Seattle Libraries, Education & Neighborhoods Committee – May 27, 2026
Seattle Libraries, Education & Neighborhoods Committee – May 27, 2026
The Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee of the Seattle City Council met on May 27, 2026, from 9:32 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in the Council Chamber. Chair Maritza Rivera presided, with Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth, Eddie Lin, and Alexis Mercedes Rinck present; Councilmember Dionne Foster was excused. The committee received a briefing on the Department of Neighborhoods' Community Liaison Program and unanimously voted to recommend confirmation of eight appointments to various boards and commissions.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar was presented.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public signed up to speak, so the public comment period was closed without testimony.
Discussion Items
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Department of Neighborhoods Community Liaison Program Briefing – Daniel Sims (Community Partnerships Division Director) and Lorraine Greening (Strategic Partnerships Manager) presented the program. The Community Liaisons (CLs) program embeds trusted community leaders to bridge historically underrepresented communities with city government. Launched in 2009 from an earlier model, the program currently includes over 30 liaisons working on approximately 57 projects across multiple city departments. CLs provide language support, conduct door-to-door outreach, interpret at events, and advise on engagement strategies. The program focuses on communities including immigrant groups, Native peoples, African Americans, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, housing-insecure individuals, and seniors. Key examples highlighted include Seattle City Light's transportation electrification outreach (24 events, 500 customers reached) and Seattle Public Utilities' Adopt-a-Street program (11,000 cleanup volunteers so far in 2026, over 22,000 in 2025). Councilmembers praised the program's role in inclusive engagement. Director Sims noted gaps in recruiting Indigenous/Native and Russian-speaking liaisons and indicated the department is exploring partnerships with community-based organizations to fill those gaps.
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Appointments to the Community Involvement Commission – Alvin Edwards, staff liaison, presented the appointments of Olivia Barlow (term to May 31, 2027) and Negash Hassen (term to May 31, 2028). Barlow has a background in computer science and volunteer education; Hassen has experience serving immigrant and refugee communities through Neighborhood House and Seattle Parks and Recreation.
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Appointments to the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council – Patty Camacho (Office of Intergovernmental Relations) presented the appointments of Nate Lessler (documentary producer) and Bryce Seidl (former CEO of Pacific Science Center and former mayor of Vancouver, WA). Both terms run to November 30, 2028.
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Appointments to the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council – Patty Camacho presented the new appointment of Christopher Scott (15-year market resident and activist, term to June 30, 2026) and the reappointments of Devin McComb (real estate attorney and current council chair) and Paul Neal (marketing consultant), both with terms to June 30, 2029.
Key Outcomes
- The committee voted unanimously (4-0) to recommend confirmation of Olivia Barlow and Negash Hassen to the Community Involvement Commission. (Vote: Rivera, Hollingsworth, Lin, Rinck—all yes.)
- The committee voted 3-0 (Hollingsworth absent) to recommend confirmation of Nate Lessler and Bryce Seidl to the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council. (Vote: Rivera, Lin, Rinck—yes; Hollingsworth abstained.)
- The committee voted unanimously (4-0) to recommend confirmation of Christopher Scott and reappointment of Devin McComb and Paul Neal to the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council. (Vote: all yes.)
- All recommendations will be forwarded to the full City Council for final consideration at the June 2, 2026 meeting.
- The next committee meeting is scheduled for June 10, 2026, at 9:30 a.m.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. The May 27th, 2026 meeting of the Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order. It's 9 32 a.m. I'm Maritza Rivera, Chair of the Committee. Will the clerk please call the roll? Council Member Lynn. Here. Councilmember Rink. Give her one minute. Present. Vice Chair Hollingsworth. Present. Chair Rivera. Present. There are four council members present. Thank you, Clerk. Please note for the record that Councilmember Foster's excuse from today's meeting. Colleagues and those of you watching on the Seattle Channel, welcome. Today we're going to be hearing from the Department of Neighborhoods about their community liaison program. Additionally, we will be voting to confirm several appointments today to the community involvement commission, the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council, and the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Governing Council. On to today's agenda, if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted. Hearing none, the agenda is adopted, and we will now open the public hybrid comment period. The hybrid public comment period. Public comments should relate to items on the agenda or within the purview of this committee. Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today? Currently we have zero in-person speakers and zero remote speakers. All right. Thank you, Clerk. Given that, we are then with no speakers signing up for public comment. The public comment period is now closed. We'll proceed to our items of business. Clerk, please read item one into the record. Agenda item one, Department of Neighborhoods Community Liaison program for briefing and discussion. This item has been read into the record. Colleagues, we haven't actually heard from the Department of Neighborhoods in a little bit about their work. We had the honor and pleasure of confirming Director FAM, but we haven't heard about some of their work. More recently, some conversations about the department's community liaisons program have come up recently, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to hear from the department about the liaison's work in communities across the city. We're joined today by Daniel Sims, the community partnerships director at the Department of Neighborhoods, and I think one other Don Staffer. So uh Daniel, please state your name for the record, and then we can hear about the community liaisons program. Welcome. Welcome, Council members. Thank you for having us here. My name is Daniel Sims. I'm the community partnerships division director for the Department of Neighborhoods. Thank you. Welcome. Is this on? Thank you, Council Members. I'm Lorraine Greening, and I'm the strategic partnerships manager at the Department of Neighborhoods. Thank you.
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