Dear OSE Acting Director Lylianna Allala,

Congratulations on your appointment to head up the Office of Sustainability and Environment. 

I wanted to bring to your attention several ongoing issues that have been raised by myself and other members of the public at meetings of the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission starting in 2025 and continuing in 2026.  I and other members of the public have raised these issues numerous times in public comments before the Commission, but these issues continue to be unaddressed by Commission staff. 

The first issue concerns violations of the Washington State Open Meetings Act and not complying with the stated  responsibilities in the Commission’s bylaws to post meeting materials and recordings, not keeping the commission’s website updated, not posting draft meeting notes and other documents the Commission will vote on in advance of the meeting on the agenda, and not timely posting adopted meeting notes.

The second issue concerns continued lengthy delays in filling vacant Urban Forestry Commission seats, which reduces expertise needed to help evaluate issues before the Commission. 

Steve Zemke – former Urban Forestry Commissioner for 6.5 years

Chair of Tree PAC and Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest

The first issue regards violations of the Washington State Open Meetings Act: 

Inadequate Posting of Urban Forestry Commission meeting agendas, digital recordings and adopted minutes  (for Years 2025 and 2026)

• No digital recording of meetings posted – Feb 2025, March 2025, July 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026, Feb 2026 
• No draft meeting notes  posted – March 2025, Oct 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026, Feb 2026
• No  adopted meeting notes posted – Feb 2025, March 2025, Oct 2025, Nov 2025, Jan 2026
• No agenda posted – Nov. 2025 (link does not work) 

 The Jan 13, 2021 adopted Coordinator Protocols for the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission state the following responsibilities:

• 6. Record Commission meetings and produce meeting summaries for review and adoption by the Commission
• 8. Manage and update Commission’s website, including posting meeting materials and recordings.
• 10. Coordinate internal and external Commission communications. 

 For comparison, postings in 2021 to 2024, are complete and detailed and meet requirements of the Washington State Open Meetings Act. They also meet the adopted Coordinator protocols. In addition, separate posting of presentations by city staff make it much easier to find and share highlights of meetings, presentations, adopted UFC positions and letters and not having to search through an entire 2 hour recording to find a presentation.

The second issue is continued lengthy delays in filling UFC vacancies:

The second issue is the continuation of delayed appointments to fill Urban Forestry Commission vacancies which reduces key urban forestry areas of expertise on the Commission. Current vacant positions include: 

• Position 4 – hydrologist – vacant since Oct 2025 (mayoral appointment) 
• Position 6 – landscape architect – vacant since August 2025 (mayoral appointment)
• Position 7 – NGO Representative – vacant since April 2025 city council appointment)
• Position 8 – development or utility representative – vacant since Jan 2026 (mayoral appointment) 
• Position 9 – economist, financial analyst, realtor or similar professional – vacant since Sept 2025 (Urban Forestry Commission appointment)

The Jan 13, 2021 adopted Coordinator Protocols for the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission states the following responsibility:

• 13. Run recruitment processes for Commission members in Coordination with City Council and Mayor’s Office staff. 

As in 2025, vacancies are still not being timely filled. 

There is no notice on the UFC website regarding a timeline or process to fill these vacancies.  These vacancies are taking months to fill. Delays reduce the actual time the Commissioners serve. Once a seat is either known to be vacant due to a resignation or an end of a term with notice someone does not want to be reappointed to a second term, or a second term is known to be ending, the information on how to apply, including where to send a resume and letter of interest should is available on the UFC website so that vacancies can be filled much quicker.

While there are currently 5 vacant positions, the Seattle Boards and Commissions website currently only lists 3 vacancies on their website. They also need to be timely notified.

Please note. The above comments on posting meeting agendas, recordings, minutes,  posting separate presentations and timely efforts to fill vacant UFC positions are meant to be helpful. The goal should be to increase public accessibility and the functioning of the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission. Resolving the stated issues will help UFC commissioners, the Office of Sustainability and Environment, city staff, the City Council and the Mayor’s office as well as the public and news media in being updated on the commission’s meetings, presentations, recommendations and other activities.  This is especially helpful for anyone who is not able to attend a meeting but wants to review what was presented and discussed. A good updated public record also greatly assists new Commissioners in getting up to speed much quicker on urban forestry issues before the Commission that they are expected to help advise the City Council and Mayor on. 

This e-mail was sent to Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, OSE’s acting Director, OSE’s Urban Forestry Coordinator, UFC’s Liasson and the Seattle City Council’s Chair of the Land Use and Environmental Sustainabilty Committee. on Feb. 19, 2026. It is now Feb. 28, 2026 and no response has been received and no correction have been made on the Seattle Urban Forestry Commission website.