KCRHA Governing Committee - 6/18/2020 Meeting

Members present: Executive Dow Constantine, Mayor Jenny Durkan, Johnathan Hemphill, Kirk McClain, Zaneta Reid, Councilmember Joe McDermott, Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, Councilmember Andrew Lewis, Mayor Nancy Backus, Mayor Angela Birney, and Councilmember Ed Prince
 
Members absent: Councilmember Regan Dunn
 
Welcome, Roll Call, and Agenda Overview
Constantine was the moderator for this meeting. He reviewed the process for public comment.  He then said discussion on the co-chairs and the bylaws for this committee would be discussed at another meeting.  He also said that titles should be dropped between committee members and all should address each other by their first name only.
 
Approval of Minutes
Minutes from the May meeting were voted on for approval and unanimously approved.
 
Public Comment
The meeting was then open for public comment and there were two comments.  One comment was reminding the committee how important transparency and good communication was and was a reminder that faith participation was important in the Implementation Board makeup.  The other comment was informational regarding Dunn - that he was running late due to a late plane schedule.
 
The chat box was then left available for other public comment during the meeting.
 
Update on Establishing Staff Parity for Lived Experience Leaders
Next there was a big discussion on staff parity for the lived experience leadership. There is an effort underway to get at least one full time staff person to support the three lived experience leaders on the committee.  This is not in place yet, and as a result, the lived experience leadership is dealing with some issues getting emails, documents, etc. in a timely manner to review prior to meetings.  Backus said we need equity for the committee to work and asked if there was a way to get temporary support.  Durkan offered temporary assistance from her office if this would be helpful.  Gonzalez said that maybe we need to slow our efforts until there is staff in place to support the lived experience leadership.  General feedback from the lived experience leadership was that they appreciated the support effort and did not feel the committee needed to slow down anything at this point.
 
Consideration of CEO Recruitment Firm RFP Recommendation
Bobby Humes (Seattle Department of Human Resources) gave an overview on how they came to recommend the Hawkins Co to assist in recruiting a CEO.  There was a 13 member evaluation team. They put out requests for firms to apply, but only two firms responded.  Of the two firms, Hawkins Co stood out.  It is a women-owned minority firm.  They recently did a similar recruiting job for the Los Angeles Housing Authority.  They went through two interviews to satisfy the evaluation team, scoring a total of 89 points on a 100 point scale.  A draft job description was being developed and would be shared with the committee.  The committee then voted on the selection of the Hawkins Co with a unanimous vote - 11 ayes.
 
KCRHA Inter-Local Agreement Overview
April Sanders (King County Council Central Staff)  gave an overview of the ILA (interlocal agreement) that initiated this entire effort.  The Governing Committee acts as administrators.  They approve recommendations made by the Implementation Board.
 
McClain made a motion that both the Governing Committee and Implementation Board receive equity training.  It was voted on and unanimously approved, 11 ayes.
 
Sanders continued with the ILA overview noting the objective  - to significantly reduce homelessness using equity and social justice principles.
 
Consideration of 2020 Governing Committee Work Plan
Jason Johnson (Seattle Human Services Department) then reviewed the current timeline noting Governing Committee responsibilities and that a more detailed timeline/plan would be provided later in the summer.
July - approve Implementation Board, bylaws, committee co-chairs
August - present detail implementation plan, 2020 budget
Sep - CEO selection (both Governing Committee and Implementation Board)
Oct - Budget briefings
Nov - CEO staffing proposal
Dec - CEO operations plan
 
Constantine said it was a fast timeline, but slow knowing that more are homeless every day. 
 
Birney said it was important to get materials the week before meetings to properly prepare to make the meetings most productive. 
 
Backus said to stay mindful of the current moratorium on evictions and that it would not stand forever and stated that we needed to keep moving forward or some of these people may be at risk of homelessness. 
 
Reid commented that it was important to get the CEO soonest. 
 
McClain said it was most important that the work plan include a racial/ethnic lens - quality is most important.  We’ve worked too hard for this to not do it correctly. 
 
Hemphill felt we could move forward and maintain the correct focus. 
 
Durkan agreed we would stick with the original plans for now and work to get materials to all committee members the week before scheduled meetings for appropriate review.  If along the way, they felt anything on the timeline could be expedited they would all work to do this. 
 
Gonzalez noted that “prevention” relative to the ILA needed to be discussed further at another meeting -- that there needed to be time in the timeline to review budgets, and then all committee members should help communicate to the public the date and time of these meetings to ensure transparency. 
 
Finally, Durkan said that all committee members should feel free to contact Leo and Jason in between meetings with questions, clarifications, etc. so all could come fully prepared for each meeting.
 
The meeting was adjourned.