May 23, 2023
On this midweek show, Crystal chats with SarahReyneveld about her campaign for King County Council District 4 -why she decided to run, the experience she brings as a publicsector attorney and community advocate, and her thoughts onaddressing frontline worker wages and workforce issues, the needfor upstream alternatives in the criminal legal system andsubstance use crisis, how to improve policy implementation, climatechange and air quality, and budget revenue and transparency.
As always, a full text transcript of the show isavailable below and at officialhacksandwonks.com.
Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks.Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find SarahReyneveld at @SarahReyneveld.
Resources
CampaignWebsite - Sarah Reyneveld
Transcript
[00:00:00]CrystalFincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm CrystalFincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On thisshow, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gatherinsight into local politics and policy in Washington state throughthe lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenesperspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what youcan do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get thefull versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek showdelivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpfulthing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks &Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show arealways available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episodenotes.
Hello, I'm so excited to be welcoming to theprogram today King County Council candidate, Sarah Reyneveld.Hello.
[00:01:01]SarahReyneveld: Hello, Crystal. Thank you so much forhaving me today - I'm excited about the conversation.
[00:01:07]CrystalFincher: Absolutely. I guess just starting out - wehave seen you run for State Legislature before. I'm wondering whyyou're choosing to run for the County now, and what do you hope toaccomplish in that position?
[00:01:18]SarahReyneveld: Yes, I think that King County Counciland the King County is really at a critical point in time, and I'mexcited to bring my lived experience as a working parent, a SeattlePublic School parent, a transit rider, a union organizer - I helpedorganize my union of Assistant Attorney Generals - and also myexperience as a public sector attorney who has fought for workersand our environment, and as a community advocate working withcommunities across King County to really make transformative changefor workers, working families, and our environment on the KingCounty Council. So for some background - in 2016, I became KingCounty Councilmember Kohl-Welles' appointment to the King CountyWomen's Advisory Board where I had the opportunity to work withcommunities throughout King County and the King County Council tohelp advocate for and secure investments in affordable housing, inbehavioral health, childcare, and services to support survivors ofgender-based violence. I started this work and became the Chair ofthe King County Women's Advisory Board before the pandemic - and Ihad two young kids at the time - and we had struggled like so manyparents with access to affordable childcare, and the board at thattime decided to take up that issue. So we worked on recommendationsto expand childcare access for working parents and were able towork together with communities across King County, and theExecutive, and King County Council to help reinstate a childcaresubsidy, to expand access to childcare for working families, andestablish a wage provider boost to help increase pay for childcareproviders who are disproportionately women and BIPOC women andimmigrants. And then the pandemic hit and I continued to do thiswork and it really laid bare - staggering inequities and injusticesin King County that disproportionately impacted women and ourcommunities of color and immigrants and other marginalizedcommunities, who are more likely to be on the forefront and wereexperiencing disproportionately - unemployment and financial lossand illness.
So as I continue to work on these issues, I sawwhat an important role King County played in not just responding tothe pandemic and now the shadow pandemic, but in really providingpublic health, and behavioral health, and public transit, andhelping with food security and housing. So I'm running for KingCounty Council because I've been doing this work with community andI think the status quo is no longer good enough. We need bold andtransformative action to really meet the urgency of this moment. Wehave a really unique opportunity to create a more equitable economyand a sustainable future for all workers and working families inKing County. And I think that King County can and must do more -and my priorities are to create more truly affordable housing tohelp better meet the behavioral health needs of our neighbors incrisis, to really tackle the climate crisis and protect ourenvironment for future generations, to provide accessible andfrequent public transit for all, and to really look at what we cando to reimagine our public safety and criminal legal system. So I'mexcited about the opportunity.
[00:04:46]CrystalFincher: I see. Now you covered a lot there. Inthere, you mentioned caring for workers, addressing housing. Onething called out by experts as a barrier to our homelessnessresponse is that frontline worker wages don't cover the cost ofliving. Do you think our local nonprofits have a responsibility topay living wages for our area? And how can we make that more likelywith how we bid and contract for services?
[00:05:10]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, absolutely. I absolutely thinkthat our nonprofits have a duty to pay more in terms of adequatelyfunding - not just contracts - but ensuring that those contractslead to an equitable living wage and union jobs. And that includescost of living adjustments and other supports for workers. So rightnow we have a really high turnover rate for frontline workers andparticularly those workers that the County contracts with - I'veheard 40-60% turnover rate. And I think we need to address theunderlying issue of why those workers are turning over. And theunderlying issue - one of them is pay equity and not ensuring thatwe are paying, particularly our frontline workers, adequately orproviding them with the supports that they need. So it's aboutequitable pay, it's about cost of living adjustments, and it'sabout ensuring that those workers have access to affordable housingand transit in King County as well - so they can really afford tolive where they work. And so I see this issue as veryintersectional and something that King County can do more toaddress. And I would just say, generally, I think we as a societytend to lift up certain sorts of workers - the CEOs of companies,for example. And those people that are really doing the real workof caring for our community - of building our housing, ofconnecting us through transit, of providing behavioral healthservices - we don't invest equitably or sufficiently in thoseworkers. And so starting with contracting is critically important,but we need to do more to ensure that we're investing in livingwage jobs, and workforce housing, and bonuses, and ensuring thatthese workers have the supports that they need. And that is part ofmy vision for building back better and creating a more equitableeconomy that really centers workers and working families in KingCounty.
[00:07:13]CrystalFincher: Gotcha. Now, would you have voted toapprove the transfer of inmates to the SCORE jail to alleviate alot of the issues plaguing the King County Jail, includingovercrowding, lack of water, inadequate healthcare, illnesses,understaffing? Would you have voted in the same way that the KingCounty Council did?
[00:07:31]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think that's a great question. Iwant to start with just the conditions at the King County Jail. Sothe six deaths in 2022 in the downtown jail and kind of thesubsequent ACLU lawsuit, I think, show that King County is failingtoo many criminally involved individuals, particularly our Blackand Brown community members and those with chronic behavioralhealth and substance use issues. I am really concerned about whatis happening in terms of inhumane conditions at the jail thatinclude excessive use of solitary confinement, and lack oftransportation to medical appointments and court appointments, anddelays with mental health and other medical appointments. And Ithink King County, which is the oversight body of the King CountyJail, needs to do more to address these concerns and ensure safety.And these really poor conditions at the jail didn't happenovernight. They are partially caused by lack of adequate staffing -that's been an issue for decades and was exacerbated since COVID.And also issues with an antiquated, really obsolete building. Andlack of access to medical care and treatment, as I was stating.
So on the King County Council, if elected, I wantto work with disproportionately impacted communities and fellowKing County Councilmembers to urgently address these issues. Ithink we need to invest more in restorative justice. And when theKing County Council took that vote in terms of transferring thoseincarcerated folks to SCORE, I think they noted that we need to domore in terms of investing in restorative justice and upstreamalternatives to really reimagine our criminal legal system. Sofirst I think we need to prevent and reduce incarceration throughinvesting in upstream - investments in youth and vulnerable adults.And that means doing more to expand effective diversion programs,such as the Law Assisted Diversion Program and Co-LEAD, which hasbeen really effective in diverting folks out of the criminal legalsystem and out of the King County Jail to begin with. I think wealso need to move towards actualizing King County Executive'svision and so many activists' vision of really closing the downtownjail and reimagining and reducing the size of the King Countyfacilities.
So in terms of the SCORE vote, I don't thinkeither option were good options. The King County Council arrived atthat vote because there had not been enough, really, work done onrestorative justice and on the underlying issues around staffingand overcrowding at the jail. And I think keeping vulnerableincarcerated people in a downtown jail that had significantunderstaffing and overcrowding issues and a lack of access tomedicine, or transferring incarcerated people to a facility thathad potentially access-to-justice issues is not - neither one ofthose are good options. And so that's why I want to roll up mysleeves and ensure that we're really investing sufficiently indiversion programs and alternatives - to invest in folks to preventthem from becoming incarcerated in the first place and also movetowards reimagining our system. And I will say that I don't thinkKing County Council can address this issue alone. In 2022, therewere over, I think, 100 people in King County Jail that were deemedto be incompetent to stand trial in King County that were awaitinga treatment bed. So if we work with our state partners to reallyfund mental health and ensure treatment for vulnerable populationslike this, then we won't have to make these sort of decisions.
[00:11:00]CrystalFincher: So am I hearing that you would not vote -disagreeing with this vote? If in the future a vote were to come upto extend or expand this SCORE transfer or transfer to other jails,does that mean you're a No vote on that?
[00:11:13]SarahReyneveld: I think that we need to, like I said,invest in alternatives and upstream alternatives to the criminallegal system. So like Councilmember Zahilay and CouncilmemberKohl-Welles said - the transfer to SCORE was really not addressingthe root cause of the issue. We need to be investing in upstreamalternatives and staffing and ensuring that folks within our systemare safe.
[00:11:36]CrystalFincher: Gotcha. Now you talked about substance usedisorder being so key in treating upstream issues to really addressthe root causes of what is leading people to criminal behavior.We're dealing with a conundrum. The governor just called a specialsession following our State Supreme Court invalidating personalsubstance possession as a crime. Our Legislature took action acouple of years ago to recriminalize it - that has a sunsetprovision. They were not able to decide on any statewide policybefore the session ended, so they're going to be taking that up ina special session. There are conversations about - should drug usebe criminalized at all? If it should, is it a misdemeanor, grossmisdemeanor, felony? Where do you stand? Where should personalpossession of substances be dealt with? How would you handlethat?
[00:12:27]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think this is an issue that theLegislature has been grappling with and it's really an importantissue. And I think we need to be moving away from criminalizationof drug possession. Specifically, we moved away fromcriminalization of drug possession for marijuana - we need to dothe same thing with psychedelics and other sorts of drugs that havemedicinal and other positive effects. I think when it comes toaddressing our fentanyl and heroin crisis, I think that if I were alegislator, I'd probably move in the direction of ensuring thatwe're looking at the lesser of any sort of crime - which would be amisdemeanor - and looking at pathways to treatment for that use.And I think we have to think about how we can connect folks thatare in crisis because of substance use disorder with services. Andso to me, it's about what more can King County do - because I'm notsitting in the place of a legislator - to ensure that we'reinvesting in upstream solutions and treatment. And so I thinkhelping to implement the King County Crisis Care Center Levy andensuring that folks that are in - particularly a substance usecrisis, whether - we know that we have a fentanyl crisis. I haveworked on litigation to sue Purdue Pharma and understand just theaddictive effects of those drugs. And we need to make sure thatthere's - those folks are connected to Medicaid-assisted treatmenton demand, that they're connected to services. And so looking atwhat more we can do to scale up the crisis centers in an equitableway and preserve and restore beds that are primarily aimed attreating the underlying causes - I think it's criticallyimportant.
And so one of my priorities, if elected to theKing County Council, will be to look at how we're implementingthese crisis care centers, how I'm working potentially with theLegislature for additional treatment beds for substance usedisorder. I have, as so many people have had, someone in my lifethat has experienced a substance use disorder issue. And I thinkit's so hard to navigate the system to even find detox or substanceuse treatment for someone like me that knows how to navigatesystems, much less someone that could be either at-risk at beinginvolved in the criminal legal system or becoming unhoused ordealing with a substance use crisis. And so finding ways in whichwe can ensure that those that are affected are obtaining treatment,I think is critically important.
[00:15:07]CrystalFincher: You raised a number of important issuesthere and you touched on helping to get the Crisis Care CentersLevy - which passed - implemented.
[00:15:16]SarahReyneveld: Yes.
[00:15:17]CrystalFincher: There have been some criticisms andchallenges with implementation of programs - at all levels ofgovernment, really, but including with the County - and issues ofstaffing that may not have been foreseen, or challenges run into,communication issues. Do you think there's an opportunity toimprove implementation of policy and programs overall? And how dowe need to do that? What needs to change in order for that tohappen?
[00:15:42]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think that's an excellent point.And I absolutely think there are opportunities to improve policyimplementation at the County. One of the things that I reallyappreciate about King County's work and that I wanna bring as alens to my work is that I do believe that the best public policy ismade - I think Councilmember Zahilay says this in his views andparaphrasing him, but - by those that are closest to the injustice.And so we really need to invest in community-based solution to alot of our largest challenges in King County. And so I appreciatethat on all issues of County government and all levels of Countygovernment, whether it be addressing the gun violence crisis or thebehavioral health crisis or childcare, we're really investing incommunity-based solutions. So I think that's critically important,but I think we also have to have a way to measure outcomes in termsof what is the County doing that's working and what is the Countydoing that's not working. And if we have, for example, a healththrough housing facility that we have stood up, but it's not beingadequately staffed and we're not adequately utilizing it, andreally ensuring that vulnerable populations can access housing andthose services - we need to look at what more we can do to ensurethat that is being used appropriately and we're really maximizingopportunities to make good use of public dollars. So I think weabsolutely need to be working with communities and listening tocommunities and centering their voices. And then I think KingCounty, as a body, needs to work with those communities to makesure that the investments that were being made are working on thecommunity level and that we're really scaling up things that work.And I, as someone who's taught at the Evans School of PublicAffairs and has been a policy wonk for years, am really interestedin working with community and my fellow councilmembers in doingthat work.
[00:17:38]CrystalFincher: So on almost every measure, we're behindour 2030 climate goals. You've talked about addressing climatechange and mitigating the impacts of that on people being one ofyour priorities. We've experienced the impacts from wildfires, heatand cold, floods, et cetera. What are your highest priority plansto get us on track to meet our 2030 goals?
[00:17:59]SarahReyneveld: Yes, thank you for that excellentquestion. As an Assistant Attorney General that works to protectour environment and public health, this is an issue that iscritically important to me because of the urgency of action and theneed to really address this challenge - centering communities in ajust transition. So first, I think we need to electrifytransportation and invest deeply in transit. We know that to meetour carbon reduction goals, we have to get people out of cars andinto transit. And yet we have seen that Metro Transit service haslanguished since the pandemic and ridership has fallen by half. Andthose transit delays - I'm a transit rider to work, I take mylittle boy to daycare downtown with me - and they'redisproportionately affecting transit riders, which are workingfamilies, BIPOC communities, low income communities, youth,seniors, and others that rely on transit. And it's a transitjustice issue. So I have already been doing some of this work, butif elected to the King County Council, I want to continue this workby working with a coalition of transit riders and groups like theTransit Riders Union and Seattle Subway and The Urbanist and othersto pass a county-wide transit revenue package to fund a King CountyTransportation Benefit District, which would supplant the city oneand really help us restore an increased Metro Transit service todeliver faster, more frequent, reliable, and zero-emission servicethat connects all our community members. I think the measure shouldalso ensure that transit is free to those who are cost-burdened.Right now, one of our impediments to increasing transit service andgetting people out of cars is the shortage of transit operators andmechanics. And part of this funding package, or looking at otherfunding sources, has to be to address that issue of recruiting andretaining Metro bus drivers. And that has to include a living wageand additional incentives and supports, including safety supports,to build the workforce of Metro operators. Now, I just spoke toMetro operators at ATU last week, and they told me they're facingsignificant workplace safety and pay and other challenges that arereally contributing to job stress and attrition. So we have toaddress that underlying issue if we're gonna get people out of carsand into transit.
I also think we need to do more to decarbonizeour built environment, which is probably the largest carbonemission in King County, through the adoption and strengthening ofcommercial building codes that will require communities to reduceenergy use and also center communities in initiatives such as theClimate Equity Capital Pool to electrify their homes, for electricappliances and retrofits and solar panels. I think there's a lot ofopportunities that we can leverage on the federal level to usegrants and incentives and rebates to really update the buildingcodes - and achieve these energy efficiencies and decarbonize ourenvironment and our built environment - while bringing workersalong. And I think we need to look at passing stronger provisionsand incentives to transition off natural gas in a way that bringspeople and workers along and hastens this just transition to aclean energy economy - because we know that natural gas use incommercial and residential buildings accounts for a really largepercentage of greenhouse gas emissions.
I would also say that we need to do more tosustainably manage our forests and our working lands to ensureclimate-friendly forest management and farming to mitigate climatechange impacts and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lookat how we can promote carbon storage in soils and increase the useof green space. I would also say, probably lastly, a largepercentage of the carbon emissions in King County result from ourfood system. So I wanna lead in ensuring that all communities haveopportunities to become food producers, to access urban and ruralfarmland, and that we're really centering disproportionatelyimpacted communities and empowering them to become farmers -particularly in food deserts and ensuring that tribes have accessto their traditional food sources and cultural resources.
And I've talked a lot to labor about this, and Iwould say that I believe that we can work towards a just transitionto a clean energy economy that really centers workers and equitablepathways to green jobs and apprenticeships, but it's gonna take usbuilding a coalition. And I'm committed to really rolling up mysleeves and working with our labor partners and folks that aredisproportionately impacted and our community members to build thatjust transition towards a clean energy economy and a sustainablecommunity that addresses our climate crisis.
[00:23:01]CrystalFincher: You talked about needing to address thestaffing issues in our public transportation department, certainlyan issue in Metro that is urgently in need of addressing. We'veseen in several other departments - with sheriffs, certainly withmunicipal police departments in the County - that they're givingretention bonuses, hiring bonuses to help attract people. And whatwe've seen is - although they are on record saying that that isn'treally moving the needle and may not, there are a lot of people inother departments saying that would absolutely move the needlehere. Do you support retention bonuses and hiring bonus and some ofthe things that we've seen for folks working in public safety forother workers?
[00:23:40]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think that's an excellentquestion. I think we really need to listen to workers, and myplatform is all about lifting up and centering and listening toworkers. And to me, hiring bonuses are not gonna address the rootcause of the issue. And the root cause of the issue is reallyliving wages and supports for drivers. But if hiring bonuses willhelp certain segments of workers - I did talk to, for example, anATU bus operator that said that they had hiring bonuses in PierceCounty and that they had not yet received any sort of retention orhiring bonus. And so if that's something that's going to helpworkers feel valued, I think that we do have to look at that as anoption. However, it doesn't really address the root cause. And thatis we need to support our frontline workers and give them a livingwage. So we need to increase base pay for workers. We need to givethem benefits - adequate benefits - flexibility, and the workingconditions that they deserve. And for some frontline workers,that's gonna mean more investment in safety measures or hazard pay.And for other frontline workers, that may include a bonus. But Ithink we need to listen to workers, we need to center workers, andwe really need to give them living wages, benefits, and the workingconditions they deserve.
I think you are absolutely right to say that theworkforce issue is huge in King County, and we have to do more toaddress it. When I talk to workers - everyone from grocery storeworkers to our bus operators, to behavioral health workers -they're really struggling to make a living wage to afford to livein King County, and save for retirement, and raise their kids. Andthey're really the sheroes and heroes of, I think, responding tothe pandemic or the shadow pandemic, but also just of taking careof our communities. And they're really bearing the brunt of ourcrises - our unhoused crisis, the opioid crisis, the behavioralhealth crisis. So we at King County have to do better to supportthem, and that includes living wages, benefits, and workingconditions. And I am interested and very committed to doing thatwork to center workers.
[00:25:56]CrystalFincher: Absolutely, and you're completely correctthat they are bearing the brunt of that. Another issue that kind ofdelves both into addressing climate change and mitigating theimpacts of it and public health is air and clean air withinbuildings. And this has been increasingly talked about - especiallyas we've learned more about airborne pathogens, and as we've dealtmore with wildfire smoke, and how much we've learned about howpollutants and pollution impact health, impact life expectancy.There are areas in Seattle that have life expectancies yearsshorter than other areas in the same city. Does the County have aresponsibility to provide clean and safe air within its buildingsand to try and incentivize that throughout other privately ownedbuildings and businesses in the County?
[00:26:45]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I absolutely think the County hasa responsibility - working with our state regulators as well as ourfederal regulators and policymakers - to ensure that everyone hasaccess to clean air. I see this as an environmental justice issue -you pointed out that disproportionately - communities that live inareas with higher rates of pollution and that are more impacted,disproportionately impacted by climate change are experiencing poorair quality. And I think we have seen through the effects ofclimate change and really rampant wildfires and other issues, thatthese are disproportionately impacting our frontline communitiesand communities that are already overburdened. So I think that onething that we can do at the King County level is really urgentlylead on addressing the climate crisis. And our air quality is justgonna get worse as the climate crisis and the impacts increase. Andso I think we need someone that's gonna really roll up theirsleeves and provide strong leadership to really address theseunderlying issues around air and water pollution and to address theclimate crisis. And so I wanna do that work with disproportionatelyimpacted communities, and part of that work is really gettingpeople out of cars and into transit. So really think having astrong vision for what that looks like and how to center frontlinecommunities is really critically important.
[00:28:18]CrystalFincher: Looking at the state of this race, you'rein a competitive race this time - you were last time, too - butthis time you're part of a competitive race. What do yourendorsem*nts say about you, and what are you most proud of?
[00:28:33]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think I am - just to get back tomy roots - I am a public sector attorney, I am a working parent, Iam a community advocate, and I have lived in the 4th CouncilDistrict for 25 years, and really have dedicated my 15-year publicservice career to advancing progressive policy, legal, andbudgetary solutions to some of our most pressing challenges. And Ihave worked in community to drive progressive policies forward, andI think my endorsem*nts reflect the work that I've done incommunity. I have endorsem*nts from five members of the King CountyCouncil, including Councilmember Kohl-Welles and CouncilmemberZahilay, who I've worked with directly around securing access tomore childcare, to addressing gender-based violence, to doing morefor affordable housing. And I think my endorsem*nts really speak tothe depth of work and the way that I have worked to elevatecommunity voices in community and doing that work. I would say thatone of the endorsem*nts I'm most proud of is CouncilmemberKohl-Welles' endorsem*nt because she's been a mentor to me and Ihave worked with her on a number of issues to improve the lives ofwomen in disproportionately impacted communities in King County.And I'm also proud of the endorsem*nt from my boss, A.G. BobFerguson. I have dedicated my career to being on the frontlines, tohelping enforce workers' rights to fair wages to equal pay, toprotect our environment. And I've done this work in the AttorneyGeneral's office and the fact that I have the support of my boss asI'm running for King County Council, just like he ran for KingCounty Council, and that he's been helping me out on the campaigntrail. And ensuring that I'm running a strong grassroots campaignreally means the world to me.
[00:30:20]CrystalFincher: Now, we've also talked about how importantit is to enact a lot of policy, to take care of people - obviously,we need to address staffing. All of the things that we've talkedabout today - a lot of them require revenue. We just ran a big levybecause we needed the revenue. The list of things that everyonesays is necessary, evidently costs more than we have in the budget,so new revenue is needed. What progressive revenue options exist atthe County level today, and will you pursue any of them?
[00:30:50]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, so I have a long history ofadvocating for progressive revenue, including the capital gains taxas a citizen advocate and board member of Washington's ParamountDuty. And so I have fought with, alongside a coalition of folksthat are really pushing for progressive revenue reform at the statelevel. I still think there's so much more we can do and lookforward to being a strong partner in that work. King County isprojected to face revenue shortfalls and has constrained revenuesources. I do wanna fight against austerity budgets and look reallycritically at how we can obtain authority from the Legislature topass truly progressive revenue sources that center working people.I think we also need to look at potentially lifting the 1% propertytax lid if we can provide exemptions for homeowners and fixedincome seniors. But I think the kind of frustrating thing about theCounty is it is revenue-constrained and that we need to work hardboth on the County Council and in partnership with communities tofigure out what more we can do to obtain authority to pass trulyprogressive revenue sources, whether or not that's taxing businessor looking at more progressive revenue sources other than propertytax and sales tax and some of these use fees. So I'm dedicated todoing that work in partnership with community and I'm reallylooking forward to that.
[00:32:26]CrystalFincher: Gotcha. And with the budget, King Countydoes incremental budgeting making it difficult for the public tounderstand - making it difficult for some people in government tounderstand, but especially the public - to understand how KingCounty funds are allocated in the base budget. What can be done tomake the budget easier for the public to understand andinfluence?
[00:32:47]SarahReyneveld: Yeah, I think that's an excellentquestion. We need more transparency in the budget process and weneed more participation from community at the County level in thebudget process. I have testified, for example, funding for themental health counselors under MIDD. I have testified foraffordable housing. I've testified for more childcare funding. Andsometimes it's difficult, as the budget comes over from theExecutive, to know what's different about the budget, right? And soI find generally that through this work as a member of the KingCounty Women's Advisory Board and as a citizen advocate that KingCounty budgets are not as accessible, for example, as legislativebudgets. And more needs to be done to ensure that they're moretransparent and accessible, and also that we're ensuring that thepublic is engaged in the budgeting process and understands it. So Ithink one of the things that we can do, and Councilmember Zahilayhas done such a great job of this, is just explaining the KingCounty budget process - how the budget comes over from theExecutive, what the budget looks like, and how to understand thebudget. I think another thing we could do is helping to reallycenter folks that historically have not had a seat at the table inthe budget process and have been excluded from power structures indeveloping policy and budgetary proposals - so that those folks areactually involved in the collaboration process through workinggroups and meetings and collaboration so that we're moving moretowards participatory budget models, where constituents are notjust involved in testifying, but really involved and activelyinvolved every step of the process and ultimately in the decisionsthat impact them. So I'm really interested in working with allcommunities, and particularly frontline communities that aredisproportionately impacted by these issues, and to really look tosee what we can do towards more participatory budgeting. But first,of course, we have to make that process more transparent.
[00:34:49]CrystalFincher: Now, as we said before, you have at leastone opponent now - the filing deadline isn't for a few weeks,couple weeks, few weeks here. So as you're talking to people whoare considering who they're gonna vote for in this race, why shouldthey vote for you over your opponents?
[00:35:08]SarahReyneveld: Thank you. I'm running because I wannacontinue the work that I've done with community and elevatecommunity voices here in the 4th Council District and beyond toadvance bold and transformative action for workers, for workingfamilies, and our environment on the King County Council. And as Isaid before, I think we're in a critical moment of time, and I amreally committed to working with our most impacted communities toensure that we are building back better and really creatingequitable economic recovery that centers workers and workingfamilies and leads to a more sustainable future. Like many in ourdistrict, I'm a working parent, I'm a public school parent, transitrider, community organizer, and I have really dedicated my careerto advancing progressive legal policy and budgetary solutions tosome of our most pressing challenges - and I think we've reallygotten results. As a member of the King County Women's AdvisoryBoard, I have worked in partnership with community and the KingCounty Council to secure investments in affordable housing,behavioral health, childcare, and services for survivors ofgender-based violence. And I really wanna build on that trackrecord. And I think I have the skills to do so - to really centercommunity voices and to advance really bold, progressivesolutions.
I think there's three things that I wouldhighlight to voters about why they should choose me in acompetitive race. One is community - I'm running for the communityand have demonstrated a history of leadership in my community,which is really reflected in our campaign's range of endorsem*ntsfrom elected officials to community leaders and labor. And I havelived experience as a mom and union member and transit rider thatis not only reflective of my district, but I feel can be valuableon the King County Council. And lastly, I have a demonstratedhistory of leadership in my community working to build coalitionsto deliver on progressive policies for workers and workingfamilies. And I think I've demonstrated that I'm unafraid tograpple with and do the real work of really advancingtransformative solutions that are necessary at this critical momentin time. And I really look forward to the conversation on thecampaign and hopefully to working with my community to ensureequitable economic recovery that really centers workers and workingfamilies and creates a more sustainable future for all.
[00:37:37]CrystalFincher: Thank you so much for joining ustoday.
[00:37:40]SarahReyneveld: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:37:42]CrystalFincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks,which is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. You canfollow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks &Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - justtype "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe tothe podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-liveshows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If youlike us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get afull transcript of this episode and links to the resourcesreferenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in theepisode notes.
Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.
