[MAYOR HARRELL] Thank you for being here.
I'm really excited about what I'll call Amy and Jamie day.
I'll say, just logistically,
I will we'll do them sort of bifurcated.
We'll do, Chief Smith's first and then Jamie second.
It's just sort of a random order.
and I like to talk about them both collectively.
And then I'll talk about one individually
when it comes.
I do want to recognize I see Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth here.
Thank you councilmember.
Councilmember Bob Kettle, Council President Sarah Nelson.
I'm just ad libbing here, too.
Am I missing any council members here?
I don't think we have two more. We got a quorum, so.
And you guys can't.
You're standing too close to each other.
So many of you know,
right now as we face the challenges in our city,
this is the time you need bold and courageous leadership.
You need and just flat out intelligence.
You need people that read books and talk to people. And,
you know, these particular departments, both are in our finance group.
And with the CARE department,
these are some of the most critical departments that we can really
look at in one, we realize we have some serious budget challenges
that Seattle, like many cities, are having some
financial challenges coming out of Covid.
So we have to get creative.
We have to have leaders who inspire those under them,
leaders that people believe in, in terms of their integrity
and their commitment to good things.
In the CARE department.
as we look at how we respond in terms of modern policing,
we look at a new approach.
All cities are looking at how we deal with some of our biggest challenges,
realizing that the old ways did not work very well.
They incarcerated sometimes people, in an inhumane way.
Yet we realize we still have to make arrests.
It's that callibration.
And so we need to fine leadership in that department as well.
So these two particular department heads and leaders
are of particular significance in terms of what we are trying to do,
both from a city council standpoint, from the executive standpoint, in all
facets of city government.
Having said that, I think
you understand what we're trying to do with our CARE department.
The CARE department is our newest department and has quickly become
an integral part of our public safety response network, our CARE responders.
Are there any CARE responders here right now?
Are there any actual oh they're out there doing the work?
Okay. All right.
I don't want to talk about them in the third department
and the third person, but their responders provide trauma informed CARE
and mental health support to those in need, particularly when they need it as well.
In those moments of crisis, they play a critical role
in reducing the burden on our police and fire services,
and we know how overworked they are trying to do their job.
So we're fortunate to have such a, quite candidly,
a such a highly capable and compassionate public servant like Amy Smith
to become the first official chief of the CARE Department.
And I want to thank again the city council for a thorough investigation.
They they kick the tires and the tires are full there.
So thank you for your process and confirming her
unanimously as I believe. Actually it was 7 to 2.
I know, I'm I'm just joking.
Now before
for those who do not know Chief Amy Smith, before joining the city,
she spent 20 years in leadership at Human Service organizations around the country.
In these roles, she consistently championed positive
change to ensure more people receive services and interventions.
She also recently completed a doctorate in education at Vanderbilt University,
where she honed her data science and behavioral research skills.
That's why you see her do so well at press conferences
just being able to rattle off modern theory and best practices,
because she has spent a lot of her time studying this, and ever
since she joined the CARE department a year ago, she's been,
just foundational in shaping the direction of the department.
She stabilized the 911 communications center after a tumultuous time
of transition, and successfully launched a CARE crisis responder team pilot.
That is why we collectively decided, of course, to expand it.
And because of her leadership, we're seeking to, look at this, this team
citywide seven days a week to help more people in their moment of need.
We asked around, you know, we don't just kick the tires.
We talk about the people who matter, those who work around her.
These are the quotes that are
these are the descriptions that and how she was described,
“An innovator, but pragmatic problem solver, mission driven, focused
on using data and evidence to respond to our public safety challenges.
Trusted by the community.”
That's what she said about herself.
No, I'm just kidding.
That's that's that's.
That's what people said when we asked about her.
Since becoming the acting chief, she's already become a visible
and accessible leader in our city, and she is engaged with dozens
of community, government and business groups.
she's the right leader for the CARE department.
This is history in our city, creating this department.
And I'm excited to watch Department grow under her leadership.
We will look at data to make sure the outcomes
we're trying to drive are the ones we want to drive.
And, I want to thank community members.
I see many of you here
that CARE about the community and CARE about the city of Seattle
and what we're trying to do.
So thank you for being here to support Chief Amy Smith.
So let's move to the oath of office to be administered by our city clerk,
Scheereen Dedman.
And the ceremonial pin will be affixed by Chief Smith’s,
it's just my notes.
I'm going to say her
oldest daughter, Lauren, I don't know, you're not going to want that title
maybe in 20 years, but but right now, you're the oldest daughter, Lauren.
So let's let's proceed.
Thank you.
- Repeat after me.
- I, Amy Smith, swear - I, Amy Smith, swear
- that I possess all of the qualifications - that I possess all of the qualifications
- prescribed in the Seattle City Charter - prescribed in the Seattle City Charter
- and the Seattle municipal code - and the Seattle municipal code
- for the position of chief of the Community Assisted Response
and Engagement Department.
- for the position of chief of the Community Assisted Response
and Engagement Department.
- That I will support the Constitution of the United States,
- the Constitution of the State of Washington,
- and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Seattle,
- and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Seattle.
- And that I will faithfully conduct myself,
- And that I will faithfully conduct myself
- as chief of the Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
(applause)
Here we go.
Okay.
(applause)
Thank you.
[AMY SMITH] So, Mayor Harrell, I feel honored by your words.
It was a little bit of a roast
I didn't expect that
but also by your trust, and I will continue to strive every day
to serve the city that I know we both love as well as I can.
I know we share a similar source of motivation, the mayor and me,
which is that our kids and their kids inherit our work here.
And I am really grateful today
to be looking out at Lauren and Isaac and Anna and Luke,
who have been my best teachers and support and thought partners.
And I know motherhood will continue
to be, a prevailing source of inspiration and gratitude in my life.
Now, my original thought partners were my parents.
My mom is here today, and if you speak with her,
you're going to learn quickly where I got the multi syllabic vocabulary.
I lost my dad 20 years ago,
and I marvel at the way his fingerprints are still all over my life.
He worked in heavy construction, and he came home often very exhausted,
but still with enough energy to have long conversations,
about perplexing ideas with his overly inquisitive daughter.
My parents taught me that each life does have intrinsic value,
that it is better to give than to receive.
And they also taught me that there is never a justification
ever, to denigrate another.
They taught me the value of work, hard work, and that even when work
isn't an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.
Now, today is a special occasion.
But the real event for me this week is that I'm about to get married in a few days.
To the best partner I could ever imagine having.
And last week I told them I was preparing my remarks
for today in the wedding toast.
And he said, Amy, do not mix up those speeches.
yeah.
(audience laughter)
See, I laughed to, but the comment actually prompted me to think about love
and how similar my feelings are across these different commitments.
I love to journal, and last November I wrote, “I wonder sometimes
about the origin of the idea that love doesn't belong in professional life.
Love is everywhere in professional life.
Every day I watch people sacrifice to protect others, extend compassion
to strangers, choose to remain in jobs that are endlessly more difficult
and dramatically less lucrative, out of sheer solidarity
to their teams or out of a deep commitment to the greater good.
Fear is a motivator.
There is no question fear can get terrific results, especially in the short term.
But love is the great enduring force,
the only method to inspire displacement of self
and putting someone else
at the center of your existence has such a refining effect.
It sanitizes, purifies, it eradicates and inspires, it augments.
And perhaps most significantly, it heals.”
I grew up
fascinated with stories of perseverance and moral triumph.
I love Nelson Mandela, Eli Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, Thomas More,
and it was apparent to me early on that generally, those who contribute
the most have quite a back story.
I observe that every experience can be useful.
That character tends to be forged in fire and cultivated when it is tested
In adulthood,
I got to add academic frameworks and language to these early observations
and theories.
What my heroes have in common is post-traumatic growth
and a growth mindset.
I always thought a lot about what is fair, what is just, what is universally true.
And I learned later I was thinking in terms of meta ethics and generalizability.
If something is true, it must be generally true.
If I reject hate, I must reject it in all of its forms.
And if I truly embrace diversity, I accept and acknowledge
not only diversity of thought or diversity of race and ethnicity,
but also of perspectives, thought cultures,
faith systems, ways of being different, ways of seeing the world.
So the CARE department is premised in the notion that every person,
without exception, get the best first response, and that every person can change.
It is time to imagine
and to build new ways of interrupting cycles of suffering,
and to recognize the crucial difference between interrupting to punish
and interrupting to change and to heal and to redirect and to restore.
This room is filled with people who are my new heroes,
and I am so lucky to know many of your back stories, your stories
of post-traumatic growth, and the ways that you use your personal example
and your influence, your hard fought lessons to benefit others.
Andrew Solomon said, “I'm not inclined to dismantle my history.
If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes, and we become attached
to the heroic strain of our personal history.”
Seattle is hurting and the pain, the frustration,
the loss is sometimes very visible and palpable.
But we can come together to ensure that we are entering a season of great
and unprecedented post-traumatic growth, and we will be individually
and collectively healed
as we put down the judgment and the blame and put into practice the lessons learned
as we truly commit to the philosophy of one Seattle.
So I stood here at this lectern almost a year ago,
facing my first press conference, really unsure of what I should say,
but there was a thought that I shared in closing that continues
to echo in my mind that feels progressively valid.
“Perhaps it will be not the innovations, but the humility
and the care, the deep awareness of our interconnectedness
that will advance the change and promote the healing we need.”
And I think I got that right.
The good news about that is that is the part that we entirely control.
We choose what we say.
We choose how to react to the pain and loss and disappointment of the past,
and we choose the extent to which we forge meaning from the struggle,
the extent to which we put into practice the lessons we have learned.
I do believe in you, and I believe in us, and I do believe in Seattle.
And I thank you for believing to.
(applause)
[MAYOR HARRELL] Thank you, Chief.
Let's keep this roast going here.
I want to thank, members of the police department
and the fire department and other responders here.
on this. Don't go anywhere
because you want to know, how are we going to pay for all this?
And look at our finance, and we're going to do our next one.
I do want to also, I said earlier, I want to recognize some of
the community volunteers.
If you are part of a community based organization helping us, protect
communities, part of and you're here community based organization,
would you be so kind as just to raise your hand so we can acknowledge you pleaase.
(applause)
Thank you. Thank you for being here.