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• Panel Membership & Biographical Information
• Area Under Review
• Panel 2 Meeting Notes
• Panel 2 Final Report

Councilmember Nick Licata, Lead

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The Preparations and Planning Panel will examine all information gathering, consultation, and planning that preceded the WTO Ministerial. It will establish what threat assessments, warnings, evaluations, and other information, including press reports, documentaries, and accounts of similar previous gatherings, were provided the officials who conducted city planning, and the decisions they based on that information. It will examine the nature of agreements or understandings reached with potential demonstrators about the protection of the rights to assembly and free speech and the conduct of protests.

The panel will work to determine the following:

1. Identities of all city employees, state and federal employees, members of the Seattle community, and others, who participated in the WTO Planning.
2. The dates, place, participants, and duration of all planning meetings.
3. The mechanisms by which they assembled information, conferred, and deliberated.
4. The information on which persons involved based their planning, including documents or briefings by FBI, ATF, Secret Service, foreign governments, and any state or county law enforcement agencies. The extent to which information from undercover agents was received from any source.
5. The ways and extent that other similar national or international gatherings were examined for security preparations, including other WTO, NATO, APEC meetings, major sports gatherings such as Olympic and Goodwill Games, and US political conventions.
6. The details of all initial, intermediate, and final plans that were prepared, together with identities of persons who prepared, examined, edited, altered, or approved such plans.
7. The feedback, rejection, or acceptance of city plans by state, county, or federal officials, consultants, or others involved.
8. The dates and details of all "table exercises" that were conducted, the names of participants, and the results of those exercises.
9. Details of all contingency plans for civil emergency, including plans to use riot control methods and equipment, such as tear gas, pepper gas, or other technologies, plans to utilize other law enforcement agencies, federal troops or police, plans to declare curfews or close areas of the city, and plans to deploy, house, feed, and otherwise support special personnel.
10. Preparation, stockpiling, and amounts of riot control equipment for contingency use.
11. Financial and resource planning that detailed the costs of plans and contingencies.
12. The extent to which policy, training, staffing levels, and supervision helped or prevented law enforcement personnel in protecting the public or maintaining an environment in which peaceful protest could occur.
13. Contacts and communications with the SHO (Seattle Host Organization), community groups, and elected officials concerning legal or fiscal responsibility for the WTO meeting. Details of all proposals that might have imposed conditions or responsibilities on the SHO or WTO, and the outcome of such proposals.
14. Contacts or negotiations with county, state, or federal officials, including Members of Congress, about subsidizing the security costs of the meetings, and the results of such contacts or negotiations.
15. Decisions about the need for training of police, and what training was conducted for any officials, police, or others who would be involved, including police or law enforcement agencies outside Seattle who provided personnel under mutual aid agreements.
16. The nature and extent of briefings given all city officials, including the City Council, about planning by the Executive, SHO, or others in the Seattle Community
17. The nature and extent of all meetings and negotiations with groups planning to protest, including organized labor, environmental, and others.
18. The nature and extent of advance agreements with such groups about their conduct while demonstrating, and the strategic decisions by city officials. based on those agreements.
19. The number and affiliation of the protestors who were expected.
20. The final plan for parade route, off-limit areas, delegate areas, delegate protection, delegate movement, and protection of venues. Plans, if any, for operations on Capitol Hill.