4/17/23, 9:09 AM

Mail - Commission-Public-Records - Outlook

[EXTERNAL] North SeaTac Park
Michele Smith 
Mon 4/17/2023 8:26 AM

To: Commission-Public-Records ;Calkins, Ryan
;Cho, Sam ;Felleman, Fred
;Hasegawa, Toshiko ;Mohamed, Hamdi
;noemie.vassilakis@gmail.com 
WARNING: External email. Links or attachments may be unsafe.

Dear Port Members,
For months, the public has reached out to you on the subject of North SeaTac Park, including
a petition signed by nearly 3,000 community members. I personally have talked to many Port
employees and have walked the South side of the park with some of them explaining the importance
of Tub Lake and the environment for the many species of birds, plants and other animals that depend
on this, one of the last remaining wild areas left for them.
As I’m not aware of any public statements you may have made on whether you support permanent
protection of the entirety of this park, I'm writing to respectfully request your response to this question:
Do you support permanent protection of the entirety of North SeaTac Park and will you act
immediately to prevent further steps toward commercial development of land in this park
until there has been time to identify and implement solutions to permanently protect it?
I hope your answer is “yes”. If it is not, please share what it would take for you to get to yes. This park
is an important part of our community, for OUR CHILDREN, the bicyclists, rugby players,
soccer players, dog walkers and NATURE LOVERS.
Sincerely,
Michele Smith
206-819-8553
burienmichele@gmail.com

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4/18/23, 2:43 PM

Mail - Commission-Public-Records - Outlook

[EXTERNAL] Language Access in our region
Valenzuela, Matias 
Tue 4/18/2023 12:14 PM

To: Commission-Public-Records 
Cc: Levy, Susan (Susie) 
WARNING: External email. Links or attachments may be unsafe.

Dear Port of Seattle Commissioners:
At Public Health - Seattle & King County, we believe language access services are equity in action. These
services assist individuals and communities in the ability to find, understand and use information and
services to inform health and other decisions and actions for themselves and others. As information is
often only created in English, multilingual communities are days behind, or left out entirely, in receiving
basic and vital information. Additionally, information tends to be text heavy, culturally irrelevant, and
does not follow basic literacy principals. Community based language access programs provide timely,
culturally responsive, and accurate information to regional communities.
For institutions and governments, creating strong Language Access Orders are a critical step in serving
our communities. During the past 15 years, we at Public Health and in King County have taken concrete
steps, including:
In 2009 we passed our Translation Policy as part of Public Health’s comment to Language Access
and equity.
In 2010, based on our Public Health policy, King County Executive Dow Constantine created a
Language Access/Translation Executive Order.
In 2016, the King County Immigrant and Refugee Task Force, which became the basis for the
Immigrant and Refugee Commission, called out language access as an essential component in the
successful integration of immigrants and refugees.
In 2018, the King County Council adopted an ordinance to protect and support immigrants and
refugees. This ordinance now in King County code 2.15 lays out language access requirements for
King County government.
In 2020, as part of our COVID-19 pandemic response and our declaration of Racism as a Public
Health Crisis, Public Health created a Language Access Team to provide centralized, quality
language access services based on community approaches and relationships to provide critical
health and other information to all residents.
Public Health - Seattle & King County is eager to be a partner with other jurisdictions and organizations
in our collective language access work that better serve our communities.
Sincerely,
Matías Valenzuela, PhD (he/him/él)
Director, Office of Equity & Community Partnerships
Public Health Seattle & King County

206-263-8697

kingcounty.gov/depts/health/equity

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