The ARC staff will consist of a Director and such additional investigative and clerical personnel as the director finds necessary.

The Director will report directly to the chair of the Accountability Review Committee, and the full committee will have final review of his actions. The Director and the Panels will give ARC regular briefings on the status of their review & investigation. The Director will also provide the ARC with regular reports as to the budget, expenditures and schedule of the project.

The Director will also receive guidance from the Panels, and will have primary responsibility for coordinating panel activities and responding to the panels’ requests for information or scheduling interviews. The Director will assist in drafting reports prepared by each panel

ARC staff will assemble all relevant documents, email, and electronic communications, including but not limited to, the decision to host the WTO, the strategic planning done by the executive department, other public agencies and sponsoring groups, about the operations of police on the week of Nov 29th, and the Declaration of Civil Emergency by the Mayor (including the curfew and other emergency orders that issued therefrom). These documents may include notes of meetings, internal executive documents, records of county, state and federal authorities, including law enforcement agencies involved in the WTO, and records of non-government agencies involved in WTO events. The subpoena power of the Seattle City Council can be used, if necessary, to assemble these documents.

ARC staff will do initial research and interviews for the Panels, assembling documents and conducting initial interviews if necessary, and create a baseline of information on which recorded testimony will be based. Notes or minutes of such initial interviews will form part of the public record. ARC staff will brief the Panels and ARC regularly on the status of information gathered.

The Director, based on initial documentary and interview information gathered, will schedule face-to-face interviews with persons whose testimony the Panels deem critical to the inquiry. These interviews will be recorded and portions may be transcribed. They will form part of the public record once the panel reports are complete.

Panels will, in their initial meetings, receive from the review staff background information and briefings that will give them a grounding in documentary evidence in possession of the committee at the time they begin work. Each panel will hold at least seven (7) two-hour meetings, and individual members may be called upon to interview subjects of the review.

After briefings and examination of key evidence, panels will decide whom to interview for the record. Such interviews may be conducted by Committee Staff, by the panel as a whole, or by individual panel members with staff support. Such interviews will be tape recorded, and form part of the record of the review.

Staff will create a documented timeline of events and decision-making that accompanied those events up to and during the convention.