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Home My WebLink About2017-03-13 Minutes _CIEC_revisedfinalYakima City Council Advisory Committee Minutes Community Integration Exploratory Committee 2nd Floor Conference Room, 129 N. 2nd Street, Yakima, WA 98901 March 13, 2017 Staff Present Community Integration Community Members Randy Beehler Anita Quintana Sara Watkins Arthur Alcazar Dulce Gutiérrez Brandy Schwartz (absent) Cliff Moore Laura Armstrong Marco Campos Rachel Lierman Tiffany Pitra Meeting was called to order at 5:36 p.m. by Chairman, Arthur Alcazar. Committee Chairman, Arthur Alcazar welcomed and thanked everyone for their attendance and reviewed the agenda with the committee, noting some additions to “New Business” including data sharing and timeline discussion. A motion was made and the minutes of 2/13/2017 and 2/21/2017 were approved as presented. The motion carried by a unanimous vote. Chairman Arthur signed off on the approved minutes. The committee welcomed city manager, Cliff Moore, to the meeting. Cliff gave a brief overview of the Yakima city government structure and how resolutions or ordinances are passed. The group also participated in Q&A session afterwards. • Overview of Ordinance & Resolution Process o City Charter 1961 = Constitution of the city, describes structure of city government -Not easy to amend or modify (vote of the people, court order) o Yakima City Council is similar to board of directors with one employee, the City Manager, who directs the city o City code/municipal code is list of rules and regulations of different departments -17 different titles (Ex: health and sanitation, licensing, public safety, traffic, etc.) -Ordinances that make up the code are adopted by the city council -Brought to council through: -Staff recommendations based on state law, national codes, etc. -Draft ordinance made by Council Committee (Economic Development, Public Safety, Neighborhood and Community Building, Partnership), each consist of 3 members and 1 alternate -Draft ordinance/change in code can also just be a cleanup of language (brought to consent agenda to Council)—routine, not something that’s controversial -Councilmember can add or take away from this -Ex: grant application doesn’t need to change ordinance, but requires a motion -Councilmembers can also take action to draft resolution or ordinance to take before the full council, doesn’t have to come from staff o Resolutions: Give direction to staff (doesn’t change the law) Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary o Ordinances: Change the law Q: How do you review the impact on community before voting on a resolution or ordinance? Cliff: Not just one way; many are just routine, but some do need review. o There are opportunities to comment about anything at beginning of council meetings for 3 minutes o There are opportunities for public comment on items on the agenda o If it’s on the Council agenda, it’s pretty far along in the process Randy: Land use applications require a public hearing o Ex: apt. complex goes through a month long review, staff looks at it, public hearing with hearing examiner, and finally: a council hearing) o Per state regulations there is a 10 day notice and is published on agenda with supporting documents Cliff: Agendas for council meetings are released in advance for public to review, along with supporting documents Q: Regarding controversial content, what is your primary source of feedback for finding out the pulse of an issue? Dulce: Typically people reach out to councilmembers by emails and phone calls or they’ll read about it in the newspapers. If it’s an issue that people care about, they’ll hear about it. Q: What are the more controversial issues/areas from your experience? What has the public been most interested in? Dulce: Marijuana, Yakima Plaza, Welcoming City Resolution; everything outside of the consent agenda is debatable, subject for change and controversy Cliff: Homelessness in Yakima, also land use can be a big concern for community members Q: Could public hearings before you make a decision help you make a decision? Would it help you know who is going to be affected? Dulce: Opportunities for audience participation are there, but how do we draw in the community? o Public hearings: only allow people to comment on topic at hand o Public comments at council meetings: open-ended Cliff: An informal setting/town hall can be very useful for opposing sides to see each other. It’s a good step to take before drafting resolution; it’s a way to slow down the process to make a more durable solution. Councilmember Dulce Gutierrez offered to share some ideas with the committee about this being a platform to help enable the full participation of all people in all aspects of community life. This includes life beyond city hall doors that is more neighborhood-focused. We could ask, “What services are offered and how do people know about them?” The scope is so big that need to focus on larger concepts of community integration. The process can be broken down into three phases: o Concept: Define community integration. o Policy: What policies, institutions would build community integration? Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary o Practice: What does following these policies look like? Partnerships? Programs? We may also want to consider the following: o What are the identifiers of community integration that can actually be put into practice? o What are ways to bring people together from all walks of life where they don’t have to talk about a policy? o How to make Yakima a more vibrant city with more people engaged rather than fewer? Randy also mentioned that City Council is also given information about the community from various advisory committees. Dulce further explained the role of the Community Integration Exploratory Committee by asking a few questions: How do you reach populations to come here? Is it possible to increase integration? What are the short comings? And then, what is actually possible to solve? It’s important for City Council to hear that this committee is working through the bigger concepts. o Big concept(s) o Break down identifiable issues o Down the line—make suggestions Q: Is there tracking of people who speak publicly at council meetings? Numbers? Cliff: Read minutes online Dulce: Talk to city clerk, no chart of number tracking Q: How does one get news out about community events? Cliff: audience participation at City Council meetings, get councilmembers to take an interest, email councilmembers or send invitations Randy: YCTV, YPAC, etc. any nonprofit organization can submit infographic o Restriction: no monetary gain for commercial entity Tiffany: Yakima Valley Tourism will include events on their calendar, email • Community Outreach & Education Update: Committee members Marcos, Anita and Rachel presented their summary paragraph. The group reviewed the summary and suggested few edits. Below is the edited draft paragraph submitted to the committee for inclusion in the written quarterly report. Through sincerest efforts, it is recommended that the City partake in increased outreach services and education that will empower Yakima residents to become more actively engaged in the community and their neighborhoods. Upon evaluation of existing resources, it may be recommended that the City of Yakima broaden such efforts to ensure maximum participation and awareness. If broadening such efforts is deemed necessary, this could make a stronger argument that a permanent Community Integration Committee is needed. Furthermore, it would be critical that such committee would be culturally competent, diverse, accessible, and knowledgeable in our community resources. Priorities may include: Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary ensuring all residents, regardless of primary language spoken or socioeconomic status, are aware of any City opportunity, proposed change, or local event. Multi-pronged communication strategies are strongly recommended in order to best suit the needs and wants of our diverse community. Notes from committee members: o Change some language to remove “relative” terms, make some ideas open-ended for further research and better define “multiple vehicles,” direct outreach, forums, social media, etc. o Change Spanish/English to read “inclusive language access” Rachel will submit revision to the group as soon as possible for inclusion in the first quarterly report. Dulce explained the procedure for an exploratory committee to become permanent. At the end of the exploratory term, the committee will present a recommendation about the status of this as a permanent committee. A council member would make a motion and they would vote. If it’s approved as a permanent committee, the exploratory committee is terminated and the application process opens back up, members are approved and voted in. The permanent committee would then vet programs, strategies, etc. about how to achieve community integration. • Data Analysis/Information Sharing Laura proposed reviewing data to confirm some of the “assumptions” we’ve made as a committee about the Yakima Community. The group spent time looking at the Equity Study and 2016 Yakima County Indicators Report. o 16th Avenue is a clear divide between heavily Hispanic-populated areas of Yakima and non-Hispanic areas o Yakima County 46.5% Hispanic, 44% Hispanic City of Yakima o % residents with less than 12th grade education causes us to think about accessibility of information communicated by the City or throughout the community o 18% people who speak English “less than very well” say that Spanish is their primary language o 17.4% Yakima City are foreign-born, 75% of foreign-born are not US Citizens, many entered prior to 2010 (eligible for citizenship o Other estimates state that there are approximately 11,000 people in Yakima County that could be eligible for citizenship application o District 7 total property value level is 2.8 times that of District 1 Anita shared some facts from the Community Health Needs Assessment (Virginia Mason Memorial) that includes a Cultural Competency Action Plan and recommended that the group look further into the report online. o Breaks down health and wellness by social and economic determinants o Compare Hispanic population to non-Hispanic percentage of population by age, may need to target younger population Q: What sports tournaments do we host in Yakima? Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary Randy: Soccer fields owned or maintained by City of Yakima, Sports Commission is not an element of the City Sara: Parks and Rec has report, Sports Commission hosts Hot Shots, Volleyball Jamboree, etc. • Policy Awareness and Impact Update: o Policy Pillar: goal that policies, ordinances, resolutions are reviewed or evaluated through integration lens (Integration lens is building equity and increasing access) o Equity: responsive, forward-thinking (across races, income, language, education, income, etc.) o Access: ensuring all people can access programs, services, opportunities o What are ways that we can get this lens applied to the permanent committee? Notes from committee members: o What impact do we have on City Council and policy making? We need to focus on getting the community involved so they can make changes. Dulce encouraged the group by saying that a permanent committee does regular reporting to council members (this is where the policy recommendations happen). Defining this within an exploratory committee is a way to encourage future discussions around policy within a future committee. o It is important that the group distinguish that we are not bringing forward any policy recommendations, but reviewing what policies come out of City Council and other committees Laura will draft a paragraph explaining the policy awareness and impact objective for inclusion in the quarterly report. Sara gave an update about the Ethics and Equal Rights Committee mentioning their focus areas: o Wage Theft o Housing issues o City infrastructure The Ethics and Equal Rights Committee has requested a joint meeting with the Community Integration Committee sometime at the end of April. • Community Pride and Investment Update: o Promote Yakima’s assets using strength’s-based thinking and messaging o Develop neighborhood pride o Investment equals ownership Notes from Committee members: o Look at memo from staff o Avoid mentioning any specific strategies Tiffany will expand on main ideas and submit a paragraph to be included in the quarterly report. Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary • Quarterly Report Laura made a motion to accept these 3 as our concepts. Marcos seconded the motion. Chairman Arthur calls for a vote. Motion carried with a unanimous vote. The group agreed on formatting the written quarterly report as follows: o Include mission statement/elevator speech o Main areas of interest o 3 paragraphs, 1 about each area of interest o Include data sources and maybe highlight some stats o 1 line about next steps Chairman Arthur will present at City Council Meeting on the March 21st with some committee members in attendance. The Community Integration Exploratory Committee will present at the beginning of the City Council meeting and should plan to be arrive by 6:00p.m. • Timeline Committee members decided to break into smaller research groups to address the following items and report back at the April meeting: o Data: why do we think the city needs to be integrated? o Benefits of community integration o Other cities/communities The research groups are as follows: o Rachel & Arthur, Brandy: benefits & best practices for cities that share our size, demographics, etc. (I Heart Yakima, Colleda Monick) o Marcos & Anita: data focus (Parks survey, Yakima County survey) o Laura & Tiffany: benefits of integration • Action Items o Laura & Anita will send data resources to the committee via email. o Arthur will include timeline as an agenda item at our next meeting. o Community Integration Committee should bring possible dates for meeting with the Ethics and Equal Rights Committee to our next committee meeting o Objective summary paragraphs from research groups are due by Thursday for inclusion in the quarterly report. o Sara will send the group an overview of Robert’s Rules of Order. As no community members were present, the Community Integration Exploratory Committee did not allow 15 minutes for public comment. The next Community Integration Exploratory Committee Meeting will be held on Monday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the upstairs conference room at City Hall. Meeting adjourned at 7:52 p.m. Prepared by: Tiffany Pitra, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Recording Secretary Approved by: Date of Approval: (Arthur Alcazar, Community Integration Exploratory Committee Chair)