A capture and I'll hit record on Zoom. Ok. Thank you. And thanks for your patience,
recording in progress. Thanks for your patience. Everyone. As we work through some
technical issues, I will call this special meeting of the board of county commissioners
to order. And also we will kick off this county coordination meeting that we're kind
of locked into our agenda because this is a special meeting of the board. So the
first thing is to talk about the outreach planning. And I, you know, many of you
were with us uh at the tri area community center and uh the takeaways from the last
one where we, I think had two members of the public, one, a planning commissioner,
a planning commissioner. Uh And I think two people online was we had a great presentation
and a really lively conversation about the sewer. I guess my takeaway is that we
should make sure that we can add some value and we can't really cancel these upcoming
meetings. And I think I can work to get better. You know, district three is going
to come out for the meeting. No problem. But I do think we might want to focus on
a topic that we might even advertise Andrean a sewer probably. And quil some of the
big projects down there and garden or maybe the boat project or something like that.
But, um, that was my takeaway of a good conversation and a poorly attended community
meeting. But I'll open the floor to anyone else for other observations or ideas for
our next one at Gardner, which is in the, I think the 18th of August Greg. This is
Carolyn. Sorry to interject here. I just wanted to say that the agenda had a public
comment period, but there's no public in attendance. Also. Also I talked to county
administrator mccauley and he was saying that um he is saying we should have a bigger
conversation if we should still have these. I suggested that we continue finishing
off the rest of this year and then go ahead into conversation about how we can promote
it better. But also maybe we do like youtube videos on certain topics as well. That's
my, thank you, Carolyn. Um Yeah, I think it would be disingenuous to cancel it, you
know, for the communities that just because some haven't showed up. But sorry, I
saw a couple of people raise their physical hands. Apple and then Stacey, oh, I was
just gonna come in on having gone to my very first one of these in 2019 and it was
at Gardner and it was very well attended certain populations we might just construe
that we know they're gonna come out. I think Ludlow was an example of that. I kind
of expected that and it turned out to be the case, but these others haven't been.
So, I don't know. Um, I think Carolyn makes a good point. And Greg, you're saying
as much that we continue to do these through this year and then talk about it a little
more going forward. I, I am a little bit worried about the west end. I, I want to
go because I haven't done any work out there myself. And, um, yet that would, that's
a very long haul and potentially overnight for just a, uh, one resident or two. And
that one was very poorly attended. Even when I did this previously in 2019, it was
the worst attended one I believe. Well, I have a dual mission to go and meet some
people in that area. So II I look at it as an opportunity but I realized that the
attendance could be very, we had about 15, we had about 15 people, which is actually
more than the last two meetings we had. Yeah. No, that's true. Um, ok. And there's
lots of work going on over there too. So, stuff to talk about Stacey. Um, so I think
the first one I went to was in like 2012 or something and we had a lot more turnout.
Um, and I, I too, I'm concerned about the west end. I really would like to see
how we can meet their needs this year before we go out there. I also don't want to
cancel it, but I would like to, you know, find out what they would like to talk about
and, um, you know, be there for that and have an actual conversation. Um,
yeah, I mean, though, I remember them before I was treasurer and going to them and
they were very, uh, there were a lot of people there but they also were kind of community
organized about a specific topic and specifically one of them that I went to was
the Port Ludlow one where they had, had, you know, we just issued the sp a determination
on one of the mines and that was a focus. So, if there are specific issues, um, you
know, I think we had the, the sewer set for this week in anticipation of what we
expected to be the questions. But I agree if, um, people had known there would be
a huge focus on it. You know, we might have even have gotten some people that came
to the Port Ludlow or the Port Townsend one. Thanks, Jeff. Yeah,
my own feedback is, I, I like the, um, I like, you know, the other ones we've always
had were, were, you know, early spring or late or late fall. I mean, it's basically
around winter and having them in the middle of summer, you know, you're basically,
uh, competing with, I mean, a lot of people are doing other things during the summer.
And, uh, but I'm also kind of biased because of property tax, the property tax issues
and valuation issues. You generally hear more in the fall and spring, not in the
middle of summer. So, folks are focused on other things. So, um, it's hard to cover
property tax and people aren't thinking property tax. And, uh, and I actually enjoy
the west end, you know, I lived out there and it was, I enjoyed even though you had
a few people from, but they're from the whole tribe. And that's important is I don't
get a chance to talk to the whole tribe otherwise. And there are a lot of good things
with what's going on out there that do involve the whole tribe. So I did, I do get
something out of the west end eating meetings even with just a few people there because
they're often the movers and shakers for the area and 15 people is like, you know,
5 10% of the population. It's actually a really good turnout, Kate.
Yeah, I, it, it, this brings up for me the question of where are people getting information
right now, which I think has changed since the pandemic. And, um, I wonder how much
communication is happening between like Wendy and, and different departments that
have, um, external communications. And if maybe we could be doing a better job of
being more strategic and in our, our Countywide communications. So, like I said,
I don't know if that is happening, but I would, I don't know, I guess just empower
Wendy. I see her on the call here today to like, you know, really help us think through
where are people getting information and how can we be reaching them better? Because
I talked to a number of people who said they wish they had known about the meetings
and didn't. And you know, I mean, people always say that it's impossible to reach
people. I'm not pretending like we can reach everyone and yet, um I, I mean, I think,
you know, it's this problem, we're all in our echo chambers. But so how are we gonna
bust through that? Because it, it, it, you know, it is our, our responsibility to
be able to reach our constituents. Um I will say that west end meetings in the past,
even though not very well attended have ended up being something of an informal retreat
for, for those county folks who attend. And I would really encourage people to do
it even if we don't get great representation from the public. Um We've always had
a great time spending time together as colleagues out there. So if that's uh um helps
anyone decide whether or not to attend, it's, it's a really valuable time to be together
in a really cool part of the world, which happens to be in Jefferson County. Yeah,
that's great. Kate. I think the way meetings have changed too since the, the pandemic.
Right. And there's so many out there. I mean, these are really meetings about nothing.
Unless there's a topic that, uh, um, that people are focused on that we advertise.
I mean, I know Wendy can speak for herself but I, I mean, she worked with the community
center and we were out on next door and Facebook and apparently where, you know,
the kids are going these days. Um, but there, there were a lot of competitions as,
as Jeff says in the middle of summer. So, yeah, I mean, maybe schedule is, is something
that we can look at in the future. Although we've done it in the fall in the past
and we've gotten feedback both from county staff and from the public, um, that they
don't like to be out driving in the late night dark. So it's true.
Uh, other, other thoughts
and, and to Apple's Point, I think, you know, Gardner traditionally, I mean, because
they have a really engaged community with that community center, I can send them
a note and say, hey, make sure you put this in your newsletter. And if we, especially
if we have a topic that we can agree to talk about, I think, um, uh, would be great.
So, um, is there anyone seriously considering not having the meetings? I feel like
it would be disingenuous for those, those communities that haven't had an opportunity
not to show up to not show up ourselves. Ok. All right. Well,
um, if is there, you know, last call, anything else people want to share takeaways?
Great, great presentation by public works. I'm not sure if Monty or Samantha are
on, but, uh, I learned a lot about the sewer. So, um, we're gonna be giving your
cards out all over town. Ok. Well, we will move on to budget guidance and appropriation.
Take it away, Judy. Ok, good morning and almost good afternoon everybody. Um, just
uh budget appropriations were approved on Monday. They have entered into the budget
in Munis. Um, it's resolution 29 23. Um, just the high points is general
fund increased to one time expenditures was 886,001 05. Most of that I have to say
it with the exception of about 100,000 was due to the medical benefit being paid
by the county. So, um, I know we're all, we're no longer on vacation, but the, the
employees are because the county is picking up the bill on that. So, um, and then
for other funds, we're at 1,000,091 $47 for the one time expenditures. 100 and
2000 for ongoing. And um, this just brings us again to a total of 1,000,009
77 1 52 for um, one time expenditures and 100 and
$44,033.01 in ongoing expenditures. So um a little more than
usual or the second quarter appropriation, but um maybe quarter three will be likely,
but we'll see. Ok. And then the other um item that was um um done on
Monday was also the um matter of establishing objectives and procedures for the 2024
2025 biennium budget. And that's resolution 30 23. I think most of you received that
in your email. Uh just a couple of high points. Um We're working on, on salaries
and benefits. Um I will be hopefully getting those out to uh departments. I'm running
them out of as a projection this year and so hopefully getting those out sometime
next week, I'm gonna push to try to do that no promises, but I'll, I'll do my best.
Um And then um one thing that was nice is that in this resolution, we incorporated
the hard work of all of you on the strategic plan uh priorities. And so when we're
looking at budget, how does that line up with our um county strategic priorities?
So what was, you know, it hasn't been fully accepted yet? I understand that. But
um we did take those high points and put that into the presentation as well. So just
a couple of other things, um other costs other than salaries and benefits will have
a 1.5% increase. Um and then for 24 and 25. So that's what we did for the
2023 amendment. So we're going to carry forward with the 1.5 on the next two years.
Anything that is over and above the 1.5 for the general fund can be done with a request
that will be reviewed separately. So we also talked a lot about uh prior to this
service agreements, a lot of you have service agreements like for Pats or for um
um recording software, election software. So you would increase your budget to
1.5% for those contracts and then add it to your ad and you don't have a lot of wiggle
room. You don't have any wiggle room on that. So just put it on the ad form, it'll
be considered an ad and I'll be covering more of that in the training. So I just
wanted to just do a high level. This is how we're going to handle it. Transfers from
the general fund at a minimum will stay the same as 2 23 2 other departments. And
if there's an increase, it would comply with the General fund financial policy uh
in requesting additional funds. And um as you know, appropriations when we do them
through the year, all one time expenditures are not added to the budget for 24 and
25. So only the ongoing expenditures are added to the budget. Uh for the preliminary
and then, um, I already talked about a request and I think that's just a high level
view if you have questions. Um I'm here. Um, feel free to reach out.
Thank you very much, Judy. Any questions or clarification anyone would like today?
All right. Well, thanks so much for, for shepherding us through this pun intended.
Um And Sarah, why don't you take us through the, the good news with UFCW and the
collective bargaining update? Uh Good morning, everybody. Um So yes,
UFCW contract was ratified by, uh the union members on July 12th.
The signature document is now with UFCW and I'm hoping they can sign that and turn
that around. The next steps in this process are union signs. It returns it to us,
it goes through our legal and risk review and then it's adopted by the Board of County
Commissioners. So, um, I'm hoping that we're done with that by the middle of August.
It's hard to tell. Um But that's my hope we have uh agreements, uh not
agreements. We have meetings scheduled in August, uh with sheriff's office, admin
and uh team public works for um negotiating for those contracts
and looking forward to that in August.
Great. Thanks so much, Sarah. Any, any questions? Go ahead, Kate. Yeah, this is more
a question for departments that have, um, employees in UFCW. Um And we made some
changes to how we did collective bargaining this year. Thank you. Sarah and Mark.
And I'm just curious if, if you received any feedback for how that process went.
Um And I feel largely out of the loop because commissioners are kind of kept out
of the loop. Um But we just love any, any, if you have any strong feedback, go ahead,
Stacy. Um I'll just say I intentionally don't discuss any of that with
union employees. So I only get, you know, maybe I overhear something, but really,
I don't hear any of it. Um because I feel like that's just AAA problem area
to get into. So, you know, it's, I hear things from management side and then I, you
know, might hear a little bit but it's just no response at all on my end. A good
example. Treasure, pray that Jeff. Yeah. The, the one big thing for me is that, uh
we're done and we've got the union contract settled in July 6 months before it goes
into place, not a year after it goes into a place. And I mean, that makes life easier
for everybody because um, we're not going back, we're not guessing for the next 18
months. It was just, it's really nice that it was done before the, the contract starts.
That's, yeah, 100% agree. Thank you, Jeff Apple. Uh resonate with Jeff. Thank you
for saying that. Um Thanks Sarah and Mark. You're not here. But, you know, it's amazing
the sort of energy and uh just mobilization. So, thank you. And I was also just gonna
um agree with Stacey. I also don't have any sentiments from my staff because they
are very well versed in obviously talking amongst one another but not coming to me.
And so I have only heard a little bit over cubicle walls just by proxy. Um So my
point is, is to say also that when Sarah was willing to offer sort of informational
meetings for us to come to, to, to think through this after it's been adopted or
after it's been discussed and agreed to, I know it has more of a process to go through.
Um I appreciate that because I'm intentionally trying not to be involved for all
the regions, Stacey said. Um but I do feel it in my new leadership, it feels a little
rocky because big things are happening and I don't, you know, you don't know it in
real time because you're not part of the discussion intentionally. So and so thank
you Sarah for offering the opportunity to come and learn about it. And I've been
in a bit of uncomfortability over the last week just hearing that everybody knows
everything and I know some things that I really want to hear it like hammered out
for my own sake because the ramifications. Well, it's very good for staff and really
happy and for recruitment and all the other things it, it has a big impact on right
now, especially during our budgeting period. So I need to know and I, I have to understand
to, to be able to engage in it better. So two kudos to Sarah. Thank you. That's all
that I really mentioned. Great, great. Thank you, Apple Shannon. Uh Yeah, so I guess
because my office is right next to the little uh area we have lunch or maybe it's
because I'm really close to just assume the management role. So I'm still in the
trenches a little bit in their view. Um Not listening for information, but they're
talkers for sure in my office. And I've only heard like really, really overhearing.
Wonderful. Um Just excited the fact that it was done so soon that alone
has kind of made them feel I get, I get from them like valued or there's a big intention
or uh just the attention around it, uh attention and intention. So I, I feel like
the morale has boosted at least in my office and I have a lot of new staff that are
who, who are just really excited about it and feel valued. So I would, I've heard
nothing but really positive things. So that's my little intel. Great. Thank you,
Sharon. Anyone else with any thoughts on how this has gone? I mean, I think everyone
is in favor of the uh the timeline that we've achieved. Thank you again, Sarah and
Mark, that's you guys. Really yeoman's work there. So thank you and just to note
that there are um three more scheduled meetings um on how the change is, we had our
first this morning, we had about 12 folks there. It was really, really great, really
great questions um and more to come if needed. Um that this is a
really dynamic process. And I think one thing that really assisted this time was
the um the opportunity that the county had to provide uh a bigger
pay uh, raises. So I'm looking forward to three years from now to see how it goes.
Um Hopefully we'll have good news then as well. Um, but, you know, I have to say
that we, uh, the team, the shop stewards, these are county employees who volunteer
their time. Very thoughtful, intelligent, really care about the work they do. And
so really kudos to the employees who participate and represent all the staff here.
Great. Thank you, Sarah. Ok. Well, we're gonna have, uh, an update on the strategic
plan process from Stacey Commissioner Eisenhower, who's also been on that leadership
team was, uh, I think double booked or triple booked perhaps right now. So Stacey,
how, how's it going? And we were, I hope we weren't too brutal, really appreciate
all the work that's gone into it. I, I think what feels brutal is really what we
need. You know, you can't sidestep it to get through the issues and, and, and the
aspects we really want to touch on and include. So Apple is also on the uh steering
committee for it, uh as is Chris Goy Wendy, uh Davis and um Heidi and me and Mark.
Um so the uh consultant uh grabbed what you had
really did a fast turnaround of put it, providing the updates to our group. And then
Wednesday, we went through those updates. We made very minor uh suggestions on
there, but I think it's uh pretty ready for prime time to actually now go into
um kind of the final plan, which is all of the artwork, the customization, the, the
how you present it. Um And so the the laundry list of the questions they gave where
Mark said, yes, we do want all these things would be a letter from the board, a letter
from him as the county administrator, um a background page on county government in
this whole plan, a plan at a glance because we want to be able to have a shorter
version that we can uh refer to uh infographic page showing what
went into this and they gave us an example so we could look at things like that um
and a progress reporting page. So uh they are gonna be working on the
implementation plan. Um And when I look at our calendar, we're really pretty on track
with everything. Um you know, provide it to the board for any changes that was Monday
was on this sheet that is at least uh two months old. So it's nice to see there were
only minor edits from when it actually started uh in February. So I feel like they've
run a tight ship and so has uh mark in keeping it uh as a priority and moving forward.
Um So really, we're looking at the final plan and implementation plan being done
by the middle of um August. So, um greatly appreciate everyone's
involvement and, and sincerity and wanting to make it a, a viable and useful plan
for our future. So, would love to hear any other input from different perspectives
because I think we've all had a very different experience with this because we've
all been in different parts of it and um uh provided input and had very meaningful
smaller group conversations. So there you have it. Great. Thank you, Stacey and Shannon.
I think your hand is up from before, but I'm gonna go to Apple Macs, but lower your
hand unless you still have something to say and then we'll go to you after Apple.
Thanks, Stacey. I just wanted to piggyback on what you're saying. Um I'm trying to
get my candy down. Thank you. Um I think just in the essence of how you capture that,
it's really um edifying um process has been complex and it's heavy at times. Um And
all of you said have contributed in some way or you experience it differently from
your vantage point, how involved or lesser involved you are or what parts of the
conversation you came in at. Um My comment really is about um something that's symbolic
to me. Um is that we were asked whether we wanted um folks involved all of us to,
to potentially sign it. And to me, that's a symbolism of buy in it is also a symbol
that we all participate in. And I think I won't speak of the past or history very
detailed, but I do know this is a huge departure from how it's been construed in
the past in terms of doing a strategic plan for the county. Um And to me that that
means everything, the optics of that is huge and optics aren't superficial, they,
they can go great. So I think our, our signatures on it as a package as a conceptual
design that we've all had contribution to um is unique for our county and I for any
count really. And um we've done, done a lot of work and I have personally learned
a ton. So, yeah, thanks to everybody for their contributions. Apple, I I appreciate
that. I also think that we've had more resistance to that from the consultants from
than from anyone internally. And so as we're at this point where we are, they're
still not putting certain things in. And I was like, OK, I'm gonna let it rest and
we will see what Heidi and uh Mark provide as input as it it comes through. But uh
they've definitely been you know, um responsive to the uh the requests and how we've
wanted to do it. They have remarked how unique our dynamic is here. And I just feel
like my, my uh interpretation of it is it's just kind of hardwired into them that
it goes a certain way. And so for us to say we would like to have everyone signing
this is just not registering in how they do these,
the consultant, right? Yeah. What, what's their uh do they have a rationale for resisting
it at all? I mean, an indication, what does it indicate something to them that is
negative? I mean, it sounds like a reflective of the work that's actually happened,
I think because it's the uh a strategic plan for the county and you're the legislative
body of it. Um They don't say this and they do know we're all independently
elected, but I think they, they just seem the traditional,
you lead the county and we do our own jobs and they're kind of in different lanes.
And I guess I really see it as we all are part of the huge picture
and you could have an independent strategic plan all day, but without the judicial
and administrative branches that are independently elected, I just don't see how
you get that alignment and real um progress. Um So that's my opinion. I
don't know that they would, they keep saying, yeah, yeah, we know, we know, I just,
but then when it comes back it doesn't say a picture of everyone involved. It says
a picture of the board. So, and, and Wendy's gonna be working on getting the pictures
and I see her on the call too. And so I, uh, I figured let's just get the work going
and if, if, uh, the aspect we brought up, uh, isn't there then, then we'll raise
it again. Ok. Well, I wonder if that needs to come from us, Greg. Yeah. No. Sure.
Um, yeah. Yeah, we'll, we'll talk about it too. I mean, Heidi is kind of our, our,
our proxy on that, on that, uh, steering committee. So, yeah, thanks for bringing
that up, Jeff. You have something to add. The one thing that, you know, again, it
took me a while to get used to the strategic plan as this was presented. But, you
know, there's no measurement in there of us, you know, there's no measurement of
our core values and to make sure that we are being ethical that we are moving forward
with technology to try to make as cost efficient as possible. And it's probably not
something that does go in here as a, as a objective. It's something that we are expected
to do and we're measured by, on, by the state. And, um, but I always thought, well,
how come there's not at least one item in there that really measures that, you know,
we're being, um, square with our taxpayers and our property owners. But, um, I don't,
I, I just have to keep, I know it's tough and we all do our different things and
we are, in, a lot of us are elected and we're expected to do that. So, you're right.
It would be very difficult to do it. That's not what I was saying. I was just asking,
how would you measure it? I wasn't challenging you. I was asking, is there a way
that you can identify it to measure the, you know, the efficacy of your work, the
past state audits? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how, how you would. You're right.
And I, and I, but I did put a lot of thought into it and I thought, well, OK, it's,
it's not in here, except in the core values, it's an expectation on all of us and
even if it isn't identified as a specific item, um, we're still going to live up
to that.
Ok. Well, well, and I, um I hear you on that, Jeff and I, I think, uh
that would be interesting. I'll give some more thought to it as well. Uh The other
is with the implementation plan and then they've identified metrics. But the one
thing on there is there's a whole core um workload
that isn't necessarily in the strategic plan because like I said, it's a given we
have to do these things. But I wonder as we do the implementation plan how we make
sure we don't lose the other good work we're already doing and can be taken for granted.
And I think that was something that public works really brought up on. You know,
they, they had uh a finger in everything but also a finger in nothing for what it
was because their, their capital projects are just kind of expected. So I don't know,
we'll see that on the implementation plan as we go forward if there's a way to capture
that. And I know that was brought up that they wanted to for the the other projects.
Public works does.
Yeah. Interesting. Thank you. Any other thoughts before we move on?
Thank you. Ok. Well, thanks for all your work, Stacey and Apple and Chris and Wendy
and everyone that contributed to it. It, it really is the work of the, of the county.
So I, I I'm in favor of the, the signatures and take your point, Kate, that maybe
we need to ask for that too. Sometimes you have to step down, just tell him that
we just experienced this with transit as well. Ok. Well, I, I just want to reiterate
that I'm gonna have to step out at, at 12 25 today. We can continue at 12 30 or even
a few minutes past, but maybe Kate, if uh I have to leave and we're still going,
can I pass it over to you to, to chair? Ok. Uh great. Well, we're, I believe at our
round table now. So, uh, I'll, I'll just go around my screen as I see it and you
don't have to, uh, give a report, but we love to hear what's going on in your neck
of the counting. So, um, I saw Jen just turned on her camera. Let's start with you.
Anything to share. Ok. Can everybody hear me? Yes. Ok. So we got,
um, kind of approved to apply for a grant, a reimbursement grant for
courthouse security, um, to comply with general court rules for trial security. So
there's a reimbursement and so we have a security committee meeting on the 25th.
The application is due on the first, which is kind of a short turnaround. But, um,
so hopefully we can apply for this and, and kind of update some of the stuff that
we have for security, maybe get some more cameras better, you know, duress alarm,
uh, broadcast system. Those kind of things is what we're looking at. So we're working
with the courts on that. Um, Chris Goy has helped out, um, Chris Ashcraft is gonna
help out if we have to do a grant or help fill out the grant. Um, so that's kind
of what we have going on up here. So that's great. Thanks so much. Um All right.
Next, next on my screen is Shannon. Anything to share from, from juvenile Shannon?
No, I think we're actually, uh, no eventful things which is great. We're just settling
in. Everybody's, uh, forming a great team and it feels like I went on a vacation
just recently, which felt really great. So, yeah, I think we're, we're doing great.
Cool, good, good to hear sometimes. No news is good news, Jeff. How about the assessor's
office?
Yeah, we're doing fine. We're on, we're on target. We've got full staffing and we're
gonna get it done and we're going to have there, which is good because we're getting
it done with, but there's a lot of new construction out there. So I've already got
appraise starting into the new construction phase. Um One thing that really bothers
me though is that this, we were trying to get more people on the senior city exemption
program. We've been losing folks off that program because their median income, their
incomes out, you know, going higher than the, the threshold, hold qualifying level.
And the legislature did some changes this last year, which I thought was going to
help that. And in the end, it really isn't because it's tied to the median income
for Jefferson County or for H county based on ofm what ofm and ofm projections for
2022 dramatically changed to what they're now projecting. And so basically in 2020
the project, the income for Jefferson County median income was 66,000 and they were
originally projecting up near 80 they're now down to 65,000. So dropping. Oh excuse
me 63,000. So they're dropping 3000 from the median income in 2020. Uh, on the other
hand, Clown County went from 54,000 to 66,000. So they went up 10,000. But as a result
of that, our, you know, the qualifying income for seniors is going up over nine years.
The last adjustment we had was nine years ago. It's going up by 6%. Well, a loaf
of bread has gone up by 35%. So, you know, it's not, you know, and I, I don't know
about, you know, I don't have much to do with OFM. And I know it's based on census
and, and, uh, during the pandemic it was based on employment, security numbers and
things like that. But it's just, it's just a little bit of a disappointment. So,
um, so we're not going to really promote it that much. I mean, we're gonna keep promoting
the way we always have. We're gonna go back to postcards and, yeah, the income level
went up like a few $1000. So, you know, it's, it's, it's good but it's not gonna
get those 100 seniors that have dropped off the rolls. It's not going to put more
than 10 of them back on. So, you know, it's kind of a disappointment and the state
I know is going to promote it because the legislature pumped money into promoting
the Senior Citizen program and they're gonna have it billboards on the side of buses
and stuff and it's good. I mean, we always like promotion but it's disappointing
that we're still losing seniors off the program because they're not keeping the,
the qualifying income levels aren't keeping up with inflation. That's super unfortunate.
I know you're optimistic of that legislation. It's too bad. Thank you for sharing.
Um, Barbara, anything to share from the prosecutor's office.
Um, not just that we're busy and everything's confidential. So there you
have it. Ok. Um, typical. All right, great. Uh, sheriff, anything to hear from the
sheriff's office. Yeah, just a few things. Um, we're, we're still moving on with
accreditation. Uh, we're about a third complete with that and the anticipation is,
will be accredited by spring of 2024. Um, and thanks to the good work of, uh, Chief
of Corrections, David Fortino. We are now, he, he received a grant. Um, so now whenever
someone is released from the jail, they get some naloxone in their, um, in their
little bag of goodies. So, um, that's, that's a good thing. Uh, we've recently completed,
um, active shooter training down in Quil at the Quilt school with, uh, South County
fire departments. Um, that were good earlier in the year we did it at, with, uh,
East Jefferson. So, um, good stuff going on there and just something that popped
in my head is the, I think, um, anyway, when the whole tribe was mentioned, we are
um, they lost an officer. So we are providing law enforcement, uh, assisting them
with that right now and we are talking about possibly, um, picking up that contract
again to, um, provide law enforcement out there. So, anyway, that's all I have. Great.
Thank you, Sheriff Chris. How about central services? Oh, sorry. Was there a question?
No. All right, Chris, what's up with, uh, central services? Hi, folks. Um, couple
quick, quick items, uh for information technology in our effort to transition the
servers down to the sheriff's office. Uh The next update that is relevant to you
folks is that uh we have some server configuration that needs to be done uh with
respect to folks at Castle Hill. So there's likely gonna be a uh evening uh outage
in terms of uh network capability at Castle Hill, uh possibly next week. So we will
give folks more than 24 hours notice uh to let them know that they can either work
from home or plan to stop working at five o'clock. Hopefully, uh one of the days
next week, we appreciate you bearing with us on that. It's sort of a necessary evil.
Um There's no real way to avoid it. Uh Folks received my email about switches wanted
dead or alive. You have pictures of what they look like. Um Those will help us prevent
future phone outages, which I explained in more detail in the email that you all
received. Hopefully with respect to facilities, things are moving along swimmingly.
We try to take full advantage of the warm dry months and folks are very busy. But
um I wanted to highlight in particular what I believe to be an uh an improving relationship
with our new neighbors at Seven Haven. Um I've been working with the directors at
Castle Hill to navigate that and um figure out clear communication channels. Uh when
uh issues do arise, we're gonna be repainting that parking lot soon to better accommodate
our guests in the front spots, um park spots that is uh er and R or fleet as you
all know them um is doing a board workshop on August 7th which we're really looking
forward to which will incorporate some plans for fleet electrification. And um folks
will have more information at that time, but long story short, the idea is to um
utilize state money to install level three charging stations and to phase in as uh
the useful type of vehicles and um the light duty vehicles that aren't required for
uh life and safety to be replaced with uh fully chargeable electric vehicles on the
replacement schedule. So uh minimizing additional cost to the county and uh records
folks just received a message from Ken, you know, our um records administrator, public
records administrator. If you have staff that are responsible for receiving public
records requests, we'd ask that you encourage them to attend the training that you
suggested. Uh He ends up having to do quite a bit of the work um, of parsing through
those requests if folks aren't fully up to speed on what's required of them at the
department level. So we greatly appreciate your participation. I think that's it.
Great. Thank you, Chris. Thanks for pushing the training. It's, yeah, I think there's
only gonna be more records request in our, in our, in our world. So it's good to
get up to speed. Stacey, how's the treasurer's office? Great. Uh No, we are good.
Uh uh So you could see from our newsletter so quick, shout out on the newsletter.
I absolutely loved it. I loved seeing all of the different stories. Thank you, Wendy
for, for making that happen for everyone participating and putting information in
there and just being vulnerable in the workplace and showing some humanity. Um
So in there you saw, we have, uh, Katie had gone through the professional development
academy and gotten her certificate this year and Sabrina is now retired after 31
and a quarter years and we have Thomas now here, just dove in
and uh working hard and, and really doing great, exceeding my, uh my hopes for the
position. So, uh we're rocking and rolling and trying to get people out of foreclosure.
So we don't have to sell their property and make sure we just follow all the rules
that institutional knowledge makes look easy and uh going through it on your own
doesn't so great. Thank you, Stacey. Uh Kate, we don't have you here in this group
often. Anything that you wanna uh shine a little light on?
Um, it took me a minute to realize you're talking about me. That's right. I guess
the, the transition. Um, I don't think so. Just, um, you know, as I mentioned earlier
this year, I'm, I'm gonna be out a lot. It looks like I'm gonna be gone. Basically
all of September and October uh with my husband in a very intensive therapy and isolation
in Seattle. So, um I will try to cover my bases, but we'll need a lot of grace from
all of you. Um uh might need some support, you know, for example, on boards I sit
on might ask for staff to fill in for me. Um If the other commissioners aren't available
or if it's pertinent to um work that you do. But, um, I, I'm not sure how much I'm
gonna be able to keep working versus being in a caregiver role. So it's, it's all
a little bit squishy, but um, just ask that you be patient with me as I um figure
that out. Uh that's probably through the end of October. So thank you, Kate and you
know, we got your back. So thank you, take care of your family. Uh Josh, how are
we doing in D CD?
Thanks Greg. Um Yeah, we're doing ok. So I was crunching some numbers here. As we're
going into our next phase of hiring. And when I joined or rejoined the county, last
June, we were at 19.4 FTE currently at 16.4. Um, but we lost 12
people in that period though. So that doesn't tell the whole story that, you know,
we're only three people down or so forth because a lot of the folks are new and so,
uh that we've rehired anyway, so doing a hiring deal and we're also um talking with
multiple consultants, had a bunch of phone calls yesterday. I had one this afternoon
and we're looking at as soon as we can getting um as many as five consultants on
board for on call services of a variety of nature. And uh that doesn't come actually
the water quality work that health is looking at contracting for as well. So just
kind of trying to rebuild capacity in that regard. Um multiple steps at a time it
feels like, but um still the progress, we won't see the results still a couple of
months out, right? Until we get those consultants rolling and get new hires on board.
And so it's just a process, you know, we're doing the best we can in the interim.
Meanwhile, we got lots of projects going on long range and uh development review.
Of course, working on this rolling master program update with the Planning Commission,
the Comprehensive Plan Amendment cycle for this year that we're falling behind on,
we've got the periodic review under the Growth Management Act that's due in mid 2025.
That really the bulk of the work is going to be in 2024 including taking a fresh
look at our urban development regulations for the urban growth area. Now that the
sewer is coming on board soon, um, since they haven't been looked at for 20 years.
So there's that. And then on the development view side, you know, I've, um, happily
handed over a lot, the permit decision making to our development code administrator
Greg Ballard. And I asked him to simplify things and, and move things as quickly
as possible and so forth. And he's, he's really been doing that since June 22nd.
He's already made a lot of progress in um helping the, the newer staff, um, you know,
learn the ropes in a quicker way than we were able to before after having lost all
that institutional knowledge. And of course, Chelsea is on the phone on the line
here and she's been doing a fantastic job as our administrative services manager.
And uh we're learning together in a sense, a lot of the, the nuances about how to
run the department since, um, the, um, folks who were running the department are
not here anymore. So we're having to learn all that and, and we, of course, we've
gotten um fantastic assistance from all most of you here um, over at the courthouse,
uh people like Judy Shepherd and um, Sarah Mall and so on and so forth. So, thank
you so much. And that's it for now. Great. Thanks so much, Josh. That's, uh, it's
a pretty optimistic update from D CD. I, I like to hear it. So good news. Um, Apple,
how are we doing in public health? We're doing good. Happy Friday, everybody. Um,
things are rolling along. We're always busy, I think, you know, Josh put it, well,
there's trying to get everybody up to capacity. We have new staff, we've filled some
positions, we have less vacancies right now, which is always a good feeling. Um As
I reported to the Board of Health yesterday, we on boarded our very first epidemiologist
at the county and she comes with tons of experience from out of the state but moved
to the area and um and we snatched her. So it's fantastic to have an epidemiologist
in our midst. We have plenty of staff in public health who engage in information
and data but don't have that expertise. Um And so we've contracted out for ep consultation
for years, years and years and years. Um And it's really nice to bring that in house
and we're doing a, a lot of strategic alliance among Callum and kits because in public
health, we do a lot of cross jurisdictional collaborations, not only in contracts
but also in mission and also in um sort of the scope of some of our programming.
And so the having an epidemiologist that sits here and is uh finely tuned and linked
with our neighboring counties can help our work just have that much more impact.
What we're really going for is a sort of strategic shift in the way that we present
data. Um We've had sort of offshoots of programs having their own little chunks of
data that they kind of keep here and there and it's not really synthesized very well
and we've had nobody sort of the middle point person um fielding those data points
or those data dashboards or those data in general. Um So now to have a hub, someone
in the middle of our organization who will be able to hold that information and then
present it, we will make it data transparency, which has been on my whiteboard, which
you can't see for a year and a half as a goal. Um And so data transparency to us
means how do we bring data in distill it digest it, utilize it, visualize it. How
do we also collect data from the community and project it out? So we haven't had
any central place for that to happen ever for this department. Um And public health
really the inner core of public health in terms of moving the needle on, anything
comes from epidemiological studies and from, from um figuring out where the gaps
are and fill this gap. So I feel like we're in a totally new phase and there's a
lot resting on a list, a new, but she comes from a health department in Florida and
has done for a while and she loves this area. And I just feel like all those, all
those little points of like, is she gonna stay? Does she go? Um I just feel like
we took them all off, which is such a God for us. In addition, we have um a new finance
manager which everybody on here is probably heard our long so story of how vacant
that position has been for most of five years. And our deputy director Khaw has done
a masterful job trying to be a deputy director and a finance manager all at the same
time. That's been really hard for her to do as well as she'd like to. And so the
team, the finance team has a new manager and it's really, um it just feels like a
page in the book. A big page is being turned ethically. Um And Jen is, she's wonderful.
She comes with lots of experience and management has in finance and I know we're
very pleased. So other than that, we're dealing with an avian flu outbreak out on
Rat Island if you've not heard of that yet, that's near for Flagler. Um And so we've
got hot chocolates every day. Um Working with a big block of terms that were affected
by flu and we're trying to keep people away um for obvious reasons. There's no link
between this um avian flu outbreak and human beings. But we have to be very cautious
as the cleanup is happening and um watching for vectors from that central point of
where the infection happened. Um, and making sure that we close that down, clean
it up. And I don't mean just we, we're also working apple. I'm sorry to interrupt
you. I got to fly. We've got Commissioner Eisenhower with us now too. So I won't
adjourn any meetings. I'll just pass the chair conch over to Kate and great to see
everyone. Sorry, I have to jet a little early, but please please continue with the
great work. I'm glad we have our very own epi its like we're growing up as a counter.
So we'll see everyone next time. Have a great weekend. Yeah, on that note, growing
up as a county, I think public health is also growing in some. It's a great relief
to just see some fantastic evolutions and it's all complicated and difficult work,
you know, to get it all buttoned up and dialed in. But I, I feel energy shift here
which is um really edifying and thanks to every one of you and all of your large
and small parts of always um being supported by public health through it all. You're,
you're glad to have COVID in the rearview mirror, so you can think about those things.
It's
great. Thank you, Apple. Um Anyone wanna jump in.
Yeah,
I've already spoken. Oh, ok. Sorry, I, um, multitasking a little bit. My daughter
is having, um, Taylor Swift emergencies is a big deal. So, um, give us the Taylor
Swift update, Kate, what's going on? Um, uh, she just got her license and has an
old electric vehicle and is afraid she's not gonna be able to make it to Seattle.
So it's, uh, yeah, you need, you need someone to take the tickets, right? I, I
could, um, I could make thousands and she would never speak to me again. Well, I'll
just say I'm gonna say, I'm sorry, I was late, but um I was participating in another
round of interviews for our 4h coordinator at WSU. So, um the one we just hired last
year, Sarah Peterson, who was doing a fantastic job, her husband got a job on the
other side of the country in Maine. So she has left us unfortunately. And we just
had two fantastic candidates who we interviewed to fill that position and I think
an offer will be made shortly to one of them. So, but, you know, it's a important
role and with fear coming up, it's kind of crunch time, show time at 4h right now.
Thank you for mentioning fair that, you know, the county is really reengaged with
the fairgrounds and trying to stabilize and revitalize that county owned facility.
Um So fair is coming up in a few weeks and would love to, to see more county folks
there. Um, let's see. How about our auditor Brenda?
Yes. Thank you. My camera is not working. It keeps freezing so I won't turn my camera
on. But, um, right now we're in the middle of an election. It's a pretty small election.
It's August 1st. It's the primary. Of course, you know, it's to nominate the top
two to go to the general. So that we only had three contests on the ballot and those
were all in school 3 23 which is Swim, which is out there, Gardner. So we still have
to go through all the motions uh to do the, the whole election is just a lot smaller
than, than we're used to. And then we did just hire Connie Mackey. She's our accounts
payable person. Um She started Monday. So anybody submitting um invoices will be
emailing her and, and working with Carney. So we're happy to have her on board. We
do have a couple more vacancies. We have the grants manager, which we will be interviewing
next week. And then we have our uh physical specialist that we just did an interview
by Zoom um last night. So we're starting to rebuild our team. Also. We're pretty
excited and um that's about it for the auditors. Great. You know, Brenda, I had an
idea that um if we needed a topic for one of our community conversations this fall,
um or late summer that maybe doing a kind of elections. 101 might be of interest,
you know, how do we ensure that our elections are safe and fair and, um, you know,
answer any questions, um, maybe be able to, to, um, get people registered to vote
and it might be a theme that would resonate with people this year. Yeah, that would
be interesting and fun. And Gwen and, um, Sandy would probably really like to be
part of that. Right? Ok. Well, we'll, we'll talk about it at a commissioner meeting
and see if we can think of about if other topics like that, uh, come to mind for
people that we think would generate more, um, interest from the public. Let's, you
know, just be in touch with one of the commissioners pass it on. Um,
let's see. Uh, Josh, did you introduce Chelsea or is Chelsea had a chance to meet
this group yet? Um, I may have in the past but I'm happy to do so. Again. Um, Chelsea,
you wanna turn on your camera and introduce yourself, actually. Hi. Yeah. Um, yeah,
Josh, I think, I think I've been introduced. I'm Chelsea. I'm the new administrative
services manager. I have asked almost all of you for help and, uh, just like Josh,
I'm very grateful, uh, for everyone's guidance as we learn what we're doing. So it
was nice to meet you all. Great. Welcome. Uh, who have we not heard
from yet? Anyone wanna give an update?
You hit everyone. I want to ask one question and it was basically, uh he probably
is interested in that too. It's about the Olympic Discovery Trail. There have been
changes in public works, right? So the Olympic Discovery Trail is no longer under
Matt Stewart, right? It's going to be managed, but it's still going to be managed
through roads, right? And, and Dale Browns Field will be the manager. I guess it
was just, you know, there was a lot of, you know, from the volunteers, there was
some question about those changes. So Matt is now in charge of Jeff. Yeah. Correct.
Ok. And I, and I've just been communicating with um Monty and Eric and sometimes
John Fleming about ODT stuff. So we should ask Monty that question. Ok. Thank you.
And um I don't think we have anyone here from public works. Is that right? Um But
um yeah, I mean John Fleming has been the the primary staff person on ODT for some
time. Um and I, he, I think he could continue to be a primary contact. Would you
agree? Heidi.
Yeah, but I, I I've been tending to run things by Monty and asking him, you know,
where are the questions that go? Yeah, Jeff Fleming does, I mean he does, John Fleming
does development work on the ODT, but I was talking about maintenance, ongoing maintenance
of existing portions and, and how that's gonna change and there's a whole volunteer.
Um you know, as you know, there's many members of the community that are volunteers.
And so that question became, is who in the county ultimately is assuming Matt's role
in that? Thank you though. I I will find out from them.
Is it time for questions? II, I assume everybody went to. I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
Go for it. This is simple and it, it might seem a little bit minor, but I just wondered
in the grand scheme of this table where people are, are seated. Um We're kind of
restructuring how we manage staff training and tracking as well as performance reviews
and all that internal type of work um to better streamline it again and again, you
come up with um sort of as, as available trainings that people haven't gotten for
at least three years. And I'm, I'm just curious for the good of the order if you're,
if you've wondered about that about your staff. Um I'm looking at a lot of people's
training records right now and we don't have a fire extinguisher training. Uh That's
been offered since I don't think 20 maybe 19. Um And I know that was supposed to
come back online after the pandemic, but I'm not sure where that's at. I'm not sure
who here has any knowledge about that and if it's not available, I'm, I'm seeing
that EJFR is offering those kind of trainings as well. Um Another training that I'm
interested in, someone pointed out earlier that um that was Chris that Ken has offered
this public records request public records training, which I think is really great.
It really gets buy in from staff who get kind of suckered into that work. Um And
they often can feel kind of edgy about it because they're, they don't feel fully
trained in it and they learn through time that this kind of training is great. I
have some staff that are feeling the same way about the Open Public Meetings Act
and the changes that happen there and that there's an enormous document that kind
of points out all the rules, um, that feel like they could really use some guidance.
I don't know if that's something that we should be telling staff to, um, train up
on through the MRSC or whether there's some kind of internal opportunity for staff
in the county to know better how to follow the new P MA guidelines. Um, I do know
some of our staff have been in touch with both Carolyn and Phil Hunter about whether
there might be a training like that in the county. And I think there's sort of been
a, I'm not sure. Um, so these are, these are things I'm wrestling with. Does anybody
have any knowledge about any of those types of trainings or their staff asking them
for more opportunities? I can speak to the, sorry, go ahead. I can speak to the OP
MA training. Um, I had just sent an email to mark um, this week asking him if I could
have the go ahead to kind of go over the OP Ma training all I had in mind, uh, was
just taking the Op Ma manual and reviewing it page by page. I mean, it's a fairly
big manual, but I would stop and, you know, answer questions needed of me as far
as creating curriculum. I haven't looked into, into that yet, but it, you know, every
time someone from a board committee comes to me, I address it, I address them on
a one on a, you know, person by person, you know, individual basis. And so now it's
like, well, maybe we should do more formal training. Um, that's all I can speak to.
Yeah, I appreciate that. And I know you've been involved in sort of thinking through
this and I appreciate that. Um, yeah, I think for some people just, the manual itself
is overwhelming so they, it's hard for them to dig in and if you were to do something
as sort of straightforward, if you will, um, as looking through the manual with people
so they can digest it and, and think about it maybe more in a, in a group setting.
Um, though you're one on one subject can help, I think that's a great idea if you're
willing to do that because some people will learn better and internalize it better
and then activate those rules. In the time of the leading, if they've had that country.
So, things, anybody know about fire extinguisher training or where that might be.
Yeah. She, maybe she, she, no, let his hand up and then Barbara and then Heidi. Yeah,
thanks. Yeah. Um, and, um, Stacey would know more about this than me, I think. But,
um, the Waco I know in the past has had public records training and, um, and I forget
what the other one was. Uh, oh, public, um, the public stuff. So I've found that
that's a good place to go. Look, they have a, a training, they used to have a training
list you could look at, um, and most of it was online but, and then as far as fire
extinguisher training, I know we have received that from East Jefferson.
So then you get to shoot a fire extinguisher on how often you get to do that. Yeah.
Um, and, and in that vein, active shooter training. I know you, you provide that
as a sheriff's office. We, we look for like different departments. Yes. Like how
to, what to do if something happens in your department. Yes, we can. Uh, in your,
for that, for public. Yeah. Get a, get a hold of me and we have people that are trained
to, um, to do confusion because I think earlier on maybe last year, um, when this
came up, I think Dem had said they might be sort of facilitating or coordinating
some of that type of training and maybe there's different levels of it and only the
sheriff's office can really do you a certain version of it. But that sort of that
conversation just trailed off. So I, that's why I'm bringing it up again and I appreciate
that. Yeah, I'm not sure. I, I know that we've done it. I know, you know, we have
a couple of deputies that are, that are trained. Um, Jen at the courthouse is trained
to give that training. Um, so anyway, we, we can, if you get a hold of me, we can
set something up for your department and that's for everyone.
Barbara. Yeah, the A GS office has on their website. Um, some training for
both and uh public records, um, also records management. So
there's, um, actually a little webinars they've got posted um, there that, that could
be helpful on those topics. Yeah, those are actually required by staff that do records
management and meetings. So, um, what Joe said, I did go ahead and look and we have
two recent ones both from June on the Waco website and I put the link in the chat.
Um, one is with the Secretary of State um, on electronic records best practices and
the other was with MRSC, um, legal consultant. So, you know, definitely nice to have
recent ones that hopefully address changes. Yeah, I think the, the most recent issue
that came up was, um, it was kind of basic meeting procedure rules. And so I think
it would be a good refresher or a course for people in all departments that have
to do open public meetings. Well, they do have one that was December 2022. So, I
don't know when you say recent, you know, if it was after that or, um, anyway, this
last issue was a, a quorum issue. There wasn't a quorum of the meeting continued.
So I had to, I had to tell him to stop the meeting. Yeah, you really only need one
person in the room to know the rules and you were at
which is, you know, spotlight on us for learning a little more so that we can be
more self reliant Heidi. Well, and Carolyn Carolyn's not always in the room, right?
So we were lucky that that day she was in the room, it was a behavioral health advisory
committee meeting and, you know, it wasted a whole bunch of people's time, a whole
bunch of a whole, a whole bunch of a whole bunch of people's time, both in organizing
the meeting and getting all the guest speakers and, you know, bringing the meeting
agenda together and getting it. Those of us who did show up in the room and then
canceling the meeting. And so, um but what this makes me think is this, this conversation
is really pop corny ad hoc kind of, you know, we've done this I mean, I know I participated
in active shooter training with Jen a few months ago. I mean, but I don't know who's
tracking all the training and who's letting folks know what trainings are required
for various departments. It feels like there needs to be a central training function
for staff. And I, this is where I was looking at. Sarah. Sarah's dark, dark little
zoom box, but I think she's got a plan for this. But it really in when I was at the
Maritime Center, we had a whole program and spreadsheet that, you know, we updated
when people got certain trainings and when their next training renewals would need
to be accomplished by so feels like we need with, you know, 300 plus people working
for the county a more coordinated program to make sure that we're all meeting the
requirements.
You wanna speak to that, Sarah. Yeah. So if I could speak to that, um we do in human
resources, track training when employees take new employees are required to complete
certain training like defensive driving, um anti harassment diversity, open public
meetings, act records management. We have links to websites where folks can take
that training. We um depending on the training, the uh requirement to um
take refreshers changes. Um And that would include um the
fire extinguisher training. Although I know that that hasn't happened for a while.
Um kind of coming out of COVID, I think we're seeing a lot more interest in training
and folks being able to actually take this training where it's a lot better in person.
Um And so we can provide a list of the uh training
matrix that we have for your department. So you could see what records we have. Health
department does keep really good track of their employee training. We might mirror
that uh matrix and we can also send you the matrix that we have. It is on my list
of my top things to do uh with capacity is to focus on training and ensure that there's
more outreach to departments about that training and uh that our folks can get the
mandatory training. So that that is kind of uh that aspect of training is
facilitated uh training for persons in their particular job, of course, goes through
the department. So if anyone really wants more information on that or requires assistance,
please just give me a call uh or also uh contact Kristen. Um she sets up training
for all our new employees and uh certificates for completed training. Those are all
sent here so that we have copies and employee files. And you know, particularly like,
I mean, these are all like really these are important trainings. And my goal is to
be able to do some of these in person and offer some of this in house at some point
or uh hire folks that can provide this kind of training. Um But uh there's a little
ways to get there from here. Um But that's, you know, hopefully coming. So
anyone have any questions about that?
Jo I see your hand up is that, did you have a question? No, I had some comments in
the general topic. Um I just want to say that a, a as someone that's had experience
with this regarding like public records in particular, it's important that the training
you take is like some kind of official training. Um, if you find yourself in a lawsuit
or something that will be looked at. Um, and I think someone mentioned this, the,
the, the, the fresher, it is the better. Um, the other thing I want to say in law
enforcement ever since I it's gotten more, more incorporated. But we, we have lots
of training that we have to take, uh by, by state statute. And so we have a, a good
system of keeping track of all that in our department. So if anyone has any wants
to see how we do it or anything, we have it in one of the sergeant is a training
officer. He keeps records of everything. But, um, so, and it sounds like Sarah is
kind of in the same, on the same page there. But um, if any, we could, if anyone,
you know, we could help out or provide some pointers or something. So just wanted
to add that.
Go ahead. He just had a thought. I mean, it seems like we all take the online tradings
about public records and open public meetings and give our certificates to Kristen
and Sarah. But, you know, the issues that we're coming up against are different than
simply what's covered in those trainings, those trainings covered the, the law and
how to comply with the law. But our practices within the county are a different,
whole different, you know, piece of work. So making sure that people who are clerking
or staffing different committees because there's so many committees, you know, I
always, I feel like a broken record when I say this, but Kate and Greg and I each
said on 20 plus committees or in 20 plus roles and uh various staff members staff
those committees and roles. And so just making sure that we're fairly consistent
in the, um, how, how those meetings are clerked and run so that we're in compliance
with those pieces of the Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act that we're
required to be in compliance with, um, beyond the online trainings that we do. I
don't know if it's like a 201 training level for certain folks or, um, because I,
I should have been admittedly, I should have been the one to say we don't have a
quorum in our behavior Health advisory committee. I should have at least, you know,
gotten there myself, but I hadn't gotten there when Carolyn brought it up, bless
her heart for being in the room. Um, but she's not always in the room for those meetings.
So it feels a little ad hockey to me, but it just feels like we need to put something
in place to make sure that our meetings are being run in compliance. Oh, every time
and, and like, 90% of the time they are, you know, and not more than 90% of the time,
but it's these anomalies where, you know, um a behavioral health advisory committee
meeting becomes a board of county commissioners meeting because two commissioners
are, you know, all these different variables are in play. Um It just gets a little
unwieldy sometimes. So I think there's a, a next level set of training that needs
to happen for folks who are actually running, running these meetings. Thanks, honey,
that's,
can I just jump in Apple on that specific topic because we did um work with the uh
prosecuting attorney's office on creating a handbook um for all of our boards and
commissions. Um you know, with sample agendas and, you know, really trying to make
as consistent as possible how we run our meetings. And um a couple of people have,
have pointed out to me that they don't remember receiving that. Um Yeah, yeah.
So, um I think um Barbara, you're still with us. Um I think maybe we need to revisit
this with the prosecuting attorney's office. What is the best outreach? And is there
a training maybe that needs to go along with that. We put a lot of work into that
handbook and it, it seems like it, it has not been disseminated properly yet.
Even though it was sent out Countywide, uh, Philip just recently forwarded me the
email that went to all of us. We all got it but it, I think we didn't realize the,
the value and importance of it and didn't, didn't register and get it to the right
folks. It's currently on our um on, on our county web page under our departments,
the Bocc on the very, very bottom of the page. But I've also asked to have it put
on the open government training page. I'm not sure if that was done yet. I just asked
a couple of days ago but um there is a tab off to the left of the main page. It says
open government training. So if you were to click there, the hopes is that the Op
Ma Man menu will be right there for people to, to look at right on the main page.
So, well, it's two clicks in but Barbara anything you wanna add. Um Well, I mean,
I'm happy to send it to anyone. I've got it sitting on my desktop here, so I'm happy
to send it to anybody in this meeting who wants it right this moment. Um And OK,
and uh other than that, I mean, we can do a training, I think at some point, you
know, it's just a capacity issue for us. We're so busy at this point in time that
it's, it's hard to make time for things like that, which we'd love to do. But um
other work calls, so, and staff changes and volunteer chairs change. And so, you
know, it's really a matter of somehow adopting this into our culture that we, you
know, all are knowledgeable enough to replicate the proper way of doing things. Sorry,
I think I interrupted you. That's exactly my emphasis. And so I feel like the conversations
had a good arc. Um There's ideas generated and even um you know, Carolyn offering
to do some page by page sort of mentoring and a maybe a roundtable format. I mean,
that's what I'm not saying you should do that. But I, that's one idea that might
be able to be doable instead of asking Barbara or Philip to give us find time for
training otherwise, I mean, there's, there's lots of ideas but what you just said,
Kate is important is that we create a culture where we're all sort of um we prioritize
that in our knowledge base so that it can be disseminated and when we have people
who don't know or are coming on new, tho those other of us can step in and help out
because it's, it's, it's good for everybody to have the knowledge and I don't have
enough of it. And I'm at a, a lot of meetings but um at a run meetings typically
in that format. So yeah, hey Barbara, so if you have it handy, maybe you could just
send it out to the elected and directors lists. And just so we have a top of email
again and then books could send it to appropriate staff. And I think we, when we
created that we did talk about recording a video. Um so that we had something that
we could, you know, instead of asking a volunteer chair to read, what is it, 30 pages
or something, you have a video that would condense that information a little bit.
Um, Stacy. Um, so I think there's two things. One is also Robert's rules and I know
when you attend meetings it's really easy to default to the person who knows it best
in the room and then you're called upon to lead the meeting and there's a lot to
know. And that would also be the first step of, you know, having a quorum before
you proceed. And so I do think our internal resources, it's nice to also have those
Robert's rules cheat sheets for when, um, you know, uh, I mean, planning commission,
they, they have to really use them a lot. Um, but in the other ones, they rarely
come up but when they do come up, it's really important to get it. Right. Yeah.
Joke. Yeah, I think an easy fix to this is I make a motion that Carolyn attends all
county public meetings in, I didn't hear that motion.
Um, I was just gonna say though, um, Robert's rules isn't formally adopted by most
of our boards. I think Board of Health has, um, I put up a big argument during the
Op Ma manual and that we do not adopt Robert's rules because it was suggested by
a member of the public. It's just that you basically have to be a parliamentarian
to carry out those rules. Now, we do some of the basic Roberts rules like motions
1st and 2nd, that sort of thing. But, you know, when motions get too messy, we just
recall the motion, we start fresh. It's a lot easier than Robert's rules versions
for how you modify motions. So I think it's a lot easier, especially for these boards
and committees where they don't do meetings that often. It's easier for me because
I'm in lots of meetings all year long. So, you know, these boards and committees,
the people that have to clerk them, they're also now dealing with technical issues.
So our meetings have to be in person and hybrid if possible. And there's a lot of
tech issues to address. And so I'm always helping people do that too and I'm sure
it as well, but I give a lot of training on how to set up your hybrid meeting, uh
to continue these public, you know, requirements. Thank you so much for saying that
Caroline, I didn't realize we weren't following that. Uh Or at least we have standing
to say why we're not following that when we choose to do it differently and where
we use it as a best practice and where it's required, I think, um I need to brush
up on that for what we've decided as a county.
Um We could consider also a uh doing a drastic parliament training for county staff,
um which are those are really valuable and uh she does trainings across the state
for government. So, um let's keep talking about this. Thanks for bringing it up.
Apple clearly. Um a hot topic. Um In the last few minutes, we have uh just so I
properly sit in as uh as chair in Greg's Place. Um Any particular topics that folks
want to add to the list for your, your meeting every other month? Now, I believe
is this group,
I will only add that during this meeting. Um I cut a hornet
so I will be releasing that, but there are hornets in the courthouse heads up. I
don't know the actual uh species and all of that. I just know it looks like a stinger.
Ok. Thanks for the update, Stacey. We do. I, I wanna make sure we um have we have
a caller who's raised their hands so Carolyn, if you could bring them over, um our
public comment section was earlier, but it very well could be county staff and I
will get back to you, Barbara. Um the caller ending in 797 hit star six to unmute.
Hey, it's still uh can you guys hear me? Yes. Hi Bill. Thanks for joining.
So I'm driving on I 90 from back from the conference. And um you know,
when I did send out that email that Kate was talking about, but I think somewhere
in the email it says that the, that the county administrator's office or the Morton
County commissioners will set training on.
And I think we got to do that and I think we got to do better with training overall.
It's a risk management strategy too. So we need to figure out how to focus on that
a little bit more and that's really hard for people that have a lot of jobs or a
lot of hats and that's not something the prosecutors office can really be responsible
for and we can be responsible for, you know, helping with the training we can show
up, but, you know, we're not gonna be able to schedule trainings. It's just not possible
for us.
Um Thanks Phil. I was thinking you guys would be proud of us while you're over at
um risk pool that we're talking about this. Um Yeah, I wonder too if we need to lean
more on MRSC. Um They, you know, they also have such a wealth of trainings available
and um I don't know, um Sarah is this something that maybe we could,
um, just to think who the right person is to, to kind of be thinking about next steps
here. Yeah, I could work on scheduling those trainings, figuring out when those could
be and actually who would be the best or people to do that or
if there are online trainings that can take place. But I can work on that with, uh,
somebody. So, since there's a lot of department directors and elected officials,
um I, if you, if you get an O PM training, maybe have them contact me if they want
to get on my list.
Ok, let's go to Phil and then Barbara.
Yeah, I think, I think, I think Carolyn's idea is a great idea for a. Mhm. Mhm.
Ok, baby. Uh Barbara that there's a fellow in the uh a GS office
who is, is his sole job, is training on and on public records. And
so I think I can't remember his name. It's a French name, but I can get that to you,
Sarah. And maybe um he'd be willing to at least um do some
trainings via webinar or something like that or even come up. Who knows? So,
yeah, yeah, just send that on to me. That'd be great. Barbara. In fact, I think he's
the one who's doing the webinar on Tuesday for public records. He's the same fellow.
So he's been doing a lot of trainings. I've watched, I think three of them this year
so far by him. So you said you went on?
All right. Thanks everyone for a great conversation. We are at one o'clock. So, um,
at last call, any burning, any stinging biting creatures in the courthouse we should
know about other than wasps. Ok. Um, nice to see you all and we are joined to everyone.
Thank you so much. Recording me.