Commencing at 6 45 p.m.

Council members in attendance are Council President Kritzer, Council Vice President Forsyth, Councilmember Anderson, Councilmember Nueva Comina, and Council Member Stewart.

This meeting is being held to interview the Human Services Commission candidate, Brooke Buckingham, Human Services Manager, will introduce the Human Services Commission candidate Bartika Gupta.

Good evening, Council.

I'm happy to bring forward a new candidate for the Human Services Commission, Barthika Grypta.

Bartika and her family have been residents of the Gratlong neighborhood for um nearly 15 years.

She is an engineer by education and currently served in an executive leadership role for a local software company.

She has volunteered and helped organize many community events here in Redmond.

And she shared with us at our commission interview that she has a real passion for solving real world challenges, and she deeply cares for the quality and quality about the quality of life in human services here in our city.

With that, it's my pleasure to turn it over to Batika.

Thank you, Brooke.

Thank you, Brooke.

And so nice to meet you all.

Thank you for having me here today and talking to me today.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

If you would like to share just a brief statement about yourself and why you applied, be great to hear from you, and then I'll ask the council to ask you questions.

Sure.

So as Brooke shared, my name is Vartika, an engineer by education and profession.

I'm currently serving in a leadership role in one of the engineering software companies and handling some multicultural teams there and all.

In City of Redmond, we call it home for past 15 years.

My kids have pretty much when we moved here.

I had one kid aged one year old, and today she's in high school and the other one is in elementary.

So we have pretty much worked here, lived here, and grown here as a family.

So I have seen Redmond community closely.

And as this opportunity came through, and because I deeply care about how the various services are in our community and how things are done or how people are able to approach them and all.

So then here I am applying for this position.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Questions for our candidate.

We'd like to begin.

Council President Thank you so much for uh volunteering to serve in this really important role.

This is a very hard working commission, and we really appreciate all the all the efforts.

Um I'm curious uh what you see as some of the greatest needs in our community from your experience, both lived and via volunteering and doing other pieces there.

So, especially related to human services, and because so Redmond has changed quite a bit over the last 10, 15 years, as we say, in terms of diversity.

And as uh diversity has grown, there are certain areas where I see which need like more attention, especially equitable access of services to various community members, certain classes that I would call here is marginalized groups like low-income families, then immigrant groups, certain immigrant groups, not all really, but they need more attention than others.

Then there are refugee groups off late because of conditions around the world, how we have attracted some of those populations.

And then equity, not just in terms of income or financial levels, there are other challenges, like there is an adult population as well that needs their services to cater to them and all of that.

And then more and pro we have services and programs, but the community outreach in terms of people knowing about those services that Human Services Commission has to offer and gaining access to those in a timely manner, or sometimes knowing the right ways to gain access to those.

So having services is one thing, but people who really need those services, getting access to those, that's an area we need to work more on.

So thank you.

Councilmember Stewart.

Well, thank you so much, Vartica, for your application and your interest.

It sounds like you're really well prepared for the role.

You've already discussed the intersectionality of our super diverse community.

Um, you've referenced a few of the principles that are um part of the human services strategic plan.

Um, and I admire your courage because the human services commission is, in my opinion, one of the hardest commission for every dollar that's available to invest in local services.

There's three or four or five times as many requests for that dollar.

So I'm curious if you could just talk to us about how you are preparing yourself over the next year or what your your approach might be to making tough decisions like that when you have a lot of options.

So not that I know of all the tools you guys use here.

That's an area I would learn.

But in general, what I see generally being part of communities, there are several programs that are funded, but they may not have access to various communities.

Sometimes they're aimed to help various communities at a whole, but certain sections of community are able to take that benefit of that program or service.

So I think I would look at more diverse programs and which can cater to Redmond as a whole and not certain sections only who are like who are more aware of things or more educated about things and they can quickly get access to those and our funding doesn't serve the right purpose they need.

So I know you guys are already doing things in food drives and then homelessness drives and those areas and then certain related to medical benefits and all.

I think funding really needs to kind of go more into homelessness as that problem is increasing.

And apart from that, then uh the programs for youth or those kind of things, and then as I told earlier, adult population, medical support for them with increasing challenges offlate around how things are going and some of the support for other community members because of the political scenarios changing and all how we can support them and those kind of things.

So more towards that.

Yeah, well, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness.

And as you get into it, I'm sure you'll you'll see some of the um the the tools that have been laid out for uh the commission, given the the priorities that we do have, and something that has been uh the last few years really important to this council is making sure that um A, we've been able to invest more.

So we actually raised, we give you guys more money to give out now because we recognize the needs, and also making sure that services for a particular community, if they're available to be provided by that community and by trusted leaders in that community that we're investing deeply there too.