Ok. He was a patrol sergeant. Was his, uh, request? Well, good to know.
Mm. Derek Allen is the detective sergeant now? Ok. Yeah, I asked and
I asked Andy, I'm like, what should I do? This happens all the time. He just, like,
keep calling in. But really the non mech mind is that better than 911? Something
like that?
I know I would too. Well, I've done that once but then it was like, this feels this
is happening all the time. I'll be like 911 all the time. One of those people, not
my goal in mind. Good morning. Will. Good morning.
Mhm.
So, every time I drive down Iron down the road I think I can watch for Speeders.
Mm. Good to know. What are you seeing that?
Not? Ok. Note to self do not speed on Irondale road.
It's not even, I don't, I don't worry about, I know that much. Although I've been
getting a lot of phone calls about it.
There's a lot more Speeders nowadays. The same ties in with the impatient and
are excellent. Seems like we're having accidents all the time. We're all daylight,
sunny days. Single car off the road with no impairment.
I see people distracted and
I see people passing, like, around prospect all the time that 40 mile an hour zone,
people just get jacked up and passed like, five cars at once and, oh, yeah.
Yeah, I like rageful following too close. Yeah, I've had that happen.
Good times. It's like we all lost our social skills during COVID and there's still
not coming back. Hopefully not all of us but something so
people, it feels like. No, no, of course not. It, it's
just wait for them where he's at home.
Like you're in some kind of cafeteria or something.
It's, yeah, I usually sit over the bar behind me. That, that's where I'm usually
sitting pointing this way. But sorry, I can't be there in person when you said you
were seeing Greg over or something. I thought you said a ho and then I thought it
a recording in progress
bell to stop. And good morning everyone. I'll call this meeting of the Jefferson
County Board of County commissioners to order. I hope everyone had a nice weekend.
Um, I'll say I loved hearing the, um, the ferry come and go twice as frequently.
I can hear from my house, the whistle as they pull out. And it's very nice to hear
more fairies. It's funny. II I didn't realize I've gotten used to the, them being
spread out, but having an extra ferry run I think was really helpful for the Boat
Festival. I hope the Boat Festival was a big success and luckily the smoke kind of
stayed at bay wasn't too bad. Um, anything before we get started, Mr Brotherton is
joining us virtually, um, anything Greg before we get started. No, just sorry. I
can't be there in person. Ok. All right. We will start this morning with public comments.
As we always do, we welcome comment from the public on any topic. We ask that you
address the commissioners only uh, for up to three minutes, there is a light, there
is green. Um, the 1st 2.5 minutes, the yellow light comes on at 30 seconds. Red light
means please wrap it up. We try to give everyone equal opportunity and time to speak.
It's helpful if you tell us your name and your place of residence though, it is not
required. So I'm gonna start in the room here and we would like to provide public
comment, Maggie. Good morning.
Ok. So last time I commented on the fire, that was a really important thing. And
so this time I'm gonna say what I was gonna say last time, which was, um, the American
Legion is up here. The entire Washington State chapter is no longer
the American Legion. If you think of it like a fraternity, a national fraternity
that is, uh, uh, the national fraternity, the national organization axed,
the Washington State chapter back in 2023 because they
embezzled almost a half a million dollars and they were quote unquote, not following
the constitution of the organization. So that's the, or that's who
Bayside wanted to give a mandatory, quote unquote, mandatory illegal ro I, with,
hi, a covered information from everyone to the bartenders of that
institution that had just been axed in 2023 from the National organization
for a half a million dollars in embezzlement. I don't think that that's uh right.
I don't think that uh railroading the rights of the poor and the
marginalized is the way to go. It's like it's ok for you guys to railroad
the human rights and the civil rights of poor people who are homeless, marginalized,
disenfranchised. Uh But if it's you guys the privileged and the people with the access,
oh, well, then, you know, it's consumer fraud and your rights are being violated,
but the rights of the poor are never violated when it's the government doing that.
And you know, so when I came here the first day, the first time I came here, I said
to you guys on the first day Obama got into office. He said to his agencies
and his contractors and the first paragraph of his first letter to his administration
was you are not transparent. In other words, he was saying you are dishonest, you
are lying, you are hypocrites. It's like if you think of government like a high school
and the principal walks in and everybody's at the cafeteria and it's a after the
lunch break is over, people are throwing food, laughing and fighting and he says
that and then walks out the door. Well, of course, you're not gonna like the principal.
So anyone in government who is being honest and saying we have to do right
by the people who are the least, who have the least, who are the most vulnerable.
And I think of Harold Fitzsimmons when he came here to testify about his man being
taken away when he was covered under the Homestead Act and he was 77. Uh, you know,
so let's clean it up. Ok, thank you.
Who else in the room here would like to provide public comment. Please come on up.
Hi, good morning. I'm Bill. I just have a little short thing.
Um, so commissioners, how can we, how can we figure this out? Uh It's a little bit
um, burdensome, um, a pill for this, a pill for that? A billion here. A billion there
for the newest treatment. Hours of uh, one's time seeking healing with sounds or
bows. Um I'm tired of seeing people on the street and houses with all these vacant
rooms. I truly believe that uh, people uh should
read um, the word of God and forgive each other and ask God to forgive them of
their sins and um, ask to be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I
think um we should bring scripture back into the schools. I think it's uh a very
valid document to um prove many, many things and set things straight
um deep in us. So thank you for listening. Thank you. Be
best shoes in the chamber in a long time. So, yeah. Right. Any, let's see. Let's
go to folks online. Anyone in the zoom room like to provide public comment. Please
hit the raise hand function at the bottom of your screen. Good morning, Mr Bowen.
Good morning commissioners, Ed Bowen, West Jefferson, landowner and taxpayer. And
in my continuing saga of trying to understand the trust land transfer, this will
be my fourth testimony to you in some form or fashion. Realize this has gotten more
complicated now for me, because the board of Natural Resource now has passed the
recommended list without really any public discussion. They probably did it offline,
but uh really they just pa uh pencil whip the list the other day when they had their
board meeting. So I'll tell you public is not being engaged in this. The public's
not being informed, the public's being misinformed. Misinformation is the key tool
here because again, out of the committee's meeting, the Jefferson County is represented
on uh all we were able to see. The only documents that we were able to see materials
we were able to see is the record support of the meetings, but none of the materials
that were provided the uh committee members such as the second district commissioner.
So uh let me just add fuel to the fire at the board meeting when the staff briefed
these particular projects, uh things such as transfer of the property to another
sovereign entity became a significant question by those in the public. And it was
addressed that such transfers can't be done into trust, federal trust because of
the mineral rights on the land. Well, I have no confidence in that statement. So
maybe the Jefferson County commissioners can get behind that. And secondly, but not
least, uh when one particular project was presented, uh it was stated by staff that
all the area that's in dark green. In other words, the heavy forest that's surrounding
the property is National Park. Well, what a misnomer that was, I did a quick thumbs
up check of that and probably at best 5 to 15% of that forest is National
Park. Uh The remainder is State Forest Transfer and Common schools and or industrial
timber. So it's just this misinformation thing. So I really wish the Jefferson County
commissioners would get behind this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Bowen. And I should
have announced we will respond to all public comment after. Um, everyone has provided
it. Who wishes to we bring over Shelly Yarno.
Good morning, Mn. Good morning. Um I have my two pet projects that I'd like to make
a little um statement and ask a question on this morning. First is going to be, um,
on law enforcement, um, over the weekend, um, I was told, um, and I'd like some
clarification from the commissioners that the funding for, uh, a possible South county
deputy for 2025 was diverted, begin to a road maintenance project. So, um, I'd like
some clarification on that. Uh, 1st and 2nd is the community center at
our, um, meet the candidates night, um, last week. And uh first off, I'd like to
thank um Heidi for attending that she didn't have to. And it was very helpful to
have her views on some of the issues that we encounter here in South County. But
one of the things that came up was our community center and what a sorry state it's
in and I agree with that. Um But we were told that there are some projects uh in
the works for the community center. Um As you all know, I am heavily involved in
the community center um project and I've heard nothing about potential work on the
community center. I just, just recently received the um engineering report
after an extensive foyer request um and was told it didn't exist. Well, ultimately,
it did and I received it. So um I'd like to know where that information is coming
from and why there isn't a little more transparency towards what projects are in
the works. Uh We all are very interested in the status and um the work on that building
and would want to have extensive input. Thank you. Thank you, Miss, you know,
great. Last call for public comments.
We went in the room or online.
All right, I'm gonna close public comment and welcome responses. Start with commissioners.
I'm happy to start. Um I am not flying closely to the homeless
shelter. I leave that response to Commissioner Brotherton who's um paying more attention
to that on the ro I cause I don't know the status of it right now. Um to bow,
I am a spiritual person, but I, I don't think I am super on board with the idea of
scripture back in the schools. I think every child and family involved in our public
school system has the right to believe what they believe spiritually and I fully
support um all those beliefs, but I don't think one belief should be brought into
the schools. Um to Ed Bowen trust land transfer. I wasn't able to
attend the Board of Natural Resources meeting because I took my first vaca vacation
as a commissioner in the last four years, the week that that meeting happened. And
um I'm actually proud of the work that the trust line transfer. All of the trust
line transfer committees over the last three years have done to make a much more
robust process in terms of considering the projects that would be proposed for Trust
Line Transfer. We modeled our work on um the Washington wildlife and recreation program
and some of the scoring criteria systems that they have in place for that program.
And I feel like it's a lot more um robust and you're gonna agree, disagree with me.
But I feel like it's a lot more transparent than it's ever been. So I this is our
first iteration with this process that we've built and I think that we have all um
indicated that there is room for improvement, but I also am proud of the work that
was done. And I'm also sad that none of our Jefferson County projects made the list
a, a project that I've been uh following for some time. South Lake Ost was brought
forward by one of our tribal partners and that project has been on the list or some
version of the list for over 25 years. And so I'm glad to see that that one's proposed
for funding. But um none of our four Jeff Jefferson County projects made the list.
We're just under the, the funding amount that we, we know that there's a cap of 30
million for this first round. Anyway, so I'm gonna be watching this closely and I
will go and review that BNR meeting to see what the deliberations were. Cause I have
questions there too and I thought the materials were um the project materials were
available online. They were but, but they, they and they were, those materials were,
but the deliberations were not necessarily open of the committee. Right? OK. I just
thought, I heard Mr Bone say that the project materials weren't available because
I had to access them when we were dealing with the tribes. But maybe it was the timing
of when they were made available that they were made available on the 23rd when the
meeting was on the 15th. So,
yeah, and you know, I it's not an excuse, but it is a reason that this process this
first time around has been incredibly, um, compact. We had to just do everything
quickly, but I feel like the process that we built was robust and we stuck to the
process that we designed, but it didn't necessarily allow for the amount of time
that we wanted for review or um, for materials to be made available. So I think the
next time that this process runs, we'll see how it goes with the full, the luxury
of the full calendar.
Um, government moving too fast. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm interested, Shelly, I'm interested
also in the South County deputy and we've had that conversation and Sheriff Noel
is here today. So maybe he can when he comes up and say something about it or maybe,
or we're in the budgeting process. And so I haven't seen all the department requests
yet and nothing's been diverted. Ok. So, ok. Yeah. And I can't imagine things have
been diverted yet. Well, if anything, it's the opposite, money is taken from the
road fund and given to the Sheriff's Department. So I think it might have been a
misunderstanding there. Um, anyway, I think it's the perfect time to have this conversation
that as we're in the budget making process right about that question in Writ large.
Yeah. But the, the, the funding actually goes the other direction from the front
to the Sheriff's Department and that has been reduced, admittedly proposed to reduce
it yet again. Um And so, um I think we'll need to consider all the asks for general
fund at once rather than Nickel and Diamond. Um And then the Community Center, I
mean, I I'm aware that there were a couple of community center roof projects in the
works and I think that everything's been kind of slow played because we did not have
a central services director until the last two weeks. So I believe that we will see
those projects, those trains get back on the track as our new central services director
who seems fantastic, gets up to speed and starts working through those projects.
So do you have an update on that mark? That's an accurate statement. Just this morning,
Sean asked me if we could rezone the parcel upon which the Port Townsend Community
Center sits so that it would be eligible for re two funding for the roof repair and
so on. I know Greg has heard a lot about the community centers. Uh I mean, not just
in Brennan. But in Qui um but Heidi, your characterization, I think is accurate and
we had a central services director for 11 months. Then we had a four month vacancy,
then another one for four months and now Sean and he's getting up to speed very quickly
and asking questions about the community Center. So it's a, it's a good, good sign,
but we've had some projects budgeted for, they've been budgeted for years. I just
haven't moved along for the reason that Heidi talked about. Um So I, I do anticipate
um rapid progress going forward. Ok, I think so.
That's it for me. Ok. Yep, thanks. Um I, I think Kitty, I agree with everything she
said. Um Let's see to Matty's uh question. I mean, there were no, I, I don't think
there was actually a question there. The ro I has been changed and does not provide
any um privileged information to the American Legion. And we're, you know, transparency
is tough as we've seen in a couple of the public comments, but we are trying to be
transparent and, and trying to provide a service that um it is above and beyond the
call of duty in a lot of ways. And um we're, we're still working to continue to provide
that service for everyone. So everyone has a place to sleep every night of the year.
Um And it's still a lot of a goal and um I'm proud of all the partners that we're
working with too, you know. Well, I'm gonna come back with the American Legion. I
spoke with them last week to, about an interest in bringing the Vietnam uh the traveling
Vietnam memorial, uh war memorial to, to town. Um I, I don't know about the organizational
over pinnings. Uh But II, I do know the good work that our American Legion is doing
by facilitating the shelter and by some of the other projects that I'm, I'm talking
to them about. Uh I'm glad that Bo came and made public comments. Um I agree with
Heidi that there shouldn't be one scripture in the schools. I think comparative Religion
is a great thing to explore in, in educational uh setting. Of course, we do not set
the curriculum, but I'm, I am starting to feel like I should go talk to some of our
school districts when they start contemplating banning books or, or prescribing at
the policy level. What books kids are exposed to? I think that becomes pretty dangerous.
So I'll just take, this is my opportunity to say let's let teachers teach and let's
let librarians uh fill the libraries with books. Um to Mr Bowen, I spoke with him
on Friday. You know, again, transparency is tough. We're, we're learning about this
process. I am curious about the um I think he labeled it misinformation, maybe just
bad information about, you know, labeling a surrounding area, National Forest. I
don't know Heidi if you have more information about that, but I've, I've been looking
and the, uh, the packets are there, but I have no doubt they were up there a little
late and we just need to try to continue to, um, improve that process. You know,
I have a lot of faith in Commissioner Eisenhower and, uh, I'm looking a little closer
at some of those materials and want to go review that DNR meeting myself. Um, I think,
uh, commissioners, Dean and Eisenhower and, and what Mr mcauley as well, talked about
the law enforcement. Well, we do as almost every count as we divert from our road
fund to pay for traffic, law enforcement and that might have been how, uh, the sheriff's
Department was looking for a South county deputy. We are interested in it, but it
is a, as Mark says, it's, it's more than just a binary decision, this or that. There's
a lot of things and a lot of asks of our, of our general fund this year and another
law enforcement officer, you know, comes out of that general fund, uh, or comes out
of our, our road fund and we're going to see, um, I think some asks, our road fund
is getting more and more precarious and is not gonna be able to, you know, maintain
the roads that people drive on in Brennan as well as Irondale and, and Quilcene and,
and, and all over the county. So all of these services we need to maintain and even
work to improve the level of service while funds get tight um to the community center.
I think you guys all captured it. Exactly right. Those engineered plans, you know,
they are from Tom Walker's time actually. And uh facilities and our lack of capacity
in uh central services has really slowed down project management. But as I've said
down in Britain, many times, the first, the highest priority of our capital needs
of community centers was the the roof at the Port Townsend Community Center that
could not take any snow load without the building having to be evacuated. So that
project is well underway. We're also well under the way, getting a septic system
designed for public showers and um uh community commercial kitchen at the Qui Community
Center. The, the next capital work at community centers has long been the Brennan
Community Center after the um after the Port Townsend one is, is completed kind of
the, the ar a grant for the, the quilting uh septic system. Kind of got that going
concurrently, but we still do intend to update it and we still intend to work with
the, the community though. You know, it's uh
it's probably gonna be a one story building when we're, we're done. I don't think
there's, there's money to make it uh a hotel or, or to revitalize the second floor.
It'll probably be a lovely building with a, a good top. Um I think that there's a
lot more conversations to have about local agency over community centers. And I really
do favor re evaluating how we manage our community centers as we go into that contract
next year. And I think um we can uh
community centers when there's AAA real desire for local control II. I think that
we should uh support that. Um And I think that is my response to all the public
comments. Thank you. Thanks Greg. Um Just a couple of things for me that haven't
been covered. Um, uh, be thanks for being here and appreciate your conviction and
morals and um, especially bringing up the housing issue and the, the faith based
community is really important player. And, um, and, and has been historically here
in helping to support the, um the folks who have, you know, unstable housing and,
um, really hope that that continues. I think that the, with, um coast kind of
becoming well, potentially disbanding. Um I really hope that there is a, a strengthened
interfaith coalition that continues to provide support for, um, for housing needs.
Um I wondered, I, I don't, I don't know if you picked up on this. I wondered if Mr
Bowen was talking about the Quinault transfer because he was talking about the, um,
about a federal transfer and about the surrounding property being National Park,
which sounded like the Quinault. Um, you know, Congressman Kilmer, um, introduced
legislation to transfer land back to the Quinault. I wonder if that's what he was
talking about. But uh there were a number of uh the trust and transfer projects that
were proposed by tribes on both sides of the gas gates. And so it makes sense that
it might have been one of those projects that he was referring to as well. Although
that wasn't in the state process, it went through a congressional process that we,
we wrote a letter to support. Anyway, it, it just within the state process, there
were a number of tribal projects that including one in County. Ok, which makes me
think that's what drew his interest. But, ok, well, Mr Bick, if you were talking
about the, the Quinault federal transfer, feel free to email me and we can discuss
because we, we did uh send a letter of support for that. Um And I think,
I think that's all, you know, kind of reiterate what Greg said, which is that it
would be great to have the Britain community involved in talking about plans for
the community center since what we have is probably pretty dated at this point and
might be worth um you know, initiating another conversation about uh the highest
and best use of the community center moving forward down there. Um Marketing thing
you wanna, I commented on what I needed to. Thanks. Ok. And since we have the sheriff
here with us, Sheriff, anything you wanna add,
I come up there? Sure.
Yeah. If you have to project and reach the microphone, of course, regarding the South
County deputy, it would be great to have a South County deputy. Um, I don't know
where the information came from. That, that's news to me that the money was diverted
from us to the road fund. Um, I've never heard that. Uh, I, you know, I appreciate
Christian Arnell and the other citizens down there that are pulling for this. I think
it is something important. But I also know, um you know, it is budget time but it's,
it's, it's more than just adding it to the budget in my opinion because there's so
much other things, there's so many other things involved, so many other priorities
that need to get to get back to get figured out with a limited budget. So, um I guess
that's, that's my take on that. Thank you. Yeah, and there will be a lot of opportunity
for the public to weigh in as we work through uh the budget cycle this fall. And
I see, I can I add one thing I see will in the room. Well, I did follow up after
we talked last about the uh about your issue with our um environmental Public Health
director. And she let me know that they're working right now on trying to understand
the implications of the grants past Supreme Court case on homeless housing relative
to how the county, um how that changes how the county approaches it and that also
our dep civil deputy prosecuting attorneys are working on developing a policy around
that. So that's kind of held up environmental public health code compliance efforts
relative to cases like the one you and I have been talking about.
Ok, unfortunately. Right. So, but I am, I am still tracking it.
All right. Um Thank you to the public for attending and providing comment today.
Um Let's take a look at our consent agenda before we do a proclamation for National
Day of remembrance service and remembrance for September 11th. Um, so anything to
call out on the consent agenda? Well, I would just say item three, it's a large,
large items for $2.5 million for the on site grinder pump installation. And I
literally almost couldn't get out of my driveway this morning and they were coming
down my road. So I, I always feel like I live in a, on the total dead end street
and it was very active with sewer installation work this morning at 7 a.m. which
is awesome. Our crews are out there, um, cutting up the roads with their big, uh,
they're big blades. It's pretty, it's been pretty wild in Hadlock lately. So anyway,
um, it was exciting. The last time I drove through Hadlock, they were just coming
to the main intersection, you know, and I was like, wow, it's really here in the
heart of Hadlock totally happening. So that, and then I just, um, pleased to see
all the school based mental health services contracts on here our amendments. Um,
I feel like I've been talking about school based health issues a lot lately. So kind
of brings it home when it's there on the agenda. And then also grateful for Jill
Silver. Once again stepping up to serve on a committee, she is a, an energizer bunny
and does awesome work on behalf of noxious weeds in our county. And I mean, I actually,
I think we'd be kind of screwed without her
Greg anything. Well, yeah, great to see the grinder pups moving forward and, and,
you know, I, I love it every time we see the expansion of public health capacity
with the ever growing con con. Um, but just, yeah, great, great work all over the
place, I guess just about at number 11, I, I will talk to this a little bit in the
future, uh, agenda items, but I, I do think that we need to start modernizing our
capacity to manage data as well as just hiring contractors to do data modernization
for us. But other than that, I think it's a great, great uh consent agenda. Um, couple,
couple things. Just do you wanna call out the number three, the on site branded pump
installation? And this is um, uh, a real um, win that we were able to get enough
funding to actually hook up. This is part of the hookup of properties in the service
area of the new sewer. Um Instead of asking every property owner to come up with
30 or $40,000 like they do in most places when a sewer comes in, the, these first
folks will be largely having that, um, paid for through the funding that we have
received. So that's two point almost $6 million to hook up 33 properties to the sewer.
Um, at, at, at very low cost to the property owner. So really proud of that. Um I
did want to call out just one minor error, I believe. Um, and item number 12, the
Jefferson healthcare provides money for the school based clinics, not necessarily
mental health services and I, I don't think it is um wrong on the contract
itself. It is on our, our um uh legal review form and in the, on the
agenda here. But um just a minor error that that's for school based health clinics
or health services not specific to mental health.
Um Anything else I'm concerned? No, I'm happy to move that we approve and adopt the
consent agenda for September 9th 2024. One second. All right. And for the discussion,
all those in favor say I I I um consent agenda is approved.
All right. We have a proclamation before us today and really glad that Sheriff Joe
Noel is here to join us to proclaim September 11th 2024 as National Day. Of service
and remembrance. And we do have a number of events happening throughout the county,
um on September 11th, which we'll talk about a little bit later. So, um, sure, if
you have a preference, sometimes we read the proclamation first and then have a discussion
or is there anything you'd like to tee up before we read the proclamation? I'm here
to hear you. Read it. Great. Ok. And I hope you'll say a few words afterwards. All
right. Um So should we do? Um Heidi Me Greg, happy to start. Ok.
Proclamation, National Day of Service and remembrance. Whereas 23 years ago, the
United States endured one of the most unconscionable tragedies in our country's history.
The cowardly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on board
flight 93 cut short. The lives of 2900 and 77 innocent people. These attacks tore
a hole in the heart of our nation. And the pain of this tragedy still remains each
year on this somber date, we remember the horror and bravery shown that day just
as we remember how we came together united in grief and in purpose. Each year we
renew our solemn vow to never forget what happened on September 11th, 2001 or those
who lost their lives. And whereas we also remember the patriotism and valor valor
of our service members who pursued our Attackers, delivered justice to Osama Bin
Laden and degraded Al Qaeda And whereas over the last two decades, the American people
have demonstrated that the harder circumstances, the more resilient and stronger,
we become our shared love of country and our shared values, regardless of race, gender,
religion, origin or economic status, unite us as Americans against all enemies, foreign
and domestic. And whereas congress has requested the observance of September 11th
as an annually recognized National day of Service and remembrance. And whereas on
this national day of service and remembrance, we honor every life that was taken
too soon. We honor the first responders, firefighters, law enforcement officers,
emergency workers and service members who answered the call of duty and the brave
civilians who rushed into action to save lives that day, their courage embodies the
American spirit and resilience and their heroism continues to inspire new generations
of Americans. Now, therefore, the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners
does hereby proclaim September 11th 2024 as the National Day of Service and remembrance
in Jefferson County and encourages all residents to join us. In observation of this
day, proclaimed this ninth day of September 2024.
Welcome the motion to approve the proclamation is red. So, oh, second,
ok, all those in favor say AAA,
wait. So Sheriff Lee, you come up and, and join us and talk about what September
11th means to you. Well, first of all, I, I came to hear you read the proclamation
and I thank you for doing that for for putting that forward. Um, and I thought about
what it means to me, uh, and I, I don't want to get myself in trouble by what I say
but I have a habit of doing that sometimes. Um, it, it, uh, to, to be truthful, you
know, remembering bad things isn't my favorite thing to do. And that's probably true
of a lot of people. But, um, but I look at what, what can we learn from what happened
that day? And the, the, you know, I, I guess I'm looking at it primarily from the
first responders view of, you know, helping people, saving people trying to whatever.
And, um, and I think to me what's important is what we can take away from it. And
Greg in his part that he read, alluded to some of that. But, um, just, it seems like
now we're living at least in my experience in a time of where there's people that
think it's a country of winners and losers. And, um, and I don't see it that way.
I think we're all together. I think that seeing remembering what happened there and
the people that gave their lives, rescuing other people that they didn't know trying
to rescue people, um, shows that, you know, what makes this country great is that
we all pull together when we need to. And I think that that is a lesson that that
should be taken or, or a reminder from this. Um, you know, what makes us great is
the way we help each other, the way we, um the way we respond to each other, you
know, it's not winners and losers, it's people that care and people that people that
help, um I mean, you going down to the, you know, the, the homeless issues, you know,
it's how we respond to things like that and, and if there's nothing else we can remember
about that day is that, uh, we, we do have the capacity to pull together and um,
do great things. So, uh I'm starting to ramble now. So, um I'll just leave it in
that, but thank you for, um, for, uh, for bringing this forward and taking it seriously.
Thank you. Thank you. And, um, so do you want to talk about um, the events planned
for Wednesday or do I have it handy if, if you'd rather me? Um, so Wednesday, uh
I think it's at 959 though, at the Bell Tower. I'm not sure what street that's on.
8 46 8 46. Ok. 846. Um, there'll be a ringing of the bell. Fire Department will be
there. Um There'll be some things said and whatnot and then most of us there are
gonna come up here to the courthouse and I think it's around 1032 28 1028. That's
close. Um, we're gonna have a little, uh, remembrance here and some speeches and
the clock tower will ring some bells too. So, um, when that's on the, on the steps
of the courthouse, I believe outside, that's my understanding. Yes. And you'll say,
well, that's what I was thinking of the steps. Not, not in here, not in here. Yeah.
Yeah. Not in here outside. No pool. All right. I see two at 8:30 a.m. All fire stations
will pull apparatus on to aprons with flags at half mast. At 846 all fire stations
will have a moment of silence for flight 11. Um Thanks to East Jefferson and your
department. I imagine for coordinating all of these remembrance um activities and,
and with your people too. So, thank you. Thank you. I just brought the
family came over. Um Chief me, did you um a anything you wanna add about National
Day of Service and remembrance? I just wanted to say thank you for uh the proclamation
and then also um uh the local fire stations, you know, South County, uh we would
love to be able to attend up there at the Bell Tower and so on. But of course, we
need to stay in our districts and cover. So we will be outside our stations on that
morning doing uh a moment of silence and a remembrance uh as well uh to honor those
on 911 as well. Um And then thank you again, commissioners. We appreciate you. You
tell me that Chief Manley would be on there.
So, Chief, I just wanna say that um when I was down in um down at Camp Parsons last
week for the a campaign forum, um there was some introductory comments made and some,
some of the words in this proclamation made me remember that evening because there
was a real sense that the Brennan fire had really uh united the Brennan community
and all of the South County communities quilting and Brennan. And it was just really
inspiring and heartwarming to hear, even though I know it was in, in the midst of
a crisis. Um I'm just really proud of our, our communities in South County and the
way, way way you all responded to this um disaster unfolding and came together. And
all, I think all the residents are probably every single resident of Brennan showed
up in some way to help um respond to the fire. So I just think that's super inspiring
and I don't know if our entire county knows that. So I just wanted to hold that up
a little bit. And I would just say, you know, there, there, there are a few things
in my life that I remember exactly where I was standing when they happened or sitting.
And, you know, when my father died, I remember being in my college kitchen when my
mom called and I can remember that the, the um the light shining through the windows,
you know, and uh when, when 911 happened. I was in my car driving to work in Seattle.
I was in the Bainbridge ferry line as, as the um tragedy was unfolding and I was
uh hosting a fundraising event on the east side of the mountains that day. And I
called the host and I said, what should we do? And she said we need to be together.
Let's just proceed. So we had a super successful event on 911, 2001 because people,
the community needed to be together. And um I would just say that it's the spirit
of community that really inspires me in, in times like this that we just, we're reading
about. Um Thank you, Commissioner and I just apologize that I wasn't there that night.
Um Unfortunately, we had a cardiac patient that needed my attention and drew me away
from that. So, but thank you and I also heard lots of positive things. So thank you
for that. Yeah, Greg, anything you wanna add? Yeah. No, I, I really appreciate Heidi
bringing the uh solidarity that the community of Brennan showed in the face of the,
the road 2625. And I think that's what I get from this proclamation as well too.
And I remember I was on the 13th floor of the US Bank Center in downtown Seattle
on September 1st 2001. I remember it vividly and I remember, um you
know, we were all together and we were all together, you know, fighting this fire.
You know, we weren't, I'm not a first responder then I wasn't a first responder now,
you know, and II, I tried to go down and, and support our first responders but, uh,
first responders and just us people, uh, when push comes to shove, we, we all work
together and I think it's, it's what makes this nation really great and it's, it,
uh, bridges differences and we are all, you know, we're all in this together and
it's sometimes it takes the worst events to bring that out in us, but it's good to
remember it and honor fortitude that we find in trying times. So I appreciate Chief
Man, lady here and Sheriff Noel. Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, I'll just add and II, I say this often when we're doing, um, proclamations
many things related to law enforcement and first responders is the, um, just incredible
uh courage that it takes for first responders to, you know, literally run into burning
buildings. And there's no more clear example of that in American history or certainly
our modern history of literally running and to save people and then the loss of so
much like so many lives as a result of doing exactly that, you know, most of us would
run the other direction. And, you know, this is literally thousands of people running
in and losing their life as a result of it. It's, I think it's really a, a profound
lesson for any of us in public service and in leadership. Um So thank you to our,
our, all of our first responders who do that every day in, you know, sometimes less
dramatic fashion, the 911. But um so important to never forget that. Thank you. Um
I unfortunately have to be in a statewide meeting on Wednesday in Bellingham. Um
So I'm gonna miss all of these events, but, um I really appreciate that. Uh, you've
made them open to the public, um, so that we can, um, as a community honor the work
that all of you do every day and particularly those on 911. I'll be there.
Mark anything you wanna add. No, I get emotional. So I'm gonna let it go. It's worthy
of emotion. Well, I just want being the total dog nut that I am. I wanna also acknowledge
all the dogs that were part of the 911 response after searching for searching for
survivors. I mean, I always, when I ever hear about what the dogs do, I'm like, they
have no idea what they're being asked to do, you know, and I guess the trained ones
might have some idea because they're trained, but it's amazing what not only our
human colleagues can do and, and human communities can do, but also, um, canines
in our world, so loyal. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you,
Chief. And, um, we'll see you on Wednesday. Thank you. Thank you. Did I get a motion
to, we did approve the proclamation immediately after we read it. Thank you.
I got it. Thank you.
All right, thanks Sheriff.
All right, today. Um, we just have a couple of more things on our agenda. We'll meet
the new executive director of IC at about 1015 and, um, have a first workshop discussion
of the Lodging tax advisory committee and otherwise we just have commissioners briefing.
So, um is there anything else we're gonna add to the agenda today for planning's
sake? Ok. It's a light one again. Yeah, it is. We might, might end up finishing early
again. Great. Well, should we do some briefing? Yeah, I'm happy to start. Um
Let's see.
You have to look one back back one week, right? Yeah. Yes, and a short week. So I
was here with you last Tuesday and then um immediately, immediately after that went
to the Marine Resources Committee meeting, um which was largely a uh wooden boat
festival planning session because this is, I think this is super exciting. The Marine
Re Resources Committee hosted our first ever Science and stewardship stage at the
Winden Boat Festival this weekend. And um you know, it was the 47th festival. So
I'm like, why did it take us so long to figure this one out? Because so I went on
Friday for the first half of the day and Saturday for the first half of the day to
help host that stage. And, um, we weren't sure how many people would show up
to hear about Plankton and Phytoplankton and the critters that were moved as part
of the breakwater project, but the booth was packed, we had to take the walls down.
Um, so we're already planning and I was like, this is for the after action. We need
twice, twice as big booth next year. Um, so it was super successful and I wanna uh
recognize Betsy Carlson for all the work she did and pulling that together, she was
kind of the wheel around which everything spun relative to that effort. And it was
just super great to see so many members of the community excited and engaged in conversations
about microorganisms and um the jud the, the Breakwater rebuild, which was fun to
hear the ports um presentation. So that was, and so that covers the end of my last
week as well. Um I see, I just got something from Tin Man Le on search and rescue
dogs. So I have to look at that. But um then on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, a
big chunk of each of those days was spent in interviews with our RFP respondents
for behavioral health funding, the 1/10 of 1% harrow funds that we distribute every
two years to entities in our community to help respond to behavioral health issues
and mental health issues in the community. And um I would just say it was grueling.
We had $2 million. I'm rounding up a little bit but not much $2 million in proposals
and $990,000 to grant out. So we had to do some serious um shaving of the list and
it was super hard because there, there was no like low hanging fruit like this doesn't
qualify or this is a luxury. It was like, you know, so it was all the programs that
we've come to take for granted in our community are not getting as much funding as
they need to run. I can just be the first one to say that out loud um here, but we
did our best. And um we also within that had a meeting of the opioid sub-committee
which is working on our process for granting out the opioid funds, which we will
have less than 200,000 in regular um in the longer term funds.
And I think about 240,000 in one time funds to grant out in this cycle. Um
but that doesn't account for future settlements that may come in. So it's not a huge
amount of additional funding, but some of the proposals seem to fit the opioid funds.
So we may reach out to them and say maybe this would be more. So you should also
submit this for opioid funds. Another thing that came up relative to the two of you
is that there was a hou a proposal or two about housing. And um we may see those
proposals come to the housing fund board for funding seems like a better fit for
the pur specific purpose. Um So just letting you know um question is the, did the
amount of requests increase dramatically because it's sales tax based, which is still
fairly strong so that the amount awarded isn't going down a little bit a
little bit. So, so last time we we we made the um funding allocations, we had a,
we had a some bank funds and so we stretched in that round to give out more funding.
So that results in this time around not us not having that bank capacity to fund
out. So we're just trying to fund what we actually have um and leaving a little bit
for reserve. Ok. Yeah, and the housing funds are not in great shape, the ones tied
to homelessness. So, but I think
I know, but I think the one proposal I was already been conversations about it, but
I think the one proposal might be eligible for each, either 148 or 149. So, um let's
see. So and then around the around that a lot of work on those last week, I did um
we did have the Olympic area and aging Council of Governments meetings on Thursday
morning and we were supposed to drive and meet in person in Montesano, but it turned
out that it was easier for everybody for us to zoom, which I was grateful for because
I was always gonna have to zoom in. And I, I love that courthouse in Montesano. So
I was excited to go there and then the behavioral health uh interviews got scheduled.
And I was like, oh, so anyway, I was happy to attend that meeting. And then that
evening I did go to the candidate forum at Camp Parson Brennan and it was every,
it was, uh, State Senate State House and County commissioners. So it was a good cross
section of local government. And, um, as everyone has said, you didn't even need
to go. And I'm like, well, yeah, I do. It's my job, you know, I'm, I'm running for
office so maybe I don't have an opponent. But so it was good that I felt like it
was good that I was there and both Heather and Ben were there and I could, uh, I
guess I could provide some grounding and reality to the answers to the questions
that were directed at the commissioners. Um, but that was, that ended up being like
a 14 hour day. I was like, I got home and I'm like, I'm whooped. So, every, every
day, last week I felt pretty, pretty much whooped because it, yeah, all were like
10 to 14 hours. So, let's see. Uh, and then Friday and Saturday mornings, both of
those days I did help host that festival at the at the wooden boat festival and that,
um and then I had a uh uh early morning meeting with Mark on Friday morning just
to go over one of our agenda items for today. So that was last week. Ok.
Yeah, light week for me. Let's see. Um with you guys on Tuesday the third of course,
and our Northwood Canal Chamber of Commerce Board meeting was canceled on Tuesday,
rescheduled for today. Um Actually because of the fires down in Brennan, but with
you guys on Tuesday, met with some of the healthier together task force members and
attended the it and directors meeting for the courthouse on Wednesday. Um was in
the office. Uh I don't wanna blame Dr Barry's return, but I did come down with COVID
we late Wednesday night. Um Once again, manifesting the uptick in Jefferson County,
but it was very mild. Um So late Wednesday tested positive and uh so deferred
going on Monday. So I did not go to the E DC board meeting nor the A I think tank
Melissa from the deputy P A Os office, uh navigated it for me and I was not able
to go to the Port Lauderdale Village Council meeting. She was in only in person you
and then uh it's all right, awesome place. And then I was really looking forward
to the candidate for again down in uh camp Parsons, but was not able to go feeling
much better on Friday. So I did my Zoom meeting with the ORCA ed to, I'm chairing
the ORCA meeting and the finance meeting this, this uh week since the chair is out
of town. And then I attended KPTZ via Zoom with two members of the healthier
together task for. I feel great. And today is my last day of isolation and uh we'll
try to do most of the week though, remotely. Yeah, it was very mild. I got a lot
of chores done. I think my wife would, would prefer that I always had COVID like
I had it last week. So I wanted to look around the house and sleep downstairs. But
I also successfully did not make any of my family sick while I had COVID. So that
feels like a a success. Well, and, and everybody here is feeling fine. So um knock
on wood so far, nobody in the office either. It's a nice thing about this mild, mild
cases. They don't seem nearly as contagious. Um I only had it that once when I went
to that no conference in Washington DC and went to the Super Bowl party in a basement
room full of 3000 people. I was like, I should have, well, I was, I was asking for
it.
You gotta catch up to Greg. And I, so I'm like, whenever people get it, I'm like,
what?
Um All right, my week last week um had a meeting of our uh child care project team.
And that's um continues to be a, a challenge. I don't know if I did. I mentioned
last week that um um we sent in our sub bid documents for approval to the USDA and
they, they emailed back saying, oh, this doesn't meet the project manual. And we
said what? We've never been given a project manual. We've never been told about a
project manual. No. So uh Amanda Christofferson very patiently um working through
that as well as her architect. Um And uh so we're about, we think about two or three
weeks till issuance of a building permit, which is exciting. Um And then we can go
out to bid. But this is the confusing part. When we go out to bid, we expect that
the um responses will be much higher than the amount of money that we have for it.
And so then we have to kind of start a new. It's very, very frustrating this iterative
process that um just desperately need more flexibility in, in federal funding. I
heard of another project that's in a similar doom spiral with federal funding right
now. I I can't remember what it was, but I talked to somebody last week with federal
funding that just, you know, there's so much funding available, but it is so difficult
to use because of the requirements, put on it and the timing. And um so it's very
frustrating and I just pray we can get this across the finish line crazy to be going
to permitting and not knowing if we're gonna be, you know, years out and needing
more funding and it's um, quite a, a frustrating process.
Um, see, had a, um, many fairgrounds meetings these days right now. Um There
is, uh, uh we're changing the staffing structure a little bit. We're gonna be moving
towards an executive director role instead of just a fairgrounds manager. Um And
so that job, uh posting is up on the website for the, the fairgrounds website, um,
you know, the, the volunteer board and it just isn't hard, it's hard to be getting
the kind of business development work done and, you know, really properly maintaining
a nonprofit organization with kind of a site manager and a volunteer board. So, moving
towards an executive director who will have more authority and, um, uh you know,
really, that's the county's increase in funding that makes that possible. It's really,
really great that the place needs to be run professionally and, you know, it's a
valuable asset to the community. And, um we, we need to be investing in this, this
way in that community. So, I mean, in that facility, uh let's see, had, um Thursday
morning, a long tribal co management meeting. It's the P sound partnership. And uh
we usually have about 1012 tribes represented there. Um And
trying to think what, um a lot of, a lot of discussion right now about the salmon
recovery plan for Puget Sound, um that is being updated and um some disagreements.
Uh I think I mentioned last week this kind of tribes really wanting to see stricter
habitat protection by counties and cities and trying to figure out how, how we do
that, the, the, the things that we are being asked to do, you know, just buying up
properties with eminent domain and, you know, not allowing any development on the
shoreline because there are things that we don't really have the tools to do. But
um so uh some hard conversations there um on that front
is there um energy towards another riparian bill in the next legislative session?
Yy. And the riparian round table is uh meeting and has recommendations that are out
now with some minority opinions from agriculture. I, I don't know if the tribes have
issued a minority opinion but the, the kind of what the riparian roundtable could
agree on are fairly watered down. It's, you know, like more incentives and, and the
tribes really want a regulatory backstop to any other specific tree height or um
I, I actually don't know, I haven't looked at the riparian recommendations to know
if they are. Yeah, I, I think, I think they did not reach agreement that site potential
tree height was um um feasible for a requirement for uh
setbacks um or buffers. So I think that's why they're looking at kind of like, how
can you incentivize that? Um But that but that's where the tribe say that's not enough.
We want, we want it to be required. So, yeah, it would be interesting. Yeah, it's,
it's, it's, it's challenging. Um, I met with, um Wendy Bart from the Y MC A and Tandy
Barnett and, um, Mark be, be warned, we might be, um, in the budget cycle seeking
some funding for the, um, child advocacy center which the, um Y MC A has been, has
kind of taken under their umbrella but has participation from a number of county
departments. Um since the um uh forensic investigation for uh Children, it's
been so far, they've been very successful in, in getting a number of disclosures
for important, very sensitive uh cases, largely child abuse, sexual abuse. Um
It's a model that the justice system has actively um embraced using, you know,
kind of a non law enforcement criminal justice system to work with Children
who have had, who have been victims down Clark County. We have the Art Curtis Children's
Justice Center, which is exactly what you're talking about. Um staffed by the city
and the county, both uh with attorneys and investigators. How much are we talking?
Um I don't know. II, I think uh some of the folks from the county who are involved
with that, I, I suggested the Y MC A get them together and maybe I will join them
to, to talk about a proposal. I threw out the idea of 50,000 A year to um provide
some uh stability the first couple of years and see, see how that goes. Um But it
sounds like there's a lot of agreement that it's a very valuable um program valuable,
not just to our community but to the prosecuting attorney's office. Um So far, every
forensic interview that has been performed through the, our kind of nascent child
advocacy center has resulted in, um in disclosures that have been valuable in cases
where there's been harm done to Children. It's pretty, pretty dramatic and that can
be hard, you know, just it's a different experience for a child to be interviewed
by law enforcement than it is uh a, a trained child advocate. So, um more to come,
makes me think of something else. Mhm. Yeah.
Um and we did a gender review most likely via email um for today's
meeting uh Friday morning. I met with Jua from Jefferson Healthcare just to check
in on a number of you guys we did there. They're having their meeting. Yeah. Uh
then met with a uh a potentially new housing provider that's interested in applying
for some of the uh housing fund board funds and trying to help her navigate our system.
Um and spoke with a um a one of our local
builders who's having trouble figuring out how to navigate the new customer self-service
portal at D CD and um dealing with some, some challenges moving forward with uh permitting
and sticks to Chelsea Prono, uh D CD who was able to, um, help out in real time on
Friday and, and I did not do a lot at the wooden boat festival other than admire
pretty boats and go dance and have fun at night. But, um, that's the whole point.
Yeah, nice to see so many people out and about around town. I hope it was, it was
a, um, profitable weekend for Maritime Center for local businesses. Um So a
party they throw for us all. And I had lots of company coming from all over to uh
go to the festival and spend money. So it's good. Uh Mark. But yeah. Ok. Well,
Monday, the second was Labor Day. So no county business. Then on the third um board
meeting on the fourth um got to check in which Sean Frederick,
which I love, by the way. Um Then I uh tuned to the it and directors meeting uh for
a short while and then met with Judy Shepherd to go over uh budget items and then
met with Greg and Sarah Mellinson to talk about tech and housing staff. And then
I met with Danny Mulholland um later in the afternoon to talk about the proposal
that I shared with each of you
subverting um county sponsorship of activities. Um And then
on Thursday, um Brydon and, and Ken uh
Brydon Barty and Ken Coleman from the wrist bull came to visit and they wanted to
tour some county facilities. So I, it took them to the transfer station to the, um,
K Brown side and hi. Oh,
the fairgrounds and is a top three risk situation. Yeah. Yeah, they were generally
pleased with how the operations were, especially at the transfer station. They did
make a suggestion or two, regarding uh, markings on payment to help guide people
here and there. And I'll talk to Al Cairns about those things and then we had our,
um, strategic plan implementation, uh, kickoff meeting with, uh, with Barry Dunn,
Jim Ferguson. And on the 17th, uh, during my senior management team meeting, we're
gonna have all the elected and directors take part in a meeting where Jen will be
introduced to all of them uh, prior to her making an on site uh in October for three
days. So that, that good meeting, would that be with the commissioners as well? Would
that be with commissioners?
Um, that way we avoid having to notice the meeting and that sort of thing
then on Friday the sixth. Um I just had my meeting with, with Apple Martine
and it's a late day on Friday.
It, all right. We have about five minutes before. Um, we're joined by
Holly Morgan. Unless she's with us. We'll wait, let's wait till, um, 1015. Should
we do some calendaring? Yeah, I can, I can start. Yeah, let's see. So, here with
you today,
have a call with the state legislative candidate. This evening. Tomorrow in the morning
we have our board of health sanitation sub-committee. And then in the afternoon,
we have our Behavioral Health Advisory committee meeting where we'll roll out our
recommended funding levels for our mental health providers in the community. Wednesday
morning. I plan to attend the um 911 remembrance events,
especially at the bell tower. If I don't make it back from the bell tower for a minute.
Sorry. But I, I will do my best. I think I'll be able to meeting with Diane mcdade
on aquatic Center stuff later that morning. Um That afternoon, we have
our kickoff meeting for the CW community wildfire protection plan implementation
team. And then that evening, um Peninsula Trails Coalition is having an open house
at Fin River. I mean, at the tr Community Center, which I plan to attend.
Um The unless are you planning to attend that on Wednesday evening? No, I'm gonna
be in Bellingham. Ok, great. Thursday morning. I'm meeting with a um Port Hadlock
phase one UG A um landowners at eight o'clock
at the jam cafe. And it was funny I was proposing we meet on Tuesday and I realized
there was absolutely nowhere other than Starbucks at QFC to get a cup of coffee in
the tri area on Tuesdays, Moons Cafe is not open. Well, according to the website.
So, yeah, we're, we're kind of coming up short on uh social engagement
options in the tri area. Hopefully, hopefully, when I I re retire, retire from being
commissioner. Maybe I can help fix that. Use the WSU room. Well, we could use the
WST one but we want to get a cup of coffee. Um, and you should sell coffee. That's
a good point. Um, and then the regularly scheduled Peninsula Trails, Coalition
Land Trust and community interest groups meet at Ben River every month on the, on
the, I guess the second Thursday to talk about the trail connection from the bridge
to Anderson Lake State Park. That was why this meeting was originally pulled up.
So they continued forward with those meetings. Um, and then another community wildfire
protection plan, uh, implementation meeting, which is our hub site maintenance kickoff
is Thursday at noon. Then Mark and I have our monthly check in with Mallory and this
will be a big one because next week our Mallory's two big events she's hosting. And
then that afternoon, late in the afternoon, I'm headed to the coast for the Olympic
Coast Sanctuary meeting in Ta HOA.
Um, and then I will come home Saturday morning from that, taking the dog so they
can run on the ocean beach. Yeah, it's nice that they have those on Fridays. He gets
to do it once a year. So that's my next week.
Hi. Hi, I'm Holly. Holly. Oh, good, welcome. If you don't mind. Um, since we have,
um, your introduction at 1015, if you don't mind, we'll just wait a couple of minutes
so that we don't jump the gun and people might wanna join right then to face. Ok.
All right. Um, anyone have a, a quick calendar, they can do it in a couple of minutes.
I try to be real quick. Oh, go, go ahead, Mark. Ok. All right. Well, today with the
board and tomorrow the 10th, um, my weekly with Josh Peters and then a meeting at
two o'clock on Wednesday, my regular meeting with Judy Shepherd. Then of course,
at 1028 at the flagpole, the uh 911 remembrance. Um and then my one on one with Brent
Butler and then at one o'clock, the North Olympic Peninsula, city manager, county
administrator catch out and then at 330 the CWPP kickoff meeting
then on the 12th, um CEO of breakfast with Cindy Brooks and whoever else
joins. Um,
and then uh 43 meeting in the afternoon at one o'clock and that a gender review with
Kate might be email again. We don't know. Uh then on the 13th, uh the audit exit
conference uh for financial statement and single audit, which I can't attend. So
I don't know if we want to try and see if we have commissioners available. What time?
Um, nine am on Friday. You're on your way to your meeting. I mean, what I was
invited to, I thought I had been scheduled to attend that actually all three of us
were invited. So it's great if you can. Yeah, I can do it. Ok, thank you. Actually,
I'm looking at the invite, Kate and Kushner Brotherton's on there but nobody else.
And then we had looked at everyone's schedule to figure out who could attend as it
was being set up. Well, even this morning, no ie emails inviting all of us. So it's,
yeah, I'm glad you can make it Greg. I, I have am RSC meeting at the same time. Yeah.
What time? Ok. Well, that have you. Ok, great. Thank you. Um I'm so pleased that
we're joined by uh Holly Morgan, the new cap, executive director. Um Greg. Do you
wanna tee this up for us? Yes. And I again, Holly, I'm sorry that I cannot be there
with you guys in person just getting over a spot of COVID. But uh Holly Morgan has
been with us since, oh, about this time in August. And it's great to have her leadership
at Oly Cap. She brings uh a calm and uh experienced hand II I might get this wrong
so you can correct me, Holly, but I believe she was the, the chief operating officer
of Easter Seals, Washington. And so brings a lot of really, uh I would classify it
as emotionally intelligent leadership to, to a a and uh we're really excited about
changes she's already made, including bringing in outsourcing some of our finance
department, we're looking forward to uh to a budget and, and some of the uh um I
guess normalcy at, at the board that, that Holly has already uh brought back to the
board. So, really excited to introduce Holly Morgan and I will uh step aside and
let her speak for herself. Thanks for being with us. Holly, your welcome, Greg. I
wonder Holly, would you mind pulling a chair up to the table in your market might
be easier to um hear you. This, our microphone is this little owl. Um So, um
welcome. And if, if you're willing to maybe just tell us a little bit about yourself
and then maybe we could have a conversation and sure. Um I'm Holly Morgan. Um As
Greg said, I have been with Cap since it's just a late July. You were a little bit
off on the timeline, but that's ok. Um And uh prior to uh joining Oly Cap, I was
the coo for uh Easter Seals, Washington, which is a statewide affiliate of the National
Easter Seals um program. Um Prior to that, I worked as an executive director for
a community behavioral health organization that served the North Sound region. So,
Skagit and whatcom and Snow um counties um Island County also. Um And
yeah, so I've been in human service administration now for 20 years. Just me, I guess,
but it's been a minute, right. Um And I'm so excited and happy to be here with cap
and doing community action is really cool and neat. And it's a fun mission. Um And,
and I love it so far, so great. Yeah, welcome. Thank you. I will say it's a, it's
such a broad mission and we have leaned very heavily on OI a as our kind of de facto
human services department. And um, you know, I think probably maybe leaned too hard
or, you know, it's, it's especially through COVID just so much pressure, uh so much
demand for services. Um And I know that that has had some, you know, probably
created some fractures, stress fractures within the organization. And um it's just
really great to have a new leader on board. And um but I know you've got some, some
hard stuff to, to kind of be dealing with right out of the gate. How do you kind
of foresee your first months here in the job? Like, what are your priorities given
the significant demands? Sure. Sure. So, so the only cap was as, you know, without
leadership for several months. So, so there and, and that is both in an executive
level and at a fiscal um lead level. Um So there's quite a few things that um
just need to be, you know, solid, firmed up, right? We, we, um as, as Greg mentioned,
I worked to immediately to bring in an outsourced organization to manage our fiscal
leadership. Um and our, our finances, as you can imagine are so incredibly complex
with all the different funding sources and reporting requirements and all of that
stuff. So to have someone who is really knowledgeable and experienced in dealing
with that kind of complexity, I think is important for us to kind of brighten the
ship. Um, as far as that is concerned, at least, uh, and that organization that we
went with is cla, I don't know if you've heard about them. They're, they're, they're
kind of big boys in the accounting world, um, uh kind of like a ABDO, kind of a similar
to a BDO type organization. Um, and they will be working with us to uh make sure
all of our allocations are correct. And our, you know, our, our finances are all
ready for the audit when it, when it's initiated in early next year. Uh We're developing
our 2025 budget uh with that group. So we're going to have both a consolidated budget
and a departmental budget. Um So, yeah, really exciting things are happening. Um
My, my priority for the first few months I think is going to be to fill all of the
key positions that have been linked for some time. Um and to really dial in on uh
on the fiscal side of things to, uh bring that around a little bit.
Being my first term as a commissioner, I've always marveled at the number of times
LYCA comes up and I'm like, they're doing that too. So we have a really wide scope
of service too and, and part of my philosophy that I'm, that I'm trying to bring
um to the community at large every time I meet someone to speak to them for the first
time is really to emphasize the, the partnership side of the work that only a
does. Um you know, we don't want to repeat services that are already being done well
by someone else. If we can support them, if we can assist them in being more successful,
maybe we can, maybe we as a cap agency have access to some money that they can't
get. Let us help you. We'll, you know, we'll bring in some money for you and you
can do um the activities that you want to do with your program. So, so we're really
about um about partnerships and collaboration and, and working together and playing
nice in the sandbox. We just, we just are prepared for the community and to help
people. So remind me how big the budget is and how many staff you have. We have,
we have about 100 staff. Um and our last financial statement had us at
uh $14 million but that included, I think a lot of COVID relief money um that,
that is no longer coming through. So when I think of all the ways in which a cap
comes up here and then think, oh, and we're, you know, the, the smaller of the two
county service area, you know, they're doing probably, you know, if by population
twice as much work in Clown County. And it's, we don't see that. It's, we do really
do a lot and it's, and it's, it's really cool and interesting to see how all of the,
um, first how the two counties do things differently. Um, you know, and, and then,
you know, how can we work together, um, as a two county region to really, you know,
weve comprehensive services for everybody. So it's really interesting. We had a,
a great meeting with the, um, Washington State's Attorney's Office of Civil Rights.
I think I got that right. Um, in Forks a couple of weeks ago. Wow. You know, just
such interesting opportunities to get out into our communities and talk to people
about how we can grow and be better and, you know, continue to, to help people that
need it. Um, and it's great to get the attention of, you know, big players like the,
you know, the Washington State's Attorney's Office. Um, and, and really highlight
some of the work that we're doing and some of the work that we hope to do so, and
we don't have Grays Harbor, right? We're not Grays Harbor isn't part of all Grays
Harbor is coastal camp. Ok. But, you know, there is a lot of programs as you guys
both know, I mean, we're very aware of only caps uh, nexus with housing and early
childhood education with head start and early or other early childcare but there
are some programs that I, I'd love for Holly to talk a little bit about that are,
are, are less apparent. Some of them aren't even in Jefferson County, but I would
love to bring Encore, which is one of my favorite programs to, uh Jefferson County.
And, you know, one that is Light Heap is a really great one that is very, is kind
of unsung, but it has a lot of real impact in keeping, you know, people in their
homes able to continue to live comfortably. And then another one that's really exciting
and still kind of in the test. I think we're in kind of phase two of the, the UB
I, the universal basic income test that we had uh a donation. Uh at least at first
the, that, that just talk about some of those small program a little bit. Uh Sure.
So uh uh Greg mentioned our Encore program that is a program for seniors uh senior
support program that is out in um uh Port Angeles. Um I would love to, to replicate
that as Greg indicated. Um I do have quite a lot of experience in doing senior care
programs uh through my Easter sales work. Um We had many county contracts that was
uh that were devoted to uh senior services and, and disability services. So, uh so
it's an area that I'm familiar with and I really embrace and enjoy. Um and the, the
work that Jim is doing out in Port Angeles with the Encore. He's the leader of the
Encore program is just really so funny. He brings in a lot of music and, um, and,
you know, recreational types of activities while he's, you know, so it's just really
fun, I think for everyone. Um, and, and there's also the nutrition program that's
a component to that as well. Uh, so people are getting fed healthy meals while they're
there. Um We have economic empowerment, which is uh the program that houses the
Universal Guaranteed Income program. Um Greg is right. That was an individual donor.
This is his second year of donating in a row. And we have uh $500 a month going
to Greg. Do you remember the number of individual families that are participating?
I don't, oh, it's under 100 I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact figure. Um But
it's, it's um uh uh uh two programs woven together. We have uh selected
the individuals who are taking part in the UB I program. Uh UG I program with uh
our head start and ecap programs. So that's how they were selected. Um So we're,
we're um actually studying that from an academic point of view. We've got some um
you know, uh IRB uh approvals and whatnot just to make sure that we're, you know,
adhering to um ethical research practices and things like that. Um So that's, that,
can I just say one thing, Holly real quick, you know, it's been a question that I've,
I've had, as I read about UB I programs and, and the, and the, like, what difference
does it make? And that's really the research that's being done is what do people
end up spending this money on? And if I recall the, the first phase of it really,
it was food. I mean, it was like the basic essentials that, that are keeping people
actually uh you know, satisfying their nutritional needs. It's that it's that kind
of luxury that this is paying for. Right. Right. Yeah, that's exactly it. Thank you,
Greg. Um And then we also have some employment going on in Forks right now. It's
a very small um program and actually, the funding is frozen right now at the moment,
it's the foundational community supports program that's coming through the state.
Um So that's frozen right now, but, but we're gonna be on board as soon as they release
the funds again. Um And then we also have, um you know, Liheap, as Greg mentioned,
we also have weatherization. Um Are you familiar with that program? Was that separate
from liheap? Um So there are separate programs but they're sort of affiliated. So,
uh so weatherization will go to people's homes and help them to weatherize their
homes, you know, maybe help them with or duct work or, you know, things like that.
It's very windows, window treatments and things like that to help conserve and preserve
energy um for their homes. So that's a really cool program as well and it's a one
man show. So we are working to, we have the funding to expand that if we can get
the staff to do it. That's, that's the real challenge I think for us as far as growth
is concerned, is sting. Uh continues to be a challenge. Um OK, let me think. There's
more, we've gotten three community centers as you guys know the contract with Jefferson
County to host those, the community in those centers. Um Let me think. Now I'm going
to the meal, meal programs associated with the community centers. Um We are doing
a meal program through tri area community center and then we have uh our Quilcene
Community Center Act as a distribution center for the Jefferson County Food Bank
Association on Wednesdays. Um And then we, of course, we do a lot of other nutrition
work as well. We have some pop ups and things like that um that we're working on
in our nutrition program. Greg, what am I missing? Oh, there's so many programs.
Uh you know, uh shit, I'm trying to go through the list in my head. Yeah, I didn't
have the list written down in front of me. I'll, I'll think but I mean, you know,
maybe talk a little bit like Tammy who was our interim ed and I think Heidi and,
and Kate, you've met both met Tammy. She's a great leader of the early early childhood
education, which is that. And housing are the two kind of big business lines within
Oly Cap. But there's some real existential prices that I'm glad we have Tammy there
to guide it through as, as the uh kind of universal pre K creates really existential
challenges for both the workforce and the kids when they have a choice to go straight
into uh a pre K at a school often that hasn't been, you know, programmed for years
in the same place. Like, you know, in Forks specifically, you know, there's a head
start class in the school or there was, but now there's a universal pre K and, and,
you know, with, with uh kind of a different career path. So it's really hard to get
head start teachers and everything. It's, uh, I don't know if you talk about some
of those existential problems that we and other cap agencies are, are navigating
right now on the early childhood education. Sure. Well, and I, and I, and I would
venture to say actually that it's across the board. Early childhood education is
an absolutely fabulous example because it does require some uh some um concrete
credentialing. You know, they need to have a B A in early childhood education in
order to qualify as a lead teacher, um, or be on a professional development plan
to get there. So there's quite a few um barriers to hiring, uh around just the credentialing
of them. Uh One of the things that um that I did in the work that I was doing with
Sunrise Services, which was the Community Behavioral Health Organization in North
Sound uh was to work with the Washington State Behavioral Council Advisory Council.
I was a member of that council and we worked together on a workforce development
program where we were incentivizing folks who were perhaps at a case management level,
um you know, under our employment to look at growth, career growth. So let's help
you get on a professional development plan so that you can be the next sud counselor
or you know, receive your ma in um in counseling or, you know, whatever it is that
you're looking to do that will bring you up. Uh And we were developing our own folks
um internally and that was something that, that I'm really proud of that. We were
able to not only fill our gaps in employment at those higher levels by working people
in. Um But we were helping our community by creating a foundation of, of, you know,
individuals that were gainfully employed and, and progressively increasing in responsibility
and scope. Um And it was just good for everyone. So that's something that I look
forward to working with our partners here, excuse me, in, in the uh two county region
that we work in so that we can perhaps do something similar to that that might work
for us. It makes me think of one of our um health interviews last week, Gabby Cald
of believe in recovering and believe in recovery and gateway to freedom. She talked
about how a number of her, um, staff now were her former clients and people with
substance use disorders who have actually been inspired by the work they saw Gabby
and her team doing and are now on the team doing the work and she'd be a good contact
for you to learn about what she's done because she said she had a number of folks
who came up through her programs to be employed by Gateway to Freedom, which is super,
actually one of the most common ways that SUV counselors are sourced is by bringing
people up from their own experience. And that and their lived experience is what
makes them so good at what they want to know what they're doing. So it's really exciting
to hear that kind of thing. I'm in full support of that and it just makes my, makes
my heart sing and the um uh in the childcare realm, those conversations have started
with Peninsula College, right? Um Yes. Uh Yes, Tam has been working in Tammy's been
working with them. We're also partnering with the Y MC A on uh having a head start
classroom here at our seventh Haven facility. Um just a few blocks away. Um And uh
we're also um uh to Greg's Point around the school district, we also have some head
start or perhaps it's ecap programming um in the chin schools and others around the
region. So, uh so we're trying to complement the universal um pre K head start and
EAP do have some components to it that I don't think uh that the universal pre K
has as far as family support, sort of a whole family approach. Um So, you know, we're
gonna do our part and we're going to partner as much as we can and uh provide as
much to the school districts and to the community as, as they need. And, and we're
coming up to the end of our community needs assessment um for the year, we're doing
focus groups in October and I would like all of you to attend one of them if you
are able to make sure you get an invite. Um And there's such important opportunities
for us to really hear from the community. Um What, what the community thinks they
need. Um It's so easy from our chairs, right to, to decide what the community needs.
But uh we really want that feedback and engagement. Yeah. Hey, Holly, can you talk
a little bit? I mean, we're, we're well aware at, at uh around the chamber here with
uh the Cosmo Brown phase three project, commercially directed spending. But can you
talk a little bit of the housing department and, and the leadership changes that
have gone on there and, and where you see that part of the organization structurally
uh moving. Sure. Uh So, uh Khy Morgan left Oly Cap um earlier
this year. Um And she uh I a replaced her with Viola Ware. Um I believe
Viola is pretty well known in the community prior to coming to OI A. Um she is just
highly skilled and a fantastic leader. Um And her leadership has really brought the
housing team together in a way, I think that uh that has been very good for them.
Um And, and there was um in, in my couple of short
months with a, there's been a few occasions where um there have been handshake agreements
made for things that, you know, that now people are coming to me and to Viola and
saying so about that, that we were talking to, you know, so and so about and thinking,
OK, hang on, we need to dial it back. Um And, and most of that was happening in housing.
Um So we've got some, you know, some, some, some work to do and just sort of clarifying
our role and, and how we are going to be collaborating with others around housing.
Um But housing is, I think in the best shape that it's been in a while. Um And, and
we continue to work to improve it and Viola is a definite asset in her role. Um As
far as Caswell Brown three, as you probably know, there is a funding gap of a few
million dollars. Um We are engaging a uh community outreach individual and I'm
meeting with him later today. In fact, we're outsourcing a team that's going to help
us do some capital development. Um And we definitely have our um eyes on the Caswell
Brown phase three and see if we can um bring in some additional funding perhaps from
non-government entities that would be great. Um So, so that is an absolute focus
of ours right now and the shortage is considerable. Um We are working with our representatives
of commerce. Um And, you know, they're helping us out in every way they can, we do
have some other um outsourced entities just kind of helping us um excuse me with
planning. Um and, and, you know, tackle some of these phases. Um As we go, we are
right now, I believe um Greg, I don't know if you know this even uh working on building
our infrastructure at phase two. So we're bringing mail um to the location. We're
hoping to get Wi fi over there. We're going to uh build some um permanent bathrooms
instead of the honey buckets. And, you know, uh so, so we're, we're really looking
to improve that um the phase that we already have today um with some funding that
we already have available to us, not taking away from the phase three funding, it's
separate. Um But then we're looking to expand into phase three, hope we will get
the funding that we need in 2026. Uh, and we'll be able to kind of, um, I think we're,
we're almost on schedule with that if we are able to, to start that in 2026. So
it's daunting. But I think we can do it just so, you know, I'm the, the point of
contact on the congressionally directed spending and so I will certainly pay it would
be you and viola then any time I hear something. Thank you. That would be terrific.
I appreciate that a lot. That's good to know. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm leaving at
the end of the calendar year. So if congress hasn't passed a budget regardless, we'll
need to be sure that uh it would be county dollars. So we'll have to figure out who
then should become the point of contact on that. So, ok, but for now, if you hear
from me, that's why terrific. Thank you, Kate. I appreciate that. Did I cover what
you wanted me to cover Greg? Yeah. Really? It's, it's uh there was, there was not
a slate that you had to cover so much as just coming and, and I wanted to make sure
that Kate and Heidi were had met you and, and established communications because
I think, you know, a is a critical the keystone organization in this, in this community.
I wanna make sure that you have interface to Heidi and Kate as well as vice versa.
So, thank you. Yeah, and well, well, you know, I guess you board member, um I think
all of the commissioners have always had a good relationship with the executive director
at L A Cap and um because we need to represent different, you know, like I'm, I'm
doing childcare with the Y and Heidi is involved with the Behavioral Health Advisory
committee. So we all have things that touch a cap separately. So please know that
we, we would all like to have a direct line to you and vice versa. That's fantastic.
Thank you. But yeah,
and it's complicated. I need a red phone. Yeah, but you probably know we have this
weird quorum issue, you know, so if you tell Greg something, he can't necessarily
communicate it to us. It's, you know, it's a clunky system. Um And I'm sure you,
you probably dealt with it before Mark is always a good, you know, in a clearing
house if there's something that all three of us need to know. But um it's, it's not
the most efficient system but it's what we're stuck with. So I thank you. I appreciate
it.
I heard. Yeah, very exciting. I'm really glad that you're here and bring um like
Greg said, a steady hand and emotional intelligence, I'll say Viola too, seems to
really appreciate what she brings to housing and the work we've done together, the
congratulate directed spending request. Um Yeah, she just seems very responsive and
and she's very knowledgeable there. So I, I have been leaning on her very hard just
to really understand the housing needs in the area. So it's been, she's great. She's
very great. I appreciate that. And I'm also Heidi looking into or looking forward
to expanding our potentially um expanding our reach into some behavioral health services.
Just trying to dip our piggies that just know that. Did you hear my update this morning?
They had $2 million in funding requests and less than half of that to give out. So
is that from the care coordination's from our 1/10 of 1%? I see. Ok. Ok. Got you
got you pocket. Isn't that deep and housing? Same? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's
the story of our lives right now, isn't it? You know COVID money dried up.
All right. Well, thank you so much for being here. We look forward to working with
you. Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it. Thank you, Greg. Hope you guys have
a great rest of your day. Thank you. You too, Greg. I hope you feel better if you're
I feel just fine. Thank you. Ok. Take care. Thank you.
All right, we're doing some calendaring. Um Greg. Do you wanna sure
with you guys go? Oh nice. Ok. Uh uh Mark
just said he's gonna duck out for a sec. Um and then tomorrow I will be I had I was
gonna have lunch with uh the port director today, but we've moved it to next Monday
and I was gonna have a Port Ludlow Drainage just district commissioner come to my
office tomorrow and I've rescheduled that as well. I'll be zooming into the E DC
Finance Committee meeting, big stuff happening over there with, with new staff. I
will then duck into part of the pen, welcome signage meeting. You know, the uh idea
of putting welcome signage on the roundabout at the canal bridge. And then I will
have to be going to the TCC on Wednesday. I'll probably also be remote. As I said,
I'll be chairing both the or of finance committee meeting and then the board meeting
and then we have a special meeting of the Housing Fund board to finalize the RFP.
We just ran out of time with our pre a great presentation from the Ruckel House last
time, uh the Rel House report and also we gave housing providers two days to suggest
changes. So gave them a little longer and have a meeting this Wednesday on Thursday.
I'll be going to the Jefferson County Library for the Olympic workforce development
meeting, um uh big three hour uh development meeting um to see here.
Yeah, I know it'll be my first in person. Uh um So, yeah, that's great. I got, got
to attend that and a mask, I guess. And then having lunch with uh Danny Mulholland
after that. And then on Friday, I am doing the Jefferson County audit entry. And
then I think I'm not on the radio this week and that's my week. Great. Can
I be Kate for the radio this week?
Hm. Is it? I thought I was the 20th. It's not on my calendar.
Not on anybody's calendar. I'm, I'm on the 20th. It's not on my calendar till the
27th. Um, gray muted.
I said it's probably me. Then I never put it on my calendar. I'm opening up the spreadsheet.
Hold on.
I doing two weeks in a row. I might be able to do it, but I'll be in a sack meeting.
I can do a live broadcast from the sack meeting. Oh, yeah, it is me on Friday the
13th. All right. Good to know. Are you available? I am available, I'll be in town
for the, uh, the uh aud audit. Uh So yes, I can do it my account.
All right.
Um Take a look at my week ahead. Uh Let's
see, tomorrow morning. I have a Maritime Washington Advisory board meeting. Um
Then I have a leadership council executive committee meeting for Puget Sound Partnership.
That's in advance of our two day meeting the following two days. Um, uh I have a
fairgrounds meeting to go over applications received for the executive director position.
Um And then I am driving to Bellingham tomorrow night for a two day meeting of
the P to Time Partnership Leadership Council. Um The uh and we will be touring some
post industrial sites where they've done some active restoration in whatcom County.
Um As well as some uh more traditional habitat protection projects. Maybe I'm just
admitting I haven't actually read the agenda yet, but two days away, plenty of time
and those are meaty packets. So, um so that's all day Wednesday and Thursday
mark. I will not be back in time for agenda planning. So if we can do that via email.
So I will be hopefully ferrying back at that time to get back for a fairgrounds board
meeting on Thursday night. Uh Friday morning. I have a municipal research service
center board meeting. Um, and, uh, that's half the day and I think that's it for
my calendar this week. How about you? Mark, what's your week? Look like we already
went. Did you already go? Sorry? All right. Um, so do we want a quick break before
we jump into the, um, lodging tax advisory committee discussion? I would. Ok. And,
and then I think we too, we should consider whether we want to try and, um, just
wrap up this morning or, um, plan to have, bring anything in the afternoon I have
nothing to bring. Now, let's wrap up. Ok, great. So let's, um, let's take a bio break
until 1112 minutes and make tea too good. And then, uh, we'll, we'll plan to have
that discussion from about 11 to 12 and then be done for the day. Sounds good. Ok.
We are recessed recording stopped. Recess.
JT A is having this, uh, these meetings is, yeah. Are you planning on attending them
as part of your climate work or? Um, I do plan to attend but I think they're kind
of open house like, so, you know, it could be, they are open house. Yeah, we won't
be, I don't think we'll be like having corn issues. Yeah. Yeah, we could just be
you not sure where we stay kind of
far. Don't end up in a conversation ago.
I'm not sure. II, I can't even attend so I can attend. Maybe I, no, I can't attend
either of them. Oh, wait,
I think I can attend on the 23rd after our BFCC meeting. It's one is a Zoom one and
one is in person. Right?
In that is our meeting on the 23rd ad L our calendar. Invite for that one short for
a reason. I'm sorry, I don't have my calendar in here. There's a 90, it was, oh,
that's weird. This is for the September 3rd Tuesday meeting. This is old. This is
the wrong date. It was sent to us for the 23rd of September, but it was for the third
of September meeting. So I'm deleting it recording in progress.
Right. And so 11 we're coming back from quick recess and we have one more item on
our agenda today, which is about the lodging tax advisory committee. Um great. Shall
I get it up to you or to mark? Oh, I, I guess you can do it to me unless you wanna
do. You have anything you want to tee up first mark. Um No. Um I wrote the agenda
request on your behalf and um I've been in discussions with you about the topic but
you have the best handle on it. So I'm gonna refer to you Greg. All right. Um And
I made a little slide deck as well here. I'm gonna share my screen apologies for
the clunky thing, but you know, I wanted to be there with you and uh you're gonna
see a different title on my slide deck because this the, the memo that I had mark
share with you too that I hope that we can discuss as well as part of the slide deck
with some action. Also about TCC. This is really just kind of, this is my summer
report basically. So I'm gonna dig into it and walk through stuff. I know that you
sent some questions back um to mark about the idea that I had him float to you. And
uh I've got most of those questions also answered in the deck. So maybe let me, you
can ask clarifying questions, but the questions might get. Uh OK. Uh Greg, can I
start with one question? Which is just um um the, what you're presenting is your
opinion and not a recommendation from the advisory committee or like, how would you
classify my recommendation? What we should do with this county advisory committee?
Ok, thank you. All right, you can see my screen there. Let me get back to you. Um
ok. So, um you know, it started out, I've been kind of crashing around all summer
like a bull in a China shop a little bit trying to figure out how to fix Ltte, how
to make it align with kind of priorities, all sorts of different things, you know,
looking at it with our uh pool work, especially as it becomes as we have our presentation
on the 16th of, of September. Next Monday, we are really close to consensus. There's
basically one path that is uh open in front of us and it is as we, you know, discussed
uh a tri area pool paid for with a PFT. And so all of these things come together.
Um So this is me, all the pictures are, are just a I generated based on my prompts.
But this is me as a duck as a bowl in a china shop. And I, I chose a duck. There's,
there's ducks throughout here mostly because there was a, I don't know, it just kind
of felt like a bull in a China shop journey. And I, but I chose a doc throughout
this death because I read recently a large peer reviewed study about what is empirically
funny. This study tried to find out what is funny. And there is not one answer. There's
no one thing that's funny except if you're going to tell a joke with an animal in
it, it should be a duck. So there are ducks throughout this. So I've been working
on healthier together trying to figure out this path uh for a pool, I've been working
I serve on TCCI I chair LT A and you know, trying to really approach this through
uh an equitable, an equitable lens, right? There's no one problem per se, but all
of these things are very connected. Um And as I look at these different assignments,
I've also been studying developing healthy, productive and equity minded systems.
Jefferson County has internal and external facing systems and they interact. We have
so many great and effective systems, but like all government, we often don't consider
the user needs as much as government when implementing policy. This is something
I've been kind of talking about. Kate pointed out the user experience concept that
I'm gonna talk a lot about that today too because I feel like it's an area that whenever
possible while recognizing the limitations of our general fund, we should increase
Jefferson County's digital competency. So we have a series of seemingly unrelated
dilemmas. We have the Aquatic Center. Is it a priority? We are so close to consensus.
At the August 27th meeting, the Port Townsend school district indicated they much
prefer a PFD. They're fine with the mid county site. Um Basically, if we come with
a, a strong argument to the uh joint meeting with the city, we can start building
a pool. So, is that a priority? LTE is the only funding I've been able to identify
that at other than our general fund that can create that uh seed money that we know
from the Department of Commerce Report we commissioned. We need, we need $200,000
to get this started before you can go to uh um to uh a vote of the people. So question
number one second one, that's a duck smiling because his building plans were quickly
approved. Um you know, governments large and small struggle with us, your experience
as an organization, we need to develop more product management skills as well as
project management skills. And I think we've gotten better at this. You know, I think
uh the new approach that environmental public health is taking to code of compliance
is an example of user experience where using harm reduction and and restorative justice
approach, we can actually meet people where they are so they can address the issues
um to work through a code violation problem rather than start slapping fines and
slapping fines and slapping fines. I I'm looking forward in, in on farm tour. There's
a big event out at Glendale Farm. I'm excited to go and I think that's partially
because of strong code and user experience both on, on the county side. And this,
uh, this third picture here is, um, me as a duck at the TCC meeting because I often
feel like the, the value, I'm not sure if I'm getting value being there or if I'm
giving value, but there's often no strategic alignment between the TCC and the county.
And I think that that is a, a problem that we can fix not fast.
All right. So if the pool is a priority, um we have this meeting coming on uh the
16th. And uh
if we achieve consensus at that meeting, then the next step is we have to plan the
plan, we have to pay for a second required report from commerce. And I would say,
uh plan a transition to a county LTCC that champions the angle
of tourism in pool development. One of the, the basic, the main takeaways in the,
the pool work has been, it needs to be, you need to just fill this pool to the brim
with programming before you talk about how much it costs. So it needs to be for kids.
It needs to be for grownups, it needs to be for tourists. It needs to be for locals.
We need to get everyone into that pool from if we can get full consensus this year.
And if we can find the money to pay a staff member of a PFD, then we can form a PFD
in the first quarter, 2025 we can start that year long dialogue with users all over
the county to figure out how can we fill the programming to the brim? And that's
the thing that we need to do first. Um And then who knows? I just left the LAM Ipsum
there for the design fundraising. I mean, how much it gonna cost? That's, that's
stuff that we just don't know yet. So it's foolish to put a number there because
if you put a number, I'll say one, just a random number, $37.1 million that's easy
to object to. We don't know how much it's gonna cost. All right, user experience
and digital competency. I've talked already about my struggles trying to get my hand
around how L AC should change. Um And that's often because there's, there's no staff.
I mean, we have uh our office perks it competently like they perk many things, but
they don't have time and capacity or the user expertise to, to guide LTE. So I've
been trying to do that this summer as I guide this, this healthier together. And
basically, we've got to get better skills at this. Um And user experience explicitly,
this picture, by the way, is a picture of a wild duck trying to teach a farm duck
how to fly. And uh I don't know, I don't know why the duck is saying gap, but I'm,
I'm trying to go out and imagine our duck saying gap all the time. I think they're
trying to get out of uh quite the right infringement. I'm not sure. Did you, you
developed all these images using A I, I did create all these images using A I chat
GP T and Kansas. Um And uh the quote there, our future depends on our ability to
implement is from a book that I quoted to you guys both before recoding America by
the person who helped save healthcare.gov and, and other uh like bringing digital
competency to local governments is what this person does. And I really do believe
that our future depends on our ability to implement. And I've often said the county
is where the rubber meets the road. We take these complicated grants and we make
them real things. And I think that is something that we um we need to build our skills.
You know, I mean, D CD and environmental public health as they make the transition
to EPL have told me many times, hey, you know, we're, we're planners, we're not database
managers, but we obviously we've hired Scott and we need to keep these are we need
to build this digital competency because we're only gonna have more databases and
more digital interfaces uh to deal with. And we should, as I said, during our consent
agenda, um we need to learn the skills to modernize our own technology, even a small
county like Jefferson County, Craig before you go to the next slide. Oh, can you
go back. So this image was digitally created. Who's that? The illustrator Gavn?
I think that's, it looks like a signature but it's not, this was just created from
whole cloth. That's interesting.
Maybe a gap. No, I don't, I mean, I don't think they even think they're real words
just as it was. Chat GP T trained itself by scraping the internet. That's where a
signature goes. So it put a signature there. Yeah. Interesting.
All right. So I've been on TCC twice. I found it frustrating both times. I know Heidi's
been on it. I don't think Kate has ever served on it. And, you know, most of our
system in Jefferson County, our advisory boards and committees have a direct connection
and a dialogue with the County family TCC. Kind of opaquely serves the members of
TC and is often a tension with the county. You know, members of TCC are often very
satisfied and get a lot of value. I think out of the way that it's run and that's
probably why isn't, hasn't changed for 20 years. I know I came in earlier in the
summer saying, hey, our code says we hold TCC into LT, but we've never done that.
But, you know, when we have like we used to have the historical society on TCC. When
they were running the gateway visitor center, they got much less value out of, out
of it than say, you know,
I mean, any of any of the TCC members. If you get a fa tour there or an ad that features
your business, you are explicitly getting marketing expertise that's working for
those people. And the meetings are often report out from the different areas. And
I want to say our TCC board is great. It's, it's well represented from geographically
and skill wise. We've got people from hotels and restaurants and it's a, it's a great
group and I want to preserve that group. But right now it's kind of a tail wagging
the dog situation where you even have the contractor who is getting is the paid staff
member for TCC. Out of our LT A money is on TCTCC as the gateway visitor center
manager
approving paying his contract. It's just a very circular system with very little
oversight. None of our other systems work like that. I'd love to get staffing into
housing funding board as Mark mentioned that um we need staff capacity at these boards.
Behavioral Health advisory committee. I've, I've served on that. Heidi serves on
that and we've had great staff on that that does research, sets things up as it gives
capacity to that organization that we don't. We've never had an LT A as I've been
on it and TCC has it for the members of TCC, but not for the county as a whole. So
I want us to unify our strategy, develop the intersectionality that we do and other
things like behavioral health advisor. We are Parks and rec advisory board with both
with both Heidi and I have served on before the Marine Resources Committee that we've
all served on. There's always a staff connection and um interface between the county
and the advisory board, Coors and coordinating council has none of that. Um And there's
often tension, you know, you know, every time that I mentioned the pool that I was
working on for the county, I got opposition. I, some of the questions I heard there,
I, I heard from, from you guys uh via Mark too. You know, a pool is not a, a tourist
thing. Why are you talking about this? I was actually asked not to report so much
about the pool because they were focused on tourist thing. And OK,
it doesn't have to be, this is an advisory committee that, that serves at our pleasure.
And if we are going to, as my first slide asked, prioritize the pool, we can direct
the Tourism Coordinating Council. Hey, how do we make a tourist pool? That's a question
we can ask and that's a work plan for them for uh Yeah, I guess so, looking to both
connect our county to the uh Tourism Coordinating Council and
also um want to connect our strategies into the Tourism Coordinating Council. All
of this was really, yeah, go ahead. My question about the pool, which maybe you heard
from Mark wasn't that the pool isn't a tourist thing it was, is the pool a tourist
thing that was part of the conversation I want to have today. And I have, I have
an answer to that question. I'd be curious. Um, what your thoughts are? Let me, let
me get to that in the slide deck and then we can continue to talk about it if that's
ok. Yeah.
Um So I was kind of still just a dock as a bull in a China shop bashing around looking
how to fix all these unrelated dilemmas that didn't work. Um When I found a roundabout
way to addressing all of my dilemmas. So as our tourist representative, I was asked,
as we, I mean, I'm going to a meeting tomorrow about this. So I was asked to uh to
help see if the county would sponsor, which is something that has to happen with
was dot's Forms sponsor, an art uh sign in the middle of the roundabout that they
are currently building at the Hood canal bridge. Paradise Bay Road, Cheyne Road.
We've all seen this picture and I said, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I went
to a meeting with a bunch of uh this is the Olympic Peninsula Master Tourism plan
uh group working on consistent signage all around the peninsula. So, you know, if
you come up from Aber, you see, welcome to the Olympic Peninsula, you cross the bridge.
Welcome to the Olympic Peninsula. I think it's a great idea. I talked a little bit
to uh the different people in the group, including Shelley Levins from the city.
And she said, oh, yeah, she talked to public works and you'd have to do this and
that and this. I'm like you talked to the county public works and she said, no, no,
II, I talked to the city public works. I'm like, OK, a little ways from the city,
but that's, that's still helpful. Um But I talked to our county public works and
uh you know, we're moving through this project. They were like, please don't put
irrigation in it. We don't want anyone to put plantings there that they expect public
works to, you know, drive 10 miles to and get into the middle of a highway intersection
to water a plant or it just ends up looking bad. So we're still working on it. You
know, I talked to Kevin Street and um Pud is, is supportive, Eric Kuzma has reached
out to Wash dot Of course, other people from this tourism group have also reached
out to Wash dot So now we have multiple people talking about how do we get this conduit
in? Um And I just think back to uh Shelley who is not doing too much
on this but the direct interface between our marketing, our destination marketing
and our county departments not only reduces the tension between the different departments,
but it allows the work to get done more efficiently. If, if our in staff uh marketers
said, hey, call up Eric Kuzma and say, hey, what's going on in this? What do I need
to do? You have one point of contact instead of the siloed thing that we keep encountering?
And so as I was working on, this is when I, I came uh to the realization that what
we should do is simply oops keep doing the wrong keyboard. This memo that I essentially
sent to you. It's been slightly modified since I had Mark uh uh run it by you guys
last week. But this is what I would like to do. It's relatively small, but it's also
um fundamental, a fundamental shift.
I'll just kind of let you read it as it is and this is what I would love to come
back and talk about. But I have the questions from, I think both Kate and Heidi that
I can address a little bit first.
Basically, we just take staffing to the county wrap up this year with, with TCC
next year. We do minimal marketing and recalibrate aligned with the county. And that's
both, you know, that's also hearing from TCC about the county, like some 11 topic
that we've had a lot of conversation and some of the tension that's come up is as
we do work with uh short term rentals, the tourism industry really is protective
of short term rails because they create this lodging tax that we are talking about
right now. So engaging our destination marketing staff member with brand and D CD
as we go through, this is again an alignment that can happen if we have internal
capacity dealing with this destination market. So uh ready to move on. Yeah,
so these are some of the questions that marks it back to me from you guys. How we
move ahead prior to our January 16th meeting, what elements of the TCC budget would
disappear? And how much L tech would that open up? And how can we call an aquatic
facility, a tourism related facility? So taking these one at a time, how can we move
ahead prior to the January 16th meeting? Of course, our Ltarfp has been published.
So we really do have some urgency. But as I said, seed funding was not an assignment
of the task force, but we know that it has to happen if we want a PFD to, to even
commerce will not let us create a PFD unless we have that funding ready before the
PFD is there. Um So bringing the plan that we will support using our LT AC
funds to see the PFD is we encourage our chances of consensus, but we
won't make that recommendation to LT AC to fund the PFD, which we would make the
application ourselves and say, tell direct LT AC, hey, this is a priority, a strategic
priority right now. Um Please give us a year or two of seed funding for this PFD.
Uh regardless of what is this, what is the January 16th meeting? Joint meeting?
January 16th? That's sorry, September 16th. That's a typo. Ok. I'm just
sorry typo. I was no, I can use COVID fog for any typos. That was the COVID fog typo
or did a, I write this side deck?
Um I can tell it, didn't. Uh Yeah. No. A I did not write the slide down. Uh
But uh yeah, September 16th meeting. Excuse me. So what elements of the TCC budget
would disappear? And how much revenue would that open up? Well, we can look at their
application. This is last year's application. I think we awarded less money Heidi
was on this award RFP panel. Not I, but um I think they got 280 or 290. I can't remember
exactly. But basically we take, we'd hold on to, you know, $30,000 worth of digital
marketing, the Washington Tourism asso uh alliance and optic membership and then
pay, pay a county staff instead of uh um what looks to be an illegal contract that
we have right now where we have the chair of TCC signing a contract with a board
member of TCC, who was also the sole staff member of TCC. Instead, they would come
in to be a county staff 0.5. And we would combine with the 0.5 information officer,
which is the exact same thing that the city of Port Townsend has done. So this model
is not a brand new model or anything and it's the exact same thing. And I, you know,
sitting down to talk to Shelley, you know, uh the city would love alignment in our,
our tourism strategy and we can do that easier if we have two staff members that
can just call each other Greg. Can I just ask about this image you have here? Um
It's really hard to read but the, the optic piece, the part that's highlighted is
what we have it in our packet too. That's optic membership. It's 35,000 a year. Ok.
And so we, why would we not wanna be part of that? We do?
That's what we maintain. We maintain optic membership, we maintain the Washington
Tourism Alliance membership we maintain, I mean, there's other things like website,
we bring the website internally spending $6000 a year to keep a website that is essentially,
you know, mostly just like optics website seems a high price and bring it into
somebody would have to have that skill set, that web design, skill set in addition
to being a,
well, we have people do our websites as well. I mean, but we do need a, a marketer
and that's the skill set that I want, you know, helping our department with the website
as well too. So I'm I'm saying that yes, we need that skill set. I mean, it could
be the same staff member. That's the contract member right now. They've got lots
of skills. I'm not saying that it's not, you know, it's the person, it's the system
that I think is a really flawed system. I get that. I was looking at this budget
last week and going, what parts do we keep and what parts will we lose? And so I'm
kind of interested in. Um, you would, so, so I'm understanding you would get rid
of all advertising
as we calibrate. I mean, it's a year of learning how to calibrate and this would
go hand in hand with us saying, hey, as a county, we want to build a pool, that's
our top tourist priority TCC, figure out how to do that. And, uh, you know, maybe
much of this marketing comes back next year, you know, but, um, we really don't have
much direct information. I'll, I'll go into this a little bit more. But, um, you
know, marketing is, is a, is a, a broad brush tool, right? You know, we can market
for the shoulder season, but that doesn't mean that people that see that marketing
don't come in the middle of summer when every room is already full. We are an an
amenity trap in the middle of the summer and we've been for years trying to grow
the shoulder seasons of the fall and the spring to make the season longer. That's
been our strategic plan for since I've been here. And I'm sure a decade before that.
Um So this will not funding this advertising for a year will let us know how, how
effective is it in a way that continuing the same marketing every year doesn't, I
don't think we need a bunch of maps printed out. So a couple of things, I don't think
a year is long enough to test anything because we all know that things don't build
to success in a year or don't drop off to a complete lack of success in one calendar
year. I mean, that's true with any business entity. So it would be true with this
programmatic shift. Um I mean, this is the conversation I wanted to have and why
I brought the question of is the aquatic center tourist draw is because I don't really
know what you guys are proposing. I can think of an aquatics facility in this state
that would draw me as a tourist to its community. But that's because it has a lot
of fun elements, right? And so I don't know if you guys are proposing a lap pool
for high school swim teams or a facility that has, you know, multiple draws for
multiple segments of the community. And that was why that question came up for me.
It wasn't, it wasn't whether a pool is, you know, a draw or not. It was, you know,
are we having an, I guess I, I still have issues with the way that the the question
is framed and I, I think that, I mean, obviously the RCW says that a pool can mean
it explicitly says an aquatic facility can be a tourism facility. So how that happens?
You know, we can do it a couple of ways. Um I of course, I'm in favor of the, the
ducks, you see the ducks here and this, I did this instead of people rowing all the
same direction, but this is everyone pulling in the same direction. This is TCC saying,
yeah, we, we want a tourist pool. How do we make a tourist pool? This is the PFD
saying, how do we program this pool? So it's filled from six in the morning to nine
at night, seven days a week if we, so how do we call an aquatic facility? A tourism
related facility? We make an aquatic facility, a tourism related facility. And how
do we do that? Um We engage TCC to actually do this work and
say chew on this. How do we make? I've got two answers to this question. Actually,
cost recovery is a challenge. We still need to fill the pool. TC C's work should
involve this development. So we should tell TCC, we want a pool. How do we make that
pool? A tourist facility? Does that make sense?
Uh huh. One of the things that we are, one of our big takeaways is programming precedes
design and so let's program it for tourists. So I've also, I've got my
second answer here. Oh, no, this is why TC is the right TCC is the right people to
do this. So, as I've already said, you know, one of the biggest problems tourism
has in Jefferson County is lack of infrastructure if we could get this pool, I mean,
and the three of us, the county, we are also trying to place, make our new urban
growth area as a, as a, as a place that grows um sustainably and vibrantly. So
we want a hotel in Port Hadlock, I mean, or do we, I don't know, I guess that's a
question. But if we want to increase tourism, we need more facilities that can take
people. So if you build a tourist pool, does someone want to build a hotel next to
it? Maybe a public aquatic facility extend the shoulder seasons of the spring and
fall. And then I touched on this before, but we have a great group in the TCC. The
group of tourism and professionals and volunteers we have is the ideal group to help
figure out how a public pool can be programmed and how it can reach this. You know,
we've got Dan from the Cove RV down in Brennan. How do we make this pool? A pool
that Brennan says, hey, I don't care if Black point is making uh a pool down there.
I wanna go up to the, the water slide in, in uh in Cheam or, or uh you know, how
do we make it? So for Finn River, you know, Christie's on, on TCC, how do you create
uh uh uh nexus between the, the work that they do, bringing tourists and the work
that the pool does? Um So I think putting this group to that question, I don't have
all the answers, but I do have one idea. Um So here's, here's my answer. I would
call it Chimi Cum Creek Pool. Uh Oh, I'm missing one of my photos. Well, the picture
that was supposed to be over the, the style guide was kind of a picture of chic farm
stand and Finn River. So, you know, we have a style that already exists in the area.
It's practical, it's not ostentatious kind of a Barnwood, Wabi Sabi that is uh kind
of commercial underneath it. Um You can really engage the historical society and
make it culturally relevant. So this one is appointed like your favorite spa with
indoor and outdoor hot pots reminiscent of the old iron kilns from Irondale Price.
On. What's that? I love the creativity here. Uh A large dry sauna and steam room
watch over the outdoor pool and you have a climbing wall into the pool and you have
two water slides. Those two water slides are from a uh tourist facility built in
Chehalis, Washington. That's an outdoor splash pad. Those, that's a, you know, that's
a pool that was built and you know, let's build a little mini wild waves here and,
and, and get those kids, you know, Adele, who sits on the, the task for it. She has
her grandkids over and she's like, let's go down to the beach club to go to the pool
and they're like, no, we want to go to the chimi pool and slide in the water slides.
That's how you make a pool, a tourist pool. And then of course, with having everyone
pulling in the same direction, our TCC, our PFD the county, then we're also do a
massive planning effort. So we've got a, a phase one and phase two and a phase three,
we can get some outdoor athletic facilities, grants, build that outdoor tourist pool
and then slowly build up the capacity to uh run a levee and, and build the indoor
pool is phase two. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to do it. But if we are
all looking with the uh thesis that we need a new pool, then we
are much more likely to have a new pool than if every time I go to the TCC meeting,
they say, why are you talking about a pool again? We're here to do fa tours to, you
know, the old alcohol plant and that helps some and maybe there are real losses in,
in changing the marketing goal. But uh one of the main thrusts in my earlier memo
was that building things that create space is one of the big uh uh um
goals, I guess, objectives of the Olympic Peninsula master tourism plan. So how do
you make it a tourist pool? You make it a tourist pool? Um Sorry, I keep it on keyboard.
All right, that's what I got now. I can, I can stop sharing and we can talk.
All right, can I um can I go back to some really basic kind of authority questions?
Uh So I assume you feel like your proposal meets the statutory requirements for the
use of LT A funds. I'm not making any suggestions for the use of LT AC funds right
now except, well, I guess the TCC haven't been internal. Yes, that, that is absolutely
statutorily allowed. That's exactly what, how Port Townsend does it and using it
for the 200,000 for the Aquatic Center. That's not what I'm proposing right now.
I, I do think that we should do that but um yes, I am sure that if we build the tourist,
if we build it as a tourist facility, it isn't allowed use putting $200,000 into
the PFD. Ok. Oh, so you're not recommending that for the early set up of the PFDI?
I am. I mean, I guess here's, here's like the time crunch. The LT AC RFP is already
out. I would prefer to, to spend another week making a proposal, filling out the
LTCRRFP and um submitting it along with a letter from the county commissioners saying
please do this. So the, the way that it works, there's a very uh uh rigid
uh um RCW rule basically. So we, as a county commissioners can't just do anything
that we want with LT, but we have to approve any awards so we cannot change who gets
awarded. We can say we want to award a different amount and then it goes back to
LT A. They talk about it again and then we can make the decision. We can't uh say
we're going to do the pool and not submit an application the same way Port Townsend
does a budget for their employee every year and then pushes it through uh LT A where
they approve it or have questions about it and then it gets sent on to the City Council
for approval T PC C is totally separate from LTC and nothing bounds us what we do
with TCC. We would have to rewrite the bylaws which are have ensconced in it that
there is a contractor who is hired uh to do it and we would just change the bylaws
and, and work with. I mean, the memo talks about working with the TCC on the bylaws
for the next year, but we can put in there, the strategy that we want to find a tourist
strategy strategy that involves a fundamental goal of the county, which is building
an aquatic facility. So that would I would say, would go into the bylaws as well.
And then uh with, with TCC also on board, um you know, they're working on that element
throughout the next year, refining their uh the marketing plan. I mean, it, it kind
of, it, it's uh it still exists about like it is, but LT A then would have staffing
as well. So in the same way that the BH AC is staffed by Anna, both the TCC and LT
A would be staffed by this new 0.5 employee who ideally would be connected with our
information officer to um take their skills and uh further into the, the, the county
organization. Have you thought about whether the skill sets needed for information
officer and L tech staff are analogous? I
mean, they're, yeah, they're very similar. I mean, and again, there is an example
in Port Townsend of, of the exact same thing. And are you saying combined with our
communications manager specifically?
Is that the position? Yeah. Yes. Ok. And that, does that person want that change
in role? We're talking about it? Ok. Ok.
Um Yes, I, something that I thought is still a gap and I don't know if the task force
agrees with this or not. But is the um the question of, you know, this kind of, with
this very outdated marketing study from years ago that showed that there would be
more use of an aquatic Center in Port Townsend than other parts of the county and,
you know, we knew that it was a gap that that was not updated. Um So curious kind
if we're thinking about such a large investment, you know, it, do we, do we have
evidence that that the halo tri area would be a good
destination for maximizing use of a facility? And I think that question stands, whether
it's uh tied to our tourism dollars or not. Um But is that something you've thought
about? We thought a lot about that. I actually have a, a letter, an opinion column
in the Port Townsend leader this week. Uh that speaks directly to that. And you know,
the biggest argument I can say about it is that we did some drive time analysis.
If you have a uh a pool that is at um uh tri area location, you
are within a 20 minute drive of 28,000 residents of Jefferson County. If you do it
in Port Townsend, you are within a 20 minute drive of about 20,000 residents in Jefferson
County. Also many more Children will be close heart. Uh Even Wendy Bart from the,
the, the CEO of the Olympic Peninsula Y MC A really came into the task force process
thinking that, you know, 12 minute drive time was really critical but came out of
the task force and you should ask this for yourself at, at the, at the meeting next
Monday, next Monday on January 16th. Um What uh what she thinks, but like rural environments
are, are, are different. And I've talked to many parents that drive from Port Townsend
to Port Angeles or Bainbridge Island already to go to a pool. So I'm confident that
we can do it. That 2014 study had some assumptions in it that should be explored.
But the timeline slide that I showed talked about a year of two way
communication with, with everyone. I mean, we need to, I can't guarantee that it's
gonna work. I can guarantee if we don't put $200,000 into a PFD, we're not gonna
get another pool. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. And I, I asked Kevin to do that initial drive time
analysis just because I was getting so many comments about putting the pool in the
tri area. When initially I, I actually cataloged 700 comments and a big
central cluster of those comments were about that. And I was like, I wonder how many
people live within 20 minutes and 20 minutes was for me like the acceptable because
I've spent my life driving to Port Townsend, literally, you know, from Irondale to
Port Townsend. I've spent my entire life driving life, especially driving that what
is off in 20 minutes and you know, that's acceptable to me. So I was like, let's
just try 20 minutes, Kevin. And it, you know, it was interesting because then I got
some pushback about, well, it should be 15 minutes and I'm like, I'm fine with the
20 minutes, you know, but it's just, I did a 12 minute drive time analysis too. More
people are within a 12 minute drive time of a mid county site than a Port Townsend
site. Interesting. Interesting. Well, and I mean, you know, that doesn't take into
account where people traveling to anyway for other services, which is part of what
a marketing analysis gets to. So I think it's a little bit incomplete, but with the
geography of our county being largely north, south oriented, um it, that it probably
is more uh accurate because everybody has, you know, so many people would have to
pass through the tri area if they were on their way to Port Townsend for medical,
um, you know, services, shopping, uh government, you know, whatever. Um So it's,
but, and it's also true that a lot of people come from Port Ludlow and quilting to
grocery shop and have that. So it's a destination as well in its own. Right? And
hopefully more of a draw commercial center.
I mean, even the three of us. Right? II, I assume it's probably 25 minutes from your
house to mountain view, Heidi, I guess, I don't really know. Um But, but, you know,
we as, as you know, representations of, of the three districts, we could all drive
to a mid county site in 20 minutes, but only one of us could drive to a four towns
site in 24.
Um So, yeah, I mean, there's still work to be done and like a consensus. But what
we can do to aid in that consensus is make sure that the county boat is moving in
one direction. And I think that we should align our, our tourism and, and not just
for this, even if we don't build a pool, we should align our tourism with our county
as we do our Behavioral Health advisory committee, as we do our housing fund board,
as we do our Park and direct advisory board as we do our college wage advisory board,
it makes no sense to have this one help. Only if the ducks are in a long boat, Greg,
I try to make it a long boat but then when, when I start adding extra little uh bits,
it starts to get really chaotic. I mean, none of them are really connected to the
ropes anyway. So I, I was a little disappointed with that. What about, you know,
you know, if we were to move ahead with a proposal um for this year's RFP. Um What
about, what about funding of market study for both local and tourism? I mean, it
just feels like a really big direction to choose to go without data, to support the
why or how? Well, let me, let me rephrase it a little bit.
We know that an MP D is not tenable. We learn that just with our 827 meeting. We
know that a PFD with a city pool is not tenable. We already said no to that.
We only have one funding option that the public can, the government can lead us to
a pool and we only have one place that, that funding option is going to work. So,
I mean, I'm not saying no to a market study but I'm not, I'm saying
I've spent all summer with this. If not this, then just let's stop looking for a
pool. So Greg, just because, you know, we're not privy to what the pool task force
is gonna present to us is the pool that's been
contemplated or the pools that you've seen in your travels together. Do they tend,
tend towards this tourism, uh, model? I mean, I don't know about the Wabi Sabi hot
pots, Greg. I mean, that might be a, a bridge too far. But, you know, are there,
are there slides are there, you know, outdoor, I've been to, I mean, what we were
looking at largely was both regional duplicated, duplicated models. So we looked
at South Whitbey Island to see how they made it, you know, past the Bond. Right?
And a big part of it was they located it between Langley Freeland and Clinton, right,
right in the middle. Yeah. And they put it on a septic. So we said, OK, we can put
it on a septic and that geography is, is, is, uh, it's not nothing. Um We looked
at the Shore Aquatic Center in Port Angeles and great facility, really strong leader.
Got them there. MP D by the way, property tax. Um, and they have $1.8 million per
year of property tax that goes to operation still cost recovery is, is nowhere near
total. Right? So when you, when you look at what makes a pool work, we just, we,
we, it will be more successful if it is both a tourist pool and a community pool.
It just because the problem with pools is they are not enough. So you have to make
it. My question is still the same though. Is that the, the pool that the task force
is bringing back is that, does it meet that requirement or that description? We're
not bringing a design. I mean, we were tasked with is a mid county pool practical.
It is um is a P FDA good source of funding for it. It is. Um but then they also say
programming precedes design. We don't want to talk about prices or what the pool
looks like because the market study that I think we should do is a year of the
PFD working with the Jefferson Aquatic Coalition on a evolving survey, which is what
the other market survey studied was too. It was a survey of, of people um to find
out what goes in the pool, what doesn't go in the pool, what would take you through
the pool from Brian. What would take you to the pool? From poor. I mean, I just,
I don't know what, what has been done yet, so I'm just asking, it's really hard to
not put the cart in front of the horse. When we're talking about swimming pools,
we wanna know. Oh, what does it look like? And I, I'm, I'm the same way. One of the
first steering committee report came out. I like, whip to the back. What's the design
look like? Um, is, is it cool or is it not cool? But we, we aren't there yet. We
have to work on the calendar schedule before we can know what the pool itself looks
like. Ok. And I, I would also say the task force was not tasked with looking at any
tourism elements or, or seed funding. So that's my own analysis with the lessons
that I've learned facilitating the task force that it's, it's gotta be all or it's
gonna be nothing
if we could go back to my, what I was asking before talking about the market study.
Like I, um, I don't necessarily disagree with anything you've said where I am a little
bit stuck is do we have the data to justify making a really large change in uh
funding that a couple of uh boards are involved with? And there's not really not
consensus about wanting to go in this direction. And so, um, you know, I think that's
my desires to, you know, maybe get some more do so a little more feasibility um before
making a, a kind of radical shift in direction and potentially um uh alienating some
important relationships. Um and more of an iterative approach to, to
gather some more information.
I mean, I think those, I believe what I'm proposing is an iterative approach. I mean,
I don't know what the pool looks like. I don't know what it has in it. Um
All the, all the things that you want researched, I'm committed to as well, but we
need to make a commitment to it to find out. And I think we, I'm also, I will admit,
skeptical about some of the utility of the ad campaigns that TCC supports.
I would love to see that reanalyzed. So it's not just about the pool, I think, you
know, baseline budgeting. Let's get the Tourism Coordinating Council, which in my
experience, I've, I've heard it otherwise, but Heidi, I'd be curious of yours does
not collaboratively build the uh marketing campaign. I think the marketing campaign
strategically supports many of the members of the TCC, which is a different thing.
And I don't think necessarily that's why I didn't talk to TCC before I talked to
us because it's the tail wagging the dog right now. And regardless of the pool, I
think that we should reimagine um the TCC working in concert with the county. I do.
Yeah. No, I, I agree with your assessment and I like the idea of, you know, trying
something new just because I, I felt like, you know, I feel like there's good work
done there, but I don't really, I haven't really take because I don't have the time
and there's no staff to do it, taking the time to analyze, you know, which of those
marketing campaigns are really working for drawing people here, you know, where,
where, where are those markets? I mean, I know we get presentations about it, but
it feels really like a foregone conclusion, right? In a way, rubber stamp, I've never
seen anything but a rub rubber stamp. And I would argue that we as a county could
say, hey, we need to place, make the tri area, we've got a new sewer there, we want
to, you know, develop this idea. So, hey, TCC, how do we develop this tri area, if
not the pool, how do we, how do we make it a destination that that supports, you
know, the old Alcohol and Finn River and all the other businesses there and amplifies
them? What do you need in the area that's going to uh place, make this area? So there's
a lot of ways to approach destination marketing that can be um I think more concrete,
I definitely support just personally um building things and
that people want to see. I mean, I know that every year on my wife's birthday, she
drives down to Tacoma to go to Olympus Spa and every time that we fly anywhere, the
first thing we do is look for a bathhouse or a public pool. And I think we can really
develop bathing culture as a uh um it's, it's an obvious uh Jefferson County thing.
We'll throw some pickleball courts in there too and it'll be packed.
Um What, what is the anticipated uh allocation for LTE this year? 19,000?
Um So I guess, I mean, my interest would be in, you know, if we are going to do,
um application would be to, you know, seeing kind of I identifying the components
that we can agree are um would be most helpful in advancing this um this
proposal to me, I'm not sure if that looks like us taking on all of the destination
marketing at this point. But does it mean, you know, could, it would interest me
to include staff person and uh a feasibility study to, to test this, do a marketing
study for um you know, some version of this facility if at that location. Um and
I could probably be talked into other things, but, you know, maybe it's 100 and $50,000
proposal. Um And well, what about the, what about the um seed funding for the PFD?
Um that I, I still feel unclear if that was, that 200,000 was um you know, I mean,
cause we can, we can also put that on a ballot and start collecting that money. We
can, we can put it on a ballot. Well, what I will just say we need, what is that?
Another report from, from commerce? Commerce required another report and the first
report that we had says before you can form a PFD, you need to have seed money. So
I all the work that you want done should be done not by the county, not by the TCC
internal staff, but by the PFD that we would create a board in, in January and fund
and they have to do that, you know, uh I mean, this is a long ways from a pool. This
is just the next step. If we want to get to a pool, we have to have this administrative
organization and this is the only way that I know to fund it. So feasibility before
the PFD doesn't make any sense. It doesn't, the PFD should do the feasibility in
conjunction with the county and with, with Jack and with, with TCC and with all these
people, it should be, you know, we, we, if we want to do it, we gotta do it. But
I thought you were saying that you didn't want to start asking for the 200,000 for
the aquatic center right away. Didn't you just say that? I mean, I, I meant uh today,
next Monday, I'll come and ask for the uh PFD seed money. I'll put the application
together and put it in front of you guys before, for you to see uh today, I'm asking
that we like all of our other advisory boards support TCC with staff. OK?
I, I can support all of those things because I've been in those trenches
and felt the need for staff there as the board member, you know, county board member.
I mean, a lot of times these uh funding boards and this is why I encouraged Greg
to take, take this back last year because I was feeling way too overextended, essentially
staffing some of these committees because we didn't have staff for this one in particular.
And I have been way over extended doing the same thing, Heidi, you're not alone.
Yeah, so I get it Greg and it, it makes a lot of sense to me just so that we set
ourselves up for success on this front because if we keep under um, allocating or
not allocating any staff to this, it's gonna be continue to be this train rolling
down the road that we don't know who's driving it really, you know, and that's how
it's, uh, kind of felt,
that kind of, that's how it's felt. Um, being the commissioner assignee to the board,
it's like, ok, yeah. Um, and we've got other big
transitions in our funding board, you know, Anna mckenry is gonna retire and that
to me is gonna be my focus for the next term or at least the next couple of years,
it's whoever gets, who fills that position that was working closely with them. So
it's, you know, it's even if you have a staff person, if there's a transition, it's,
you know, another deep dive.
Um, so Greg, you were saying it's like you have something different in mind for next
week. But that's the, that's the, when we actually meet with the city, it'd be really
nice for us to have a um a proposal for LTC. And for that, the meeting on the 16th,
right? I mean, I think what I would like to have for the 16th is a commitment from
the board saying we will direct LT AC funds to, you know, see a PFD
for $200,000 in January of 25. If we can all agree, I think that would be really
powerful to be able to bring that. I mean, I'm happy to make that uh that right now,
I just don't know what the application looks like. It's gonna take a little time
to, to go through that. So I'm that is the action I am also proposing though, I guess
I'm happy to do that today. And um but also including um staff money for staffing,
right? So you'll bring a budget back next week, Greg for all these components or
say that again, you'll bring a budget with all these components in it for next week.
Um The PFD staffing, I think I can get next week. I'm not, I'm not, I don't really,
I mean, it's basically looking back at the Commerce Report and you figure $100,000
for staff, 100 and 10 and, and, uh, you know, 50 to $100,000 for either studies or,
you know, a, a ballot, um, basically $200,000 or to get the PFD started maybe for
a couple of years and then TCC, you know, we do the application and so we take 100
and 75,000 off that application. Basically, as we, you know, it's gonna take a little
dickering too. I, I met with Sarah once but, you know, we need to really create a
position that, that it's gonna be so understanding what those costs are, will take
a couple of days, um what the appropriate rates and, you know, like, uh our communication
office right now is exempt. This probably wouldn't be an exempt position. So does
that mean it just, there's some, a little bit of dickering around but um stopping
TCC from doing their own LTC. Uh proposal is quite critical because they're probably
working on it as well. There's a meeting tomorrow if I can go and tell them, hey,
there's gonna be some changes. Uh We're gonna talk more about pools than we did last
year. Um That would be great. Uh And then next week, if we can, as we sit with the
city council, if we can say we will prioritize a mid county pool
and, you know, pay for a year or two of, uh, you know, of the uh
uh the, the seed funding that the commerce report indicated would be required. I
think that will go a long way to moving a sport.
I would support that if we include some market study. Um in that just so we have
more data to be making a really big decision on based not just on our assumptions
but some more data. It doesn't mean we agree with every piece of data we get. But
um that, that's, that, that's important to me to justify the, um, the moving
of, of funds. And I, I think it could largely will help get more folks on board actually.
Oh, yeah, I'm not opposed. We need to do another market study. I'm, I'm curious who
do you think should do the market studies? The PFD which is going to be, remember
we're going to see the board and then we're not going to have um discretion over
them like we do over the TCC and LT A or the TCC that should do it or should, uh
you know, I know the Jefferson Aquatic Coalition is, is prepared to participate in
uh a survey. I mean, you know, we've done market studies in the past. There's also
been very effective um, kind of grassroots surveys. That's ultimately what, what
South Whidbey Island did was a survey where they got more than 30% of their service
area to really give input into what would, how they would use a pool, whether they
would use a pool. I mean, there's a couple of different ways to slice it. Who do
you think should, you should task with doing the market?
I don't know, because, I mean, the A PFD, like, even if, you know, it's this whole
cart and horse question, um, it wouldn't really, it wouldn't actually have authority
until after it went to voters. So, you know, it would have authority. It would have
authority.
We're giving it that discretion
unless it have the tax authority. Right. But, I mean, we could set aside in this
request for the PFD. You know, it is $30,000 for a market study and, and say, you
know, we could, we could write that for the PFD and if they do it a different way,
don't expend those funds. I mean, so I think the PFD is the appropriate group to
do the market study, I guess. Yeah. And what's the target size of a PFD board? It's,
uh, 7 to 9, I think. Maybe it's 5 to 9. Yeah, it says in the attach it.
Ok. And we would appoint the first one and then they're elected after that, I think.
Ok.
Um, so they're elected there. I think there needs to be a representative from the
city and the county. Uh, right. Um, it's been a while. Since I've looked at, I think
it's just the county that, that, uh, appoints them. But I don't know, we, we, I can,
I can keep my thought on that. Ok.
Uh, do you have a motion? You wanna make her? I, I guess I would make you do separate
motions or? I don't know, Kate, are you ready? Like, maybe drill down on some more,
um, details of the, uh, actual application to,
um, the LT er FP, which we could do next week. I mean, I like, I'm, I'm happy to,
I don't know that leaves emotion but so yeah, Greg go for it, bring us uh a proposal
next week and we might, you know, move things around a little bit. But um you know,
we're prepared to and I'm prepared to support a, a proposal along these lines. Another
piece of this Greg that I know that we've talked about maybe in my time as L A person
but is the housing element of L AC, the eligibility of LT AC for housing project?
And, you know, it was part of this sake that we're doing, you know, it would be interesting
to uh shuffle that into the deck somehow. I mean, I'm sure you've thought of this
too, but we, since we don't get to have dinner and glasses of wine together and I'm
not drinking anymore, um we haven't really, I want to come to dinner at your house
anyway. So I, I would still make you a gin and tonic. It's ok. Um Well, I think that
that the housing element is really intriguing, you know, so there's uh there's some
restrictions, right? Housing and funded by LT A is for workforce housing. It has
to be within a half a mile of transit agency. I think there's real opportunity with,
I believe some of the one of the mobile home parks that's right near the Jefferson
Transit Authority is for sale right now. And I think that would be really appealing
application to support a resident owned community there with some units, you know,
set aside for tourist housing or something. Um That would be really intriguing. So,
um I think we struggled with LT A to cause I was, you know, staffing it myself, right?
So we were, you know, reviewing, I mean, just to remind you of what some of the uh
methodologies that we really liked from other L A that we saw is a master plan that
guides lt that, that is a collaborative process between the Bocc and LT AC that is
updated every year where you can put in that kind of thing and say, hey, we really,
we're really looking for housing projects this year or we are focused on making sure
a pool is possible doing everything we can to move to a pool. Um And then another
thing was, you know, like the city staffing it ourselves and bringing it internally
to share that capacity and, and align our, our, our resources. And then um the third
one that was really good was uh uh and we're doing for LT AC this year as Clallam
County does, uh the, the Pao does uh a quick spreadsheet that evaluates every, every
application according to the statutes and just says, yep, this qualifies under RCW
blah, blah, blah. And it's just a one column on the uh evaluation spreadsheet. So
we're incorporating some of those things. We weren't able to incorporate everything.
But I think with a staff member on LT A and a staff member on TCC, we can really
um move, move the county forward and, you know, I, I want to develop the tourist
economy. It's not, it's not the only sector that we care about, but it's a really
important one and we want to support those collectors and generators of lodging tax
with these efforts, right? It's not, it's not an either or thing. It's a different
approach and just, um, and trying to be more strategic.
So is it, can I just ask within that the requirement that it's within a half a mile
of it? It's not a transit agency. It's a transit stop, right? It's not a transit
stop. It's uh, I forget the term. It's like a park and ride or something. It's something
a little bit more than a transit stop. But ok, thanks. Definitely. The, the, the
uh four corners would qualify, right. Totally. So the uh statute says that in a county
like ours, because the city population is less than 40% of the total population.
Um That um, the county legislative authority must establish in the resolution creating
the PFD. Uh whether the board has five or seven members in the county legislative
authority must appoint the members of the board of directors to reflect the interests
of cities and towns in the county as well as unincorporated areas of the county.
And at least one member on the board of directors must be representative of the lodging
industry in the public facilities district. Before that's before the PFD imposes
an excise tax. All good criteria. Yeah. You want to serve like we're
not trying to circumvent the rules here. I, I want a tourist pool. I, I've talked
about what my, a tourist pool looks like for me, but it's, uh, it's a bigger conversation.
It is a conversation. It's not for one person inside. Mhm. Mhm. Well, Greg, I'm glad
COVID didn't hit you hard this week. I, I was, I was super productive actually. Uh,
I, I did, uh, I escaped isolation one time to go hike up Mount Walker at six in the
morning. So I was feeling great the whole time
in my, it's funny, my daughter and Rico had the same experience actually were energized
and maybe just because, you know, you, you don't do all the other things you have
time. Yeah, you have time and energy. All right, is the memo that I shared in the
slide deck appropriate? Can I move that we send the memo? Would you like to see it
again? It has been updated just a little bit. Uh Thanks very much.
Mm
There you go.
Getting there. Um Thank you, man. So who is it going? You're on the wrong screen
at the moment. Oh,
sorry. It's a delay. Yeah, there we go.
So I would, I would move that the board authorized me to sign this and send this
to the Tourism Coordinating Council tomorrow.
Yeah,
I'm a little um skeptical about bringing TC C's website onto our platform. I just
feel like
our platform leaves a lot to be desired. So I'm just a little skeptical that the
external, that the tourists, the potential tourists will go to our county and even
be able to find the, you know, tourism content. I think that's a skill that we need
to develop. Heidi.
Yeah, I mean, we should be able to make a website.
I, I mean, that's why I want that skill in our family. I just remember when I got
here on the on the home page that said laser fish or something and I'm like, who
knows what that is? And we put, we finally put a link, you know, documents
help you together a task force page has all the documents as links instead of having
to have people drill down to laser fee. So, I mean, it's user experience. It's something
that we really need to, to focus culturally on as, as a, as a county organization.
And I think that's, this will, it's not, I'm not saying it's gonna be easier. It
won't be without, you know, step back. But I, I think ultimately we can move the
county forward. Nothing good is easy. Right. Isn't that the same? Yeah. You know,
so I'm, I'm coming at this, having not been um served at ALTE as both of you have.
So I, I know that I have less information. Um, but I am, I am, I don't feel
prepared to make a statement that I, that I think we should take on destination marketing.
I don't think it's something that county government is necessarily good at or that
it's really within our wheelhouse. Um I, I am comfortable saying that we want to
direct a portion of these funds towards the development of a PFD. Um And, you know,
uh you too, with more experience can decide to head in that direction of taking on
the destination marketing. But I guess I'm, I'm more interested in uh really focusing
on the aquatic center part of this. Um, right now and I can talk about the system
a little bit. You know, our, our system is really hard to run L tech right now as
Heidi spoke to as well without staff, it's, you can't really do anything and we're
still maintaining membership in the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission. And if
you looked at optics website and you looked at ours, they will look very, very similar
and the same skills that our contractor can, can um uh share with optics. You know,
our new staff member will be there as well, building those skills. So this is a position
that we give has already on the job training built into it. You know, participating
in Washington Tourism Alliance. If you have, if you have communication skills, uh
we, we can build it. It'll, it'll, it'll take some time. I I'm sure it will. But
without
mm what did you freeze?
Turn your camera off, Greg?
I think you froze for a second there. Well, for a number of seconds, sorry, we didn't
catch what you were saying the last season. Um Oh, well, I can't remember what I
said. I'll say it, I'll say it differently, I guess.
Destination. I mean, you heard me talk about optic, right? That there is, there's
training opportunities that we, we're still developing there, right? The skills are
similar. Oh, I forgot what I was saying. Well, I can, I, I can let me respond to
the first part that I heard and see if that triggers your, your memory. Um You know,
I, I think staffing a county funding board is, is in our wheelhouse.
I'm not sure the Destination Marketing is in our wheelhouse. Um And, and also in,
in the interest of making change, um iterative and generating more buy in from community
partners. I guess I, I would, I would propose and support a slower role towards what
we do with the destination marketing. But, you know, certainly this would be putting
TCC on notice. There's gonna be a lot less funding available. So, you know, that's
gonna be a big change. It's gonna have to be more effective and with the dollars
that are available. Um And that, you know, we, we could be moving in a different
direction with this in the future. But I think doing it all at once feels a little
um a little drastic. Like I said, I'd rather focus on the, the, the PFD and a little
bit of staffing. Um and do just what, what's a little bit of staffing? Is
it, how is it, what are you proposing? It feels like a little bit of staffing to
me taking on destination marketing. No, this adding half time staff to coordinate.
Well, it's not a half time job to clerk, the clerk and staff L tech. It is if you're
doing destination marketing. Um but II, I just don't, I don't know, I mean, I again,
I know the city does their own destination marketing, right? And you know, right
now TCC opposes the pool because they see a drink in their milkshake. It's true.
If we take it internally, we can say your job is TCC is to find out how this can
work for tourism. Um Yeah, II I am supportive of this guy just because I've been
at the LT A table and have felt this tension. So I, I mean, I can support
so I'll move again and I, I submit this uh this sign, sign this uh memo and, and
send it to TCC.
All right, I'll second the motion.
OK. Further discussion. Mark any thoughts,
not at all.
Really.
It's big but it's iterative at the same time. It's like we are, we are, we are steering
is what we are doing here, but we don't know how we're gonna get there. Um, we've
got great people at TCC. There might be some attrition with this. Maybe the same
staff person that is contracting now applies for the job and, and you know, it, it
continues without a hitch. Maybe there are some hitches but I would still be, uh,
satisfied doing everything we can to make a pool happen, which seems like. Mhm. Like
a prime directive right now. No, I think this is good and putting this out there
and then getting a response. It will be very, the next few steps will be very interesting.
But I mean, this doesn't leave open the door of, of current staff applying TCC. Staff
applying because it's combining with an already existing position.
I mean, we gotta work that out. I think that it's, uh,
I, I don't know the, the, the right way to staff. It I think it should be, uh, a
full time job. Um, but it could also be 2.5 jobs. Right. Yeah.
Um, and we don't even know if they're existing. That person wants to do this work.
Right. And the title is wrong. Um, it's not a, and I'm a officer. I mean, I
worry about having our, it's the communication man is the current title.
Um, I worry a little bit about, like, conflating information with tourism promotion.
I mean, those are very different functions and asking one person to do that and represent
both. I I have concerns with. Um Well, we don't have to
delineate in here. That exact thing um
which will be potentially combined with the 0.5 communication manager. Yeah, I was
just trying to re reword it myself and that that works potentially or one idea is
to or, or just strike all of that. I don't know, I I'm not, I'm not inclined to support
it, so I'll let you guys work with it. No, and like I said, great. There's really
parts of this that I do very much support and appreciate um your effort and your
uh greater depth of knowledge on.
Um Well, we can just uh
rip out the um details and just say that the county staff will
prepare this year's llt a proposal from the TCC to add county staffing.
I would support that if we also removed integrating destination marketing staff into
county staff II I don't see that nexus there. I see
staffing for L A as in our wheelhouse, but a destination marketing is a little just
gone too far for me. I mean, the Destination TCC is our Destination Marketing Organization.
We're staffing that Destination Marketing Organization.
You know what? We're not changing the Destination Marketing Organization. We're changing
the staffing.
No,
I'd love for this to be unanimous. Yeah, to be able to get to it. Yeah. So taking
it to the city council, right? Your district. So what can we, how can we update this
that you're comfortable with it, Kate. Um
Let's see. I wonder um Greg, do you wanna send this to me in a word version and
give me a few minutes with that. We could recess and um and then come back in,
you know, 10 or 15 minutes and, and give an idea of what I would be comfortable with
and discuss it further. I'm gonna stop my Sharon and I will, it will take me a moment.
It'll come from my personal email address, but I'll send you one. And do we wanna,
I mean, we could either take a lunch break and come back at 130 or just do it now.
Pull the band aid off now. Yeah, I said, I said just do it. All right.
Do you wanna share your screen and group, group edit? I I'd rather recess and I,
I'm just gonna sit right here and do it. But, um, ah, ok, then I'll have to leave.
No. Ok. So, recessing for 10 minutes. 15. Yeah, let's come back at 1235.
Ok. Ok. Recess for 14 minutes, the recording stopped
all the thoughts are different and I know this is really clunky.
It's fine recording in progress.
All right, we are coming back. I have a clunky and messy giraffe to share.
And, um, what I would need help with is, um, uh,
because I don't know the language of the statute very well on uses like how, how
we can, can communicate priorities or directing of funds. Um
So see, well, anybody can apply and we approve the funding allocations,
but if we are applying and our priorities don't get
selected by the L Tech committee and they present something else to the commissioners
to fund and we choose not to fund them. You know, that's, which is a real possibility.
Um, you know, this TCC is not or sorry. L the LTC committee is not necessarily in
alignment with us currently. Correct. I mean, your mu great, can't hear you, Greg,
sorry. Uh LT AC, two of the members that are on LT AC are on, uh TCC as well. And
I think they're probably not too in favor of this and two members are not and I think
they are probably more in favor of it. But um, we can give direction to LTC. I mean,
we write the code that they use so we could send them a letter saying please do this,
they could refuse to. Um I am one member of LT AC but I do not, I'm not, don't just
have a normal vote vote. Um If it uh a recommendation comes to us that we don't like,
it doesn't have the PFD on it, then we can say we're not funding anything and send
it back and, and see if they want to try again and rinse and repeat.
Can you scroll down so we can see more of the Yeah,
sorry. It's so messy.
Can you just make it clean? Do you uh like turn off review or something? Yeah. Heidi
asked me to Yeah, I know this is good. I know that I seem to see the changes. OK.
Never mind, never mind. I can wait. It's fine. You can do it now. I mean, I've seen
it now. Um Let's see. Do I wanna accept, do you go to accept and accept all,
try and fit it on one page before me. It was super funky with the cut and paste.
So it's still doing track. Yeah, I'm I'm not gonna um you can turn off tracking.
I did but you can directing the tourism coordinating. I guess we are. Well, I mean,
well, this is what, I don't know, I need help with this, that exact part of it. So
what's our authority here?
So has chosen the priority?
I would say the prioritization of the LTE funding doesn't necessarily dovetail exactly
with TCC. Right. So, um
prior, I would say, instead of, has chosen to prioritize the use of 2025 LT AC funds,
really, what the, the, the board of county commissioners has chosen to bring the
Tourism Coordinating Council to a county staff position instead of a contract position.
That's,
and that's, that's where I'm, I'm not interested in doing just yet. Um
What, what do you, because I just don't think, I don't think that the county is in
a position to, to do tourism promotion right now. I don't think we have the skills,
we don't have the strategy. Um II, I think it's too much, too fast. Um I think bringing
strong
um based on it's not in our uh charter, it's something we've never done. It's not
something that I think government necessarily does very well. Um I mean, the Tourism
Coordinating Council is what does it for us right now? We're just bringing the staffing
of that internally. We have the same people on the Tourism Coordinating Council.
But are you saying you're not comfortable bringing the staff? I mean, that does bring,
no, I mean, that's what it's, that's what this edit proposes is bring, adding a staff
to, to, to like we have on other boards um to, to, to
clerk a, a county process. It's more than just clerking. Well, what I'm saying, I'm
not comfortable with the, the, the more that we're taking on the tourism options.
It's, it's something we have. You know, this is a brand new idea. You can do it in
a vacuum case. I mean, we're still members of optic where this person would go and
talk about the, the master tourism plan that we have that's supposed to guide this.
And there are campaigns that come from optic that you can just say. Yeah, let's do
that. Let's not do this. Maybe this person won't be as expert in getting Facebook
impressions or leading fa tours. That's fine. They've got a year to develop that
uh that skill set. Yeah, I, I guess I, I would be more comfortable with a more
iterative approach and, and trying to get it. I understand what your iteration here,
how it's different, trying to get more buy in from the, the tourism professionals
in our community to help us figure out the best place for this to live. I, I hear
that we're not getting the, the alignment and the um results that we want. And I,
I support that. So can you add that into this and
engage strategically with tourism leaders in our region? I mean, that's what we want
this person to do. That's, that's what I want this person to do and that's what I
thought Greg was proposing. So I'm not proposing, taking the clerking away from a,
you know, we don't want,
this is the, this is the person that drive to Port Angeles to meet with Marsha and,
you know, to be the, the subject matter, boots on the ground, which we have not
had period in the county. Yeah. And I just don't know that, I really think that's
counting function. And you haven't served on these two county boards that both had
and I have that is explicitly about that. So to say the county doesn't do it is just
to say that you haven't served on those boards. We both both had a lot of interface
with this and we serve on a lot of funding boards and it doesn't mean that we do,
we don't do housing, but we allocate housing funds. That's right. TCC, we also serve
on. Yeah. And you know, I mean, that's why I started with this. You guys can, you
guys can agree on a proposal that I don't agree with and I fully admitting that I
don't have the same information that you do. But, um, yeah, I, I think I would want,
I would like to see more, more buy in, um, before making a, a pretty major change
to uh have a system that has been in place for a long time.
So though, as you have it written, Kate
to add a staff member who will be housed to staff the process,
I mean, what we wanna add is, well, I mean, then greater alignment with county goals
and priorities. So, I mean, it's, it's here, Greg
what change, what change would have to happen, the writer of the original memo, what
change would have to happen for you to feel like this gets at what you, were you
the intent of your memo? I, I feel like I'm in the middle right now. Um I'm, you
know, ok, with that first paragraph as it is now
three fundamentally, I'm disagreeing more with what Kate is saying than what is written
on the piece of paper here. And so I'm hoping to find alignment, uh, you know, uh
in conversation as well. Well, it feels like as this process unfolds, we're gonna
find the shared work, the alignment. Right. Well, and I'm like, I'm not saying that
I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I could be convinced that destination marketing should come
into the county. I just don't know enough. It feels like a big decision, feels like
burning bridges very quickly without a lot of, uh, deliberation, which I know you
have all you've both been involved with, um, more of that. But, um, but I've heard
that there is not consensus that this is the direction that, um, the TCC or L tech
one. And that worries me. I've heard that as well. That's, I, I don't, that's not
how I, I want us to operate with our community partners. So I think this leaves it
kind of open to, I think the way this is written, it doesn't direct that it would
necessarily be the county taking on. There's nothing that precludes the county from
taking on destination marketing and how this is written, a staff person that lives
within the county. Let's look at the second paragraph together. This is the first.
Yeah. And I think this could be totally off. I just was cutting and pasting quickly.
Is there a paragraph uh, over the after analysis or is it begins with after analysis?
Right. Correct. Ok. Yeah, I'm OK with that.
You got two A's in the third paragraph. OK. And you do need that ee and Tourism alliance
there.
He gets crossed out. Is it the period that's crossed out? I don't know, maybe the
line is just that there's some don't know. I'm fine with this as it's written.
I'm fine, I'm fine as well. Well, there's a couple of grammar issues in the first
paragraph to staff the TCCL tech process. To how about the staff TCC and L
A? Those are both nouns and to increase transparency and create greater alignment
and create greater alignment.
I would say ECC and LT A are not processes, they are just they are bodies so you
can just take out the word process. OK?
And maybe instead of two width
arts process with OK, with increased transparency to
staff, the TCC and LT A to increase transparency and create greater. Yeah. Yeah,
that makes sense. Sorry, wrong. I think it looks good. The second is, is directing
that new person to clerk both TCC and L. OK. Now it says the county administrator
office will clerk TCC as well as LT A. That's you guys.
OK. The new staff member will staff both TCC and all tech, the general history of
office report, the TCC as well. Yeah, like I, I don't know if we need that level
of detail in here. This is, you know, I think giving ourselves some flexibility to
figure this out with Sarah and does, does TCC need a clerk or, or is
it just the administrator? Why don't they just take out this clerking? That's fine.
Yeah, but the only when I, I want it explicit that this is not about replacing the
existing, I want that clerk capacity to maintain. So it would be clerk and, and the
county administrator's office will clerk LTTE because there's no clerk for it for
TCC the there's minutes and everything. You're right. You're right. You're right.
You're right. So I think we leave that in. You just took it out. I think you should
leave it in. It's clear.
So we'll be taking on TCC. Mhm. Ok.
There's an extra space uh line for additional airport. I can't, the formatting is
really funky. It's because you're in track changes and you didn't say no. That's
why there are these gray lines on the left but you have to accept all and turn off
tracking. Well, accept and stop tracking. Do we really
wanna stop tracking? Yeah,
there and there's an extra space up there after tech,
I mean, I'm wondering the first instance it would be chosen to prioritize the use.
But why do we talk about has chosen? Why not just after analysis of the Jefferson
County boards and committees, the board of county commissioners has chosen to direct
the Tourism Coordinating Council to add a 0.5 staff member or two
to staff the Tourism Coordinating Council member with a 0.5 staff member instead
of a contractor. I mean, that's really
because this isn't really about explicitly about prioritization of the L A 2025.
Only. That makes it sound like it's a year.
So you're proposing that our staff person um staffs the TCC. Um
and we use LT funds on going to fund that position, right, Greg. So we don't want
to just to just say 2025
right? Did he freeze?
Ok.
Don't we don't, we want the Bocc has chosen to prioritize the use of L tech funds,
staff TCC. Yeah, with a halftime staff member. Yeah, that's fine cause we don't
just want one year of uh
but weren't we gonna use the LT A funds to do that?
We are, but I mean, it's always been staffed with LT AC funds. I mean that's, that's
not a change. I mean we can mention that I don't mind. OK.
And it does talk about to be paid with LTA funds. OK. Yep. Yep. Yep.
We don't talk about the Oh, yeah, we do. There it is.
Yeah.
Does it still be you? Your intention? Commissioner Brotherton looks great to meet.
Does this meet your needs? Commissioner Dean? It does. And I think my interest is
in just not, not precluding or boxing us into certain outcomes but that if you know
that's good, if someone still wanted to apply to do some destination marketing, we
could apply like that. This is where we are hiring staff person to, to do work and
to align with County Eagles and exactly what that looks like and how much that is,
is yet to be determined. Do you want to flash anything else out about the PFD?
I don't think we need to in this memo to Tcciii, I prepare uh an application this,
this week or LT A and we should just like talk next week about whether we're ready
to go into that September 16th meeting with, you know, a motion that, that kind of
um empowers them.
Um Do you wanna uh I mean, do we, so additionally, the Bocc will be prioritizing
the use of 2025 tech funds is that, you know, through the development of, through
the development of a proposal or, you know, who and do we have the authority to prioritize
the use of funds? We can send them a priority list. LT A is, is free not to accept
it. And you know, ultimately we're, you know, we, we, we, there's a couple options
at that point. Right, I mean, maybe the allocation of Yeah, yeah, that's more
appropriate by applying for seed funding. Um I think
directing we can make direction, you know, it's uh yeah, we can. Ok. But do we want
to mention that we'll be applying as well? Sure, by applying for seed funding. Yeah,
II I by directing and applying for or by applying for and directing.
And so is this uh funding this last paragraph, the PFD is that, is this, will this
be part of what the halftime staff member would be working on? I think
the half time staff member or the market study? I, I really think the market study
should be done by the PFD, but I think the, you know, the new vision for the TCC
would be, let's let's figure out how we can make this pool work as a real, as a,
as a real tourist draw that has real benefits. So the staff member facilitates the
conversations and, and the work of the Tourism Coordinating Council to develop that
body of work, you know, to answer the question. D
I just wonder if we want to make the link between these two um components
that we're proposing here that maybe, I mean, there is a link in that we're kind
of drinking the milkshake of one program for another a little bit. But uh I don't
think we need to make it more exclusive than that. I don't know. I mean that's
this. Uh I mean, we could also say, oh and there will still be $700,000 available
for LTC uh for $600,000 available for regular LTE C applications. My I
think it's good as it is. Uh uh we could say the OCC will be prioritizing a a
portion of the allocation. Yeah. Yeah.
Do we say that the new position will be funded with tech?
I think this looks good. Me too. A portion of the 2025 L tech funds
if you wanna add the. So we should we take out the allocation? Yeah, sure.
Um ok.
Ok, I move that. We send the, I'm sorry, can I interrupt you? We have a motion on
the table already. Oh I my motion. Thank you. I move that. We send this
memo to the Tourism Coordinating Council
a second, right? Are you gonna take any public? So um we are
with a motion on the table to send into the memo as shown here today. Um Let me
provide an opportunity for the public to weigh in on this. Um I can't remember how
to see the public while I'm sharing my screen. So, but I'd like to see the attendee
list. Great. Thank you. So if anyone would like to provide public comment on this
topic, please hit raise hands and somebody please tell me if anyone raises their
hand. Ok, up Shelley, bring Shelley over.
Um
Welcome, Shelley. Thank you. Um Shelly, you're Brennan. Um It feels very much like
you're getting rid of TCC to control L tax dollars for the purpose of building
a pool and forming a taxing district to do. So, um the whole point of the pool uh
committee was to get more information in front of the people that hasn't happened
yet. So anything with more money for the pool should come before the people first,
in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you, Shelly.
You remember Mr T?
Good afternoon, Tom.
Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. Um Very interesting
session of sausage making there. Appreciate the, appreciate the discussion back and
forth. It's uh good to see that happen every so often instead of things just showing
up as a done deal. Um I'm looking at this me this email or this email that you intend
to send and it looks like you are directing LT to spend money for a
halftime FTE. I didn't know that you had the authority to direct lt how to spend
LT A funds. So that, that's just a little confusing to me, uh, the wording of that
and that, that, you know, that certainly is your intent, but I'm not sure you have
the authority to do it. Um, in any case, uh Glad to see the work on this. Thanks.
Thank you your time. Would anyone else like to provide public comments?
All right, close public comment. Can I respond real quick. Yeah. Yes.
Um I appreciate the public comments and this is definitely sau sausage making out
in the public. Um to Mr Darnell, you know, there's I want to, we want to make TCC
uh give it more work actually. Um And we are moving, we cannot
put a vote before the people until we have a PFD. We cannot create a PFD until we
have money to start a PFD. This enables us to move to the next step. And if you looked
at the slide 2025 is gonna be a lot of outreach to people all over the county. And
I really think that TCC will be a critical component working through this finding
issues with it as well as it's not just, you know, we're not just looking for Pollyanna's,
but we need to work through this problem. Um And I think this is the best way to
do that. And regarding the LT AC and Mr Tier's comment, um RCW does
enable staff time to be paid with LT AC funds much like the city doesn't, it has
to go through the application process and get approved by the Lodging Tax Committee.
And we cannot not just decide that it happens, but it is uh for years, we have been
paying for contract staff with the same TCC contract. What we're doing with this
memo is really um initiating, changing those bylaws. So instead of TCC being staffed
by a contract staff, they'll be staffed by an internal county staff.
So you see any, um, any trouble with how that the first sentence is worded, then
if we've chosen to staff TCC with a halftime staff member, is that, that's fine.
That's that we can, we can choose to choose to staff TCC. However, I mean, we could
maybe, um, to be paid with, uh LT funds, I don't know, we could,
uh, to be paid for with the normal TCC application to LT A. Maybe.
Um,
so you're cutting out a little Greg, I'm sorry. So maybe instead of to be paid with
LT A funds to be paid with T CCS application for LT AC funds
application here because that's what it says currently in the RCW. Right? That, but
it says the county can provision staffing for this through a contract or it doesn't
say no, our bylaw, our TCC bylaws mention a contract but, uh, the IC W doesn't. Ok.
All right. Any further discussion. OK. All those in favor and keep by saying hi,
hi. OK. Motion carries. Um, I will send this to you Greg and um, maybe
can they put a digital signature on for me as well? And then, uh, after everyone
signs it, get it sent to me. OK.
All right. Will do
and I will forward it on to the chair and, and that.
All right, I wanna save this before I lose it.
Mm.
Good sausage making work guys. Yes.
Correct. So strange to be working over the 12 and one o'clock hour,
regretting not eating breakfast. You had momentum. You had to keep it up. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. We need a new motion to approve the edited. Ok. Thank you. Anything else
for the good of the order today? Can I sign this after lunch?
Yes, thanks. Yeah. All right. Um Thanks everyone for a productive day and uh have
a good week. Might be your turn everyone. Bye.
Mhm.
A shall I send this to you and with the um Yeah, thank you. Ok, I sure have you too.
Do you feel ok about where you landed?
I know that Steve was not on. I did too, Steve Shively was not on.