City of Bellevue Human Services Commission Meeting 12/08/2025
City of Bellevue Human Services Commission Meeting 12/08/2025
The City of Bellevue Human Services Commission convened on December 8, 2025, primarily for a panel presentation on "Convening and Collective Impact" featuring leaders from East Side for All and Eastside Pathways. The meeting included the approval of November 17 minutes, public comments focusing on gratitude for funding and legal grievances regarding city conduct, and remarks from Mayor Robison and Police Major Inman regarding food security challenges and holiday initiatives. Panelists detailed the critical needs of small, culturally specific nonprofits, emphasizing funding models, physical space shortages, and the necessity for deeper city collaboration beyond mere investment.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the November 17 minutes unanimously (Motion and second carried).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Sharmila Ratinam (Eat Happy Now): Expressed full support and deep gratitude for the City of Bellevue's funding, including over $30,000 in SNAP benefits assistance. Reported that city investments have enabled the rescue and delivery of over 261,000 pounds of food to over 1,900 residents monthly.
- Alex Zimmerman: Expressed severe opposition and anger regarding Mayor Robison's administration, alleging wrongful trespassing citations (five instances) and fraud. Claimed Mayor Robison acted like a "criminal" and a "street prostitute" and argued that the citations were punitive measures taken because the speaker opposed the mayor.
- Mayor Robison: Apologized to the Commission for the "endurance" of the previous speaker's comments, clarifying they were unrelated to human services. Expressed strong support for continued focus on housing, food security, and legal support amid national economic uncertainty.
- Major Inman: Shared information about the Police Department's partnership with Factoria Mall Target for the "Heroes and Helpers" holiday event on December 13, where approximately 100 children receive $100 gift cards.
Discussion Items
- Panel on Convening and Collective Impact:
- Debbie Lacey (East Side for All) and Kalika Curry (Eastside Pathways) presented on strategies for strengthening the human services ecosystem through collective action. They defined convening as intentional collaboration to reduce service duplication and advance shared goals, noting that convening partners do not provide direct services but support the network.
- Speaker Positions & Challenges:
- Curry expressed that collective impact is critical for blending resources and centering students/communities rather than organizational silos. She noted a decreased willingness to collaborate due to increased fear, trauma, and a "divide and conquer" environment.
- Lacey emphasized that no single entity can advance racial equity alone and highlighted that organizations serving "farthest from justice" often lack resources yet do the most work.
- Both speakers expressed strong concern over the lack of physical space; Lacey noted that funding once used for convening support has shifted to merely paying for meeting rooms, and Curry described organizations as having "outgrown" community centers and libraries.
- Lacey expressed support for a model where organizations are financially compensated for their participation in convening work, not just paid honorariums.
- Curry articulated a need for trust-based, low-barrier funding and support for overhead costs (insurance, reporting), noting that current contract demands often cost more than the grant value.
- Specific Initiatives:
- The panel discussed a partnership with Bellwether Housing to build a 10,000 square-foot facility in Redmond (opening 2028) to provide office and community space for small nonprofits, countering displacement.
- They highlighted success in coalescing community groups to influence urban planning, noting that the City of Redmond is adopting their model for community engagement across all departments.
- Lacey expressed strong opposition to the idea of merging small, culturally specific nonprofits into larger umbrella organizations, arguing that unique cultural responsiveness cannot be replicated by a single large entity.
- Curry expressed support for "inverted" leadership models where community members set priorities and staff execute, ensuring equity remains central.
Key Outcomes
- Officer Elections: The Commission confirmed the election process for its 2026 officers to be held at the next meeting on January 4, 2026. The election will prioritize electing a Chair first, who will then lead the subsequent rounds.
- Parliamentary Training: Chair Singh reminded members of upcoming parliamentary training scheduled for December 15 at 6:00 PM.
- Meeting Adjournment: The meeting concluded at 7:45 PM, with a recess for the winter break.
Meeting Transcript
This meeting is called to order at 601. Live captioning is available this evening to access this, select the show captions button in the meeting toolbar and select your preferred language. Staff and commissioners are participating both remotely and in person. Members of public are welcome to provide public comment and listen to the meeting in person or on Zoom. I will now call the role. Commissioner, please see here after I call your name. Vice Chair White. Here, Commissioner Fan. Commissioner Gonzalez. Here. Commissioner Hayes. Commissioner Perlman. And Commissioner Rashid is absent. So there is one set of minutes to approve this evening. Please take a moment to review the November 17 minutes in front of you. Any discussion about the November 17 minutes. Any commissioner online? Is there a motion to approve the November 17 minutes? Motion. And a second. And a second. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The November 17 minutes are approved. At this time, we are taking the oral communication. Staff will call the names of the people in the order they have signed up, either online or in person. Members of public may speak during one of two nights oral communications. Has been called, staff will ask if there is anyone else who would like to speak. Staff, can you please call speakers for oral communication? Our first speaker for oral communications is Sharmila Ratinam from Eat Happy Now. Hi everyone, can you guys hear me? We're a food rescue and nonprofit. But before I get in and explain what Eat Happy Now is, I basically wanted to be here to thank the commission in the City of Bellevue to supporting Eat Happy right from the time we started. The funding provided by the City of Bellevue has really helped scale and rescue and deliver food for the food insecure population in the city of Bellevue and beyond. And I also am very grateful and thankful for the additional funding of 30 plus thousand dollars, which came in during the SNAP benefits to really help with our work. So just wanted to take a moment to thank you all. And before I go ahead and talk about the impact numbers of what these funding has really helped achieve for those of you in the room who don't know what Eat Happy is about, it's a food rescue nonprofit powered by technology. We use an app called Eat Happy Now, which brings in all the surplus food in our ecosystem from grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, and connects it to people who need it real time within the hour. And this kind of helps us bridge the gap and bring in the culturally relevant produce because our niche is to go after culturally relevant produce and we get it to the people who need it. Because we have over 600 volunteers on our platform who basically help in delivering the food from one end to the other, picking it up and taking it to the people who need it. 70% of the rescue is done by volunteers and about 30% by paid staff. We have over 100 plus donors who donate their surplus food and over 100 recipients who kind of receive this uh donations from us. And what technology is really helping us do is to really increase operational efficiency and the futuristic, what we are looking to do is use this technology to help build capacity in food banks probably in a year or two, and how we can help technology and this particular platform help in increasing their operational efficiency. So that's the goal for Eat Happy. So the impact which has taken place with the dollars helped by the city of Bellevue. We have rescued over 261,000 pounds of food and delivered it to over 1900 residents, and we do this every month. This is the number of residents we touch every month, and there are over 13 organizations, all shelters, low-income housing groups, and food banks in the city of Bellevue who kind of benefit from these services. So I'm here today basically to give you all an update of how the dollars have been spent, and thank you all for your support.
openpublica.com