I'm Elise Chisholm-Claire, Commissioner for District 4.
Okay. I'm Alex Bowen, I'm the Chief of Staff and Assistant Superintendent of SPR.
APDS Superintendent Parks. Um, Paula, um, Strategic Advisor Parks.
And over off-camera here, I convert those, let's see how the Parks and Recreation.
Oh, she's at the… Oh, okay.
Alright, um… Okay. Um, thanks everyone. I'm gonna move into our land acknowledgement.
Okay, yeah. Um, okay.
Neville Parks and Recreation acknowledges and affirms the Indigenous Coast Salish people as the original caretakers of our waters and landscape.
We nurtured and shaped today's park planet. We honor their legacy with gratitude and appreciation.
We'll safeguard their knowledge, stewardship. As enduring treasures to promote community welfare.
Cultivate inclusive expressions of nature and recreation. And commit to land acknowledgement for each ensuing generation.
Um, so, we don't have quorum at the moment, so we'll move to the next.
Item, which is our public comment.
Do you have public comment, and first up, I have a very quick.
Okay.
Denny Blaine Park. Instead of people being held accountable for illegal behavior.
Denny Blaine Park, neighbors are told to move. I was asked by a defense attorney why I don't get a different job, so I don't have to witness.
What happens at the work? City of Seattle Attorney Joseph Croshon said at the latest court hearing, if people don't like.
What they see at Jenny Blaine Park. They can choose from the 500 other perks that the city has.
Basically, go somewhere else. 1021. These tourists didn't go down to the beach to take photos of Mount Rainier.
because of what they saw. Native people on the beach.
Colleen Kimsey-Love said in an email that a sunbather at the park was being harassed.
I think this is who she was referring to.
This person will have an indecent exposure charge dismissed, and no entry to the park for one year or court documents.
Chapter 18.12 of the Parks Code, Seattle Parks and Recreation Code of Conduct ensures.
All users may have the opportunity. to enjoy the amenities the park system offers.
Conduct that unreasonably deep rivers others of their use or enjoyment of a park.
or building. We require bathing suits, and babies must wear tight plastic pants.
Or diverse, designing for swimming. Park rangers aren't making an impact.
SPD rarely shows up. Before the people leads.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next up, Paul West.
Hello everyone, my name is Anha, and I'm here with Paul West. We are here on behalf of the Rich Treasure Coalition.
So that expands from the West Seattle Bridge all the way down to Westcrest Park.
Uh, we're here to just give you an update about an exciting project that we have.
Um, we're currently in our first full year of the project. Uh, this project was started in 2018 by the Columbus Tribe.
And we're here to get more information out to you all and get you excited about the partners that we.
This last year, we have been leading different community groups throughout the West Coast Ring Belt.
Um, we have currently 3 different satellite hikes, but we can… Different groups throughout the area, and get them educated. This weekend, we have a group, uh, hike with, uh.
youth from that Amish, uh… Do you want me to River Community Coalition.
And so what we're here to do today is to inform you about the project. We're here working towards a master vision and concept plan.
Um, that spans from now, between 2 years. We are working through the Seattle Parks Foundation is our fiscal sponsor, and we get money from the.
King County Park. Um, and we're just here to invite you to look into our project. I believe we sent out one of our flyers via email, if you'd like to check us out. You can see the exciting workout we have for a group of volunteers who are passionate about the park.
There's a lot of great investment that can go in there, and we're just at the tip of it, so we're here today to.
Sure. Thank you.
Commissioner, if you should have received that via email.
And that wraps up our public comment for today.
I'm also gonna turn this slightly. Wow.
Hopefully that will help. Yes.
Yeah, if everyone is confirmed. Um, sorry, do you want to do a quick intro, and then we'll go to our consent items?
Sorry to be late today. Jane Stone-Seiper, um, newly elected at large.
Um, we're sure happy to be here. Spent time, um, with some of the colleagues that I see here in the room from Woodland Park Zoo, um, as well as Washington Park Arboretum, so… along, and happy collaboration with the Parks Department, and happy to be here in this.
Okay, um… Yeah, happy to report you have a quorum. Yeah, every quorum! Awesome! Thanks so much, great. Well, that means we can move to our consent items, um.
So that includes the October 9th meeting minutes, as well as today, the November 13th meeting agenda.
Um, do I have a motion?
Okay. Great. All those in favor?
Any oppose? Do you abstain?
All right, thanks everyone. Um, and we'll turn it over to you for your… Really quick. Well, thank you. Well, good evening, everyone.
getting public commissioners, those of you online. I just want to start off by saying it's great to be with you all. We're starting the fall season in Seattle, which means it feels like it's 9 o'clock at night.
Uh, but it's only 6, and our leaves are beautiful, but.
Quickly falling, and it's actually one of the busiest times of year for our park department. People always think the summer is.
Which is a very busy time, but, um, our maintenance crews do a lot of work in the fall, because there's a lot of.
mulching and planting and things that have to get prepped and cleaned and cleared, so, um… We're going to be hard at work doing those things. I also want to welcome Jane.
Um, to the Commission, as well as the other new commissioners. I know Jay from the Arboretum.
I'm really excited that our. New board is forming here, and I think.
Paula and Ben are going to be working on that, maybe at the beginning of the year.
A little bit of a planning session, retreat, and so I look forward to that. I'm also to my right, is Alex Vaughan.
It's our new Chief of staff and assistant superintendent, um, filling.
Uh, Christopher's wonderful legacy, um, left us as you all know, so… Before I get into my agenda, too, I just wanted to acknowledge, um, obviously we've all seen.
Uh, the news, and earlier today, the mayor officially conceded, um, his seat to our new mayor-elect, Katie Wilson, and so… Um, we're gonna go through a period of transition, um, in the next.
I guess it's 6 weeks, or 4 weeks. Um, before the new mayor and her team.
Um, starts. And so, um, there are. People at the mayor's office that are going to be guiding the department.
Through the transition period, um, a lot of it in the next couple of weeks will be our opportunity to inform.
Um, what it is exactly we do, how we're structured, um, as well as what our most, sort of, pressing and.
Uh, issues, um, that, you know, the new mayor.
Our team would want to know about all the partners. We'll go through that. So, it's still very much a fluid situation. This is all happening very fast, and.
In real time, but, um, you know, there's many people that have gone through transitions in the city.
And we feel confident that, uh. We'll be able to present our department in the very best light, and begin to learn and.
See what new leadership is going to be like for the city, so… Uh, that's, you know, just all happened today, really quickly, but just wanted to let you know that, you know.
Um, we'll be doing our best to. Assist in the transition, and really just be ready and adapt to, um.
Yeah, whatever changes may come. We have really great people at our department I'm excited about, and, um, we're excited to learn that.
Your team will be. So, all of that is… Uh, coming up. I also wanted to give you a quick update on our budget.
Um, and so… If you remember back in late September, it's always the time the mayor transmits their proposed budget to Council, um, and we've.
summarize that to you, what that looks like, and so… We're now in that… still in the Council deliberative phase, where they have the budget, um, and they can look at it and decide if it aligns with their priorities, or they want to make.
additions, and so, um, that process started, and as it relates to the park departments, we have had, um.
additional changes to our budget, so I wanted to… report that out to you. It's about $2 million, um, in additional funding, so… There would be additional operating funds, um, to increase resources in 2026 for graffiti abatements.
Um, as well as grant funding for youth sports teams that serve BIPOC youth, and so that adds up to about $500,000, so those are.
Great additions. Um, additional capital funds have been designated by the Council, um, for.
Seven Hills Park, um, which is one of the parks that, you know, that we're trying to assess to do some improvements, and so… About $50,000 for that, an additional $150,000 for the Garfield Superblock project.
It's great, as they're closing the gap on their funding, and that's a really exciting community project.
Um, another $700,000 for a state park… a skate park at Morgan Street Junction.
And that's something the community has really been, um, wanting. And then, uh, about $800,000 for Lake Union Park to begin.
Increased maintenance and one-time capital improvements. It can read you more on that, but it's just… it's a beautiful park, as you know, but it has some problems in the way that it was designed with systems.
All kinds of other things. So, um, this will allow us to begin doing that.
And then, in the planning funding, um… Further, um… Studies and outreach on, uh, Portal Park, is that? That's that kind of area that's… Near Belltown that used to be part of when the viaduct.
was buried, but there's a portion of it that would connect to the tunnels, and uh… So, it's now just a very… empty fields that could potentially be a part, and so, um, we were given money to begin.
Uh, studies and outreach on… What that might look like, so about $450,000.
Uh, the Schmitz Park Reserve restoration, um, an additional $150,000, and then.
Um, $500,000 per Rogers Playground, uh, for a turf community.
conversion. So, um, and then, uh… Further studies have been asked for camp long and for turf conversions at Judkins, Riverview.
RS Playground and Maple Leaf. Reservoir, so… The next steps are for the council members to.
Provide amendments to the budget, and… Um, the good thing is that.
Sometimes they can come and say, like, we want these $2 million, and so… You know, we're reducing your maintenance spend by $50,000 here, and we're reducing your XYZ balance set.
Um, that has not occurred, so… They have to look at the entire package of the city, but these are some priorities for parks, so… I'll just wait and see, but, uh, additional money is always great, and to support these projects. But I just wanted to give you an update, and so…
Um, if everything follows cadence, the budget should be approved by the end of that.
Maybe before Thanksgiving. The mayor will sign it, um, before he leaves, and then… I'll be an event.
Okay, I'm gonna give you just some quick highlights of what's going on here in the department. So, really exciting, um.
is that the Green Seattle Partnership just celebrated. 20 years of amazing work, and they had, um.
A very vibrant event at Magnusson, and one of the anchors that you.
Um, yeah, this is one of the… Organizations or entities of our department that I learned about.
Early in my tenure, with all the other great things that we do, but this really just stood out as.
It's a sig… you know, it's a signature program for the Parks Department, but also Seattle.
The fact that we have thousands of city volunteers that.
have worked the past 20 years. Um, to become forest stewards and, um… You know, people that care for the land.
and do all of this amazing work. And I can just tell you honestly, without the volunteers, without the Green Seattle Partnership, there's no way we would be able to.
Um, take care of our parks as well as we do, especially in our natural areas.
Because, you know. We have limited staffing, and all parks departments have to focus on areas of high visibility, like playgrounds.
You know, picnic areas and things like that, so our… Wooded areas, or trails, our natural areas, um… You know, they would be sort of second on the tier.
And this partnership with our amazing team on our natural resources unit that work those areas.
Um, literally, you can get trained to be a forest steward in your community, and organize people, and we provide materials and supplies and a Joe box.
And it's just amazing. And so, um, and it's also this… specific program that garnered us, um, that United Nations hesitation.
Um, as a role model city for the urban forest regeneration world.
That we've done with volunteers to grow our. Forest in Seattle. So, just really excited and proud.
Um, of that team. Also, uh, salmon run season begins at Cart Peak Park, the annual Piper's Creek Salmon Run is underway. The first fish have been spotted. They were spotted on October 27th.
Numbers will continue to grow through early December, and to support the Salmon Stewards Weekend Education Program, Northwest District staff have opened viewing windows along Hypress Creek.
Providing visitors with an up-close look at this incredible natural event.
This is, again, something that I learned when I first came up here, just blown away that in a city park.
You can go and see salmon beginning to literally.
Ron, and do the jumping and try to get to the fresh water, and it's really an amazing site, and now, like, I've told people that haven't done it, like, you need to go do this.
That was amazing. So if you haven't done it.
Um, now is the time to get out there and, um, I'm sure it's gonna just… Yeah, a little bit bigger in the next couple weeks.
So, environmental education in action. Oh, and I also wanted to point out, too, actually, and John and other people online that have been following this.
Um, you remember we've been talking about the environmental learning.
program, I don't think we have anyone today. Do you have anyone?
No, but for… that probably because for weeks, they sat here as really strong advocates, and… Um, part of our plan and strategy was that, um.
We were hoping that the deal levy. would pass, and it… the early education levy.
Resoundingly past, um, in this. election that we just had, which is fantastic for education and all of those great things, but it's also amazing because it allows us to retain.
The early education, environmental learning positions, and continue that programming.
So we're really thankful for that. I hear so often that I want to smile with that, but we've already had a call with them.
Um, and so that's a good news for that will be coming. So, yes, excellent. So, on that note.
Um, you know, teaching our youth about the environment is really important, and so… These programs include, um, that we are doing.
The color your fall, like, hardship, which is a vibrant event celebrating autumn's beauty.
Uh, there's the Secret Life of Spiders at High Point Community Center, where kids, parents, and.
Seniors curious about managing spiders in their homes, join to explore the fascinating.
world of spiders, so I don't know if we want to have spiders in your home, but, um… I'll tell you a funny joke, actually. When we moved here.
Because where we lived before. A lot of… you… we have a lot of spiders, and it was just routine that people had, like, this.
Pest control, you know, come in, like, every 6 months to spray, and I'm like.
All of a sudden noticed by her side put a thing out on our little community board, like.
Does anybody have a spider pest control? Oh my gosh, well, A Seattle, A new person, whatever, and I was like, nope, and I get this flood of, like, we don't do that, blah blah, and the spiders are free. It's part of, like, living up here.
Get used to it, so you can learn about… I should go to this spot.
Um, salmon viewing is going on at Longfellow Creek in partnership with the Delridge Community Center.
And then the Family Garden Club at Garfield Community Center, um.
Gets to harvest the last of the green tomatoes.
Which we're tight Friday and Friday for kids. These programs brought over 250 community members together for education, exhibition, and Angelo.
Just such a great part of Seattle. This is what we're known for, and so… Letting our kids be able to touch the dirt and the earth and play and get into nature as well.
So, um, and there's something going on at our park, um, the Parkief Park Sand and Stewards Weekend.
It'll be November 1st through 30th, um, every Saturday and Sunday.
Uh, and we'll… Talk to people and learn about… there will be… Sam and Stewart's there, standing by to answer questions and educate visitors about salmon.
Habitat needs anymore, so… Um, we're really excited about that.
Okay, let me… And season is underway. Okay, um… oh, yes, an update on the Chief Northwest Trail. So this was a really exciting, uh.
Moment for community, as well as me, because. Three years ago, my very first ribbon cutting and sort of press conference when I was the new superintendent was to unveil.
that cheesy part. Um, the first phase of the trails, which are literally right in the middle of our city.
And really exciting, and when I first got here and I joked it.
this event that occurred about. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, that… you know, I first came, and all of a sudden, just getting all these emails about cheesy and this project that we were doing.
thing that we were building. There's a lot of opposition, and I'm trying to figure out, like.
What's the opposition about, you know? And then realize, like.
You know, we're not building… A nuclear plants, we're not… proposing an automotive store in this, but really opening up trails so that, um.
People can ride bikes, and… and… also walk the trails, but also, as you can see, doing mountain biking, and so… Um, about a couple of weeks ago, we… closed up a one-mile…
uh… multi-use trail. And added a half a mile pedestrian-only connector, and.
Uh, bringing this project together. This was started as part of the Parks and Green Space Levy Opportunity Fund process in 2012.
A 3-year pilot project considered, uh, two phases, the South Loop, which was completed and opened in 2022. That's what I was talking about when they first got here.
and the North Loop, which is now open to the public.
The North Loop reflects the best of what happens when community members, nonprofits, and the city work together.
proud to celebrate this milestone and look forward to seeing families and neighbors.
Enjoy these fails for years to come, so… Um, you can go watch some salmon, and also go.
pipe writing, right? All at Seattle Parks, which is.
Um, some upcoming events, uh, because this is a season of thanks and giving, we have.
Uh, uh, Turkey Bowl. Weeks going on. I don't know, it's called Turkey. Interesting. Um, but community dinners and free turkey.
Giveaways are going on at the Rainier Beach Community Center.
Um, on November 26th and 25th. And then we have a full list of events scheduled for doing.
Uh… Turkey Bowl weeks, which is a beloved tradition, um… Where free events are designed to bring people together and support families throughout Seattle.
To engage, connect, and spend some time together. We're doing 3 tricky giveaways.
Um, again, we're gonna be providing 150 turkeys to families in need.
Um, on a first-come, first-served basis. We're going to be doing a free community dinner, which is really nice on Rainier Community Center will be posting.
a free community dinner on Wednesday, November 26th, from 6 to 9.
Catered by local… Fantastic snazzy needs, and all are welcome to attend and enjoy an evening of food.
Connection and fellowship, and so… It's just another way to be thankful and to give back.
Um, and then our Thanksgiving holiday schedule is going to be the following facilities and services will be.
Closed both Thursday and Friday, Thanksgiving week. Those will be the community centers, the teen life centers, um, our swimming pools, bringing, like, small craft.
The Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center. The facilities that will be opened on modified schedules are the Seattle Japanese Garden.
Volunteer Park Conservancy, the EU tennis Center, and Colts.
Um, all boats… boats and park launches will remain open during the regular hours, and um… That's… will be the Thanksgiving schedule, so… Clearly, just 2 days of closure.
Our community centers and pools.
And then… Okay. So, wanted to give you an update on the budget. Um, all very good news, um, looking very good for parks in a very tight year, but… Please put the allocations that we have, and thankful for that.
And, uh, this is November, and so I just want to say thank you all for volunteering and giving of your time and talent to be park commissioners, because it means you love parks.
And we care about this system, and that's… One thing, regardless of… Whoever we all voted for, and whatever the leadership will be in Seattle. I think the one.
Common connector, I'm confident, is that voters on both sides would agree that they love.
Seattle Parks. They love their parks, and we love our park in Seattle, and so, um… amazing portfolio to have. I'm very blessed, and I just want to say thank you.
All of you, and to our staff. Um, so that we can continue to do good things for the public. So, thank you.
And that's…
Let me open it up for questions and comments. We're gonna turn next.
Really quickly, thanks for the update on the environmental education.
Um, also, you mentioned on budget and project management.
But what's happening there? Um… Let me go back to my notes.
I think it's for… Sure, um… So, it's… it's for the preserve, and it's for restoration work.
So I think to look at someone should probably, like, some wetland.
Um, improvements and things, but… Yeah, I can find out more.
Yeah.
It's actually my neighborhood. I'm just wondering… And then rotate every year in different community centers, or it's always… Um, that's a good question. I don't start to… I don't know if it rotates, um…
Or how that site was selected, but… I can find out, yeah.
I hope you can comment. Okay. Just, um, since you mentioned the SPIDER program? I've actually been on one of the kids' field trips at Camp Long.
Um, I just figured we'd ask, uh, Esther. been… and you also mentioned there may be some study ventric catalog. Are there any further updates on… Camp on restoration, I haven't heard anything in a long time. Yeah, um, kind of the latest updates are we have.
We have money in place to do the initial, um… Well… when I say remediation, meaning the, you know, demolition.
Mitigation, exactly. And then we have money that we will be able to begin to.
Uh, start the design process, so hire someone to take us through.
The design and concept, um, but then after that.
That'll determine what… the actual budget might look like, and those are the funds that we'll still need to realize, but… We have time. That wouldn't take time anyway, so we have time to plan for that, but thankfully, we can be able to.
On it and start that process. And the council member.
For that area, it's very motivated. Yes. Doesn't talk faster, which is good.
It'll be a strong end.
I was wondering, how does it work with the… All the… all the investments that are through the levy.
Like, for the implementation plan, like. Would you employ deal until it's put it together, or, like… Does it remain separate?
It remains separate, it's really sort of a, uh… Financial transaction between our two departments, and sometimes that happens, like.
We've had similar things, like… like the 1% of the arts, so that money will… Come to the heart of… our Office of Arts and Culture, but then we have an MOA with them, so that when we do projects.
Then we are utilizing those funds. So, for us, with the deal levy, we'll be, uh.
We'll be doing the programs and administering them. And then we will work with them to receive the funding. Okay.
Thanks. Yeah, but they won't be right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Great. Thanks, everyone. You too.
Um, next we have our partner spotlight. Katie, are you there?
Um, that's too much of a time. Not that computer? I can do it in my desktop. All right. Let's do, um… I have the previous version. I'll just do it while you guys are loading, do just a quick introduction to our…
amazing zoo staff right here. It's great, because we've been doing these partner.
Spotlight updates on the aquarium, and we've talked to other people that.
Um, you know, Woodland Park Zoo and I talked about this.
You know, we have a crown of jewels in the park system, and among those, the crown jewels definitely is our.
Zoom, and, you know, talk about people loving their parks in Seattle. We have a world-class, amazing Zoom.
the most talented people, and they just really care for that. And it's all in a huge… it's Woodland Park.
is apart, and it's… Huge, and we're so lucky to have this.
in our city, and as part of our park portfolio.
Um, there was a time when, you know, we had park employees.
Um, that were also. There, and running the zoo before we had this great management experience, but we all worked together on the same mission to start the product. They're just amazing partners, and we're.
I'm so blessed to have them in the park.
Portfolios, I just wanted to say, um, thank you. Oh, and I will say something to the zoo people. I was recently at a conference in.
They were… the topic was urban forests, canopies, and new generation, and.
It was about tropical and boreal forest. I learned. And so, I was saying, even though in Seattle we don't have tropical or.
Oriel Forest, we have this type of forest, but we… Restoration around the world makes the forest better for everyone, and blah blah blah.
And some guys stood up and said, actually. You do have tropical forest in Seattle. Oh, gosh, we do, okay.
now I don't know what I'm talking about. And, um, he said, you have one of the largest, uh, tropical rainforests at your zoo in Woodland Park Zoo, and he said your people caretake for that because of the animals.
environment, and it's so amazing that it's actually known.
And I was like, oh, well, we do have a… part, Seth, thank you so much. Thank you for that. This was, like, a perfect intro to that. Thank you so much.
I'm Katie Bang, and I'm the Senior Director of Facilities and Adult Environment. I use she, her pronouns.
I'm a former Parks and state, actually, and came over in 2021 over to… Um, I want to introduce our Zoom friends over here as well, so… You gotta introduce yourself.
I'm personally sorts.
I'm the Chief Engagement Officer. Did you officially recommend here?
And we have with us 8. I'm an architect.
Okay. Wow. Great. One of our best, yeah. And then we should have one, if not two, of our team members joining us virtually.
Um, who also used to work at parks, um, in Edwards, and then also, um.
Hopefully great likes to, and if not. We have data here as well. So, um, this is our internal working group, and so we kind of are the folks that are kind of leading this on participants.
So, as AP was saying. Um, Woodland Park Zoo is… a green oasis. It is a forest in the heart of the city of Seattle, evergreen.
Emerald City, and the Everton state of Washington, and so we very much are excited to park.
embark on this process under… Next slide. Why don't we just say next slide?
Okay, thank you. Alright, so we're here today to talk about the long-range Facilities Plan, and we're very excited about this. It's an exciting opportunity.
To really think about the zoo's future, as we've said, the Northwest Premier Center for Wildlife Conservation, and we really want to create extraordinary experiences that move you to action, as we like to say, to do more good.
Oh, okay. Okay, there we go, thank you.
Um, so we're building on these strengths, um, and really thinking about innovation and future needs.
We want this plan to be visionary, we want it to be exciting, we want it to be innovative.
We also want it to be, like, doable and practical, and so we're trying to balance those things and pushing that envelope.
And creating a strategic process around, um. phasing and cost estimating as well, so that we can really realize our mission.
We have big shoes to fill. Um, in 1990… in 1976, the first master.
For the zoo was done. by Jones and Jones, and it really was a game changer.
I really took, um… a new approach to conservation and habitats.
Um, through this immersive landscape. Into our Zoom. If you want, you need to come. Um, you really do, um.
use yourself into the zoo, and really experience habitats in a way that those animals would.
In a tropical rainforest or in other areas as well.
And then in 2004, we had another update, and that really were the layers of.
Guest engagement, uh, facilities. So this is the third time in the whole history of the zoo that was founded in 1899.
Big deal, and we're really excited. So, what… what are we doing? Um, really, we're focusing this on our strategic priorities, and those focused around, um.
Animals, of course. Um, we have a long-range institutional population management strategy.
And what that is focusing on is the species conservation significance.
I've been enablers of empathy and those that are threatened, endangered, and trafficked.
So it's kind of a shift in what we're really exhibiting, or what we're, um, showing.
Um, focusing more on those endangered. Um, conservation.
forests, you talked about it. And so, looking at that conservation strategy forefront, and having that conservation.
To be recognized as a transformative horse for horse species and landscapes in the.
in communities that rely on that. extraordinary experiences.
We know that as our Zoom, we have the opportunity to make very unique.
Experiences that connect you with nature and animals and create.
Um, those meaningful things that will really move you to conservation.
Accessibility and inclusion, right, comes with everything that we do, and it's not just about.
ABA, it's about making a sense of belonging for our community and for our region.
Um, so we're definitely… Putting that in one of our strategic.
approaches. And of course, sustainability, as a conservation organization, we need to walk.
And really demonstrate and model for the community how the zoo.
So, um… How do you all fit into this planning team, and how is this… Um, so we're, um… Working with our internal working group.
Uh, which we have today. Uh, mine is Roger Sweeney.
We also have our task force and our parks and gathons, in addition to the board and our presentation.
Good collaboration. So, David Graves and Hoda.
Are gonna be… hoodocree, are gonna be out of.
I'm working with our board as well. Been through that task force.
And then we also have our, uh, design team. I don't believe for any phone call.
Let me check right now, but I don't… Okay, well, Dave, can you talk a little bit about the design? Yeah, super quick, just to fill everyone in on the team, and… Add a little color to the chart. Um, so the prime consultant on this project is called CLR Design.
Um, CLR design is, uh, internationally known leader in the design of.
Zooms. And, um, there's only a handful of firms like that, actually. Interestingly, a number of those.
came out of a legacy of Jones and Jones and other practices in this region.
Um, they're a great firm based on the East Coast, as well as in Southern California, and have worked on.
Uh, plans, long-range plans for Zooms across the world, so they bring in a lot of expertise.
Um, so there's a handful of people on the team, uh, led by Craig Lester.
And Greg Dexter. And then Bethune is a sub-consultant to CLR Design.
Uh, we'll be providing, um… leadership on all the architectural parts of the projects, while CLR is the expert in all of the animal-facing and exhibit design.
On its own will help on this architecture side, as well as on the laundry sustainability.
Um, strategy for the Zoom moving forward. Another key consultant on the team is called Humming Voices. I think Karima might be on the call.
Um, leading the community outreach work, and as well as a firm called DCW, who's done cost estimating.
As Katie said, we need to make this achievable, and so we have the cost lens on the project all the way through.
Hey, Dave and Katie, I'm not sure if you can hear me, but this is Greg, and then Kareem is on as well.
Oh, that's great. Hi everyone, Dave just introduced you and the team.
Hey. Oh, good evening, everybody. Thank you. Thanks, Steve.
Yeah. That's great. You'll be seeing a lot more.
I'm Greg.
We're gonna move to… Right, do you want to talk about the planning efforts?
Yeah, sure, that's… can you all hear me okay?
In the face… Yep, yep.
Okay, perfect. Yeah, well, excited to… to meet with you all on behalf of our team, and thanks, Dave, for the introduction, and um… We've got a great 12-month process ahead of us, you know, we're just getting started.
But the really sort of cool and interesting thing is that the internal working group and the zoo.
has done all this great pre-work, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a moment.
Um, but a lot of that work happened in the earlier parts of this year.
Um, of course, sort of launching the board task force.
And then onboarding our… the CLR Methune Humming Voices team.
Um, I think Karima's gonna give us an update on where the Part 1.
of the community engagement effort has led us, and the first part of this year.
And then we're gonna talk more about how that's essentially now or in the coming weeks, we'll begin to move into Part 2.
Um, as part of a feedback loop as we move through community engagement.
begin to test a bunch of great ideas, and then be able to present those ideas back to the community for feedback.
So we're continuing to make informed decisions collectively on where the plan is heading.
Um, the concept testing or iterative concepting phase, um.
You know, for Methune and for CLR, it's the… it's the… It's the meat of the effort, it's gonna take us about 6 months to start at a very high level, looking at various site organizational schemes.
Um, and then ultimately, as we work through the 6-month effort, testing all sorts of ideas, we call it our 3 clients, but.
I'm looking at everything from animals to staff to guests.
sustainability, infrastructure, all of that is part of a comprehensive planning effort.
Ultimately, we will get to a moment where we will have discernible projects, that will have.
Um, costs associated with them, and then… for the next 20 years, thinking very carefully about logistics and sequencing.
Um, and then finally, as we get towards the fall of next year.
Um, around October, we will have a draft. that will be submitted to the Internal Working Group.
Um, and then that will go through a review process, then ultimately, no later than the 15th of December, be submitted.
Um, to the park superintendent for, um. review and hopefully approval, and… I'm not too familiar with how long that might take, but assuming that goes beyond the 15th, um, into the beginning parts of 2027.
So that's a bit of the, uh, the 12-month process.
And then if you go to the next slide.
Um, you know, as I mentioned before, just an incredible, you know, we… We're a, as Dave said, we're a firm that really only works with zoological institutions and animal conservation centers. We're architects, we're landscape architects.
We do a lot of campus planning for zoos around the U.S. And overseas.
And I can say that the internal working group, the zoo team.
Um, Karima and her team early on has done an incredible amount of pre-work, and… So I… the point of this is that the engine started well before the CLR Methune team started our effort in the last, you know, month and a half, two months.
Which is incredible. So, everything from looking at sustainability initiatives to.
Um, this initial friend interaction with the community for input.
identifying conservation strategies, um… Uh, Dr. Luis is part of the.
Uh, internal working group has looked very carefully at the long-range animal population goals.
There's been a very, sort of, fairly detailed facilities assessment.
you know, looking at your campus and understanding buildings that are.
50-plus years old, those that are more recently built, understanding what their mechanical systems lifespan might be, um, all those things we're factoring into that analysis.
And then all the strategic initiatives. So, all this great pre-work is going to help inform.
Um, the future ideas, and has really allowed our team to sort of.
you know, still do our part as planners and landscape architects and architects to do our site analysis and assessment.
to make recommendations, but all this pre-work is allowing us to move pretty quickly into the concept testing phase.
Tied to the process, of course, will be, which we'll talk more about, is all the future board engagement sessions that we'll have coming up.
Which I think we have a slide at the very end that talks about those strategic moments.
that align with each of the key planning phases, um, for the next year.
So with that, I will turn it over to Karima.
Thank you, Greg. Can you all hear me okay?
We can hear you, we can't see you, we can hear you.
You can hear me, you'll see me in a minute, sorry.
Okay.
I'm multitasking. Um, it's… so I'm Karima Edwards, and I'm the owner and principal of Humming Voices.
Um, and our consulting firm is focused on equity and belonging. I'm also.
a very proud Seattle Parks and Recreation alum, and it's good to see some of the faces that I got to, um, really learn and grow with at my, um.
time with Parks and Recreation. So, um, our firm did take the lead on the community engagement phase, and I'm really proud of the way.
that the zoo approached this, um. they started early on.
Um, wanting to engage with the community and. They did so in a way that was really robust, um, and so we co-created a process.
Where we didn't just engage with. The public, we engage with the internal community, which is.
the staff and employees of the zoo, I'm sorry.
Um, and so this phase started in July. Um, it was very early on that we started with, uh.
community-wide survey. Um, it went both externally and internally.
And, um, we had a really huge response with the survey. We had about.
I think over 3,000 responses. Um, and we got a lot of information about what folks' thoughts were, what their ideas, what their dreams were for the zoo.
Um, however, we did start with a racial equity analysis, and we knew that sometimes surveys are not.
the best way to reach community members. So, um, we knew that we would need a very robust engagement process.
So, in addition to the survey, we had focus groups.
We went to, um, farmers markets, we partnered with the library.
And we did some non-traditional things, such as. Um, we had a barbershop focus group, um, that we partnered with.
Um, some folks at, um, a barbershop in Auburn.
And we're able to get some engagement going that way. Um, very specific to BIPOC communities. We also conducted what we call a microsurvey.
Which focuses on, um. historically marginalized communities.
Like, people of color. So, for example, with the online survey that went out community-wide, we had.
About 80% of the respondents were white, and with the microsurvey.
We had, um, the reverse, so about 70… 17%.
of the survey respondents were. um, identified as white.
So, um, that gave us a way to really amplify those voices that we don't.
Um, typically hear from surveys, and also with the strategies we use for tabling.
And also focus groups. We got to hear from more folks.
Um, what was shared was really interesting. people shared their stories, they shared what… what was meaningful for them.
As far as their experiences with the zoo. But we also came away with some, um, key concepts. People want to be connected.
They really want to have interactions with the animals.
They like seeing how the animals are cared for, and they enjoy those natural spaces, being able to walk through the zoo.
And observe not just the animals, but nature. Um, they really like those sensory experiences.
One of the things that. We already knew is that access is a concern. It's been a concern for the zoo when they look at equity.
and their location, so we did continue to hear that, like, transportation and affordability.
are, um, some key concerns, um, that we know.
That we want to look at a little bit more closely and look at how we can reduce some of those barriers.
And then, um… People want, like… they want to feel like this is a community that reflects.
Them, when they enter the zoo, they want to see themselves.
Um, they want to see something that's culturally responsive.
That, um, exemplifies their identities and, um. They want to feel like they're actually being seen when they're in the zoo.
Um, so we're looking at different ways that we can do that, and we're looking to the community to tell us.
I'm gonna go to the next slide.
Yes, please. So, one specific thing that has been interesting has been the thought leadership input.
And what we've done is we've gone to some of the industry leaders, and we'll continue to do that.
Um, just to hear more about what their best practices are and what's been successful in their zoo.
And so, um, for example, we've… spoken to some leaders from the AZA, which is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Um, specific to DEI, um, looking at how they've been able to bring in.
Um, equity and belonging, and some examples in other zoos across the country and even internationally, what's being done that's worked really well.
Um, we also spoke to Auckland Zoo in New Zealand, who's done a really great job with incorporating Indigenous practices.
and culture, um, and systems into their zoo. And so we're talking with these thought leadership so that now we can take those practices and implement them into the long-range plan.
And gain some perspective on how we can do that.
So, we also looked at, like. how we're going to move forward, um, for this input, um, for the next year.
And how this is going to inform the concepts for.
The actual design and some of the priorities. And so, we're hoping that.
Um, the concepting will start to take shape. Um, in the spring or the summer of 2026.
We'll still be talking to both internal and external audiences, so that means the staff.
We'll continue to have staff sessions. Um, which were very successful in the front-end survey part. We got a lot of information and a lot of.
Um, really candid feedback from staff. And then we'll keep going, and we'll make sure that we go back.
We validate, we refine, we find out what works, we do a lot of pivoting through this process.
Um, and continue from there.
Alright, thank you, Karina. So, um, yeah.
Thank you.
So, as mentioned, we've, um, started this project, and we're, um, going to be going into the concept phase, as we're really kind of in that background information gathering stage right now.
And so that will continue, um, all throughout this next year.
Um, and that concept design, and having this, um.
coming months, as well as land use, cost estimation, sequencing.
And then that draft document for approval, like Greg had mentioned. So that… Um, is coming to you.
Go later then, December 15th. 2026. Um, and then that will get approved by City Council.
Yeah, everything's gonna go great, and that's how that process will go out.
So, just to go a little bit… So this is the work plan. I don't expect you to be able to see a hold of this, but really what I want to share here.
Is, you know, there's a lot of parts. All of this in a lot of phases. We are currently, as you can see, at our, um.
This stays here in November. Um, for our task board meeting.
And then we plan to come back around March, so that we have things to share. Right now, it's just kind of, hey, there's a long-range plan, it's coming, so we'll be coming back with some of those concepts for… And then we'll be coming, um, in November ahead of.
that approval, just to make sure we're all on the same page, and… So, um, so that is… for you today. Any questions?
So, so the plan that's submitted to the superintendent in December, what does that entail? Like, an initial.
design mock up, or is it more… So, it will be a document that is essentially the physical monument of the next home.
So, it will include site plans, circulation plans. on that phasing and sequence, like I said, cost estimates.
And, um, improvements. Did I answer the question? You did.
Mm-hmm. Two questions. Um, one to sort of process plan for Review for the park staff.
Um, is this something that is looking for an advisory.
We would better clarify the Commissioner's. role, and how we can help support this process.
Um, because obviously it's AP's document to review. Is he looking for… Anything for the commissioners, or are we… performing public engagement and outreach on this, and just want to make sure I understood.
What is coming for us as a commission. I mean, I think we're gonna have many more updates down the road, um, and we have.
As mentioned, we have two people from Mark, or identify… Deadlines, another one.
We're gonna be learning about it, and then we'll be coming back and sharing with you, but… Um, yes, that's why you're here, is to also give input and review and make sure that.
Aligning all of our collective interests. Um, and I certainly take that into consideration, and we can throw things back to the zoo.
Or we actually search? Thanks. That's what I thought, just wanted to… Perfect. And the other one, and this is… I apologize, it's a little bit of a background piece.
Um, but would love to understand just a little bit more about the, sort of, operating arrangement, just at a high level.
green parks in the zoo. Sure. It's park land and zoo is operating.
Um, obviously the zoo, but, um, like, I'm… of the presentation of this gathering, that there's some.
Good little intricacies into how facilities get built, constructed.
Um, on that land, if it's driving this process. So a little bit of… students of background on that wheel.
We have a master, um, agreement and relationship back. It's, uh… fairly recent that we just renewed it.
Yeah. Um, and that, uh, memorializes our formal relationship. So, as you can see from the picture.
It's a park, it's parkland. Um, we own, uh… the assets, uh, most of the assets at the Zoom, uh, for some things.
Um, but we have this amazing partnership, this public-private partnership, where, um.
The Woodland Park Zoo, as a private entity that.
It's the operator at the zoo and manages all the day-to-day affairs.
Um, where we often correlate and intertwine is sometimes with the maintenance of the land.
Um, some specific responsibilities that are called out, like.
You know, that our park's responsibility, whether it's irrigation or certain types of maintenance.
Um, and then what things the zoo is responsible for, as well as capital investments.
Zoom is also required as our aquarium to meet, you know, certain.
Goals and public benefit goals for the public, and that's ensuring that.
You know, there's, uh, as much access, free programming opportunities for children and families to come in and use the zoo.
Um, and they're just wonderful partners, and they give that way. So yeah, it's a… it's like the aquarium.
Um, city-owned, park-owned properties and assets, but managed by.
Exemplary teams. And they get to take care of the animal. And if I so dare, I would say.
Important role in this. For me, um, for the city, is really, as we talked about, this gem of a park.
when the parks do, um, and we're seeing some issues around transportation.
access and things like that, so the role of the board to further influence the city in those decisions.
Yeah, okay. And our… and we have certain funding that's dedicated.
Also, to support this data so that they can manage and operate. And then most recently, which is fantastic.
A paste county. Park levy has money specifically earmarked as a regional asset to the entire county, obviously, and it can be 100%.
One thing that I found, um, sort of curious when I worked at the zoo was, um, that the Zoo Society was, uh, responsible for generating all of these resources through.
earned revenue and contributions and public funding. Um, but then the improvements to the assets really belong to the city.
Right, as a city, um, city-owned property and the improvements, um, that the Zoo Society does also accrue to the value.
Um, of the city, and so that's… Another way that I think about a group like this inputting, like, as, um.
stewards of that, of those assets, um, in partnership with the.
So… and I just want to commend you guys for, um, taking this on, these kinds of plans are such a huge lift, and… You know, but really… make the, um… Uh, you know, the process of accomplishing them so much easier for all the people that come after you, so kudos for that.
Let me send her excited. This is a really… Legacy building project.
We're excited to be a part of it, so… Appreciate the partnership. Thank you.
I also… sorry, I just want to say, when you were talking about the public benefit, um, I've worked with so many families with.
Very low incomes or no income, and… the free, um, ticket opportunities are just, like.
so impactful for families. Um, so… so the public benefit. I mean, kiddos who had.
never otherwise been able to… to enjoy those, being able to go and not just, like.
Being such a special moment for the families, too.
So yeah, and that connection to nature is really influential at that age, and they know that.
What that can do, like, stewardship later in life.
And that's… we'll just… we'll end here, too, because… What's great about the kind of partnerships we have with the zoo.
And the aquarium, um, you know, it's all… it's a good relationship.
Um, also, because it's not just, like. You know, they report to us once a year, and we don't… You know, talk to them, like, they have very similar, mutually vested goals, and.
They can call up our Zoo staff and say, hey, we've got this, you know, group of kids, or we want to do something special.
And there will always be, like, responsive, and that's… so it's just great. It's a wonderful… Working partnership relationship, and… So, yeah.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Alright, thanks. To our next. Um, agenda item is… Yeah, it's our, um, we're going to be giving you a human resource.
Overview and update, so I'm gonna call up… Um, Cesarez is our HR Director and.
Other members of her team, as they're coming up, so thank you, thank you. Thank you!
Um, this is… so we have… We have amazing staff.
Um, on our department of some… you know, the numbers vary in plots, like, sometimes 1500, and then we get to seasonal hiring in the 2000s.
Um, and it's a very, very big department, uh, to have one of the largest.
And what I love about this team is that, um… You know, first of all, we used to call HR, you know, sort of, like.
personnel back in the day, right? Hold up. Rules and, you know, your, um… I worked in the city for many years, and I always talked about, you know.
Any time in your career, it's like, you know.
HR wants to talk to you, or they send you an email or something, they can freak out. It can be the most innocuous thing, too, and it's like.
You know, but it's coming from HR, so you get those sort of butterflies.
In your stomach, um… But, you know, all professional transition to human resources, um, to be really a focus on human resources.
I gotta tell you, there are some really just amazing, impressive things about this department that I just fell in love with, and one of them.
was our HR team. Um, and their leadership, because they are committed, first and foremost, to people.
Um, and to the wellness of our employees. They care about our employees, um… Yes, they have to do compliance matters, yes, they have to do very serious things and make sure that.
You know, compliance and HR matters are followed, but they also… the things they don't have to do, I guess, technically.
They don't have to care about so much, and love them so much, the way our.
He does, and they're gonna talk about some of their… Special programs and the way they show up, and it really… it aligns with my.
philosophy, and they are their lockstep to care about people and really, um.
We do life together, and sometimes, sadly, we're with our.
Work employees more than our, you know, family, because we get home late, and then, you know.
Sleep and all this stuff, but… We're doing, like, one another together, and so I just want to thank you all and let you know that.
Really proud of our team, and care about them, and I know they care about us.
With that, let me introduce… Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate that. It's just hard work.
Caring for people is hard, because there are so many.
individual experiences that show up in a workplace. Um, so it's really a great opportunity for us to be able to come and share a little bit about that. We're going to introduce ourselves first.
And then we'll get into the, um, presentation. So, this is… Almost all of our leadership team were missing a couple folks, um, but I'm Desiree Torres, I'm the HR.
I'm Austin Wolgram, I am the Interim Talent Acquisition Manager.
I'm Kim Alvarado, I'm the Safety and Health Manager.
Theresa Rayburn, I'm the Employee Care and Development. Hi, my name's Antonia Chai, and I'm the FBA Security Advisor.
Alright, well, get started. So… Um, we have, uh, some… a really kind of lofty goal that we work on, and really, it's our mission, right? We're supporting all employees by centering workforce equity.
providing excellent customer service and developing strong leaders. So that is what carries us through throughout the work that we're doing, and we look at it.
Uh, 5 different areas. So really, we wanna… Work on supporting our managers.
Um, and providing them resources, because we are… you'll see our work taught in a second, but.
You know, we're about 29 people. We are a very large department. We cannot manage the department. That's not our role. Our role is to be in lockstep with our managers and our supervisors to help to support them to be able to do that hard work.
So it's important for us to make sure that they are prepared and they have the resources and needs.
Um, so that's one of our overarching goals. We also… want to center employee experience.
And, you know, we… not only are we trying to improve the experience that they have, but we want to really understand it.
From a kind of foundational level, because. We also have a broad spectrum of employees, from entry-level employees to executives.
And all the way in between. And so the experiences that people have, they come and they carry that, and they bring that to work.
So it's really important for us to be able to understand if we're helping to provide resources.
What does that actually look like, and what, you know, what types of ways can we lean in and help support them?
We also do, because we are HR, we do have the fun stuff. We have an internal focus on compliance.
There are rules and laws that drive the work that we do, and we have to make sure and do that. We are an organization, we're a government organization. There is a lot of compliance, a lot of ethics, a lot of things that are involved. So we have to know that, and we have to be able to also help to support.
Our managers to be able to also maintain that compliance.
For the organization. Um, and then this year, we've really been focusing on onboarding and our retention, so we really want to make sure, as folks come in… so we are an entry point.
So these 13,000 employees, we tend to be the entry point. We're also the longest tenure in the city, so this department is a place where.
People come, they enter in, they might come in as a lifeguard at 16, and they want to stay, and they stay for upwards of an entire career. They might.
go to other departments. We always say they come back home, um, because people tend to want to come back to immigration. So, we want to make sure that the things that we're doing to help.
For employees as they enter in. paints a really solid picture for them.
For their career here with the city. Um, and then, of course.
We have so many resources. The city is a generous employer, and we want to make sure that people know that.
I have those resources, we know how to, you know, connect with.
Um, whatever leaves might be available to them, employee resources, and we'll talk a lot more about how.
So that's kind of what guided us.
So, a little thing that's sort of interesting, and I like to show this because I think.
Um, it's important to understand, like, what it means when one department has, like, human resources.
in this city that operates. We have… Um, so we stick in… Parks and Recreation, but there is actually another Seattle Human Resources that's its own department, right? So.
We have lots of dotted lines to lots of areas that help to manage or to support us that we are also keeping in mind as we're going about the work that we're doing. So.
Of course, I meet regularly with the superintendent's office, I'm part of the superintendent's team as well, so, um, making sure that.
They understand the things that are happening, themes that might be going on around the department.
Um, changes that might be coming in from other areas that they might need to.
Uh, we have a dotted line to the city attorney's office.
This is huge. Really important for us to make sure that, as also laws change, that we are aware of what's going on there. We always want to make sure.
that we're following in compliance with that. Um, to the mayor's office as well.
They also are, um, oftentimes will provide information, usually to the Seattle Human Resources.
That will then come to us as well, so there's another dotted line there.
Sure, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.
No worries.
That's okay. Okay, cool.
A little bit about Seattle Human Resources already. But we also have, which is embedded into the Scout Human Resources, our labor relations.
And, um, our Human Resources investigated, so… Um, our labor relations is really key and important for us also. We manage and, um.
in our department, I believe we have 11 different unions that are represented in this.
Um, in this department, so it's important for us to be really on top of those, um, collective bargaining agreements and making sure we understand.
Um, the differences that might come up, and the things that are happening and what we're sort of connected to those unions on a pretty regular basis.
And then the investigative unit. helps me to support us if there are things that occur that fall kind of in their purview, they can help investigate those, and we keep that dotted line to them.
And then finally, our ethics and elections. Commission, and that is another area where we may have something that comes up, and we just need to.
partner with them to understand, kind of, the… what are the implications of the situation, and how can we work through it? Is there an ethics.
a violation that's happening or not, right? Is there something that we need to be more aware of around that?
We also have other organizations that are. Really connected to us in some ways, not connected in any kind of, like, day-to-day work, but connected.
in the sense that we are making sure that we're understanding, kind of, their perspective of what's happening.
within our organization. So we have the Office of Employee Ombud, I meet with them regularly.
that's a confidential space for our employees to go to, but they can tell us themes that they might be hearing.
That's really key for us to be able to understand, is there something different that we haven't heard about that's important for us to know?
labor and industries, of course. Um, lots of safety standards, lots of things that come up around that.
Uh, workers' compensation. So there's a lot of different, um, players involved in the work that we're doing.
Um, and we really want to make sure that we are connected with all of them, so that we're providing the best experience, both for the organization, but ultimately for our employees.
Okay, uh, so I'll jump in here and just give a quick breakdown of our work chart.
So this is our entire HR team. We got Desiree here at the top.
Uh, we have Kelly, who's our Deputy Director. And then she's got a couple of employees reporting directly to her.
Um, and then the rest of these teams also reporting out their county. So we have our safety and health team, we got Kim here today.
Uh, we have our ERLR team, Employee Relations, Labor Relations, uh, Rochelle's not here today, but this is our team here.
Um, she's got a team of HR business partners that work with the individual divisions to provide some.
Um, high-level HR support. Uh, we have my team here, we're a team of about 5, and we handle all the regular and temporary hiring for all.
Of employees that we have. Um, and then we've got the equity engagement team here.
Uh, as well as the employee care and development teams. We got Antonia and Teresa here.
Um, that's their teams. They've each got a few employees there.
Okay, so she said about that?
Okay, so I'll jump back in quickly, um, so the first time here.
Um, just some priority work that the talent acquisition team, uh, has done and continues to do.
Um, so obviously we want to provide equitable recruitment experience for candidates and for.
Uh, our internal and external candidates. Um, we provide, uh, recruitment priority planning, so we work closely with division strategic advisors and managers to identify.
Um, the priorities that they have with their vacancies, and… What they want to recruit now, what they want to recruit later.
Um, we work hard with the onboarding experience, especially with the rollout of Workday just a little over a year ago.
Um, that's really changed the way that we do onboardings.
Had to pay a lot of attention to that.
do a lot of training and a lot of, um… to support with divisions and employees to do that.
Uh, workday stabilization, like I said, it's not just onboarding, there's a lot of other stuff that.
Workday kind of threw us for a loop, uh, with a lot of, uh, personnel and payroll.
Issues and functions, um, so we've… We've managed that really well, and we're getting… really close to being… being stable with that, but in the beginning, there was a lot of.
Data cleanup and a lot of stuff we had to do.
Um, to help people through that transition. Um, we also, just a little over a year ago.
About the same time that Workday rolled out, we did a… We did a SharePoint site of the, um, so our team worked hard to kind of build some new pages.
New content that was more user-friendly. Um, so we rolled that out and continue to collect feedback on that, and kind of continue to flesh that out based on.
What our employees want to see and what they want to access on our SharePoint site.
Um, and then classification and compensation analysis. Um, that just extends to both our classified positions that kind of have a more structured, uh, salary.
Uh, structure, and then, uh, our discretionary pay program, which is, like, our executives, managers, and strategic advisors.
Um, so we just work hard to make sure that we're being equitable and aligning with other departments.
And all that good stuff. Um… That's true. Right, so the Employee Care and Development Team… Um, you know, the ADA accommodations, the absences and leaves.
Management, uh, benefits. care team, resources, connection, where we… Uh, connect employees with resources that they might need.
Um, we help employees with career development and. Education and learning.
Okay. So, it's our employee relations and labor relations, and a lot of their work.
Um, isn't always the fun work, and some of the stuff that he was talking about at the beginning, it's like, oh, the gut punching.
HR reaches out. It's usually because there's something that's going on that we need to help to be there.
So, we've been working on having supervisor 101 training.
Um, a lot of manager development, performance management. Um, and really looking at how we engage our employees in ways that we can do that.
And then, uh, the safety and health team, we're trying to be the fun team.
Um, so we've been really focused on safety culture this year, and, um.
Employee care communication. Um, unfortunately, we've had a few workplace violence situations we've had to deal with.
And we make sure we're there for the employee. We can't do anything.
like, 2 per event, like, we can do… we can work with people to help prevent.
But when the employee goes through it, then they don't… it's like, it's a process to heal, so we're there for them for that.
Um, and then safety training and development, that's what we're trying to make fun so that we're the fun team, even though it's kind of boring topics.
And, uh, incident reports, we've really been. Turning the employees around on how they're thinking about reporting. Um, we often get complaints of, it's so bad here, but we go to look at that site, and there's.
documentation. And we can't help them if we don't know, right? So we've really been working with the employees, they're getting a lot better at documenting on what's going on, so we can address the issues.
So, that's been our top 5, and it's been pretty successful this year, so… Uh, just wanted to make those out. Thank you.
Uh, so the exit engagement teams, our focus is to compete with the safety team, not being the honest team. I didn't know that was great until just now. So, no, equity engagement, like, our team's role is to help support our department in embedding equity into everything that we do.
We do that by supporting folks through education, through data collection, um.
And by building tools as well. Uh, so a lot of what our goals were this year was to capacity build. We've been short-staffed, we just hired on a new member, uh, a month ago, and they are fantastic, and, um, it's great because it's allowing us to be able to go out and do more, which we're really excited about.
Um, a big, uh, event for us is the Pride Parade. Uh, the Parks Department has a long history of supporting.
the Seattle's Pride Parade, and we are actually the only department in the city that holds up a float, which is a lot of work to do. So, uh, it's a big part of our work.
Uh, gender inclusivity training, I'm gonna talk a little bit more about this, uh, later, but this has also been a big, um.
Uh, effort of ours this year is to roll out gender inclusivity training for our staff. We're starting with our leadership level, and we just did the fourth training of five.
Some of the staff here, um, have been through it.
And, uh, we also built an equity values map tool, which is going to help to support our strategic advisors in, um, budgeting and thinking about equity and budgeting.
And then, uh, we support our internal race and social justice change team as well.
Yeah, I'll take the last style, data analytics. Um, so the D22 out-of-class form, just a quick explanation of out-of-class, if you're in a regular position, you can work temporarily in another classification.
And get paid to do that work, which is really nice. It gives people some experience in a step up, which might be their logical next step.
Um, so we look at that data a lot, just to kind of drive what we're doing.
Um, priority hiring dashboard… Um, just helps us to drive, like.
How we want to prioritize our recruitments. Um, how we want to time our recruitments throughout the year, things that we're finding turnover and doing every single year.
Um, workforce analytics dashboard helps us understand, um, who is in our positions and who we're hiring, so that's really helpful.
Um, and it can drive our strategies that we use for recruiting and onboarding and retention and all that good stuff.
Um, and then E3 Performance Management System Replacement. Uh, E3 was our previous performance management system that was retired.
Uh, this past year, and our management system analyst, Zach.
Uh, he's not here today, but he's amazing. He actually designed.
Uh, among other apps and systems that he's designed for us. He designed a whole new performance management system.
Um, for parks, and, um, it actually may be co-opted by some other departments, or… Or citywide, he did such a good job, we'll see here.
Um, but that just rolled out, so we're doing training on that right now, and just trying to get everybody.
on board with that new performance management system. That's gonna help us really, um, track things better than that.
the previous system. I don't know how much time you have.
Hmm…
Make sure, alright. Uh, so this is our staff. This is just a snapshot of our demographics of, uh, the employees that we serve.
Um, you'll note that this is from July, which is when we are at our largest as a department.
Um, at 2… at the time, it was 2,182 staff members total. Um, we also have the breakdown in, uh, gender identity, age, as well as race and.
It's important for us to know these, um, statistics and these, um, information about our staff as, um, AP, and as I both alluded to, it's really important that we are meeting staff where they are, and seeing the whole.
person, and the whole person that they bring into the workplace, too. Um, so that's why we look at these numbers.
And you'll also notice there's some numbers at the bottom from Sales Zulite, um, SPU, which… The reason their name is not moving to my head right now, just the acronym. Yeah, thank you. Public Utilities, and then ASDOT, which is, uh, Department of Education.
These are our biggest departments within the entire city of Seattle, and you'll see here.
Or just in the summertime, so… I'll focus this port.
Mm-hmm.
So this slide is all about resource sharing, and just goes over some of the resources.
Um, that we share with our employees. Um, HR Connect and, um… is just a way for employees to reach out to HR, um, so that they don't have to remember.
What each of the units do, they can just reach out to one.
Central place, and then get, um… Uh.
Sent over to the correct unit. Um, caring communication is… Um, newsletters with reminders, information, and resources, um.
directly from HR. Um, HR is on-site with staff, so we head out to various, uh, worksites to have office hours.
So that employees can, um… see us and ask us questions every month.
Um, and then we also have traveling roadshows, so we have one this morning where.
Um, we have a slide of what… Uh, each work unit does, and employees can ask us questions.
And then a care team, um, is where we have one-on-one check-ins with employees.
Sometimes when we reach out and say we are from HR, they worry, but.
We really are just, uh, telling them that we care and.
Wanting to make sure that they're okay if they've gone through something.
Um, and then Supervisor, while on… We kind of talked about, um, it's one of the… Leadership development sessions that we've.
And, uh, rolling out this year. And then a mentorship program for, um… Employees, uh, just rolled out, we have.
40, uh, matched pairs for employees to. Um, work with leaders around the department.
Um, throughout a 6-month period, so… They meet with their mentor every… week, or, um… Whatever frequency the two decide upon.
And so… That's going well.
Um, some more ways we care about our employees.
Um, we have a lot of employees who experience.
prices, and so we share resources such as. Um, if they need leaves, my team reaches out with.
Uh, the various types of leaves available to them.
We share, uh, the Employee Assistance Program resources that are available.
And then, again, the care team, uh, check in and resource sharing.
Um… Then, uh, situational awareness to support a proactive, caring approach.
Um, just kind of knowing, like, the employee needs, what the operation needs.
And then, having holistic wraparound support. Um, getting in touch with the operations… And, um… And career development support. So, um, being in touch with the employees and knowing what their goals are.
Okay.
So the top line is working well, and it kind of already covered the increase in the reporting.
While we're working with employees. Um, management is connecting earlier in situations. It's… it's been the whole team working on that all year.
And now management is still a point where they're starting to trust us, that even… When you have new people, you've got to build that trust, and so we've gotten there, now they're starting to connect before there's a problem instead of after the problem.
So that's really been successful for us. Um, engagement with staff in training and applications by getting them, uh, to bring themselves up to a career that they want to get into. We've been really working with them.
Uh, we're more consistent on how we're executing practices.
We're being, uh… we're making sure that. even, like, down to discipline, that discipline is… is the same. So, like, if one person gets disciplined for this.
the next person would get the same type of discipline and not go by who the person is, and then they give them.
Like, extra discipline, because maybe they're not, like, or vice versa, they're liked, and then they don't get to this one, so that's been working well.
And then just that overall collaboration with HR and management, which I talked about that connecting early, has been very successful because, um.
Like I said, we built that trust, and they're seeing that we're helping their employees, so… Things are going better with their employees, which is going better for them, because they're not having to spend a lot of time.
kind of fighting what's going on.
Next, let's go here now. So we, um, wanted to just highlight a couple of our speed for programs that we feel like really help to.
Um, to showcase the work that we do and the care that we provide to our employees. And one of them I mentioned already in supervisor training. This was a training that we launched this last year, and of our.
I think it's 286 supervisors that we have. We have about half of them this year already that have attended that program.
About 4 hours long, so it's intensive. really scenario-based, and it provides information for them, and… Um, really resources to be, uh, to step up in their leadership role.
Um, you mentioned the mentorship program. I want to add any more about that. We've been doing it annually.
For a couple years, and it seems like it's increasing in… Yeah. And it's really… it's a great program that actually originated here. There's a flash mentorship program that happens citywide.
Um, but it's something that we really feel very connected to because the department allows employees.
Up to 80 hours within that 6-month period to be able to work with an executive.
For their career goals, and that is really huge. That provides a boost in morale, it provides people opportunity.
access to what it might look like to be in a different type of role, um, and it really is just something that I think the rest of the.
the option looks at and says, how can we get this? How can we get this program and do something similar? It does take a lot of work.
Um, but the payoff is huge. Um, the gender inclusivity training team. Yeah, so, um… Training Team, we've been working together for a little more than a year now, and what that is, is that we in HR identified a little bit.
an opportunity for us to, um, educate our staff a little bit more on gender identity.
and gender inclusivity, both for our internal staff, to support how they support one another, but also for our community members as well.
Um, myself and another member of our training team.
We got together, and we decided to, um, do an open call.
For folks who would like to join our team, and, um, we did get an answer from about 10… 8 to 10 people, which was really great.
Most of whom who have lived experience, um, identify as trans or gender non-binary, and so those folks, we all together as a.
We kind of phase, although we were leading the team, those folks were really the ones who came together and talked about, like, what this could look like, and our plan was to make a training proposal to this week's office.
Which we did, um, in May, June-ish, and it was well received, and, um, approved right away.
Uh, which is great, and we ended up having to go all the way up to the mayor's office to get approval, which that also was approved, too, so… The first phase of this approval is that we are training our leadership first.
Um, we brought an outsider trainer, we're working with Seattle's LGBTQ Plus Center, um, to deliver training for all of our people leaders, so that they are, uh, equipped with this knowledge and information so they know how to support their staff.
Um, and then in about February, March, we're going to be bringing that trainer back.
To, um, offer some training for our staff in person as well. It's the first time we've done in-person training since COVID, so it's also just really cool to, like, be in space with people in that way.
Um, and then the third component is that we'll be building an e-learning, um, that's going to live within our learning system, and that will be available for all staff.
We stop all staff to be able to take, as well as new hires as they're coming in, so we're all getting the same language.
Awesome! So, we did some, uh, internships this year.
Uh, obviously, summer was a big season for our interns. We had a lot of high school, college, and even some graduate students interning.
Um, I got some numbers here for you, so… Couple different programs, uh, we have a program called Youth at Work, which was a high school internship where.
Our youth would work in the community centers with our recreation staff, so we had 40… high school interns for that one.
Um, career explorations was another high school internship, which is very similar, it's just kind of.
Run through a different, uh, group in our recreation division. We have 38 more interns with that one.
Uh, we have 8 interns that were interning at our teen late night sites in South End.
Um, we have 4 interns that were interning at our community learning centers.
Um, and those are college interns. Um, we also had, uh, two landscape architecture graduate interns, and one.
architecture, graduate intern. Um, and many of those internships, uh, have continued through the school year as well, which is great.
Um, and then I'll just quickly talk about apprenticeships as well, even though it's kind of out of turn there. Um, so our apprenticeships, we have 4 different apprenticeships right now. We have a painter.
electrician, a carpenter, and a plumber apprenticeship, and we kind of start those up on a rolling basis.
Um, I think right now we only have one that is not filled, because our person recently, uh, journeyed out.
to a regular position. Um, but we will, uh, be recruiting soon, and that's an electrician.
So, you've heard me say creating a safety culture a few times.
So when… what we're doing and our focus this year, and it's kind of baby steps getting through it.
is, we know everybody makes mistakes, we're all human, right?
Um, so instead of focusing on why did you make that, you know, why did you do that? You should have known. You've been trained.
We're focusing on what caused it. Um, and a lot of times we're finding it's kind of going back to the whole employee care piece.
Like, their daughter's at home sick, and they're thinking about, I hope they're okay, do I need to take them to the hospital? I hope somebody calls me if they get worried, you know, there's, there's… life happens.
And so we're trying to be there and trying to help employees.
trust not only us, but their supervisors to go to them and like, hey, I'm having a bad day.
And I am not focused, so that we can work with them and then help.
Make sure the job's still getting done safely and efficiently, even when they're disconnected.
Um, the other thing we're doing is when we're going in, we're training, and like I said, training's not fun, right? It's like, oh, I heard that, but oh yeah, blood work happened.
Oh, boy. Um, we're trying to make it fun, right? Because nobody wants to talk about bloodward pathogens wants to talk about that.
So we're trying to make it fun, and then if we're seeing this bathroom just not connecting or understanding, we're trying to find out why. Is there a language barrier?
Do we have too many large words? Um, because sometimes if you use the words from the actual Washington administrative Code, you'll lose that. So, we're really starting to focus more where are we using our staff, and how can we change that.
We're also out all the time, um… Sean is with our Parks and Environment, he's working on a cause for us right now.
And he has weekly meetings with each district, and that's been… our hardest section to connect with, and he's now making connection now that we have that person to go out and actually meet. He's meeting with the supervisors, and he's meeting with staff.
How can we help? And since then, we're getting our paperwork in, like I said.
And we're able to connect with them, and they're now calling us. Hey, I have a problem with, how can you help me? And we're going out.
So, it's been a really good change. Um, it's helping our teams connect because we're… we're coming together, and we're those resources for employees to make sure that they're safe and healthy when they come.
Yeah, it's our beautiful team here. Um, I just want to thank you all for listening to the work that we do. I know.
It isn't always, like, the sexiest work, right? Human resources, but it is so key and important to the work that happens out in the community, our beautiful parks that are out there, our wonderful.
Um, youth programs, adult programs, and everything. We want to make sure that if we care.
For our employees, that care will show you. So…
Um, thanks for sharing your presentation. A lot of great work going on. Um, I'm curious if you all have explored, maybe from a culture standpoint.
Cross-teaming within… Parks and Rec, so that, you know, I have kind of observed things in my district that.
You have a lot of different teams touching a given park.
But it seems there are a lot of blind spots, but they're not all necessarily aware.
Of the work that's going on, among other teams. Would that be an opportunity to help them fill more ownership and feel more invested?
They had a sense of the bigger picture. Yeah, I think that's… first of all, that's a great question, and I think.
One of the challenges that we have is having a system that's all over an entire city.
So we do have some areas, um, we have our West Bridge facility, where we'll have both recreation.
and our Parks and environment, and our facilities, all within that building, and there's a lot of just.
kind of cross-pollination that happens naturally in those spaces, but that doesn't happen across our whole system, right? We have folks that.
might actually be stationed out at Bitter Lake, and that's where they go every day, and they're not necessarily engaged.
with what might be happening in the park at Lake, right? So, um, so it's definitely something that we think about in terms of.
How we get that connection. You know, I think for us, part of what we're trying to do is, as a first step ourselves, just going out.
So, while this is where our main office is.
Most of our team, actually, is out in, you know, in the different, um, locations, so that they're there to be able to say, how can I help and support you here? So you don't have to come and find us.
And we can then begin to try and break down some of those silos and help to support. Um, but it is, it's true, you know, it's a large department, and that's definitely a challenge that we think about.
I think somewhere where I've seen some of that cross-pollination happen, too, is definitely in the interdepartmental teams that, um, I… Specifically help to support. Um, I know I learned so much, because we were able to get people from across our department to join those teams.
And so, there's a lot of… I'm seeing, like, in real time, in a meeting, like, but, like, hey, Carson, you're in your facility, I need this to happen, so, like.
bringing… giving more opportunities where we can bring staff together, I think, allows that to happen very organically, too, so that's also helpful.
And we also communicate with the other city departments, so, like, we're always in communication with, like, City Light, SDOT, SBU.
The other large department. And then we also think about the, like, the library.
There are a lot of campuses with them, so we communicate with them as well. So we try to expand it a little further if we can, when we can, and when we don't.
The biggest challenge is knowing, and so I think now that employees are starting to report more, now we're hearing more, and now we can help.
Those connections that are needed. Um, but it's getting the employees to come forward and say, hey, this isn't working.
I think… I think we're working on getting that, but it is such a challenge.
Kevin, did you want to go?
Sure, thanks. Um, hi everyone, Kevin Warner, I'm new to the commission.
I'm sorry I was late tonight. I'm on the East Coast and got my time zone screwed up. Great presentation, I really appreciate the value of HR.
You're starting to go where I wanted to ask with the last part of your answer around the other departments.
I… I took away from this, you know, you guys are doing lots of great stuff in Parks and Rec HR.
Um, I didn't realize that HR was siloed between the different departments in the city until this presentation, so I'm curious if you could elaborate more on.
how… to what degree is there, like… You know, coordination, collaboration with HR departments in the rest of the city, um, and at what degree are there opportunities there that are still.
Sort of… to be… to be discovered, I guess.
Yeah, um, we have… Uh, the larger departments.
Um, the larger departments have HRs. And in addition to that, there's what's called the Seattle HR. So, um, the larger departments that have those HRs.
along with ourselves, we meet regularly, we meet monthly to talk about different.
issues that might be having… that might be going on across the city, other challenges, or, uh, Seattle HR, they're the ones that host it. They might.
Pull a meeting together to let us know about some new opportunity, or maybe there's a new policy update, or there's things like that, that govern all of us.
So even though we are within each department, we do have that connection with each other, um, to be able to make sure that we're still.
consistent with our personnel rules and making sure that we're.
You know, a lot of our practices are similar, so if an employee is here at Parks and Recreation, and they move over to Seattle City Light.
Their experience isn't going to be so stark and so different that they feel like they're in a different organization. So we do try and maintain.
Um, kind of that connection. So, and a lot of what is governed is governed out of that Seattle HR, and so that experience is all fairly similar.
Um, with us. I don't know if there's any other… There's a lot of different IDTs that meet together for, you know, Safety has one.
Yeah, so there's a lot of different opportunities for us to be engaged together.
Yeah, thanks for that. Just a follow-up, I'm a recently retired federal employee.
Um, and I, you know, some of the best experiences I had in my career were.
Working in different agencies than my home agency. Um, so I guess I just encourage, like, you were talking about leadership development and development opportunities. I think that's real… those are really… important things to do, and I think.
broaden the aperture so that people have… employees have opportunities to do that, not just in Parks and Rec, but in other departments. Um, I think that's… incredibly, um, attractive as a value proposition for the city and for employees.
Yeah, well, and I'll just add, um, Austin mentioned the out-of-class experience, and the out-of-class is really.
Ultimately, at the base level, it's to provide an opportunity to fill in for a potential vacancy and or a backfill if somebody goes out on the long-term leave or so forth.
But that out of class is an amazing opportunity for people to develop, and that can happen internally within our department, but also externally to other departments.
So, I might have that opportunity to, you know, take something on as the Office for Civil Rights for a 6-month stint.
get a feel for it, and decide, well, I hadn't actually considered this, I might want to change, you know, think about this as another career development opportunity.
So that's another way that we can cross-follow the UTA.
Can I add something just real quick? Yeah. Um, just, you know, the general concept of.
Play talent development with our staff, like, the messaging that we give them.
is that we want to develop you not just to rise in our organization, but at your career path.
For your goals are gonna take you out of this organization into another… plays or another specialty, like, we're still here to support that.
And you're a city employee first. And, uh, and then, secondly, Seattle Parks and Rec complete.
I'm just curious what kind of, um, hiring trends you're seeing at the moment. Are you finding it fairly easy to fill positions? Yeah, we're seeing an uptick in application numbers, obviously.
Um, obviously a lot of, uh, federal employees, there's been a lot of fallout there with.
With everything, and so we have a lot of people that are now job searching.
Um, a lot of very qualified applicants. I won't say overqualified, but very qualified.
Um, and so that's been, you know, that does make our job a little bit more difficult. It's a good problem to have, really.
Um, and so… We're just trying to manage it as best we can, but yeah, we definitely are seeing.
Large and very qualified competitive outlook. Um, which we really shouldn't complain about.
Really? Okay. Um, I was just, uh, curious.
on this cross, uh, organization team on the apprenticeship program.
Especially with the challenge of hiring trades. into, um, role. We've heard about this several times. I'm curious if that's… Um, something that I've been able to work with other departments to expand. Is this something that's done… Yeah.
So, our apprenticeship program is pretty limited right now. Those are more specialties that I've been… There's really four roles. Four spots. Yeah. So we have one for each. Yeah. And so we do those on a rolling basis.
So, you know, one trade will start up every couple years, and we'll have somebody in it until they journey out.
Um, we would like to look to expand that in the coming years, so that's definitely, you know, a conversation.
Yeah, um, but right now… Is there an opportunity with other city departments that have similar programs? Seattle City Light has a large one, right. It's highly, highly.
competitive. So folks, um, so it's been something that… so there was a, um, an interdepartmental team that worked on.
Looking at other opportunities, such as apparent ships and internships and so forth, to try and expand and see if there's a way that we can.
People want them, like, it's definitely not… people want the good jobs, you need to grow your own talent, right? Like, these are hard to hire for, totally.
So, it is definitely something that we're looking at and trying to see in terms of just overall development, what we can do as a city, because, um.
Yeah, it's also… it does take a lot of work, and there's a lot of connection with Union and union halls.
Definitely a huge opportunity. I had just one… I think there's… Really quick, um, the phrasing.
Caught me on Centering Workforce Equity. I'm just looking for the, like, a one-sentence or two sentence.
sort of more exposition. On that, about, sort of, what that means, or how you use that.
I understand it's sort of a tagline phrase, and just looking for a definition that's a little bit more than that. Start looking.
Um, and I'm trying to remember off the top of my head, but, um, the workforce on equity, or we centered our work on the concept of workflow?
First equity? All good thoughts. Um, and we were talking about workers' equity, it's making sure that we're aligning our internal.
uh, workforce with the, um, conditions of our internal workforce with, um.
in a more equitable way, so that doesn't require that recruitment and retention and, um… Growth and development and all those stuff, and so making sure that we are supporting all of our staff and removing barriers to some of those internal employment, uh.
Part of the reason why we pull our demographics and look to see who is in.
Who is in our department? Are there gaps? Does it match what the region of Seattle looks like? Um, and making sure that we're intentional about the decisions that we're making in all of our units.
Um, towards equity. Okay. Can I add, just real quick to that? So, I think… Uh, a workforce that reflects the communities that we serve.
Different challenges for different, uh, specialties, different fields, so depending on, you know, there might be a different solution for.
Environmental versus the trades versus recreation. Um, and then the last thing… so… Yeah.
That's how the strategic report as well. Thank you.
Thank you so much! Um, I know we're almost at time.
I don't remember if we have any old or new business.
I think the only thing I remember was that… Maybe hinted at this, too. Um… On a retreat. Oh, the schedule… yeah, schedule and retreat?
I don't know if you have any update, or… You've called me a lot. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Thank you.
And we will keep you posted. We'll actually do a… Okay, yeah, that's what I was… that's what I was. Okay, cool.
In the next year, it's just holiday time. Yeah, that sounds great.
So, yeah, sorry. Only old and new business is retreat planning coming soon.
Um, and I… I think I can address, um… Yeah. Anything else?
Alright, thanks