CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE relating to civil rights; authorizing the Director of the Office for Civil Rights or her designee to execute an agreement with the Social Justice Fund, a Washington non-profit, to provide services relating to zero youth detention projects; amending Ordinance 124927 by lifting a budget proviso; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
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WHEREAS, the City Council passed Resolution 31614 in 2015, endorsing a vision for The City of Seattle to become a city with zero use of detention for youth; and
WHEREAS, The City of Seattle has developed a Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) to implement its longstanding commitments to social justice and ending racism; and
WHEREAS, the City's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) works to advance civil rights and end barriers to equity; and
WHEREAS, Resolution 31614 requested that OCR develop a report that outlines a strategy for engaging City departments, including law enforcement, community members, anti-racist community-based agencies, and partner agencies in the development of the City's Action Plan; and
WHEREAS, OCR completed this report and presented it to the City Council at its February 16, 2016, Council Briefing; and
WHEREAS, as part of the City Council's 2016 budget process, the Council added $600,000 to OCR's budget for work on Zero Youth Detention projects, and imposed a budget proviso requiring OCR to contract with the Social Justice Fund to administer a community-based competitive bid process to allocate funding towards youth detention alternative services and requiring OCR to contract with the organizations awarded funding through that process; and
WHEREAS, the City Council now prefers that the Social Justice Fund contract directly with the organizations awarded the funding through the competitive bid process to provide the youth detention alternative services; and
WHEREAS, OCR and the Social Justice Fund are now...
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