code in Chapter 278 to serve as a central point of contact, communication and coordination, to encourage coordination and efficient intersection of the work of stakeholders serving and engaging immigrant and refugee residents to achieve greater impact. Of note, the Commission also focuses on understanding and addressing challenges faced by immigrant and refugee communities living in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of the county. A non-exhaustive list of the Commission's duties are provided in county code. Of Note, the Commission is comprised of 13 members. A list of membership requirements for the Commission are provided in your of materials and thus are listed on page ten. Per county code appointments to the Commission are subject to Council confirmation and such approval of the proposed motions before you today will fulfill their requirements. In sum, the appointments appear to be consistent with the requirements of county code. I'll wrap up by noting that we are joined today by all three appointees of Nunes, Mr. Chair, and fourth committee. I believe that a verbal amendment will be needed for the first item, a proposed motion 0171 to reflect the correct spelling of Ms.. Yang's first name, which is J. E and A rather than J. E. And with that, that concludes my remarks. Mr. Chair.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. I'm seeing no questions of the staff reports. I would ask Ms.. Yang to share some opening comments.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Hello. Hi. Thank you for having me here. Can everybody hear me? Okay, great. I first want to start saying my name's actually pronounced Dina. You know? Yeah. And so. And I'm. I'm really glad to be here. I'm meeting everyone through Zoom. Hopefully, we can see each other in person someday. I appreciate you having me here today. I came just just to let you know, my little background, my hometown is actually Anchorage, Alaska. And I came to Seattle for college and I stayed here ever since. And during my time here in Seattle, I worked with a lot of communities, including my own community, kind and AAPI community. But I've worked many years with immigrants and refugees, and for me, being part of this commission made sense. And my friend Muhammad, who I worked closely with during my time working for Senator Maria Cantwell, she suggests that I should try to be part of this commission. And so, you know, last year was I turn in my application and I really, really enjoyed being part of the meeting so far, and hopefully I can be more involved in the future.
Speaker 0: Thank you so much. I will ask Mr. Railway to introduce himself. We'll follow follow through with everyone making introductory statements. Then we'll open it up to a conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. My name once again is called You're a Worry. And I'm really happy to be appointed to the commission. My background. So I'm originally from Ghana and have been in Seattle for a number of years and actively involved in the African immigrant community. So specifically, I've served as the President of the Washington State Coalition of African Community Leaders and currently serves on the board. So I currently serve on the Council of Coalition, so we actively engage all of the African community leaders through which we reach out to our African community members here in Washington State and specifically King County, where we have majority of of African immigrant community living in making life so and actively in the last 3 to 4 years, helping the community and achieve the needed resources and as well, the pathway to make make life enjoyable here in King County. I've also been working with Soca Without Borders Seattle, which focuses on youth programs for immigrant communities here in the Seattle area. I've been working as a coach and mentor for newcomers to Seattle and King County area and helping them integrate well into into the city, to school the whole system to make sure that the training well. Most of the reason being that I speak different languages as well Portuguese, Spanish, English and I've been able to labor on the world and that helps me connect well with the immigrant community. So I feel very excited and I know I'm going to add value to the commission too to engage everyone and help address the needs of our immigrant community here in King County, which is really growing. So it looks like the population today is probably around 22 to 25% of the total population of King County. And out of that, the African immigrant community is roughly around 8%, which is growing in King County here. So I'm very happy with some of the council members. So give my and councilman up to grow up to grow up as well from from King's area and and others that I've met in person. And I look forward to working with with all of you to help the immigrant community here in King County. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you and welcome. And now, Mr. Taylor Mascara.
Speaker 2: But are they as everyone expects them being? Hope you all are doing well named Jacob telling Mosquera I'm up here in Northgate area, sending you all warm wishes for your families. Hope you're all staying safe. I am a Colombian adoptee here in Seattle, standing in firm representation of the Colombian community, as well as Colombian adoptee community. I'm excited to be a part of this commission and really, really, really enthusiastic about everything that's on the horizon for this county. I think we're headed in the right direction. Also, a little bit of my background. I have studied in multiple places, most recently here in Seattle at Seattle University, doing public administration right now. Very much looking forward to transitioning from teaching in middle school conjugating verbs with seventh graders into doing all the much more tangible work that you all are doing. So looking forward to collaborating with all of you in multiple ways. And yeah, I'll be I'll be brief with that. Just to say that Colombians are going through a really tough week this week. So if you have a chance to check out the news, please just reach out to any of your Colombian neighbors or friends. We're experiencing supreme state violence against civilians across the country down there, and especially in my hometown of Cali. With that, I'll come back to you, Mr. Chair, and good morning to everyone. And again, please stay safe out there.
Speaker 0: Thank you. My husband was reaching out to some colleagues he's worked with yesterday. Colleagues questions of our nominees or appointees before us today. Councilmember Balducci.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. My condolences for the terrible violence and situation that we're seeing. I've read some terrible stories this morning about people finding out that their loved ones have been killed. And I'm just so sorry to hear. Thank you, all three of you, for your willingness to give your personal time to this to this work. It does help us to be a better government, and you do it on your own time. So we really appreciate you for bringing your experiences and your knowledge. I guess I would just ask a question to any of you who have an answer. If you could name one thing about county government that that we could think about improving our services to immigrants and refugees. Like what? What do you bring to the table as you arrive any any guidance that you think we should be talking about, thinking about in terms of improving our service to those members of our county community.
Speaker 2: I think I can start and I mean when I think about the government serves the community today what we are all going through the pandemic access to vaccination you know via language access so where my community that I'm engaged we've been actively engaging little community clinics to.
Speaker 0: Really.
Speaker 2: Ensure that our communities get access to the vaccine and also helping provide language and language access to to ensure that they understand what it what it is in for them. Because there's a lot of head to head to hesitancy within my community when it comes to access to the vaccine. And so it would be very helpful, you know, going forward, engagement of everyone. You know, most of our community members live in in Cairns and so, you know, council members within that area can start King County to be actively engage and help address that the fear and help community organizations that are actively engaged in this work to support them and make sure that you reach out. Not everyone can go to all these mass vaccination sites. You know, not everyone has this access to to cross, to drive or you've been to the bus to all these mass vaccination sites. So I'm really in favor of having, you know, community organized vaccination clinic to ensure that majority of our immigrant communities are vaccinated as quickly as possible to ensure that there's equity on that front. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Very good. I think for me, my current role, I currently serve with Congressman Adam Smith as a casework director. And one thing I have noticed, especially as I work with immigrants and refugees directly, is that a lot of times I have to explain policies to them. And a common language is something simple for that for them to understand. And I think that's something that I would like to bring it up to the council by having some of the policies, in a word, in a language that everybody can understand. Even for me, someone who is fluent in English, when I read something, I have to look it up or have to double check because there's there's something there's a language there that I can mean, I think, many different things. Right. And so I think if we can make it more access, more access to our communities, I think that will be really helpful. And if there's any way that I could assist with, please let me know. But other than that, that's what I want to bring it up today.
Speaker 2: Thank you, everyone. Customer Thanks for the question. I think as a teacher in the community, I teach in the small private school and also in Seattle Central College. I would say a robust consideration can sustain consideration for more outreach in the education sector. Right. A lot of my students, both in the high school and middle school as well as community college, have an idea that a commission like this even exists. Right. And so so I think in around running right away with yeah. More concentrated outreach and education spaces would be really, really, really beneficial. And that's that's my piece. Thank you again for the question.
Speaker 1: Very good. Thank you all for your answers and again, for your willingness to serve. Really? It really means a lot to us.
Speaker 0: I'm curious if any of you have had the opportunity to already join some meetings of the Commission and if so, any impressions you have of the current work and where it might be going?
Speaker 2: I couldn't talk to that. I was at the last meeting, actually, Councilmember Barghouti, you were there. And I think my first impression was how concise and organized everything seemed, which was a pleasant surprise in my classes. And tell you right now we're talking about it a lot about the the constant struggles with bureaucracy. And it was just refreshing to see how, how, how time everything worked and the direction. The focus of that conversation was justifiably centered around COVID and vaccine vaccinations. And so I just I was happy to be just a fly on the wall, very much looking forward to more conversations about about issues affecting our community as far as the direction that it's going. My impression was very positive, and I say that because, again, it was it was just obvious that people came prepared. People were passionate. And that's that's something fantastic to step into.
Speaker 0: Further questions. Herein? None. I would entertain a motion to approve to give a do pass recommendation in motion. 2021 171. So move. Mr. Chair, we have motion 2021 171 to appoint Gina to the Immigrant Refugee Commission. May I ask for a verbal amendment to correct the spelling of misused first name? To correct it to one and.
Speaker 2: Some of.
Speaker 0: Mr. Chair. All those in favor, please say I apologize. The ayes have it. The correction is made. Further. Any further discussion on this motion? Madame Curie, I'd ask you. Please call them all.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member II. Council member. Kim asking i council member Dunn I. Council Member. Cornwall's High Council Member Lambert I. Council Member Abdullah II. Council Member one My car.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: Council members online.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: Mr. Chair.
Speaker 0: Hi.
Speaker 1: Mr. Chair. The vote is 99 zero on us.
Speaker 0: Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to motion 2021 171 and we will put that on consent at full council. I would entertain a motion to approve both because there are no amendments to approve both motions 20, 21, one, 72 and 173.
Speaker 1: So moved.
Speaker 0: From. It's been moved that we give it to pass recommendation to motions 2021, 172 and 173 went in Mr. Away and Mr. Taylor must go to the Immigrant Refugee Commission. See no discussion of those. Madam Couric, if you'd please call the roll.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi. I. Councilmember Demovsky.
Speaker 3: Hi. I am.
Speaker 1: Councilmember dan.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Coles I. Councilmember Lambert I. Councilmember autograph i. Councilmember Vaughn right there.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: Council members online.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: Mr. Chair.
Speaker 0: Hi.
Speaker 1: Mr. Chair. The vote is 990 nos.
Speaker 0: Thank you. By your vote, we've given a do pass recommendation to the appointments of Mr. While Ray and Mr. Taylor must go to the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. And we will put those on the consent agenda for council as well. I want to thank everyone for their indulgence in taking items out of our usual order, and we will move back up the agenda to public comment. And Madam Clerk, I do believe we have people on the line for public comment.
A MOTION confirming the executive's appointment of Jacob Taylor-Mosquera, who resides in council district four, to the King County immigrant and refugee commission.