By Ron Espiritu, October 1, 2020

The University Sunrise Rotary Club program on October 1, 2020 was presented by Enrique Gonzalez & Jennifer Tippins of the Seattle Office of Public Accountability. Thanks to Lee Raaen for organizing the program.

In the past five months, there have major protests nationwide and globally due to the death of George Floyd while handcuffed and pinned to the ground by the Minneapolis police.   Seattle became a  hot spot for the violent confrontation between the protestors and the Seattle Police Department.  The Office of Police Accountability of received about 19,000 complaints file against the SPD for misconduct against the protestors.  At today, OPA representatives  Jennifer Tippins and Enrique Gonzalez, explained the role of OPA to investigate these complaints.

Prior to 2010, there was no formal procedure to investigate police bias and misconduct.  A lawsuit was filed against the City of Seattle which compelled the SPD to review and make changes in its training and policies and procedures.  In 2017, a City ordinance was passed to make these changes permanent and established the OPA which would have the authority to investigate police misconduct and recommend disciplinary action deemed necessary; it does not get involved in criminal complaints.  The OPA is staffed by civilian employees and independent from the SPD.

Anyone, including Seattle police employees, can file a complaint with the OPA.  In fact, in 2019, of the more than 900  complaints, 1/3 came from SPD employees.  The complaints are investigated internally then classified in these general categories:

1. Contact Log:  there was no policy violation by the SPD employee or no sufficient evidence to proceed any further.
2. Supervisor Action:  a minor violation which is addressed with coaching and training.
3. Mediation:  Complainant and officer agree to sit down with a mediator to resolve the issue.
4. Rapid Adjudication:  the officer agrees to the misconduct and accepts the consequences of his action.
5. Expedited Investigation:  the allegation, if true, constitutes a serious policy violation or other category of violation that OPA is required by law and policy to investigate. With the agreement of the Office of the Inspector General, the OPA recommendation is forward to the Chief of Police for disciplinary action
6. Investigation:  the policy violation is serious but further investigation is needed to gather additional evidence from witnesses, third parties involved and video from body or mounted patrol car cameras.  OPA then forwards its recommendation for disciplinary action to the Chief of Police.

Normally, the process is supposed to be completed in 180 days, but the current 19,000 complaints are being expedited to be completed in 60 days.  The public can go to the OPA web site to track a complaint.  The OPA plans on  posting  some of its cases on YouTube.

Find the OPA Annual Report 2019.

The Office of Police Accountability has authority over allegations of misconduct involving Seattle Police Department employees relating to SPD policy and federal, state, and local law. The Office of Police Accountability investigates complaints and recommends findings to the Chief of Police. The Office is led by a civilian director and supervisors, while its investigations are carried out by a mix of Seattle Police Department sergeants and civilian investigators.

Enrique Gonzalez is a community engagement specialist for the Office of Police Accountability. Prior to working for the Office, Enrique was one of the co-chairs of the Community Police Commission. He has worked on police accountability reform for over ten years and maintains long-standing connections in communities of color in South Seattle and King County. His work at this time focuses on building relationships with community and the Office of Police Accountability and providing information to people dealing with the impacts of policing in Seattle.

Jennifer Tippins is a Community Engagement Coordinator for the Office of Police Accountability. Before joining the Office in 2018, she worked at BERK Consulting in Seattle for nearly five years, where she led and supported outreach and engagement strategies for a variety of public policy projects with communities across WA State. She received a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Washington and is a former Fulbright Scholar in Hong Kong.

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly program. We meet via Zoom every Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. Pacific. The line opens at 7:15 a.m. Registration is not required. Login by clicking here.

Our program on September 17, 2020, featured Walker Lafleur of the Northwest Kidney Centers. Walker is an experienced Nurse Manager with fourteen years working in the hospital and health care industry. He has a Bachelor of Science in Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse from Fortis College, Tampa, FL and is working on an MBA from Western Governors University. He came to Seattle in 2018 to be a manager at the Northwest Kidney Centers.

Founded in Seattle in 1962, Northwest Kidney Centers is the world’s first dialysis organization. They are the provider of choice because of “high quality services, community connections and generous donor support.” They provided 276,500 dialysis treatments last year, about a quarter of all dialysis treatments in the state, for nearly 1,800 patients who dialyze in one of their centers or at home with support.

Walker presented a really terrific program about kidney health–a topic important to all of us. Kidneys remove waste and excess water from the body and helps regulate blood pressure.

Walker told us that one in three Americans are at risk for kidney disease. It is estimated that 37 million Americans have kidney disease, but most don’t know that they do. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the leading causes. Other causes include cardiovascular disease, aging, urinary infections, HIV/AIDS, and IV drug use.

Particularly at risk are Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asians. African-Americans are three times more likely to have kidney disease. People over 65 are 38 percent more likely.

Kidney disease costs the US $120 billion in 2017.

Signs of kidney disease include:

• Trouble sleeping,
• Low energy,
• Trouble concentrating,
• Dry, itchy skin,
• Frequent urge to urinate,
• Blood in the urine
• Eye puffiness,
• Swollen feet and ankles,
• Cramping, and
• Poor appetite.

On September 24, 2020, the program for the University Sunrise Rotary Club featured Trish Millines Dziko.

Trish is the co-founder and Executive Director of TAF. She founded the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) in 1996 after spending fifteen years as a developer, designer and manager in the high tech industry. A native of New Jersey who attended Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) on a basketball scholarship, she graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1979 at a time when few people of color and few women were entering the field. Her successful career brought her to Microsoft in the late-1980s, just as the pioneering software company was set to become a worldwide brand. 

Over the next decade of tremendous growth, she saw very little change in the high tech industry: women and people of color remained grossly underrepresented. After careful research, she traced the root of the problem to the lack of access to rigorous, relevant technology training in our public schools, particularly those in traditionally underserved communities of color. Trish left Microsoft in 1996, the same year she founded TAF. More information about TAF is available at www.techaccess.org.

Trish has led the growth of TAF into a statewide leader in STEM education, operating TAF Academy (a 6th to 12th grade, award-winning public school that is co-managed by TAF and the Federal Way Public School District), increasing the number of teachers of color through the Martinez Fellowship, and partnering with public schools to transform them into academic environments that will promote the highest level of student learning.

In addition to her work at TAF, Trish remains a committed, proactive leader and serves on the boards of several organizations that focus on children and education.

Trish and her spouse live on Vashon Island and are the proud parents of four children.

Trish said that we need a new revolution in education. Our expectations of students is too low, she said. She was critical of over-reliance on standardized tests and said that we need more resources in education.

She stressed that the mission of TAF included the building of relationships with public education. Teacher training, increasing diversity in staff, expanding the role of the community in education, and educational context are important objectives. Community support included both resources and the provision of role models for students.

Our program on September 10, 2020 featured Emma Le Du and Mike Madden of TINFA (Technology and Information For All). The University Sunrise Rotary Club has a long standing relationship of support for TINFA and its mission to bring technology to rural student learning in Guatemala.

Emma Le Dû is the Exec. Director of TINFA. She has previously held positions at the Grameen Foundation  as Senior Technical Program Manager. She has been in Information Technology for over 15 years, at Microsoft and Amazon.com in various positions in International and Program Management. Emma has spent two years in Lao P.D.R, as a computer consultant to the European Union and UNDP. She holds an Engineering degree in Robotics and Electronics (ESIGELEC in Rouen France) and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School (Harvard University) with a focus on Leadership and International Development. Emma is TINFA’s co-founder.

Mike Madden is retired and lives in the Loyal Heights neighborhood of Seattle, just north of Ballard. He attended Western Washington University and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, majoring in History and French. Mike taught at Meadowdale Junior High School for five years before joining Safeco Life Insurance Company, now known as Symetra Life Insurance. Mike retired from Symetra as Vice President and head of the Individual Product Line after a rewarding thirty-three year career there. Mike believes in volunteer service, having served several years as President of the Northwest Regional Board of Dollars for Scholars. He is a board member and Secretary of the University Sunrise Rotary Club. He is a volunteer with the Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas tutoring organization and is President of the Board of Bright Future Dollars for Scholars.  

Over several years, the University Sunrise Rotary Club and Foundation have contributed $30,000 to TINFA. These gifts have been augmented by $20,000 from University Rotary and other local Rotary Clubs. In addition, the Rotary International Foundation matched these grants to raise the total to $149,000.

The program brings technology and training to teachers in rural schools in Guatemala. Thus far, forty-one teachers have been trained in the program. Each teacher receives 96 hours of training. Some of the teachers have no phone or most have no computers.

The schools are facing, of course, an additional challenge with closures due to COVID-19. To help, TINFA has coordinated with participating teachers to create workbooks to distribute to students at home. The program has been very successful with 94% of the workbooks completed and returned by the students.

In response to a question from the Club, Emma said one of the biggest impacts of the program is to introduce how technology can impact on people’s lives. This is life changing, as new doors are opened in poor rural areas of Guatemala that help students–and their families–realize and use previously unknown resources. The key, she said, is to open this door as it will change lives forever.

TINFA is having its annual fundraiser, Love of Learning, on October 3, 2020 – Saturday, – from 5:30 to 7:30. It will be virtual and Rotarians are hosting several virtual rooms.  You are invited to join a virtual room with a smaller number of people and have a chance to chat.  Then you will join the main program for information and inspiration.  This is a great organization doing an amazing job. 

The Keynote Speaker is Sonia Nazario.  She is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems.  She is best known for “Enrique’s Journey,” her report of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother.  It became a national bestseller. 

To join one of the University Sunrise Rotary rooms, as a guest, please e-mail Pam Mushen at pdmushen@gmail.com , Lee Raaen at lee@raaen.com , or Mike Madden at mikeminseattle@gmail.com.  Your hosts have paid the guest registration fee ($35) and are looking forward to having you join them. 

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly programs. We meet via Zoom every Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. Pacific. The line opens at 7:15 a.m. Registration is not required. Login by clicking here.