The Kirkland City Council convened at 5:30 p.m. for a study session and at 7:30 p.m. for the regular meeting on September 19, 2023. The meeting included updates on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) roadmap and the Transportation Master Plan, honors and proclamations, a special presentation from the Association of Washington Cities, a public hearing on a levy lid lift ballot measure (Proposition 1), consent calendar approval, authorization of additional staff positions, and discussions on childcare options for boards and commissions.
Note: Study session topics (DEIB and TMP) were discussed but required no formal votes; staff will incorporate feedback and return with updates.
I would like to call to order the city council meeting of September the 19th, 2023. Tonight's meeting is a hybrid meeting. Community members are welcome to join us either in person or remotely through Zoom or by telephone. Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Nixon. Here. Councilmember Black. Here. Councilmember Curtis. Here. Councilmember Falcone. Here. Councilmember Pascal. Here. Deputy Mayor Arnold. Here. Mayor Sweet. Here. Thank you. Our study session tonight is on two topics. First, the annual update on the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging DEIB roadmap. Second, an update on the transportation master plan. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at approximately 7:30. Manager. Okay, thank you, Madam Mayor. So here to provide our first presentation, our excuse me, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging update is our DIB manager Erica Moscaro. And we're also being joined by Deputy City Manager Jim Lopez, who is with us virtually, and also her team, Don Robinson, our senior community engagement coordinator. And so we have about 45 minutes for this topic, and then the second topic will be the Transportation Master Plan, and we'll swap out at that time. So please take it away, Erica. Thank you so much, City Manager. Good evening, City Council, Mayor, Deputy City Mayor. I am pleased to be here with you tonight to deliver the annual diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging roadmap update. As our city manager mentioned, my name is Erica Mascoro, and I am the DIB manager, and I am accompanied tonight by Don Robinson, our senior community engagement coordinator. And I'd like to introduce another DIB team member who's not present, Carmen Anderson. Here are the presentation components. Then I will review some of the upcoming priorities for the DIB team for the last quarter of this year. And last, we'd love to hear from you your comments and questions on our work. So now let me turn your attention to the introduction slides. So now diving in, the five-year roadmap is a living document that was adopted on July 5th, 2022. This first iteration of the roadmap includes 68 objectives, including objective 15.2, ongoing feedback and update process for the roadmap, a process outlined for council staff and community members to modify or add objectives to the roadmap. The organizational structure of the document has three main components: the goal area, goal, and objective, each with an actionable item. Here on the slide, you see the six goal areas, which I used also to organize the information on the memo and this presentation. Continuing with the roadmap structure, the roadmap is action-oriented, organizational-wide. Internally, it is centered in the city manager's office, the highest level of leadership, and externally it is centered on the community through building networks. The work on the roadmap is ongoing. It lives and it never ends. Moving on to the roadmap status. We deemed each objective as either complete, in progress, or pending, meaning complete objectives are those that have been implemented. In progress are those objectives that staff have undertaken and implementing but still require further work. And pending, which are objectives that the staff has action forthcoming.