Recording, stopped
recording in progress. Ok. Well, good morning, everyone. I will call this
April 17th, 2023 Board of County Commissioners meeting to order. Um We're glad that
you're with us. We have a, a busy agenda today lots to talk about and we will start
as we always do with public comment. So everyone can talk, can uh um speak to the
board for up to three minutes. Um On the topic of your choosing, we'll respond to
all public comments after we've heard them. So we have some members of the public
who can hit hit Star Nine or raise hand if you're on the zoom room with us or if
you're uh in person, we, we'd love to hear from you now. So, um yeah, go ahead, come
up to the podium and please do speak into the microphone and you can identify yourself,
but you don't, you don't have to. So maybe bring it a little closer. It's a little,
thank you. So thank you for having us. My husband Charles and I are here. We live
in the neighborhood of the county courthouse and
I'll read a little short statement, hopefully I won't trip over it too badly. I also
have it to hand out for you. So the pickleball courts with no acoustic curtains do
not belong in a residential neighborhood. In spite of controversy over pickleball
noise in residential neighborhoods. Evidenced on the internet blogs and news articles
around the country. Two pickleball courts were installed at Jefferson County Courthouse
Park without any community input or warning why Port Townsend has a noise ordinance
of 60 decibels. We've measured more than 60 decibels from our front door across the
street from the pickleball court with only one couple playing with eight people playing
the noise of ball paddle impact and player yelling is often extreme in good weather.
Like last Friday players are on the court 8 to 12 hours a day without a break. Please
help our neighborhood. It's no longer pleasant to work in our garden or sit on our
deck inside our home. We hear the contact with hard pickle ball paddle and ball with
all the doors closed and the windows closed. We can't escape it.
We've been in conversation with Matt Tyler since early September 2022 without noise
attenuation. At the Jefferson County Courthouse Park. There's been an empathetic
ear but no progress on noise attenuation. That's since September, we implore you
to a close or at least reduce the pickleball court hours until effective noise attenuation
is in place and b immediately create signage on the courts that will alert players
that they need to quiet the pickleball culture of whooping and yelling during the
play. Our letter of April 6, 2023 also sent to Matt Taylor Tyler, I'm sorry. And
the Jefferson County Park Advisory committee which we attended, we gave a couple
of resources for noise attenuation screens that other communities have successfully
used for pickleball courts. We hope Jefferson County will begin an effective search
for noise attenuation immediately. Thank you for your attenuation. And I do have
to say it really is horrendous for people in the neighborhood and we want something
to be done right away. It's over 60 decibels and we are
living in a house that we can't escape the noise from. We've even consulted. Can
we change out the windows? Which would be very expensive? They said no, 1970 houses
aren't insulated such that that would even work. We have no resolution. We need your
help. Thank you. Thank you. I give you one of these because I need to email it and
we, and we did get your, your uh email.
Thank you
the radiator. There's
noise though the window screen.
Oh yeah, that's Yeah, it's been humming since before. Ok. I'll ask if anyone else
in the room wants to make public comment. Charles, you can have your own three minutes
if you want. Ok, so we will we turn to the uh room before we respond to the public
comments and ask if anyone in the Zoom Room would like to make a public comment today.
We'd love to hear from you. Click raise hand or Star nine and we'll bring you over.
Uh, I don't see anyone. So I guess responses to our neighbors.
Sure, I could jump in as the district one commissioner. Um, so, um, thanks for bringing
this concern up, um, in, in answer to your question. The reason why there wasn't
public process is that, um that is an allowed use in this uh zoning type. So you,
you do not need a public process when it is allowed in the, the, the the use uh type.
I think you've probably been told that there was an effort to mitigate some of the
impact by only building two courts instead of four, which would have fit. I think
the acoustic curtains sound like a great idea and I'm not sure if either of you have
talked to perks to see if there's a, if we have a cost estimate and know what might
be entailed there, but that seems like a reasonable solution. And uh
yeah, no, it sounds like there are, are real impacts and I'm happy to try to help
shepherd a a solution here. It doesn't seem like this is something we can't handle.
We, we deal with a lot of really sticky, messy problems and this seems like a relatively
easier one. But um, maybe staff will have a different uh a different answer than
I do, but I, I think that it is doable. We we tend to not do back and forth conversation.
Um Sorry, just because it's, it can, when we have a room full of people, it can become
much more difficult to manage. So, um but we could, we could talk uh offline separately.
Yeah. Yeah. And and as district one, this would kind of fall under my purview. So
thanks for bringing it to our attention. I
thought that the thanks for coming with solutions and recommendations and I think
the signs are a good idea because oftentimes people don't think when they're, you
know, they're on one track and they don't if they had a sign there saying remember
that you're in a residential neighborhood. You know, that's a good idea too. I thought
that was a good suggestion. So thanks for coming with some ideas. And also, you know,
I mean, I on the flip side of the coin, there are very few recreational having grown
up here for. Um And I know that most people who play pickleball are not the kids
in our community, but I would be um vehemently opposed to taking away any recreational
opportunities in our community because every single one we've ever had has slowly
been taken away by other uses. And um we're all, the three of us are all pickleball
players at to some extent. So, um you know, I would be sad to see it go away, but
I think that there are reasonable accommodations that could be made. I agree with
Kate and Heidi. You know, they're definitely, I appreciate that you guys brought
potential solutions that we will look into. I'm also not interested in shutting them
down while we work on that. I think there's been a lot of mitigation as well from
the addition of the permanent courts at mountain view. So I've noticed a lot less
action there since those courts went up. But, you know, I was out there Friday too.
It was a beautiful day. So understand the impacts are different for those in close
proximity. So the signs, the attenuation, I think working with staff on that sounds
great and it sounds like Commissioner Dean is willing to sort of be a liaison into,
into that, into that uh discussion and, and hopefully action as well. So, Matt right
now. All right, great. So, you know, the pace of government is not always super fast,
but we, we hear your concerns and we'll, we'll do our best to address them in a way
that still preserves the recreational opportunities for everyone. So, thank you.
Um I'll turn again to our Zoom room to see if there is anyone else that has been
moved to comment. And I think, uh I don't see anyone
there. Um Well, we'll keep the public comment open until 9 30 in case anyone does
joins us or is, uh, comes up with something and we can look to the, to the uh consent
agenda.
Any comments or questions? Oh, well, let's bring Mr Cheers over.
Welcome Mr Tears.
Oh, good morning commissioners. I um speaking of the consent agenda, glad to see
an item on there regarding uh weed control, spending a little bit of money to help.
Uh specifically, it looks like address of the scotch broom on the utility quarters.
But, you know, we got an awful lot of scotch broom, every place else it's never been
addressed and it's all, a lot of, it's on county right aways. I've managed to clear
all my land of scotch bloom. But, you know, all it takes is a little breeze and a
little bird or something, bringing a seed over and boom. There it comes again, it's
a constant battle. So I would like to see a little more emphasis put on eradicating
that particular weed, uh, on county property. It, it doesn't sound like it takes
a lot of money, but it, it looks like there's more an issue of finding the people
to do the work. And so I'm glad to see that our noxious weed coordinator has managed
to, to locate an outfit that does the work. So, uh, you know, maybe the next time
you have a discussion about noxious weeds and that, that program, uh, in addition
to, you know, addressing the weed board itself, uh, you know, just bring this up
as something that really should be done. I mean, it's invasive. Yes, it's not a class
a but it sure is causing an awful lot of uh a lot of displacement of other native
species. So, thanks for, for thinking about it. Thank you, Mr Dear responses about
noxious weeds on the scotch broom front. I started my career after college pulling
scotch broom from the prairies in South T Sound. And every time I see scotch broom,
I just, I it's like a auto automatic memory trigger for me. And so, um, you know,
we, my family has property on Marone Island and we, we mow every year to keep the
scotch broom at bay. And there are, there are multiple solutions that can be used.
And I've often thought, you know, what could we do to eradicate more scotch broom
and it would take um more, more people, more funding, more solutions. But I think
it's something worthwhile um to look into. And I also, um, commend
our coordinator, Sophie DeGroot for moving these contracts along and getting these
crews in place to at least tackle some of the problem. And I can talk to her about,
you know, maybe we can find additional funding to do more Scotch broom eradication.
But Mr Tiers, there is so much scotch broom. I mean, you know, where do we start
right away? Would be a good place to start. Yeah, and the, the new coordinator is
still relatively new and um, we had to do a fair amount of um um kind of priority
setting with the, the previous coordinator. So it probably is a good reminder to
check in and just see that we're all kind of thinking along the same lines. Um There
are different schools of thought when it comes to weed eradication and so be good
to, to kind of hear from Stephanie. Right, Sophie Sophie, sorry. Um uh and, and,
you know, just have an understanding of what her philosophy is and what she needs
to, to feel supported in that. And I, I will say I, I, I found a member district
four noxious way. I sent them the application and copied Sophie this morning. So,
um, getting that, that uh noxious weed board filled is a first is a critical first
step. We were only recently able to achieve a quorum, the addition of another member
and, you know, noxious weed is usually just like holding it down. I mean, if we really
want to work on the system, we've got to start really taking certified clean gravel
correctly. I mean, the way that it is on county right away is usually is that travels
in, on equipment and everything. And so there are, if we want to eradicate it, we
first have to work on the systems. But these are really decisions that the priorities
come from the, the enforcement board that does not, is not an advisory board to the
commission, like many other boards, but uh actually makes these decisions. And so
down in Quil, still looking for someone for the, uh, noxious weed board and, you
know, we can look for additional funds. But I think what Sophie is trying to do is
maintain capacity right now. Um, much less expand capacity, right. It will be difficult
to address all the scotch broom, which is not the most noxious of weeds, but is probably
the most visible of weeds. Right. As this time of year, yellow flowers everywhere.
Ok. I guess we are kind of responding one after the other, but Mr Durgan, we, we'd
love to hear from you as well.
Oh, we can't hear you yet. Craig. You don't appear to be muted. We can't hear you.
Craig. I can hear you might want to, uh, click on the, the up arrow by the audio.
Thank you guys. Nice to see you and, uh, and see what your microphone is. Oh, now
we see that you're muted, unm muted.
No.
Sorry. We will have, um, I have an idea on which agenda item you might be talking
about and we will make sure that we have public comment. Yes, we can hear you now.
Ok, great. You have three minutes. All right. Thank you. I, I'd just like to first
off, uh, thank the board for all the hard work they did on getting funding for the
sewer and, um, soon I guess it'll start construction and that's a good thing.
However, it's not going to do you much. Good. Spending $35 million in a sewer if
you can't get a permit is a big issue right now. It's the fact, I think it should
be your number one priority. I'm trying to get a permit right now to build another
storage building on my property. I have a conditional use permit. The building I'm
building is on that conditional use permit permit has been active for over 10 years.
And, um, and it's still held up why there's no valid reason for this. I
mean, I don't have, I'm not trying to create some new lot or do any boundary line
adjustments. I just want to build what you guys approved for me to do over 10 years
ago. It's kind of getting a little ridiculous and, um, you know, spending
$35 million in a sewer and if you can't get the permit, what good is it, this needs
to get addressed and it needs to be addressed really quickly and this whole S V R
process, I, I don't know what the purpose of it is. I mean, it's like you swatted
a fly with a sledgehammer and you're just causing damage. So it may be your, your
base out there in Cape George that didn't want that one development. But I understand
that didn't really stop that much on that. All it did is go through the whole county
and slow everything up. You haven't really accomplished anything with it and I think
you should just need to get rid of it today. Thank you very much and have a good
day. Thank you, Mr Durgan.
I guess we'll just keep with the theme and, and anyone have a response for Mr Durgan,
I will say we're gonna talk about this a lot uh throughout the morning, so we don't
need to get, uh, maybe we're not gonna answer it right now. But, well, I've been
hearing from a lot of constituents about their concerns about delays in permitting
and the site development review and the legal lot of record and all these issues.
But you know, I mean, the purpose of the site development review process was to make
site development happened at the beginning of the process and to make the permitting
process go more quickly and we just haven't gotten to the implementation of the
process. We don't have enough track for that actually to be happening yet. Um for
things to be moving faster and then to pile on that, the capacity at D CD, the
recent changes in staffing at D CD. And yeah, it's extremely challenging time, but
we hear your concerns and it's front of mind and we will be talking about it at length
later this morning throughout the day. Thank you. I couldn't tell if Mr Dugan was
referring to the, the sewer project itself getting permitted or the ability of landowners
within the, the service area. That's ok. Great, thank you. That I think Heidi responded
well to that. Um Yeah, I, I think Heidi covered it. We're all concerned about Mr
Durgan. I agree. I will say I uh I actually wrote a song with, with much the same
conclusion that you did this weekend, but I've decided not to uh torture people with
the quiet until we have a couple of conversations with D CD about the best strategy
for getting ourselves out of this mess, which is not just from the S D R process,
certainly, but sort of a perfect storm of, of capacity impacts that have, that have
hit D CD and we will discuss it more. We'll make sure we have public comment for
those, those I think it's already on there. Right?
Yeah, we got people to come for 10 15 and our 11 15 conversation. So come back for
uh for more uh meet at, at 10 15 till, till lunch time, but we appreciate you being
here this morning and I would uh ask if anyone else in the public would like to make
comment this morning.
Ok. Well, we'll, we'll keep it open for another 11 minutes and um I
guess return to the consent agenda, any questions or comments on the consent agenda.
Just glad to see the bid award, the big bid award for the bit bit surface treatment,
which is, that's the future chip seal for the county, getting those piles of materials
in place. You know, it's, it's um, I'm grateful for our roads team and, and the good
work they do keeping our county roads um smooth. So, uh glad to see that and then,
yeah, yeah, couple of advisory board appointments. Yeah. Could I call out something
there? Um, so uh great that Nicole Gauthier from transit is joining the ferry advisory
committee. We still do have another vacancy on that board that has been really stubbornly
difficult to fill and that is a um someone represent presenting commerce, which is
a business that relies on the uh Port Townsend Coville run in particular for their
business or someone who represents businesses that rely on it. So listening public,
if you or anyone, you know, meets that criteria, we would really love to get that
position filled and you know that the ferries are just increasingly facing a lot
of challenges and it's even more important than ever for ferry communities to have
a voice um in decision making. And, you know, I will say we just saw with the uh
change in construction schedule for the Hood Canal bridge that having a local organized
voice can be really helpful. Um So encourage folks to look into that and I'm happy
to answer any questions on that. It is uh specific to Port Townsend, but that people
have asked me and that would be any the the port towns in Coville run that would
be any tourism business that would be any restaurant, any hotel, any bed and breakfast,
any, you know, so if you think, if you count yourself out, think again, that's what
I've said to a couple of people who've asked me. Yeah,
I'll call a too. I was on the interview, uh half of the interview with Karen for
the Parks and rec advisory committee and she's, uh you know, just another, you know,
great community member with a, with a, a real uh good experience that can bring kind
of, yeah, um subject matter expertise as well as energy to the parks and rec board.
So really thank you Karen for, for that application. I'm curious about the um sharing
a mobile drug unit, um which is, I, I'm thrilled to see it, but how is it that that's
happening with no dollar amount attached to it? Yeah, I don't know if there's anyone
from public health Ocean isn't usually here. But uh if there's anyone from public
health that can answer that question, please, you know, raise your hand and we'll
bring you over. But uh
no, it's actually sharing use of um the, the mobile unit, which is great and I'm
just curious if they have a funding source that that would be Denise banker if um
Caroline, if you could contact her and I'm not at all concerned about it. Um because
it's in our favor, I think that we uh gain the use of um the drug checking equipment
and staff to be operated at locations within Jefferson County. So it serves us well,
like the CD U I unit that came out for some big event last year, I think. I don't
even know what this is exactly. Yeah, it's actually, um, a device, uh, equipment
that tests the drug and the drug. And so what, um, the operators will do is they'll
come here and they'll train staff in Jefferson County on how to operate the equipment
as well. It's great. Also, I I did read through the household hazardous waste in
our local with kids app and have been paying fairly close attention to the whole
household hazardous waste conversation. And this is just another good collaboration,
you know, with people who need to dispose of household hazardous waste off the timeline
of those mobile events, those four annual mobile events, they can go to Kitsap County
to dispose of their waste and it's a good, another good collaboration. That's great.
And I'm always glad to see um Olympic Angels getting funded their great work to support
um foster families and you really create more of a, a safety net for those most vulnerable
kids and the people who support them. So glad to see our behavioral health dollars.
Yet another great use of our behavioral health dollars. I mean, you know, we could
talk about everything on the this consent agenda was a real mixed bag of really good
things. So I felt like um collaboration and weeds and
plantings. And we've talked about the caretaker services that we get for folks who
do those jobs out at, um,
H J Carroll and, and, uh, I forget what the park is. The name of the park, which
I go to, um, across from Indian Island.
Oak Bay. Yeah.
Yeah, Oak Bay, where we have a caretaker. What's the one from, uh, the base there?
Uh, is that, uh, not Indian Island County Park? Oh, yeah, Indian Island. But I was
talking about the one across the water. I was talking about Oak Bay. Of course, we
just call it Oak Bay. I thought it had some other name and like those are the three,
we have caretakers, right? Yeah, hopefully we'll see too soon. Ok. Now we've talked
about everything on consent. I'm happy to move to um approve and adopt the consent
agenda for April 17th, 2023 I'm also happy to second that. All right, it's been moved
and seconded to approve and adopt the consent agenda as presented all in favor, indicate
by saying I,
ok, great. I'll take this moment to thank Sarah Melanson for filling in for Martin
call as he's still traveling today as interim county administrator. He actually may
be back in town, I think just getting on a flight right now. So, yeah, he'll be,
he'll be in in the county sometime today. I bet. Yeah, it's always smart to build
in a day to not jump right back. In, I feel like I'm jumping right back in, at, at
limited capacity and that's always risky. Right. Well, thanks for being here to you
both. Um, ok. Well, we've still got four minutes left for public comment. I will
make another call right now to see if anyone has moved to comments. You can always
click raise hand or, or hit Star Nine if you're on the phone and, um, while we, uh,
oh, can I, can I play a quick video? Of course, I mean, I, I think I, I don't know
if you guys knew that there was a 40 under 40 right? The all the folks under 40 and
the, the, the face, at least in the paper that was our own Bonnie Rimsky. And uh
she was kind enough to uh shoot another one of our 15 2nd videos and I would love
to share my screen and share that video, which is now published. And if you want
to see the pub, the birthday song that A I wrote with some of the bad words uh Xed
out. You'll have to go to our, the Jefferson County Washington youtube page to read
the description where the songs lyrics are. Oh, ok. You're not. Oh, yeah, let's bring
Bonnie over if she will. She's probably like this. Oh, it's my birthday. You have
to Yeah, it's, he's birthday now too. You guys are birthday buddies. Let me get back
here and share my screen. Hello, Bonnie. Happy birthday. Thank you. The face of the
40 under 40 being over 40. I'm not sure if that's uh I still made it in under the
wire. Ok, good. Well, thanks for letting us uh uh shine the spotlight on you for
just a moment. Um I think that will work. Can you guys see that?
Oh, yeah. All right. It's up there. We got a big screen but I didn't get the audio
going. Dang it. I knew it was gonna happen. Hold on. Let me stop. Share. And we've
got two minutes to do this share.
Boom. I was really impressed with your videography setup and skills. It was like
a good learning experience too. I knew it was gonna happen. Hold on, let me, sorry.
Hold on.
I've got too many things going. So when I start sharing my screen, go, go ahead,
Bonnie.
Oh I just, I was grateful that you could show us the videography setup and some techniques
and it's always good to learn. Um Great. Well, let's see. Um I'm learning right
now. That's good. I don't. Where did she go? Where did she go? You
still see her up there? Yeah, I don't know what's going on here. Different screen
share. No, it's frozen up there. There we go.
Sorry, it's the set up will be much longer. I'm gonna stop my share. It usually does
it and reha this with sounds OK.
It's still the old one.
Uh,
I'm Bonnie Obremsky. I worked at public health for two years and on April 15th, I'm
turning the big 40. I'm here at the very peak of the Courthouse Clock Tower. Very
exciting. That's it. Yeah, I like how you got away to show where we were
standing the big four. Oh, welcome to adulthood. Bonnie.
Thank you. Great. So far the naps. I know.
Yeah, I'll just assume you're curled up your new desk if I stop by to see you and
you're not there. I, I remember years ago when there was, was there an under 30 group
in down or I felt like I was always young professionals network and I was like an
age cut off and I was like bumping up against it all the time. I felt like I was
always bumping up against being young in this community. Yeah. And so um it's a good
reminder that, you know, those de decade birthdays are opportunities to reflect.
We do have a number of young professionals in the community turning 40. Like right
now there's a whole bunch of you. Yeah, it's really interesting and great to have
that. Um kind of, of people coming up behind us who are a little older. Um I was
really sorry to miss the 40 under 40 event. In fact, there were so many great events
this weekend and I was out with COVID, so I didn't attend any of them, um which I
assume is you know, understood. Um Actually the event is the um 27th.
Oh, good. It hasn't happened. Yes. And um my wonderful coworker Liz, the other communications
specialist is also an awardee. Wonderful. Oh, good. Well, thank you for that clarification.
Yeah. Yeah, I love that. We, you know, 40 is still young and that's uh the Jefferson
County thing. All right. Great. Uh Well, thank you very much. And happy birthday,
Bonnie. And uh should we address the, our, our first proclamation?
Oh, this is a good one. This is a good one. So for my entire adulthood, I've always
been grateful that I was born in the year of Earth Day when Earth Day was founded.
And when I saw this come across and that we were gonna be reading it on my birthday.
I was just brought tears to my eyes. No, no, we can read the proclamation. Birthday.
Birthday is all around today. That's good. Yeah. Um So you weren't actually born
on, not on Earth Day but in the year of nice because, and just, I mean, you just,
yeah, so is there an actual Earth Day, April 22nd, 1970 I was born April 17th,
1971. So just barely in the year, first year of Earth Day. But it's, it's always
been celebrated, you know, around the time of my birthday. And so I've always had
a uh a connection to this day. That's great. Great. Well, why don't we uh have you
kick off and then we'll go to Kate today with this proclamation. Whereas the first
Earth Day was enacted 53 years ago in 1970 engaged over 20 million Americans to advocate
for a cleaner environment and as an international call to positive action for all
citizens to join a global effort to protect the environment. And whereas all people,
regardless of race, gender, income, religion or geography have a moral right to a
healthy environment. Birth day is celebrated annually to recommit to the goals of
a healthy environment as foundational to peaceful just and sustainable societies.
And whereas Jefferson County, Washington is blessed with the wealth of wild and productive
forests, fields, mountains and shorelines stewarded by indigenous people since time,
immemorial and to this day provides residents and visitors alike with healthy food,
irreplaceable habitat and species, sustainable natural resources and many scenic
recreational opportunities. And whereas in 2007, Jefferson County and the city of
Port Townsend committed to creating a baseline of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions by 80% of 1990 levels. Jointly creating a climate Action
committee to recommend actions for climate mitigation and adaptation and raise awareness
of how a changing climate affects our region. And whereas the Climate Action Committee
C ac recently updated the county wide greenhouse gas inventory demonstrating a 40%
reduction in emissions since 2005 and you skip one. I'm going to go back and I'm
right. Whereas the mission of the Climate Action Committee is in alignment with the
focus of International Earth Day 2023 observation and celebration around the world.
And whereas local governments can be leaders in building a healthy society by addressing
issues issues such as energy and resource conservation, transportation, sustainable
land use, planning, waste prevention, and environmental justice. And whereas we acknowledge
the importance of Earth Day as a reminder that in Jefferson County, truly Earth Day
is every day. Now, therefore, be it resolved that in recognition of our community's
deeply held care for and collective responsibility to preserve and protect our environment,
the Jefferson County Board of County commissioners hereby proclaim April 22 2023
as International Earth Day and encourage all residents to commit to lowering their
carbon footprint and engaging in efforts to protect and heal the planet. We call
home, approved the 17th day of April 2023. I'll move to approve the proclamation
as read, I'll second that. Ok. Um I don't think we had anyone scheduled to come and
speak to this, you know, kind of impacts all of us, but uh um there's no one dressed
up as earth unfortunately, but uh um I guess I will call the question all in favor
of, of proving and adopting this proclamation. Indicate by saying I, I I and I'm
I'm proud to point out that uh you know, due to no effort of my own, but we've, we've
reached those 2007 goals, uh you know, due to the P D coming in the, in. Uh, and,
and, uh, and I think we really have uh as a community focused on these ideals pretty
effectively. So, yeah, yeah, by far and having been the, the Climate Action Committee
rep for a long time, I'll say, by far the um uh uh switching from uh energy to our
own P U D and going to all electric um uh generation and mostly hydrogen generation
of our electricity made a massive difference in our carbon footprint. And also the
um the doing, adding a lot of kind of scrubbing and updating its technology has,
has had us reach that goal. But as the global community has done, it's time to
revise those roles. So we, we know that the goals set forth in 2007 are not um sufficient
anymore. So we will be coming back with new goals. The Climate Action Committee will
be recommending new goals uh for us to consider in the next couple of months. Stay
tuned.
Ok. Um Well, we have another proclamation in front of us for uh proclaiming April
22nd to 23rd, 2023 as National Park Week. Um uh Do we know who wrote this
proclamation? Is this the same one we've done a couple of times. I actually don't
remember doing this in the past it's National Park Week and so said, but ma wasn't
right. Um I found this slightly anodyne I have to admit. Um but
I did uh use my little B chat bot and, and wrote a counter proclamation that I would
like you guys to consider. OK. Do you guys have, can we just uh look at an option?
Chair's prerogative? All right, I'm gonna share my oh bring, bring it up and share
my screen so we can look at the alternative. I think now the now therefore of ours
is probably pretty good. But
can you want, you want to compare and see which one you think is better? This one
I created on my big chat pot in two seconds by asking you for a proclamation honoring
National Park Week focusing on the Olympic National Park, which of course is the
National Park within our boundaries. The primary one.
OK? I'm not looking at the right screen. OK?
And I would use our there narrow there, but probably
I'm sorry,
it had uh a footnote footnotes in it.
See, it's interesting like if they're gonna do a localized one, there are things
not in here that I would want in here. That's the, yeah, I mean, primarily just the,
you know, the, the National Park serves to protect some of the best carbon sequestration
ecosystems in the country. Um I was gonna say I spent, I spent some time in Olympic
National Park this weekend and went on some of the old growth trails and was, um,
struck to the core by the beauty and the feeling of being in those wet,
dark forests and just feeling grateful for the foresight leaders in
100 years ago had for protecting, protecting our parks. But, you know, it's,
yeah, I would want something included about that as well. Uh, well, we don't have
to do this in the morning. I, I mean, I found the other one just super generic but,
yeah. No, I agree. Um, can I add something about uh, the carbon sequestration and
bring it back after lunch? Sure. Yeah. Ok. Love it. All right. So we'll pause this,
I guess chatbot didn't make us faster, but maybe it made us better and there are
other, there are other tribes that could be in that list that, you know, they, I
mean, the, it identified the tribes, the still the recognized tribes that are still
there. So, yeah, I mean, there are people who are unrecognized. Well, yeah. Yeah.
Um, that was one thing I noticed too. Ok. Well, we can, we can, um, we'll bring it
back, think about what you like added. Uh I'll make a stab at a draft and we can
finish drafting and then proclaim after lunch after our 1 30 which is already scheduled.
Ok, great. Well, thank you guys for your flexibility and considering that and it's,
we have, you know, four minutes for, for briefing. Um Anyone can we do a quick fire
break
after that. Yeah, for sure. Let's take a recess till 9 45 when we were to jump into
our scheduled hearing about first quarter budget appropriations. There's a big million
dollar appropriation in there. So you want to come back? All right, we recess for
four minutes.
Recording stopped. I don't think so. Oh, there's so many emails recording in progress.
Great. I will call this, uh, meeting of the board of county commissioners back into
session and maybe we'll invite uh Judy Shepherd over digitally to, to join us for
our 9 45 hearing for bearing with us here.
Uh Judy, welcome Judy. Good morning. Good to see you. Are you gonna uh tee this
up and, and lead us through this? I am going to thank you uh go ahead and share my
screen and let's see, share screen.
Alrighty. So what you see before you right now is the um summary and let me kind
of move. There we go. Um And so um what we usually see in the first quarter of procreation
are um sometimes corrections to the budget that because the budget was adopted and
put together starting in October of last year. And so what we normally see is uh
grants that have been awarded. Um And then so therefore, those grants have to be
added to the revenue and the expenditures of budgets. Um Sometimes there's budget
corrections, uh things we didn't know, you know, by the end of last year that were
actually uh correcting in the first quarter. And so, um just to, to briefly go through
the summary, the general fund total for revenue and expand, expand. So the revenue
impact for general fund is 229,597 as you see right here and then the
expenditure total is 329 999. So these are one time expenditures and
revenues that were, were changing to the budget. And then if you look at the other
funds total at the very bottom, um you're looking at 1.1 million to revenue and
2.6 million to the expenditures. And we'll go through these individually. Uh but
you can see what the total budget impact is. 1.3 million to revenue and 2.9 million
to the expenditure side. So, uh let's go ahead, get into the details. I question
Judy before, before you go on. Can I ask one question real quick? I just, I wasn't
under the, under the uh the, the general fund, I guess the district court and superior
courts moving to another budget is that's a revenue neutral, right? It's just going
to a different bucket. I, I was curious why it wasn't just on the expense side as
well in this spreadsheet, right? And so the reason for that is there was already
expenditure and revenue in those funds. And so we, and then the numbers weren't correct.
And so because they didn't match the contract, so we had to bring, so I moved because
it was already approved. I could move budget, but then I had to bring the numbers
up to where they needed to be to match the contract. So, but it is budget neutral
um in the end result. Ok, great. I hope that answers your question. It does. Thank
you. You can go, go ahead. Oh, I guess I should probably, we, this is a hearing so
maybe I should uh um uh the public hearing. Well, I guess we can have
stuff presentation first, right? Sorry, I don't have a script. Go ahead Judy and
I'll open the hearing. So now we have
the public hearing is now open first. We will hear a presentation from staff and
then we will take testimony from the public. Thank you. Now you now you may proceed
Judy. Ok, great. Sounds good. Thank you on the first quarter budget.
Ok. So similar to what I just talked about, um for the sheriff, they receive um,
a Navigator grant and an a, a grant. So this wasn't known during the budget season.
And so therefore that has now been added to their revenue and their expenditure budget.
And if you look at the bottom, it shows you the date is January through June 2023
for the Navigator Grant and the R set grant is January through September 2023.
So this is central services. Um, this has to do with, er, and R and transfer, um,
a transfer from the sheriff to, er, and R, they have recent, they had a few years
ago, got a vehicle from, er, and R now they're giving that vehicle back. And so there
has to be this exchange of revenue and expenditure back to, er, and R to, to, to,
to give the vehicle back and that's a fair market value.
Ok. So this is the one you were talking about um before and this is so this is bringing
the budget into the new department we recently created earlier this year for the
therapeutics courts. So previously, as you, as you probably remember, superior court
and district court were had expenditures and the revenue coming in from uh 131 which
is mental health and that was coming in to augment these expenditures or take care
of these expenditures. And that's an agreement between those, those funds. However,
with the hiring of a case manager that was going to be handling the the
activity of these courts, it made sense to pull those monies together into one place
and create that new department 2 45 within the general fund. So what this is doing
is putting 200,000 into the revenue budget that they're going to receive from fund
131 mental health. And then, and then the associated expenditures, the salaries and
benefits before were all sitting under district court. And so now that's moving into
its own department and it, it, it, because that department is servicing all the courts,
um district court and superior court and the net effect to the, to the budget is,
is a net, it's a 0 200,000 in revenue 200,000 in expenditures. This just chews it
all up.
Ok. Next one,
uh this is W S U County Extension. Um Jefferson County Extension. This is congressional
M R C federal grant that was awarded and then associated additional expenditures
because of the grant.
Um W S U. This is an additional $1000 for herbicide that was required. Actually,
this isn't W S U extension. This is noxious weed. So I can tell that by fund number
one oh nine here. It should have said no noxious weed on that, but it's part of extension.
Yeah, I lost my mouse here. Can't, can't imagine who else would be ordering weed
supplies, dash herbicides. So yeah, it makes sense, right? No jokes there.
No videos either right now. Ok.
Ok. So this is um this is for a hotel motel and there's gonna be um
visitor center renovations and maintenance that has to do with the transition from
Jefferson County Historical Society to the Tourism Coordinating Council that will
then be managing the visitor center. So they have some upgrades planned and all of
that. I don't know any of those details. Um So, uh you probably may know more about
it at this point than I do. So, um that's what this appropriate issue is for, to
handle that. And from what I understand, it doesn't start until June 1st when Jeff
Jefferson releases that control to Tourism Coordinating Council.
Um this is again uh hotel, motel, tourism, um the L A uh line of
basically approving uh to the lodging tax funding grants. So this is chewing up the
budget to match the contract.
Um This one is um uh this is public health um and uh in cooperation with Veronica
at public health, there's a decrease in the budget line for whatever reason, not
sure how it landed there. Um but there's was 60,000 that was put in as a transfer
between her between two of their funds and it shouldn't have been there. So we're
just removing that to correct the budget.
Oh, sorry about that.
Ok.
Uh sorry, I got a little carried away there.
Ok? I think we're back to where we need to be sorry if I'm making, I hope I'm not
making anybody seasick out there. Ok. Homeless housing. Um This is just a correction
to what was awarded by um the housing board to um it was supposed to have been 100
and 44,000 but that what they awarded was 100 and 44,500. So therefore it's a correction
to the budget.
This is for public works Britain flood zones and this is a transfer from the quil
flood um uh to the Brennan flood zone and then also the capital outlay
for property acquisition that had to do. I do believe with easement having to do
with that flood zone,
public infrastructure. Um This is um all been assigned by the P F board and so the
budget has been, is being adjusted to match what the P F board has approved. And
E E DC is Economic Development Council awarding an additional 74,250
bringing their total budget to 100,000. Uh, the Sims Way Gateway is getting a million
dollars from P F and then quil seeing complete streets is 100,000. Um, and they're
getting, um, that full amount. So the impact to three oh six, which is our pit fund
is 1.2 million. Is there anything left in there, Judy? Um, I'd have to look that
up for you. Yeah, I don't know. I think, I think, I think there is. I'm just, yeah,
yeah, it seems like a lot. Right. But, um, yes, I can check into that and get back
to you. That'd be great. Ok. And Mark might already have that number. We were talking
about it not long ago.
So this is for tri area sewer. Um, as you know, we have a tremendous project with
the tri area sewer and we have, um, a million dollars that was sitting in fund three
oh two that we are going to be transferring to um the try out tri area sewer from
that capital improvement fund. Um And the expectation is this is to help with cash
flow. Um lots of times as you well know, they're awarded contracts and proposals,
you know, bids have been accepted. And then sometimes the challenge is having that
liquidity of being able to pay everything when they need to pay it. So this is to
help with that with the expectation at some point that that would be paid back to
the fund.
Mhm.
Um This is the health insurance. So, so we we had a vacation as you all know, from
our health insurance and due to the generosity of the board, um they decided to continue
with that vacation through the end of 2023. Um it, we found out about the vacation
very quickly that the vacation was over all of a sudden, we had to cut a check. So
we originally cut that check out a nondepartmental. So instead of trying to spread
the cost across every fund and figure that out and honestly wasn't personally, I
wasn't quite sure how we were going to figure that out because health care area is
uh it it it seems clear, but it's quite a calculation that gets it done. I'll just
put it that way. And so it, it deemed at this point it was easier to be expended
out of five oh five, uh which is our employee benefit fund. And so therefore, um
we are putting employer benefit fund, excuse me. And so therefore, we are expensing
that out of that particular uh fund instead of the nondepartmental or spreading across
everybody's funds. So that was to the tune of 100 and $50,813
central services. This is uh part of the process for information uh technology uh
moving from on premises uh Microsoft Exchange to Microsoft Exchange online. And so
there was an additional cost that was required in this to be able to go with the
vendor that is best suited through the R F Q that was submitted through M R S C.
And so the additional funds were needed to match that amount of 200 to a total amended
budget of 2 45 $72
and that's it. So that is all of them quite a few for the first quarter. So I'm hoping
second quarter will be a little lighter. Um We always hope that um we don't have
a lot in the first quarter, but lots of times like I mentioned, it has to do with
grants and, and changes to the budget uh in that respect. Great. Thank you very much
for the great presentation Judy. A lot of work that we know goes into this and working
with many departments um Before we open it up, up for testimony. Any questions or
comments from the board?
Nope, I read through this last night and all the transfer. Oh, I guess I had one
question. So the, sorry I was saying, no, I didn't have any questions. But um, the
up, up in the first section, the therapeutic courts. So my understanding is the district
court and Superior Court, um, subtracting those amounts from the revenue it gets
added in the therapeutic courts line are the, those are related, right? The 100 and
40,000 from the um district and superior courts is reflected in that therapeutic
court line. Is that true? Ok. I just wanted to confirm that I was trying to read
the tea leaves there, right? No, everything looks pretty standard to me. Yeah. What
we expected, I had one question on, on page 12 with the contract with Bayside just
making sure it looks to me like the reason for budget appropriation is phrased backwards,
but I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something. But so you said page 12, the
Bayside 1 44 adding $500. It's a small thing. Oh, sorry. Is it? Yeah.
So the contract for Bayside tiny homes should have been 100 and $44,500. Well, it
was originally 100 and 44,000. Um but when the contract was written, it was written
for and approved at 100 and 44,500 instead of trying to change the contract.
Um, we increase, I mean, it's $500. So we increased the budget 500 that's how I interpreted
it. Ok. So, um, that's fine. I just, that, that, that does read correct with it.
I just misinterpreted it, but I'm, I'm fine with it either way. I just wanted to
make sure I understand. Yeah, we probably could have worded that a little better
on that. Or one of us could have. It's only a $500 change though. Yes. Yeah. Ok,
great. Well, let me just get back to my uh script here. Uh And at today's hearing,
we will be taking public testimony uh about our first quarter budget appropriations,
each person will be allowed to speak for up to three minutes and this is testimony.
So please begin by saying your name and spelling your last name for the record. Speak
slowly and clearly. Uh when, if you're here, the green light will tell you when to
speak and the yellow light will show you that you have 30 minutes remaining. Otherwise,
we'll just, we'll give you a prompt. Um and I will now open this hearing for public
testimony. So we don't have any public in the room with us. But if there's anyone
online that would like to make testimony in this public hearing specifically about
these first quarter budget appropriations we've just been presented on, we would
love to hear from you so you can click raise hand or or star nine. Mr, let's bring
him on over and Judy maybe you can uh stop sharing unless we need to get back into
that.
Welcome, Mr uh thank you once again commissioners uh for the record Tom Tier resident
of Jefferson County. My name is spelled as shown on the screen, eight characters
one. So how hard could it be? Um My uh my testimony for this hearing is pretty simple.
I just wanted to thank the folks that put the presentation together for presenting
page one. It was a great improvement over previous years where we can actually see
all this stuff. Instead of having the leafs through, you're rather hard to read individual
pages for the various appropriations. And so I just wanted to express my appreciation
for that effort. Thank you. Thank you and uh props to Judy, right? Yeah. Nice work,
Judy. Thank you.
Great. Uh Thank you for that. Anyone else with testimony we would love to hear from
you. You can click raise hand or star nine. If you're on the phone,
I'll make one last call for anyone that would like to make public testimony on our,
our hearing about the first quarter budget appropriations. All right. Uh No one else.
I will close public testimony and we will uh get to the business of it. Rotate my
screen back. Yeah. Um Like I said, I feel like this is fairly status quo. Um This
is the, the business we do tore up the budget quarterly so that uh we are not stuck
at the end of the year with a number of changes that need to be made. Um Generally,
it looks like departments are not coming to us saying, oops, we forgot to ask for
um which is always great. Um People are, you know, generally staying within budget
and then seeking grant funding, which is a really good thing. We're using capacity
to be able to um um increased capacity, so great work to those departments getting
that additional funding. Um So yeah, I'm I'm satisfied and ready to move forward.
And there's a resolution uh that we're, we've got some specific verbiage on if, if
there's no other comments or questions, that would be a great motion to approve that
resolution. I've got it here. Would that be helpful? Um I will move to approve a
resolution. Um An order the first quarter, 2023 budget appropriations and extensions
for various county departments. Happy to second that it's been moved and seconded
to uh approve the, the resolution in first quarter, 2023 budget appropriations. Uh
Any further questions or comments all in favor of approving the motion. Indicate
by saying I, I I, all right. Um As Mr Cheers testified, Judy. Great work. Thanks
so much for making it clear and parable. It's really, you know, these are, these
are, yeah, this is the, the foundation of the county work. So thanks for making it
uh, understandable. You're welcome. Ok. Have a great day and we have a scheduled
item at 10 15 for a discussion and potential action um about some uh capacity and
current permit review times. It looks like we're gonna have Mr Peters here is, is
Brent joining us as well at that time? Ok, great. But we do have seven minutes. We
could maybe take a few moments to look back at the previous week or I do have a,
um, a topic that might be a good seven minute topic. Ok. Um Walking on a
conversation, um I assume that you both received the, uh an email from the Washington
State Board on geographic names. Is that regarding a hearing, uh that D N R is having
may 1st about uh renaming of places across the state and naming for the first time
places in Washington State. Uh One of which is in Jefferson County. And um, so the,
um, what we have been calling Kill Us at Harbor is inaccurately named. Um uh the,
the work that S C did to open up the kind of historic channel between SCA Bay
and Kill Harbor. Um uh did not have a geographic place name for government
purposes. It of course, had a name for tribal purposes, uh historically and so, um,
the Port Gamble Slalom tribe has uh petitioned for their historic name to be translated
and uh become the geographic name. And uh we were asked if we were interested in
providing any input on that name. Um The tribe has recommended the name passage through,
which is interesting. It's um challenges my uh you know, colonialist heritage of
wanting it to be something like. What about Inlet? What about, you know, but it's,
that's a direct translation from their historic uh name for that. So I, I would propose
that we support that name choice. Um And I would be happy to put together a lot of
support over the lunch hour, uh, to bring back to you if that's of interest. I did
check in with uh, chairman Ron Allen of the Jamestown Sco tribe and they're also
in support of that um name naming. So happy to answer any questions or
proceed with a letter and uh bring it to. Sounds good. Sounds great to me. I think
it's a great name. So, yeah. Yeah. Good, good callback. So, absolutely great action.
Yeah. Ok. I will bring that after lunch. I'm not trying. I heard there's a new, there's
a movement to rename, uh Hood Canal as well. Right. I know what's going on here.
Yeah. Well, I've always said that that would be like the last thing I wanna do before
I leave office. Well, the, the idea that's coming through and it's not, you know,
official. I it's not AD N R name. I don't think it's a name but Fjord is what people
want to call it. Nice. Yeah. No, it's drives me crazy. That Hood never laid
eyes on, on it. And it is not a canal, it is not a fjord and we should really take
great pride in that. But I will say we've discussed it with the Hood Canal Coordinating
Council and um perhaps, you know, it sounds like there is some agreement around Salish
Fjord. But um there's also been discussion that the tribes would have a hard time
um agreeing to uh a name because they all had historically, very different names
for it. And the um uh I was sent the, the name for it and it's,
it was literally like 40 letters long. Um Yeah. And so, or maybe it's
not that, that one was unlikely to, to I think, be chosen. But um I, I'm glad to
hear it. I, I, I think that it's uh I think we should take a lot of pride in having
such a unique geographic feature, largest fjord in the lower 48. Um And uh also will
be the home of the first delisted salmon species, likely. Um So glad to hear it.
All right. But uh on this passage through lovely name. And uh yeah, great. So let
us know. OK, let, let me know if you need my uh big chat bot to write the letter,
first draft of the letter over the lunch break. I think I'm happy to use my brain
for that Greg. All right. All right. Fuck. I'm looking at the other name.
Yeah. Sorry. That didn't take seven minutes that you guys are so agreeable. No. Well,
I mean, it's, it's, you know, when it's a good idea, it's a good idea. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. I would love to hear the pronunciation of the, um, the, the tribal name for
it, um, which is in the, uh, letter supporting materials. But, um, it's, of course
not in, uh, English phonetic alphabet man. So, yeah, it's
short. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I was curious if they considered a anglicized
version of that word versus passage through which I just think might be a little
bit confusing when you refer to passage through as a place if you're a mariner and
you're out there with a cell phone and you're like, oh great passage through. It's
literally
at least you can go through it now. I mean, if before the, the uh the work, it would
have been a less appropriate name, not a sailboat, not a sailboat. Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, fair enough. I was reading a book by Robin W Kimmer called Braiding Sweet Grass.
And she was learning about her indigenous, her family lineage language. I believe
it was Hoy and learning the language was that there are so many more verbs. So it's
interesting, Heidi said it's an action because being in rec reciprocity with the,
with the world uh things are an action and it's not just a thing, it's, it's something
that we're working with and being together with and, and, and relationship with.
So it's very interesting. Yeah. And I wanted to be a noun because that's what I'm
used to seeing on maps and admittedly colonial's perspective. Thank you. Part of
the system. All right. Great. Well, we have a minute left. Let's invite Josh to come
on up and I'll bring this microphone over. Yeah, you can use this.
Right.
Let's see. Are we expecting anyone else online? Josh?
I saw Brent this morning and he, he said he was gonna come and he had some slides
to show, but we can get started and I just get the conversation going in line. I
know that if he comes then we'll. Ok. Thanks. And I, I prepped uh Barbara Erlichman
just so she's, she's available if we need to bring her over for any um questions.
She's got her hand. Yeah. Well, let's bring her on over. Oh, she then she took her
hand down. Ok. But we'll uh let you t it off. Um What's going on?
All right. Thank you, Mr Chair. So we asked for time this morning because we wanted
to talk to the board about some immediate measures that we're proposing to
address are restaffing in the short term, in the medium term. So we had a conversation
with the county administrator before he went on leave and proposed a couple of ideas
to have limited office closures. One coming up pretty shortly for a specific reason.
And then one coming up or one proposed for the summer time for another reason, a
related reason. So to a little bit, as you're aware, we've had some significant staff
turnover in the past few months. If you go back to last fall, then we're talking,
it's all started with Emily and then it was Amanda. And then if you go into this
year, then we had Deborah uh Amber Morgan Jodie never returned from family leave
or except for one day. Um then Shannon Helena and Brian. So all those folks, it's
a pretty significant chunk of our staff and a lot of um experience. I went along
with them. And so we've uh fortunately we have new folks, we have a new uh planning
technician who then switched over to permit intake and that's Gabe and then we've
got four new assistant planners um all doing terrific. Um Jenny Auburn, George and
Lila and, but they're all within their six month trial period. So they're very new.
And so is Gates, that's five new employees. And plus Ethan, who I'll introduce you
to if I can in a few minutes because he's over with Kristen doing his onboarding
session. He just started today.
So, yeah, so that's, you know, it's with that kind of turnover. It's a challenge,
but there's also opportunity. We got a lot of new faces, fresh perspectives and so
that's all fantastic. But what it does mean though is that our capacity to do everyday
things, like handle questions when people come into the office and they have questions,
we can have a new person, greet that person. But then undoubtedly the new person
will have to look up the answer, which is a good exercise to learn about what we
do. But oftentimes, it just means of course, trying to find someone else to get the
answer. So there's a challenge in sort of the volume of questions from people dropping
by and the emails and the phone calls. And we realize that we try to respond within
a day if we can to any phone call, even to say that we got your phone call or your
email and we'll get back to you. But it's been a challenge just in the last few months,
especially with the volume of turnover, especially folks that do a lot of the office
administration. So right now you've got the director and the deputy director, um
essentially subbing in for all the office functions. So, um I've been trying to do
the hr stuff, Sarah knows that very well. I have a question almost every day. A lot
of hr stuff going on right now too. Exactly. And then, you know, with Judy Shepherd's
help and others has been trying to catch up on all of the, you know, the fiscal things
like the vouchers and the cashiering and every single thing you could think of public
records because we expected to get, we were certainly hoping for Jodi to come back
from extended family leave. And so we were surprised to find out that she wasn't
going to do that. And of course, then Morgan left, that's really like the front office
staff right there. Plus with Amber having gone to the city, there are three key people.
So we have Andrea up front, she's just passed her six month trial period, but she's
doing great as well and is sort of our first person to greet people when they come
in the door. But Andrea had requested vacation leave and deservedly so and is going
to go on vacation from Wednesday, April 26th through Monday, May 8th. So that's an
entire first week of May plus a few days on the front end and a day on the back end.
So that would be eight total working days to cover if you count that we're already
close to the public on Fridays. So, so what we thought of is Jeez. So that would
put um Gabe in a position of being just the front person and he's also of course
training Ethan because Ethan is taking over for what Gabe was just doing. So we've
got basically a brand new person who you'll see in a second, I think, and then uh
Gabe like handling all the front unless I could be out there, which we would try
to be, of course, um But then you've got, we're trying to do all the, you know, run
the office, essentially, not only our own jobs, but then these other jobs that we're
trying to fill. So it's a challenging period in that regard. And so we were thinking
that, well, if possible, we could do a limited closure. Ideally, it would be a couple
of weeks, the last week in April and the first week in May. But of course, we'll
take what we can get in that regard. And that way we at least wouldn't have the extra
pressure of having everybody come in the door and having questions and then sort
of those interruptions that occur from there. And um
we've got of course, a significant case load as well. So these four new planners
have approximately 400 cases between them, right? Because when um Emily left and
especially Amanda, Emily was doing a lot of grant work, but Amanda had over 50 cases.
So we had to redistribute Amanda's land use cases before she left and then Brian
had cases as well. Brian had cases as well and then Helena had like 65 cases. So,
and I still need to think about how to redistribute those case. That case work. It's
challenging because
all the new folks already have, as I mentioned, a bunch of cases and they're mostly
doing the simpler things, the type one cases and some type two which requires noticing
type threes or when you have a public hearing and it gets more complicated and you
know, we still have David Wayne Johnson doing development review and Donna and Joel
to an extent, although Joel is principally focused on the comp plan amendment cycle,
big volume of work right there. And he's basically the one doing it. And then Donna
is doing all the grant work and we have to spend all this money by June 30. It's
not an easy solution to say, OK, we have these 65 cases of Helena that need to be
redistributed. No problem. We'll just do a formula. We get a chat bot to do it. You
know, because at that point, you, you, you're already overloading folks who are already
feeling a little overwhelmed, you know, so that's essentially really in a nutshell
and introduction of what we're talking about. And then the one a a closure in the
summer time would be because we're about to go out to a for at least six positions
once Mark gets back and just sort of gives the final, ok. We've been working with
Sarah and her team on new job descriptions and all of the work and they've been great
in helping us, but we're looking to go out for an administrative services manager,
a new position, a lot like the office manager position that was in there before.
But a little bit of a hybrid between what Jodi was doing and what Morgan was doing
than a building official. We've had a building official before in D CD like a dedicated
building official, rather than having that office reside with the director's office.
And so we're, we're looking at that a building official slash fire marshal to concentrate
on the aspect and that building official would actually supervise more people. So
Jody supervised everybody in the front. And now we'd have that divided up between
a new administrative services manager and a new building official, fire marshal who
would supervise the building side of the shop. So that includes the permit intake
gave specifically. And then we also have a development code administrator. That's
also a new position. Very similar to the planning manager position, which has been
hard to find someone for is my understanding over the past decade and because it's
been a turnover thing, sometimes it's been vacant and planning manager is challenging
in particular because you're doing both the code administration and all the long
range planning. So we're thinking, well, maybe we should try to get someone who's
focused on the development code administration itself being such a priority. And
then the long range planning can stay with the deputies under the deputy supervision
or the director supervision and then a planning supervisor that would be to replace
Shannon. So right now I'm besides the other things I mentioned directly supervising
these four new folks because they had Shannon as their supervisor and then Helena
as a good coach, things like gov and how to do certain tasks and so forth and those
folks are now gone. So, so I'm supervising these four new folks and trying my best
to, you know, pay attention to everything there so that they can be successful while
also doing the other stuff. So we're also going to go out for a planning supervisor
as an exempt position to supervise the assistant planner team, associate planner
if possible if we get lucky. And that would be someone with a little bit more experience
so they could come in and actually take on some of those harder cases. We've asked
some of the new folks to take on some of the harder cases, but that's asking a lot
when it's such a volume of the of the typical bread and butter cases before them
as well. And then finally a code compliance coordinator because Deborah Murdoch also
left the compliance coordinator that would maintain under the director or deputy
director's office, that's the plan. And so we were thinking, if we get lucky again,
strike it rich in a way, then sometime in the mid summer, we're bringing all these
folks on at once, if we can get the timing right. And that would be a good chance
also to be able to actually train them adequately, to get them off to a good start
to have the ability to do so without the daily interactions if you will, that we
have in the front office. And that's again, just so we can provide them the appropriate
training. We've gotten feedback from people who have departed saying that one thing
they wished would have been more intensive or thorough would be training. And it's
something that's been hard for us to do without those sort of middle management positions
or without the veteran capacity, leadership and capacity to be able to train them.
We've asked the folks who have been around longer to help us with that in regard
and they all have David Wayne, for example, has taken the new folks under his wing
in a sense for some of the harder actions like subdivisions and has also taken on
some of the CAMS because that's also a time commitment for planners and they are
unable to get to their case work if they're just doing CAMS. Of course, there's good
reason to have CAMS to get better applications coming in the door, but that's been
another challenge. So I also basically that's our main message is to talk about that
today and what we could do in the short term, I know that the agenda request included
a lot of other information. There's a lot of other discussion happening about other
things and happy to answer any questions about that. In summary, in terms of site
development review or legal, lot of record, happy to answer any questions, not fully
prepared to completely dive into that issue in terms of coming up with different
ways of approaching it. Happy to talk about it. But would recommend that we come
back in a week or two when Mark is back and just have thoroughly prepared to go into
some options about how to streamline that situation. I do have the numbers and so
forth if you want to get into that. That's my intro. I see that Brent has joined
us now. Great. Thank you so much, Josh. That's a, that's a great breakdown, Brent.
I don't know. How were you there? For most of it? Anything to add to Josh's presentation
about this?
Hope you're muted, Brent. Sorry, you're, you're making some clattering noise. So,
yeah, I, I would just point out that um if um you look at the areas of
concern, I think you should really point out that and I think it's really important
to be aware that the resignations have affected planning more than any other department
or division within D CD inspections. We still have our one day turnaround on inspections,
uh a plan review. We're still doing our plan review in 2 to 3 weeks. Um We've also
not canceled any of the comp plan cycles, so we've still been doing the comp plan.
Um We've also done extraordinarily well with the grants, we've got uh four grants
right now, the shoreline, uh master program, the Foot control assistance account
grant, the shoreline users guide and the sea level rises. As Josh mentioned, those
are all moving ahead uh without problem. We also have some implementation issues
that are moving ahead properly. Uh the Sea Pacer program and the stock plans. So,
um if you look at the resignations, we've had eight, um they were clustered in planning.
And so, um that's where we really need to uh spend our focus on, on trying to address
what will um alleviate that, that issue in planning. So I think uh Josh really uh
elucidated some of the issues. Um If there's anything we should be acknowledged is
that some of the planning issues have been compounded by the new database system
instead of of making things go faster, they've actually slowed us down, they've slowed
us down. We've got increased steps in the fiscal realm. We have increased steps in
issuance of letters through our new system. We have increased steps now through our
CAMS because of the new system. And we also have increased steps in just for fulfilling
our responsibility of adding conditions. So what we're finding is that the, the new
database has actually slowed us down at this point. So, and I would also point out,
I think Josh really touched on that, but the resignations when we had such a significant
number in planning, that means that what is it, more than 380 cases had to be reassigned,
that's a pretty significant impact. Um And I think that that coupled with the the
impact that we're seeing from the database system is is why we need to really focus
on, on those systems. Finally, we also had a problem with redundancy or,
or backup. So for, and I, when I say backup, I'm referring to um, the fact that in
our inspector um role, we have got two levels of backups there, we have a consultant
backup, uh which is code pros. And then we also have on call inspectors, persons
who have retired that are available and willing to provide assistance. We also have
a backup with our plan review code pros. And so one of the objectives that we identified
in the report is, and it's actually been published today at the Daily Journal of
Commerce is a call for um consultants. So we don't have a back up there and this
uh the increase in resignation was so significant that we weren't fast enough um
to, to respond to that. And so I think at that juncture, I just um allow the board
to ask any questions you may have. Great. Thank you. And I'll just do a little table
setting and open it up for questions and comments and that's it's and correct me
if I'm wrong. But I just want to kind of reiterate what you're really asking today.
And there's a lot of, you know, D CD has some capacity issues and all sorts of issues.
And I appreciate your offer to come back next week and talk about some of the other
solutions. And you know, I've had conversations with you and members of the building
community and planning commissioners about the S D R process. And I think that's,
you know, talking about all of these issues is really important. But right now in
the attachments on the on the agenda, we have a proposal for a one week closure to
really for front staff, vacations well deserved vacations and for two weeks as two
options in late April beginning of May. And then there's also another proposed closure
in May, as you say for training when you have that big, big group of training that
you can do efficiently speaking to some of the exit interviews and the desire for
more training from the staff. Is that right? That is correct, Mr Chair, we approached
the county administrator and with these ideas of two week closure now and one week
later, and he suggested that we set up this time during his absence so we could discuss
it with the board and just go over the plan and try to address any concerns. Great.
Um And, and to the chair, I I would just add that we might want to also consider
one of the other areas that I've been thinking of is, you know, with lien implementation
if we were to do a closure once a month for the next three or four months, just
for one week, and then we can see how that closure is impacting workflow. So that,
I mean, I know that that was just AAA forth idea that I wanted just to put in the,
in the mix so that it wouldn't have such an immediate impact. But we could have a
one closure each month and then we can report out, um, say in June, after two of
those, we closures have occurred to see how that's going. Ok, thank you, Brent. And
then have you already changed the, uh, frequency of CAMS or is that a proposal? There's,
there, there are less CAMS now. They're just scheduled on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
or Tuesday and Thursdays. Yes, we did implement that change because the board's direction
was that we were to offer camps for free, but there was no specific number of camps
that the board directed. So it appeared to be within my authority to decrease the
number of camps which we've done by 50%. And we've also put one of the more senior
persons to handle the camps that are coming in. OK. Thank you. I just wanted to get
that, make sure we understand what we're talking about and I don't know ID cake questions,
comments, thoughts this public comment earlier said this was the most important issue
in front of us. And I, I have to say it's, I think the most acute issue that we need
to deal with. It's definitely the thing I'm hearing the most about in the community
and um totally supportive of a plan to give you guys the breathing space to get the
backlog some of the backlog dealt with. And I think it makes sense with the newness
of your team to give them time to get their feet under them a little bit. You know,
it's kind of hard to run while you're trying to swim too. Right. So, I think that
oftentimes we ask D CD to um, move mountains and with more experience, you all have
been able to do that for, as I understand it decades. And, um, in this instance,
when there's just so many new members of the team, you know, you got to figure out
what materials you need to move, build the mountain before you move it. Right. So,
um, the, the thing that I find myself principally concerned about is more of the
long range planning and how we're gonna address the docket. And I know we've been
kind of slow playing docket items in the past and there's kind of a backlog of docket
items and, um, how we gonna deal with the comp plan update cycle because it seems
like we should be getting that train on the track now. And so I don't know if that's
principally in your wheelhouse or in David Wade Johnson. I don't know who's, um,
holding that ball, but yeah, I'm seeing you nod poignantly. Josh, I'm sorry, I'm
juggling the ball and I can catch it or not. Is not a question. No, but seriously,
Commissioner Eisenhour just briefly on that point. Um, we are in the middle of the
2023 Comprehensive Plan amendment cycle. Joel Peterson is the lead planner to the
Planning Commission this week on Wednesday, we're having a public hearing about the
preliminary docket. So we'll get some feedback from the public about that. And then
the planning Commission will make a recommendation about what to put on the docket.
Moving forward. We have some site specific comp plan amendments which are rezones
and those are paid customers. So those, those will be on there no matter what really,
unless we did something radical and just said, we're not doing it this year. And
then there's two proposals. One is a set of recommendations that the Planning Commission
is, is working on for housing, um some code amendments and then D CD has a set of
uh U DC amendments that we've identified and kind of kept a log over the past few
years. So we're actually moving forward. So those are the two things and we have,
you know, we've done, we feel like we've done a lot of the work on that. We, we're
gonna write our recommendation as well and we'll address those issues and we'll be
before the board for the board to make a decision about the final do. Now when you
mention the 2026 periodic review that is due by the mid year in 2026 by June 30th.
So that is a challenge in terms of our annual amendment cycle. Um I think we're probably
gonna come back in front of the board and have a conversation about whether we want
to accept any other proposals next year or that we wanna make the year 2024 the year
that we really focus on getting ready to and hopefully finishing really our periodic
review responsibilities and then just or just be in really good shape for that rather
than being late to that party. So, but frankly, I'm, it's one of those things I'm
worried about, but I'm, I have other things right in front of me that I'm worried
about a little bit more. So, um I, yeah, so long range planning is a, is a, is an
issue right now with the permit volumes, sort of all hands are on deck are on, on
that. Uh Except for Joel really, of course, of course, he has his own permits too.
And then Auburn, another relatively new employee is um serving as a the planning
commission clerk essentially along with Joel and learning the ropes about long range
planning hasn't expressed an interest in that. So, um I believe that Auburn will
be helping out um as we get further on the year, but right now she's on the team
that's working on site development review and other type one permits. And I, I do
want to just say for anyone that's with us, we'll have a public comment before we
take any action. So everyone will have an opportunity to, to weigh in on this conversation.
And I would just add that um Auburn is spending roughly about 10% of her time supporting
the Planning Commission and their long range planning activities and, and Joel is
about 70% of his time on the long range planning activities. And so we do have, we,
we have been um you know, uh assiduously moving ahead on quite a few of the long
range planning projects and, and some of the implementation measures, I I'd almost
consider the, the sea pacer and the um uh the, the uh stock plans, implementation
items that came out of long range planning as best practices. And so I would say
that we are moving ahead as well on those four grants. And so those are all long
range planning, the flood control assistance account grant that's helping us characterize
and reduce flood risk on the big and little posing river of the sea level rise, understanding
the risks arising from increased sea heights. And so that's definitely long range
planning. And then the shoreline users got to an members of our community to better
understand what they can do with their shoreline properties and what is a violation
of the shoreline management regulations. And, and finally, I would point out that
the fourth really long range planning project really implement, implements the board's
direction for regulatory reform. We have been identified as accounting with the largest
number of conditional use permits on the shoreline. And so, um uh Josh adeptly uh
secure additional funding so that um that long range planning project can uh alleviate
that impediment um and provide a better service to our community members. So I would
say that those all fall within the that wheelhouse. So there are things that are
moving in a long range that I think the community has really been supportive of.
Great. Thank you. Ok. Yeah, maybe question first. Um Thanks for the, the really
clear um kind of uh table of measures um uh in, in our packet today that talks
about, you know, fixes, potential fixes. Um It's interesting in the, in the narrative,
it's, they start off as proposals and then they become priorities near the end. I'm
just curious if, if the five or proposal six being a combination, is that a prioritized
list where you see number one being the most important and effective and then down
the list.
And I, I wanted to point out and I could speak on behalf um that when we were preparing
that we did not um look at it specifically as a prioritization. Um So the first one
we had is perfect catch up and closure. Um And um and that one is, we did
identify that I would say that that one is um those the one that we feel would deliver
the biggest bang for the buck um so to speak. Um And I want to clarify that, that,
so that one would be um the highest priority. Uh We did see the um the customer assistance
meeting number uh proposal number two as um something that um because of the interruptions
that it does create, um that it would have an impact, we didn't see it as
great. Uh Because um the board did, did give us some latitude to, to, to in terms
of the number of camps that we have and we, we've had quite a few. Um And so that
was something that we used our latitude to, to, to uh amend. And then the third item
was on call consultants. I think that if we had consultants in
place, we wouldn't be in such a significant position. But as you know, there's been
discussions regarding collective bargaining to enable that. So we were a little slow
in getting that up and out, but I feel that's an important one. And then the interim
controls was probably the most aggressive of all of the approaches. Um And, and when
I say interim controls, that really is a moratorium, other communities have done
it such as uh uh Lake Saam, the city of Lake Saam, if you Google that. And so that
interim measure we thought is the most aggressive of, of those approaches. And then
uh five um the uh and I did see, I did call it priority and you should have probably
been proposal. Uh I was um really looking at um, uh, embedding training in either
in any, in all of the above. So we need to have training because of the, uh, uh,
of the loss of staff in, in so many different areas. Ok. Thank you. That's helpful.
Um, I mean, I'm, I'm inclined to, you know, do whatever we can
right now quickly. Um, uh, did the, uh, question about collective bargaining? Did
that get resolved in terms of hiring consultants? Is, do we have a clear path for
that? The union has been notified? And there is a section in the contract that allows
for um on consultants. And my understanding is, is, is that this would be temporary
until uh we get over this issue we have right now uh regarding capacity and the backlog
of permits. So we don't anticipate the, the unions opposing that in a way that would
prevent it from being a, an option. Ok. Quick, quick comment on that.
Hold on. And then Josh, uh I was just gonna say that the board and I, I almost
think that it might be a good decision to determine what level of service that is,
meet the needs of the community to identify that level of service and then to determine
if we exceed that, then on call planning services should be used that would be a
recommendation so that there is some determination if we go above a certain level
of service standard, um be it a eight weeks or whatever the board would decide, then
we would necessarily reach out to the on call planning consultant. Ok, Josh, I
was going to say that one of the things we try to do is follow the legislative session
and I know Commissioner Dean, you do that as well from a broad perspective, we try
to focus on the planning related things. It's also been a challenge of course, to
be fully engaged in this particular session. But I am aware that three bills passed
and 33 bills that have to do with regulatory processes, permit timelines and those
kinds of things. And so the dust hasn't really cleared on that, that just happened
last week. I need to take a closer look at those and see how they overlap if they
do. What things are they trying to deal with. And I guess what occurs to me just
from listening to the conversation around those bills is that we're not the only
jurisdiction and the only local government in Washington State dealing with permit
timelines. Otherwise there wouldn't be three bills that have passed. They are certainly
not looking at just us. However, as Brent pointed out in the in the agenda request
and as we talked about, we've had sort of a perfect storm storm of other things that
have made it particularly acute here. But I guess I'm saying that there is talk around
the state of how to deal with permit timelines under the regulatory framework that
we have in Washington State and one of those solutions and one of the bills is to
provide assistance to local governments to have on call planning services. So again,
that discussion isn't just about us trying this thing. Although we do have our own
contracts, collective bargaining agreements to address, but it's something that's
being proposed and even promoted in some ways by having some. If you sort of opt
into a program is my understanding of at least one of the bills and you commit to
certain timelines and even shortening others, then you're eligible for funds to help
offset costs for on call planning services to supplement your planning staff.
Um Can I keep going, Greg? Ok. Um So like I said, I mean, I'm, I'm inclined to, to,
to do what we can, I, I am aware of the, um, what the projection is now
58% chance out of 100 that we will be in moving into a recession by the end of this
year. Um And, you know, I just think if the more we can keep things on the tracks
right now and moving, um towards especially knowing that housing inventory is, you
know, a massive issue for us. I, I'm inclined to, you know, just throw whatever we
can at this to, to support the department. Um I do, I'm, I'm a little, I, I have
some concerns about the, the like total closures and Josh and I have talked about
this, I think the, um, while the rationale makes sense, I think the optics are really,
really tough. And, um, so I have wondered if there's some way to provide the block
of time needed for focused work and catch up while having a bit of a relief valve
that the public still knows that they can, um, can get some service. And Josh assures
me that email can still be monitored. And, um, and that there are, are ways that
that can happen. I, I, I still would love to see if we could brainstorm some sort
of uh partial um, opening. It's, it's like the hood canal bridge, you know, and they're
talking about the backup. It could be, maybe it's impossible, maybe it's, you know,
if you're only open for a day or two a week that it just more and more people then
want to come through that very limited time frame. But, um, that I, I, I guess I
would be interested in kind of brainstorming if there's some, some way that would
provide both. Um, and then the, the training closure, similar kind of concern around
that. I think that's gonna be even harder with different, with staggered start times.
And, you know, is, it seems unrealistic that there would be a whole new group of
people all starting at once that would benefit from a week off, given the impact
to the public impact and optics to the public of closing. And you know, I think it's
just very hard to make the case that closing to the public actually expedites permitting
and yet, you know, because it just doesn't seem like that on the user end. And yet
I totally get why that is likely the reality and, and for the department itself
so willing to be flexible and work with you on what you need. But just curious if
there's some, some ways we can help the public feel like they're not getting uh you
know, talk to the hand, talk to the door because, you know, we need to get our stuff
together. No, that's where I land.
I mean, it's the perfect, the great resignation, right? I mean, it's, there's a lot
of compounding factors in this perfect storm as it's been described. And D CD is
not the only entity in our community experiencing some of the impacts of things like
the great resignation and what they said on NPR this morning, 100,000 people resigning
from jobs in the last couple of years because of COVID and all of the impacts of
COVID and, you know, keeping their kids in school and all the things, they're all
the things, right? And so I've been like, what, what, you know, how can we, how can
we supplant the capacity or, or support the capacity of D CD in this time as we build
the team because it's like building the airplane while you're flying, it kind of
thing. And so my, my solution because I'm very much like pull up my boot straps and
I'm like, I'll come over there one day a week. Josh, if you think it would be helpful
and not distracting, I could take phone calls, you know, and do my other work commissioner.
Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to do. I am literally, I'm saying that I'm happy to do it
to add capacity. I mean, the public of Jefferson County pays for my salary and I
want my salary to put, be put to best use. And then this time, I feel like it might
be some of the best use of, of those funds. And so I'm wondering if there's anywhere
else that there's capacity within the county to, you know, cycle people through to
help or pick five people to deputize, to train up as you know, phone answers. I mean,
I was in the planning commission a while back and I do know some of the lingo so
I could have conversations with, you know, front line conversations with customers.
Um So I was just trying to figure out, you know, how to be helpful and that's probably
not very helpful to say, the best way I can think about is for me to come over there
one day a week. But um it is a, you know, it's a, it's extra capacity.
So um put your heads around that if you think that would be useful we'd have to look
at my schedule, but I do have gaps in my schedule and be happy to do it. It would
actually probably be good for me as a relatively new commissioner to be on the front
lines doing that work with you all. Um And the other kind of expanding on that thought
is, is there anywhere else in the county family where we have? And this baby is,
I'm glad Sarah is our deputy, our acting county administrator today because maybe
it's a question of, is there capacity anywhere in the county for people to help?
Um I don't know if we've thought about that, but it's, you know, oftentimes I go
back to my times working for nonprofits in the community and when the Wooden Boat
Festival came along, it was like all hands on deck. You know, we got hundreds of
boats coming in the marina. We got, you know, we gotta, we gotta help, get through
this hotspot that we're in of a major event. And so I feel like this is a major event
and how does the county respond to it? Great. I don't know, Josh or Sarah, you wanna
respond to Heidi. Well, um just in the short term and as long as necessary, human
resources and our payroll finance team are helping Josh and Brent and community development
with the needs on the administrative end. And so that's really, that's really a critical
kind of foundation for the department within which to act. The permitting planning
side is critical as well. But uh the team needs support and Josh and brand are actually
working really hard on that as well. I'm wondering if there's some kind of solution
between two or three weeks off and doing nothing. So right now D CD is closed on
Fridays. So would an additional one or two days a week be sufficient? I mean, at
one time or half of a day during a week to make sure that the public had access,
but also that D CD had the opportunity to catch up and to train. Um I think there's
alternatives on the training side that perhaps on a Friday, there could be different
teams of people that might be trained and hr help to, um, set up training that would
be more on the administrative side while that wouldn't help on the, the D CD specific
side. Um If there's some other solution that can be worked in that. Thank you, Sarah.
All right. I guess I'll weigh in a little bit here. I, I share your concerns and
both of your willingness to, to jump in and roll up the, and I do have a meeting
scheduled with Josh and Scott Carpenter and Brent to use my favorite new tool, which
is chatbots to see if we can't take some of the, some of that capacity issue. And
I think looking for this kind of solution is incumbent upon us. I hope next week
we can really dig into some and, you know, I had heard from the, the trades really
about maybe waving SDRS as a way to alleviate some of this issue. And talking to
Josh, I recognize how much we lose if we do that. If we kind of bulk on that, I think
it's still worth considering. I'd love to discuss it, but probably not today. But,
you know, just another idea. I think raising the threshold of what you actually have
to apply for, you know, we use the b the built without permit permit process for
a lot of different things and maybe, you know, if you're building a fence or a shed
or something, we just say, hey, for a year, do your best. These are the rules. Don't,
don't talk to us and if there's not a complaint, we won't talk to you until this
certain period. So I think there's, I really struggle with lowering the level of
service. Of course, we're a small rural community. People always want levels of service
to increase, not go down. And it's really challenging for me to, to shut that door
and, and, um, allow our level of service to go down, which is what we're actively
doing. Um, but I think we have to. So I, I'm, I like Sarah's suggestion too about,
you know, a week or, you know, a day or two. I understand the specific vacation that
we're trying to deal with. So I'd be probably inclined today to lean towards a week
closure. Keep looking for other solutions for the training and everything. But um
give them at least one of the weeks in April just to deal with the really acute situation,
but come back next week and look at real strategic options for um improving
the flow. And uh I guess that would be, that's my off the, off the cuff, well, off
the cuff. I thought about this all weekend long, you know, I mean, it's like we really
do care about the department and, and it's, as we talked about a lot, often it's
one of the departments that has the most interaction with folks. Um So you are, you
know, you're carrying the, the, the, the, the standard for the county every day and
we want, we want to let you support D CD to carry it as proud as they can. So, um
I guess that's what the chair. Yes. So would you consider? And I guess my question
is that um we can have one week closure, see how that works. And, and, and my
recommendation would be to repeat it maybe the first week of each month for a couple
of months and then we can report out if, if it's working. Um And so that you'll have
an opportunity to, to um uh amend it. But I, I, I think that if, if we can demonstrate
success and it, and it's improving the community. It would make sense for it to continue
for a short period. I'm very skeptical of that plan. I will be honest. I, I mean,
I think a week, ok, reducing how the time that we're open to the public by
25%. Um, maybe that's a bridge too far for me right now. But I, I don't know. Um,
ok, this is not something that's my decision. Well, I like the idea of definitely
doing it for a week and assessing how it went. What do we learn from that week? Um
And then, and then develop, developing a plan going forward, knowing that it may
be future closures or it may be investing money that we have to rattle out of the
couch cushions or maybe the commissioners are there um, at the front desk every,
every Monday, I don't know. Well, I think it's important to maintain a focus on what
the exact goal is. So if the goal is to maintain the health of the current staff
who are really dedicated and devoted and working hard to keep it afloat and also
to ensure that the public has access, then what does that mean? So if it's, if it's
one week and our goal is that we're, we're satisfying some of each of these, then
let's keep that goal. If the goal is, you know, long term assessing lean and doing
these other things, well, then that's a different decision. Um and so it's just defining
what the goals of the board are, I think right now for the situation. Great. And
I, I think, um, I mean, I, I support the idea of a week closure and assessing and
see how it goes. I worry a little bit about that being a regular thing because this
does feel like, um, something of an emergency and it's harder to make that case when
it's scheduled one week a month. Um So I think that kind of, you know, responding
to the severity, um a as it, it's in uh kind of interpreted to be a, in any given
time, it would be my preferred um strategy. So if you know, if there is a true need
for the closure, now, go ahead and do that. Um Josh, I think you've talked about
the idea of, you know, that this conversation is an opportunity to start, you know,
informing the public that we really are at a um a precarious time and we need some
grace and patience on their part. Um So that they might, you know, indicating that
there might be other closures in the future for training in particular. Um But I'd
be a little uh uh loath to commit to a regular closure at this point.
Ok. Um I do want to make sure we leave some time for public comment. So I'll ask
anyone, I, I know we've, I asked Barbara to be available and we haven't asked you
anything but Barbara, if you have anything that you want to contribute to the conversation,
we'd love to hear from the prosecutor's perspective as you guys work a lot with D
CD. Um, otherwise we've seen. No. Oh, hi, Barbara. How's it going?
Good. I would just point out, you know, having listened to this entire conversation
that, I mean, Brent has said that the building, the side of the house is in pretty
good shape. I might have, I don't wanna to mischaracterize what he said, but basically
that, um, you know, we do have backup building inspectors and all of that stuff.
I mean, is it possible for that side of the house to continue operations in the
open forum while just the planning, um, part of the house closes for one of
these whatever, uh, whatever, uh
distance, you know, whatever time needed to um, your training or? Good, good
question. Can you, you want to take that, Josh? Yeah, thank you. And I'll try to
hit on some of the other points too. So just on what Barbara was saying, we're, we're
only talking about just closing the front door, so we don't get the drop in customers
and the all the functions will be occurring essentially as normal, including the
daily inspectors. We have two inspectors that go out every day and do building permanent
inspections and we have one plans examiner as well. So those functions will continue
and it would be a case of simply having email and phone communication rather than
having. But if you know, there were appointment specific things we could I know on
the planning side, we already have an appointment for the week that we're targeting
for enclosure and we were gonna maybe hold it over on the E P H side, the environmental
public health side where they have a small conference room. So again, like the functions
wouldn't be stopping. It's just, it's just the, the daily interactions at a time,
a very specific week and then uh some edges on that week where we're gonna be very
short staffed. This is Ethan, by the way, Ethan Walker, our, our, our latest. Yeah,
so we've got Ethan up there and all of our problem, you can join us and it sounds
like it sounds like um Commissioner Eisenhower if you, if you had in your schedule,
for example, on April Wednesday, April 26th and, and Thursday, April 27th or either
one of those days or Monday. Um May 8th. Those are the days that even if we weren't
able to get that first week in May to be essentially closed, maybe with a four hour
window, whatever you're comfortable with, then, yeah, if you wanted to work the front
desk and really see what it's like to, to answer people's questions, that'd be fantastic.
Um The idea that, you know, the all hands on deck idea, um We've already asked, I
think a lot of our colleagues around the county organization for additional assistance,
including um some fiscal training for one of our planners who happens to have a fiscal
background. She's stepping in Jenny to try to help us with the cash sharing and those
kinds of things, the voucher stuff until we get an admin services manager back on
board to be able to be able to do that ourselves time sheets, all of these things
that are just keeping the department running. We're already asking a lot of our colleagues
and so coming over, I just don't, I don't really see that as being um a short term
solution. Um I think Commissioner Eisenhower having been on the Planning Commission.
Yes, that makes sense. And, you know, front line conversations, but to really, to
even get up to speed for someone to be able to answer a question about land use planning.
I do think it's unless you're coming with a whole background, it's a, it's a matter
of months, not weeks to be able to really answer those questions. Um Maybe the artificial
intelligence can, you know, it can be a liability too. It could be, I mean, we don't
want to give the wrong answer. So, I mean, people can find lots of information online,
but people like to be a lot of people like to be led to that information. So there's
the challenge there and believe me, we don't want to disappoint anybody and it's
hard professionally. It's very hard actually to disappoint people and we feel like
I feel like we're doing it or I should say I'm doing it and it's just a matter of
where, like, are we going to disappoint the folks who want answers to questions about
what can I do on my property or how do I apply for a permit or what the, what are
the rules or is the people that have already applied and they're waiting for their
permit and we're trying to get all those permits out the door or is the people? I
just wanna know where my permit is and we have to drop what we're doing to then find
where that permit is and then we come to find out it's in the queue, but it's pretty
far down in the queue and we'll, sometimes people will ask the same question the
next week and they'll still far down in the queue. So it's, it's a matter of how
we're disappointing because people, because almost undoubtedly we're going to be
disappointing some people right now just because of we're not able to do the level
of service that we would like to do and we're building the team back up in order
to get there. And so, yeah, all solutions on the table. I mean, my main objective
was to really find out about this first week in May. What are we going to do then?
And then in terms of commissioner Dean, what you're saying, is it possible that we're
going to get all the people on boarding at the same time? Probably not. That's why
I said in an ideal world, you know, we'd be doing all the interviews at the same
time. We are going to advertise at the same time. So maybe by the way, we have to
do all those interviews and all that hiring and then we bring them all and if somehow
magically, they're all kind of at the same time or at least the planning part of
the shop. Um then we could talk then about what that week might be. That's why we
didn't even predict when that would be. I said something like mid mid summer for
that all all solutions on the table. Commissioner Brotherton, in terms of the idea
of actually making a change in terms of the in the regulations that we're trying
to implement. There's no question that the one year moratorium followed by a brand
new program on top of gov coming online and the staff turnover all at once has been
challenging. There's absolutely no question about that. Um That said we're finding
a lot of successes and again, we'd be happy to come back next week to talk more about
this. I know you want, you have other items on your agenda, but we've had basically
in a nutshell, 300 applications. Um 100 and 20 so far this year, we have worked through
we've worked through all the ones from last year and identified, you know, a good
30 or so that are tricky another 30. We just need to complete. We've already started
completing the ones that were applied this year. Just started those we've completed
at this 300.100 and 11. So, so the new team is really figuring things out moving
quickly. I would say that if you're still interested in exploring the possibility
of making a change to what we've tried to implement, then my team tells me that it's
the legal lot of record aspect. It's not the site development review aspect. We're
gonna have to do land use review anyway. And that's kind of what we were seeing.
The site development review essentially just moves the land use review to the front
of the line to ask the right questions when you're supposed to. It's working well
in that regard. Now the volume, the pent up demand from the Moratorium, these are
all challenges that we're just trying to work through and get to a place that we're
just sort of at the normal level of, of permit intake. But it's the legal lot of
record that's provided some serious tricky business in terms of figuring out how
to implement that. Just as an example, like here are the of 100 total S D R s. This
year three, we finished four in the U G H. That's simple. 42 were not platted because
right away we're like, OK, they're not platted. What does that mean? How were they
created? What were the subdivision ordinances in effect at the time that this land
was divided without subdividing actually? So um 23 were, were planted prior to 1937
and we talked about that being a big key like there were really no land use controls
prior to then. So what does that mean? Did was there any land use considerations
for these lots? 22 were between 37 68? Ok. So maybe some land use controls, but what
happened there? And we might have the information, we might not um 26 were post 69.
That's probably fine as long as nothing else happened. Um 43 of those need environmental
health review because they're under two acres. So that's when you start asking, do
we have the minimum land area to actually accommodate an on site septic system and
how well on that property most likely? So that's a big S T R are the critical area.
So those are the kinds of things that we want to ask first before people start paying
for house designs and all kinds of other stuff. And we're just down to some of those
hardest to build properties, right? So we can talk about uh how much detail we get
into in the S T R. That's a conversation that we're having with health. I mean, how
much is at a point where we can say here are your challenges. Um We're giving you
some recommendations about how to address that, but you're gonna have to go to health
next or do we have them involved in doing soils analysis early on? That's a question.
Um The lot stuff we could break it out, we could try to simplify it now that we've
learned a lot more about the challenges that we come up with when we try to dig into
property history in Jefferson County. And what happened way back when, um, we could
come back to you with some other ideas about that. But again, these are, these are
the types of things you can't just teach someone to do in a day and then also they're
gonna start processing S T RSI. Just want to spell. I think that's a, that's a not
really a viable path, at least in the short term. So anyway, just more, more detail.
If you got that one week, that'd be great. We can come back next week, we can come
back and continue the conversation. If we had another week to prepare, then we could
even prepare better for that conversation. If you really want to explore about some
alternatives to the current program that we have going great. And I'm, I'm happy
that, you know, narrow filter that down. If it's the legal lot of record, that's
the kind of the low hanging fruit of things that are really challenging capacity
and have, you know, just like adaptive management, you know, looking at this, maybe
that's the part that, you know, a part of S D R happy to, I mean, I want the suggestions
coming from you, you guys. Yes, print and I just wanted to add that um sort of piggyback
what uh our prosecuting uh um uh uh uh attorney indicated and, and I think it's really
important to note that we're still um conducting building intake. So persons who
have permits um if they wish the community members that wish to submit, um that is
gonna continue even during uh the closure, we're still doing inspections, we're still
doing Clan Review. OK. So I just really wanted to highlight the um that there's still
quite a bit that is continuing even uh during any proposed uh closure of the office.
Great. Thank you. And I, I think we should probably open it up for public comment
because we have an 11 15 another, another talking about CS or a particular plan there.
So I will uh call for public comment on this agenda item if you're with us online
and you'd like to make a comment. We would love to hear from you. If you can click
raise hand or Star Nine, we will bring you over and you can have up to three minutes
to talk about this.
Well, you're looking for public comment. I mean, I think what staff is looking for
today though is direction or guidance on um which version of these press releases
to send out? I mean, how to move this plan forward. So we want to be sure we leave
this session in the next six minutes with that sufficient guidance for them.
Ok. Um I'm I'm seeing no one with their hands up for public comment. I'll make one
more call. If anyone would like to make public comment on this topic, we would love
to hear from you. Oh, we got one. Let's bring L D over.
Yes, you'll have to accept promotion to Panelist for us to be able to hear you.
Oh, he's over now. So how, how about now? Great. We can hear you now. Thank you.
Ok, thank you. Sorry, sorry about that. Uh, shouldn't be driving and doing this at
the same time. Hey, uh, I just want to thank the B zero cc for, for, um, going down
this road to take a look at what some options may be, you know, as a planning commissioner
and also as a, the president of the Jefferson County Home Building Association. I
get a lot of questions regarding this and, and a lot of people are, are very concerned
and, uh, I've had a number of meetings with a number of you and um, and also the
county administrator in kind of both of those roles. And, and I think looking at
this process really in depth is a good thing for B zero cc to, to take on and, and
see, you know, what's working and what isn't. And, and, um, I know we've had a lot
of people, uh, leave D CD for, I think a number of different reasons. Um, I think
one of them is probably also dissatisfaction of, of how the process is going and,
and how they feel in their jobs. But, uh, I, I really uh hope that that you guys
can come together and come up with some kind of solution to uh get us out of this
position that we're in because I think it's really an emergency that uh that we're
see. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr Record. Yep. Yep. Would anyone else like to
make public comments?
I want to make a last call for public comment if you'd like to comment on this agenda
item. Now is your time? Ok. Uh So you know, when I will close public comment and
as uh Heidi, you know, pointed out we've got some short term um action that you guys
are looking for today. And I guess one of those is we have in the agenda item, there's
a press release for both the closure of one week at the end of April into May or
two weeks. And do we want to consider one of those options today? Sure. Yeah. And
I think to the um uh on call consultant assistance, that's another um Adam we, we
should discuss and I don't know if we can come to a decision on it today or not.
But, and I would love to, I don't know, I would love to kick that can, to next week
in our conversation. I guess I just, I know, I remember we've, we've had on call
consultants for more management before and I felt like it takes a lot of capacity
to manage those consultants. And as you say, it takes, I mean, is the consultant
going to be able to come in faster than a uh than a new employee to be able to be
doing permit work in Jefferson County?
I would say that it does, it does take management for consultants. One of the challenges
is that we have some more complicated permit processes that we could train new staff
on except that they're also doing the majority of all this bread and butter permitting.
So we were targeting really those firms that are, that are experienced in things
like public hearings, staff report preparation for those CPA review the Environment
Policy Act, those types of discrete things. I defer to Brent on the extent of the
call for proposals. But we had a whole suite of services that we were proposing to
see whether we could get services for including by the way, Master Plan Resort Services
that has to do with the pleasant harbor, the work in Pleasant Harbor, Brent. Yeah.
Um We have a, a call out. It went out to the Daily Journal of Commerce today and
we're looking for assistance in three core areas. One of them is a master plan resource.
Um We do not have the capacity to provide the service uh necessary to um
implement uh um that vision uh that includes some 890 homes
um and associated services at the Pleasant Harbor area. So we have as a primary
responsibility trying to fulfill that, that need. Um So that's one of the calls.
The second one is um on call planning services and, and my experience has been that
most governments that I've worked in have had that available. Um We're finding that
we wouldn't be able to process our Shoreline master program without it. Uh Consultants
has been there. They're knowledgeable about our codes. They provided that service
in the past and, and uh with the um uh $50,000 additional sum that the Department
of Ecology has granted us, they're gonna continue to support us. My experience has
also been that uh um the government that I left in California. Uh I, when I attended
the um uh the American Planning Association conference in San Diego, uh I met the
um on the sidelines of the conference, uh the firm that I hired to give you our comp
planning development code. Um I've been out of that government now for six years
and they told me, oh, there's been such turnover in that department that we're the
only consistent um element that the department has and they're relying on us, we're
still updating their plans and, and doing work because of that turnover. So, um I
see that the on call planning services could provide that continuity when there isn't
that current staffing. And that was a classic example of that. And a third area that
we've provided or uh submitted for call was um the office of the fire marshal and
building services to ensure that we're implementing um those expectations that are
identified in the code and uh as the best practice for the community. And so we have
really those three core areas that are just announced today. But Brett, you don't
need our action. You don't need any action from us. It sounds like you've already
posted that R F P. Yes, we did not need any action. Uh We, we just identified this
as an area that unfortunately, we didn't have backup. Um And so, uh there, it is
part of the problem we could have if we had a backup. As soon as we saw this issue
presenting itself, we could have relied upon those on call planning services and
we would not be in the situation that we are in now. So we'll be back in front of
the board with potential contracts for services depending on the, on the responses
that we get from the on call R F P that we just put out sounds good. So, really,
we're just considering uh our permit catch up closure and whether on starting April
24th for two weeks or starting May 1st for one week. That's exactly, I mean, for
so today, I think we're gonna continue this conversation and to your point earlier,
Josh, whether it's a week or two weeks, if you guys need two weeks to really uh consider
alternatives, you know, whatever works for you guys. And I, I did speak with Mark
mcauley and he's happy to work with you guys too, to, to bring something back in
the next, in the next week or two. So, so today, just so we can get on. Is that ok
to just restrict our, our, our deliberation to the late April early May closures?
Yes, it was a little unclear about what you just said, Greg about the one week versus
two. You're talking about the, er, the permit catch up time period, right? The, the,
the two press releases won the first one is one week permit catch up time closure.
Now followed by one week training in the summer. And the second version is a two
week permit catch up. Now, followed by one week of training in the summer. So, which
are we supportive of in, in a point a point of clarification? I just wanted to identify
that we will still be doing permanent intake. We are still doing inspections, we
are still doing good clarification. Yeah, that might, maybe should go into the
press release. Yeah. Good point.
Um, ok, so we have, if you go down to page, uh, you know, 15 or 16, 16 and 17, there's,
uh, the, the two options, um, that we can consider now. So
I guess I would probably be more inclined to the one week period starting on May
1st. But I'm, I'm not available on the 26th and 27th. Josh. Unfortunately,
if I am, I'll, I'll come, I'll come answer phones, I'll, I'll check my, I feel like
I know just enough about land use to be dangerous. I'll use my chat bot you. You
would get three very different approaches with these three commissioners. There'll
be an empty chair in the front. If any one of you is ok. I can come down for some
time on the 27th. I'd be happy to from like 11 11 to 1. Let's go put it in there.
Front desk. Yeah. No, I'm, I'm, I'm happy to help too, but I think we, we wanna be
sure to be on script, um, and some coaching because it is a um potentially
dangerous situation. Indeed. Ok. Well, uh we are a little bit late for our 11 15,
so I would welcome a motion if someone is so inclined. I'm happy to move that we
approve. Um, a one week, I'm just reading from the press release, a one week permit
catch up closure. Um, effect May 1st followed by a one training week in the summer.
Could we maybe hold off on the, the summer part and just make the decision we need
now? And um, I like the idea of planting the seed that this might, there might be
more needed in the future, but instead of making that decision now, do a little more,
let's make that, that second decision quickly because it does take time to plan for
training. So that's why I think it was asked this way. But if we can commit to making
that decision in short order, yeah. No, I think we definitely want to support the
training and I'm very open to the um to the idea, but I, I think it would be good
to see how the first week closure goes before committing to a week closure for training.
If you know, if that isn't the best uh kind of format for it, right? Maybe it's three
days a week or something. Yeah, you re reform your, your motion. Um
Oh, so we're not responding. Ok, I'm withdrawing my motion. Someone else make the
motion. I move that we approve a one week permit catch up closure effective May 1st
for the Department of Community Development. Oh, happy to second that. Ok, we've
had plenty of conversation already. So I will um call the question all in favor of,
of supporting DC DS request for a permit catch up closure week, uh beginning of one
week, beginning may 1st indicate by saying hi, hi, hi. All right, thank you guys
very much. I know it's hard and you know, the some of the stress that are exiting,
uh, staff members, I know that just, that doesn't go away, that just ends up redoubled
on the shoulders of the rest of the staff. So I think you have dedication from this
board that we want to help you through this. Thank you. I'm sure they will appreciate
hearing that as well. And so, so maybe it's necessary for the press release um as
talked about here today too. Great. Thank you, emphasizing what is what will still
be happening in the department while it is closed and removing the language about
the one week closure do for training but, but planting a seed that there might be
more of this as we onboard new employees. Ok, great. Thank you. Great. Ok. Well,
we will move on slightly belatedly to our 11 15 agenda items. Please stay with us.
Uh Director Butler as we discuss the the Sea Pacer program. I don't know if Stacy
Prada and Jeff Chapman are in the audience, but please bring them over. They are
going to chime in, they're gonna join us uh remotely and I do have a Power Point
and I was hoping Sarah might be able to bring that up and if there's a AAA potential
for just a few minute bio break, I'll be right back. Uh
Sure. Yeah. We'll, we'll recess for, for four minutes to 11 27. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Josh. Recording stop. I can, I can shake hands. All right, everyone. I will
call us back into session and we are going to dive into our. It's me again.
That's right. Um All right. So we're going to uh welcome back, Brent Butler as well
as our assessor Chapman and Treasurer Prada to talk about the Sea Pacer program.
Very um good attachment to the agenda. Really uh kind of clued us into what this
is about. But uh Brent, are you going to tee this off? You're being to Brent.
Yes, I'll tee it up. Um um So do you wanna run the power point or shall I
the power point? That was just on the agenda request. Where is it? Um We sent it
to the um to the um it wasn't in the agenda request, but it really essentially just
covers all of the topics that are in the agenda request and you send it to mark because
he's not here. Oh, to Sarah and um Carolyn. Yeah.
Ok. But I can, I can work without it. Uh Can I ask while they're looking for that?
Can I ask a question about this program? So, recently you hired a planner to support
the C Pacer program, correct? That's correct. And did I see that that planner is
also one of the staff that left D CD, right? He was uh it was anticipated that he
would be with us for 3 to 5 months. And so those that tenure had we were pushing
him to stay a little longer. But um he got all of the materials done and he returned
all of it to us and we also have it all available on the website. Ok, great, thanks.
Ok, I found the uh
Oh, yeah, go ahead and
you want to share it, sir. Shall I share? Yes, please? Oh, there it is. Where do
I share my screen? The green button on the zoom screen and then it'll pro if you
have it up, it'll show you what screens you have and you just choose the one with
that power point on it
and then the bottom, right, the little screen. Yeah, you got it. Cool. All right.
Take it away, Brent Brent. Well, thank you. Um uh as you know, um I just wanted to
um uh introduce the, um my co presenters, um uh Brent Butler, the director for D
CD.
I'm accompanied by Stacy Prada, the Jefferson County uh treasurer and by Jeff Chapman
of the Jefferson County assessor. And, and why we are joined on this is because it
does have um uh interaction with um the other departments or offices of the county.
Um and they've been providing um uh good counsel and support and uh uh really good
questions to help improve the program and ensure the outcomes that are generated.
Meet the community's needs. So, um I wanted to point out that uh on our agenda we're
gonna talk about, well, what is uh C Pacer for those of you that are unfamiliar,
what actions have been taken to date? And then I have a list of five questions to
consider and then um and summation the next steps.
Mhm If we go to the next slide, um I'm gonna share the background. So um commercial
property assess clean energy and resiliency. It's really important to note that this
was an act um adopted uh by the state legislature uh R C W 36.165.
And it's a voluntary statewide program. And as I indicated in the uh agenda packet,
uh um um our assessor received uh several um comments from the community and, and
Jeff, can you share the, the nature of those comments? Well, I think we received
22 requests to implement a CPA A program. Um One with Bayside housing and,
and one with Hastings, you know, and the idea was that uh they, they see value in
implementing Ac Pacer program in each county. And um and Kits Bank is one of the
main supporters for C Pacer uh event. All originally, excuse me, the idea was that
the Department of Commerce would manage Sea Pacer statewide and it was an option
for them and they evaluated it and said no, they, they would prefer not to do it.
That would be done at the county level. This of course, puts a lot of work on counties
if they want to have a CPA program so far. Three or four counties. Well, five counties,
I believe at this point and they're all large counties have implemented a program.
The latest being Snohomish. So you have, and, and, and Thurston and
King that have implemented this and they've started to take applications, their applications
are on like $20 million projects. So they're on very large commercial and multi housing
projects. Most small counties hadn't done it but, but there is a value in doing this.
So we're one of the first of the smaller counties to look into doing it in response
to the request we've had.
And, and I wanted just to highlight those two um um organizations that reached out
to the assessor. Uh Jeff. Um one of them is fulfilling a pretty significant community
need. Uh They want to use the program for the Port Padlock uh motel. Um And that's
gonna be an affordable housing project and they see that uh with the increase of
interest rates that will facilitate that their development. Um Now the other um person
or, or organization that contacted the assessor, um they have a building uh listed
on the Department of Archaeology. The historic preservation is a building that's
threatening. Um uh When I say that, I mean, there are historic assets throughout
our accounting um And in our state um when a historic asset is
threatened with potential loss or there, there isn't sufficient um um ability for
the property owners to, to preserve that it ends up, it ends up on a list of those
heritage structures that are threatening. And, um, and the second party um is the
owner of one of those buildings. If my, if I understand correct, that's been designated
as a Treasury in the State of Washington. And it is threatening and, and in highlighting
that I would point out that we have quite a few heritage barns that have also been
lost over the years. And so, um, this might be a way to preserve uh, some of those
significant, uh, heritage barns as well. So, um, and, um, just, uh, Stacy, anything
you'd like to add,
um, I guess just, uh, I appreciate being included. I don't see, um, the treasurer
having a large duty and that significantly because the treasurer's association,
um, was very active during the adoption of the legislation. It originally was
intended that the treasurer would be foreclosing on these properties for nonpayment.
So we did get it legislatively in there that it would not occur. Um, I do have a
question to our prosecuting attorney's office just to consider the potential impacts
if this program is, um, uh, adopted by ordinance, which would be this next step.
Um, whether the second priority lien, um, could become an issue if a property sold
it foreclosure and became tax title you know, you could have um, somewhat of a, a
valuable asset that costs a lot to maintain. And so I just want to make sure that's
covered as we go through the ordinance. Um It's frankly, it's just a very odd
program because, um, this could be done already uh individually with private
lenders. Um Really the only benefit I see to them right now is they are a second
priority lien only second to like property taxes. So above everyone else. And
so, um they do have that benefit for the, the lenders to ensure that they'll get
paid back. But this is probably a lot beyond what uh Brent was expecting me to bring
up. But uh that's just a question I have. So I do understand that um you know, it's
a very unique to each property and whether it's financial, financially doable, I
mean, these aren't going to, you know, deal with operations and business practices.
It's basically energy efficiency, infrastructure for these buildings and getting
a loan that they have to pay back. So, and I, I would add from, from our end is,
is the question is why is the county involved in this? And what is the county's responsibility
and what it is is basically an engineer submits the proposal and then the county
uh approves of whether it complies with the CPA rules and whether the energy efficiency
is there. So you do need someone professional on staff to evaluate the submittal
and give it approval. And that's why it's often found in community development or
building because they have the expertise on that. And I I would also add that one
of the shortcomings of the commercial um uh lending market is that uh most commercial
properties, if not all of them are have to be typically, you'll have a um a 20 year
or so amortization, but that you have the 10 year requirement to refinance. And
if my understanding is correctly, that affects all properties uh that are commercial.
And so the CS A program allows you to advertise um those improvements over
40 years. Um And so there's a significant reduction in
cost for the developer um in the life of that asset. So that is one of the, the really
one of the biggest changes I see that is beneficial to commercial property
developers. And, and as you see, we've listed some of the types of projects, energy,
water efficiency, electrification improvement. So if you're putting in on an existing
building, retrofitting it to accommodate the new advent of our electric cars,
this would be coming up if in fact, you're going to be putting um photovoltaic arrays,
it'll also be color covered. If you are um doing um improvements which are among
the most costly improvements for our historic downtown would be seismic upgrades.
I'm not sure if there's been a presentation on that in the past, but there's pretty
critical work done. I think that the structural hardening often can cost
upwards of 50% of some of the structures costs. So that is a really big win, especially
given the fact that this program is enacted not only in the county but also within
the city and then, um it does address some of the fire detection and suppression
flood readiness. Um And so there are different areas that a property owner, commercial
property owner and many of our commercial property owners do struggle um that they
would have the ability to refinance at less of a cost. So I'm gonna move on to the
next slide.
So where are we, what have we done? So, um we hired um what was a climate cop
fellow uh who was also working with Kits Bank as the Sea Pacer Specialist. Um He
reviewed um range of forms across the region, um developed all of our
forms. Would you have them now available on the website? And um we also um have
participated in discussions with implementing counties. Uh for example, uh uh Jeff
uh joined um the Pacer Specialist and myself uh in discussions about the program
in Wat County and also in um Pierce County. So we got a better understanding of
what is, what does it take to administer a program like this? And what are some of
the, the issues we also looked at the funding. And so, um after this discussion,
we came up with the group of and I move on to the next slide
questions to consider. And so I thought we would go through the questions uh that
we'd like to just uh share with the board. We, we move on to the first question.
We talk about time frame too just since we do have a hard stop. Sure. We just uh
Brent, uh we've got folks that have to go to a bunch of meetings. So we do have a
hard stop at 12. So wondering is that, are we, are we gonna have to push this to
after our 1 30 meeting as well? I, I think we should be able to go. Uh We'll see,
we'll see how we go, we'll move ahead. So question one, how we deal with program
administration. Um And so, uh what we did find in the city of or uh Waco County is
that the executive signs the document, meaning um that, excuse me, I, I refer to
program administration. I lost my tempo here for a second. So when I say program
administration, um the different approaches are, and I really want to thank uh um
the office of the assessor recently for proposing an idea. We had thought that we
might be able to do an R F P and reach out specifically to um the title companies
and some of the nonprofits to administer it such as Teen E DC. But then there's another
approach that uh um uh Jeff shared. Why don't you go ahead, Jeff and, and uh share
what you were recommending. Well, my, my point was that when we talk to the, the
various counties that are doing this and these are very large counties, they're getting
like one or two applications a year. And so you're going ok. So we'll implement this
pro this pro you know, this process, the CPA A program and then we'll try to get
a, a staffer up to speed on managing it and they're going to do it for maybe one
applicant a year. And so they have to stay up to speed. Now, my thought is if you've
got six or seven large counties doing this and they're all communicating among them,
they have their own team that's working on a cross county team. Maybe one of them
will take on Jefferson County so that the couple of applications that we can expect
to get within three or four years that they could handle it for us and we could do
our local agreement with another county to handle our applications because really,
we're out of other than approving the process and then recording it in our county,
we really don't have much to do with it after that point.
So, and, and typically, and I and I did write with the board authorized, typically
we come to the board with the response to an R F P. Um And so the approach that we're
thinking of is one is the R F P approach. And then two is the I A Intergovernmental
Agreement approach so that we would have another government that's already involved
in the sea facing program um administer it. I think that would be the best line of
the best approach is that we get another government to participate and to do it.
And then second to that, um we would go out if we were unsuccessful and see if there
were local nonprofits or title companies that would be interested in. That sounds
reasonable to me. Yeah, I agree. I think we've, we've got similar contracts for everything
from epidemiologists to, you know, administrative costs of other grants and nurse
family practitioners. So that's, that's very, that's a reasonable suggestion. Thanks
Jeff.
And if there are no other questions, we'll move on to the next one. Um Heidi, go
ahead. I'm just wondering based on the presentation we just had, are there any compa
capacity considerations with this program? Like any, if we manage it ourselves? There
certainly is. Right. Right. And, and I thank you for that question. And so what I've
been trying to do is to um implement it um with the least impact on capacity. Um
So we would have a fee uh so that most of the capacity is to get it out the door
and running. Um or most of the, the time is, is in that component. And so um where
we are is we've gotten most of the work done and now we're at the final phase of,
of recruiting someone to administer it and we figured this would be the least impactful
uh on the department.
I'm curious about cost brant, what is the cost or do we know what the cost of his
administering the program? Yeah. So, so the program is typically done and, um,
and this is based on conversations with several other, they have a program fee which
is typically 1% not to exceed $15,000. Some governments
require that there be a minimum of 1500 or 2500. Um
based upon the discussions that I've had, there should be an application fee to cover
the costs of submittal and review of that submittal. And then there should be
additionally, two reviews covered by that and then an additional cost if there's
a third review of the submittal and then um the next big cost comes in with um the
closing documents. And, and so at that point, um the recoverable cost would be
essentially what it takes to review those documents up to a maximum of 15,000. And
so my review or discussion with other governments said that some of the reviews have
been as short as an hour and, and the most extensive was 10 hours. And that government
suggested that they should have put potentially a a fee associated with additional
reviews. And so that's why we added that third review fee.
I would add a number of counties have a $500 application fee. The home county is
just implementing theirs with a 32 $100 application fee supposed to cover the cost
of the application process. And then if it moves forward the project moves forward,
that's when it gets to 1% charge. And some counties have a minimum of 2500 which
is a $250,000 project. You're probably not going to get too many c commercial Sea
Pacers for less than that. A lot of them are at the high end, you know, a $1.5 million
project, then you've got a $15,000 charge and that's usually the limit. So if it's
a million and a half project or above, they've been charging 15,000.
Well, yeah. Hm. All right. Let's go on to question number two and I'll just, just
in, in the interest of time, I think, I don't know. No, no minimum building size,
everyone. Ok. With that, the analysis was pretty clear that that would just create
obstacles, you know, create barriers for what we're gonna get to two applications.
Yeah. So we're, we're already down with that. No minimum building size, but go ahead,
Brent. Thank you. And the other area was ground. Uh I think that's great to include
ground leases so that, uh, any of the land trusts, if they have a property, they
can refinance it through this vehicle. Also, the tribes a lot of the land on, on,
on, on in the reservation that we have um isn't owned by the party that is uh owner
of the land of the building. So this would enable that vehicle as well. I don't have
a problem with ground leases.
Great, great. So, move on to the next question. How many more questions do we have?
Sorry, we have, we have, ok, we have public comment also for this item. OK. And so
the last, this question here has to do with timelines. Um I would need to verify
that we are able to adjust them by the act. I didn't have time to review that, but
it's 15 days is which business days? And I wanted to point that out 15 business days.
So three weeks is the amount of time from submittal to approval. Um Whoever the program
administrator would be, I would like to have a discussion to determine its sufficiency.
I think we're happy to, to consider that as we move through it. Right. It's premature.
But yeah, I think we want to be reasonable about the approval times to make sure
that we can, can, you know, meet our level of service that we're setting, you know,
other thoughts. No, I'm I'm fine. I'm um considering a longer approval timeline if
it seems uh necessary. All right, slide into the questions.
Then the next question was the au authorized fee. We covered that a little bit. Um
I am, am, uh hesitant. I, I, I think, uh, um, the $2500 fee
may be a disincentive. And so what we've tried to do is to put it in a way that based
upon what we've heard that the, the fee covers two reviews and that if there's an
additional review, a third review, then we'll charge for it. And so I think that's
more responsive. So that's what we're looking at is I think is the best approach
for the Brent, that was a $500 application fee and then a $500 1st review fee and
$500 2nd review fee. Is that how your $500 review fee covers the 1st and 2nd review
and then looking at $250 for the third review, so considerably less than the 2500
is what you're anticipating right now. That's correct. But we might wanna if, if
we find that the practice says that we need more time for review, we might wanna
increase that, but based upon what I've heard so far, the greatest level of time
was 10 hours. Um and so that might that might uh but they didn't have any um
uh supplemental fee and so we might want to increase the supplemental fee. So I'm
gonna look at that and I might wanna revise that supplemental fee. Ok. Sounds like
that's not a fully fleshed out recommendation yet. So, you know, proceed. Mhm. Yep.
I generally like the, the three fee structure. That's most fair. Go, no go points
that they can always back out if they want without being fully committed. I like
it. Good, good, good.
And then the final question is who should sign the form? And so, uh, if we could
move on? Yeah. Um, and so what we've seen, uh, the executive or essentially the county
administrative, Watkin County signs the form um, after it's been reviewed and approved
by the responsible Department. Uh Luckily Mark is not here right now so we can volunteer
him without any objections. I think. No, I, I think we should have a conversation
with Mark before, but that's again, as the process goes through. Right. We're still,
I mean, if we would this still be the same question if we were able to, uh, join
into an I L A with, with another county for them to administer for, on our behalf?
I think, um, you know, that's a good question. I think that if another county um
approved it, it would, um, or, or did all the due diligence, um I think it still
should be, would be, should be approved by the local government. Go ahead. Stay safe.
Hm. I, I don't know if this is correct, but as I look through it, we still need to
adopt the ordinance locally. Today's the question is whether to hire or to put out
an R F P to administer the program. So, like on the web page, it says that it's estimated
to be adopted in, you know, August 2023. So I think there's still time to actually
deal with how the program is going to exist in our county.
Am I mistaken, Brent? No, you're absolutely correct. Ok. We put in a little twist
with the I L A. So we would look first to see if we can do the I L A um and in a
local agreement with another government and then um if we're unsuccessful, we'd go
out with. Also, if you're going to do it with another government, they're not going
to do it for $500. I mean, they're gonna want their fee schedule to apply to the
program, the project here and they would get them the cost of, of, of managing that.
Right. And because you're looking at all the other counties that have implemented
our way over that for their projects. So, um that's something to be considered
and it sounds like even the recommendation that was on the agenda item is kind of
outdated since we, you know, whether it's an R F P, we really want to just authorize
the county administrator to investigate options. Really? Right. I'm not sure if we
need action for that. Do we not at this point come?
Um Yeah, I think to um identify or at least flesh out the, any more administrative
or budgetary impacts. Yeah, I mean, that's what my question was kind of getting at
it.
What's this gonna cost us? Well, and it, it is, there is a capacity issue. Um it,
it will take time and, and some body. So even in the administration of it, that,
that takes hours. Ok. Well, it sounds like we don't need to take a lot of action.
There's still a little bit of development on whether it's an I L A or an R F P. We
know that we need some outside help to, to support this program that we want to move
forward with the program. So I, I think why don't we open up for public comment real
quick? See if we get any other insight and we'll um basically, I think after that
generally encourage the county administrator to, to take us a little further down
this path right along with this team. Let's
ok. So I will open uh for public comment if you're with us and you'd like to comment
on the C Pacer program. We'd love to hear from you. You can have up to three minutes.
You can uh click the raise hand button or star nine.
Oh, right. I don't, I'm gonna make one more call. Oh, we have someone. Why don't
we bring uh Mr Kennedy over?
Sure. Should I do a new share? Uh You can just stop the share. Yeah. Hello?
Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, I am the C Pacer specialist. Who was
helping Brent and, and Jeff uh think through this process, and Jeff made a good point.
Um You know, if you're gonna shop out the administrative duties, then you're not
really in a position to dictate um the fee structure. Uh And, you know, you were
talking about the amount of projects that might be interested in pursuing c pace
financing. Um You know, I, I think our conversations aren't really indicative of
what the future is gonna be. There's only been a smattering of projects so far, but
as new regulations uh come binding under the clean building performance standard
and as a general awareness of CPA financing percolates within the market, uh you
know, hopefully there's a big uptick across the state. I recognize that Jefferson
County is a smaller county with relatively smaller properties but uh you know, ideally
hundreds and hundreds and thousands of properties are pursuing CPA financing in a
few years. Great. Thank you for that that broader lens, John. Mhm. Any other
comments on that? No, but those were good, good additional information comments.
Thanks John.
Ok. Well, I I think we will know action is needed unless sprint indicate otherwise
if if you if you feel that we need to take some action today, but it sounds like
we'll just keep on this path and, and appreciate the insight and the analysis and
development of the program so far. We've got some time before August still. So we'll
talk in the next week or two with county administrator mccauley back as well about
which path we want to pursue first. But appreciate Stacey and Jeff, your insight
into this, really helpful and, and it's good to have knowledgeable questions. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm glad that um it's moving forward and I, I know that it does require some
time and staff time and effort. But um I think it's a good tool. Um You know, we
already have a couple of important projects interested in utilizing it. So um it'd
be great to get it across the finish line. Great. OK. And we got, oh, sorry, Jeff.
Um we've got some hard outs uh at 12. So I am going to recess us until 1 30. We,
when we have a scheduled presentation from our solid waste manager. So we'll see
everyone back here at 1 30. We'll recess until then. Thanks everyone for being here.
Good to see everyone.