Podcasts about full council

Councillor Graham Hill was elected to be the new Chairman of East Hampshire at the last Full Council meeting last week. He said is very honoured to be elected and looks forward to attending as many events as possible over the next year. At the same time, Cllr Penny Flux was voted to be their new Vice Chairman to support him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following the last Full Council meeting, car parking will increase on average by 10%. This means that one hour will go from £1.30 to £1.50, whilst two hours in the Central car park will rise to £2.00. Following an in depth debate, Shine Radio's Julie Butler caught up with Cllr Charles Louisson, Finance Portfolio Holder and Cllr David Podger, Shadow  Finance Portfolio Holder.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a meeting where who wrote what, to whom, and when became much more contentious than you'd normally think, we take a look at Tuesday's Full Council meeting. Where was there consensus, where was there robust debate, and where was there political point scoring? Items on the agenda were:- • Definitions of sexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia • Tackling the crisis in temporary accommodation • Social Media Policy for Councillors • Increase in the single capped Bus fare from £2 to £3 • Nominations for Honorary Alderman • Support for the Repair Cafes - Portsmouth • CPO ‘Hope Value' Sites How many questions of cabinet members did the councillors have? Last month there were 16. This time was it higher or lower? Links to hear the motions in full are on our website. www.pppodcast.uk

We take a look at Tuesday's (15th October 2024) Full Council meeting of Portsmouth City Council. Should the council call on the government to think again about the Winter Fuel Allowance cuts? Should the council call on the government to prevent NHS dentists just shutting up shop leaving their patients without dental health care? Should the council ask Hants & IOW Police & Crime Commissioner to speed up DBS checks getting in the way of appointing PCC staff to support residents in need? Should PCC be investing more taxpayer's money into Portico (the council owned shipping company)? Full Agenda: https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=5327&x=1 Watch the council meeting in full at:https://youtu.be/HKrd5XKSTAs Links to specific motions available on www.pppodcast.uk

Marvell L. Terry II (he, him, his) is a powerhouse educator, grassroots activist, and cultural organizer from Memphis, Tennessee. HIV advocacy and cultural organizing are personal for him; It was the moment he received a positive diagnosis of HIV that jump-started his more than decade-long career that has had a local, state, and national impact.Marvell was passionate about improving the health outcomes of Black gay and queer men in Memphis, that's why he started his advocacy work by co-leading an HIV ministry at Christ Missionary Baptist Church, being an HIV tester and EIS at Christ Community Health Services, and volunteering on community task forces. Not long after, he answered a higher call to leadership by founding his own organization: The Red Door Foundation (2010). Marvell was recognized as the only Black gay man living with HIV to found and lead an organization for HIV awareness and engagement at the time in Shelby County. Doubling down on his commitment to community, he started the Saving Ourselves Symposium (2013), a one-of-a-kind conference in the South for the Black LGBTQ community to address health, wellness, and social injustices.One of Marvell's biggest thrills was expanding his impact to a national scale by joining the Young Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition Policy and Advocacy Summit as co-chair of the Organizing Committee (2014); the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) as an HIV Fellow (2015) and AIDS United as a Senior Program Manager of the Southern HIV Impact Fund (2018). He is known as a people-minded strategist: He established a leadership pipeline in the HIV movement by co-creating the HIV 360 Fellowship Program at the HRCF and improved grantmaking efforts and philanthropic funding sources within AIDS United to support organizations in the South working at the intersection of HIV and social justice.Marvell is a former board member for Hope House (Memphis, 2022-2023), an advisory board member for Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and a founding member for the HIV Racial Justice Network. In September 2023, Marvell was sworn in as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the 78th Full Council meeting.His published written works on HIV research and injustices can be found in the Journal of Health and Disparities Research and Practice, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, TheBody.Com, and more. Marvell's work unapologetically centers the lives, the culture and the resilience of Black folks. When Marvell isn't on the ground engaged in HIV advocacy and education, he's experiencing joy: grooving to the sounds of Fantasia, J.Cole, 6LACK, and JeRonelle or enjoying buttermilk pancakes with crispy edgesat any time of the day.

Neil Hitch was at his last Full Council meeting last Thursday. He has plenty of plans for his retirement, including walking and taking the piano up again. He speaks to Julie Butler and says he has been proud to be part of the council for eighteen years, but says no one is irreplaceable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Cincinnati Edition we want to hear your input on the plan to overhaul Cincinnati's zoning code.

Ian & Simon take a look at the 7 hour, full council meeting Tuesday March 19th - the last before the 2024 local elections in May. We take a look at the last PCC Full Council Meeting ahead of May's local elections with a packed agenda of no less than eleven notices of motion, five deputations & two questions from the public. Was Lord Mayor Tom Coles' last time Chairing a Full Council seven hours of delightful & harmonious agreement or were Councillors unable to resist kicking off their leaflet campaigns for May 2nd in the chamber? Agenda details in full on PCC website. Link in comments. 13a Fairtrade city 13b Council of Sanctuary 13c Urgent need for improved NHS Dentistry provision 13d Pride in the streets of Pompey 13e International Women's day - Tackling Gender inequality in Portsmouth 13f An end to pointless paper usage 13g Guildhall trust theatre operations outside of Portsmouth 13h Addressing failures in Portsmouth major project delivery 13i Crisis in local authority funding 13j Hampshire & IOW integrated care board 13k Safer recruiting council Questions to Cabinet: Q1 Crisis re EV charging points Q2 Accessibility taxis Q3 Road safety around Cosham schools Q4 Consider reducing cabinet positions* Q5 Building work standards checks Q6 Monitoring of Southern Water discharge levels Q7 Funding for Bransbury park* *Q4 & Q7 will receive written answers Full Council agenda available https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=4980&x=1 Recorded stream from Portsmouth City Council Democratic Services https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px3w2COTufA

Marvell L. Terry II (he, him, his) is a powerhouse educator, grassroots activist, and cultural organizer from Memphis, Tennessee. HIV advocacy and cultural organizing are personal for him; It was the moment he received a positive diagnosis of HIV that jump-started his more than decade-long career that has had a local, state, and national impact.Marvell was passionate about improving the health outcomes of Black gay and queer men in Memphis, that's why he started his advocacy work by co-leading an HIV ministry at Christ Missionary Baptist Church, being an HIV tester and EIS at Christ Community Health Services, and volunteering on community task forces. Not long after, he answered a higher call to leadership by founding his own organization: The Red Door Foundation (2010). Marvell was recognized as the only Black gay man living with HIV to found and lead an organization for HIV awareness and engagement at the time in Shelby County. Doubling down on his commitment to community, he started the Saving Ourselves Symposium (2013), a one-of-a-kind conference in the South for the Black LGBTQ community to address health, wellness, and social injustices.One of Marvell's biggest thrills was expanding his impact to a national scale by joining the Young Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition Policy and Advocacy Summit as co-chair of the Organizing Committee (2014); the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) as an HIV Fellow (2015) and AIDS United as a Senior Program Manager of the Southern HIV Impact Fund (2018). He is known as a people-minded strategist: He established a leadership pipeline in the HIV movement by co-creating the HIV 360 Fellowship Program at the HRCF and improved grantmaking efforts and philanthropic funding sources within AIDS United to support organizations in the South working at the intersection of HIV and social justice.Marvell is a former board member for Hope House (Memphis, 2022-2023), an advisory board member for Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and a founding member for the HIV Racial Justice Network. In September 2023, Marvell was sworn in as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the 78th Full Council meeting.His published written works on HIV research and injustices can be found in the Journal of Health and Disparities Research and Practice, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, TheBody.Com, and more. Marvell's work unapologetically centers the lives, the culture and the resilience of Black folks. When Marvell isn't on the ground engaged in HIV advocacy and education, he's experiencing joy: grooving to the sounds of Fantasia, J.Cole, 6LACK, and JeRonelle or enjoying buttermilk pancakes with crispy edgesat any time of the day.

Questions were asked at the last Full Council meeting as to why the shortfall of £102,627 for the Pulens Lane project was only being asked of the Town Council.  There are also concerns raised to the emerging proposals that are different to that seen at the public consultation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At tonight's full council meeting (29th February), councillors are being asked to approve a balanced budget with a proposed increase of £5.00 per annum on a current Band D property.  Shine Radio spoke to Cllr Charles Louisson, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Matthew Tiller, EHDC's Chief Finance Officer, prior to budget meeting.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We bring you the news from Tuesday's Full Council meeting at which Portsmouth City Council's budget was focus of the agenda. Was it all plain sailing or was there drama and disagreement? Tell us what you think about Portsmouth City Council's budget, the fight to protect services and the planned increase in Council Tax? Full Documents available on PCC's website https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieagenda.aspx?M=4979 Links to Full speeches on our website www.pppodcast.uk

Cllr Dan Wemyss joins us to share the campaign to save a local Pharmacy in Hilsea as well as the controversial redevelopment of the form News Centre. Simon & Ian then take a look at the agenda for Tuesday's Full Council meeting which focuses on Portsmouth City Council's budget for 2024, 25 - Which we'll also cover in full next week.

At the final Full Council of 2023, Anne Stephenson was co-opted onto the Petersfield Town Council. The independent was one of four candidates that came forward and is looking forward to representing the views of The Causeway residents. Julie Butler spoke to Cllr Stephenson after the meetingSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the first King's speech in 72 years delivered this week, and Portsmouth's Full Council meeting next week, we take a look at what was said in Parliament by the King, and what's on the agenda in the Council chamber. Links to both on our website. www.pppodcast.uk

We take a look at the Full Council of Portsmouth City Council that took place 17th October 2023. For a packed agenda with 11 notices of motion, how long was the meeting? were tempers frayed? was there more division or more agreement amongst the Councillors?

Ahead of PCC's Full Council meeting July 18th, we take a look at the agenda. Details of items on the discussion thread on the event.

Today, 31 May, the eThekwini's Full Council is expected to adopt the budget for 2023/24 financial year. So here's a recap on what transpired on the show. Webpage

**Our apologies to any early listeners of this episode, a Tired Simon Error with an incomplete edit being uploaded has now been resolved*** On Tuesday, Portsmouth City Council held its last meeting of the full council before May's local elections where 14 of the 42 councillors face re-election. Was it a point-scoring exchange of leaflet writing soundbites or did harmony break out ahead of the electoral battle ahead? The agenda included; Council tax for 2nd homes, Plans for an Anaerobic Digester, Pay Policy Settlement, Tesco pulling recycling from stores in the city, Extending safe spaces, Southern Water's continued dumping of sewage into our waters, Stopping bailiffs chasing Council Tax debt, young carers & What's happening to the fireworks in Cosham.

With two motions and three questions before Portsmouth's Full Council meeting next Tuesday, we invite Cllr George Madgwick of the Portsmouth Independents Party back onto the show to talk about the issues - PCC's Voi E-Scooter trial, The state of the roads in Paulsgrove, location of street recycling services and more!

Grace comes by faith, and faith comes by hearing from God. Therefore, when we receive full council and get a clear revelation, we then get a greater more perfect faith, that releases more abundant grace (or power)... Yet it all starts with time with the Word. Both Logos and Rhema. In other words, it all starts with Jesus. 

Portsmouth's Full Council meeting October 11th 2022 might have been a shorter than usual affair with a wave of unanimous agreement, but there was still one subject of contention - the controversial development proposal for Tipner West. Council Agenda: https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieagenda.aspx?M%3D4966&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw14bgi6h3IozDLGKWe99nj4 Council Livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AveoKiGjetM&t=14831s

Hey guys join us this week as we talk about the full council of God and why its important to share all the of the Gospel.  

Ian & Simon invite Councillors Matthew Winnington (Lib Dem), Graham Heaney (Lab) & George Madgwick (PIP) on to talk about the 6 & 3/4 hr Full Council meeting Tuesday July 19th - some patches of excitable disagreement amongst a sea of concencus and unanimity, was this driven by a nwfound desire to work together, or just to get out of the chamber on the day temperatures hit 40 degrees?

Ahead of Tuesday's last Full Council meeting before the summer recess, Ian & Simon have a look at the 11 notices of motion on the agenda. Next week, we'll invite councillors onto the show to discuss how the 13 item agenda went on what's predicted could be the hottest day of the year. PCC Full Council 19/07/22 Agenda details https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=4965&x=1

A look at the responsibility, obligation, and expectation of a follower of Jesus when it comes to relaying what we claim to believe. 

Ian and Simon take a glance at the last Full Council meeting before May's local elections - how much of it was leaflet-writing oratory, and how much serious business? Part 1. For reference if you want to catch the relevant parts of the full council meeting: 8. Planning development management: https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=1470 11 Health & Wellbeing Strategy: https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=4117 12. Solent Freeport. https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=4339 13. Carbon Budget methodology. https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=5202 14. Pay Policy Statement https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=6195 15a Defibrillators https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=6248 15b Elections Bill https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=8446 15c Supporting Adults with ADHD https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=11631 15d Insourcing first. https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=12225 15e Jubilee https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=16127 15f Constitutional review https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=16369 15g Local plan https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=18028 16 Members' questions https://youtu.be/l6XBZ6-McbM?t=21643

Crystal sits down with Amy Sundberg to walk through how the Seattle City budget process works as well as how and when to get involved in making your vision of the future a reality.  Note: This episode was recorded in late September and references parts of the process that have already happened. A key opportunity to provide public comment happens this week on Wednesday, November 10th at 5:30p so listen up and then make your voice heard! As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii. Subscribe to Notes from the Emerald City  and follow Amy on Twitter at @amysundberg. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources Notes from the Emerald City - newsletter on Seattle government and policy: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amysundberg Converge Media - Budget School: https://www.whereweconverge.com/post/understanding-the-city-of-seattle-budget-converge-media-launches-budget-school Seattle City Council - Budget Process: http://www.seattle.gov/council/issues/past-issues/budget-process Seattle City Council - Sign up for Public Comment (opens 2 hours before start of public comment period): https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/public-comment “Seattle mayor proposes increasing police staffing in 2022 budget” by David Kroman from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/news/2021/09/seattle-mayor-proposes-increasing-police-staffing-2022-budget Mayor Durkan's Proposed 2022 Budget: https://www.seattle.gov/city-budget-office/budget-archives/2022-proposed-budget Solidarity Budget: https://www.seattlesolidaritybudget.com/   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're thrilled to be joined once again by Amy Sundberg, author of Notes From the Emerald City and co-chair of the Seattle Committee of People Power Washington - Police Accountability. Thanks for joining us again, Amy. [00:00:51] Amy Sundberg: It's great to be here. [00:00:53] Crystal Fincher: Well, I am excited to have you here once again. We have spoken about the excellent newsletter that you have - your coverage consistently of City Council meetings, City meetings and hearings, and your live tweets, and recaps in your newsletter - which is an excellent resource for people who are looking to follow civic processes in the City of Seattle. Today, I'm excited to talk about the budget, which most people generally are not excited to talk about - the budget. But it's actually a really big deal. And that process is just kicking off here in the City of Seattle. And this is super consequential because it affects everything. This is how we determine what gets spent on what, who gets what and where and how, and who doesn't. And there's a lot involved with it - there's a lot of confusion. Because of that, a lot of people typically don't engage. And so I thought it'd be helpful to do this show today, just to give people an overview of what the budget is, how it's composed, just what's going on with it right now, and how they can get involved if they're looking to make a difference in the issues that they care about. And with that, I guess I would just start off by asking, what is the budget? What does it fund? How is it composed? [00:02:12] Amy Sundberg: Yeah. So I also am excited to talk about the budget today. Because you're right, it is very consequential. It makes a huge difference in individual's lives, which is something I think can get kind of lost in the weeds. But it does really impact every one of us who live in Seattle. So the budget, I mean, it is in many ways similar to a household budget that you might have for your own finances - in that it tracks what revenues the City is bringing in and then it tracks the expenditures - how that money is going to be spent over the course of a year. This budget that we're talking about will be for next year - 2022 - and it's a total of $6.6 billion. But only about $1.5 billion of that is in the General Fund, which is most of what the budget process is regarding - still a lot of money though. [00:03:17] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:03:19] Amy Sundberg: And it funds a lot of the services that we enjoy here in Seattle. And I'm just going to give you a - [00:03:27] Crystal Fincher: And some we don't. [00:03:28] Amy Sundberg: And some we don't. Yeah. Some we might not agree with - exactly. So it covers everything from transportation - so that's public transit, building and maintenance of roads, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, safety features. Funds libraries, one of my personal favorites. It funds parks and recreation. Homelessness services, including both shelter options and wraparound services - childcare assistance, food assistance, rental assistance, developing more affordable housing in our city. A small budget for arts and culture. A lot of offices - so the Office of Construction and Inspections, the Office of Planning and Community Development, the Office of Civil Rights. A lot of administration - so all of the City employees who work to run all of these offices. Public safety, and that isn't just the police department - that's also the fire department, that's 911 dispatch, that's the Office of Emergency Management, Seattle Municipal Court, the City Attorney's Office, and any alternate responses. So all of that is covered by the budget and more. [00:04:55] Crystal Fincher: Okay. And so that's a lot. And a lot of times, one of the questions that I've heard frequently is, "Okay, well, if you've got $6 billion and it's a huge number. If the Office of Arts and Culture is asking for this tiny amount, why can't you just move some money over here, over there?" Can you just take money from one department and give it to another? How does the budget work? How does the General Fund work? [00:05:26] Amy Sundberg: So the reason I specify that only a $1.5 billion was in the General Fund is because that's basically what the Councilmembers are deciding what to spend during this budget process. A lot of that other money is already allocated, and it's not allowed to be spent for anything else. Some of that is because it's - I mean, it comes from various taxes. And as part of those taxes, there was an agreement that it would be spent only on certain things. And part of it is because certain fees that you might pay will go back to fund whatever department they came from. So if you pay a parking ticket, that's going to go back into the Department of Transportation, and that's the only place that money can go. Or if you pay a park fee to rent out a picnic area, that's going to go right back into Parks. So a lot of the money is tied up in various ways. And one of the biggest examples of that is utilities - Seattle Light and also the Public Utilities. They generate a lot of revenue - from your electricity bill - and that's put right back into their budget, so that's not available for other uses. [00:06:44] Crystal Fincher: So some money comes with - by law - with strings attached. You can't decide to spend it in a different way. Some money comes with no strings attached. That no strings attached money is the General Fund. And that is where the conversation centers at times like now, when we just heard that the mayor announced what her budget was. Really, when they're talking about more money for this, less money for this, it is really in that $1.5 billion allocated to the general fund. [00:07:14] Amy Sundberg: Exactly. And the budget that just came out this week - that's the mayor's proposed budget. So she's put together kind of a proposal - she's talked to all of these City departments that I was talking about and heard kind of what they need, what they've been spending. And there's a Budget Office of the City that looks through all these things, thinks about what the priorities are, and puts together this proposed budget - that then is transmitted to the City Council to review and consider. [00:07:46] Crystal Fincher: So let's talk more about the process that is just kicking off now. The mayor proposes a budget - what happens between, "Okay, now this budget is proposed" and when a budget is approved and money starts getting spent? [00:08:05] Amy Sundberg: So it is a about eight week process to approve next year's budget. And it's supposed to be done - I think by law it has to be done by early December. But we're expecting it to be done the Monday before Thanksgiving. So exactly eight weeks. And basically, the Council will go through an eight week deliberative process about the budget. Built into that process are lots of opportunities for the public to weigh in on what their priorities might be. And we can talk about that a little bit more later. But also they - so right now this week, we're going through and having presentations from different City departments - to kind of hear about this proposed budget and why it is the way it is, and what these departments were thinking about in terms of these dollars being spent. After that, we go into Issue Identification. So that's when kind of Councilmembers flag different areas that they want to dig deeper into to see what the impacts might be, different investments they might want to make, things they might not want to spend as much money on, and get a lot of analysis from their Central staff. Then they propose some amendments to the proposed budget and they discuss those amendments. And eventually the Committee Chair, who is Councilmember Mosqueda, creates a Balancing Package. So what that is - is basically, she's kind of looking at these conversations they've been having, and looking at Issue Identification, looking at the amendments that they've been discussing, and she tries to find all the areas in which they have a general consensus as a Council in terms of how they want the money to be spent - what they can all agree on pretty easily. And that will all go into this Balancing Package. And it has to be balanced - so it has to - it can't be - you can't spend more than you have. Then there's another round of amendments and they have to have at least three Councilmembers who will sign on to each of these amendments so that you don't get any - basically to save time so that there's not tons of amendments that only one Councilmember is going to support and have no chance of actually making it into the budget. They vote on those amendments, they vote on the whole package in Committee, and then it moves to the Full Council where they do the final vote. And it's important to remember that that final vote on the budget has to be passed by a three-quarters vote, which is not true of most legislation that goes through City Council. So seven out of nine Councilmembers have to vote to approve the budget in order for it to move forward. [00:11:14] Crystal Fincher: Okay. That's good to know. And that is different than most other stuff, like you just said. And FYI, I mean, this is a lot of detail - it's a complicated process. You are doing an excellent job breaking it down for us in a way that the average person can digest. And I should mention, we're talking about the budget - Converge Media has a very detailed multi-hour series that really gets into the granular detail of the entire budget process. But wanted to just give people, here right now, the opportunity to get an idea of what the overall process is to make it easier to understand and engage with if you want to. Okay. So we're at the point where we understand the timeline. It actually sounds like it's important to get involved earlier in the process so that if you see an area in the budget that looks concerning to you, you can communicate with your Councilmembers, flag that as something that you feel is a major concern. Hopefully, get at least three Councilmembers who are willing to say, "Yeah, what is currently down on paper does not look good to me. Let's actually hold this as something that we're not saying we're good with and that we'd really like to hopefully change and reserve for further discussion and amendment." So what does that timeline look like in there before they have to - when should people be getting involved with this process and when is it best? [00:12:51] Amy Sundberg: To be honest, I think that people should be involved throughout the process for the optimal results. I realize people only have limited bandwidth, but I think there are important things going on throughout the eight weeks. I do agree with you that if you get in earlier, it kind of flags for Councilmembers what their constituents want, right? What is important, what are the actual community values? But, I mean, also sometimes towards the end of the process, the Councilmembers benefit from having a little public pressure to kind of push them maybe a little outside of their comfort zone or to try to just make sure they stick with what they were kind of thinking of. Sometimes they get a little cold feet and need that extra support at the end. So I think, more than a specific time, is if you can get involved at any time, that's definitely better than if you don't get involved at all. [00:13:59] Crystal Fincher: That makes sense. And you just raised another good point - that Councilmembers need to hear from you. They need to know where the community is - and pressure, accountability, communication, whatever you want to call it - is necessary and makes a difference. We saw in the - was it the last budget go around? [00:14:18] Amy Sundberg: It was, yeah. [00:14:18] Crystal Fincher: Here where - [00:14:19] Amy Sundberg: It was a big deal. [00:14:21] Crystal Fincher: Public pressure made the difference between a vote to reduce funding for the SPD - in one of the only cities in the country to actually take that vote - and have the Council united on that with a budget vote that requires seven out of nine members, which is a really big deal. It took every single bit of public pressure to the very last moment to get that accomplished. So it's not something that's futile. It has made a difference. We talk about voting and candidates a lot and I certainly believe in that, but that is not enough. People have to stay engaged throughout these processes and hold Councilmembers accountable to their promises and to their constituents. And so the more involvement - the more consistently people can be involved - the better. Now we just talked about dates for things and when that's going to come about - let's talk about how the budget relates to public safety, which there's actually a lot of news about right now and where a lot of people are concerned. [00:15:29] Amy Sundberg: Yeah. So, I mean, there's been a big discussion in Seattle about public safety overall. And there have been demands from some community members - and specifically the Solidarity Budget - as a group who have been pushing for a divest and reinvest strategy for the Seattle Police Department. And so what that means is basically taking some of the money out of the Seattle Police Department and investing it in other community-led public safety alternatives. The idea is that true public safety is not always supported at its best by SPD. And that there are other solutions that might give us better and more equitable outcomes for everyone that's living in the City. So a big point of contention then ends up always being the Seattle Police Department's budget. I will say that last year, 22% of Seattle's General Fund was given to SPD, which is - 22% is a significant percentage of the overall. [00:16:57] Crystal Fincher: It's a significant percentage. [00:16:58] Amy Sundberg: Of money. And that being said, it was - 2021 was the first year that we saw the SPD budget go down in actual dollars, as opposed to increasing. Now that's not true if you factor in inflation, but it's still very significant. In 20 years, that was the first time that that happened. And that was because of community, because - frankly, because of all of the protests for racial justice that were happening all last summer and fall - put enough pressure to get that change brought into reality. [00:17:40] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:17:40] Amy Sundberg: But that being said, no police officers were laid off. There was talk of doing that - there was talk of out-of-order layoffs. It turned out that wasn't a thing that is legally possible and no officers got laid off. There were increased number of attrition - so a lot of officers were choosing voluntarily to leave for various reasons. So we did get some shrinkage of the force, but that was the primary driver of it. [00:18:17] Crystal Fincher: Okay, so - oh, go ahead - [00:18:22] Amy Sundberg: So I was just going to say - and so this year we have to then revisit that entire conversation when we're deciding how to allocate public safety money. And the mayor's proposed budget kind of gives us a starting point so to speak, of where that conversation is going to start. And the total SPD budget is only - she's only a proposed an increase of $2.5 million. So it would be going up again - but that's a fairly small amount in the grand scheme of how much it often goes up from year to year. [00:19:07] Crystal Fincher: So less than what people say, but still not reducing the funding of the police, which is what- [00:19:12] Amy Sundberg: Yes. It's definitely. [00:19:13] Crystal Fincher: - a number of Seattle voters have voted for - and voted for Councilmembers to enact. And certainly is part of a big conversation that we're having right now. But an area where - Durkan has seemed pretty determined not to reduce funding. So given that it is that amount, it seems like the focus is more on being able to say that she's not reducing funding of SPD instead of having that really fund anything substantial and with that amount of money. [00:19:50] Amy Sundberg: Yes. I mean, and it's definitely not divestment - it is holding fairly steady. And you'll see one of the interesting things in terms of media coverage - you'll see that a lot of media saying she's proposing addition of 35 net officers. What that actually means is hiring 125 officers next year, because they're anticipating 90 separations - 90 officers are going to leave. They're going to hire 125, so that's 35 additional officers - that's what she's proposed. And there's a couple - on the one hand, you can say, "Well, they're hiring a bunch more officers instead of either just letting it stay the same or reducing." And then another narrative that I'm sure people will be hearing in upcoming weeks is, "Well, but there's actually less funded positions for police officers in this budget than there was in the last budget." In 2021, there were 1,357 FTEs - so sworn officer positions funded, not actual officers that we had - but the money was there for them. And this year there's only 1,230 funded. So that's going to be one place that I think we're going to see pushback in terms of - actually we're shrinking the SPD - because we don't have these positions that are open and not filled that we're still pretending might be able to be filled. But I would like to say the counter-argument to that view is that there's a long pipeline for getting new officers into the force because of just all the training and all of the vetting that has to be done, et cetera. So if we're already lower in terms of how many officers we have - we can spend that time building to a higher number of officers again, or we can spend that time and that money instead building alternate community led responses. There is a choice there. [00:22:08] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely - and certainly an area where people can make their opinions heard. And this year is - "exciting" is always interesting to use in terms of a budget for wonky people like us - but this time there actually is a reason to be excited, I think, because there is a budget that's being introduced by organizations in the community called the Solidarity Budget. What is that? [00:22:36] Amy Sundberg: So the Solidarity Budget is really exciting - and it's a coalition of groups who have put together basically a plan of how community would like to see the money be spent in Seattle in 2022. And it's a coalition of many groups. I know they had a goal to get a hundred endorsing organizations - I don't know if they quite reached that yet. But it's organizations like 350 Seattle, Decriminalize Seattle, the Black Action Coalition, the Transit Riders Union, et cetera, et cetera - it's a large number of local organizations. And they have various - basically policy and budgetary goals that they present in this document, called the Solidarity Budget, that asks for various investments into community. And part of it is based on the idea of divesting from the police department, as well as the Municipal Court and the City's Attorney's office - and then reinvesting that money back into community priorities, whether that be housing, Green New Deal - or other priorities - alternate responses for public safety, et cetera. And there's a 65 page document kind of laying out all of their ideas. [00:24:11] Crystal Fincher: So that's really interesting, and we're probably going to be seeing an increased level of advocacy and activism because of that - in addition to just more people being interested, particularly after the activism with recent budgets and what's been going on there. So as people look to get more familiar with the Solidarity Budget, the City budget, and what's going on, what do things look like in the next couple weeks in terms of activity with the budget and how should people go about making their concerns known? [00:24:48] Amy Sundberg: Yeah. There's several options. So this week, we're just having overviews from the departments. So basically, we're all getting up to speed on what this proposed budget is and what the City departments think they need. And then next week we kind of get a breather to process through it all. And the week after that, which is the week of October 11th - then we start diving into Issue Identification, so getting deeper into the weeds of these various issues. There are several opportunities to get involved as a private citizen. There are three public hearings during this budget season, and the first one is October 12th - so a great time to get in early - at 5:30 PM. And then there's another public hearing - November 10th at 5:30 PM. And the last one is November 18th during the day at 9:30 AM. So if daytime is better for you, they wanted to give both options. Also, all of the budget meetings have a 20-30 minute public comment first thing in the morning at 9:30. But even if you don't want to give public comment, you can also - you can call your Councilmember's office, you can email them - I email mine all the time. You can set up meetings with them - some of them have regular office hours. I know some of them go to Farmer's Markets occasionally - I know the weather is shifting, so I don't know how much longer that will be going on. Sometimes they have Budget Town Halls in a district that you can attend and ask questions or make comment at that point. So there are a lot of ways to kind of let your Councilmember know what you're thinking and what your concerns and priorities are. [00:26:41] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And I think it is really important to understand that your Councilmember is your Councilmember. They're your representative and they need to know what you think in order to represent you. And if something isn't clear, you can ask them questions and ask them to explain some things - they really are there to serve you. And this budget is there to serve everyone in the City - that should be the goal. And so I hope that people engage with this and just start to get more familiar with what's being talked about and what's not. Because they're so used to this process almost being opaque with hardly anyone paying attention. And it's exciting when more people get involved, because generally that produces a budget that addresses the needs of more of the community. [00:27:31] Amy Sundberg: Yeah. And it's exciting when people realize that this actually really affects them personally. This isn't just some abstract cloud that you don't have to think about. It's something that is going to impact your daily life in the future. [00:27:45] Crystal Fincher: Yep. Thank you. So thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today - appreciate it and we will certainly be providing all of the links to everything we talked about here in the show in the episode notes. And if you have any questions or any specific questions - issues you want addressed - feel free to shoot us a message. Message me on Twitter and we will continue to stay engaged here also. Thanks so much, Amy. [00:28:11] Amy Sundberg: Thanks for having me. [00:28:12] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, wherever else you get your podcast - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.

Before Portsmouth City Council returns to its first Full Council meeting in the Council Chamber since COVID, after previously using the Guildhall main auditorium as a COVID safety measure, Ian & Simon cast their eyes over the agenda to ask - will this be the 2nd shortest full council meeting of the year? Agenda details: https://democracy.portsmouth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=4631&x=1 PCC Council Livestream: https://livestream.com/accounts/14063785/council-09nov2021 (2pm 09/11/21)

Today Crystal is joined by Amy Sundberg, author of Notes from the Emerald City, and Dr. Shannon Cheng, Chair of People Power Washington to talk about public safety policy in Seattle and King County. Amy gets into the serious issues present in Seattle's Office of Police Accountability (OPA), failing so spectacularly that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said that the process “cannot be remedied.” Shannon follows up with updates about King County's appointment of a new Director of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO), the continued wait by the families of police shooting victims for inquests into their deaths. They also discuss the People Power Washington Voter Guide that details where Seattle and King County candidates stand on public safety issues.  As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal on Twitter at @finchfrii. Subscribe to Notes from the Emerald City here, and follow Amy on Twitter at @amysundberg. Read People Power Washington's voter guide here, and find Shannon at @drbestturtle on Twitter.   Resources Notes from the Emerald City - newsletter on Seattle government and policy: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amysundberg People Power Washington - 2021 Voter Guide: https://www.wethepeoplepower.org/voter-guide-2021 “Investigation calls for firing 2 Seattle police officers over insurrection” by David Kroman from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/news/2021/07/investigation-calls-firing-2-seattle-police-officers-over-insurrection “Councilmember Herbold on OPA Findings Surrounding SPD Officers' Attendance of January 6 Insurrection” from the Council Connection: https://council.seattle.gov/2021/07/08/councilmember-herbold-on-opa-findings-surrounding-spd-officers-attendance-of-january-6-insurrection/ “OIG Memo Reveals Serious ‘Deficiencies' in OPA Protest Investigation That ‘Cannot Be Remedied'” by Carolyn Bick from the South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/06/30/oig-memo-reveals-serious-deficiencies-in-opa-protest-investigation-that-cannot-be-remedied/ “OIG Partial Certification Memos Raise More Concerns Over OPA Investigations” by Carolyn Bick from the South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/07/13/oig-partial-certification-memos-raise-more-concerns-over-opa-investigations/ Information on the King County Public Safety Advisory Committee from KingCounty.gov: https://kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/initiatives/public-safety-advisory-committee.aspx Interviews with final candidates for the Director of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight from KingCounty.gov: https://kingcounty.gov/independent/law-enforcement-oversight/DirectorOLEO.aspx Information on the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO) from KingCounty.gov: https://kingcounty.gov/independent/law-enforcement-oversight.aspx “Families of people killed by police are left without answers while King County's inquests are stalled” by Mike Carter from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/families-of-people-killed-by-police-are-left-without-answers-while-king-countys-inquests-are-stalled/ “Washington Supreme Court reinstates King County inquest system that expands inquiry into police-caused deaths” by Mike Carter from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-supreme-court-reinstates-king-county-inquest-system-that-expands-inquiry-into-police-caused-deaths/   Transcript Crystal Fincher: [00:00:00] Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm your host, Crystal Fincher. On this show, we talk to political hacks and policy wonks to gather insight into local politics and policy through the lens of those doing the work and provide behind-the-scenes perspectives on politics in our state. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. So today I'm excited to have two people who are not new to Hacks & Wonks joining me - Amy Sundberg, who is an activist with People Power Washington, she writes Notes From the Emerald City - excellent newsletter - you should subscribe. And she has always done just extremely useful live-tweet threads of Seattle City meetings and hearings. So if you want to know what is happening in the City of Seattle that oftentimes gets lost in the filter of reporting - you can only say so much in a story - and really figure out where every Councilmember is at, what everyone has said, and what is happening in the City, Amy Sundberg is an essential follow on Twitter and an essential newsletter subscription. And also with us is Dr. Shannon Cheng, Chair of People Power Washington, and works with me at Fincher Consulting - who is just a powerhouse when it comes to everything public safety and accountability. And definitely wanted to talk with you both about what is happening in the world of public safety in Seattle and King County, because we're getting close to an election where a number of the candidates have different stances on different issues. I want to make sure that we can review where everyone is at, understand what's happening, and what's going to be on the agenda for people facing election, and just understand how we can interact with the process. So thank you both, Amy and Shannon, for joining me. Amy Sundberg: [00:02:28] It's great to be here. Crystal Fincher: [00:02:29] So there is a lot that has happened since we spoke to you both last, and I guess we can kind of cover it all. I suppose I'll start with the findings on the insurrection and where that stands. We've talked a little bit about that on the show, but can you recap what was found with regard to Seattle Police Department officers found to be in DC at the insurrection, and what Councilmembers and electeds have said about it? Amy Sundberg: [00:03:01] Sure. So as far as we know, there were six SPD officers who were present in Washington DC on the day of the insurrection. That's as far as we know - so there could be more, but six we know of. And so they were the subject of the OPA's investigation. And what the OPA found was that two of those six officers definitely trespassed and definitely witnessed illegal activities. And they discovered that through shared video from the FBI. My understanding is that Director Myerberg hasn't yet seen the video, but he's seen stills from the video that firmly place these two officers at a place and time where it was clear that they couldn't have not known what was happening. Three officers were exonerated - it looks like they attended the rally and then left and didn't participate in the insurrection. And then one officer - there's inconclusive evidence. Basically they don't have solid evidence that places him in a place where he would have been doing something illegal, but we're not really sure what was happening with him. So, it also appears that the two officers who were definitely involved in illegal activity lied about it during the OPA investigation, which by itself is an offense that can lead to termination of employment. But right now we're waiting for - there's a hearing with Interim Chief Diaz on August 5th, when he'll decide what to do about the case. Termination has been suggested by the OPA, I will say. Crystal Fincher: [00:04:59] Well, and the Chief had previously said that he would fire anyone who was found to be participating in the insurrection. So certainly would expect to see his decision to be consistent with that. They do have the opportunity to basically appeal and go to arbitration - is that correct - if they are fired? Amy Sundberg: [00:05:19] Yes, that is correct. Director Myerberg has said that he is confident he has a strong case that would hold up under an appeal, but of course we'll have to wait and see what happens. Crystal Fincher: [00:05:32] We'll have to wait and see what happens. That process doesn't always turn out as it seems it should. What have Councilmembers said about it, and where do they stand on the issue of whether the officers should be fired or not? Amy Sundberg: [00:05:46] Well, Council President and mayoral candidate, Lorena González - she has said that the two officers should definitely be terminated. And then she thinks that all six of them should be disciplined in some way, although she doesn't go into details about that. Councilmember Herbold, who is the Chair of Public Safety, has a little bit of a stronger take. She thinks they should all be fired - potentially, at least. Her take on it is interesting. She wants to try to look and see if the officers knew before they were traveling to DC that this insurrection was going to take place - if they were aware of the threats of violence and overthrow that were kind of flying around the internet around that time. Because if they were aware, that's a different matter than if they just went to a rally. So there's a lot of question as to what is protected speech and what isn't, especially in the case of a police officer. Crystal Fincher: [00:06:58] That certainly is curious. We've talked about it here on this program before - to me, just the fact that you are attending an event - flying across the country to attend an event called Stop the Steal, whose premise is that the election has been stolen from predominantly people of color in predominantly areas with large Black populations, when the rest of us could see that there was violent talk leading up to the insurrection. Seems curious that just attending that doesn't seem to be a glaring, concerning piece of conduct in and of itself that would make me question if those officers are treating members of the public fairly and what feedback from their interactions has been. So we will see what happens with that. There's a lot to be talked about in terms of discipline and accountability investigations and there has been a lot that has been uncovered about that process. Can you brief us on what happened with the OIG and OPA? Amy Sundberg: [00:08:14] Yeah, sure. So the OIG certifies each of the OPA's investigations, and then they sometimes do partial certifications. And in that case, there's a memo attached that the public can access and read. And I will say that 96% of OPA cases, the OIG gives a full certification and they say this is fine, this is great. And 4% of the cases they disagree with something that happened with an investigation. But we're, I think, very lucky in that we have a journalist Carolyn Bick working at the South Seattle Emerald, and they have been really digging in to some of these partial certifications of the OIG for these OPA investigations, some of which have to do with protest cases from the last year. And that really gives us insight into where these investigations can go wrong and how the accountability system in Seattle is working in practice.  So I think one great example of this is the SPOG headquarters protest, which happened on September 7th of last year, 2020. So the OIG certifies based on timeliness, objectiveness, and thoroughness. And so if it's a partial certification, that means that not all three of those will be certified. So in this particular case, the investigation was found to be neither objective nor thorough. So there's two out of three that they did not hit the mark on.  So I don't know if you remember this protest, but it was when a bunch of protesters went to the SPOG headquarters. It was a peaceful protest. And then, from a lot of bystanders' accounts, suddenly some police on bicycles arrived and things got hairy - there were blast balls, pepper spray, a lot of people got arrested. And there were a lot of complaints about this made to the OPA, because it seemed like it was a peaceful protest and that there was no need for that kind of escalation. So this investigation of the OPA was problematic because, I mean, the OIG said, and I'm quoting directly here, "No further investigation is being directed at this time because OIG finds the deficiencies of the investigation with respect to thoroughness and objectivity cannot be remedied," meaning it's such a mess of a case that nothing can be done. So I went through and read through the article enumerating what went on with this investigation. And I made a list of all the issues that the OIG called out about this investigation. And there were eight separate issues. It wasn't like one or two little minor problems - like the entire investigation was kind of flawed from its heart. Basically it looked like the OPA was crafting a case to support a certain narrative - the narrative of the SPD - that they were attempting a targeted arrest of someone who had an incendiary device and that is why the protest got so out of control. However, there was a lot of additional evidence that showed that fairly early on, it became clear that there was in fact no incendiary device. That it was a trash bag. And at a certain point when they were arresting the man with the trash bag, he dropped it or they took it from him or something, but you could see trash falling from the trash bag. So it was very clear at a certain point what it was. But for example, in the investigation, evidence about the fact that the suspect was potentially carrying a trash bag, that there was trash that you could see falling - that was all omitted from the investigation, which is extremely sloppy if nothing else. Like that's the kindest thing you can say - Crystal Fincher: [00:12:56] That's the most generous interpretation, but given the context that this is happening in, I doubt that was an accident. Amy Sundberg: [00:13:03] But also things so egregious - that the sergeant who made that arrest of that man who was maybe holding an incendiary device but wasn't - they didn't interview that sergeant at all during this investigation. There was another named officer who was present and he was also not interviewed. There was no probable cause analysis done to figure out how likely it was trash bag versus incendiary device. There was body camera footage of the man holding the garbage bag and the report said there was no such footage. So the list goes on and on - it doesn't take an experienced investigator to see that this investigation was very deeply flawed. Crystal Fincher: [00:14:04] In fact, it's almost farcical to call it an investigation. This by all accounts appears - and from Seattle's own internal and investigative arm, or from the OIG - that this due diligence that you would find in an investigation was not done, as you just detailed, part of the problem. And it was all helpful to the narrative of the officers.  And the question is really - when we have evidence of so many things that have gone wrong, when the department for things that we've seen with our own eyes on video and other things has admitted, "Yes, there was wrongdoing here," that there actually is not a disagreement on whether things were problematic and have said, "Yeah, there's been issues before." So when there's reason to question different accounts of things that happen and someone makes a complaint where there's lots of independent witnesses and in fact complaints made to spur an investigation that this didn't appear to be right, the body that is supposed to be the arm of accountability that is set up to say, "We're going to be the ones investigating whether something wrong happened or not," just seemed to be there to rubber stamp whatever the officers say - just seems like it continues to reinforce - this is actually something that we can't reform, that tinkering around the edges is not going to fix this. As we hear a siren going on outside at the same time - that nothing, that we can't fix this. We actually have to completely rebuild, reframe, and reconstitute this in a completely different construction - that we can't rehab this. That investigation was so mixed up and so messed up, it couldn't be fixed. What else is going on in all of the other investigations? What shot do we have at actually addressing these issues if we don't get to the root of this? Amy Sundberg: [00:16:18] Yeah. It definitely undermines the credibility of our accountability arm - that, I think, the City of Seattle has kind of patted it itself on the back for having this model of accountability and I've heard Director Myerberg pat us on the back for that as well. But it has some pretty deep flaws.  Crystal Fincher: [00:16:43] Irreparable flaws, it would seem, in my opinion. We will certainly see what the response is. The City, like with so many things, seems to be either taking issue or ignoring it from what I've seen. Have you seen any other response from the City on this report and what needs to be done to fix this? Amy Sundberg: [00:17:06] No, I haven't seen anything official, or unofficial for that matter. I don't think enough people are talking about it. So, it's good that we're talking about it now. Crystal Fincher: [00:17:18] Yes. Well, I also want to talk about King County and what is happening with the Sheriff's department - including in this process of going from and implementing the changes that were voted on with the changes in Charter Amendments, including finding some new personnel and moving forward with the appointment of a Sheriff and no longer electing a Sheriff. So where does this whole process stand now?  Shannon Cheng: [00:17:50] Yeah, thanks Crystal, for bringing up King County, because I think sometimes there's so much happening in Seattle that we can kind of overlook that we also have a County level Sheriff's office that has also had its own problems with accountability and transparency. So as you mentioned, last year in November, the County overwhelmingly supported Charter Amendments 1, 4, 5, and 6, which were about public safety and policing. Charter Amendment 5 was changing the Sheriff's position from elected to appointed and so they are currently in the process. They put together an advisory committee with representation from across the County and from different groups - to put together a set of values that they should be looking for in the next Sheriff. So that committee is currently meeting and I think they're trying to set up ways to gather community input. It sounds like the County Council is also doing their own process of figuring out how to get community input, as well as the County Executive, who is doing his own third branch of getting community input. So it's not clear yet that they are ready and prepared to take all the community input, but when they get around to it, it sounds like there should be a lot of different avenues because there's at least three different branches of people trying to work on that.  And so initially they were trying to rush the appointment and try to do it, I think, before the end of the year, but the timeline has just been super tight. And so in order to get back everybody's input into what we should be looking for in the next Sheriff, and then be able to do a nationwide search - it doesn't look like it's going to happen before the end of the year. So this will probably happen sometime in 2022, which will also be potentially when we might have a new County Executive and new County Councilmembers who would have input into that situation. Crystal Fincher: [00:19:55] And what have the stances of the County Councilmembers been in terms of what they're looking for and what this process is going to be? Shannon Cheng: [00:20:04] I don't know if that's entirely clear yet. I think a lot of focus has been being put into setting up the process and not so much yet talking about the end result of the process. So Councilmember Zahilay chairs the Law and Justice Committee, and so they put together the ordinance that established this community committee that is going to be informing the process. And so I don't know yet that there has been statements from them of what they are looking for. Crystal Fincher: [00:20:40] Okay, so in addition to a new Sheriff, we're also going to be, at the County level, hiring a new Office of Law Enforcement Oversight head. Where is that process? And, I guess, how is that playing out? Shannon Cheng: [00:20:56] Yeah. So this is happening right now. So what happened is last year the previous director of the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight did not get reconfirmed by the County Council, so they started a search for a new one. And what happened is they are now at the point where they've chosen two finalists. And last - well, so we're recording this on July 21st - by the time this airs, it will have been two weeks since they held some community meetings where the community had an opportunity to come out and meet both finalists, ask them questions, learn kind of what their history is, where they stand, what kind of vision they have for what they would do if they were chosen to be the new director. And so, County Council was supposed to select the finalist on July 20th, a Tuesday, but then something happened in that meeting and they decided to punt the decision for a week and put it to the Full Council. Which was kind of confusing to me because all of the Council is on the committee that was trying to make that decision, so basically they were just trying to buy themselves more time. So now I think that the day that this episode is planned to air is the day that the County Council will be voting and selecting one of the two finalists. And so this is important - because at the Seattle level, we just heard from Amy just how dysfunctional our supposed model accountability system is. And we've had similar issues at the County level. So the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight - its goal is to represent the interests of the public in its efforts to hold the King County Sheriff's Office accountable for providing fair and just police services. And many listeners may have heard of cases such as Tommy Le, who was killed in Burien, and then there appeared to be somewhat of a coverup around that. And so the role of OLEO is to do independent investigations into these egregious things that happen within the Sheriff's office. But similar to Seattle, the OLEO doesn't necessarily have the right powers, or teeth, or authority to be able to actually hold officers accountable. So for example, they don't have full subpoena power. They can make recommendations but there's nothing that says that those recommendations need to be acted upon or followed through on. And so this is something that with the Charter Amendment last year and then earlier in 2015, we've been trying to give OLEO more power, but there's been a huge pushback from the Sheriff's office to give it to them. Crystal Fincher: [00:23:51] So I guess, are we walking into another situation with this, where regardless of who the head is, if they don't have any teeth, what is it going to accomplish? And I guess looking at different levers of accountability, whether it's OLEO or even the inquest process, what shot do we have? Where does the inquest process stand? Shannon Cheng: [00:24:18] Yeah, so the inquest process is another one of these places where it sounds like a place where we would be able to achieve accountability, but then when you dig deeper you find out that the whole process has been undermined to the point that it's just kind of in name only. So the King County inquest process is meant - so this covers any officer-involved shooting in King County, whether it's by the King County Sheriff's Office, or within a contract city that the King County Sheriff's Office runs, or within Seattle Police Department, or any other municipal police department such as Auburn, Kent, Federal Way - these cities all have their own police department. So whenever any death occurs at the hands of officers within King County, then there is supposed to be an inquest process. And so the inquest is a fact-finding hearing where we learn sort of what happened in that case, but it has no - again, similar to OLEO - anything that comes out of the inquest, there isn't an official process by which any recommendations need to be implemented. And so what happened was a couple years ago, Executive Constantine, kind of at the request of some families who felt like the process was very unfair, tried to implement some reforms. So some of these were things like - trying to make it not as lopsided towards the officer. For example, it was trying to provide the families legal representation that was paid for by the County. The County pays for the officers to have legal representation, but they weren't supporting the families of the loved ones. So things like that. So what happened is he established these reforms with the Executive Order, and then the King County Sheriff's Office, the City of Seattle, Cities of Renton, Federal Way, Auburn, I believe - they all sued to say that these reforms were not allowable and they didn't like them. And then at the same time, families of loved ones who had died also sued because they felt like the inquest reforms had not gone far enough. And so what this caused was just this stalemate where there's, I think, now a backlog of 40 cases. These are 40 individuals who have died at the hands of law enforcement in King County and their families have not had the opportunity to have an inquest, to kind of get any kind of closure as to what happened to their loved one. And because this is all held up in court, or was held up in court, none of those could proceed. But so, an amazing thing did happen, which is that the Washington State Supreme Court issued a decision that not only allowed the inquest reforms to move forward, but it actually added something that makes them stronger. So initially what the inquest is trying to find out is kind of more about like the facts of what happened, that kind of thing. But what the Supreme Court said was that they should also look into whether the act of the officer killing the person was criminal in nature. And so this is important because if this finding came out - again, the inquest process on its own doesn't force any kind of accountability to happen, but you could see that if a finding came out about a case where they said, "Yes, the officer acted criminally," then that would pave the way for a prosecutor - perhaps the King County Prosecutor, perhaps the Attorney General of Washington - to file criminal charges against the officers and hopefully achieve accountability in that way. Crystal Fincher: [00:28:02] Well, it seems like we just have a continuing mountain to climb when it comes to accountability - and we get good news, and some legislation gets passed, and there's a new process or office. And then we get news like we did from the Office of the Inspector General saying that OPA is toothless and just rubber stamping was happening. So we will continue to keep our eyes on this.  I especially wanted to talk about this now because there's a lot going on in the world of public safety in Seattle and King County. We have the city-wide elections for everything from the Seattle City Attorney, which is critical in these types of decisions and what is defended and not defended - just the stance on public safety and accountability is for people and SPD - in addition to the mayor and the Council who are setting policy at a City level. You are with People Power Washington, and you actually are trying to inform voters because of this also. What have you guys put together? Shannon Cheng: [00:29:21] Yeah. So if you have felt frustrated listening to the first part of this show - at how either incompetent or inept everything sounds - you should be angry, and then you should realize that you have power to do something about it. So we have local elections happening this year that are critical to how we move forward in the next four years. The people who we elect are going to get to do things such as select new heads of law enforcement. So in Seattle, we're going to get a new police chief. In King County, we're getting a new sheriff.  They are also going to be influencing the process by which we negotiate the collective bargaining agreements with our law enforcement guilds and associations. So much of what has stood in the way of accountability - the OPA not having the teeth to be able to do anything, or OLEO not being actually respected as an independent oversight body - is because of the collective bargaining agreements that we have with either the Seattle Police Officers Guild, SPOG, or the King County Police Officers Guild. And so both of these contracts, I think SPOG's is already expired and up for renegotiation and I think the King County Guild's contract is expiring soon. So how the next set of agreements with those guilds gets negotiated will determine whether we are able to oversight bodies that can actually give us true accountability, by which I mean something that is robust, transparent, and that the community can actually trust. It's not just going through an exercise of we did something and then it turns out that Amy can find out there were eight different things wrong with what was done, right? That does not foster trust in the system and so that's what we need.  And the last thing is just - all these electeds are going to get a say in what our budgets and what our priorities and values are in our communities. We're going to be tackling the economic recovery from the pandemic, trying to address systemic racism in all of our public safety solutions and the criminal legal system. How are we going to deal with homelessness and the climate crisis? Are we going to pick people who are going to act in ways that are equitable to everybody and reduce harm? Or are we going to stick with people who just want to do status quo and like incrementalism? The clock is ticking and we need to act decisively. So I just really encourage - So to finally answer your question, Crystal, is that our group has put together a voter guide about these issues that surround specifically policing and public safety. So we drafted questionnaires about these issues that matter at the City of Seattle and the King County levels. We also did one for the City of Burien. And we sent them to everybody who's in the primary and got answers back, and so we've put together a guide. You can see it on our website - it's wethepeoplepower.org, and then it should be pretty easy to find the voter guide from there. And yeah, you can see the full answers of what candidates said about the questions we asked about these issues, such as the accountability ordinance, the inquests - all of that is up there. I encourage people to look at them and read the answers that people actually wrote back. They're in long form and I think, yeah, we can hopefully get a more nuanced view of how candidates would approach these problems. Crystal Fincher: [00:32:57] Absolutely helpful. Sometimes it's hard to get a lot of that information all in one place. There has been so much that's happened over such a long period of time, and some of the stuff that candidates have done have been very visible. Some of them are elected and we can see what they've done. Other things, even for the electeds, have not been very visible and some people may not know where candidates stand and what their, I guess, long form takes on issues are. Sometimes in forums there's only time to give a yes or no answer - it's in the middle of a lightning round - when really understanding their perspective and where they're coming from and how they would answer a question in longer than 30 seconds, especially questions as important as how do we keep our community safe and how do we hold accountable people who really hold people's civil liberties in their hands and should be held to a very high standard. So I appreciate both of you taking the time to come onto the program. Again, this is critical. Again, where can people go to find that information on the People Power website? Shannon Cheng: [00:34:11] Yeah. So our website is wethepeoplepower.org. And I would also like to add that in addition to the candidate questionnaires, we've also written up issue explainers. If you hear the term Consent Decree, or police accountability ordinance, and you don't know what that necessarily means, we've tried to write up easier-to-understand explanations of what those are, so that when you do read about what the candidate said, you hopefully have a little more context for what they're talking about. And the final plug is just - please send us feedback about the guide - we are trying to make this to be helpful for you, the voter, to understand the differences between your candidates, because these decisions are really important. So anything that you think would be more helpful to include, or if the explanation doesn't make sense to you - too short, too long - we would love to hear it. And then the other thing we would love to do is try to expand to other jurisdictions for the general election. So if you live somewhere that's not represented in our voter guide and you passionately care about these issues in your local community, reach out to us and we would love to work with you to try to include it and educate constituents in your own community. Crystal Fincher: [00:35:17] Okay, so if people want to get in contact with you with feedback, or just find out more about you on other platforms, how can they do that? Amy Sundberg: [00:35:26] Well, in addition to our website, you can also reach us on Twitter - it's @PeoplePowerWA. Crystal Fincher: [00:35:32] Thank you very much. I appreciate you spending the time with us today. Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks. Our chief audio engineer at KVRU is Maurice Jones Jr. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I, and now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Just type in "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar, be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. You can also get a full text transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced during the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes.  Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you next time.

Despite monday's Full Council meeting being abandoned as the leader of the Conservative Council Group had tested possitive for Covid 19 - we invite on three councillors to discuss two big issues on that agenda - Cllr Jeanette Smith (PPP) asking why PCC are still using pesticides, and Cllrs Lynne Stagg (LibDem) - Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation, & her opposite Cllr Graham Heaney (Lab) to discuss the Local Transport Plain - What does it mean for Portsmouth? Is it bold enough? Why can't we have a less congested city with cleaner air that's a safer place to walk & cycle?

Ian and Simon give a rundown of the packed agenda for tomorrow's Full Council meeting - strangely organised on a Monday - we invite Council Leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson onto the show to answer why the change of day and to talk about his motion to council calling on it to protest agains central government imposed targers which would see Portsmouth build over 17,000 homes over the next 20 years - but before that we turn our attention to the Labour motion calling on the council to rethink its plans for 3,500 homes on Tipner West, as SSSI & Ramsar site.

Ian & Simon reveal who got to run Portsmouth City Council when Full Council voted on a motion of no confidence in its leader. They also delve into the revelations of spurned SPAD Dominic Cummings before casting their eyes and opinions eastwards to Belarus and ask if their airspace is safe.

This message was preached on 12/13/20 Sunday am at Gospel Lighthouse Church by pastor Kenny Word Fox. This ministry exists to proclaim Jesus Christ.

Join us as we have a look how the votes went on the motions we'd covered last week when they came before Full Council on Tuesday 16th March. We'll also have a look at the government's attempt to make protestors 'shut up and go away'.

In a change to their planned show Simon & Ian review three of the notices of motion due to be discussed on Tuesday's Full Council meeting - Support the Climate and Environmental Emergency Bill, Thank our government for the vaccine rollout & Right to food.

Ian & Simon squeeze a sequel out of November 10th's Full Council meeting - Nine and a half hours. In part II the boys have a look at the Labour party motion calling on the council to stop fining homeless people and the Conservative party motion calling on the council to sort out the backlog in the planning department.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 39 °F, and today you can expect highs in the 50s. Did we do it? Have we moved into the cold part of the year? I’m not sure because this weekend’s weather forecast looks warm, sunny, and amazing.Water coolerAs of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 2,677↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 247↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 122, Henrico: 81, and Richmond: 44). Since this pandemic began, 442 people have died in the Richmond region. Before you inhale sharply at the dramatic rise in new positive cases, a note from the VDH website: “The 2,677 case count reported on Monday, November 16 is due to a catch-up from the VDH data system being down for upgrades for a few hours over the weekend.” On Sunday, VDH reported 1,161 new cases and the seven-day average at that time was 1,396. Feel free to do whatever back-of-the-napkin math you’d like to get a better sense of this weekend’s and Monday’s numbers—or just wait until new data drops today. VDH also updated their COVID-19 Pandemic Metrics dashboard, and for the sixth straight week, the Central Region is experiencing “substantial community transmission.” Three of the Commonwealth’s six regions are at “substantial community transmission” and the other three are “approaching substantial community transmission” with an increasing trend. Percent positivity in our region, for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield is 4.09%, 6.20%, and 7.24% respectively. These are all not the best numbers, and I’m nervous about what the holidays will bring. A lot of folks should stay home, a lot of folks don’t have the option of staying home, and it’s legitimately heartbreaking for many, many people who do choose to stay home. We’ve got a long, hard winter road ahead of us, I think.Related to schools and COVID-19, Henrico County Public Schools Superintendent Amy Cashwell says the District will NOT return to in-person instruction on November 30th as planned. They’ll now wait until January 11th for the youngest students to return. Here’s Cashwell on her reasoning, “When our approach was adopted back in October (in order to give families ample time to plan), the core metrics for the local area and region inspired more confidence in expanding in-person learning than they do today. Since then, two of the three core metrics being monitored have increased significantly. The number of new cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period has risen to the highest risk level, and the percentage of positive tests in our region has seen a sharp increase. The third metric, related to the ability of HCPS to implement mitigation strategies, remains at the lowest risk level. While my confidence in our school division’s ability to adhere to and implement our health and safety plans remains strong, the sharp increases in two of the three core metrics is of concern to me and to our Health Committee.”City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee will meet today and consider the ordinance to adopt Richmond 300 as our City’s new master plan (ORD. 2020–236)! This is incredibly exciting, and I’m grateful for all of the folks—both staff and citizenry—that have put in hours and hours of work to pull this plan together. You can, of course, let LUHT hear your support of this ordinance and Richmond 300 generally by sending a couple of emails (Councilmembers Robertson, Gray, Jones, and Trammell sit on this committee). You’ll have a chance to express your support to Full Council if/whenever this lands on their agenda. I think we’ll know from the tone of today’s conversation whether that’ll be a vote for Current Council or New Council.As he works from quarantine, Mayor Levar Stoney has written a thank-you letter to Richmond. Part coronareminder, part policy platform, the letter lays out some priorities for the next four years while speaking pretty openly about how he’d now handle a project like Navy Hill differently. About the latter he says, “I have learned [Richmonders] want to be brought to the table as we build a more equitable city. I have also learned that to deliver on that expectation, we need consistent and robust community engagement, a willingness to adjust, and an understanding that compromise is not a bad word.” As for policies/goals for the next term, he lists: health and safety during the pandemic, public education during the pandemic, a focus on justice and equity (especially around economic development projects and policing), access to high-paying jobs and affordable housing, and better City services. I’m focused on that first bit about community engagement. There are currently, right now!, opportunities for the City to do “robust community engagement,”—Monument Avenue, the City’s legislative priorities for the General Assembly, whatever’s going on around the Diamond—and I’d love to see them put some of these words into action.Heyoh, what’s this! The Governor has officially announced support for legalizing marijuana in Virginia—at this coming General Assembly session! I’d just written a while back that pending the results of whatever study the GA had commissionedwe might see some movement in this direction, but I didn’t expect such full-throated support from the Gov: "It’s time to legalize marijuana in Virginia…Our Commonwealth has an opportunity to be the first state in the South to take this step, and we will lead with a focus on equity, public health, and public safety.” I’m excited to read more about the legislation he plans to introduce, especially since he wants to focus on racial equity by “including initiatives such as social equity license programs, access to capital, community reinvestment, and sealing or expunging records of past marijuana-related convictions.” Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has more details, including that Northam “envisions an 18 to 24 month timetable for the state to establish and regulate the new marketplace.” I mean, this seems like the easiest vote to make during a budget-crushing pandemic, just look at these numbers: “The Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission study found that legalization could generate more than $300 million per year in tax revenues by the fifth year of operations and, combined with decriminalization, could reduce marijuana arrests by 84 percent. Legalization could also create more than 11,000 jobs, the study found, but most would be lower-paying positions in retail, cultivation, packaging and security.”Via /r/rva, here’s weirdly gendered 1988 WTVR report on shopping at Willow Lawn when it was still an indoor mall. Men! What do they even know about shopping! Nothing, turns out!This morning’s longreadQAnon High Priest Was Just Trolling Away as a Citigroup Tech ExecutiveI am fascinated by QAnon, continue to read articles about it, and am really close to subscribing to all of the Q-busting podcasts listed in this article.Even so, the movement had been contained mostly to the internet’s trollish fringes until around the time Gelinas came along. In 2018, while doing his job at Citi, he created, as an anonymous side project, a website dedicated to bringing QAnon to a wider audience—soccer moms, white-collar workers, and other “normies,” as he boasted. By mid-2020, the site, QMap.pub, was drawing 10 million visitors each month, according to the traffic-tracking firm SimilarWeb, and was credited by researchers with playing a key role in what might be the most unlikely political story in a year full of unlikely political stories: A Citigroup executive helped turn an obscure and incoherent cult into an incoherent cult with mainstream political implications.If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.

Episode 4 of Sutton Wire, the podcast from Sutton Conservatives. This week: - A new bus route (H1) St Helier to Epsom hospital - confirmed - Cllr Param Nandha talks about his work on Holocaust Memorial Day, community cohesion, and the Hindu New Year - Cllr Tony Shields tells us what happened when our sensible changes to the parking strategy went to Full Council, along with about 400 residents wanting answers Contact the show: Email: SuttonWire@gmail.com Twitter: @SuttonWire https://www.suttonconservatives.org.uk/

The Leader of #Surrey County Council makes his announcements at a full meeting of the council on 11th July 2017

Surrey County Council Leader David Hodge makes his statement which is followed by a standing ovation.

Audio from the Public Participation segment of #Guildford Borough Council Full Meeting of the Council on 24th May 2016

At the full meeting of Surrey Heath Borough Council on 13th April 2016 the Leader of the Council (Cllr Moira Gibson) expressed concerns over 'Devolution'.

Audio from Surrey County Council's Leaders statement to Full Council on Tuesday 15th March 2017. #Surrey

This is an audio recording from David Hodge's speech at Surrey County Council's full meeting of the council on 9th February 2016. Highlights from David Hodge’s speech at the Full Council meeting: Ministers have listened to the case made by Surrey for local government as a whole about pressures faced Surrey secured more than £24 million of the extra £300m funding announced by the government for councils nationally over the next two years Grant of £11.9m this year and £12.2m in 2017-18 “will still place a strain on services” Fair funding review welcomed after “pushing hard” for the government to look at how money is distributed to take account of demand and costs across the country. A council tax rise of 3.9% was agreed at the meeting.

#Surrey County Council Leaders Statement and Members Questions at Full Council - 9th December 2014