Photos Courtesy of Keith Williams, Flyright Productions Graphic Design and Editing by Kalea Perry

1. 1
January 2019
As we begin 2019 I ask Tabor 100
members to reach out to the Legislature to
request that they support Initiative 1000.
I-1000 will go a long way to right the
wrongs of the sorely misguided I-200 which was
voted into law in 1998. Estimates show that it has
deprived minority and women-owned businesses
of almost $4 billion in opportunities.
I also ask members of the Legislature to adopt
I-1000 instead of sending it to the ballot box or
offering an alternative. In this Legislative session,
the most direct and expedient way to aid women
and minority communities regarding education,
employment and contracting is for you to vote
“yes” for I-1000. The initiative turned in more than
380,000 signatures and needs about 260,000
certified voters out of that number in order for it to
go to the Legislature. We urge the Legislature to
vote the initiative into law as soon as the
signatures are certified.
The case for the Legislature quickly turning I-1000
into law is compelling:
1) It has garnered more signatures than any ballot
measure to the Legislature ever;
2) It enjoys the full and unequivocal
support of the three living former
Governor’s and the current occupant of the
office – Governor Jay Inslee;
3) Washington is only one of 8 states in the nation
that has banned affirmative action and I-1000 will
turn that around; and
4) I-200 has stunted the growth of our businesses,
education and employment opportunities for more
than 20 years.
Tabor 100 will be fully engaged in advocating for
I-1000. We will be reaching out to all of you often
to join in this fight.
I cannot talk about I-1000 without recognizing
former State Representative Jesse Wineberry and
Gubernatorial Advisor and successful
businessman, Nat Jackson. They have worked
tirelessly for more than a year to see I-1000 be
made law. They represent selfless devotion to a
just cause. We applaud them and, more
importantly, will make sure what they have
promoted over the last year becomes law and
makes for untold opportunities in minority
communities statewide.
Message from the President
Tabor 100 is an association of entrepreneurs and business
advocates who are committed to economic power, educational
excellence and social equity for African-Americans and the
community at large.
3
Brian Bonlender
Page 2
EEC Update
Page 3
Mian Rice
Page 4
Honoring Mrs. Jones
Page 5 - 6
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Vision Becomes Reality

2. 2
Winds of Change
By Brian Bonlender
Some of you may know by now
that I have resigned my position
as director with Washington
State’s Department of
Commerce, and I’ll no longer be
with the agency after
mid-January. After six years
working intensely with the diverse programs and
great staff at Commerce, I look forward to
spending more time in Seattle with my family and
exploring what is next. As I’ve reflected on my
tenure, I’d like to share a few highlights with you.
Under my leadership, I’m proud that Commerce
reimagined and reinvigorated Washington’s
economy. While challenges remain, our state is
now leading the way in the fight against
homelessness. During my time here, Commerce
created new programs around mental health and
early learning and shored up programs that
support local government infrastructure.
Importantly, I helped set a vision for years to
come by centering our agency staff around the
shared mission of strengthening communities.
Commerce has begun exploring how to more
equitably direct its pass-through funds throughout
the state. Because of its key role to strengthen
communities, the department each year invests
hundreds of millions of dollars into Washington by
funding community infrastructure, affordable
housing, clean energy, water infrastructure, and
myriad other essential services and programs.
Community organizations, cities, counties, tribes
and many other entities carry out the projects and
programs; in turn hiring thousands of contractors
each year. As an initial step, Commerce is having
its contractors report the dollars that go to certified
minority, women and veteran
subcontractors. This baseline information will
inform the agency’s future work in helping to
increase opportunities for these diverse
businesses, as they create and maintain needed
jobs throughout our communities. In addition,
Commerce is committed to improving access to
funding and to services for communities and
people who have the greatest needs. As far as we
know, Commerce is the first state agency to do
this.
I am both proud and excited to have launched this
work, and I look forward to seeing the next steps
as a Washingtonian who is personally dedicated
to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Brian has been an active “behind the scenes” supporter
of Tabor 100, including providing some of the first funds
to help open the Economic Empowerment Center. We
wish him the best in his new venture.
Tabor 100

3. Equity Empowerment Center Status – January 2019
We are very pleased with the progress in the development of our Tabor Equity Empowerment
Center. We are on track for opening by mid-year 2019.
We continue our lease negotiations for the Intergate building in Tukwila. The discussions are going
very well and we see no impediments towards reaching a signed agreement in a timely way. We
are now discussing and designing the tenant improvements that will create the space to be the
warm and inviting facility we intend. The lease cost is within our intended budget and annual
operating cost expectations, while providing all the space and features we hoped for. It will
include 40 parking spaces, a number of private offices, and large training, conference and general
meeting spaces. We know this will become a community gathering place for larger events as well
as a business-based center to enhance business capacity.
We are also well on track for our funding. We appreciate the help from Council President Bruce
Harrell, Sound Transit, King County, the Port of Seattle, the Washington State Department of
Commerce, and the Washington State Department of Transportation. We have all the funding
secured for start-up costs as well as most of our 2019 operational funding. We are grateful to
those who have helped make this possible.
During the coming months, we will be preparing specific information for those who are interested
in a membership to the EEC, whether you seek a private office, a personal desk, or just occasional
use. We look forward to offering tours of the facility as it begins construction improvements in the
spring.
Nancy Locke

4. 4
The Port of Seattle has
promoted Mian Rice to the
position of Director of Diversity
in Contracting. He was in the
acting-director role from his
prior position as Small
Business Program and Policy Manager. The
promotion is effective immediately.
"Mian Rice brings over 23 years of public and
private sector experience to this position, having
managed complex projects in limited time-frames
while delivering results,” said Dave McFadden,
Director, Economic Development Division.
Rice’s work history includes time at CH2M Hill,
where he supervised public projects overseas,
King County, and Seattle; the City of Seattle—
where he served in several roles during the
Nickels administration—as a Transportation Policy
Advisor, the Office of Intergovernmental
Relations, and the Department of Executive
Administration; Turner Construction; and a prior
stint at the Port of Seattle as an aviation planner
at Sea-Tac International Airport.
“I look forward to improving opportunities for small
and WMBE businesses, to promote diversity in
Port contracts, and to provide economic equity
across the region,” said Mian Rice. “For me, this is
the role my work experience has led me to, and it
will be an honor to help others succeed.”
The position supervises the Port's new diversity
and contracting initiative that aims to increase to
15 percent the amount of spend on WMBE
contracts and triple the utilization of women and
minority business suppliers over the next five
years. The position will also define and drive
broader small and WMBE business development
initiatives that create middle-class jobs and
support Seattle’s working waterfront and Sea-Tac
International Airport.
Mian Rice Port of Seattle Director of Diversity in Contracting
https://www.portseattle.org/news/mian-rice-promoted-new-director-diversity-contracting

5. 5
Continued on page 6
‘While I’m gone, make good decisions’: Jeannette Jones, a Seattle educator for
nearly 50 years, dies at 72
By: Dahlia Bazzaz Seattle Times staff reporter [originally published: 1/8/19]
Let us honor Mrs. Jones, and her challenge –
and make good decisions around our kids and
education…
Jeannette Jones weighed barely over 100
pounds, but she was hard to miss.
At Washington Middle School, where she worked
as an administrator and disciplinarian for three
decades, you could often find her atop a chair,
bullhorn in hand, telling students to pull up their
pants or counting the seconds until the bell rang.
When she died last month at 72, hundreds took to
social media and shared their stories of Mrs.
Jones, a proud graduate of Garfield High School,
a lover of the color purple and a dedicated
educator of Seattle’s Central District preteens.
The cause was cancer, her family said.
Many students at Washington Middle got to know
her in detention, where she had a reputation for
being firm yet compassionate. By the time she
wrapped up her 47-year career at Seattle Public
Schools in 2016, more than a dozen of her former
students had become her godchildren.
“There are very few people who live their calling,”
said Matthew Jones, her husband of 49 years.
“And she definitely did.”
As a child, she demonstrated her knack for
leading young people, her family said: In
elementary school, she’d assign homework and
create lesson plans for the kids in her Central
District neighborhood.
She started working for the district in 1969 after
graduating from Central Washington University,
where she was the college’s first black
homecoming queen and a regular participant in
civil-rights demonstrations, said her daughter Ain
Powell.
As an educator in what was once a predominantly
black neighborhood, Mrs. Jones was conscious of
how experiences in school could follow youth of
color for the rest of their lives. Her approach to
discipline was patience and consistency, and she
was careful to never use suspension or expulsion
as a knee-jerk response. She was also
loving: She gave students rides home from
parties, and got to know their families.
Jeannette Jones at her Washington Middle School office on
Valentine’s Day in 2016, the year she retired. She could
often be found wearing purple, her favorite color. (Photo
courtesy of Jones’ family

6. 6
‘While I’m gone, make good decisions’: Jeannette Jones, a Seattle educator for
nearly 50 years, dies at 72
“Most teachers and administrators would have
easily expelled me from school,” said former
Washington Middle student Ahuacan
DeGruy. Instead, he said, he spent an “enormous”
amount of time in Mrs. Jones’ office.
DeGruy, now 41, was academically astute but had
a temper, he said. While another teacher told
DeGruy he wouldn’t graduate from high school,
Mrs. Jones saw past the anger, even when it was
directed toward her. She assured his mother that
he’d be OK, never wavering in her belief that he
would succeed.
It wasn’t until later that he realized the educator’s
impact. DeGruy kept in touch with Mrs. Jones,
returning to update her on his life milestones —
graduating with honors from Morehouse College,
earning an MBA from Duke University. She
attended his mother’s memorial service, and
DeGruy considers her two daughters as sisters.
“Mrs. Jones recognized the hardships as a young
black man that I would face in my life,” said
DeGruy. “She loved her students through thick
and thin, and wasn’t obligated to.”
Mrs. Jones’ enthusiasm for her job made
everyone a better teacher, said Bob Knatt, former
band director at Washington Middle.
Over the years, photos of DeGruy and other
students covered the walls of her office at
Washington Middle so tightly that in some places
the original paint was no longer visible. Matthew
Jones, her husband, said they seldom traveled
anywhere — including places as far away as New
Zealand — without hearing a former student yell,
“Mrs. Jones!”
Once in a while, former students who were
incarcerated would call Mrs. Jones from prison.
Seeing Mrs. Jones’ community impact inspired her
nephew Calvin Watts to follow in her footsteps.
He’s now the superintendent of Kent School
District.
When she wasn’t spending hours after school with
students or organizing community events, Mrs.
Jones was a cheerleading coach and volunteered
at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, where
she led the Christian education program and
served on the church security team. She also
helped her oldest daughter, Dayo Edwards, with
her catering business.
“She prided herself on being consistently Mrs.
Jones in all of her glory — at church, at the
grocery store, everywhere,” said Edwards.
After Mrs. Jones retired from Seattle Public
Schools in 2016, Edwards helped her mother
clean out her office at Washington Middle. She
snapped a picture of the message Mrs. Jones had
written on the whiteboard just outside her door.
It said, “While I’m gone, make good decisions.”
Mrs. Jones is survived by her two daughters, Ain
Powell and Dayo Edwards, her husband,
Matthew, three siblings — Francis Gladney and
Frank and Roy Graham — three grandchildren
and 15 godchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m.
Saturday, Jan. 12, at Mount Zion Baptist Church.
Flowers may be sent to Columbia Funeral Home.
Continued from page 5

7. 7
December 2018 General Meeting

8. 8
THE TABOR 100 BOARD
President: Ollie Garrett
President@Tabor100.org
Vice President: Brian Sims
VP@Tabor100.org
Treasurer: Aundrea Jackson
Treasurer@Tabor100.org
Secretary: Sherlita Kennedy
Secretary@Tabor100.org
Membership: Vacant
Membership@Tabor100.org
Education: Kevin C. Washington
Education@Tabor100.org
Public Affairs: Henry Yates
PublicAffairs@Tabor100.org
Economic Development: Manal al-Ansi
EconomicDevelopment@Tabor100.org
Government Affairs: David Hackney
GovernmentAffairs@Tabor100.org
Fund Development: Abdul Yusuf
FundDevelopment@Tabor100.org
Business Development: Anthony Burnett
BusinessDev@Tabor100.org
TABOR OFFICE
2330 130th Ave. NE #101
Bellevue, WA 98005
425-882-4800 x 107
Staff@Tabor100.org
Newsletter Graphic Design and Editor:
Kalea Perry, KaleaPerry@Hotmail.com
WE ENCOURAGE YOU
TO REACH OUT!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Jan. 26: Tabor 100 General Meeting,
10am-12pm, Central Area Senior Center
Jan. 31: Downtown Redmond Link Extension
Outreach Event Small and Disadvantaged
Business (DBEs), 4pm-7pm, Tukwila Community
Center
Feb. 3: Dark Divas, 1pm & 7pm, Langston
Hughes Cultural Arts Center
Feb. 5: Sound Transit Drop In, 11am-12pm,
Sound Transit Headquarters
Feb. 13: UW Supplier Orientation, 1pm-2:30pm,
UW Roosevelt Commons West, 3rd Floor
(Pre-Registration Required)
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Jan. 26: Education Committee meets after the
Tabor General Meeting, from 12-2pm at the
Central Area Senior Center Combined Library
and Computer Room

9. 9

10. The City is committed to socially-responsible procurement and promoting social equity through our contracts. We work to
ensure open and fair procurements, competitive and fair pricing, environmentally-sustainable solutions, best labor practices,
access to equal benefits and utilization of WMBE firms, when applicable, in City bid decisions and contracts.
Your City WMBE Team
Director Liz Alzeer 206-684-4535
WMBE Compliance Miguel Beltran 206-684-4525
WMBE Assistance Carmen Kucinski 206-684-0188
City Purchasing Pam Tokunaga 206-233-7114
Mayor’s Policy Advisor for Economic
Inclusion and Contracting Equity Edson Zavala 206-684-5584
Department WMBE Contacts
Office of Arts and Culture Sheila Moss 206-233-7016
Office of City Auditor Melissa Alderson 206-386-4168
Seattle Civil Service Commission Jennifer Greenlee 206-233-7118
Seattle Community Police Commission Fe’ Lopez 206-684-5175
Dept. of Education and Early Learning Donnie Grabowski 206-233-2603
Dept. of Information Technology Jeremy Doane 206-684-5962
Dept. of Neighborhoods Grace Dygico 206-684-0466
Dept. of Planning and Development Samuel Assefa 206-386-1183
Dept. of Construction and Inspections Denise Campbell 206-386-4035
Finance and Administrative Services Javier Valdez 206-684-5584
Seattle Employees Retirement System Deontrae Sherrard 206-615-1431
Department of Human Resources Solomon Alemayehu 206-733-9175
Human Services Department Terry Hayes 206-684-0275
Law Department Dana Anderson 206-684-7761
Legislative Department Eric Ishino 206-684-8141
Seattle Public Library Jay Donahue 206-684-7410
Dept. of Education and Early Learning Donnie Graboski 206-233-2603
Municipal Court John Kerr 206-684-8274
Office of Economic Development Amanda Allen 206-684-8894
Office of Hearing Examiner Patricia Cole 206-615-1570
Office of Intergovernmental Relations Jasmin Weaver 206-684-8208
Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Katherine Cortes 206-733-9116
Office of Sustainability and Environment Jeanie Boawn 206-615-0817
Seattle Parks and Recreation Sue Goodwin 206-615-0374
Seattle Police Department Valarie Anderson 206-733-9315
Seattle Police Pension Fund Dan Oliver 206-386-1289
Seattle City Light Kara Williams 206-684-3641
Seattle Department of Transportation Viviana Garza 206-684-5188
Seattle Center Ned Dunn 206-684-7212
Seattle Fire Department Julie McCarty 206-386-1259
Seattle Firefighters Pension Board Steven Brown 206-625-4355
Seattle Ethics and Elections CommissionWayne Barnett 206-684-8577
Seattle Office for Civil Rights Brenda Anibarro 206-684-4514
Seattle Public Utilities Katia Garcia 206-733-9155
WMBE Program
The City actively supports utilization of
WMBE on City contracts as both primes
and subcontractors, and each City
department establishes plans and annual
voluntary goals for WMBE inclusion in
consulting and purchasing contracts. The
City recognizes WMBE firms that self-
identify with at least 51 percent minority or
women ownership. To learn more about the
City’s WMBE programs, contact the
Contract Compliance Manager, Miguel
Beltran at 206-684-4525
Priority Hire
City construction projects of $5 million or
more operate under a community
workforce agreement (CWA) and are
required to have a percentage of project
hours performed by workers living in
economically distressed areas and to
achieve goals for hiring women and people
of color. For more information contact the
Labor Equity Manager, Anna Pavlik at
206-615-1112
Acceptable Work Site
The City requires that our construction work
sites are respectful, appropriate, and free
from bullying, hazing and other similar
behaviors. CPCS monitors work site,
provides trainings and materials, responds
to complaints, and enforces as needed. For
more information, contact Michael DeGive
at 206-386-4128
WMBE Technical Assistance
The City of Seattle provides FREE
technical assistance to businesses seeking
to bid on government contracts. The
Technical Assistance office is managed
independently by the Washington
Procurement Technical Assistance Center
(PTAC) on the 41st floor of the Seattle
Municipal Tower. For more information,
contact Kylene Petersn at 206.684-8594
seattle@washingtonPTAC.org
Social Responsibility in City of Seattle Contracting