The snow. No, I, is there no snow? I don't know it was in middle school. I don't,
I don't know. I'll send my kids off all week. Oh, is it? It's midwinter break. I'll
send a message. It's midwinter break.
Ok. Good morning. Everyone. I will call this meeting of the board of county commissioners
regular meeting into order. Good morning. Um, Commissioner Dean is in
Boston, I believe, and I'm not sure if she'll join us. So we will just, uh, get started.
We have a fairly light agenda today. Probably we'll be able to adjourn by noon. Um,
and, but some important stuff coming up. So first up, as always, we will open it
up for public comments. We've got some folks in the room and anyone online you can
hit the raise hand button or Star Nine and we'll start with the room. Anyone would
like to make public comment today.
Ok. Yeah. Sure. Well, um, I'm not sure we're getting her or not. I think I feel like
she, she asked me to chair because she had a conflict. Like they, they're going to
visit colleges, I think. And they might be out of college. Right now. So, um,
I, I guess I'll, I'll turn first online. Anyone online that would like to make public
comment and hit Raise Hand Star Nine if you're on the phone, love to hear from you.
All right. Come on up, Maggie. Good to see you.
Ok. Today I wanna talk about media bias. Uh, there's, they say there's seven forms
of media bias. I wanna talk about, um, a couple of them. The first one is exclusion.
Uh Eric Fenzi did a piece uh on KPTZ uh
local news on Harold uh about his band being towed by uh the
city or the transit uh people. And um he left out the fact to the listener
that he did not interview Harold even though uh it was cleared by Harold's lawyer
and Harold himself uh for uh Derek to interview him. Um
So I want people to know that Derek did have an opportunity to interview Harold and
he chose not to. The other was the misrepresentation of the disposition of Harold's
van. It was not over by Kaai Park. It was uh in the middle of the
transit parking lot in front of uh the disabled portable bathroom,
which is a disgusting, filthy thing that you would never wanna touch, but he needed
to be close to it because he's a 77 year old man with mobility issues. And so
it, he, he had it parked in front of there and there are no trees around there. It's
right in the middle of the parking lot and he, uh, the rep reporting said
that the car was near trees blocking an access way ta park, which is not true.
So, um, uh, I wanna get that out of the way. The other thing I wanna bring to people's
attentions is April 22nd. The Supreme Court of the United States is going
to cover the grants pass case of whether or not it is cruel and unusual
punishment. The eighth amendment to jail and find people who, uh, sleep on
public property, uh, because they have no housing and no shelter and, uh,
shelter can be, uh, put in quotes because if you, uh, think about shelter might be
available but it might be dangerous or it might be a sanitation hazard. Uh, so, uh,
many people avoid shelters because, uh, they could be picked on or targeted in shelters.
Um, so, uh, if, if they're elderly disabled LGBT Q, um, you, you have
disabled, uh, people and domestic violence victims that are in with, with other people
who are formerly incarcerated, uh, criminals. So, um, do I need to wrap it up?
Ok. So April 22nd is the Supreme Court, uh, trial or for that? Thank you very
much. Thank you, Maggie. All right. Come on Michelle Walter. Yeah, I, I don't think
we're gonna have Commissioner Dean. I'm Marilyn Showalter from Shine Road. I'm sorry,
Commissioner Dean isn't here, but I hope she's enjoying Boston. I just this morning
completed a 23 page single space questionnaire on my four undergraduate years at
Harvard. So if she is going there, I wish her well. Um I want to address two issues.
The, the first is the one that commissioner Dean raised a couple, uh, responded to
a couple of weeks ago on asking the shellfish industry for uh their federal permit
information. And she was pleased that both they and we seem to be headed that direction,
but they were different proposals. And as Josh Peters pointed out, the shellfish
industry was saying, if we need to apply for a conditional use permit, then we would
like to be able to submit our federal permit information as part of it. That's totally
unnecessary to put in the new S MP because it's already there. Um Explicitly, I was
asking that this information be required of everybody so that we know what's happening,
it's public information, it's easily available. Um But then Mr Peters raised the
question of enforcement of it. What if they don't submit this information? I don't
think it's a very serious issue. Um although I'm not the one to ultimately judge,
but I believe there are fewer than 10 or 12 shellfish operators in Jefferson County.
Uh Moreover, uh it is a condition of federal permits that you require with the laws
of the local and state authorities. So if this were a requirement that you impose,
I think they would be probably happy, the shellfish industry would be happy to, to
comply with it because if they didn't, they'd be failing their federal permit. This
is a, this is not a big ask for this information and it's important information.
The second, uh, question that was raised is, uh, what under what conditions can existing
non Guida Shell Fishers, uh expand or change, um, equipment
without coming in for a permit, the, they already have no permit. So the, so the,
the more I thought of it, the, the current law says you can expand by 25% or convert
equipment by 25% without coming in for a permit. The more I thought about it, the
more I think that was not a very good idea to begin with. Um But certainly now, uh
they've had 10 years to expand, convert whatever they're gonna do. And it seems to
me from now on if they are going to expand uh or convert with, with the introduction
of mechanical equipment or new rebar iron or metal or plastic, then there should
be a requirement to come in and get a permit. Otherwise you don't know what they're
doing. You don't know if they are expanding into an estuary. For example, we need
to know this information and evaluate it. Thank you. Thank you, Michel.
Ok. Uh Gordon, come on up, spend half my life with garden now
between the MRC and that
according to my wife that doesn't make you lucky.
I have a picture with the latest permit thing on it. I'm Gordon King still of Bell
Street, Port Townsend. Yesterday I opened the latest county iteration of the draft
S MP update. I see that four cups are a special kind of hell reserved solely for
most forms of good aquaculture. If you look at the pitting tables on page 65 through
70 you'll see that the near shore activities such as boat launches, docks, piers,
marinas, dredging, dredging disposal, filling and excavation, shoreline armoring
and port development amongst others need only a straight permit through to discretionary
cup. Apparently, the county and a small group of shoreline property owners do not
see these activities as being as significant a concern as a new or expanded Gooey
Duck Farm in 2020 as directed by the Department of Ecology, Jefferson County started
with the S MP update draft that had reasonable, had a reasonable approach to aquaculture.
By late 2021. After hearing inaccurate nimby claims about the impact of go duck farms.
The planning commission had converted this to the most restrictive permitting possible
after multiple meetings and many hours of deliberation, the planning commission s
somewhat to a moderately restrictive version of G DUC permitting. And now the board
of county commissioners has decided to make the new SNP permitting regulations twice
as restrictive as that as it was in late 2021. I find it hard to come up with an
objective science based rationale for the county's position. The county has the oldest
median age of any in the state which is over 60 years old. This demographic who by
and large are retired apparently are the people that matter? The update as written
will prevent young shellfish farmers from expanding into a rewarding form of shellfish
aquaculture because the financial barrier of hosting a full cup with a public meeting
will be too high. Large companies such as the one I work for will still be able to
afford the process. If it is implemented. As written, I must congratulate the shoreline
property owners on their win for shoreline property rights over renewable food production
and an avenue for working families to succeed in an enterprise of their own. I can
only hope that one day the real and already known ecological damage caused by removing
vegetation, building roads, boat launches and houses along the shoreline and as exists
in the shine neighborhood will finally be admitted, an action taken to mitigate this
continuing harm. I understand where the shine residents are coming from. Ie trying
to look after what they see as their self-interest. But at this point, I'm very disappointed
in Jefferson County leadership. The shell shellfish industry presented them with
information backed by scientific research and instead they chose to believe unsupported
and accurate opinion from Antiguo Farm, waterfront property owners. Thank you. Thank
you Mr King. Ok. Um We still have 16 minutes left or a little more for public comments
and we'll respond to all public comments after we receive them all, anyone online
that would like to make public comments today, you can hit the raise hand button
or star nine if you're on the phone to make a comment on any topic for up to three
minutes. Love to hear from you. See, no hands raised. Uh We pause and, and
respond to the three public comments we've received to date. Um Oh, thank you.
You have three of them. Thanks. All right. Well, give us one for, for Kate too,
uh, at his sleep on. Yeah.
Um, all right, Heidi, any, uh, responses
scene?
I don't, you know, I appreciate the additional information about Harold's van and
I, I trust Greg was holding the football on that issue. And so I look forward to
hearing an update from him on that, but, you know, it's, it, um, confounds me that
we get different versions of stories from different people. And so I'm, yeah,
I'm not tracking this issue as closely as Commissioner Brotherton is, but I appreciate
you being here to bring additional facts to us each week, Maggie. And, um, we'll
look into some of this stuff myself and the Supreme court case sounds interesting.
I have very little time right now to focus on Supreme Court cases between county
business and, um, other things going on in my life. But, uh, I will look into that
because it sounds like a very interesting case is still facing the February 26th
court case. Ok.
Ok. And so then, um, on, on the SNP, I think next week we're gonna have an additional
discussion about the SNP issue. I find it interesting that, um, shoreline Armoring
doesn't require a conditional use permit. All the, all the uses that Gordon just,
um, listed off to us. So it, it is confounding that Gooey Duck is getting such a
magnifying glass on it. And I look forward to our continued conversation next week
about this issue because it feels like it's, it's, we've, we've decided it's special
for some reason in terms of the magnifying glass and I'm not exactly sure why, um,
it's getting so much scrutiny. So, um, let's see. Was there anything else? Oh,
all right. Um, I don't have a lot more to add. It's striking to hear that there's
media bias. We've never been the victims of that ourselves here. But, uh, I do, I
do believe you and I, I, you know, I, I'm gonna try to be at the, at the trial on
the 26th, you know. Um, don't, you know, we've connected you guys with, with counsel
and, and, um, there's not a lot that we can do at this point. It's really in, in
the, the legal system's hands but, um, appreciate you staying at it and continuing
to participate and, and there's a lot of other conversations that we need to have
in the near term about uh emergency shelters and, and dignity for, for the unhoused.
So I appreciate you being here Maggie uh, to the show, Walter and Mr King. I appreciate,
I think you guys are both really good spokespersons for very diverse perspectives.
I don't want to get into, uh, the ar both of these, all of these bits are, are good
fodder for the conversation. I think we're having it next week. Is that right?
Um So, yeah. Um I it's, it's, it's challenging.
Um II I think to your question, Heidi, if, if we duck aquaculture was less of an
eyesore, we probably would not be focused on it. So, I, I mean, I think it is really
about the uh aesthetics that, that bring it to the, to the point that it is um you
know, uh small, small business livelihood to, to some folks of the population and
uh you know, uh an environmental risk to others. And I, I think, yeah, that's, we
have the unenviable job about parsing where the line should be drawn. And so we will
continue to that conversation. Uh Next week I, I think I've made no secret. II I
tend towards less regulation for um economies, especially for, you know, those mom
and pop operations that are gonna have a harder time to get going. But I will continue
the conversation. Then I do appreciate everyone's perspectives. Uh And I'll turn
back to the to the zoom room to see if we have any other public comment this morning.
See anyone else? Well, we will leave public comment open until 930 as is our practice
and we can turn to the consent agenda.
Do you have any questions or concerns about the consent agenda? Relatively short
consent agenda today? Um Except for that huge notebook of um property
or you know, the the notebook of capital properties that's not even consent to General.
We're gonna deal with certification, right? Ok. Ok. Well, that was the biggest chunk
of paper this week. You read them all. No, I didn't. I do spot checking. That's my
um but I, I noticed the Snow Creek road culvert replacement. It's always just astounding
to me that those can be 11 and a third million dollar projects for a culvert. But
I know how important they are and um often uh related to fish, fish passage. I'm
not sure that this one is, but probably, yeah. Ok. Wait, this is may maybe not, maybe
this is a, I feel like it has to be. Right. Well, this one also had a lot of like
uh health and safety issues because when it's clogged it's, it's a half a mile from
my house. Yeah. No, it's uh I walked up there a lot when they were working on it.
Um, but I know that it caused, it caused real issues with uh drainage, you know,
got clogged up, it was undersized and failed underneath there. I think it is technically
a fish passage but it's, it, it, uh, exits 30 ft over the ground. I think so. It's
not, uh, oh, not, not a very effective one. Yeah, I think so. Um, so this might not
have been just pha dollars. And then the port had luck wastewater treatment plant
when we see these, what now feel like tiny, you know, an additional amount of 5000
for a $35,000 total contract. It's these amounts feel small. But the one thing I
wanted to bring up is that there's gonna be a number of um opportunities for the
public to get more details on the Port Hadlock Wastewater treatment project in the
near future. And um, there's gonna be one about, I think one or two meetings about
the actual project itself and then there's gonna be some um additional community
outreach meetings with uh interested landowners and developers about what uh uses
will be allowed once the phase one sewer is turned on the UG A overlay looks like.
So the question that we've seen in the newspaper and then I've been getting from
residents and that we've been talking about a little bit here is, you know, what's,
how that gonna look like in five years? And so those meetings are really about getting
at that question. Um So I'm looking forward to those and other than that, I don't
have anything to bring up about the consent agenda.
Yep. All good work. Happy to make a motion to approve the February 2020 24 consent
agenda. I will second um all in favor of approving and adopting the consent agenda
as presented, indicate by saying hi, I hi. All right, that business done. We'll turn
back to our zoom room and see if anyone else has public comment this morning. We
would love to hear from you. You can hit the raise hand button or star nine. If you're
on the phone,
you'll see no one. All right. Well, let's take a look at our agenda for the rest
of the morning and anytime you, you, you're cool. Thanks. Um So we will, we do have
to certify the annual inventory of the capitalized assets uh taking an oath to, to
validate what a lot of people have been working on for the last couple weeks. Um
We have our emergency management will present their work plan, I guess at, at 930
here. If I don't know, is uh is Willie in the Zoom room? Let me check Carolyn. All
right. And then we have uh the extension work plan timely with our, our consent agenda
item. And uh of course, we're going to hear a little bit about the quilting community
park, uh skate park site. Um And I guess really, we're just looking at the, the site
plan which involves a couple different projects. Ok. So, um
do you want? Well, yeah, it seems, I guess while we have folks here. Yeah, let's
bring Willie over and if we're ready to go, we're ready to go.
Good morning Mr Bentz. Hey, good morning, everyone. It's all you this morning. No,
Doctor Berry, taking your limelight or anything. I know. Right. And nothing but dem
so please. What I'm gonna do with myself with all the time. That's a joke. I have
a good presentation for you. So I'll go ahead and jump right into it. Yes, please.
Perfect. All right. So um to start off our 2024 work plan, um I did this in 2023
as well. I'm a little bit of a refresher. I'm always take a chance to share some
knowledge, spread some information. Um We base our organizational structure and most
of our organizational structures um here in dem based on the incident command system,
which is kind of the um language of first responders. So it's used by fire departments.
Um It's used by law enforcement agencies and it's used to manage disasters. Um Everything
from small single family fires, um all the way up to the large, you know, hurricane
Katrina, Superstorm, Sandy, um all that kind of stuff. Um So here in dem, we organize
ourselves around an incident command system model, kind of mirroring some of the
same positions you'd see in I CS. Um You have me at the top as the dem director,
we have four grant funded clerk hires, um all designated by an asterisk on our organizational
structure. Um Kepi Keplinger is our public information officer as well as our deputy
director. Um Dave Codi serves as our EOC operations lead. He basically works um in
operations um working with first response groups, other volunteer groups and is really
um partially responsible for the overall readiness of the EOC. Um Bradley Brooks
is the newest member of DEM. He is our planning coordinator. Um He helps facilitate
a lot of the planning activities in Dem. Um John Ebner is actually the longest tenured
member of Dem. Um He's our logistics and facilities coordinator. Um And finally,
last but not least our admin um and grant coordinator, um that position is currently
vacant. Um That is the only other full time position um here in Dem. So we are accepting
um applications for that position. So now is the good as time as any um to uh throw
that out there. We're, we're still looking for qualified candidates. Um That position
helps um run our volunteer programs um on the administrative side as well as um work
with me and some of our grant um administration all in all as you all know, dem primarily
responsible for um assisting in making Jefferson County a more prepared and resilient
community um through preparedness and outreach and education um and as well as disaster
response and recovery. So that's where DEM stands as of, right. Now, um our theme
for 2023 was back to basics um really focusing in on some of the fundamentals that
we had lost during the COVID-19 response. And that was where the emergency operation
center was at least activated virtually for a period of about three years. Um So
were there a lot of things that we were unable to focus on? And while all of our
resources were pretty much exclusively focused on um on that disaster on that global
pandemic response. Um Some of the things we accomplished in 2023 we updated our badgering
and credentialing standards and implemented a volunteer management database to make
our volunteer um experience all that much more better, a little bit modernized and
a little bit more streamlined. Um Dave Coe and all his work with our vaccine operations
during COVID had built a lot of relationships with the medical community and built
a cadre of medical volunteers. Um So we then leverage that into um a fe a approval
for an organization called the Medical Reserve Corps. They also got some grant funding
um to assist with their um work in that realm. Um We revamped our in prep programming
as our um neighborhoods a lot had been dormant um throughout the pandemic and focused
on some um new um outreach mechanisms for them, held a tabletop exercise, um held
a pres Summer Heat Summit to talk about issues as it relates to extreme heat and
smoke I have been working a lot with environmental public health. We've been doing
a lot of good work um on extreme weather response. Um We had our first cert training,
our community emergency response training, uncompleted. Um Our first since COVID,
we actually had AAA cadre of trainees who their training was paused in March of 2020
as COVID took place. And so we were able to finally about three years later, wrap
that training up with them. I better late than never. We had our COVID volunteer
appreciation event integrated a program called Critical Incident Stress Management,
which is peer support for first responders. We integrated that under dem um we had
a series of trainings during the great shakeout week. It had about 100 people trained
during that week of activities. And then finally, we had an EOC activation and actually
for the first time activated the wireless emergency alert system um in support of
the evacuation for the Beaver Valley fire. So a pretty busy year for us in 2023 on
the theme for 2024 we've taken a concept um from um emergency management, especially
around exercise, evaluation um and improvement planning. It's often just called poetic.
It's an acronym that stands for planning, organization, equipment, training and exercise.
I mean, there are five distinct categories that you um can focus in on to build capacity
um and build improvements into your emergency management organization. And for us,
we're really focusing on the first two of that list, planning and organization. So
those are our overarching themes um for 2024. Um in the planning realm, we have two
major planning initiatives coming down the pipeline. Um This is a little bit of review
for you. Um If uh for our commissioners who are at the Intergovernmental um Collaboration
Group, um might be a review for if you any of you watched that um meeting online.
But our two major planning initiatives on the first of which is our CE MP or our
Comprehensive Emergency management plan and this is the overarching disaster response
plan. Um For the county, this um determines our roles and responsibilities, the who's
doing what um in terms of uh disaster response, large and small. Um I joked during
that IGC meeting that our first order of business on that was changing the cover
picture. Um The previous planning coordinator who worked on this wanted to put a
picture of the Hood Canal bridge. And as you can see, this has four lanes, the Hood
Canal bridge only has two. Um So that was a some pretty low hanging fruit for us
um to swap that cover out and begin the planning process there. Um For folks watching
this um at home, you can view this plan, it's on our website under the library um
or at the following link
um to get started on this, the emergency management division reviews all of the um
State CE MP S. Um we barely scraped over the threshold in terms of approval back
in 2018, there have been some new requirements. So, whereas we previously scored
66% we're now at about a 44% in terms of the three tiers um of legal requirements.
And so we have some work to do um to bump that back up and focus on a few key, few
key areas, what we've done so far on that, um We've established some EOC conditions
which are activation levels and triggers. So when and how we activate the EOC um
we've started work on our um communications section, started working on our health
and medical section. Um Some larger work on our um collaboration and communication
section specifically around amateur radio and are starting to review roles and responsibilities.
Um Throughout the remainder of the year on this plan, we're doing individual outreach
to all 21 of what's called our emergency support functions. Um So these are functional
disaster response areas like law enforcement, like firefighting, like hazardous materials
and search and rescue going one by one and getting their feedback and ensuring their
comfort with the plan as it stands. We're going to review our deficiencies from the
most recent checklist and one of the bigger um projects is to work with the city.
I'm on improving the areas of the plan that talk about the coordinations between
the city and the county as in the past, that was a little bit uh fake. And we hope
to have all this outreach done now through August. So in September, we get it back
to the state for their review and some socialization on a broader level with the
community and our partners. And then finally, October through Deem December, make
our final changes and actually adopt this plan by the end of the year when it's due.
The other major planning initiative is something called a Leps C or LE PC, which
stands for a local emergency planning committee. Um This is something that's established
um by the Washington Administrative Code. Um They're tasked with reviewing local
inventories of hazardous materials um under the EPA S community right to know Act
and then developing a response plan based on the inventories of hazardous materials
um in the community um due to our relatively low hazardous materials um stock in
the county and therefore our, our risk. Um We've never actually had one of these
local emergency planning committees in place. Um So right now, we are targeting um
a late quarter to um initial meeting to establish that committee and start reviewing
a plan um that we have um working on the state Emergency Management division with
quarter three. I'm actually conduct a review of that plan and suggest some changes
and then quarter four, adopt that plan and actually have our first um promulgated
hazardous materials plan for Jefferson County. This is something for the general
public. Um public participation is really essential. Um This is in your right. Um
And your ability to see what kind of hazardous materials are being stored um in Jefferson
County. So there will be a pretty broad public outreach component of this as well.
So, excited to finally get this up and running, it'll also take a lot of work with
our response partners like our local fire departments, as well as the vendors and
the organizations who, who store and utilize hazardous materials. Um So that outreach
will be um happen happening relatively shortly on that. Those are our two primary
um planning projects over the course of the year. Um In terms of organization, we're
focusing quite a bit um on our volunteer organizations which, you know, you saw our
organizational structure earlier, we have 3.6 FTEs two full time staff and then a
couple part timers. The vast majority of our work is done through our volunteer organizations
in bringing up the COVID-19 response. We had um about 450 community volunteers who
participated in our vaccine program and, and other work distributing masks, um et
cetera, et cetera. So we partner with a number of different volunteer programs under
our purview um to go out and help prepare the community. Um But as these volunteer
programs have matured a little bit, become a little bit more complex and advanced
and taken on more work. Um It's been more difficult to um administer these programs
and actually provide them the support that they need. So, on the organizational front,
right now, we're working in exploring some options to actually um reorganize how
our volunteer programs are set up at this point in time. Um We're working on setting
up a volunteer, working in coordinating group um to better kind of streamline resources
around um recruitment, training and administration. A lot of responsibilities. All
these volunteer groups share um coordinate planning around the in prep on the new
emergency hub concept, which are um gathering points that some of our um neighborhoods
are starting to put together and train on. Um and really consolidate resources around
outreach and public education. So each and every one of the volunteer groups that
you saw listed earlier um has a public outreach component to try to get folks to
prepare individually, you know, build kits, talk to their families, that kind of
stuff. Um But a lot of it is done um somewhat siloed. Um So we're looking at um allowing
them to plan and strategize and better coordinate how they reach out and how they
communicate with the public a little bit. And we're finishing that planning um up
in quarter one and are hoping for a broader public roll out um of a kind of a new
and improved overall uh volunteer organization under dem sometime in quarter two.
Um On top of that, each of our volunteer programs has been tasked with a number of
things. Um After kind of, again, everyone reestablished themselves, post COVID um
VC, which is our volunteer emergency Communications Group, um updating the communications
plan um for the CE MP as well as their EOC Protocol. Um They're doing some work on
our radio room in the OC to expand the amount of operators um that we can have at
any given time. So the amount of radio um uh operators to really expand capacity
and our communications ability there, I'm starting to pursue some more grants to
purchase equipment. Um We have a number of outdated pieces of equipment here in the
EOC that are long overdue. So we're, we're looking at that as well. Um They've established
a few new working groups and planning communities um committees um under their organization
and obviously working with those other volunteer groups, our Medical Reserve Corps,
pretty still the, the, the newest volunteer group um under dem doing a lot of training
on stock bleed on Narcan um hands only CPR and other disaster preparedness subjects
um as it relates to disaster medicine. Um And they're gonna continue to work on building
some supply caches. They actually just got approved for their second grant um to
purchase medical supplies and help build um disaster response um capacity um under
their organization under the community emergency response team, which is a F MA program
that teaches folks um how to use a fire extinguisher, um how to do light first aid,
light search and rescue, how to organize themselves post disaster. Um We're really
gonna be hitting the the training portion hard um of this, this year. Um Our first
c academy of the year actually started this past Saturday with 24 new recruits. So
excited to get that up and running. Um We're also gonna start looking at training
for um certain deployments. So other than just assisting their neighborhood after
a catastrophic disaster opportunities for local deployments to assist, you know,
law enforcement, maybe um uh working traffic control after an accident, uh maybe
assisting fire during long um firefighting responses with rehabilitation. There are
also opportunities for deployments um throughout the state and actually throughout
the nation under the new F MA program. So we looked at that pretty extensively last
year. Um did some um planning and some research for that and are ready to start training
folks up to those levels to actually allow them to assist their um their nation potentially
um as a cert volunteer. Um We also had a big kickoff meeting last month to recruit
leadership volunteers. Um Right now, we just have two volunteer program managers.
Um So we started working on expanding our capacity um and running this program there
as well.
Um In prep as always, the All County Picnic will be back this year in August. And
we had our first planning meeting for that even though it's a number of months away.
And we're excited to hopefully offer some expand on our programming last year, but
offer some new and exciting things. And they're looking at starting neighborhood
trainings, um pursue some grants and some opportunities themselves to build some
supply caches. Um And they've done a lot of work to revamp their meeting structure,
engage some new leadership volunteers um to be a little bit more deliberate, um a
little bit more um advanced in their planning and organization themselves since again,
um in prep wonderful program, well, over 100 organized neighborhoods, but a lot of
work that hadn't been done on that took a step back during COVID. So I really feel
that in prep is back and better than ever. Um Not to mention the new hub concept
they're working with, I'll be rolling out as they resume a lot of trainings this
year. The question on that Willie Absolutely. Um Who, who are they? Is there a, a
board of directors of in prep? I kind of always assumed it was uh you guys helping
set up the hubs and then just neighborhoods, you know, maybe finding a neighborhood
leader that's coordinating their neighborhood. So can you dig into the architecture
a little bit? Yeah. So we have an in prep leadership meeting um once a month and
that's led by Deb Stenson, one of the founders of N prep, former mayor of Port Townsend,
and about 100 other things that she does um for this community um That group has
a number of neighborhood leaders um and folks who work alongside us in dem um to
plan the way forward for m prep on top of helping organize their own um their own
neighborhoods as well. Um That's open to anyone um who wants to get involved um beyond
their own neighborhood and kind of work with us on a programmatic level. Um But again,
just like a lot of things post COVID um interest waned a little bit, folks kind of
lost their direction. So um Deb's been working with a few of the leadership volunteers
um to identify um other leadership within the group to take on some, some smaller
projects um and help build that backup. So, um that's the, the second Tuesday of
every month if you're in an organized neighborhood and, and want to see um uh how
we work at a leadership level, want to get involved and, you know, especially help
out um always use more hands on deck at that leadership meeting um As well as at
the All County Picnic steering committee group. Um You know, Deb has served on that
for I think a dozen years now um as has Margaret Backer. Um Another one of our in
prep leadership volunteers. So um can always use fresh blood. But um yeah, regular
leadership meetings there. Thank you.
Um Dart is our disaster air response team. A series of um a number of private volunteer
pilots who help fly, um, small amounts of, um, you know, essential disaster supplies
in and out of disaster areas. Um, we'll have our next big exercise, um, on that this
summer and that has participation from a number of communities across Washington
across Oregon. I think we had a few come up from California as well in years past.
I mean, this is a, a really critical lifeline for us to be able to get disaster supplies
in and out when the bridge is down 101 might not be accessible. Um And our normal
um supply lifelines might be impacted. So we'll run that exercise, engage pilots
on that. Um This also features a lot of work from cer from in prep from V com and
our other volunteer groups. So excited to continue to exercise and work with Dart
Group um on a state level. Um I should add that this program um is really maturing
um on a state level as well. Um With the state working group that um our Dart program
manager um locally here. Um Laura Goth has been working on um to help write some
of the policy at a state level um for how Dart is operated. Um There's questions
about whether or not we can transport um you know, the the injured or the unwell
after a major earthquake. So we're working through some of that policy stuff um as
well for this to really help expand it. Um And hopefully build some capacity there,
some of the other projects throughout the course, as always the great shakeout. Um
It's the, the nation's largest earthquake drill that'll take place October 17th.
Um So 1017, at 10:17 a.m. we'll be doing some community outreach and some training
and some exercising. Here at the EOC last year, we had um a little bit over 100 attendees
over a week of training um to coincide with great shakeout, not to mention a number
of neighborhood exercises and outreach events over the course of that week. Um So
we look forward to doing um that again, getting more folks trained, building more
awareness and you know, most importantly, even if you just drop cover and hold on
for a minute and then go about your day building some muscle memory for a major earthquake.
Um We'll be holding our um kind of pres summer Coordinations summit in early May
as well as a pre winter Coordinations summit. I'm in a kind of a storm response discussion
in early November. Um We're gonna continue to work with ladders, who's the group
providing some evacuation modeling for the community wildfire protection plan. And
we hope to work with them throughout the year and I just applied for some grant funding
to enable that work um over 2024. Um They are hopefully gonna help assist us with
some tsunami and wildfire um evacuation work um based on their um artificial intelligence
models. Um So, looking forward to doing that as part of our exercise. Then as always,
we have our incident management team meeting. Um This is our group of not just volunteers
but professional first response partners um who work in the Operations Center. Um
We meet the, the first Wednesday of every month and it has everyone from our local
fire chiefs and representatives from law enforcement, um representatives from Nongovernmental
Agencies as well as our EOC volunteers. Um the end of the year, just like we do every
year, we put together a um a survey to kind of see what they wanted to focus on where
their, their priorities were. Um This is the work plan that we put together for those
monthly meetings. Um So you can see um some of the topics, some of the um training
items and some of the discussion items that we're um going to be discussing a monthly
with our response partners. What is IAP train
IAP stands for incident action plan. Um It's the model we use um under the incident
command system to kind of every, every shift. You're always planning the work for
the next shift. Um So as you go into your next shift, you have a written plan of
um what your priorities are and what your actions are and how you're gonna meet your
goals. Thank you, will. He um just because it's become more of an issue are king
tides addressed in any of these tropical areas, um, in these,
um, uh, in our meeting schedule, that is something we'll talk about during our pre
winter briefing. Um, when we talk about uh, different types of flooding, we may have
to worry about. Um, it's one thing, um, we really appreciate is the partnership with
National Weather Service. Um, and our local response group, they provide us whenever
there's any sort of weather issue, whether it's extreme heat, snow, excessive rain,
um or king tide issues. Um They provide uh briefings um to local first responders
and will hold um kind of question and answer sessions. So, um we always invite them
to our November Prew winter meeting and they kind of give us a rundown of what they're
expecting um for the climate this upcoming um winter weather season and, and one
thing they do address um our potential King tide issues. Um And then they do that
obviously as the, the time goes on and they, they spot potential problem areas. Do
any of the county commissioners attend these meetings or um our incident management
team meetings? No. Um That's something that, um I know we are looking at bringing
back our, our j prep meeting, which is our, you know, anyone and everyone's invited
to that we call that our whole community um coordinations meeting. Um But I would
uh yeah, very much appreciate if one of the commissioners could find time to at least
pop in every so often. It's, it's always, um, you know, with all the busy schedules
of our first response community, we do frequently have folks in for 2030 minutes
an hour at a time. It is a two hour meeting. Um, but yeah, whatever, um, one of you
might be able to make, I think that would be appreciated. Well, I would love to be
added to. I'm here. I am raising my hand for another thing, but this is all stuff
that I track outside of my commissioner life and would be like, I would like to get
threaded in on this if possible. Somehow I, I don't, I don't want to make any more
work for anyone but maybe just add me to your email list or J prep right now. But
uh, yeah, sign Heidi up for these. Yeah, that would be great. Will be sitting next
to someone that's all trained up on this stuff. Perfect. Yeah. Can do, I'll forward
you that, uh, right after the presentation. Thanks Willie.
And on top of um, all of that work, um, you know, all of our volunteer groups, our
work within our emergency operations center and incident management team. Um, our
ongoing activities. Um, we have a duty officer available 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, 365 days a year. And that's the principal point person for emergency response.
Um, and one of the things that they do, um, specifically is to send out Nile alerts
to the community and our alert and warning function. And NX L is art for those who
don't know. Um, our subscription, um, text alert system, primarily we alert of, um,
you know, large traffic accidents, uh, impacting, you know, highway 101, 1920 large
arteries and major routes. But we also use that to alert folks um, of winter weather
conditions, um, of things like potentially a tsunami advisory. Um If there's ever
anything life threatening like the Beaver Valley evacuation, then we would use the
uh public alert and warning systems. That's, you know, radio and television on the
push notifications you receive on your phone and that hits a much broader audience.
But we do really encourage people to subscribe to the system because you will get
some very important um emergency information there. We do really make a concerted
effort to not bombard you with emergency notifications um to make sure it is, you
know, impactful, it is useful. Um And it is timely and relevant to everyone. So you
go to our website and sign up for that if you are so inclined. Um Obviously EOC activations
and emergency response, we maintain readiness. We're always training volunteer recruitment
and engagement. Um Again, we have all those volunteer programs um that we, that you
saw listed earlier, we're always recruiting um finding new projects for volunteers.
Um We also do badging and credentialing for uh Jefferson County, Search and Rescue,
for example, um outreach and education, doing disaster preparedness presentations,
letting the public know how they can be more prepared. Um So if you or your community
group want a presentation and want to find out more about how you can build a disaster
kit, write an emergency plan. You know, I also put emergency plan assistance and
mentorship. Um We can't write your plan for you, but we are certainly happy to provide
some guidance and maybe some tools and resources um and help build a plan um for
you or your organization there always ongoing um constantly for us here in dem
last but not least, this is kind of setting the table um for 25 and 26 using that
um ho Ti model um 2025 we're really hoping to set this up for being the year of training.
Um Part of this is um this year we will be recruiting um a volunteer training officer
or potentially offices um to help build a training program in 2024. Um Our new planning
coordinator, Brad Brooks has a background in curriculum development. So he's gonna
be um helping out quite a bit with this um to build a, a training component and um
volunteer organization just within dem to really lean hard into more routine trainings.
Um uh a stronger, more deliberate kind of training program to roll out in 2025. Then
2026 wanna focus on exercise. Um And so this year, we will be recruiting an exercise
coordinator or some volunteer exercise coordinators. Um, exercises are a ton of work
to put together, but they are the best way um for uh folks to learn. That's what
builds muscle memory. That's what simulates real life situations. So, um, we want
to conduct some disaster planning. Um We organize and really strengthen our organizational
ties this year. Start really focusing heavily on training for next year then exercise
and what we've put together and what we've learned. Um two years from now. Um So
that's kind of where we are. Um heading for that 2026 is hopefully potentially the
next um Cascadia rising exercise. They had one in 2020 in 2016 again in 2022
potentially 2026. That's a big regional exercise. Um Fema region 10, which is Idaho,
Washington, Oregon. Um And so we're hopefully trying to set the table for some better
participation um in that as well. Um Otherwise that is um where we stand right now
and I am happy to take questions. Thank you, Willie. Any questions Heidi, I, I ask
them as we go. I'm, I'm the interrupter question. Lady II, I asked most of mine as
we went on. I'm, I'm curious. So Idaho is in the Cascadia rising, is that just because
of the FEMA region that they're in? It seems like they are less vulnerable to that
kind of uh to the ring of fire than we are. Yeah. So it is because Fema region 10
is Oregon, Washington and Idaho. So they are lumped in with that region. Um, but
they also do play a really important role in all of the major kind of catastrophic
Cascadia plans. Um, pushing resources east to west is really essential. So they along
with, um, you know, areas like Spokane on the eastern side of the state, um serve
as staging areas and forward operating base for those supplies coming into the impacted
areas. So, um, you're right and that they won't be, um, as impacted. Um, but they're
likely to see a lot of folks fleeing the disaster area and they'll be a pretty important,
um, pretty important resource for us in, in terms of getting supplies in and, you
know, serving as, uh, operation centers and command posts, um, for the, the larger
federal response. Thanks. And then on the, the Lezi, uh, work plan, I guess I, I
feel, I remember seeing a hazardous materials report and maybe 2019 that was being
worked on and I'm just wondering, is that, are we building on that? And I guess I
know we don't have it just hazardous materials distributed throughout the whole county.
But, you know, if you think about Indian Island and the hospital and port towns and
paper, we have some, some larger entities that I would assume have a significant
amount of hazardous materials, I guess, can you just expand a little bit on our hazardous
material landscape and, and what, what, what we're doing. Yeah. So um first and foremost,
you are, you are right in that you've seen and heard about this plan starting to
get put together before. Um we did, you know, sh shortly after I got here in 2019,
we took a draft plan template and started to um put together a draft and then 2019,
early 2020 struck and that got put in the rear rearview mirror um for the, the next
couple of years. So we are picking that back up um in terms of the the participants.
So there are certain thresholds that anyone um any entity that has, you know, certain
quantities of specific types of hazardous materials under the environmental protection
agencies, they call them tier two reporting requirements um as part of the community,
right to know act um must submit to EPA Department of Ecology and their local emergency
management agency reports on an annual basis of what kind of hazardous materials
that they typically possess. Um And so that'll include everything like our propane
providers um to um you know, pud um to the paper mill um et cetera, et
cetera. So um a lot of those entities have been providing us tier two reports all
these years. Um And so part of the leps will be reviewing those um reviewing those
reports and making sure our response plan aligns with the reality of what's actually
being stored based on what's reported. Um Naval magazine, Indian Island. Um obviously,
you know, does possess transports, maintain um some of their own materials, but due
to national security issues, they obviously can't divulge everything. I mean, we
mentioned this during the IC G meeting that they um will absolutely invite them um
uh their emergency manager. Um Absolutely fantastic, committed to participating in
this process to the best of their ability. Um Again, they're always a great community
partner but do have their national security um tasks to worry about. So, and we won't
get to see everything under the hood in terms of naval magazine, Indian Island, but
um they'll participate. Um And again, any of the other entities who house or posset
possess, I mean, uh hazardous materials will be invited to participate, um as will
the, the broader community as well. And I guess do we also consider, you know, areas
like Bangor that aren't in our county? But that have, you know, again, this is clouded
by national security and everything, but there's a significant amount of material
there that could impact us in uh a disaster. And I, we will briefly touch on
materials transported through our county, which um you know, I we're fortunate we
don't have, you know, large rail or anything significant um going through our jurisdiction.
But obviously, um things going over into Clallam County will pass through Jefferson
County. Um I don't think at this point in time, at least for the first entity we'll
touch on um hazardous materials in adjacent counties. Um I think we'll kind of start,
you know, square one what's being stored, potentially transported through. I mean,
that might make for interesting conversation um for future meetings of the leps.
See, um, but that, that wasn't on our initial um, initial radar. Ok. And then last
question and this is another one that's a little bit out of the lane, um, talking
about in prep. Um I'm hearing a lot of frustration around some of the more
um rural areas in Jefferson County about an increase of property crime, not really
an emergency except for the person that of course, is victimized by these often crimes
of opportunity. And I'm just wondering if there is possibility of aligning in prep
and kind of a neighborhood watch together, which to me, it seems like it, it's kind
of this same sort of neighborhood looking after its, uh each other philosophy that
might bring more people into in prep as well as adding another facet of support for
neighborhoods that might help people, you know, especially when you have, you know,
if a quarter of your neighborhood is, is, you know, weekend or occasional visitors,
second homes. Um, there's a real, there's a gap there that I I'm wondering if in
prep can help fill. Yeah. Well, so the, the beautiful part of in prep is that at
its core, it's, um, not just emergency response, it is building community and actually
just meeting your neighbors and fostering conversations. So, um I think at the very
least encouraging neighbors to get together to meet one another to discuss issues
as it relates to, you know, disaster preparedness, but also other issues like, you
know, potentially um law enforcement issues there absolutely is a nexus there. Um
So if you, you know, are you meeting with your neighborhood once a month to discuss
disaster preparedness issues or once a quarter? Once, you know, twice a year, whatever
it may be, um, that's certainly something, you know, folks can bring up and devise
a plan. Um, you know, to help establish a neighborhood watch, just like they would
talk about a plan to establish a hub, you know, get cert trained. What have you,
um, something I think we can bring up at our next cert or our next in prep leadership
meeting to maybe, you know, talk about what that might look like. Um, uh, but again,
the, the mechanism in terms of bringing people together, building community that's
always been at its core of, of in prep. Um, so I think it'll be an easy transition
to maybe talk about, um, some of those day to day issues apart from, you know, obviously
the catastrophic earthquake is kind of what we push folks towards. But, um, day to
day issues like that can certainly be a topic of planning, a topic of conversation,
um, as you build those neighborhood bonds. Great, appreciate it. I know we talked
about, um, neighborhood watch topics at our, we had a picnic last summer in my neighborhood
and it was one of the topics of conversation. So I know it's probably of interest
to most of the neighborhoods that are communicating with each other. Right. It's
a way to get neighborhoods interested in, in prep too. I think that might not be
but are still usually if they're out there they're very vulnerable to some of these
uh disasters that in prep helps you prepare for it. So, all right. Um, great. Well,
thank you so much, Willie for this uh, detailed work plan and it's amazing how much
a small department gets done. So it never, never cease to amaze. Appreciate your
time. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. And raising puppies on the side.
Oh, right. I heard that may be the hardest work of all here. I don't know. Thank,
thankfully my wife did. She was the one who slept on the couch with the puppy last
night. So thank you for a little surprise for this. So, thank you, honey. Well, good
to see you, Willie. Thank you. Take care. All right, I see Ahmed Sharma is in the,
in the room but we do have an audience. I uh issue. No, no, no, sorry. Um uh, we've
got a 1030 on the agenda, so we'll have to wait until 1030 to look at the, the Wazoo
Extension work plan. Um, I can do the certification. Let's let's do the certification.
So we're gonna turn it over to Galloway and Mark was listed. Uh, so this is done
every year. Uh, it's inventory certification um, for all capitalized assets. Um,
the last time we did it was February 13th 2023. And so I have to put you under oath,
uh, first duly sworn and on oath depose and say that the following sheets containing
the inventory of capitalized assets of the several departments of the county as cert
as certified by each department head is true and correct. Inventory of the capitalized
assets belonging to Jefferson County on December 31st 2023. Do you, do you, do you
say you agree? I agree. I agree. Ok. And so what I'm gonna do is have, um, the both
of you, I will be notarizing this later. But if you wanted to say a few words about
the inventory book or your review, well, I did mention earlier it's the heaviest
document we review each year. I think we all take an approach of checking through,
you know, random checks through various departments to see what's there, spot checking
and relying on the certifications too of each department head. You know, I mean,
it's easier to look at one department's uh hardware than, than the entire. It's always
amazing to see how many tools are used by the county. It's, it's astonishing, astounding,
astonishing all those words. Um, but appreciate the work. I've got to keep a good
counting of it. All right. Thank you. We're all good on this one. Ok. Yes. Let's
take a look at last week and this coming week. Um, Heidi, do you want to look back?
Sure. Um, so last week here with you, of course, on Monday
and then, and
Tuesday
today I was doing some community foundation work most much of the day and um my personal
appointment um Wednesday, also another per lot of personal appointments in my,
on my dance card these days. So, um but then I um did attend the
Jefferson County Library District board meeting um with Treasurer Prada to talk
about um tax revenues for the county. And as they were particularly interested in
DNR, timber taxes, DNR uh State Forest Transfer trust revenue. We had a great conversation.
We basically just um Stacy went over kind of the history of revenues to the various
taxing districts with a focus on the um library, of course and answered questions
there. And then we talked about timber tax and um recent activities of the county
regarding conversations with DNR and how um largely, you know, it's DNR decides how
they're gonna manage their forests. But we do have a say in some lands and we, our
forest, right, the state forest timber tax, uh timber, the state forest transfer
trust lands and talked about our conversations with DNR, focusing most of our, um,
kind of conservation efforts north of highway 104 and, um, having less
priority south of 104. But interestingly then DNR comes forward with lands, they
want to take off the books south of 104. So, you know, it's, it's always a conversation
and there have been lots of them and I kind of went over the, the calendar last year
and all the, all the things that have happened. And I it felt like a really good
conversation and, you know, largely at the end of it, they, some of a couple of the
board members commented, like we were talking about our trust land transfer applications
that we submitted last year and I was highlighting each of the parcels. And then
I um one of the board members zoomed in on that the parcel south of Anderson Lake
Road, which includes a potential area that would be used for expansion of the Olympic
Discovery Trail. And he said, whatever we need to do to get the ODT off of highway
20 you know, and I, I'm like, we're all motivated in that way. So um it was a good
conversation and then there was no uh and no action and I didn't feel like, I mean,
I, I felt like they wanted more, they would like to see us again in a year or, you
know, whenever they asked, but at every library district board, meaning they have
an educational topic on their agenda. So, Stacy and I were their education last week.
So, yeah, that was good. And then um see you
Thursday, Thursday Board of Health in the afternoon, early afternoon with the entire
team there. And then we had an evening meeting, the Intergovernmental Collaborative,
talking about the Growth Management steering committee. And um I'm grateful that
Superintendent Mack has said he's willing to serve on the Growth management steering
committee. I feel like his membership on that committee will not only represent the
Port Hadlock urban growth area, but also um he will have a voice from the schools
involved in the conversation. And I know that was a priority. And then, let's see,
on Friday, I went in person to the Sailor Behavioral Health Administrative Services
Organization and executive board meeting and that was a good meeting. Um uh Commissioner
Osias from Clallam County was not available to be there. So it was Christine Rus
from Kids App and I, and it was for both of us, our first meeting. So we had a great
opportunity to ask a lot of new girl questions and um did so and that was a productive
meeting. I felt it was good to get involved with that, that group that around that
table. And then um the hard one to define right, the way that those dollars trickle
down into Jefferson County is pretty oblique sometimes. Yeah, but they're really
focused on crisis management. Yeah, I didn't really understand the the scope of their
work, so it's really helpful. Um And then I did the KPTZ
radio show with Taylor. This time Jim was out for a medical appointment and we talked
about the Empowered Teens Coalition and the recent Cannabis Prevention summit. So
ka from the Cheimi Empower Teens Coalition joined me as well as Laura Tucker talking
about the Cannabis Prevention Summit and it was a good conversation and I feel like,
you know, empowered Teens Coalitions are one of the things that I'm like, I never
knew about these before. I was a commissioner and I feel like they're a resource
in the community and they're in every school district. So I feel like people should
know about them, but they're pretty new. I mean, they weren't, the Chiman was the
only one that we had when I was uh when I was elected, that was the only one and
then Port Townsend and then Quil and Brennan. So it's developing on a lot of experience.
I think that Denise Bankrupt brought. Yeah. And I think it's exciting. I mean, I'm
gonna shine a light on Cheam again. But our Teen Center in Cheam is super active
right now and um ka has formed a really great partnership with the new director of
the um Teen Center in Chem Jeff Jones and they're collaborating actively on programs
and they're doing a, I think, I think it's a family night at the Teen Center for
families to come in and, yeah. So, uh, and that was the end of last week. Yep.
All right, I can take a look through, let's see with you guys. Of course. Like I
did something. Oh, yeah, I didn't, I, I took a little,
no, uh I thought I had a recompete meeting in the middle of the day. But no, I did
not. There was a virtual summit all day on Tuesday for recompete that I um did not
go to. I had the E DC finance meeting, which was uh great, you know, Monica mcker
was there as well from the city. And um it's a, it's a really interesting group like
your experience with the bhaso. It's, it's great to kind of get under, under the
hood and, and see how it's working. And um the, I've talked to quite a few small
businesses that are using the, the free services of Douglas and, and it's uh 22 a
one. They're like, we are better off because we, we, uh we learned with Douglas.
I know that's been hearing that too. Um And then I had the Quilcene Brennan and Power
Teens Coalition Tuesday afternoon. We're looking to, to move that. I think we're
just gonna move it to the third or first Tuesday. So I miss TCC on Tuesday to uh
attend that rescheduling one. We need to work a little more with the newer um leadership
at the quilting school. We always have a representation from the, the Brennan school,
but I think we're gonna move it a little bit later in the day because we end up having
it at 230. So if we're talking about staff, they're like they're dealing with stuff.
So we never have the uh the sap uh 330 would be fine. Yeah, that's what I think we're
gonna do. So, a different Tuesday at 330 um, on Wednesday had our weekly team Jefferson
recompete meeting. Um, you know, kind of getting ready a little bit for uh the IC
G and um, uh you know, just kind of working out things to do. I've been
trying to connect with some of our, our tribes that we are our neighbors with as
well. So this week I'm meeting with uh Vice Chair Lopez from the ho still have not
touched base with Kalt, but that was, uh, or heard back that it, that was kind of
the work that came out of that for me. We had our monthly orca meeting, the Clean
Air Agency and, um, you know, business as usual had our, our largest fine ever was
paid. It was like $1.3 million that far. Um It was for persistent, like not having
uh updated. It was a, a paper mill. No, I, I'd have to go back and look, I forget.
Let me hold on. I couldn't. Yeah, that's curious. Uh
One moment
I did not remember.
Mhm.
Let me look at, at, at a break, I'll, I'll bring it back on you. Just curious. Um,
we've had another one of the long, long time employees there, the, the, uh, Robert
Moody who was in charge of compliance, uh, retires. We've lost 50 years of, of, uh,
staffing there in the last couple of months. But they've got a really good succession
planning going on with our new ed there. So it's uh they've been, haven't missed
a step. I had lunch with uh John Morrow and then uh we
had a community conversation committee meeting of the housing fun board, talking
about a couple meetings coming up uh that we wanna do publicly want us to have a
conversation, kind of a public conversation about that, the shelter matrix in, in
Jefferson County, you know, both dealing with the kind of the larger another large
encampment that's, you know, sprung up around. Thank you, uh DS HS as well as what,
what goes on in on 331 when that American legion contract is over. So I was trying
to schedule that and um and what was the other one? Oh, also the five year uh homeless
and housing plan. We need to redo it. So we, we wanna have a kind of a zoom meeting
initially just to kind of gather input. You know, this is what we've done, this is
what we had, this is what we have to do and what should we do as we, as we move forward,
um, talked to the chair of the Board of Health about some of the agenda items on
Thursday. And then, let's see, on Thursday, we had to recompete job
creation, uh teams meeting. I guess that's where I got the uh task to talk to the,
uh, the tribes, uh with a couple other people. I was with you guys at the Board of
Health meeting. Um Pretty good meeting, I thought and then I was at the first half
of the IC G meeting and then excited about the joint joint management steering committee
though, we're still not scheduled, right? We don't have a meeting yet. It's gonna
be a challenge. Um And then I had to leave halfway through to hop over to the regular
cap meeting. We, you know, we continue to have a lot of struggles at cap and um you
know, just supporting our interim ed, Tammy Lidster as she tries to uh sort things
out, you know, and there's some uh public, a lot of people leaving the housing department
right now. Yeah. And then, uh Peggy Webster has left the housing fund board and has
taken a role at a cap to help uh um you know, guide the housing ship uh with, with
Kathy through this transition period. So I'm looking for a new Housing Fund board
member, but great to have Peggy
Olympic Housing Trust. She's gonna be the ed of uh of uh the, the Housing Trust.
So, um I'm not sure that transition, I think is kind of a flexible, you know, she'll
still be a, a support for Oly Cap through this transition, I think. So it was Thursday,
busy time. Um meeting with uh Josh Peters on Friday about the uh
recompete grant two. The strategy grant for the Glen Cove work is more challenging
than we, we thought about the, you know, like we already had a contractor lined up
that both the city and the county were using for the COMP plans and uh we might need
to do an RFP and stuff like that. So kind of slowing down and, and making sure we
uh dot all our I's and cross all our Ts and then we rescheduled the
Olympic uh workforce board for, um I think really early March like a 8 to 9 o'clock
meeting before um before our regular Bocc meeting. And uh you were on the radio,
I wasn't and then met with uh Mark on, on Friday afternoon and we're meeting again
today with the um independent uh financial consultant for the uh PFD. It
was an interesting meeting and um I kind of, I think I didn't quite understand what
it was, uh you know, it was beforehand, beforehand. Yeah. Um I don't know what, what,
so they're really, they're not as, it's not as much of a financial analysis as I
thought it seems like, I mean, how would you describe what we're going to get that
we're having another meeting today? I'm curious to see. Well, it's a Texas two step.
So, um initially, there has to be a review regarding the simple formation
of the PFD and I believe she's gonna use um the SIS report um
estimates about patronage and uh revenue operational cost. And then of course, the
cost of the debt and what a 210 sales tax might yield in terms of revenue. And then
based on that, is it feasible? And I think uh her conclusion will be, yes.
However, um as I think you learn Greg because I had a previous conversation with
her about the mountain that is in front of us. If we want to actually attack this
thing, it is, you know, it's mount Everest. Um And she's gonna point out the
risks associated with it and, and there's another report that we'd have to do another
report and that would occur prior to actually uh pursuing debt. So that's
after we ceded a PFD. There's another when once they have a project, once the PFD
has a project, then they, there would be another independent financial review of
the project itself. So even though that they're using the kind of the, the work of
the steering committee right now, correct. And, um, you know, she said that it would
be prudent prior to forming the PFT because once it's formed, it, it it's an independent
government entity that can chart its own course, uh somewhat independent of the city
and, and the county. Um Now we can control where they, what that course might be
when we select who the members are going to be of the PFT and presumably, uh the
members would share the vision of the city in the county and not go some a direction
100 and 80 degrees. Really vague when she was talking though even, didn't she even
talk about an mou or something that I was gonna, I was gonna address that next, that
um prior to forming the PFD, we would, it would be prudent to execute an mo am
ou with all the participating parties, the city, uh you know, if the hospital is
gonna contribute the Y MC A and so on, um laying out certain understandings, you
know, principle of which might be financial support from the city, what happens to
the 400,000 they're committing now because if the Papfd actually forms and says,
well, we're not gonna build at mountain view, we're gonna build in Hadlock. Uh is
that 400 still available or not? And so some of these understandings would have to
be documented in advance of forming the pfdii. I would think it seemed weird. It's
like, oh, they're totally independent, but you can build guardrails and I don't know,
I, I got, I ended up with more questions after that first meeting. Well, to the extent
that the PFD would rely on the county or the city for financial support prior to,
um, sales tax revenue flowing into the PFD. And then, uh, I mean, they would have
to remain true, uh, to the provisions of the MO A because it would, they not do that,
then the county could withhold support. So, anyway, and didn't, she was under the
pressure that we would probably have to, someone, some organization would have to
stand up with the financial backing for the PFD. They're not gonna be able to bond
by themselves. Scotch Smith doesn't work you need. And that would be correct. That
would likely be us, the county more likely than not. And that would include, you
know, if we have to hire financial talent, if we have to hire Bond Council, uh, underwriters,
um, you know, legal advice and, and so on. How does that affect our ability to raise
funds for other capital priorities in the future? Well, if the PFD is actually formed,
you know, I've, I've sort of proposed and the notion that the PFD could be, it could
encompass more facilities than just an aquatic center that it could fold in our community
centers, maybe HJK Park and Memorial Field. Um, as a way of um, encouraging people
to vote for the thing because, uh quite frankly, our, our capital revenues are, are,
are not all that robust. You know, the increase in mortgage interest rates has driven
down uh re revenue. Uh you know, I think last year we earned about 70% of what we
earned the prior year. And there are new rules about what you can use uh re revenues
for. And so if we're ever to take care of the Port Townsend Community Center, the
Brennan Community Center and so on. Um another source of revenue for county facilities,
I think would be a very good thing. Um And I think people in Brennan and quilcene
and elsewhere might be more likely to vote for a 210 sales tax if, if they could
see tangible benefits for their community. So, yeah, it's challenging, didn't get
easier. We have another meeting today at three o'clock with the, with the, with the
we're gonna hear most mostly when we heard on Friday. But uh the other members of
the group need to hear the same information, right? And you know, one of the notes
talking, just the letters from the public that we got over the weekend, uh talked
about the, you know, they either say it's great or it's a boondoggle, of course.
Right. Um But uh have we spent over $700,000 on this process so far? Uh I know the
county contributed, I think 100,000 in arpa money for the, for the review. But um
II I don't have this number from a couple of people. Yeah, I don't know what ops
got paid. Um And then, you know, besides some budget breakdown, I don't know, you
know, carry was brought in specifically for these two projects. I think the, the
golf course in the aquatic center. And so you could factor in a great deal of her
salary and benefits into that. Um, but it could be that, that, that much has been
spent. I don't know, we, we need an accounting out of the city. Interesting. Um,
so, yeah, that was my week. Um, how was your last week? Mark? Ok. Uh, well, Monday
the 12th was, um, a short day with the board. Then on the 13th, uh Tuesday
met with Brent to go over his projects. Then at noon we had a, a courthouse security
committee meeting. Um, you know, Chris Goy obtained a grant um, before he left the
county and those monies are still available and thank goodness we got Tracy Coleman.
She's picking that grant up and, um, is gonna, uh, arrange to have new, um, cameras
put in the courtroom. Much higher resolution. And, um, you know, Judge Mack is really
happy about that. Uh, yeah, Judge Mac also got a grant for a, uh lactation pod. And
so we're gonna work to order that have it delivered and cite it maybe on the third
floor landing. Um, I'm sorry, a lactation pod. That's just privacy. Privacy. Yeah,
it's, it's right. It's so, uh, nursing mothers can attend to the, to the nursing
needs of her child
while at work in Clark County. I actually had to take a storage room on the first
floor of the public service center and convert it into a lactation room. And, you
know, it's
um and then uh two o'clock, 1818 meeting. Um and then I met uh at three
o'clock with Chief Black and Steve King from the city to review the fixes necessary
for the community wildfire protection plan. Uh At the conclusion of that meeting,
I drafted up what we had discussed, shared it with both of them. They made minor
tweaks to it. And now we're just waiting for Emma Bowen from the city to review our
work and hopefully she'll concur and I could launch that uh Emily um at our consultant.
Um and then I'll get a modified statement of work and AAA budget estimate so I can
amend the contract and we can get that, that plan completed.
And on the 14th light day, I met with Sarah Mellinson to go over uh human resources,
strategic plan, uh objectives, tactics and actions and a very fruitful meeting. We
came up with actionable steps um to achieve the objectives that are part of strategic
plan. Uh strategic priority number six, which is organizational health. So it was
a very productive meeting that was um then on Thursday, um had my regular
meeting with uh with Josh Peters and then brought Brent Butler in uh to coordinate
with Josh and Brent on a number of strategic efforts that D CD has underway. And
then of course, IC G meeting at five o'clock. And then on Friday, we had the County
Coordinations meeting. And then of course, Greg the independent Financial feasibility
review discussion that you mentioned. So that was it. Right. All right. Well, we
have a 1030 so we probably shouldn't jump into calendaring. I did want to just follow
up and it was Crown, crown Cork and seal that makes aluminum cans in Olympia. And
they did a, uh, they did an expansion without getting the permits and there was a
couple other things can coding material exceeded permit limit. They operated the
can coding lines while bypassing emission control equipment and they failed to monitor
compliance with several emission limits. They're totally in compliance now. They
just had to kind of go back through it and it was $1.9 million. Wow. Big fine. It's
a series of nine different ones. The biggest one was 744,000 for 11 fine. So we'll
take, we'll take a quick break. We have five minutes. We, well, four minutes until
1030 we'll get started. So we'll get it to get set up. And do you have a powerpoint
on it? Sorry. Say that again. Do you have a powerpoint to set up? Yes, you're doing
it. Ok. I got it. Thank you. How are you doing?
All right. Coming back into session. 1030. We are joined by Ahmed Sharma to give
the Wazoo extension work plan for 2024. Really glad that you can be with us today
and I think Mark is just spinning up the slide deck and, and uh we'll, we'll turn
it over to you when you're ready on it. Thank you so much. I think I'm done. Thank
you so much, Mark, spin that advance. Uh
OK, this is trickier than I thought, Mike. Anyway. Uh so these are the performance
indicators. The reason I kind of threw it up is these are the same that I had uh
projected uh while I was presenting the budget and these are the same figures. Uh
That was when at a time when I was really new, I think I would want to not for this
year but going forward most of these indicators, as I see it are more output based
in terms of, OK, we are going to touch these many people. We are gonna have so many
events. But what I believe it's lacking is uh the mix of process as well as outcome
indicators, the mix of more long term improvement indicators and more impact, moving
more towards impacts. OK. So you did certain events, but what was the impact? Uh
And, and that is what the strategic planning process that I'm kind of trying to engage
in would hopefully lead us to uh but this would give us a good snapshot of the five
main program areas that we are uh currently involved in. The first block is for 4H,
which is our youth led non formal education program. Uh Second block is for Master
Gardener, uh which is urban gardening, composting and other related areas. The third
one is a small farms, which is the regional small farms program works primarily in
the AG and AG related uh domains. The fourth one is water quality and the fifth one
is a noxious fees control book. That's where the small farms is the only one that
seems to be like trending down in scope. When all the other programs seem to be trending
up in scope. Uh Can you elaborate more? What do you go back to the slide? I mean,
like all of these are outputs and I understand you want to talk about impacts too.
And I, you know, I love to have that conversation. But if you've got, you know, 23
we had 22 workshops and now you're going down to 15 and 400 class participants down
to 250 because of tilt was this year or what? No, this was, this was also pointed
out by Commissioner Dean last time when I presented and I went back to Kelly, my
small firms coordinator and asked as to what the case is, the projected numbers for
2023 were, were kind of uh too ambitious and they were mad and narrated. So that's
why she is corrected. And I haven't corrected it in the sheet because I wanted to
kind of pre in the same numbers that I had presented last time. So numbers, these
aren't actual numbers or, or at least they were not, they were not achieved. So the
kind of so we don't have the actual what happened. Yes, we don't really have it.
And that is, in fact one of the things that I was saying, we, I think the monitoring
mechanisms that are there are not robust and, and, and very strong for some of the
programs. And that is one of the areas that hopefully we can, we can kind of correct.
Thanks. Uh These are the snapshot of the various programs and what the ear is gonna
look like. This is for master Gardner. Uh I don't know how many of you are familiar
with Boi workshop. I'm also getting to know more about it. This is a new composting
technique, which is they, they put all the compost in an airtight container and with
that, it's an odorless way of composting things. So this is kind of new. I had one
workshop. Uh I wasn't able to attend but really curious to know more about it myself.
Uh The Master Gardener training uh is gonna be starting from the 27th, that is the
main flagship uh for the Master Gardener program as many of you know. Um So, so that
is new members, sorry, say that again that training for existing. No, this is for
new members. This is, this is for new members. Ok. Uh It is, the old members are
very involved in terms in terms of running the classes and co running the classes.
But yes, this is the new members. Sorry, this is the Forage program. We have two
new uh clubs as you would see the llamas, the Rescue Packers and the Reptile Club
that was started in 2023 24. And we're trying to build that on. In addition to that,
we are having a lot of different events. And uh Angie, who's our Newish program coordinator
is kind of really taking the lead in terms of ensuring partnership with other departmental
agencies, including the health department, primarily in terms of bringing in mental
health uh trainings. And also we are increasing the staff at the Brian after school
center. So we would have one more person kind of managing that. Uh This brings me
to the larger issue which I'm going to discuss much later, but I just wanted to touch
upon it is the fact that many of the programs. In fact, most of the programs at WSU
extension office are single person programs, which means if the person leaves for
whatever reason or you know, uh they are ill or not able to come to office for extended
period of time.
The entire program in some way collapses and we can arrest this situation to a certain
extent by robust documentation and ensuring that the processes are in place. But
the fact is I think in the long run, the most pragmatic solution would be to try
and come up with a, with a, with a, with a, with a structure where at least there
are two people involved in, in running a program. At this point in time, we don't
know how to do that given the financial limitations. But I think long term horizon,
I'm definitely going to aim for that. You talk about volunteers or staff. No, I'm
talking about staff. OK? Because yes, you can, I would say that strong documentation
would be one piece of ensuring sustenance of a program. Having a robust advisory
board or council is another way. Having a very robust volunteer based system is another
way but nothing is more impactful than having at least one more person who's kind
of jointly running the program. Uh And, and that is something that we have been missing
for for quite some time, which means that all the institution knowledge that is there
with any individual kind of is is lost the moment that person is gone. Also, this
means that uh because that structure is not there, people are not able to get out
of their day to day operations and look at more strategic things or for that for
that matter, the part time person or the second affiliate person, there is no career
growth for them. So that is another area where perhaps many other counties or other,
other organizations might poach from us. So that is something that I would uh I would
really want to kind of pay attention to in the years to come.
This is the regional Small Farms program. Again, most of the events listed are the
usual ones that we do all throughout the year. Um The big main flagship event is
the Cultivating Success Farmer Education course. Uh That is going to be uh starting
in the second half of the year we are trying to pilot with is a small farm in your
future course, which is like an entry level one day experience so that we can see
if the people who are really interested in even enrolling for the Cultivating Success
Program they can see is this even something that I'm interested in rather than enrolling
for the main program and then drop it out.
Uh This is the noxious speeds control board, almost ongoing programming. We might
hire a seasonal part time uh worker this time around for the noxious speeds control
board. Uh They are entering into partnership with various uh uh departmental and
uh and and county agencies. So, so I mean, when you say you might be hiring a part,
I've seen that job posted. So you are hiring for that, right? I'm hopefully we'll,
we'll have someone really good. Uh The reason I say we might be hiring is if, for
instance, for the other position that we have advertised with the, which is the finance
and operations coordinator. We haven't really gotten a lot of good applications,
so we don't know. But yeah, we, we obviously intend to have,
uh, this is the water quality program and last week the coordinator for this Monica
who had been with us for the past four years decided that he is, uh, she's moving
away to kids. So, yeah. no, that was, that was like a gut punch. So I was like, man,
she has been amazing. I mean, the good thing is that this, this takes her closer
to her personal professional goal. She's better, her partner I think is based out
of uh kids app and she's, she's just excited about the job, but that leaves us in
a, in a, in a, in a huge fix because again, um a similar situation where it was a
one person program, we were about to hire a part time uh M RT assistant. But uh but
things are in a complete flux as of now. I'm trying to wrestle as to, to what extent
can we really document things up to? What extent can we rely on the MRC advisory
board? But as I said, the, the crucial thing is in the long term, we have, I would
ideally want to have at least two people working on a, on a specific program. Well,
at least with MRC, I mean, we have a good share drive that we all use. I mean, there's
a lot of documentation of the process that has been, that has been one of the highlights
for MRC. And that is again, Monica has been very diligent in terms of documenting
things and putting things down having said that still, you know, if there is so much
things that she would do and she wouldn't think that, oh this is automatic, this
is kind of, this is, this is, this is, this is nothing new. But that is why I'm trying
to see if one of the interns who work for MRC could join us as an interim position.
And in addition to the other things also look at all the documentation afs and see
if all the documentation is making sense to her. Uh So yeah, that's, that's about
the water quality program should make a chat bottle Monica before she leaves. I wish
I could.
Uh I wanted to revisit this slide that, that again, I shared with the all of you
during the budget presentation, which is my, my long term aim is that I can somehow
align the extension priorities and strength. And when I say extension priority, these
are the WSE extension at the broad level. What are the community and, and, and the
county goals as has been I think, really well documented in the county strategic
plan. And then what are the organizational capac capacity within our local extension
office? Uh And these were my operating principles that I had listed, uh, down at
that point in time and I think in so many ways they still stand true and I think,
uh, they give us a good stopping point except it seems like you're going for a little
bit of breath right now too. Uh, I am going in for a breath but I think for me individually,
the program coordinators should go into the depth and I can kind of span the the
the five programs. But my, my call to them is to go in for depth rather than going
in for bread,
the three main vehicles through which I'm planning to do this and focus on on this
alignment. Somehow this year there might be others. But the three main that I wanted
to highlight was coming up with a solid needs assessment uh for specifically for
Jefferson County Extension office. And for this, I am drawing already on the work
that has been done across the other departments including the library, including
the health department, including the base data that we u utilized for coming up with
the county Strategic Plan. Uh But that's, that's something that I would really want
to do in terms of mapping out which other agencies do we need to partner with. What
are the unmet needs where extension can, can play a vital role. I also understand
that there are new players, newer organizations that are, that are doing similar
work to what extension used to do. Uh And, and I believe that's a, that's a good
thing because if, if somebody else is there who is bringing, bringing in new sets
of competencies and is able to move faster with some things, we can focus on our
strength and focus on, on, on the areas that we can do best. What I don, I don't,
can you be a little more explicit? Uh I mean, let's say, uh let's say the, the grants,
the various grants that uh the farmers could apply to uh no DC, if no DC does a
good job at that because they are far more nimble have, have far more expertise.
We don't have the capacity there. It takes a lot more time. So then we are, we are
in any ways partnering with no DC. So rather than us taking on the mantle that we
would do everything on our own. That is not the idea. We are very much about partnerships
and that's, that's the way that we would want to move forward. OK. Uh monthly learning
events is something that I am wanting to get started. We tried it uh in the last
year as well, but this is, we are structuring it a bit more where every fourth Monday
of the month we are meeting as a team for three hours and, and just focusing on one
learning topic, it could be, let's say volunteer engagement. It could be uh about
advisory councils, it could be about fundraising. We are taking a deep dive into
each of these things. And hopefully, the longer term aim is that in another 68 months,
we might be able to open this to other organizations just as a informal learning
uh platform where different organizations could come together. Let's say uh we are
talking about A I and productivity tools on a day to ba to basis. So I would love
to have you and the other entities who are interested to kind of gather and brainstorm
and learn together. Uh And third part of it is we are also planning to use a monthly
learning events for the strategic planning. But once the needs assessment, we are
able to derive some data out of it if we want to really move into the strategic planning
as it applies to extension. Uh Again, this is uh I'm really trying to build in the
connections with the county and what WC extension is wanting to do, for instance,
in the county implementation plan, we are listed as the lead organizations for very
few, very few goals per se. But then there are multiple goals or objectives within
which we can play a role. And I'm trying to kind of map it down, for instance, for
the, for, I think it's uh objective one, the health related thing. There is so much
that we could do. Uh And, and there is so much that we can learn from the other organizations,
I think mark mentioned about uh hr and the strategic priority six employee engagement
uh training and development, creating a more diverse workforce. All those are things
that we can really draw upon the expertise of the county there. Uh
OK, this refuses to move. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Uh This is something that I wanted
your inputs uh on. Uh this is the work plan of, of more the strategic aspects of
it. What I have done is that at least the way I'm looking at it is this kind of four
step process which would help us achieve the county and the, and, and the WC priorities
and lead us to the uh lead us to the mission that extension has. So, yeah, thank
you.
So if you focus on the left hand side, what I'm hoping is that my first priority,
the first foundation of this effort is organizational capacity. Uh Once that is achieved,
I can really focus on the internal processes and try to improve the internal processes
because without organizational capacity, there's no way I can really improve the
internal processes. Hopefully, if that is in process, I can really strengthen the
community engagement and the partnerships that I am having, which can lead me to
program goals being met and financial sustainability being achieved. This in turn
would, would mean that if this is aligned, I am kind of really addressing these two
priorities both for the county and extension. And I am being true to my mission which
is taking advancing knowledge, economic well being and quality of life by bringing
in the cutting edge research that is happening uh
within organizational capacity. These are my four or five core areas that I want
to focus on during the year. But even within that, my first priority for quarter
one is recruitment and selection because currently we have these two positions vacant.
One is going to be for the water quality and, and more critically, I would say is
for the uh uh the finance and operations lead we did hire for this position last
to last month. But then the person who joined was kind of overwhelmed, didn't really
feel that this was the right place. So we are, we are having to hire for this place.
And again, we have not received very good application even this time around despite
increasing the level and the grade um by a couple of steps, can I just ask? I mean,
these are all kind of the four different uh uh goals this year are, are related,
but it's not like you're gonna, I mean, can you not work on internal processes and
tell you get that finance director? I mean, I guess it seems like you got Yeah. No,
absolutely not a binary. Yeah, absolutely. No, you can't. You know, I, I would say,
yeah, you definitely would have to attack on all those four. You can't wait for one
thing to be robust without you. But having said that if you don't have the capacity,
because let's say for the admin and finance lead, if everyone is kind of stuck with
the day to day operations, figuring out where that invoice is, you don't really have
the capacity to think more long term. And because of the limited resource part that
we have, obviously your attention and your efforts are going to be scattered. So
as a priority, because if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. So,
so just in order to get, get it more focused, I I we're trying to see what can we
really focus on and get done in Q one, then move our attention on to Q two. So for
instance, in the blue one, which is the finance and monitoring management, the internal
processes, you would see how financial monitoring is very much a focus in Q one.
And and this is something that again is kind of, I would say not very robust in terms
of the process. Documentation is not there a lot of overlap. I'm also trying to see
if there is an overlap between the admin staff which includes me, the reception and
the communication person and the finance person. So just in case for instance, let
me take a very simple example, laser fish, right? If the finance person is not there
currently I or the the reception person doesn't know how to upload laser fish documents.
So I'm trying to see that at least for those core things, there is some overlap,
there is a backup person to kind of ensure that at least the critical processes are
not getting stuck time sheets. Now, we have perfected the time sheets thing that
now even if the finance person is not there, which currently is being managed by
sue, if she's not there, at least we can handle it. So, so we're trying to map each
process, have a backup process for each and kind of trying to come up with that.
If you keep putting sue in your slide deck, she's gonna keep working for you. Exactly.
Yeah, that's the thing. That's the thing which we want to move away from uh uh in
terms of organizational capacity, as I said, program sustainability is gonna be a
huge one for me and, and, and that is exactly what I said in terms of having more
documentation, having a, having volunteer engagement, having advisory committee and
council and part time positions for all the programs going forward. So that's my,
uh that's my plan for, for the last uh for the second half of the year. But for currently,
I'm essentially focusing on financial monitoring and management and for the community
and partnership part. I'm really as the deep dive into the strategic planning process
with my staff, we're really focusing on what are the partnerships that we can have
with other entities within WSU and with the county, because that I think is again
something that we are missing, it tends to be more isolated efforts and those are
not going to produce the results. And especially given the kind of overlap that is
there with the other departments. So that is gonna be uh my next big clarity in terms
of program sustenance. Another thing that we are focusing on is how can we leverage
the regional character of the programs? It doesn't, not every program has to go the
way the small firms program has gone, which is the three county regional program
structure. But at the same time, there are lessons to be learned from what other
counties are doing in forage. And if we don't have to re invent forage is just an
example if they are doing something really good. And so we don't have to re invent
the wheel and start af freshh. We can definitely kind of see how that partnership
might look like. So that is what my, my Q one and Q two priorities are. I've tried
to map it on some of the measures I haven't defined the measures because that is
something that I wanted to do with my team. And that is something that we are gonna
do in as part of the learning meetings that we're gonna have and come to uh you all
hopefully next time with a very detailed and objective plan in terms of what is due
when similar to what the county is uh trying to do with the implementation plan.
So, yeah, open to questions. Yeah. How are you gonna find a financial um staff? I
know it's really challenging. So, I mean, yeah, we what, what can you do differently
or? Yeah. So the one thing that I'm already trying to see is if there is a possibility
of splitting the position into two. And I know that we are, I mean, even while I
was advertising for this position right now, we have had this discussion, maybe splitting
the position into two, might mean that the part for which the person doesn't have
to be in office can be, can be remote, that hopefully might mean that there are people
who are more willing to apply. Also, it might not be overwhelming, at least recruiting
for the for the receptionist position. Last year, I learned that there are many people
who are interested in part time roles rather than full time roles for various reasons.
Uh And if we don't get success with the full time position, that might be one alternative
that we might try, especially at least bifurcating the role in such a way that 11
role is kind of can be done completely remotely, that might at least mean that we
have some person and maybe they can come to the office once that might mean that
we are then opening up the possibility to people in Seattle and these other kind
of more dense areas. So that is one I'm also trying to see if, uh, the core part
of this position is documented really, really well. And either me and between me
and the office receptionist, we can at least handle the very core aspects of it.
So that if the, if the, if there is a delay in the next person joining, at least
we can handle it for the time being. Uh I'm gonna sit with the Judy uh in the finance
office and see if there is any staff that they have, who could potentially take up
the core part of it in, in, in the way that things are, things are not happening
last but not the least uh for the WSU part of things because this position also used
to handle in relation to the county, small part of P card reconciliation and attendance
and some, some B for the WSU which we have now taken it upon us. All the WSU employees
are managing it on their own for now and they would continue till the time the new
position joins in. But uh any reference of them more than welcome, if you know someone
really challenging role to hire for. Right? I mean, public public health had a similar
position open for how many years? Five years? Yeah. Yeah, that's uh that, that is
a challenge. Uh And, and does, does waz you have resources? I mean, can you use regional
financial support or anything from most? Not really, uh because most of this work
is kind of county specific and it actually requires work on Muni. And so, and in
fact, you need a physical computer, the county computer for you to be able to work.
So that is one of the things where, where, where the challenge comes in. Otherwise
I would have potentially looked at just having this entire thing, potentially even
outsourced to some other agency who does kind of specialize in accounting or, or
management because there are entities who do that. Uh And, and then you don't have
to worry because you are outsourcing to not an individual but an agency. But at least
as of now, that doesn't seem to be the possibility I learn more from Judy as to what,
what are the, what are the options? We have received a few applications. Let's see
if we are able to work it out uh This time around. I'm, I'm, but otherwise my go
to strategy would be to try and split the position into two and then see how, what
the response is. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. I like, I like
the way you're the progression you're thinking though. I mean, it all makes good
sense, at least theoretically
how things are going to pan out on the ground, such an important part of the county's
work though. I, so I appreciate you really digging in on this. Yeah. No, absolutely.
Thank you so much and I appreciate all the help from, from the county at all level,
especially Mark Caroline and AD L and everyone who has been so supportive by the
finance person was not there even otherwise so really appreciative of. Yeah, we're
all part of the same team. So, uh, we appreciate you having here and the commissioner
Dean is, is I think, you know, indisposed today. She's out of town, so I'm sure she'll
come back and, and, and catch up and, and watch this after that back. So, thank you,
Ahmed. Thank you. All right, have a great day
running a tight ship, running a tight ship. All right. Well, we have four minutes
till the 11 o'clock scheduled presentation. Good to see you. Asa Matt. Good to see
you too, right? Um So let's, uh, let's just take a brief, uh, another brief recess
so we can get all, all, all signed up and, and get ready to go. So we'll be back
in just three minutes. Ok.
Stomach just job. So I didn't need to do that, but I know, ok, everyone
ready. Ok. We'll call ourselves back into session. We are joined by, uh Matt Tyler
and Asa, I'm not sure your last name, Asa Clifford, Asa Clifford, uh, to talk about
plans down at the Quilcene Community Center. So glad that you guys could be here
and I'll turn it over to Matt. Thank you. Thank you commissioners um staff and most
especially volunteers who are advocating for the skate park, including AA and others.
There might be parks advisory board members online. I don't know, but let's see.
Um The parks and rec advisory board, I reviewed this project for quite a while and
um has given it an official recommendation to the commissioners and the project has
proceeded uh along with some preliminary design uh funded by a grant from the county
uh that occurred during a well attended community um participation meeting. They
have a second one planned. Uh The proposal is to put a skate park in the middle and
community park as you guys know. But before we do that, we think it's important to
get in front of the, the board uh to get your input and potentially um potentially,
I don't know, it's up to you if you choose to do any official action about it. I
don't know if it's necessary. Um Later there will be a donation agreement as a follow
up. Um The volunteers are planning to um get a uh
fiscal sponsor. They're working on that right now and then they'll apply for the
new RCO grant, the community Outdoor athletic facility grant that you're all familiar
with. It's been a great opportunity, potentially a great opportunity for them. If
it gets funded, it could move ahead quickly. Just wanna make sure that everything's
coordinate in terms of where it ends up in the in the park and that you guys support,
support it and get your input. So, can I ask one question on that before we go too
far? And that's, um, and this is really a question for ASA, but are you, are you
guys pretty, do you have, do you think the new fiscal sponsorship is um certain?
I mean, we're coming on March 8th pretty quick. The application deadline. Is there
anything we can do to support, um, that new fiscal sponsorship? I mean, we're moving
quickly with the Y MC A, I think out of necessity, we're moving towards a contract
and hopefully we know this week whether it's gonna work or not. But, um, what kind
of things, I mean, a letter of support, I mean, we can reach out if there's any,
but it doesn't sound like there's any uh pinch points along the way. You, you, in
your conversations with the Y MC A, I just, it's mostly been Brady in contact with
Wendy. Ok. Yeah, so I can check in. Ok, just to make sure and just reach back out
if anything. Oh, yeah, bring, bring Brady over, here's a Brady online. So I'm gonna
bring him over
potentially support. Is there the commissioners could connect and collaborate, I
guess, and staff, I'm willing to do anything I can support the better. Really? Ok.
Well, I'll reach out to Wendy. Yeah, and, and Tracy Coleman has been brought in on
this. Yes, Tracy and Ben and I met. Yes. Ok. Excellent. And they, they went and looked
at the site. And so, um that's the whole point is to make sure that everything is
coordinating before we plop this down.
So you can see potential septic field, potential restroom. Um, sort of orient folks.
This is a community center right here. Yeah. And then of course, and the highway
would be down here, right. Yeah. Playground there, Washington Street there.
So, one thing is that the Septic field and the skate park and the skate park could
be flip flopped in this design with no problems. Uh Tracy and Ben have um commissioned
um per holes to make sure that everything perks and they're doing some preliminary
work to see which is better. It would be completely possible to flip flop those two,
I don't think with any issues. The only issue is that the, the design is being laid
on the top of the ethical map in the current location. Yes, that as we speak. Exactly.
And in which it's a preliminary design, it can be the natural design. There's no
actual um ground or water or geoengineering or anything going into it. That wouldn't
be hard to update. Oh, and the current location is the one on the Yeah, graphic here.
Yes. They haven't produced any, any sheets or any technical work yet. Engineers haven't
looked at it and so forth. Ok. Just keeping that option open if, if it's required
by the Septic field
question time or is there anything else? I think that's
Yeah, Brady. Um Do you, do you wanna speak at all to anything we can do to help in
your pursuit of fiscal sponsorship by the Y MC A?
I don't know if you're free to talk or if indeed we have the right. Brady. I don't
know. Brady's last name either mcdonald, Mr mcdonald,
I just joined for this portion of the meeting. So
well, we can't hear you right now, Brady, you look like you're unmuted. Um Oops,
gone,
he's back to the attendees. He demoted himself bad connection or something. Maybe
I know. Yeah, Philip Hucker has been looking for that option for ages. Ok. Let's
try to bring him back. Uh Hold on. I, I will add a public comment so we'll give you
an opportunity. Right, Brady. Hey, now, now we can hear you. Hello. Can you see me
as? Oh, I, I, I'm not seeing myself. So can you hear me though? We can hear you?
And that, that that's fine. Were you able to hear our, our question for you? Um You
cut out a little bit. I think my connection is not as good as I thought it would
be. But um regarding the sponsorship with the Y MC A, I'm assuming. Ok. Um So actually
I'm, I just spoke to Wendy yesterday afternoon. She was over in Washington DC, so
we had trouble kind of connecting over the last week. Um, but we emailed back and
forth, essentially, we haven't secured the, um, the sponsorship yet. She's having
her, her meetings with the board and with, um, the, uh, the, her Financial like
committee, uh, essentially this week. And so hopefully on, by Friday,
we'll have a little bit more clarity. She just essentially has to check off all the
boxes. I'm, it was, although I'm optimistic about it, I'm, you know, I'm aware that
they, you know, we are, we don't have the contract secured yet. So I am looking at
an open to other options. But um because until we get that contract, we can't, you
know, we can't uh move forward. But we're um we've been in, in conversation and sort
of, you know, trying to share all of the details and all the information so that
they feel like, you know, confident and in supporting us with uh fiscal sponsorship.
Um But yeah, we're just not, we don't quite got it yet because she has to, she has
to work with her people there to get full approval. But she said a manager that she's
she works with for her projects was excited about, about it. And so I'm feeling like,
oh, this, this, this could work out really well for us. Ok. Well, I, I encourage
you to send photos of the well attended uh charrette that you guys had down at the
community center. I think it's a, it's a great way to demonstrate interest and I'll
just repeat what we said to Asa before you were on. Um, you know, if there's anything
I can do to help, you know, write a letter of support to, to the Y MC A or anything
or if there's anything on this end that would be helpful, just, you know, you can,
you don't have to answer right now. You can reach, reach out to me offline. Oh, heck
yeah. Don't, don't uh don't hesitate to send us a letter of support. I love the idea
of just, you know, as much as possible. I don't wanna, you know, I was like, I'm
gonna kind of kind of, you know, dump all of this stuff on, on her, like look at
all these people who are so, so excited about that, you know. Um So I'd love as much
of that as possible. All right, I, I will work on one. You can tell that one of your
three county commissioners used to own a skateboard shop in Port Townsend briefly.
The paved, yeah, we took over the paved wave from Gary Bone,
but I only, I only rode long long board, so I was not in our skateboard parks for
the long board people. Yeah. Yeah, it has a pump track. That's one of the things
that came out in the design charet is that very common theme is to have this accessible
pump track around the outside that any, you know, a wheelchair or anything could
use basically so
it can use the microphone. Sorry, I didn't tell you before. But last week we went
to the New Brian or a horse to check it out and they have a pump track. That's really
cool and fun to roll around on for everyone. Nice. Love it. That was one of the big
points in the shred that I attended was the accessibility of skate parks is, is uh
kind of baked into them is kind of my, my, my takeaway that they are. It's a very
inclusive uh community, so not a lot of rules. Yeah. Uh OK. Did you have any
questions? Heidi? It's super exciting, really exciting. I we do have some public
here that are interested. So I'm gonna add a little public comment maybe if we uh
ready, if you can grab this microphone and bring it up so everyone can read you.
That's all. Oh OK. Yeah. Well, we'll lush out some of those, some of those things
there. Um Yeah, Matt, let's, let's, let's talk about these red circles. I mean, we
talked about the skate park and that's the area that we are looking at and then to
expand the restrooms, which is another Harper grant that we made was to support the
design of that and to, and also really the idea that we would put capital dollars
into um funding the actual construction of the new septic system. So looking at at
spaces that can build a re uh uh uh drain field, big enough to have an actual commercial
kitchen in the community center and showers that are accessible to the um uh to the
campers as well as the comedian at large. I think Matt also talked about in this,
the desire at least and maybe it's not exactly funded but to have AAA camp host at
quil scene. I don't know. Do you want to talk about that idea or is that premature?
Um It's just these ideas are, but the skate park is fairly concrete. Good one. It's,
it's my realm that dad jokes go on. So, uh parking along Washington Street, um potential
restroom with showers where it says restroom and the, the footprint there is just
conceptual and schematic. So it doesn't show the actual size except for the skate
park is approximately 7500 square feet. It won't be a rectangle. It won't be an ugly
rectangle. It'll have a natural and organic shape. It may exceed those boundaries
slightly so that it fits in beautifully to the park. All this stuff will enhance
the beauty of the park, a pathway leading to the campground because the campgrounds
all over here, it's not shown on the map. So it all fits in. Uh I know that the temporary
building is looked at is being looked at for use changes. Potentially, I don't know
what those would be. I I don't know the size of the septic field. But, um, that would
be one possible location to put it in. How about a camp host department? That's,
we, we talked to the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff's office about possible annex.
And they actually asked the budget last year for a South County officer that was
not approved last year, but it's an open conversation. But I think they said, uh,
um, in that conversation that we don't need an office really, you know, the cars
are pretty much self contained offices. So I doubt that it would be any sort of J
CSO annex or anything. But what is, you know, the food bank is building their own
um facility a couple blocks over. And so that is going, that's the primary use of
that is storing food. So it's just is kind of um it's up for a new, it needs a new
alternative use, right? It's still got good bones is what I've heard from, from that.
It's a solid building that it had some old issues, but those have been sorted. I
think. So. So you're talking about the circle, possible use changes. That's the way
it's just a little uh prefab building just ad immediately adjacent to the community
center. Yeah. Uh So the, the uh septic field, you gotta talk into the microphone.
Yeah, the septic field would be potentially be used for the RV Park itself then and
maybe for a pump out or it would just be mainly uh facilitating the, the restroom
and we didn't have it in mind. We're not looking at an RV park. Um We have in mind
a camp close site. There's no plan changes to the campground. The septic field will
just be for the building just for the buildings and then the, the restroom. And we're
talking about a prefab, you know, shower restroom thing that you just kind of plop
down and connect to a new septic system still cost, you know, a couple $100,000 probably.
But,
but they, you know, these are all early ideas and you know, we have a new central
services director that I'm, I'm, I'm gratified to hear has been down there with ben
from facilities looking at what some of the the real implications are. So I appreciate
you bringing them in. Yeah, definitely coordinating before we build anything. Yeah,
but really excited about the skate park and everything I've heard is that this application
would be really competitive with that new RCO grant. So, so really excited any other
questions? All right. Well, I appreciate you making time, Asa and Matt to come down
and, and talk about this and, and Brady as well. Yeah, and we're onward, we're, we're
on this path with you and I'll, I'll get a letter drafted to uh signal our support
of the fiscal sponsorship for the Y MC A. Sounds like the design should be in its
first stage is complete on the 29th. 0, exciting to see, share it with us and we'll
push it out here too. Ok. All right. Thank you guys. Thanks a lot guys. Thank you.
Ok. Flying through our agenda today,
we don't have any of Kate's difficult questions. Maybe that's why we're going fast.
Um Let's see. So Mary. Oh yeah, let's speak about this. Oh,
sorry, let's bring Marianne back over. Sorry Marianne. Uh Matt. Matt is still here.
We moved on. I didn't, I didn't recognize that you had something to say. We'd love
to hear from you. Well, I am just so sorry. I was having computer problems and had
to access the, the system through my cell phone finally. But, uh, it's all on my
fault. It's nothing to do. You guys were great. Um, just as a, uh, a district two
board member for the parks and recreation department. Um, we, uh, toured down there
in the quilt facility, uh, a few months ago and we were met with the skate park people
and it was exciting to see the excitement that all of them had and the
enthusiasm and what a great opportunity to bring to an underserved underdeveloped
area. And I just wanted to add that and it sounded like I got in the last few seconds
and you were nodding your head that you thought that was a great thing. Oh, yeah,
for sure. We are fully supportive of this and doing everything we can to help. So.
Yeah. Ok. You're all on board then. So that was all I had to contribute. And again,
my apologies for being so late. That's ok. Thanks for being here, Mary Anne. Nice
to hear your voice, Marianne. All right, you guys take care. Bye bye bye. Yeah. No,
great. From the parks and rec advisory board for a long time. I don't know, years
and years, decades, probably, decades, probably. Ok. Well, that uh takes us to the
end of our agenda. We haven't done calendaring yet, so maybe we should hit that.
And then are there any other agenda items that you need to raise today? Um Great
to take, you know, as many conversations as we can when we have all three of our
members here. So let's uh take a look at our calendars and then we can uh wrap for
the day. Uh How's yours? Look? Um So today, uh we're ending soon and then
um I have a lunch date and then this afternoon we have a Jefferson Transit Authority
Board meeting. At what time? At 330? Yep. Um And then tomorrow morning, we have a
budget meeting at 830. We all do. And tomorrow afternoon the Chico Empowered Teens
Coalition and then also the Short Farm work group um is meeting for our first non
tour meeting, meeting style meeting tomorrow evening at WSU. Were you planning on
going to the canal coordinating? I will in the midst of our meeting today, Kate confirmed
that. She, she's now chair of the H canal Coordinating Council and she is planning
to chair that meeting remotely, so I will not be attending. Yep. But I was for a
minute going. Yeah, you're doing the election on Thursday. I am certifying the election.
Yeah. So Thursday, Thursday, I'll be certifying the election upstairs with our team
upstairs and, um, I'm pretty sure that Kate's going to the no DC meeting Thursday
afternoon, but I have a time. I'm the no DC. Oh, ok. You've got that. Ok. So I will
take it off. I just leave things on tentatively till I get. Um, and then I
hope to pop in at the D CD backlog celebration. So,
yeah, the lack of a backlog working through the backlog. Um, and then Friday, I am
trying to get somebody from East Jefferson fire and rescue or the K team to come
on KPTZ and talk about the Kers program, but I have yet to receive confirmation of
that. So we'll consider, um, how I'll have a backup topic in place, I guess. And
then Saturday, um, is the opening of the new library at the Jamestown tribe in Glenn.
And I want, I want to go to that. So I'm trying to make that happen and would love
to take my mom to that because she, she loves, she loves libraries almost probably
more than I do. So, probably got it from her. So that's my week. And let's see, let's
look at, just take a quick glance at next week just to see if there's any,
don't look like I have any conflicts next week. Yeah.
Ok. Good, great. Uh, let's see, my week, uh, yesterday was able to
go to the North Hood Canal Chamber of Commerce meeting in Brennan. Good meeting.
Um, you know, having a, some growing pains, you know, it's, uh, it's hard, hard,
hard time of the year for Chambers of Commerce. It's just hard to get people to,
to, to show up. But um good stuff going on. I feel like there was something I wanted
to report out from the ACA. Um
Yeah, I can't remember uh today, I'm with you guys and then of course, I'll be at
the Jefferson transit meeting. And then as we mentioned earlier, we have another
uh independent financial feasibility review with the whole steering committee on
this one at three o'clock. So I have to leave Jefferson transit a little bit early.
Uh Tomorrow, I have both the budget meeting and the team Jefferson um recompete group.
I'll probably go to the budget meeting. I don't think there's anything critical this
week. Then I am meeting uh via Zoom with uh vice chair Lopez Maria
Lopez from the whole tribe. Talk about recompete and how we can make recompete work
for the ho and Karen from no DC is joining me for that. Uh Glad I don't have to go
to the hoot canal. Coordinating council on Thursday morning. We're um, kind of following
up the Port of Port Angeles and the two Ed CS and no DC and myself on our, our tribal
outreach in the morning before I will attend Jef Com probably remotely. And then,
uh there's a, I don't even know what this is. Um, oh, it's a, it's a grand
opportunity with the Behavioral Health Consortium for the, that uh believe in recovery,
East Jefferson fire Rescue and hospital reps will be attending and I'm kind of here
all day. So I, I'll jump into that. Do not have to do the election. We have our jobs
creation meeting for Recompete Thursday afternoon and then I'll be at the monthly
no DC meeting. And then on Friday, I have a weekly recompete meeting
and uh um two recompete meetings. And uh that's what I have on my schedule for Friday
next week. I don't think I have any big conflicts. No,
normally Mark. How does your week this week look? All right. Well, today with the
board, of course, then tomorrow uh budget committee. Um so we've shifted to the third
Wednesday of the month now. And so this is our 1st, 3rd 3rd Wednesday meeting. Um
Then I'm meeting with um Wendy Davis to go over um strategic plan uh objectives for
which uh Wendy is responsible. Um And then um Stacy Prata Judy
Shepherd and I are checking out um software packages to uh upload our budget data
to so that we can in a very easy to understand format share with the public what
our budget is using pie charts and bar charts and trend lines and so on. Um Yeah,
I think Judy mentioned during her work plan that our budget presentation is numbers,
numbers, numbers are to make sense of them. And so anyway, we're hopeful that we'll
find something that Wendy number one can afford that and that our new reconstructed
it office uh can support if you need any. Uh I'm, I'm learning how to use the program.
R I can make you plot lines and things like that. So let me know if I can help. I
like least I, I use a I to program it for me because of that programming is like
linear regression and stuff like that. Yeah, regression analysis and Nova, all that
stuff. So least squares, squares and means and all that. So uh yeah, if you want
that done, I am a horrible programmer myself, but I have a very good relationship
with my chatbot so I can get it done. That's starting to get a little creepy Greg
uh uh you know, professional relationship. OK. Uh And then 330 I'm meeting with Josh
Peters to go over his strategic plan objectives. He's got quite a few that would
be then on Thursday, Jeff com admin board, I, I may consider driving down to the
fire station. I haven't been there in a what? Three years? And uh, the acoustics
when I join remotely are not all that great. That's true. Um And then I'm scheduled
for a gender review with Kate, but she's not here. So I don't know whether that's
gonna happen. So I'll probably join in with the Washington County Administrative
Association, um, regular uh Zoom call. And then on Friday, I'm meeting with
Josh and Phil Sincere uh to talk about uh ramping up the fire inspection program.
Um, uh, you might remember, uh, commissioners that you approved a fee regime for,
uh, the fire marshal's office and we're looking to hire a deputy fire marshal and,
um, and then stand up that program, begin earning revenue so that we can and by the
fire marshal at a, uh, a vehicle and, um, make that a breakeven program. So that's
my week. All right. Um, anything else that you wanted to, to broach today? Mark?
Um, I don't think so and the strategic plan thing is heating up and I'm, I'm happy,
um, happy that it's doing so, um, need to get with Barry done and talk about the
dashboard this week. Yeah. You know, one of the things I learned, I gotta look up
the quote now, you know, the, the old saying, if you can't measure it, you can't
manage it. Yes. And then also the things the boss checks or the ones that get done,
that's, that's good. Um, the, I think the whole quote of that. If you can't measure
it, I'm looking it up now because, um,
yeah, I mean, how do you know you've improved if you can't measure it? Right. But
the, the actual quote, it's, it's like half of the sentence I'm trying to find it
now. Um, hold on one second. It's worth, it's worth the wait,
you were the strategic plan skeptic, weren't you? Commissioner? I was, yeah, initially
I don't, I mean, I don't think I was, I, I mean, I've had, uh, um, uh,
reservations just about the, um, action that strategic plans engender. Um,
there we are.
Um, oh, I, I gotta find it. I gotta find it.
Oh, that's what it,
it is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. That's
the original quote. Ok. Which the meeting 100 and 80 degrees? To me that's different.
It's a different statement. Well, it's different than where I thought you were going.
Um,
you can manage it if you can't measure it. I mean, yeah, I mean, what, what do we
mean by measurement, objective or subjective? We're often very focused on counting
and you can count things a lot of different ways. Um, but, well, I mean, you, you,
you could come up with the employee survey, um, and have them answer 100 questions
and, and then score those and come to the conclusion that things are better. But
subjectively you might know that that's not the case. Yeah. No, it's true. And it's
just, I don't know, I, I think it's so funny that quote is the antithesis of the
antithesis of what he said.
But, yeah. No, but it is, I mean, often measuring these, these metrics are, I think,
really critical to making sure that we're actually implementing the strategic vision
that we can compare, like with, ah, that's presentation, you know, track over time
if more people are having access to information or getting served by the county,
to me, it's a meaningful, um, tracking and things. Absolutely. Ok. So wise
words for done, wise words for done. Ok. The, the words are failing me at this point.
So, if there's anything else for the good of the order, all right, we are adjourned
for the day. We will see you guys next Monday with, uh Che Dean back. Have a good
week. Right. Thank you.