SPU Welcomes New Customer Review Panel

Meet the residents who will help provide a vital avenue for community voices and influence in how Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) fulfills its mission. SPU is excited to introduce its new Customer Review Panel (CRP).

SPU is a community-centered, One Water, Zero Waste utility. We live out this vision through the contributions of our volunteer CRP members. They bring diverse community perspectives and lived experience, as well as professional and personal expertise to SPU. CRP members' role is to advise SPU leadership and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council, as they did recently for the 2025-2030 Strategic Business Plan Update, on utility rates, water waste, and environmental priorities.

This year, we conducted a joint recruitment effort for the CRP and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, leading to an impressive pool of applicants. We want to extend a special thank you to our partners at Department of Neighborhoods (DON) who helped spread the word to their networks to recruit these CRP Members. This includes DON's Equity and Engagement Advisors, who have been guiding us to ensure our outreach efforts are effective and inclusive in recruiting new diverse members, while enhancing coordination.

Meet the New CRP Members

Each member is dedicated to the work in their respective communities and builds on SPU's goal to expand representation on the panel. They bring a wide range of experience, backgrounds, and geographic locations including small businesses, technology, and environmental conservation. All of this adds to our existing connections to communities, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), low-income, unhoused, immigrant and refugee communities.

New Members

Nafiso Samatar

Nafiso Samatar works as President of the Somali Business Alliance. She has a long history of helping small businesses, especially in minority, immigrant and refugee communities, coordinate with the City of Seattle and access essential city services. For the past 20 years, she has focused on empowering these communities by helping them navigate city services. SBA has established strong relationships with local governments, regional organizations, chambers of commerce and community organizations. Nafiso is interested in helping with outreach to small businesses to educate them about the benefits of sustainability and conservation efforts, such as improving water-use efficiency, to reduce their Utility costs.

Manav Goel

Manav Goel works in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood, as Technical Lead in the Social Impact organization at Meta. He is a board member of Sound Generations and past board member of the organization, Hey Mentor. Manav has strong interests in upgrading the Utility infrastructure for climate resilience, enhancing the innovation cycle of "circular economy" (which focuses on reusing, repurposing, and recycling) by the strategic use of waste as a resource, and the use of information technologies (including artificial intelligence and social media platforms) to improve organizational performance and ensure equitable community engagement.

Allison Mettler

Allison Mettler, a resident of the Lawton Park neighborhood, is working as an intern for SPU's Water Efficiency Team. She also volunteers for Friends of Discovery Park. Allison has strong interests in improving water quality through stormwater runoff management and removing barriers to electronic waste collection. She would also like to find effective ways of communicating SPU priorities to newcomers and others who may not have adequate access through current information campaigns.

Reappointed Members

Miki Sodos

Miki Sodos is a small business owner in Seattle. She is a 30-year veteran of the food service industry, and she co-owns Bang Bang Kitchen in Rainier Valley and Bang Bang Café in Belltown. Originally from New Mexico, she moved to Seattle in 2002 after graduating from the University of New Mexico with a political science degree. She has been a vocal advocate for small business issues and a participant in social and small business causes. Miki is interested in providing equal quality of services to all Seattle neighborhoods and increasing education about clean water issues, particularly in marginalized communities

Gretchen Glaub

Gretchen is the Salmon Recovery Coordinator for Snohomish County. Gretchen is interested in Puget Sound ecosystem recovery, specifically addressing water quality issues - contaminants of emerging concern (e.g., PAHs, PBDEs). She describes herself as: a "renter who has worked with landlords to implement updates for resource conservation (water, heating); professional interested in supporting activities to recover our endangered species and restore our salmon runs on the brink of listing; volunteer invested in sharing knowledge and passion for Puget Sound environs with others; individual with deep love for our shared environment." SPU is excited and honored that each has chosen to volunteer and help make Seattle a healthier, stronger, and more affordable place for everyone.

Learn more about the CRP.

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