you're recording
just so you know if something happens happens on my end, you'll have to hit recording
on whoever's co host needs to hit record on there. Just so I have a need it for certain
this time. Okay. Hotel. Mhm. Everybody ready?
I haven't heard the clock tower yet, but my clock says 9:00 can hear you.
I think everybody else can
move.
It's on your end. It's we're all fine. Okay. Sorry. Okay now I can hear
you.
All right, I'm gonna call this meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners
to order Happy New Year. Everyone. It's been a crazy couple of weeks with weather
and Covid and we'll be hearing all about it later today, but I hope everyone is safe
and warm. Thank you so much to road crews and P. U. D. And um emergency management.
Everybody first responders, people working hard to keep us safe during a treacherous
couple of weeks. Um Any announcements before we jump into business?
Alright, well first order of business this morning is reorganization. The board,
we have a um A long standing tradition of passing the gavel every year. We changed
the chair of the Board every year. And so I am happy to make a motion that we appoint
Heidi Eisenhower as chair of the Board for 2022. Alright, any discussion
all those in favor, please indicate my saying I hi, okay and now we're going to do
a quick ceremonial passing the gavel.
There you go, cheer Iceland hour. The capsule for you. Thank you. Canteen. Thank
you. All right.
Alright so I I hereby Passover Chairing of this meeting to Commissioner Eisenhower.
Okay good morning everyone. I've got my gavel in hand. Thank you. Um here's to a
fabulous 2022. I'm I'm a little bit hilarious saying that but you know I'm an eternal
optimist and I feel like um we just take one step at a time and move through this
together and we'll be we'll be good. Um I wanted to say that I arrived here today
recommitted to our community and the work to find work ahead to find solutions for
all the challenges we're going to face in 2022. And my resolution, my county commissioner
resolution for 2022 is to bring more voices into the conversation so I'll be looking
for ways to do that as we move forward. Um So on that note um the first order of
business on our agenda today is public comment. We have up to 30 minutes for public
comment and um I asked people who are in the attendee room to raise their hands if
they want to make public public comment. We will um accommodate as many people making
three minutes each comment this morning and um if anyone has any trouble either
raise your hand or another option I think is to call in right you can call and if
you're not able to get here via zoom. Um The phone number to call is 1 to
532158782. And the zoom webinar I. D. Is
837-7784 Caroline. It's
993777841705. Thank you. And then push pound.
So with that I'll look at the attendee list and looks like we have a couple of people
with their hands raised. I will um Caroline you you're gonna allow people to talk
right I'm bringing over steven and Larry. Steven will be first and then Larry will
be up next three minutes each.
Hello? Can you hear me? I seem to be in some strange mode.
Hello?
Okay we could we could see you for a second there steven but you went away. Huh?
Okay wait a second start video. There you are. Okay. Okay thanks a lot. Heidi Hey
hey look I saw a question raised by kate a couple of weeks ago on her facebook page
in which he was sort of sincerely saying that you were legitimately curious how the
friends on the other side of the vaccination debate uh and how they respond to this
data. And you presented this interesting chart showing how Red States ones that pretty
much voted Republican were having much worse vaccination deaths in the last december
last few months. And so yeah and look you know that was interesting so I took a look
at that and it is kind of interesting and a little bit confusing. There are these
sort of like sort of a correlation thing because uh red states tend to be have less
vaccination. So you could say that this was the face of it, proof that vaccination
was effective and was good public policy. And so anyway, I mean there's some critiques
and analysis of those things say at this Greenwald sub stack and there were these
other confounding factors. Red States tend to be southern, uh rural, they seem to
be have older populations, more obese, more comorbidities, poor, less access to public
health. And um another factor is time shifting is that actually the Red States tend
to do better earlier in this lockdown crisis. Whereas the bluer States had a lot
of debts and nursing homes um, and older populations and vulnerable people that want
to protect it that and you can only die once. So you know, so you know, it's a confusing
thing, but I wouldn't say take this at face value necessarily that further analysis.
But on the other hand, if the whole point of this is to sort of say, gosh, aren't
these vaccines so effective. There's a lot of evidence right now that from Denmark
in England and from South Africa, then in particular for the a micron. Um you know
that, that there is basically no effectiveness at scene at this point for vaccinated
people compared to unvaccinated people preventing on the crime and um icon seems
to be a very interesting thing that the symptoms of it seemed to be very mild and
pretty much indistinguishable from the common cold. And so in a way, this is very
good news. Right? Because I mean this is, you know, oh my gosh cases are up. But
like let's say you've got cases of this mild thing that's like the common cold. This
is actually not a bad opportunity for people to actually get this thing and get,
you know, get natural immunity from it and uh, and then move forward without really
having, uh, much risk or dangers. Another thing I was seeing in the news from Princeton
Daily News was that, well, it's anyway, a case of a local case in which um,
household, well, I'm sorry the Dean household, it was in, it was, you know, there
was a big story about it and I'm so sorry you went through this whole experience.
But if I'm reading this, it seems like the person who supposedly got Covid had a
positive PcR test but was asymptomatic. So given how, how many false positives there
are from a PcR test which are currently being phased out in, you know, in favor of
other testing. It's hard to see that there's necessarily, hey, is that it three minutes.
Okay, thanks.
I didn't mean to come off, but I have to, yes, Good morning. Happy New Year to the
hardworking and much appreciated County commissioners. I'm larry morale. I live in
port Townsend. I have spoken several places about the topic. I'm about to address
you, which is the topic of military training in our state parks. I gave a presentation
to the Marine Resources Committee uh, over a year ago. They then presented a report
to the entire commission. The commission then forwarded a letter to the state parks,
objecting to the plan as proposed. The commission then went on to vote 4-3 to approve
the training and the state parks. Uh, so the permits are currently being processed.
No permits have been issued yet. I wanted to alert the commission and any interested
parties that the State Parks Commission will be meeting in regular session here in
Fort Warden On January 26 and 27 this year, 27th is a business
meeting. Public comments are allowed during a business meeting for items, not on
the agenda, such as this particular topic. So, I would like to encourage the commission
interested parties to restate the concerns and objections that our community have
about allowing military training and state parks. It's kind of ironic. The Department
of Natural Resources is asking for a bill in the Legislature this year to do a survey
of eelgrass and kelp beds around the, the sound, which I think is very responsible
at the same time. Our Parks Commission is allowing navy seals to swim through these
sensitive areas without any regard for what, what what damage that might occur incur
The other thing I'd like to talk about is the potential impact on the economy, Jefferson
county is very dependent upon visitors. We have some very attractive state parks
in our region in our county, those state parks are potentially at risk. People discover
that military training is being conducted in state parks without any public notice.
Uh that might indeed have a dampening effect on tourism and concerns for people who
don't want to be around military training. So we have a variety of reasons here in
Jefferson County to object to this reasons that don't seem to have been considered
by the commission and the reasons that I think that the uh the some of the new members
of the commission might need to hear about. There's one new member from last year
and another member will be appointed shortly to the commission. They have not heard
these objections, Although the objections were running about 80% opposed. The park
staff has summarily dismissed those objections. So encouraged reengagement um and
trying to get the convention to reverse this decision. Thank you very much, really
appreciate all the hard work you guys do? Thank you Larry, would you email um information
about that state parks meeting as well too. So we have that. I can flag it. Thanks.
Um Is there anybody else who would like to make public comments today? Um We have
lots more time for it. I see a bunch of people in the, there's one also,
caller caller ending in 8745 and hit star six to unmute
and if you'd identify. Yes. Yes. Hi this is Kincaid gold district one Port Townsend.
Happy new york commissioners. I'd like to just read off a list of studies that disagree
with dr barry's assertions that there have been no drugs that have had any advocacy
at treating covid 19 which is a preposterous claim. There are many studies showing
that in many cases drugs such as and hydroxychloroquine and supplements such as vitamin
D. Especially when used in combination can be used effectively to treat and prevent
Covid 19 at the time I have remaining just read through a list of several peer reviewed
studies. Um I've been benefit from scabies to covid 19. An example of serendipity
by bearing go at all at our panel of dermatology and neurology, a comparative study
of ivermectin, doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine as mistress ice in therapy on covid
19 patients at all duration. Journal of Medicine and oncology. Effective mechanism
as a throw mice and cola calcify combined therapy on covid 19 effective.
Oh, Kincaid you your sound went away. Did you mute and muted, muted
feels that he's not muted.
I'm not sure if you can hear us but if you can hear us. Welcome the email of that
to us. Can we chat? We can't shut him. He's on the phone. Okay.
Okay. Is there anybody else who would like to make public comment and Kincaid. If
you can figure out the audio situation you're having, we'll give you another chance.
Anybody else who would like to make public comments this morning? Um raise your
hands.
Okay. So I think maybe what we could do is respond to public comment. And then if
Kincaid figures out a way to raise his hand again um and fix his audio, that we could
give him another chance, how does that sound?
So, um does anybody want to respond to the verbal comment we got this morning or
any of the legions of written public comment we got over the last couple of weeks.
I'll go ahead. Thank you. Chair Eisenhower. Uh thanks for the comments um,
to mr morale, as Heidi said, Yeah, thanks for the timely notification about that,
that chance to give our input. If you can email it to Jeff b zero cc at c o dot jefferson
dot wa dot us, we'll be able to look at it. And uh I'm sure we'll talk about what
an appropriate response from the commissioner should be um, to steven. Uh, you know,
I rarely do. We find a lot to agree on, but I I'm feeling optimistic about the impacts
of omicron to from my own experience having uh been metaphorically snowed in as well
as physically with with uh, the very mild case of covid over the, over the winter
break, my family and I uh took advantage of it didn't have anything below the lungs,
which is below the throat into the lungs or anything. And it was uh you know it almost
feels a relief to have had it. I mean it takes me back to my fourth grade birthday
party where I got chicken pox the day of my birthday party and the one person that
stayed and already had chickenpox and everyone got it. I don't know it reminds me
of that. I'm not sure why. But uh um I'll ask dr barry about this. I think it's it's
really optimistic and I'm you know I was not tempted at all to Kincaid's point to
go out to the barn and get are connected because that stuff is like horse de wormer.
Um And I did not need it luckily and I don't think the the efficacy of it has been
proven. Um So while I do have I did not need it for my own covid 19.
Uh and that's I guess and to many of the written response written comments we had
about the uh the epa hearing. I was glad to see D. C. D. Added at a time to the comment
period to the pre sepa um period. So I think one thing that we know about that project
is not gonna be fast um is uh there was a lot of opposition that we responded to
and I am still I'm really glad that we have a new hearing examiner. Um And that these
uh specific land use decisions are we delegate our authority to that. And I'm uh
it's the appropriate thing to do. You know, the policy is the politics and the actual
decision in the interpretation of the code. We need to leave to our staff. And I'm
I'm proud of the work they've done and will continue to stay tuned to this really
important issue. That was, you know, I mean really the inciting incident for our
emergency moratorium, on boundary line adjustments etcetera. So it's uh appropriate
notes that we got from those and I'm reading them with with great interest. So thank
you all for your comments. So I see that it looks like Kincaid made might have figured
out his audio situation so we could give him a chance to make his comments and then
allow Kate to make her comments. And then I have a few red through all the written
comments, all 370 pages of him. Anyway, maybe it was 50 but 350, but I have a few
specific so Kincaid.
The one hit starts. Oh, he's unneeded. I'll go ahead and turn on the timer when you're
ready. Okay, go ahead, kid cave.
Oh shoot.
Yeah, we can't hear him. Heard him for a second. I know. Mhm.
Try and nearly again,
it looks like you're muting and unyielding but we can't hear you, Kincaid
seems like this might not work today. Can you send us your comments in writing, please?
Thank you. Commissioner Dean. Yeah, Thanks everyone for comments today.
Um, we have been that the commission has been pretty involved in making comments
on a number of military impact issues, including uh the issue of training and state
parks. Um as a reminder, the um, the environmental impact statements includes um
uh training zone around the Hood canal that includes county parks, um private property
along the Hood canal. So this isn't um, you know, it isn't an issue just having to
deal with state parks. There is the potential for that to expand into a lot of other
public space. And so I would um I suggest that we take a look at the comments we've
made previously on this issue and talk about the kind of creep of um impacts that
we have seen in the region. And um, and I certainly am willing to, wanting to uh,
to limit that creep. The military has a lot of land to train on in this region, um,
literally tens of thousands of acres and miles of shoreline. And uh, so I am certainly
in favor of keeping those impacts to um to the places that are not made for public
use for things like relaxation, recreation, um family enjoyment, um that I don't
think military training is compatible with. Um let's see, I'm also really curious
if Macron is going to change the way we respond, especially at this point in time
in the pandemic. And um, so also curious kind of how how dr barry sees that it's
with kids going back to school today. I think that's a real a real test. You know,
we're in the height of a very contagious um viral surge and yet we're saying like
let's let's have kids go back and I think there's it seems inevitable that there
is going to be higher case rates. Um luckily my my family did get off very lucky.
I will say that I disagree with the um the suggestion that my son's case might have
been um a false positive. We had four teenagers over for dinner, one of whom
tested positive the next day and three of the four subsequently tested positive.
So um it was pretty clear um pretty clear case of a vector coming in and and
infecting most folks and and luckily the rest of us in the family did not contract
it. So um yeah, we we got a pretty darn easy um I
think that's all I would concur with Commissioner Brotherton comments about um the
Cape George project. Um It is interesting to see just, you know, the reason we we
put the moratorium on planned rural residential developments and boundary line adjustments
is very much because of cases like this where you end up with a proposal that is
on paper allowed and is actually really inconsistent with zoning and certainly neighbor
expectations of how land can be used. So um glad we're closing up that loophole and
we need to let that process unfold in the appropriate place, which is not, not politically
through a board like ours, but certainly appreciate hearing from folks. I think that's
all. Thank you. Commissioners Dean and Brotherton. Um, I'm a little, I pre apologize
to some people that I might be a clunky chair grant me that for at least a couple
of meetings. But um, I think I got off the easiest and the holiday, covid navigation.
Um, but I do want to say, I'm thankful for the vaccine and the booster for allowing
my family and group of friends to travel together to a house on an island not far
from here and spend wonderful holidays together. Um, we all did rap, we all were
vaccinated, double vaccinated and boosted and we all did rapid tests the day before
we left and all came up negative and all spent four nights together and came home
and I haven't heard of anybody contracting covid since then. So I feel like for me,
the covid story of the 2021 holidays is that the vaccines worked and even the older
folks in our, our traveling cadre of clowns, um, felt safe and normally they haven't
over the last couple of years. So I was thankful for that one of them being my mom
who I would would not have spent the holidays without. So as most of, you know, um,
and then I just wanted to make a comment regarding, um there were a few written comments
about public comment and how much time we allow and all those points. I just wanted
to say that we're all committed to providing as much time as we can budget to allowing
as many voices from the community to speak. And I as I just said a few minutes ago
I'm very interested in hearing more voices from the community. Um make comments in
the future and you know as a role will default to three minutes a person unless the
crowd seems so large that we need to adjust that. And I will announce that in advance
of opening public comment if it seems that there will be too many comments to fit
into that 30 minute window in the case of monday morning comments and then if there's
special meetings where we'll allow longer period time periods will do the same kind
of math equation. Um So I hope that works for everybody. Um Also very
interested in all of the comments and phone calls and personal emails I got over
the last couple of weeks about the projects on Cape George Road just off of Cape
George Road and their impact on the Larry scott Trail. And there were a couple of
specific questions about procedural um whether certain steps had taken place. So
I'm gonna check in with D. C. D. About those questions. Um projects like these are
not projects that I personally would like to see move forward. I I was on the Planning
commission in 1997 and 98 when we adopted the first complaint under the Growth Management
Act and we designated five acre zoning for this part of our county. And so it's it's
a personal personal problem for me as much as anything. But I also um I'm hearing
the comments of all the neighbors around these projects and I'm very grateful that
D. C. D decided to extend the comment period to january 19th. So um I look forward
to a lot more conversation in the intervening weeks about those two projects. And
I have to say we got a ton of emails from the ferry system and I just want to do
a shout out to our ferries. They have have been having a go of it and we threaded
the needle getting back to port Townsend um on the 27th. Um but
they, you know, it's just been tough. So everybody give our ferry workers as you
drive into the booth and onto the ferries, um hand shake or nod or something because
they have been the ones who are showing up who can show up are going the extra mile
much as our road crews are at the county and um anyone dealing with the front lines
of this weather and the covid emergency. It's just like a layer cake, three stack
pancake of um issues that people are having to deal with. Um I noticed
a couple of comments about redistricting still coming in. I just wanted to reiterate
that we did select option one for redrawing the commissioner district boundaries
and um this alternative received by far the most public support. And the next step
is that the elections staff at the county will be working on balancing precincts
in the coming months and the deadline for that is in May. So um well probably you'll
probably see more about the precinct balancing process in the coming weeks and months.
And then finally the last comment I wanted to make a comment on is I don't like leaf
blowers either walter if you're listening. Um I saw your comment about please wait
till after eight to turn the leaf blowers on at the courthouse. Uh I mean if if the
conditions warranted, I think we need to use the tools we have. But I remember reading
an article in the new york times so I went back and found it and it pointed out that
a two stroke gas powered leaf blower spews out more pollution than a 62 £100 ford.
F 1 50 SPT rapture pickup truck on a on a comparison. So I think that leaf blowers
are something that we should consider moving to alternative fuels on. Um And with
that I think we're at 9:39 28. Uh If there is anybody
who would like to make one more person who wants wants to make public comment? We
have a couple more minutes,
looks like tom tears is raising his hand. Okay? And can cain raised 10 earlier. Um
so you might be willing to try again. I'm bringing some over
mr tears. There we are. Morning. Happy New Year Commissioners at
all. Um I wanted to make a little public service announcement. Speaking of the ferry
system and how well, relatively speaking, they've been able to handle the current
situation that they're facing with shortages of boats and so forth. Um I'm speaking
uh not just for myself, but also as the chair of the local ferry advisory committee.
I just wanted to make a P. S. A. Here to point out to those listening that they're
at the state ferry system will be holding a couple of public meetings. Virtual public
meetings. The first is at six p.m. On january 5th. The second meeting is at one p.m.
On january 11th and you can find out more about those and sign up to to listen in
and participate and find out what ferries is saying about the current situation on
their website. So that's basically what I want to say. Thanks. Thank you. Mr tears.
Mhm. I don't see any other hands up Caroline. De,
yep. Me neither. I don't see anything else. Hopefully Kincaid will send us his comments
written. I'm sure you will. Um so it's 9:30, we have 15 minutes
before our extended covid update. Um do we want to do a little bit of looking
back, it's not what was that Caroline?
We can do consent agenda. Yeah.
So has everyone reviewed the consent agenda? I hope were there any issues that
anyone wanted to call out on the consent agenda?
Yes, thank you. Um you know, another beefy consent agenda. I love, love to see these
contracts moving through with the speed that they are moving through. Really exciting
to see. And just I learned a few things in this consent agenda that I thought I'd
share. Like one is what is an under bridge inspection truck. Did you guys look at
the google images for those super cool, like a dolly that goes under a bridge and
so really, really interesting, like, you know, you see malignant, reminded me of
that malignant movie. Um, and then p tax also that we're supporting Bayside and installing
and I really wasn't sure what the attacks were. Even as I participated at those little
kind of heat pumps, Douglas heat pumps that go air conditioning units in a hotel
room and they're less efficient than a duck less heat pump with with the head outside.
But um, just love to see the work work happening. So I really appreciate that all
the work that went into this
have nothing to, to call it in particular and sorry, I'm a little distracted. We're
trying to get, make sure we do with jefferson healthcare joining us for our public
health briefing today to I'm just trying to make sure everybody's got their links.
So sorry, I'm a little distracted. So my few things on consent agenda was I was happy
to see us um renewing our support for the conservation districts work in our county.
I enjoyed partnering with them over the last year on a few projects and look forward
to working with the cd out in District two in the next few years. So um appreciate
our our continuing that partnership. Um and then also I saw that were laying track
for the good works work of public works on our roads and 22 with a big striping contract.
Um and then happy to see the final tranche of L tech agreements coming through and
we'll be working on reviewing the county code to update language around the use of
hotel motel taxes for capital projects and the next year and also interested in looking
at what other counties have done in terms of allowing hotel motel funds to be used
for workforce housing. So a couple of pieces of work yet to do with hotel motel taxes.
But um glad to see the good work we're supporting in the community. So with that
I think does kind of have a motion for the consent agenda. I'll move to approve and
adopt the consent agenda as presented second all in favor I
hearing that opposed the consent agenda passes. Um Okay, that was quick. Now
we have minutes for looking back and there's probably not a lot to report looking
back but does anyone have anything they want to report from the last couple of weeks?
I made a snowman. I you know didn't exactly take a vacation but I was I was
pretty fully out except for a few a few meetings. I can uh let's see what did I actually
do Um most know from the last week. Honestly I
did very little talk to some people trying to really get ready for some of the boards
that are, you know it's a time of restarting every year. And I so a lot of contemplative
thought about the work of 2022 and how we can do it better in 20, I'm sorry 21 and
how we can do better in 22.
Thanks Greg. Yeah, similarly I have little to report. There's a lot of tying up loose
ends and um but not not a lot of work that got done um after our last meeting of
the year on December 20. So there last. Yeah. Um so
nothing to report from me. I will say again that just how hard um public works was
working road crew in particular and first responders and P. U. D. And you know so
little bit of work went into just you know kind of signing off on the various needs
that they had. But Mark did a lot of the heavy lifting on that actually, keeping
a organization of 300 employees going during unprecedented weather incidents. Um,
takes a lot of work. So thank you, Mark also, I don't know if you want to speak to
that.
Well, I just took my hat to, to Willie Benson, emergency management and matt Stewart,
our road Superintendent. Those guys did yeoman work, especially the road crews and
and that yeoman work continued last night because we had significant snowfall on
the coil and in South county. And so um, we had road crews, some of whom were trapped
by down power lines and but their intrepid troops and you know, I can't say enough
good things about them. Um, but I know that our employees were grateful that we took
into account that treacherous road conditions and open open late and closed early
in the interest of safety of our public servants. So um, it was a tough week. We
got through it and I'm I'm wondering if december was this way? What's february gonna
look like june january. Yeah, super
grateful for our teams out there working on the front lines. I mean, I just, you
know, I sent an email in the mid, mid, mid uh snow crunch of um the roads and havoc.
We're looking really good monte just to say looks good out here. We're getting around.
So I think, I think you said that they were rocking it. Yeah, they were because it
was, I felt like everywhere I went and had just been sanded so it's like something's
going on here. Yeah and I I shout out to our facilities people as well for making
entry into county facilities are safe endeavor for people who wanted to venture out
in bad weather to conduct business on site. Um so matt court and his folks hats off
to them. Only a couple of things I wanted to report out that I had done the last
couple of weeks is um the week before last we we interviewed three great candidates
for four H coordinator. So hopeful that one of those is going to come forward as
our new four H coordinator. There's um yeah, I'm just really excited about our full
candidates and um hope to be able to update you on that shortly and then just attended
the Wasatch meeting last week. Uh and there was a good discussion about the implementation
of House bill 11 52 which is the about the reorganization of the boards of health
and um I was reflecting on that meeting, I was glad that Jefferson County is already
a bit more progressive with our health board than other counties and we've already
folded in a number of much community representation on our board of health. And that's
one of the things that things that that bill direct. So I think um one thing that
we'll hear about today on the Wasatch meeting is the tribal representation on boards
of health, which is a new requirement. So I look forward to us making that adjustment
to our board of health in the future. Um But those were the two things I wanted to
call out from the last couple of weeks. Um It looks like we have a few minutes
before 9 45. We could take a quick break and see if there are any last minute logistics
with Jefferson healthcare joining us since I'm halfway in the loop on that. Um And
if there's look at look at the week ahead. Oh yeah let's do that.
Who wants to start? Um I think I'll actually go to the Wasatch meeting today. I think
it's about about getting um tribal representation on boards of health at lunch. So
I think I will join you at that meeting today then um tomorrow have a planning workgroup
with the quill seen empowered teams coalition. Um And then I'm going to attend the
community meeting happened every week or two at Cosmo Brown Village. We're getting
an update later this afternoon about the um the outdoor shelter out on Mill Road.
And then you know of course we're gonna talk about boards and committees today. So
my schedule might change based on that conversation but we have the seventh and Hendrix
development meeting on Wednesday. I don't know if you see the forms up there at Castle
Hill but concrete going in soon. And uh I have a the olympic area
agency on aging council governments meeting on thursday the weekly mill road developments
uh meeting um P. L. V. C. And then catching up with some some community members trying
to. Yeah that those are the big things on on my my calendar for this week. Um Let's
see. My calendar is I guess somewhat dependent on our discussion this afternoon if
we change any committee assignments but so far um what I have going on is a couple
of meetings of the puget sound partnership leadership council um Have a transit
finance committee meeting and also a transit citizen advisory committee meeting.
Um We have our Economic Development council board meeting and just want to call out
that the Economic Development Council currently has a survey open. Um We dedicated
half a million dollars of R. R. P. Funds to small business grants and um E. D. C.
Is looking for some input on how to distribute those grants. So encourage anyone
who is interested to weigh in on the Economic Development Council website which I'm
not going to be able to recite for you um gracefully but think you could probably
find that link fairly easily. Um I say one thing about that kate I got I got the
survey in my inbox is I've owned businesses but it really is for folks that are are
small business owners of any size whether it's you know a cottage industry but there
wasn't a lot for me as a non business owner at this point to be really helpful. So
I'd encourage any any business owner or you know, actually participate in the business
to to fill out that survey and give feedback about what kind of support our local
business community needs today. Thank you. Good clarification. Um let's see a
weekly meeting. Um excuse me, monthly meeting. Um We have a lobbyist almost
sounds like a bad word these days, but we we do have a firm that helps us in Washington
D. C. To look for funding opportunities for various projects. And um Monte and I
have set up a monthly call with her so that we are in a better position to understand
what's coming down the pike um with all the federal infrastructure dollars. So that
starts up this week. I'm grateful for that opportunity. Um And then uh first of our
legislative steering committee meetings uh with the Association of Counties start
on friday um looking forward to to co chairing that. That's uh Wiley group of commissioners
from all over the state and all political stripes. So um trying to, you know, agree
on a political agenda is always interesting, but I'm looking forward to that um uh
in the legislative session starts next monday. So um it's gonna be upon us before
we know it and it's gonna be a busy busy time for all of us, a short session and
a uh non budget session. So be a little bit easier. Bills need to have already been
introduced? No new bills will be introduced this year so um a little bit easier to
wrap our hands around and shorter session and I think that's all for this week.
But from my calendar I think I'm starting to put king tides on my calendar and there
are three king tides this week today tomorrow and Wednesday. So keep your eyes on
the shoreline. I'm I'm thinking most minutes right now about my friends down at the
maritime center because I was there when we had that really destructive king tide
uh five years ago and it was a mess. So um anyway concerned
about king tides and this weather it's like it feels like the third pancake on the
three stack of problems we're dealing with right now. Um I have behavioral health
and MRC meetings tomorrow if those committee assignments hold this afternoon. Um
And then two straight er N. L. I. O. Meetings tomorrow and Wednesday planning on
attending rotary this week at the invitation of rotary to hear about the Y. M. C.
A. Um And then have a meeting on friday with with public
health and good man sanitation to talk about septic capacity in the county not sewage
not sewer, septic, different kind of waste. But anyway we're reaching a kind of a
critical point with it and pinky has organized a meeting to talk about that issue.
So those are the High mountains on my agenda for the coming week. Um it's
like we're at 9:44. Mark, do you have anything you want to add for this week?
Um Well let's see. You got a risk management meeting tomorrow, behavioral
health advisory board meeting tomorrow. Um Meeting with support the city and the
P. U. D. Um I don't know if you're aware that apparently there's a great deal of
resistance to the uh the Sims Gateway project where the poplars are supposed to come
down. Um There's some highly organized resistance there and so I'm sure that will
be a big topic for discussion tomorrow. Um And it's 9 45 so I can continue this after
dr berry and jefferson healthcare. Thank you. Mark. With that. I think K. P. T. Z.
Is gonna start broadcasting and we'll go to our weekly covid update. So let's bring
over the panelists that are in the attendee list that we need for this. Right? I
don't see Alison very um She usually um labels herself dr Allison berry and I don't
see her. I see Willy Benz and I'll bring him over. But There is someone named Alison
but just with one pill. I don't know if it's the same one and then jefferson Healthcare
too. Right. Who are the neighbor? Never mike Glenn and looking
for dr Harris. See,
oh thanks. Dr barry. Hi mike, Bear with us while we get everyone moved over.
Um Mike it sounds like dr Harris wasn't able to stick with us for long but I am not
seeing her in the attendees. Should we get started without her or perhaps um Am I
missing? Well whatever works best for you? Um Tracy's on service today.
Uh So I think she was gonna try to sneak away at this time. So maybe when she pops
on um and refer to her, my eyes on the list too, we can hand it over to dr
barry to start us off.
Good morning. Dr barry. You wanna start start us off today? Good morning. I would
be happy to. So unfortunately we are seeing a significant spike in covid 19 cases
in the nation in the state and in our region as well. Uh And I want to say that if
if Dr Harris comes on, I'm happy to pause and give her some space to speak. Um So
nationally we're seeing that in the last two weeks we're seeing, we've seen three
times the number of cases diagnosed per day that we were seeing just two weeks ago.
So it's really a dramatic rise in cases. We're seeing a rise in hospitalizations
as well. Not as fast as cases, but a significant rise as well. So about a 33% more
hospitalizations nationwide than we saw just two weeks before In Washington. We're
seeing a really similar trend. So cases are up 250%. Hospitalizations are up 24%.
So we are seeing a hospitalization rise that's not as rapid as the case rise, but
that is still really quite significant. And then locally in Jefferson County, we
are unfortunately seeing a significant rise in cases as well. Our current case rate
is up to 416/100,000. As of today, we're up to 1,589
diagnosed cases. Um we have not had any new deaths to report and so that is uh that
is hopeful so far, but that that does tend to be a lagging indicator incl alum County.
We're seeing a very market rise in cases. We're up to over 1000 cases per 100,000
in our last two weeks and our percent positivity incl alum County is 23%. So we're
seeing really dramatic rises in cases and we are also seeing unfortunately a rise
in hospitalizations, incl alum, we have 11 citizens currently hospitalized for covid
19 over the weekend In jefferson County, we had two of our citizens hospitalized
for covid 19. I think a lot has happened since the last time we came together as
a group. Um So there's a lot to update you on, but I think the biggest one that is
causing a lot of questions is the omicron variant itself. So at this point in our
community, it is reasonable to assume that a a new that if you are diagnosed with
covid 19, that it is most likely omicron um that is far and away The majority variant
that we are seeing in our region at this time. And I see a lot of mixed messaging
and confusion in the media about what that means. Um I've seen anything from that.
Having the omicron variant here means it's the end times. Um To seeing that it's
basically the common cold. So why worry about it? And the truth is that neither of
the those are true. What we know about the omicron variant is that it is incredibly
infectious. It's very very transmissible. Um And it is a little bit less severe than
the delta variant but not but it is not as mild as I think many people are making
it out to be. Um What we're seeing if you parse the most recent data out of the U.
K. Is that for those who are unvaccinated? Oh macron is 20% less severe than the
delta variant. But you have to remember that the delta variant was 50% more severe
than the original covid virus. Um So the omicron variant if you are unvaccinated
is actually more severe than the original covid virus. It is not the cold. It is
not the flu. It can be very severe if you are not vaccinated. The good news when
it comes to the omicron variant is that if you are vaccinated we are seeing very
very low rates of severe disease. So the vaccines hold up really well at preventing
hospitalization that preventing death. The things that we wanted to do. So if you
are vaccinated, the probability that this will feel like a bad cold or the flu is
high. If you get covid um which is important to know because if you have the symptoms
of having a cold, you need to get tested because if you are vaccinated, that's what
Macron would feel like. But if you are unvaccinated, it can still be incredibly severe,
can still lead to hospitalization and death. And given how how transmissible it is,
we are very likely to see an overwhelming of our hospital system again. Um just because
of how transmissible it is and just the large enough proportion of our population,
both in jefferson and in our region as a whole who are not vaccinated. Uh so that
can overwhelm our hospital system even with a minimally less severe virus. Um the
other key thing to know is we see a lot of re infection. So if you're only immunity
is prior infection. We're seeing a lot of reinfection with omicron and we are seeing
a lot of breakthrough infection. So whereas a couple months ago, if you were fully
vaccinated, you could feel pretty confident that you are unlikely to contract or
spread covid 19. That is no longer true. Um if you you just have completed your series
and not gotten your booster then it is still very possible for you to contract and
spread covid 19. So the key thing to minimize that risk of spread to others is to
get that booster. The boosters are working really well. We're seeing about 70% efficacy
against any any covid 19 disease at all. Um So it's a really key method for our community
to reduce your risk of contracting covid 19 and giving it to others. So long story
short, if you're vaccinated, you've done a really important thing. You are still
less likely to get covid and you're much less likely to get hospitalized or die.
But the really key step to take now is to get that booster to make you less likely
to get Covid and to give it to others. And if you are unvaccinated, the omicron variant
is not a cold, it's not the flu, it can be incredibly severe. It can cause you to
be hospitalized or die and that can overwhelm our system. Um so we're really encouraging
anyone who has not yet, uh not yet gotten vaccinated to do so. Um and I think we're
seeing our our jefferson healthcare colleagues come on so I want to go ahead and
pass the baton uh and then we can come back and talk some more about. We'll pass
that to Ceo mike Glenn welcome. Have you introduced your team? Sure, sure. Thank
you kate. Um Right now I'm joined by Brandi manual, who is our chief quality officer
and tina toner, Who is our chief nursing officer And um they're gonna add a little
bit of color to what's happening sort of like an hour by hour at the hospital. We
just got a text from Tracy and and she is involved in patient care right now. Um
but anticipates freeing up in a few minutes and will join us. Um I guess I'll start
by speaking to just the the regional issues that we are facing and when I say we
it's sort of sort of a health health care system. I was on a call Friday morning
with the Department of Health and several hospital um colleagues uh for the purpose
of kind of understanding what the next 2-3 weeks look like and the call was pretty
grim in that everybody in the state was sort of feeling and sensing the same thing
where the situation was manageable um at current levels, but I think looking out
as and watching the trend lines and um trying to wrap our heads around some of the
the omicron impacts that dr barry was describing that even though for the vaccinated
population, the impact of macron appears to be less severe with respect to
hospitalizations, the mere numbers of of positives will likely lead to
more hospital activity than we have seen thus far. Um And uh and that in addition
to the the greater likelihood of the unvaccinated um uh being infected and
um likely showing up at hospitals too. So there was some concern about that but that's
just sort of been current state for the last 6 to 9 months kind of uh prepared to
manage for the surge. What's of greater concern um is that uh there's a huge
uptick in all other covid related activity. Um We are seeing more testing activity
now by 2 to 3 fold um than we have ever seen before and frankly we than we are prepared
to manage with respect to our supply um pipeline and just staff running through
173 tests in one day. Um secondly we stood up a booster clinic yesterday or
excuse me last week um uh uh and and are making boosters available to to staff and
family of staff and and other Watkins in certain situations. Um The express clinic
kind of an urgent care center and the emergency department is seeing a surge in activity
um uh on several fronts. Everything from the worried. Well too if I come to the emergency
department I can rule out for sure whether this sniffle is uh um as is covid or not.
Um two very sick patients. I mean december and january is a high
emergency department utilization period whether we are in a pandemic or not. Uh So
so big upticks um uh in that area and then just overall hospital activity where where
today I think tina will speak to a manageable level of patient activity. But this
time last week we were staring at three or four uh covid patients and a rising of
several of other patients that we were attempting to take care of. Um So you have
this uptick in um all things covid uh care activity. Uh secondly
um there we have we and every other hospital is having a significant problem finding
places to discharge patients. Um Normally patients are either discharged to home
or they're discharged to assisted living centers or skilled nursing facilities or
or family group homes. Um and they are adequately staffed and prepared to take care
of these patients that just quite aren't ready to go home yet. Well those difficult
to discharge patients are now almost impossible to discharge patients throughout
the entire house because the nursing state the nursing home um And assisted living
centers are facing the same staffing challenges that we are. And as they see um positive
uh results in their employee base, they tend to be even more cautious and more conservative
about shutting down admissions um than hospitals can be. Um So it's not uncommon
for us to have three or four or five patients um Either up in the emergency on the
floors. Um Not needing hospital care any longer uh taking up a bed
and a staffing time but not able to transfer that patient because there just is no
no facility accepting patients, that situation is aggravated um If the patient requires
um specialty inpatient care like behavioral health care or or substance abuse care
and or psychiatric care. Uh so those patients are typically taking care of the in
the emergency department. So you have that contributing factor. Um and then the other
two-related contributing factors are at our baseline. We are uh struggling to maintain
adequate staffing just because the place we are in 20 months into this thing. Um
but when you add the the high and increasing level of of covid positive activity
that our community is seeing well, our employees live in the community. Um So we
are beginning to see that as well. And um when you have such a skeleton
uh staffing model, um uh throughout the entire
house, um one or two or three well placed uh sick calls, which is the responsible
thing to do um can really be challenging. Um So uh that's kind of this quick, high
level flyover and I see Dr Harris has joined us. So if it's okay with you kate, I'd
like to uh ask Tracy to provide a few comments. Thank you.
Welcome Dr Harris. Yeah, Thanks. Can you guys hear me? Okay? Okay. Um so my veneer
looks a little different than the last time that you physically saw me. We are upgrading
our technology so that I'm not quite fully all shielded and I'm out of the big gown
today. What that means is I haven't been taking care of covid patients today. And
that's true. So just to put this sort of the human face and the down on the boots,
you know, boots on the ground sort of perspective health care right now is I just
would truly echo the things that I'm hearing from mike. I think the challenge to
healthcare right at the moment is, is a different game than it was even the last
time that we approached this group and certainly than in last winter at this time
reiterated is cold and flu season for the large part of our population meaning the
vaccinated and boosted and the boosted piece of that is really extra important. Um,
covid for us is, is, can be very much like the common cold or perhaps influenza.
What that means is I am not seeing as many folks in the hospital with covid that
need to be treated because in general our population is more protected certainly
than it was pre vaccine era. Um, having said that, we've got lots of community members
and lots of employees with kids and kids in school and going about our day to day
business and sort of existing in the world where there's a covid search happening
right now. And so the challenge facing healthcare remains, uh, the risk of the unvaccinated
patient landing in the hospital. Um, the risk of lots of patients who have had to
put off health care for a long time progressing in their disease for healthcare and
now needing the services of the clinics, the emergency room and the hospital. And
then the greatest risk is, as mike was sharing, which is just the risk to our, our
staffing. And there's not, there's not an industry that we're not hearing about that.
You know, we're hearing about flights being canceled, right? You know, upside down
backwards and forwards across the country translate that to health care. It's the
same issue when we don't have doctors and nurses and lab techs and folks to answer
the phone and healthcare, you can't just cancel the flight, right? You just can't,
you can't, you can't say no thank you. We can't see you in the emergency room. So
it's that, you know, you saw a very fatigued healthcare worker here the last time
you've got a different, different kind of fatigued healthcare worker here now, um,
it's the same group of people seeing the same kinds of problems, but just working
a whole lot more. Why? Because there's there there's so many, there's only so many
of us to go around. There's only so many of the skill set to go around. And when
folks are sick with the usual cold and flu stuff for now, with perhaps less symptomatic
covid they're still not in the workforce to carry for the rest of this care for the
rest of this population. So this translates to every single department in the hospital.
The challenge on that human level level to every single department in the hospital
is this is a fairly skilled profession. It's fairly skilled to learn how to be an
environmental cleaning professional in this profession, right? It's it's it's it's
um you gotta learn how to do this kind of thing. What I mean is you gotta learn how
to clean a room in a hospital system. If you're a lab tech that's in a lab that is
an incredibly skilled thing to do to run blood tests and do microbiology and do the
things that we do as skilled as doctors, nurses and the people that are providing
the front line care. So this challenge the staffing challenges affecting care at
literally every single level from the people that are answering the phones to the
people that are cleaning our rooms, to the people that are serving our food to the
people that are delivering the care. So the message here is we are one tired industry.
That's the message. Um Be kind to us, be kind to each other, take care of yourselves,
wear masks and for God's sake get vaccinated if you haven't already. That's my message.
Mhm. Yeah, I would thank you. Um I would I would emphasize that there are things
that we can do as a community, there is uh your healthcare system is strained. We
were short staffed and exhausted before this started. Um And now we have a massive
surge, people getting sick on the on the job or sick from home. Um And that's causing
even more strain and now blessedly so far in jefferson we haven't had a massive surge
of covid patients needing hospitalization. But in neighboring Callum we have in neighboring
kids app and king we have. Um And so the places where we would normally send folks
are also getting limited and we can all make changes to help minimize that strength.
Um And so like dr Harris said if you've not gotten vaccinated, get vaccinated if
you're eligible. Um And if you've not gotten your booster, get that booster if you're
eligible. So if it's been six months since your last shot, if you got an M. R. N.
A. Vaccine, get that booster if it's been two months and you've got J and J. Get
that booster that will make a huge difference and then wear a mask, wear a mask.
And um where I'm asking any of these kind of congregate settings and some of the
things that we used to be able to do in omicron. We can't in delta we can't do an
omicron. So this idea that we could have large numbers of vaccinated but not boosted
folks together in a room and not spread covid that is no longer true. So if you're
going to have a gathering right now with this much covid in the community, it needs
to be a boosted gathering. Um So to actually make sure everyone who's there has had
their booster and try to keep that gathering small until we get through this wave
we will get through this wave omicron does tend to burn through pretty quickly. Um
but in this next few weeks it's really critical to keep those gatherings small and
boosted and masked and if we do all of that, that can really make a huge difference.
The only other thing that we all need to do is that because health care is short
and public health is short to, we don't have any cases of the public health department,
but we were always small. Um and this is a shocking number of cases for us to contact
trace is to know that we cannot actually call all these cases anymore. Um so if you
test positive you need to know what to do. Um and so we've got a lot of good information
on our website about what to do. If you test positive for COVID-19 you can of course
still call us if you're positive, we're always happy to help you. Um but some of
those kind of general guidance questions for folks who aren't positive, we just don't
have capacity to answer those right now because we're just focusing on putting out
the positive fires, helping manage the outbreaks, helping mitigate the damage of
this search. Um so we're gonna encourage you to look for that guidance. Access that
guidance and call your friends who you've been around. If you test positive. Um a
common misconception I hear is that if you test positive for Covid 19 you must have
done something wrong. And I want to do what I can to to to stop that piece of misinformation
especially with omicron you can have done everything right and get covid. Um It's
not not a morality test, it's a virus, we all can get it. Um And so the most important
thing is if you get covid is to tell the people you've been around, it doesn't mean
you were bad, it doesn't mean you weren't vaccinated. You could have done everything
and it still can happen and breaking that chain of transmission is so so critical
right now. Um I want to make space for my healthcare partners because I know that
you guys have a lot you need to get back to. Um Are there other things you want to
add for that? K. P. T. Z. Yeah I do. Thank you dr barry for that. Focus on all of
the actions that we can take. I just again I wanted to give a little bit of that
human perspective. You shared something that I failed to and and that is what are
the implications of our surrounding counties and the strain on the healthcare systems
and our surrounding counties. Um uh and really what that looks like here. So we are
teeny tiny little hospital right with with for the most part small numbers of patients
and small numbers of staff for our hospital. You know at any given time we've got
one emergency room physician, there's one or two physicians upstairs hearing for
the hospitalized patients. And then we've got, you know, during the day, of course,
there's more folks around fewer at night. Typically we we manage a vast majority
of things in this hospital and there can come a time and a course of a hospitalization
where the needs or how critical a patient is can outgrow the services that we can
offer at Jefferson healthcare. Perhaps there is a need for sub specialists that are
not here. Perhaps the patient becomes so critically ill that they need to be transferred
to a larger hospital, more capability than here. The the impact of having a health
care system that is so dramatically strained is reality is when it is time to pull
that trigger to move a patient to a higher level of care. Our ability to do that
is drastically reduced. What used to take a matter of hours at this point is taking
a number of days and in some, in some ways doesn't matter how critically ill patient
is. If there's not a critical care bed and what I mean by that is focused on life
care. I'm sorry, people that are on life support, people that are unstable. People
that are needing a specialist or a surgeon or a specific kind of doctor or a procedure
that's not offered here. Stay here until we have a place for them to go in the pre
covid times, that was not a thing that we ever had to deal with moving patients from
one hospital to the other has been critically impaired and is critically impaired
right now. Um That's just the reality of where we live, the downstream effect of
that for the rest of the patients and the rest of the community is if I dr Harris
as the hospital doctor is managing a critically ill patient and that makes me six
hours at the bedside to give all of my attention to one patient. That means every
other patient in the hospital doesn't have access to me right now. So just sit with
that for a minute. That is a real thing that we talk about in health care, the risk
to everybody else when services and attention are divided to others. So that's the,
you know, that's the underbelly of what we're seeing here in a lot of ways, what
we see at Jefferson healthcare, we have been a bit insulated from what the rest of
healthcare is experiencing a bit insulated. We still struggle with the same kinds
of things. We just struggle with it on a smaller scale. But those individual cases
that we see truly can impact the care that we're delivering to the other patients
that are in the hospital. That's a real thing, You hear those words, moral injury
and health care. That is part of what that is I is that an individual person want
to be able to give the amount of attention that everybody needs at all times. If
there's just one of me or there is just one of the emergency room physician that's
not always possible to do.
Okay, so with that I'm going to go back to patient care. Thank you so much. Dr thank
you, get all your hard work. Um Mike, do you wanna introduce your other staff here
today and just give them a chance to speak that? I think Tina was gonna start with
maybe a closer to the ground perspective on on the hospital activities. So
sure, thanks Mike and thank you everyone. I think uh Mike and dr barry dr Harris
did a great job of summarizing what we're facing. You know, I'm thinking about just
this snapshot of this last week and what everyone said is very true. Our census is
very label and it's very dependent on the region. It's dependent on so many other
factors is dependent on our staffing. Something else we're really grappling with
here is just the higher acuity of our patients both because there has been delayed
care and people are, are presenting um more acutely ill and then the impact of being
able to transfer patients. So we are so looking at this last week, we have patients
admitted here in the hospital that we normally would transfer. Um that situation
that doctor, you know Harris spoke of of having a critically ill patient that we're
not able to transfer out. that that happened this week. We had a critically il intubated
patient in our ICU. That took almost 48 hours to uh to transfer to another bed. Uh
We're looking looking at what R. E. D. Uh and our express clinic are seeing for patients
over the last month. Their numbers have increased from seeing around um 200 patients
in the emergency department every week to 250. The express clinic normally sees around
100 and 50. They're seen around 225. We have a lot of patients presenting with symptoms.
We're also seeing an increase again in our covid uh positive admissions as dr barry
mentioned um at our peak about probably you know during delta the delta variant.
We were seeing some um days of covid positive admissions. Close to I think six or
seven patients at our peak Um admitted right now. We're averaging around 2-3. But
we had went for several weeks. We actually had about five weeks where we didn't have
a covid positive patient admitted in our system. So we're grappling with that. We're
also seeing an increase in our um obstetrical patient population. So we have
seen increased covid positive admissions in that department as well as um patients
currently pregnant that are positive that we're just keeping a close eye on um and
preparing for their delivery here. Um Along with the uh the difficulty in transferring
in the region. And I think both my conductor Harris mentioned the difficult to discharge
patients. What that means, practically speaking is, is we've been averaging around
2-3 um of our beds each day that have patients that we could discharge but are unable
to. And over the last month or two we've seen some patients that were eventually
discharged but they had stays greater than 50 days here. So again, just another uh
demand on our system. I think the other thing I would just highlight is that along
with all of that increased demand and it's already been mentioned. But the staffing
um the vulnerability in our staffing is is very concerning. We have departments that
have um two nurses scheduled in a department for a shift. And so if you have one
nurse that has to call off, our staffing has decreased to 50%. So we are um
extremely challenged with the limitations around our staffing. And uh we we are seeing
increased call outs and we are asking a lot of our team right now. We have people
are picking up tremendous amount of extra shifts. We have our leaders uh providing
patient care. We have people supporting multiple departments were really doing all
that we can to try and maintain as much uh readiness as we can right now. But it's
very strained. And then I think lastly I would just bring up to the our surgical
patients. We have now had probably, I mean we're going on a significant amount of
time with decreased surgical staffing ability. So we are not currently admitting
um to our full capacity because we need to preserve those beds for emergent patients.
So we are seeing this continued backlog of surgical patients that is growing and
we're getting we're growing more concerned about how we meet those patients needs
and and uh and and how we balance that. Also. That's another area that I'm concerned
over.
Alright and Brandy, we covered quite a bit of the landscape. But is there anything
you would you would like to add again? Brandy manuals or Chief quality officer at
the hospital? Um Not a lot to add. I just think from a systems perspective as Tina
and dr Harris really outlined. Um So much of our focus is on um keeping our employees
well, keeping them at work, making sure that if they are feeling symptomatic that
they aren't coming to work, which then um you know then creates sort of the situation
that Tina mentioned where we're trying to cover other ships. But we're really focused
on increasing booster vaccines among employees, really increasing our testing capacity
and um doing a lot of rounding proactive PPE, monitoring. Um Our house supervisor
has been carrying eye protection with her as she's rounding through the house and
just making sure that um that everybody is wearing appropriate PPE. And we're all
just really trying to take care of each other because we know that that's the best
way to preserve our health care system. So um that's where so much of our focus has
been always wanting to provide um safe, great patient care to everyone in our community.
And so the best way that we can think of to do that is to make sure that we're taking
good care of each other. And I do want to acknowledge Jefferson healthcare has done
a fantastic job. We've seen far fewer infections among staff or within a health care
facility than we've seen really anywhere else in the state. Um and so keep keep doing
the same things you are. Um We're really we're really lucky to have folks who are
that focused on safety in our community. I'm super grateful for everything Jefferson
healthcare is doing and recently had a routine medical procedure and it was one that
took a while to get scheduled. But once it did it was really wonderful care and treatment.
And I am not a person who goes to doctors ever. And so I was, as you can imagine
shaking in my shoes, but they put me at ease and it was quick and easy and so I'm
just super grateful that we have such a great health care facility in our community
and I know that a vast, vast legions in the community are grateful. So sorry, I'm
sorry that we're entering our third year, third calendar year of the pandemic, not
third running year, but um somebody reminded me that We were we were in fact entering
22 is going to be our third calendar year and stay in communication with us. I feel
like I don't you know I don't know what more we can do to support you all but we
all do need to take care of each other and support each other. And that's one of
the most important things we can do is provide each other that care and support as
a community. So I just wanted to add that. Well what I feel compelled to say is that
uh that I think jefferson county we have lots of um lots of things uh that are in
our favor and getting through this and and one is the continued great working relationship
relationship between jefferson healthcare and public health um and the E. M. Um that
maybe doctor talks about this but uh twice a week every monday and Wednesday morning
she joins the hospital for our incident command meetings and provides a county perspective
that's invaluable to us and also on on the spot on demand um consulting on
how to handle the issues that sometimes are you know 90 minutes fresh really just
released from the C. D. C. Um So it's that level of communication and responsiveness
um has been invaluable. Um And also I don't I don't get a chance to speak to willie
face to face very much any longer but um Willy Dave and his team continued to be
awesome and and we just view them as part of our extended team. Um So I think both
from a a how do we get all this work done perspective, but also from this, uh
how do we take care of ourselves getting through this difficult period perspective?
It's just nice to know that you've got uh teams that you can rely on and count on
and and are in this to the very end, so we greatly appreciate that and I wanted to
say that in front of the commissioners that your teams are doing a great job. Thank
you, mike. All right, well thank you, Jefferson Healthcare for joining us, you're
welcome to stick around. Um but we'll see if dr barry has more and then we'll also
turn it over to D m I know we're running short on time, but there's a couple more
things I wanted to talk through for folks because there has been so much news since
the last time we got together. Um One of the key updates was the new CDC guidance
on isolation and quarantine, I think that caused a lot of questions in the community.
Um And so we have updated our guidance on our website to incorporate a lot of the
C. D. C guidance. Um And so if you look online at jefferson public health, you'll
see that now. Um I think the way that the CDC guidance was reported on was less nuanced
than the guidance itself. Um so there are ways in which the new CDC guidance is actually
more stringent than the guidance before and the really key detail there is that if
you are fully vaccinated and un boosted um if you if you have got your vaccine more
than six months ago and you've not gotten your booster yet and you get exposed to
COVID-19. The current guidance is that we are asking you to quarantine um for at
least five days um and that's a change from how it was before. Um The other key guidance
shift there that got a lot of attention was around um isolation. If you have Covid
19 and I think it's a little bit more complex than was than you would often hear
in the news. Um But it's if you were if you diagnosed positive for Covid 19 and you
are asymptomatic at day five, you could potentially leave isolation early. Recommendation
is to get a test an antigen test, to test out for the vast majority of people. If
you test positive for Covid 19, you should stay home for 10 days unless you are truly
asymptomatic at day five, then you could consider leaving isolation but you do need
to wear a tight fitting mask, you need to wear it consistently and avoid high risk
settings. So it's okay to potentially go out into the world but not to go into a
long term care facility if you're within that isolation period. So for most of us
isolate if you test positive for Covid 19 is still 10 days. But if you happen to
be one of those rare few who's truly asymptomatic at day five you could consider
leaving isolation early but you want to wear a tight fitting mask, avoid high risk
settings. Um But otherwise most of the guidance is the same. Um We do recommend at
least a five day quarantine if you've been exposed to covid 19 and a test before
you leave quarantine um If you are not boosted, if you've received your booster you
don't have to quarantine if you're exposed to Covid 19, those are kinda the key changes.
Um And you can kind of dig into that online. We've got a flow sheet for you to help
you operationalize it. Um But that's kind of the big differences with the new CDC
guidance. The only other really big question I'm getting a lot right now is how do
I get tested for Covid 19? Um So there is a critical shortage of the home antigen
tests that we've gotten really used to having access to. Um They are short nationwide.
Um They're definitely short in jefferson County it's rare to be able to find them.
Um And so we're getting a a lot of calls of the public health department about what
can I get one. Um And if it's if it's because you're symptomatic or you were exposed
to covid 19. We do have tests for you still. Um so we are happy to support you out
of the Department of Public Health to get you those tests. We don't have enough tests
for general asymptomatic testing prior to gatherings right now, there's just not
enough tests for we wish we did um it's really kind of a federal level issue to get
enough tests out there and get them distributed. But right now we have enough for
if you're sick, we have enough for if you were exposed and we're happy to support
you in that and we we have the Department of Public Health jefferson drive through
still available for if you're symptomatic. So if you have symptoms of Covid 19, that's
an option for you. Um that's a PCR so turnarounds a day, day or two but there is
still testing for you. It's just not the 15 minute testing that we've gotten kind
of used to at this point. Uh similarly if you have the ability to get into the east
side of Cleveland County into the swim area, the pharmacies also offer drive through
PCR testing. Um So those are your best options for getting access to testing. We
wish there was more testing right now to um there just isn't enough available in
our space as soon as there starts to be more, we will make sure that you have access
to it as soon as we can um last big update and then I'll pass it over to Willie for
the last five minutes and uh we'll figure out how to handle K. P. T. C. Questions
another time. Um Is that um is treatments for covid 19? So in general the monoclonal
antibodies that we got used to using um no longer work for omicron. Um And so we
are not going to be offering monoclonal antibody treatments in our community until
we get the one monoclonal antibody that's still working for for omicron and the antiviral
pills you've heard so much about. They have not come into our community yet. They
haven't come to jefferson, they haven't come to Callum um And so hang tight we want
to get them to you too but please don't inundate your your primary care office trying
to get access to them because we don't have them yet. But as soon as we do we will
make sure that you're aware of it. Um and know how to access those medications. Dr
barry and maybe kate. You can confirm I think we're going to 10 45 today. Was that
right? That's what I heard from K. P. T. C. Um Depending on availability of dr barry
and Willy we did set aside more time with K. P. T. Z. But you might not be available
to view so I'm happy to stay. So I would love to be able to answer some questions.
Uh So let's have Willie give us update and then we'll spend the rest of the time
on KPCC questions and end with those today. How's that? Real quick? Thank you all.
Um real quick. I'll update on our current clinic schedule for the next two weeks.
Um this saturday we're back at the school district multipurpose room. I'm offering
another round of um 5 to 11 year old Fighter, whether it's first or second dose for
your um 5 to 11 year old child. So we have plenty of spaces in that morning, clinic
again 5 to 11, 5 first or second. Then in the afternoon we have Moderna boosters
available for anyone who's 18 years of age or older. Um That's if you're six months
out from your second dose of Pfizer or Moderna or two months out from your single
dose of J and J. That'll be 1 to 4 p.m. In the aft afternoon and plenty of spaces
available in both. Um, so we're trying to fill those up. We know that there's a big
demand, especially for the 18 and up boosters for the general population. We know
there's been a big demand, we know they've been kind of tough to come by so you can
make it this saturday afternoon, sign up on the jefferson County public health website
or by calling into our call center on the next saturday, we're happy to say we're
going down to South county and we'll be in quill seen um at the Wilson school gymnasium
down there. I'm following a similar setup. Um We'll be doing um Fighter for youth
in the morning followed by general I'm 18 and up um Moderna boosters. The thing about
this clinic though is the C. D. C. Is looking at finalizing their approval for boosters
for 12 to 12 to 16 year olds. And um so we will be offering in the morning those
fighter booster doses um for 12 to 18 year olds I believe it was the doctor barry
please correct on this. It was 17 and 8 16 and 17 were previously approved. Now it's
12 to 15 year olds are finally being approved. So 12 to 18 boosters have been approved
for 16 and up for a little bit 12 to 15 was just approved by FDA. Um We're still
waiting for CDC approval but we anticipate will likely get that today. Um So as soon
as that's fully approved we will we want to make sure that that option is available
for for our kids because we are seeing breakthrough. We are seeing reinfections um
and we want to keep our kids in school and doing all the activities but make their
life more pleasant. So getting getting a booster is a key part of that. So again
that'll be saturday the 15th down in South. County and we'll see uh school gymnasium
down there. Um So I can keep an eye out for that C. D. C. Recommends um C. O. C.
D. C. Approval as soon as that um, comes through again, we'll have those boosters
for the 12 to 17 year old crowd, otherwise 5 to 11 year old first Will be available
in the morning as well. Um we don't have anything scheduled for the 22nd or the 29th
as of yet. We will have offerings those dates though. So do um, do stay tuned in,
Jefferson County public health website or through one of these meetings will make
that information available once we determine again where are our limited resources
can best be? Um, but otherwise I hope to see folks at those um, those two clinics
and we have space. Please don't hesitate, do sign up. Um, we do have a current cap
that if we hit, we will raise. Um, so we desperately want to get folks in and we
hope to see you out there. Um, and that's really really all I have. So I'm barring
any questions from the commissioners at the end of my report.
Thanks for all your work willie. We appreciate you being on the front lines and then
this and weather response. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah, yeah. And I, you know,
did a little bit earlier um, some king tides coming up this week. There was obviously
the snowstorm throughout the county last night saw some particularly wet and heavy
snowfall, which we were fortunate before the snow we were getting was on the lighter
drier side and it's that wet heavy snow that causes issues with infrastructure with
the folks down specifically on the coil peninsula are experiencing right now. Um
You d is working very hard to restore power to um I think a little over 1000 people
um 101 is closed down in South county as wash dot is working on getting that back
up so um and we're not out of the woods, it will continue to be pretty chilly. So
thank you to our roads crews T. U. D. Um continues to be a team effort whether it's
covid or the weather or anything else thankfully. What's this specific issue on 101
is it just ice down trees and power lines and then there's some um it's above freezing
in most places and the roads crew has done a great job so most roads are pretty clear
but there are spots of ice and you know um along center um coming off with oil a
few other wherever you're traveling. Um Do proceed with caution. Thank you. Okay
dr barry, let's do the list, the list of questions um and any questions from commissioners
before I I wade into the K. P. T. Z. Questions. Alright well we have quite a few
today. Um a lot of them touched on some of what we've already covered. Um So I'll
be kind of skipping around a bit. Um One question we got was um how do the boosters
work if you got J. And J. Um So if you had one dose of J. And J. And then you go
on to get a booster, where do you fall? Do you need to complete your whole series
or is does one M. RNA booster after J. And J. Count as boosted. Um And it does actually
we're seeing um we're seeing similar levels of protection if you've got a J. And
J. And initially and then went on to get a booster either of Em RNA or actually of
J. And J. Um We generally are recommending the M. RNA boosters were saying a little
better protection and better safety protocol profile. So we generally recommend moving
to the M. RNA vaccines if you have that availability and we do have that availability
here unless you have a specific medical reason. And if you're if you're worried about
that, I would recommend talking to your primary provider. Um But yes you are similarly
protected if your initial vaccine was J. And J. As long as you got your booster.
Um So you can feel confident in that you don't need to complete a whole other series.
It's just two shots if you got J. And J. And then an M. R. N. A vaccine. Um There
was an interesting question about a a public records request that was sent to the
F. D. A. Um And it does draw headlines. Um You'll see that there was a A very specific
public records request to the FDA around releasing basically all the data it has
on all of the vaccines. Um and they asked for a a shockingly long time to do that.
Um it's actually 55 years to turn all in all that data. Which sounds crazy until
you realize That the request was for 329,000 pages of documents. Um and when it comes
to the FDA um it's very similar to what happens at public health. Which is that um
a lot of that is protected health information. So you can't just hand it over. Um
you actually have to line by line block out anything that could identify a patient.
And so what the FDA volunteered to do because they also have other things that they're
doing during the day is to give 500 pages a month. Um And so if you do 329,000 pages
you do 500 pages a month. It actually does get you out to 55 years. Um And so the
the issue there was that it was actually just a really massive request. Um If you
do uh want want public records um I recommend making it a focused request. Um It
makes it much more possible for us to get you that information in a reasonable amount
of time. The other key thing to know when it comes to the F. D. A. Is the actual
data on those studies is already publicly available. Um And so unfortunately that
particular request is being used by some kind of anti vaccine contingents to try
to suggest that the FDA is hiding data. They're not the actual data from all those
studies is already publicly available. But what this particular request was was a
lot of personally identifiable information which does have to because of regulations
around privacy be blacked out individually. Um All right. Um This was a person who
wrote and said they got both of their shots back in the spring and they had some
side effects. They it sounds like there's some body aches and chills and fever and
they didn't really want to do it again. Um They also had a case of covid 19. And
so what they were wondering about was do you should get a booster. Um And that is
the one crew that can likely get away with not getting Booster. So if you have had
uh completed your vaccine series and had a prior infection with COVID-19, that prior
infection is very similar to one dose of the vaccine. So you can basically count
that as your booster. Um there's certainly no harm and also getting a booster. Um
but most likely what we're seeing with the data right now is that a case of COVID-19
basically counts for one shot. Um so you can add that to your, add that to your vaccination
history and consider yourself pretty well immune if you've also had a case of COVID-19.
But it does not it's not equivalent to completing your whole vaccine series which
is one of the pieces of kind of misinformation we often hear think of it like a shot.
Um so you can add that into your mix. It counts for some immunity but it's not it
doesn't replace getting vaccinated. Um All right a couple of other questions. Um
uh We already talked a bit about J. And J. We had two questions about J. And J. Another
one is how are we doing at getting our residents in long term care their boosters.
I hear that nationally this is not happening as quickly as it should. That is actually
a place where we're doing really well here. Um So we have had a very focused effort
on getting vaccinations to those in long term care. Um Throughout this pandemic and
specifically getting boosters. So our long term care facilities are as of our last
check all of those who were eligible for boosters have been offered them. Um And
in the vast majority of cases have received them. Um So we've worked really hard
D. M helped with some of that um Public health helped with some of that to make sure
that our most vulnerable have had access to boosters. D. M. Has had a long standing
offer of home visits for the home bound to get them boosters. We've been doing that
for quite some time. Um So I do actually feel like our most vulnerable are very well
vaccinated here. And we actually saw that we had a long term care facility outbreak
in which the uh in which we saw that people who were already boosted either didn't
get infected or got incredibly mild disease which is really hopeful. We've never
had a situation where long term care facility residents got mild disease before.
Um And we're really seeing that now. The only other thing kind of speaking to that
around boosters is I think a common feeling I'm hearing is does this mean I'm gonna
have to get a vaccine every six months? Um And I don't think so. We don't think that
that's how this is going to go. There are many many vaccines in which you have to
get three doses to get lifelong immunity HPV vaccines, the hepatitis vaccines. Um
Quite a few of the meningitis vaccine. There's quite a few where you got three doses
and then you're done. Um And so I wouldn't fear that you're gonna need to get a dose
every six months. There is some question about whether or not this will become more
like an influenza vaccine down the road. We don't know enough yet to know. Um But
I would say no more than annual. We don't think we're all gonna need vaccines every
six months. Um All right. Um This person says I am immune compromised and got my
booster in september should I be concerned that my immunity is waning. We have not
yet seen waning efficacy from boosters specifically. Um but I think it is reasonable
if you are immune compromise. Um to consider that you likely are having less bang
for your buck from any of your vaccines, including your booster and to use extra
precautions so to make sure you're wearing a high quality mask um to limit some of
your exposures, especially when we're dealing with such a c significant surge in
cases. Um I think if you are immune compromised now is the time to be very thoughtful
about the amount of exposures you're having. That doesn't mean you can't have any,
but it does mean bringing back kind of the pod concept of having a few trusted folks
who are boosted who are around you and you wear a good mask when you're out and about.
I think that's that's a good strategy for for all of us with high risk health conditions
right now. Um This person asked is there any support including potentially law enforcement
to aid management in supermarkets and enforcing mask mandates? Um I recently talked
to an assistant manager who talked who talked to an unmasked customer and was verbally
abused in that interaction. Um and and now these uh these workers are afraid to approach
folks. Um And I think that's a very real challenge in enforcing these orders in both
the restaurant order, the masking orders. We have unfortunately seen some very bad
behavior of some members of the public towards people who are just doing their jobs.
Um and I have experiencing store clerks worried about enforcing the orders because
of that. Um and I think there's no very easy answer there. Um there has been some
work on de escalation training um to help folks learn how to have that conversation
well in a way that won't escalate. Um I do want to share that our law enforcement
actually in classroom and jefferson have have been very clear that they are available
to store clerks. If you have an interaction that gets out of control, um they're
happy to help remove someone from your building if they are not willing to follow
the rules of that building. Um, but we hope it doesn't get there. I recommend when
it comes to store clerks, restaurant workers uh that you try um do so politely and
then if the person is really not willing to comply, just help them move through that
space quickly. Um You know, if they aren't, you know, going, going off the rails,
if they just don't want to wear a mask, help get what they need and get back out.
The more of a confrontation, the more shouting with an unmasked person that happens,
the more particles are being spread. Um and it's never worth your safety to enforce
a mask mandate, but do try do try talking to folks do try enforcing the orders, primarily.
Most most people will listen if you say, hey, I notice you don't have a mask, I have
one for you. Um Most people will comply in those settings and the other folks in
your store will feel safer, but if they don't help them get out of there and then
move on with your day. That's, that's generally my my recommendation when it comes
to those. But if it gets intense while you're there, law enforcement is there to
support you and help get those folks out of there. Um Just a couple other ones. Similarly
question about mask enforcement in cloud county. Um uh specifically this one was
safeway, what do you do if you see someone who's not enforcing the mask mandate,
you can call the Department of Public Health and we will do an outreach with them.
Generally the first step is to kind of assess the situation, see what's going on,
um see if we can help them with how to enforce it, which often includes things like
de escalation training to help folks understand how to enforce the mandate well,
um and usually that's all we need, but we are short staffed. Um and there is a limit,
so we do prioritize those, um, those outreaches, but we will always outreach to restore.
Um if we get that kind of a call from the public, but we don't have enough staff
actually to do a lot of random checks and so we do uh we do really rely on those
complaints from the public know that you're not gonna get anybody in trouble. We're
just gonna help them with uh with enforcing the order and getting them what they
need to do so um and this person just wanted to applaud the port Townsend safeway
for doing a good job at masking and I want to applaud them as well. I would say we've
really seen excellent masking in Jefferson County by and large and I think that has
been a huge part of what has helped us whether the these waves um I think it's it's
important to know it is frustrating to have to keep adapting to this virus. Um I
hear folks say you know I just a couple months ago I could go out with my friends,
I could do what I wanted if I was vaccinated and it's frustrating to be back here.
Um We have as a community had to adapt many times to this virus. Um but we have so
far and we will do so again and it will not always be like this. Um It will get better
um but while we go through this surge it's important to kind of limit our interactions
again, get our group's a little smaller, make sure we're boosted, make sure were
masked. Um All right, just a couple other quick things. Um So this person said I
am fully vaccinated and boosted. Um But they're worried about getting a breakthrough
infection with omicron. My question is if I get covid, what is the what's the isolation
time before it's safe to be with people again? Um I would be off work. Um So just
wondering how long I would be out. So if you are exposed to covid so someone in your
life is around you but you're boosted, you don't need to quarantine. Quarantine is
the term we use for if you're expo but don't have covid. Um But if you come down
with covid you do need to isolate. Um So you do need to stay uh stay home, stay away
from others for 10 days. Unless you're in that very rare group. Who is asymptomatic
at day five, then you could potentially leave isolation, wear a good fitting mask
and avoid those high risk spaces. And I think that's as much as we can do today.
Thank you dr barry looks like kate has a question. Yeah. Just a follow up. I'm sorry.
In that last example you used um I thought you were saying the new CDC guidance says
if you are a close contact regardless of vaccination that you should. Oh good, good
chance to reiterate. Okay so if you're a close contact, say someone in your life
has Covid 19 and you are exposed to, you know, you get a call from friends say, hey
kate you got exposed to Covid 19. Um if you're vaccinated and boosted, that's the
key. You don't need to quarantine. But if you are vaccinated and have not received
your booster yet and you got your vaccine more than six months ago, which most of
us did. Um then you do need to quarantine for five days. So that that get out of
quarantine free card is your booster. Um So if you've not been boosted yet, another
reason to get that booster is so you don't have to quarantine now still be aware.
Um It is possible to get a breakthrough. Even if if you're boosted though it's less
likely. So if you get sick, if you're feeling a little off, go ahead and get tested.
And we do recommend everyone get tested five days after an exposure regardless of
your vaccine status. But you don't have to quarantine if you're boosted. If you're
vaccinated and un boosted then you do. Thanks for clarifying
that. I thought I knew it all at this point. It's complicated. And so that's why
we have a nice little flow sheet on the website. Use the flow sheet. It's really
hard to carry all this stuff in your head and we always update them whenever the
guidance changes. So just go there and look at it, walk it through whenever you might
have an exposure and it should give answer most of your questions. But that said,
I mean you know, so having just been in that exact situation days ago. Um, you know,
because we have a lot of vulnerable people in our lives as boosted people. We still
chose to quarantine just out of fear of exposing um, both kids and elderly. It's
never wrong to quarantine. Um, so you can always do a more stringent thing. Um, you
can stay, you can stay home, you know, if you have Covid, I think isolating for 10
days is the right call for the vast majority of people. Shortening isolation is a
risky move if you have Covid. Um, if you're quarantined, um, I think it depends a
lot on what you do during your day. Um, so if you, if you can work from home do right,
if there, if there are ways to limit your exposure to others if you have been exposed
to Covid, 19 absolutely do. Um, and there are some spaces where that is mandatory.
So if you are working in a long-term care facility with really critically high risk
folks, if you're working in a jail, there's different rules for those spaces. And
so please know as the public, we have much more stringent rules in those spaces when
it comes to COVID-19, but it's never the wrong decision to stay home. Can I follow
up on that too real quick. I know we're past time, but I don't know if I if you heard
dr barry, but I both my wife and I had a breakthrough cases six days after our booster
shots. And it was, it was, I mean it was probably the best time to isolate for 10
days. You know, I pretty much stayed off the computer because I didn't want to spread
any computer viruses to, you know. Uh but my
uh what what you were uh you just said, you know, we I I talked to folks that I had
encountered or spend time with you no more than 15 minutes and in close proximity
for a couple of days before my particularly my throat that I felt on christmas eve.
But if I had everyone for what, five days before that that I had spent time with
and said you should quarantine. I mean that's how far back you go because they would
be they would be have symptoms if they were gonna get infected at that same my inciting
incident, you know, 3-5 days before. Um So yeah, if you are going to
contact trace, which we recommend you do. Um So if you test positive for covid 19,
we recommend you call everyone that you've been in close contact with for the two
days before your symptom onset. So say you you you start getting a sore throat on
christmas eve. So that's the 22nd and on anyone you were in close contact with you
want to let them know you're positive. It's gonna be hard for you to kind of talk
them through all the guidance so that the key thing is to let them know that you
were positive and you were around them and tell them to go to the jefferson public
health website and it'll help you through it um kind of for what to do, but it's
two days before your symptom onset and up to 10 days after your symptoms started.
Um as far as who you want to contact. Um and then generally it will depend on their
vaccine status whether or not they need to quarantine. And that is one key detail
is you are not considered fully protected from your booster until two weeks after
you got it. Um And so unfortunately in your case it sounds like you were exposed
a little too soon. Um and so when you plan whether or not you're gonna be quarantining,
you do have to be two weeks after your booster to meet that, not quarantining threshold,
but you are very well protected now. Yeah. My other question really quick is just
about testing with the dearth of testing around. We didn't feel like it would be
the responsible thing to test again. I mean, we're our symptoms stopped after five
days, the mild symptoms we had and I just want to, I guess get your assurance that
that would that's appropriate. Our daughter who tested negative but did have some
symptoms and on the first couple of days as well, um we want to make sure that her
social group before she reintegrate with that group. You give them what assurance
we can. So but we've heard also false positives after after you've had Covid. So
I guess would you recommend that we get tested at this point? Would you recommend
that we could use jefferson Healthcare's testing kits for our daughter too. Um Allay
any fears of her social encounters and make sure that she's safe going back to school.
So yeah. How do you talk through? So false positives and false negatives? Um Really
depends a lot on this thing called pretest probability. So what's the likelihood
that it's that you have Covid? And so if you live with someone who has Covid and
you have covid like symptoms you probably have covid. Um Even if if you test negative
so that's more likely to be a false negative. So if you say your you know your husband
has covid um And you get a scratchy throat, you probably have covid. Um And so the
best course of action is isolate for 10 days from when those symptoms started. Um
And then you don't have to test again to get out of isolation. You're you're good
at 10 days. You're not giving it to anyone else. And I think that is a a good way
to spare tests is to just isolate pretending. Um And then after that you can feel
really confident that you're not spreading Covid to other people. Um The antigen
tests tend to turn negative. Um But the P. C. R. S. Don't um you'll pcr positive
for 90 days almost for sure after you have had Covid. Um And so no sense getting
repeat tested with PcR um The most key places to use the tests is if you're symptomatic
or if you're exposed. Um But if you have if you have covid not not necessarily not
not necessary to test again um To get out of isolation. Just use the use the 10 days
and then final question sorry if none of this this didn't happen to us. But if you
I often I get a cold in it You know something lingers for for weeks afterwards. But
that's not really practical to isolate. We're pretty confident that 10 days after.
Even if you have lingering congestion that you are not infectious. Yeah actually
so that's one thing that we have studied pretty well um and that you don't um you
don't shed viable virus after the 10 days. Unless you're in a there are some subsets.
So if you're severely immuno suppressed if you're on chemotherapy things like that
then it's 20 days. Um But for for the general public it's 10 days so you can feel
good that as long as your symptoms are improving you don't have a fever. It's 10
days out you're good But yeah we've had people who have had Covid cough for months.
Um But they stop shedding viable virus at 10 days. Um, so they can return to the
workplace. It can be a little hard if people know they had Covid and they're coughing.
Um, but if they, if they're outside of that 10 day window, there not a danger to
others. I probably just wrecked my first Covid update as a commissioner because we're
way over time. But we had the whole thing. It afforded me, it afforded me the opportunity
to write a haiku about this for you all. After positive curious commissioners asked
about Covid. That's my haiku for this Covid update. Thank you dr barry and thank
you willy And for all the things you've done and you're about to do for our community?
We appreciate you. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Thank you.
So it looks like we are just before 11 and we don't, I, I think all
of us are interested in attending the noon Wasiq meeting. There's the last thing
on our agenda is any continued commissioners briefing that we want to do? Looking
back and looking forward and I know Mark got cut off. So do we want to take a break
and come back at 11 or do we want to just push through on that and then break until
noon? What's your pleasure push through and then break. So do you want to
finish up where you were Mark? Because you got cut off right. I think I think I got
through Tuesday the fourth tomorrow. Um,
so, oh, policy management on Wednesday. I don't have that on my calendar, but um,
we'll have to check with Willie and have him send out a new invitation for that.
Um but tomorrow Phillip hunt sucker and I are having a zoom meeting with jefferson
Transit because we're having difficulty coming to terms uh, for an I. L. A. For the
use of the gateway visitors center for their rapid uh, Kingston Express bus route.
Um, email didn't seem to work, so we're gonna hash it out face to face be a zoom.
Um, then thursday mill road update again. And of course, we'll hear from cherish
and Kathy and their team later today on on that. And then back to covid coordination.
And I guess this afternoon we'll sort out who's gonna take policy management and
covid coordination because I believe that the board agreed that the same commissioner
should do both of those. Um, so that's that's my week um, through seven January.
Anything that, because we kind of rushed through it. Anything else that you want
to add kate or Greg, are we?
You know, I think that the year takes a little time to wind down and it also takes
a little time to wind up and that's really what my first couple of weeks are just
meeting schedules getting established and things like that, so not a lot. So true.
Yeah. And um, you know, I'm I'm fixated on our financial performance for 2021 and
we have we have two more voucher runs yet and then um sales tax for December will
get posted in January but backdated And so I'm I'm really interested in how we ended
up 2021.
Well if there's nothing else, should we break until noon to the Wasatch special Wasiq
meeting at noon and then reconvene as board at 1 30
fine by me. Great. Okay then we are temporarily temporarily adjourned until
I'll see you at noon at the and then 130 for continued commissioner meeting,
adjournment. Right. Right. First gas took two hours. That's that's impressive.
Well where's the where's the merry go round we need a swing set. We can put it in
next to the pickleball court. COBOL. We should be out there playing today though.
Yeah. Okay. See you at noon and then 1 30. All right,
which is awesome.
Um I the first thing on our agenda is the board and committee
re shuffling but it sounded like there might be interest in covering the ali Cap
item first because there are members of the Holy Cap team um in the waiting room.
So what do you guys think of that idea? Okay. Yeah, we're missing. Um Everette
and Todd but I cherish and Kathy are leading leading the discussion so
yeah,
Todd, he's coming
cherish and Kathy if you have other members in the audience who would like me to
bring over let me know jesse for one. Right? Yeah. We're waiting on
jesse Todd Everette, I think that's it,
Kathy. Yeah. Just just see Todd and Everette. I have Robin with me. Hello, everybody.
Were you then wanting to wait until the rest of your group got here? I don't think
we have to their their I mean, we can, there's a lot of top level stuff that we can
get started on for sure.
Right, Who's leading this? Give a little tee off. I think I asked for for this uh
this workshop, you know, really? Um so I'll give a little tee it up and then pass
it over to cherish I guess. And please, you know, interrupt me if I mischaracterize
anything. But you know, we've got, I think we've been calling the Caswell Brownsville
Phase one. What we have right now with limited infrastructure but working and I think
what we're here to discuss today, what holy Cap is presenting is really Phase two
and we've got everyone who's coming as a septic designer, jess is doing the design
Todd's really managing the uh project on the ground. And you know, we
really what I want to hear today is kind of, you know, start to come to a budget
because, you know, this is not not cheap work, it's important work. We want to get
Phase two done as expeditiously as possible and and efficiently as possible and really
get the best outcomes. But we also need to know it's going to cost more than a million
dollars for the property and improvements that we originally slated and we need to
start talking about that and figuring out how we're gonna pay for it and that's really
why we're here today. No passed off to cherish unless Mark wanted to say anything.
No, you cheated up nicely Greg. All right. Um everyone should be able to uh see
my screen there. Um let me see if I can stand you also, I can make sure I can see
you on my other screen. Um so, uh we appreciate being part here of the Board of County
Commissioners meeting and being able to present to all of you and to the general
public um as well because Caswell Brown village is really for the entire community
and you know, um since our agency has been tasked with, you know, assisting making
this happen. Um you know, we want everyone to understand that this is a project to
the community and you know, we stand ready to respond to what you all intend us to
do and you know, utilizing our best efforts, but also ensuring great transparency.
So people really know what these types of things cost to make happen. Right? So,
um and with us today is Kathy morgan, our Director of Housing Three Support next
to her is Robin Pangborn who is our shelter manager and she oversees all of our shelters,
which includes Caswell Brown Village, the the emergency shell shelter for jefferson
county in the basement of the american legion, um, our swim warning warming center.
Um, so, uh, yeah, and then also we have on the line with us, uh jesse thomas who
has been one of our consultants in helping as you'll see these intense diagrams and
plans and uh, putting all of that together. Um, and then Everette who has been helping
us with septic design um, as we move forward and think about, um, not only what do
we need now, but what might we need in the future as we think thoughtfully about
everything that we're doing and spending money on right now. So, um, I put some stuff
into slides and this is on a google slideshow. So, um, it's available
to the public as are all the pictures that I make available. Um, and so I'll include
some of some of those links. Um, a few people weren't clear on the name um, Caswell
Brown Village and where that came from. I just wanted to clarify that john cause
well unfortunately at the age of 62 died june 28th and 2021 of hyperthermia of it
was a time of extreme heat Um, here in the community and Victoria Brown died at age
23 of hypothermia. Extreme cold that was happening. Um, I think that, you know, um,
I've had some conversations about these things about, you know, sort of the dichotomy
they represent, you know, someone younger, someone older, someone who died in extreme
heat, someone who dried and extreme cold. Um, both, you know publicly had substance
abuse issues. Um, sadly um, and sometimes public abuse or substance abuse issues
are with legal drugs and some are illegal, right? And what all of that means. But
I think that unfortunately some of their death in the pandemic right, really gave
rise to making this investment in the community and changing how we're dealing with
the unsheltered um throughout the community and county. Um, and I think this really
stands as an amazing example. So Um using their names. Um, the timeline
with all of this is that you all on September 10 of formerly purchased this property.
Um and on September 13 seton construction started to clear the land
because we had a deadline Of the September 30 to move the folks out of the fairgrounds.
That was euros deadline an agreement with the fairgrounds to get them out of there
at that date. And you know, a number of things surrounding that that that made that
necessary and we made that happen. The majority of the fairgrounds population was
out October two. We do have some stragglers and some other things that had to be
dealt with their, but majority of the individuals who signed to agree to the rules
of conduct and come over to Caswell Brown um, did so, so technically the site that
everyone is sitting at is an emergency site, there is power there, there's a kitchen
tent and living room tent. One of them has a wood stove in it, um and there are portable
toilets and hand washing stations and potable water that's available on the trailer.
Residents do have access to showers off site um and they've sort of coordinated making
that happen, but for right now there are no shower facilities, no flushing toilets,
so no septic um and no water running to the site. And so our goal, our lofty
goal is to try to get a majority of infrastructure and things ready by March 31,
to um to get these folks moved down to to the next phase. So I'll show you the photo
on the right there, just gives you a little idea of what the current setup looks
like. That's one of that's the kitchen tent there on the left with the wood stove
and on the right you see the row of some of the RVs and the yellow um tents are um
storage um units to allow people to store things to try to reduce any accumulation.
We try and ensure That nothing is kept around the trailers, anything needs to go
into that storage unit. Um some of them haven't held up to the weather as much as
we would have liked, but you know, they've they've done the job thus far and to the
left there, you can see what has already been started in clearing the parcel for
Phase two for the permanent open air shelter as we've been referring to it. And again,
I give the link here to the photos and I can click over to some of those if you want
to see more. Um, and so there's, there's all these like different things. So, you
know, one of them is ensuring that, you know, road approach, all of these things
are done thoughtfully. And I know Commissioner Eisenhower, you know, you're part
of the trails coalition and we've tried to be very thoughtful about ensuring that
we are keeping, you know, a natural barrier between this entry and any other, you
know, that we might have keeping natural barriers in place. Um, and just ensuring
that there's no confusion about, you know, where people are going into or what exists
where, So, so that's being moved down a little bit more than where it currently exists
for right now with the emergency, when we're trying to get in there, we used an existing
railroad bed, um, to sort of create that rode away and that's what was easiest and
most convenient at the time. So, um, so there's gonna be some movement and try and
explain to folks like it's not as simple as some people bank, you know, like, oh,
you just put a road there, right? Um, you know, no, there's, there's all these little
like slopes and grading and um, distance requirements and
measurements, you know, of where turnarounds and aprons, you know, all these types
of things. So, and then you can see they're like, what, what goes into like making
and agreeing, you know, with the road and you'll notice some of these documents are
from public works because we do have permitting. We've been working with the staff
at the county and they've just been wonderful and trying to, you know, help help
us ensure that, you know, we're adhering to everything that's necessary. And I think
that's also, you know, um, for the public to know, like even though this is county
land since Ali Cap is the one, you know, sort of handling this project. You know,
we stand as the intermediary ensuring that, you know, anything that a public entity
would have to do as far as, you know, permitting and submitting drawings and everything
like that. That's happening, right? So it's not as if just, it's the county to the
county and anything is, you know, not happening, uh, you know, as anyone else would
have to deal with with a private project. And I think that's important for everyone
to know that um, all these permits and everything else, you know, are being done,
you know, by the book, even though this is something new that we're entering into,
right? It's this open air shelter isn't something that's on the books, so to speak,
but trying to make that work within the current system. Um, and so showing you
here, Um, the, the setup and the design. Can you see my mouse when I move my mouse?
Can anyone see? Okay. Great. Okay. So where everyone is at currently, is that this
site right here? Okay. That's where everyone currently is. And this was the railroad
bed, you know, utilized to create, um, you know that road. So what, what you saw
the picture of when I took the picture of some of the clearing that's happening is
that's the road leading off into here. And this is where the permanent open air shelter
where it will exist. And this is the parcel that the county bought along with these
four other little parcels here. So 123 and that little triangular one this over here
is owned by the paper company and then everything down here is owned by a private
entity. The land trust has this property here and you'll notice for those not familiar
with some of these types of drawings, the squiggly lines. I'll deal with different
grading issues and slopes. Right? So this isn't perfectly flat land. Right? I'm not
back in. Ohio where I did not worry about such things about grading and slope of
lands and things like that. Um, So all of that is sort of here. And I think on my
next slide here. Yeah, you see a little bit closer up here. So again, this is where
we're currently at. Um, and this is where the next phase
Phase two as we're calling, it would be going into, um, and you can see some of the
numbers and yeah, all that fun stuff that goes into design. So, um,
so phase two site plan would roughly look like this. Okay. And you know, we've been
making measurements and things like that as two Rvs. You know, how larger their RVs,
how much space do they need, creating a storage space for people to utilize. And
then, you know, originally the thought was, you know, these are tense or if we can
get into an agreement to potentially have tiny shelters, their pallet homes, you
know, whatever we determine or trying to work with other entities to see who wants
to be a part of this, who's willing to help us financially, um, with the cost of
some of these things, you know, initially, yeah, it might just have to be tense,
you know, until we can um, really look out, explore or get better investment into
something more permanent. But, you know, we are working with the community build
project and talking with them. And so, um, that's an ongoing process. So you see
where hydrants and everything like that garbage and recycling. Um, the fence, you
know, adhering to what, um, you know, is, is currently set for different types of
shelters or emergency transitional shelters and then the common building, either,
potentially being one structure, um, having shower facilities, bathroom facilities,
um, and kitchen facilities and maybe a little common, you know, living space area,
right? Where people can congregate or have meetings together because the residents
are having regular weekly meetings and talking about issues and working working out
problems. Um So we want that to continue because that sense of community is really
what helps these individuals on their road to potentially permanent housing, helping
with any substance abuse issues, mental health issues. All that helps with stability
when individuals are checking in on each other. Right. And not just one monitor who's
trying to, you know, keep track of everything. So that's what will be happening in
the common abilities and then parking spaces for residents, um to utilize those who
have vehicles. Um so that's sort of a breakdown of and then this site is
meant for essentially 50 units. Right? Um we've gone back and forth because some
some individuals maybe have a partner that comes and goes, we do have a couple of
people who have um shared parenting with Children. Um so we do have some kids that
have come and gone from the site. Um you said 50 units, but you mean 50 people, is
that right? Well, 50 people? Well, less than 50 units with some cohabitation plant,
I thought, yeah, there's 40 spaces here. Um, but we can accommodate up to 50 because
we're hoping for families. Right? So, and we'll just have to keep that in mind because
yeah, even with 40 units, right? If we all of a sudden get a bunch of couples or
somebody with, you know, just.
accommodating that and thinking about our numbers to that end we do have, you know
um an ongoing wait list of people who have have wanted to come to Caswell Brown Village
right right now it's an emergency site though and we really can't accommodate for
for individuals to just be coming to that site because really all the spots are filled
um and we don't have infrastructure for them but we do know there are already people
interested in wanting to have a space in this permanent open air shelter that they
now feel like, you know, they would feel safe there, you know, with a monitor on
site with what's happening with the lighting, everything like that. So um and then
there's of course measurements and breakdowns of the exact separation of all these
things and how much amp service for electrical each one would take. Um So all of
that's been thought out now. Um also uh is, and what I mean I'm just gonna
show you some of the drawings, I'm gonna give you an idea of what's been spent um
to date. And then you all can go wild with questions what not and I can go back and
forth documents and show you different stuff. So the document you're looking at right
now is done by Averett. Um and this is septic designed and so this is thinking about
having to accommodate those individuals um down at that that site um and utilizing
um that that big building that would have to accommodate showers and bathrooms and
the kitchen facility and things like that potentially. And so with that in mind,
you know, thinking about what is needed to accommodate that. What is potentially
needed if we needed to expand that septic design. Thinking about potentially a congregate
shelter in the future if that were to come to this site. And you know again I'll
say you know some people are like why would you put so much on one site? Well because
it's a small county and you're trying to accommodate a lot of folks and the more
things that you can put at one site, the lower your costs are staffing cost, infrastructure
costs, all of that. And it allows more services to go to one location. Right? So
when our partners need to go and see somebody do medication things they're going
to one location where they could potentially hit a couple of different you know um
types. So to date um we're at we stand about $240,000. Okay.
And that includes You know staffing costs right? Because we're staffing 24/7 um you
know admin costs. So our indirect cost rate is what I see are is that includes all
of our administrative or operating expenses. So people like myself and Cathy um any
of our fiscal people all of them are sort of paid by a portion out of these things.
So based on a rate that's approved by the federal government for us. So salaries
and wages because staffing 24/7 is a lot and at the time that we entered into a number
of the agreements about some of the shelters right? This this wasn't really thought
of um were put into those costs. Um so um staffing costs, there obviously construction
taking up a majority of it as I should as it should. So the clearing electrical stuff,
you know, all of that things that has gone into it, equipment rental, you know, has
been big, we had a generator for quite a while until we could get um electrical,
you know, set up and going so that generator um not only was costly to rent, but
it took a lot of fuel and currently the potable water trailer, you know, so some
of these other, you know rental items that we have. Um and then you see some of the
utility costs and then consulting and site planning, you know, um those fees for
our experts that are here and I will say that um I feel like everyone who has worked
on this project has been really generous um with their costs and their time and and
giving extra in what we usually refer to as in kind right. Um because can I
ask, are you tracking in kind, we haven't done some of that with respect to asking
like, okay, what what would that have usually cost? So, you know, it might be something
that yeah, we as we go back, we sort of look at or um see if the contractors are
comfortable, you know um getting into that so um and yeah it's been really wonderful
and you know a lot of things also to that have been donated, you know when we put
out the calls asking people for items, you know, we haven't had to go, you know and
buy some of these items because people brought them, they brought blankets and tarps
and firewood and and little pull carts and other things like that, you know that
that were needed to help folks out. Um So and and yeah it's been a lot of moving
parts and pieces to make all of this happen. So you know some of these costs wouldn't
necessarily be repeated because they're for different types of items for this emergency
set up. Um So so that gives you an idea of, you know, to date um what some of those
costs were and I think that's what I have if you all want to move into some questions
so cherish that cost summary. Um That's through what date
today that was actually here today. Okay and what's the total? You know, I could
add it up in my head but it might take a while to write up here to 39-621-73.
Oh I see on the left, okay, 239
and I can tell people, you know um actually this cost right here Mark was
as of the end of november, I think we're right at 250,000 when we included the rest
of december. We just haven't built that out yet. Okay. Alright so for the board in
the public we bought the property for six so to add to 52 that we're at eight 8
52 And the board committed a million to that last year. And part of why we're here
today is to figure out how much more is going to be necessary. And I just wanted
to show everyone. So the bizarre excel spreadsheet you're looking at is literally
at our agency. Everything has to be by code and general ledger number. Um And so
you see everything has a service code, a program code of G. L. Code and a title and
then there's document numbers that correspond with every single one of these charges
so that we can pull those pos or those payrolls to see exactly what that charge breaks
down to. I mean our stuff has to be very particular for our federal grants and so
therefore we run everything the same way and so you can see here um you know and
just if I keep going down um it's you know and it's two to the penny um to be able
to see um So yeah we're in the five hundred's here of you know benefits, equipment
rental, water, sewer spaces and that tells us exactly like okay what p. Oh that was
you know augur and steaks for tents rebar for tents you know like it's meticulous
breakdown um And a lot of the moving the the folks over
also those costs are in there also we had quite a big towing bill and we had to get
a lot of that stuff running again so that's all in there too and we put it all on
our credit cards um But we have all the backup documentation for that on here. It
just shows credit cards credit cards but we can see the break out of those two. Yeah
so all of our credit cards have to be line items as to what it got charged to and
things like that. So yeah and then and then when you submit your invoices to the
county you attach documentation all the invoices yep all the invoices so you all
have all have copies of that and everything so um I just want yeah people people
to know that. Uh yeah all that's there and available and all so quickly.
Um The
why this is showing something over top. There you go. Can I was gonna say could you
show some more of the pictures? Yeah so this is when we got started you're not seeing
anything laid over this are you okay? Good. Okay so this is this was like when we
first started so all the pictures run from like you know initially when we were just
clearing the land um and you can see them down in there when we first had just a
couple of vehicles there, of course you'll see Penny throughout. She's a special
site supervisor. Right? So, um, that's the potable water tank. You know, this was
when we first had some of the tents, some of the Rvs lined up. Um, you know what
the fence looks like. Um, and then these are what we call the spider boxes. Those
are the boxes that run power um to everything um throughout the site. We have some
of the code of conduct there. And then all of those documents that I showed you,
um, I update those in this um folder too. So anyone who wants to go and see any of
those documents, you know, I share those and I share links on facebook and next door.
Um, and the folks that are interested, you know, they go and they check it out and
they have questions, they let me know. Um, So, um, yeah, so some of our most more
recent of the, of the tent there, there's where we had a fire going. This was over
the holidays. Um, so we had folks that came and um, did a big meal and so
yeah, and then some more of the updated documents on the road approach and the septic
design, You know, when you compare this to the fairgrounds affair. This is light
years better than the fairgrounds. If you talk to the sheriff, you'll confirm that
to, you know, the amount of emergency interactions with the cosmo Brown Villages,
a fraction, a small fraction of both the law enforcement emergency service and also
neighborhood negative interactions that we had with the uncontrolled encampment over
at the fairground. So it's, you know, vast improvement in every area. And really
the team here is to be commended about how quickly uh, was able to, you know, Yeah,
it's been quite something. So um, and then, you know, we had people that obviously,
you know, brought it's bags, you know, of stuff. Um, people bringing blankets and
mittens and other things and so um, you know, it's been really nice with some of
the groups and you know, we do try and protect the privacy of the residents, right?
Um, you know, ensuring that people aren't also, you know, coming in bothering them
and things like that. And so um, having the monitor there is good, you know, people
get with, you know, Robin and um, you know, set up if they want to come and volunteer
um or bring stuff and we coordinate that and make sure you know those um, yeah, that
want to help um, are able to do. So it looks like Caroline has a question. Some questions
about invoicing too. So when we're ready for those. Okay. So um on the mill road,
I've been keeping track of the million dollars set aside for that. And I've been
deducting the purchase sale of the price and ali cap contract. I have that. Um we've
been also getting some large invoices for United rentals about $56,000 worth of that.
And I was just double checking that bully cap is not, Yeah, checking that United
United is separate and that um, you're not billing for United. That was my first
thing. And then um, only cap I have, we have less than 11,000 under contract left
to pay out of that 250,000. And I show that four mill road, what was set aside from
that million. We have a 1,507 left over of that million. That was set aside originally.
That's from deducting the United rentals Caroline. Yeah, rentals that's fully cap
and that's the purchase price. And so I just wanted you guys to be aware that I'm,
I am keeping track of that on a different spreadsheet. United rentals. It's confusing
because the county owns the land. And even though we're the ones only cap was the
ones who rented it. Um, they were sending the invoices to you guys. Nobody told us
that we kept enquiring about the invoice is we finally got them. Um, so Robin is
taking care of all that weeding through all that. So thank you Caroline and I just
got a few new invoice from rental United rentals this morning. So I haven't looked
at them yet but I know I have a few in my inbox already. They're very I don't know
how much they are. Yeah so it sounds as though a contract amendment is going to be
necessary pretty quickly so I'll put that together. Um I mean to that point Mark
can we talk about some of the coming bills? We I mean we have a bid. I know for the
scene is already working under. Um we did a single source because they did such a
great quick work for us um And wondering what are the costs that we know we're going
to come and also wondering with the numbers that you have so far it's kind of operations
and that you know capital such a disease investment in the property are not really
separated. But do you have any idea what um you know in phase two what ongoing operations
are going to cost? So the the staffing costs is coming to roughly between 13
14,000 month. Which is pretty typical it's kind of like down at the shelter. Most
everything has already been purchased so the majority other than that um is going
to be our rental costs for the the the porta potties. Um The water um And then it
would just be the major construction. So pretty much everything has been you know
moved over all those costs are done. Everything's been purchased to get everybody
situated. So all the rest of the costs were gathering all Let Todd and jesse talk
about that um But it's gonna be all the major construction outside of the operations
the salary. So two questions Carolyn, how much did you say was left? Um Some of the
original Um are you talking about the only cap contract or um the one million in
general? The one million? Um Right now 101,507 and that's before
the new United rentals and voices I just received and when you just
said it was 13 to 14,000 month. Cathy does that include interact or is that just
direct staffing? That was direct staffing? Okay. So I know the meals have been running
Bayside is charging us close to 7000 month because they're also charging us
mileage, we've spoken to the hospital um And Aaron's coming out um and taking a look
at the site now that we have the kitchen tent set up and he is considerably less
And the meals are better. Um so we're probably going to switch that contract from
Bayside coming out and doing those meals. Um so that'll move down to around 5000
a month versus the 7000. Um So that's included in that as well because we do furnish
one meal a day right now until we can get Phase two done once we get Phase two done
we won't be furnishing meals any longer.
Yeah we won't have to furnish because you know kitchen facilities will be available
a number of them, you know do try and do their their own type of you know cooking
um and at that .2 depending on the type of kitchen set up um you know our our
partners you know like at the legion currently they are used to would come in and
make meals right and have those available. So um you know it could be that you know
some of our partners want to you know add stuff and they'll drop things off or do
them more in bulk like we were thinking of from the hospital so that people serve
the amount they want themselves um the less food waste that way. So there's a couple
of different you know available options there. If you were to build a congregate
shelter on site that had a commercial kitchen meals could be provided there and then
people wanted to come up and you know have a meal that could be an option as well,
you know, looking down the road eight, yeah, I'm gonna back us up a little bit and
something you said cherish just triggered that. So I mean first off I just want to
say thank you it is so so great that we have this location and so appreciate the
good work that's going into it. Um the whole time I have served in this role, it's
just been so maddening to literally have nowhere for people to go. I mean it just
felt like an embarrassment. So this is a huge represents a huge amount of progress
and, and recognize the work that went into it. I think we have been a little remiss
and having the really long term conversation about the site and maybe it's happening
at only cap, but it hasn't been happening with with this board. And um, and I don't
know that today is the time for that, but I'm thinking about things like the long
term congregate shelter. Is this, is this the location for it? Um, I would be remiss
if I didn't bring up that um, one of our directors here at the county has real concerns
about taking a very high value property that, you know, if indeed annexation were
to happen that, you know, we have a piece of property that could very well be, uh,
one of the primary intersections likely commercially zoned within the city. And is
this the best use highest and best use for that property to be to be using parcels
that um would, you know, be really suitable for other commercial activity in the
future. Um, and you know, I mean, I argue too that that this that housing people
is highest and best use to, so, you know, this is all up for debate, but it just
makes me think that we really should, um, I would like us to be having that long
term conversation about the property's best use um, instead of doing it kind of piecemeal
and of course this all started in a very short time frame and emergency basis and
so, um, but I just think it's important that we press pause at some point and, and
and have that conversation so that we're all sure that we're headed in the same direction
and feel good about how those decisions are being made when there's multiple parties
involved here and, and that is important. I mean, you know, some of that, obviously
the housing task force, the oversight board, you know, all these types of, you know,
partnerships, but also in looking at we know money is coming down the pipe from the
state and there are different grants, you know, that are gonna come available and
we've tried to make sure that that if we can apply for stuff right, we have to have
our ducks in a row in order to do any of those applications and so yeah, I think
that's, that's gonna be important going forward because I would be, yeah, upset if
we didn't get into some of those grants and tried to bring that money in knowing
that, you know, we've worked hard to ensure that we could have those plans or have
something that's shovel ready, ready to go if they're willing to give us the money
for it. Um so I think, you know, recognizing that not all of the costs need to come
back, you know, onto the county to um looking at what grants and things are available
Cathy I just wanted to mention kid, I'm so so happy to hear that you're having those
conversations while I was on vacation over the last couple of weeks. I actually did
a presentation um to the city of Colville to their city council and mayor because
they want to duplicate what we have done here. Um it's getting out into the state
um through some of our boards and and things that that were on that we're talking
about this and um it's I felt pretty happy that people are coming
to us wanting to be able to duplicate what we've just done in their own communities.
So I wanted to give you guys kudos um you know for doing this in advance. You know,
the remainder of the state coming out of Covid. So I want to thank you for that.
Can I just say real quick in response to kate's point. You know, these conversations
do need to happen and uh they take they take a long time they've been happening at
the Housing task force already in the shelter committee of the Housing task Force
and the J. O. B. And it's one of the reasons that I really happy that we're gonna
have, you know, more representation from both the city and the county and and those
groups so that conversation can carry a little bit more water as we really look for
planning because whether it's whether we find a new, you know, kind of purpose built
shelter at this property for another as, as cherished and Kathy both indicated now
is the time to be having these conversations because as we know, there is a groundswell
of funding for affordable housing and homeless housing right now. So it's important
to have the conversation. Now, there are no conclusions that have been absolutely
met as to the final disposition for this property, um, but it's, uh, it is exciting.
Well, and that that brings up, you know, just a question for me, and then, like,
who as basic as who should be holding title to this property, um, and therefore who
should be making decisions and what, what is the governance and decision making structure
for that? And I actually don't have any strong opinions about it. I mean, I think
it probably is a matter of who is able to get the most funding, you know, are there,
are there funding sources that dictate who the owner needs to be, things like that,
but, um, you know, at at this point, this is still an investment that we, as the
B zero cc made. So I do take feel a responsibility to be kind of tracking this and
be stewarding that expense of public funds. So, um, you know, happy to, to have that
conversation largely shepherded by, um, by the Housing Fund board or something that
I just want us to be kind of intentional and explicit in how decisions are being
made, where the conversations are being had. Um so suddenly it feels like,
you know, we're running to the end of that initial commitment, right? There's 100,000
left, and we're burning through 25,000 month on expenses, or however much I'm just
that, you know, what's what is the capital plan for Phase two, And I saw that date
of March 2022, what, what's planned to be done between now and then? Where's the
money coming to do that? Um so, but maybe this is stuff the housing task force has
all been talking about um specifically, and, you know, where where is the operational
money coming from to, you know, building a new shelter is great, but it's still as
we, you know, 20,000 month to to run the shelter that's not booked into our standard,
you know, J O B, the RFP process, you know, So this is, this is outside, we're expanding
our capacity, but that also means that we're expanding our operational costs. So,
both of those are important to track and to understand as we move forward, can we
really afford to run a 50 person outdoor shelter? This is a question that we, I mean,
we haven't we haven't answered for 10 years, you know, we haven't we don't have the
10 year answer right now, but I I know from conversations in the community and my
past work and raising funds in the community that there's a lot of philanthropic
interest in this area of need in our community. And so how are we best positioning
ourselves to harness that interest? Um, and you know, what's the nut, what are we
trying to raise and how how long do we have to raise it? And I mean, maybe that's
the next question here that we need to talk about. Um, because because as was just
articulated end of our initial investment,
I know that the land clearing is gonna be 2 50 for, for infrastructure, right? Was
basically the bid septic by the time we're all done, it's gonna be another 58 lease,
bringing power and uh, you know, getting rid of this, the spider boxes and getting,
you know, power to every two or four units I forget which we, what we have landed
on Is another $50,000. I mean we're talking, you know, it's another, I don't know,
I mean, just the back of a napkin, I come up with the number 500 pretty quickly.
Right? And that's part of why we're having this presentation today is if we're gonna
hit that March 31 deadline, um, you know, we need the board needs to commit the funding
necessary to get there or we need to know where it's coming from. I mean, are we,
are we talking about us committing that chunk of money today. Is that what this conversation
is? It's not about committing it today, but it's about talking, hey, there's a chunk
of money that in the short term it's gonna be hard to get anywhere else to our normal
RFP process where you know, you know, you can't, can't just get $500,000 from commerce
like this. I mean, I think that, you know, as cherish and Kathy have alluded to,
there's a lot of money coming from the state, but the turnaround time that we're
talking about, I'm not sure if that's practical for this application.
Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a toss up of making this decision of currently your operating
costs are high because of the lack of infrastructure, making the investment in the
infrastructure would lower your operating costs right? Of these rentals and the other
things because then you would have some of that permanency. Likewise. Yeah. I don't
think the county can operate to four shelters, you know, when you include your other
entities, that's why, you know, having things together on site lowers your operational
costs because, you know, you're, you're providing things at one location. So, um,
I think, yeah, looking to, you know what, what the county, um, you know, wants to
commit so that we can have an idea of, do we have to cut back on certain things or
change certain things, um, in order to make this face to happen. Um, or
how does that need to be adjusted? You know, like Commissioner Eisenhower said, do
we, you know start a capital campaign and say this is how much we need, this is what's
already been spent, I mean it's, you know, um yeah, we certainly would do everything
in our power to apply for certain things, but yeah, right now it doesn't stand in
a good location, you know, we've reached out and we're working with a developer who,
you know, does this type of work. So we have eyes on, you know, what is out there
currently and what could fall into, you know, getting some type of assistance. Um,
so and nothing, nothing is secure An application point right now. Yeah, I have a
grant that's just been sitting there of $60,000 I can use for operations um from
the Feds, but because it's not a permanent structure, I am not allowed to use it.
So it's really frustrating because we're in this temporary um phase right now and
I know that it's been um you know, very important for the Commissioners in the county
um to address family homelessness, which we have no facilities currently except for
Hayne Street and Dove House, but it's very limited um in this way we would be able
to pull the families off the street and out of their cars and get them into a semi
permanent type atmosphere and get them some services. Um but we can't do anything
until we have a more permanent site, which is still an open air site, but it gives
the infrastructure to allow us to go out for more funding.
So still, for me, I think part of that, the financial decision and kind of the B
zero cc, deciding how much of our funds, which are the funds, frankly. Um it's not,
you know, necessarily local taxpayer dollars strictly. Um but I think, you know,
I'm still interested in kind of, how do we build in a ownership and governance structure
that then has accountability built into it and that the things that we want to see
in in uh public and quasi public projects, and I appreciate that you've already brought
that sensitivity to everything you've done to date. Um but I think for me that will
be part of um part of my, what I'm gonna need to see before we commit additional
funds is getting a little more certainty on some of those bigger picture questions
of um of ownership, governance and decision making. Yeah, I mean, part of the issue
of any county or government entity or things like that, the housing authority where
anytime you have those entities doing certain work, it's going to trigger um, you
know, prevailing wage issues and things of that nature. That's why, you know, having
our agency is intermediate, it is helpful in dealing with some of that bureaucracy
and some of those laws pertaining around there. Um not as if, you know, we're not
paying fairly, it's um, it's it's all everything that goes along with that. Right.
So I just think that's something to consider. Um Yeah, looking forward. And then
um jesse, do you jesse or ever? I know we have we have some numbers on sort of the
septic design costs um scenes cost. Um I just wanted to to look
at Greg's rough number of meeting about half a million for phase two. What? How does
that sound to either of you?
Well, speaking for septic, it looks I think 50,000 might be a little bit low that
Greg mentioned for installing the system. I think our next step is to go out and
get a couple of bids for the design that we submitted to the county a couple weeks
ago.
jesse. You're a mute.
We don't have numbers yet for electrical. Those are coming in. So all we have is
the excavation at this point and excavation. It's about 2 45,
something like that.
That's for the that's for the road and and the site itself as for the road is for
the road approach, it's for the site. Great of sight. It's for um some utilities
bringing the water line down the water connection that's about it. So that doesn't
include any of the septic. Um No. Yeah. Ed Septic
were 325
75. Every. Does that sound better? Uh maybe I I think that's probably a better number,
but until we until we get some local bids, we were guessing how much have we spent
on electrical so far.
I don't know, I don't have those figures. I know that the first bid that we got with,
you know, breaking it out to the units was around $80,000. I thought we spent about
50 so far. So since we broke it out, I mean I guess we haven't spent that that quite
that much on power. Um Yeah, it's more like 25,030,000 I
think is what we spent on power to date. I know that like the sub bid just for Frederick
center double D. Or someone to break it out over $30,000 just for the poles at every
every other unit.
And then there are like fencing and concrete and it would just be great to see a
budget. So I feel like know we mark and I have been asking for that. It's hard. We're
waiting for bids to come in. But you know, I think before we ask um the sec uh to
uh commit the money we will get a budget for this project and that's being being
assembled. But you know, we've we've got a, you know, a pretty good idea where we're
headed. You know, there's not a lot more buildings that are going to be in this,
but the significant infrastructure will also reduce cost too. I mean we're paying
way, how much for fence rental per month. I mean putting in uh, $10,000 fans will
end up being a savings over that, you know, 10 or 15 year lifespan of a significant
amount, you know,
and what are your thoughts on, on the kind of governance ownership questions I brought
up? I mean, I think, you know, we're talking a lot about land trusts and, and, and
different ways of um, creating opportunities, you know, within our lane for affordable
housing and homeless housing. And I think that I'm pretty much with shares that Holy
Cap is a, is a great organization to, to manage this. I don't see a reason, I don't,
I don't know a reason to change ownership of the land or anything. I'm not sure if
that's very significant. So, um, you know, we're talking about phase two right now
when we start talking about other facilities on that property, I think it's a much
more complex question. I don't have the answers to that, but I do appreciate your
interest in the conversation, I think, Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, run
run through a bunch of different ideas and as Kathy says, there's a lot of uh, talk
with the faith based community coast and, and the community build project and Bayside
about what's the best way to manage this. And I think, you know, continuing to approach
it from an outcomes, um, based, uh, problem solving, uh, is the way that we'll, we'll
get through this fastest. I don't, I don't have any hard answers though. Everything's,
yeah, we don't have, we don't have hard cost yet hard, hard prices, but once we get
those will be able to have a much more informed conversation, but it will cost more,
I think when we talk operationally, as you know, we have increased revenue from 15
90 as well as increasing recording fees, um there's a way to fit a lot of the operations
of Phase two um into the standard operational funding programs that we have right
now, um at least, you know, competitively with the other with the other service organizations.
Um But it's gonna be a challenge. You know, we know that this still doesn't address
all the folks that are living in real marginal situations, but everything we do,
as you say, kate, having a place that we can move people is uh is a piece that we
haven't had. And so it feels, it feels like a really important step. It would be
interesting to think about how we structure this financing for this round two of
it can be some kind of revolving fund or something so that as grants come in that
might, that might cover the costs. So, you know, you were saying, there are grants
available, but that's the timing isn't right to apply for them and pay for the bills
when the bills are gonna be coming in. So is there any way to structure the financing
that the this Phase two financing beyond the one million? We've already committed
to um make it such that it could get paid back. So it can be used for other public
purposes. Typically grants or for costs incurred after the grants awarded. Right.
It would be great if it would work that way. Um Heidi but I don't believe that it
would work that way. Um I think that once we get the permanent infrastructure in
then um that gives us the base to be able to go out and get additional funding. So
it's not that um occurring burden on the county um to fund it, there's lots of uh
community funds now we have 15 90 21 63 because we didn't have anything in place.
There was no way for us to apply for any of those fundings, but once we get past
phase two um we've already been talking to the state and some developers um and we're
basically trying to get this to be um so that it's self supporting um with outside
funding and not a burden on the county um outside of just the county funding that
is set aside for that um but but not to keep coming back and asking for funding um
but I am afraid that the ask is gonna need to be there to complete phase two because
we've already tried to think of everything else and there is no other way of completing
phase two, but we always just the county is only ever paying like what the costs
are, it's not like you're making an amount to fully cap, right? And that's the contract
amount to us. Like these are costs direct, you know, like direct costs, so if there's
money at the end we usually do by invoice and then the money is paid to us, so it's
not like you're definitely giving a certain amount that can't be returned per se
if those costs somehow got paid another way or if that's what you're referring to,
it just seems like there was the idea of doing a capital campaign for phase two,
there are, you know, philanthropic motivation in our community around this issue
area. Um and it it feels like instead of
using more of the money for this, Which we've already committed, you know, I don't
know, 20% of our up of money more than that to this and there have been a lot of
requests from other community members and interests. So I would just like, I don't
know, I'd like to see that we know how much more we need and have thought about where
we might be able to get it and there's that's where I think, you know, it being the
lead of the county to be doing that because I don't want people to think that this
is somehow holy caps project per se, right? We're helping manage it and serve as
the intermediary, it's it's not it's not like Seventh Haven which is our project.
And so, you know, sometimes people easily get confused that like, oh well they're
building this $15.5 million project, but now they're asking for more money for, you
know, for, you know, just thanking, you know, um in a way to make sure that, you
know, people know what the money is going to and that this is a county project that
will always remain, you know, sort of in the county hands per se. You know, um it's
not our agencies project. One question I want to ask today is what's going on with
the city's project because they they approved acquisition of the property. But beyond
that, um I don't have the latest info because a bunch of months ago they reached
out to us about collaborating on a project and write well and they've been talking
with all of us, you know, to make sure that we're not duplicating efforts. I think
they're heavily focused on workforce type housing. Yeah. And commissioners all just
a reminder that when we had our capital and our budget workshop, the revenue sharing
funds, um One of the funding candidates was 500,000 for Evans Vista workforce
housing, Which would be located on that 14.4 acre parcel, the city just acquired.
So are we saying we want to use that interest in that project for that 500,000 for
this project or I mean no, no, he was just saying that we we have already stated
an interest in supporting that project as well, but they are fundamentally different.
And you're not, sorry Greg, I might have interrupted you. I missed the last thing
you said though. Oh and I said there uh there that is a 10 year project probably,
you know, they're they're getting I think building infrastructure at this point and
looking for a developer, so we're different different phases in the projects and
that is not committed, We have not committed those, it was a maybe. Mhm.
Um and I should have taken a look at our uh kind of agreement before we,
I can't remember the the structure that we set up in um having like can't
manage this project on this piece of land, so I wish I had thought to do that. Um
I was definitely on vacation until yesterday um but I and I have no problem with
how this is going. Just want to say that this is my desires and kind of setting us
up for success long term but not questioning at all the work that's that's being
done or or that you're the right people to be managing this project at all. Um but
the, you know, I think partly the question of this kind of long term
management structure um the question of how much we want to spend, how do we
want to fund that? I think that comes down to this, you know, is this indeed the
county's project long term one that, that's a conversation, I don't know that we
have had um, um, as a county to decide. Um, and then, you know, if the answer to
that is yes, then obviously we do have a commitment and responsibility to fund it
to basic infrastructure at the very least. Right. And then the conversation of, should
it be the home of a permanent uh shelter, congregate shelter. It's a whole whole
other long term conversation. I don't even know what phase you're referring to that,
if any. Um, but um, yeah, so I will just
nothing, nothing has been, um, you know, sort of definitively, we, you know, have
a contract to, to help with this project, but um, essentially everyone was asked
who wanted to take on this project. We were the only ones agreed to do it. So, um,
you know, that we would take on the fairground population and so, um, so, you know,
certainly if another pressure comes in and says, you know, they want to do it cheaper
or this or that, you know, the only thing I would ever be concerned about is just,
we've hired monitors right to ensure that we can staff up, but beyond that we, we
care a lot, you know, obviously we've invested a lot of time and effort beyond, you
know, um, so I don't want to say that, I'm just saying that we certainly are not
hold anyone's feet to the fire that like what has or has not to be done. We are essentially
your servants. You know, we are a community service and and we are of service to
you all and if you decide tomorrow we're not of service anymore. Like that's okay.
Like we'll figure something out with our staff like taking no please
don't go anywhere. But I think maybe we need to do some more work on our end of like
what's, you know, how can we be good partners here and and have the kind of assurance
that we need and then that also gives you assurance to um as we move forward. Well
that that conversation needs to happen with all due speed. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, I can
see that things are underway. Very grateful for it and timeline wise I guess, you
know, I mean we can have that conversation, we can start that maybe later after we
excuse our guests but still keep it open for them of course. Um But I think we do
really need as those numbers come in it would be great if I don't know who's the
keeper of those but if you can send them to Jeff B zero cc. You know, so make sure
that Mark and all three of us get them. I think there's a lot of interest as we as
we move forward and understanding what we're, what we're talking about when we can
get that budget conversation a little more firm. We can really make commitments.
Right? I mean it's hard to make a commitment for unknown. Yeah you know the weekly
meeting about this we appreciate when you can join um you know to always look at
this so we'll definitely see what we can get together by this thursday. Our meetings
are typically Thursdays 10 30 you know see what we can get together this week and
next as far as you know bids are concerned and um sort of pick and choose from there
as to you know how far you want to go with certain things. Now at some point we started
thinking okay Phase two is all the logistics of that site. Phase. Phase three would
potentially be the building or whatever is going to have to happen to make the shower
facilities and living room and kitchen and everything like that like you know that
could stand as a separate entity or separate individual entities right as we look
at like what's available, what's not at the time. Um And then yeah you might be like
phase four now so and that's you know part of this, right when I initially put together
some stuff for like the the I. C. G. Group comes from a model in austin texas that
was a phased approach to handling you know different phases and different sections
of dealing with the unsheltered population and so in some ways this mimics that of
having, you know, these phases and development for the various populations that are
being unserved or served in a way right now. That's not in some ways fiscally great.
Right. You know um taking the money that's being spent at the legion and be able
to spend at one location um is really gonna change operational costs in a lot of
ways. So yeah, well, I appreciate you guys showing up for the conversation today
and I mean this is a lot of it's new information to me and it's great. So I look
forward to, you know, working and seeing the budget that's going to come together
and happy to help with that from a budget budget nut. Um But I'm also
curious from jesse and Everette if they have other things they want to share today.
Mhm. Well, um just an update jesse and I have plans to do some more soil evaluation
to consider optimizing the drain field location. We want to make sure that we're
not committing a valuable piece of land that could, could be used for something else
just for separate drain field. So that's gonna happen soon. Alright, thank you. Is
it I saw an area called the park in the diagram of the site can oftentimes outdoor
like lawn areas or I just played on a bocce ball court that was a drain field, you
know, you can use uh drain field areas for other purposes that aren't built
on. Right. I think Everett's strategy initially was to site off the drain
field for the future development all in the same area, isn't that right? That's correct.
Yeah. And there's some benefit to that. Right? Really, The main thing was that the
Environmental Health Department had already approved those soils, but that's, we
know that there's good soil in most of that site. So that's why we want to explore
and consider all options. Yeah. And the and the developers that Cathy referred to
that, that they're working with were very interested in maybe moving the drain field
sites because of that reason because maybe it was more prime area for development
up there, the north of the site. Okay, mm, I appreciate you bringing that lens to
it.
Yeah, no problem. One other thing to kind of consider if, if phase two actually included,
I think it's a little undetermined and that the central services for the village
site for the permanent village site, it's a little bit, it's a little and beauty
and there's some ambiguity around that because the buildings were not sure if they're
gonna be actually temporary. There's a lot of definitions that will need to be used
portable versus modular. What kind of foundations. I think it's kind of up in the
air right now. So we can say that there's, we want some kind of usable building,
but maybe not permanent. It depends on the budget and timeline has a portable building,
that Christine school district made available as I've been checked out. Will that
be a short, you know, a short term solution?
I can't answer that. I don't think anyone's checked it out yet. I think Todd, who
was here briefly was was gonna go down and take a look, I have access to it anytime
we need. So just include me in the conversation, I'll make sure you get in. But yeah,
we essentially agreed to look at that and see what, if anything it can be used for.
I mean, could it? Yeah, I mean, I'm always thanking in case God forbid something
happens. Right, Let's say we lost a lease on a shelter. What if all of a sudden I
had to put bunk beds in there or something. Right. Like, so is it viable for that?
Is it viable for the central services? You know? But thanking the central service
building really needs shower facilities and bathrooms, you know, so what is the cheapest
option? You know, what other things are out there, you know, portable, you know,
we've reached out to a portable company vesta builders. Um so they've provided some
information and so um yeah, And just for the public information, a little context
about the conversation, we just had the quilting school district as they build a
new bus barn made available, the portable little portable, that's been locker room
at different times and storage and offices and uh it's a 20 year old double double
portable that can be moved up. Uh and then, you know, they would have to spend about
as much to demolish it as as it would cost to move it. So there are some still some
problems and being able to move it the height of the one of the bridge, 104 bridge
over center road for one. Um but as we work through those, the county has a agreed
that they can at least temporarily put the building at the old shop property down
in quilting that's not being used for anything. And then if it can't be used by ali
cap for the shelter or any other purpose and we can't find another use in the school
district will still take responsibility for its demolition. Great. So I see Caroline
snowed in the chat about um the remainder of the contract. So it sounds like we're
getting to the end of that 250,000. This is great clarity Caroline. And so that's
what you're saying. We might need, we need to do a contract extension and short order
their mark. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, that, that's what I was, I was
saying um and we can increase that to use the rest of the million that the board
committed to the project. So that would be another 100 50,000 or something
that be amendment number one. And you know, subsequently we might need a second amendment
looks like it's around 100,000 based on the number of Caroline. But in the chat mhm
Right. We need to take action to make that happen or is that something, you know,
it will come to the board, it'll come to the board at a Monday meeting and I'll try
to get it for the 10th. But it sounds like it's we had already approved that up to
a million. So, well, the contract with Holy Cap was from 2 50. Okay, right.
Yeah. Happy to support that.
So what else do we need to cover today on this agenda item? Trying to make sure I'm
doing my chair job. A great job. Heidi. I think we've covered everything that we
wanted to present. Um, you know, are there any other questions from Heidi or kate
as, as people that aren't in this conversation every week that we should make sure
that our are included as we move forward.
Yeah. And and if Heidi or kate, you want to join the thursday update meeting, we
can have Caroline notice it. Mm hmm. Yeah. Or I can step down one time too. I mean
we can, we can navigate lots of ways. Yeah. Um, I mostly wanna get a tour of the
site which I've not been out there yet. So maybe hit Kathy up for that. I'm going
to my second community meeting down there tomorrow afternoon.
Any time you'd like to kate just let us know and we'll give you a personal tour.
Thank you.
Seventh Heaven is on its way. I've also shared, you know, I keep a google photo album
of that going to um, as that comes along and things are moving along nicely there.
So, um, yeah,
thanks. A lot of partners and clark construction is doing an excellent job of really
being on the ball. So yeah, you guys are making stuff happen that we've been talking
about for a long time. That's great. Okay. We haven't any time you want us just let
us know. Okay, Thanks folks. Thanks everyone. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Okay.
We have two other agenda items this afternoon. Climate action goals and commissioner
board assignments. Any preference as to which we don't have any guests for either
of those. So we're, we're freewheeling now. Team. I think climate action goals will
probably go quickly relative to the committee assignments. So maybe maybe tackle
that one. Sounds good to me and kate. You're listed as primary on this. So
ball's yours. Yeah. And thank you Mark for sending the updated version. Um, did you
add electric weed leaf blowers to it yet? And we've been getting
some pressure actually to the Climate action committee to, um, to consider, well,
even in the legislature to write to ban, um, gas leaf blowers. So, um,
happy to share my screen and I can't remember where did we leave off last time. Remember
we looked at these previously there was just a little bit of clarification needed
on Brents. Um but you help me out, Mark, do you remember? I think that was the, I
think that was the only unfinished business on that and um and line 50 for implement
climate action goal of incorporating teleconferencing, telecommuting. Um you know,
we have that up above I think so that's that's actually a duplicate, but the rest
of it I think is okay. Yeah. And so on line 54, 12 and
three Brent provided a little more detail on the grants that he's spoken with us
about before. I'm fine with keeping 54 in there. I think anytime a department really
wants to commit to something along these lines, happy to support it.
So um if we have never kind of formally adopted these before, I don't know that it's
necessary to but would love to just get your kind of sign off on it before we send
a final draft to the Climate Action Committee.
I think that we, I'm sorry Heidi, I just wanted to look through them one more time
and we looked through them last week. But if we can just scroll through them now.
Um I didn't, I don't think I got this. But yeah, I'm in favor of it and be happy
to make it official effects. That would be helpful. And I think that the tricky part
is, you know, are we promising to do these or are we aspiring to do them and making
it official is like, well is that are we holding ourselves to it? And uh you know,
a lot of this is departmental work that is um outside of our direct purview um departments
that have a lot of other work to do so um I'm a little afraid to to say commit saying
we're going to do these. I said date and you know commit to a certain level of greenhouse
gas reduction. But I think we're seeing some incremental increase in interest from
departments and that's great. I think making them aspirational is probably the best
thing and kate I think you can say with pride that we we did a pretty good job on
their last set of goals. Yeah, yeah, we did. Oh, you know, we should probably flesh
out this community forestry program. I'm sorry. We have we have a workshop scheduled
on February 22. Okay. Um but just thinking how to flesh out a goal
um any thoughts there? I mean it's mitigation and adaptation. Making
healthy forest, you know, and and also, I mean I think it is the uh yeah, it's
carbon sequestration, it's improving forest health and increasing the rate of growth
and the ability of the trees that are remaining to absorb carbon, right,
if we get biochar in here Greg? We didn't yet. I'm uh we'll get it in there, we'll
get in there soon, You know, we've got a lot of that would still that's uh would
be pretty intense carbon footprint to turn to pulp and would actually cost us money.
Um I think we're gonna try to get some of it as firewood for the cosmo Brown Village
and you know, I'm just I'm just itching to get a bioCHAR demonstrate pilot program
going. But I'll give it another year, isn't this where you want it? I don't
know how to free. I mean, I don't know what we should do. We don't have someone that
can do it yet. So I don't want to make a go. Do you want like an investigation goal?
Yeah. Yeah. That investigates good and kate sequestration has an R. In it that you
can delete. Thank you. Sequestration and storage of course, because of the different
things. Yeah, the first are that behind the U. There you go.
Thank you.
And
yeah, I'm not ready, bioCHAR is not ready for our aspirational goal yet. It's my
personal aspirational goal. But my goal for next year will be have have have a specific
enough goal that I think the county can can implement it.
No, I think these look good and I like that the department's all thought about him.
Mhm. Yeah, it's a lot of progress and then this is when I still get to
say first year girl because I but I'm barely out of my first year. So what's the
process for reviewing these did did the departed the departments then review these
on an annual basis or Well I think it falls to the county administrator or the
interim to implement these and to develop a way to track what we're doing and report
to the board maybe once a quarter. Good. I'm thrilled to hear that.
Awesome. And it's actually the for the purposes of the Climate action committee of
these are two year goals.
So we just need to distribute like make this list into a publishable document that
we can distribute to the various departments or Yeah, they actually came up with
these themselves so they departments know know what they are and it might be interesting
for them to see, you know like knowing that we're mandating the use of recycled paper,
They might not have been involved in creating that. Right. What would you think about
a board resolution formalizing these? Mm I get
okay if there if there's a benefit to it, Well I think it adds weight to
to the seriousness of the goals. Okay
We're gonna move to adopt these climate action goals for 2022 I think I'm in favor
of that. I would defer to kate having worked on it to make the motion. Okay we're
ready. Sorry and here's the last couple Greg, do you think we saw at the beginning,
what happened to the, you had updated the community wildlife wildfire one and it
went away
um and I think anything of the community forestry plan. Oh forestry, not welfare.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I will I will save this. Oops! Um
okay. Um sorry. Um I'm happy to make a motion to adopt the
2022, climate action goals as presented today. Second all
in favor. I none opposed it passes unanimously.
Great. So kate, if you'd email this to me since you modified it, I'd appreciate it.
Yeah, we'll do and I'll also get them to the Climate Action Committee. Okay,
okay. Any more on that? So I think we're on to our last agenda item for today. That's
on the agenda. Mm.
Okay, let's see how fast you can get through these so board and committee assignments.
So um I spent some time last week trying to digest what it meant to be chair and
and adding up the various, you know, points assigned to each of our boards and committees
and the tallies are at the on the second page of that sheet that was in the agenda
packet. Um and so I realized I need to divest myself with some of my beloved committee
assignments. I uh some of these things that are marked in red on this were left over
from our previous conversation where julie was marking some things in red but where
Heidi's in red, those are areas where I realized um I might have to give those up.
I kept a few and I made them in black and I can tell you why if you want me to start
with the three that I kept in black that are non, not directly related to being
the chair of the B. zero cc. Or District two. And you are ready for me to just tell
you, can you see my screen commissioners? I put the list up. Okay. And what Heidi
was referring to is here at the bottom where she totaled up the points. So Heidi
has 35 K 26 and Greg 26. So I think the goal here is to shrink Heidi's
number and increase Greg, Greg's number and case number.
Um, so the three that I would like to retain that are, as I said, not chair related
or district two related. Our behavioral health advisory committee. And that's largely
because um, the city council rep to that committee is going to change because aerials
leaving has left. And so um, anna made a pitch for me to stay in that role. So there
was some continuity on that committee. Um, and we've also been doing a lot of work
with school based mental health and I've been having my fingers deep in that with
her. So I feel like for continuity sake, that might be a good one for me to keep
the other one is l tack. Another one is attacked because um coming out of our last
round of L tech funding. Uh, there were a couple of potential code changes, One being
the use of capital funds for L tech, which it looks like we can't do, so we can't
do that Swanson mill church project with L tech funds. Um and the other is the potential
for using L tech funds for workforce housing, that's what some other counties have
done and I haven't investigated that much, but it's something adjusting. Gonzalez,
Gonzalez Berg reached out about, so I would like to continue and kind of see that
those policy changes through or not. And then the third one is the straight er N
L I. O. And as, as kate well knows because she was the person on it last um,
the county commissioner chair of that group is really the chair of the group because
your co chair steve Derringer who um doesn't come to the meetings because he's running
the state capital budget. And um, he came, he actually came to our last meeting,
which was great. But um, so that coupled with the fact that we have a new, a brand
new coordinator who started today, um Cara Cardinal. So I feel like I could be a
really effective bridge between jOHN Campbell like and she, because I was in her
hiring process and have been working on the straights um, legislative agenda with
john actively for the last eight months and that work is ongoing right now, we're
hoping to wrap it up in the next month, but um, so those are the three that I would
argued for retaining. I don't feel like I'm arguing, I'm just
keep those three so the rest I put in red and so yeah, we can talk about them as
we get to them. And I feel like I tried to put things in red that we need to talk
about their either new things, potential new things or ships and assignments. So
the first thing on the list is the drainage district, which, which isn't active yet
reactivated yet. And but I did read the draft five year plan for the drainage district
and I know that's their big um aspiration is to reactivate the drainage district
and if they do that, the commissioner from district two becomes the chair of the
um drainage district board. So that's potentially Uh one another
1 for me. Um and then the second issue here is the covid coordination,
the two committees. So um as we all know, there's the Wednesday policy management
group and then every other friday county coordination meeting. And as we've all covered
various parts of those two roles over the last year, it became clear to me and I
think to Greg too, as he stood in and some of those that it seems like it would be
most effective if one of us served on both of those committees. Um you know, kate's
been serving on policy management, I've been serving on county coordination for a
month for a year. I'm not wedded to being in that role, but it has been said that
the chair should be in that role. So I kind of wanted to see how y'all felt about
that. I mean are the policy management group comes together in an emergency and the
chair is supposed to manage those emergencies. It's you know, going on three year
emergency now. So uh use our discretion. I think Kate's expressed an interest to
to continue in that role. So I mean I if if that's where you want to give something
up, I'm okay with it. Yeah, I'm okay with that. I mean if there's other emergencies
that you know, we need to address, I don't know if we just call these Covid,
that's kind of what we're proposing. Right, Kate, you're muted. Yeah. Covid response.
Um and there's actually nothing in our in our code that that specifies that the chair
is is the policy management group representative, which is the assumption that I
think we have made um previously but Willy Willy said that that is has just been
kind of tradition but you know, we haven't had anything comparable to the magnitude
of this emergency. So um so I would be great with Kate taking on county
coordination and I feel like we'd have more effective information back to us Greg.
Yeah, kids. Okay. I'm happy with that. Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Um So
covid covid response. I think we had talked about calling it
or we don't have the spreadsheet to be updating. Yeah, I'm still doing it the old
fashioned way.
Okay, so um developmental disability board. Um I took that on with
a sense or maybe a suggestion that it was kind of linked to behavioral health. But
um I'm happy to continue doing it. It's a it's a quarterly meeting I think. Yeah.
Each fourth. Oh it's a monthly, feels like it hasn't been happening monthly. It feels
like it's been meeting more quarterly. But um but in the spirit of me needing to
give some stuff up. Well that's it conflicts with I think both climate action Committee
and the Port Townsend empowered teens uh coalition. So I think we should give all
three to keep. It actually conflicts with N. O. D. C. Also. Okay. Wait, am I reading
this right? You know what? It doesn't conflict with anything on my schedule if I
don't have four towns and empowered teams. So I'm happy to do developmental disability.
That's the only thing that I have. I'm sorry it's Tuesdays, I was looking at thursday's
below it. Do you do Port Townsend and empowered? I have been and that prevented me
from doing climate action Committee. So that's why I know there's a conflict for
kate currently, but I if kate's taking that over creating another conflict for her,
I'm free to do developmental disabilities and anna's listening obviously because
she just texted me and said dad meets five times a year. So I'm happy to continue
doing that. If there are conflicts, timing conflicts if because how are we going
to get all three of those covered if we need three people at the same time? Every
I mean you know the empowered teams coalition is a fairly small group and I'm sure
that it's probably the most flexible of the groups here to shift its time. But haven't
we talked about each of us taking on the one in our district. Yeah that's why your
port Townsend which currently is Tuesday's Okay. Okay. Yes. Um
Okay so that that conflicts. Okay. Yeah that's separate from development to disability.
I don't have a conflict so I'm happy to take developmental disability if you like.
Mhm.
And um Heidi the one above it. Um That should get moved right. The D. N. R. Trust,
land transfer we just put them all on one list for this this consideration. And it
is it's still it's ongoing now. Yeah but it's a it's a it's we
needed to find a name for this things that we take on individuals. An individual.
Um Not like right. Right. It's not an appointment of the board. Right? Yeah.
So so I'll mark those as we go along. I'm gonna try and edit a master sheet.
I'll update this sheet after we meet today. How about that? Okay so what's
next Greg you'll work with um finding out the timing
of the and we'll see an empowered teens. Right? That's like, yeah. Okay. So in terms
of the housing fund board we go through this. Can we go through this line by line
and just each one and make sure because like I think the cbc date is wrong. Okay.
Great. Yeah. Yeah. Um Is that right? Mark? We have I think there's an E. D. C. Meeting
like this week. What? Say again please. Um We're looking at the E. D. C. And that
that changed. I think those are now first Thursdays 9 to 11. That's the CDC
board, correct? Yeah. So those are now first Thursdays 9-11. Just
F. Y. I. Okay, I'll make that update. Yeah. If you notice any other, yeah, let's
go through each line. You're right. We should start at the I mean not the very top
and I understand B. zero cc. But the affordable and homeless housing task force is
changing significantly and is kind of up to the new housing fund board for what that
looks like. So I think it should just be part of the housing fund board because it
really is part and parcel same thing. Delete that altogether. I would say. Delete
that altogether. Okay, okay. Got it.
Any others. I sorry I was skipping over, I was going through the things that were
in red. So sorry. Um So real the advisory committee we talked about that
behavioral health consortium. Greg. You're on that already correct? I yes I was I
mean I was assigned that from board of health but I'm happy to continue that and
to represent the zero cc. As well. You know when that is that a regular meeting time
or is it as determined? Oh gosh I can't. It is fairly regular but I forgot I'll find
the date. Um Budget committee is all of us
canvassing board is the chair of the B. zero cc. So I'm written written in there.
You can just delegate that to me. I love that job. Sounds fun to me. Yeah. It is
fun. You should try it. Um It's hardly a one though. It's like half an hour every
year basically.
Midterms show the midterms this year will be bigger. Okay, so Jane is district already
explained that one. Climate Action Committee Kate. Do you want to stay on that? I
do. But were you vying for that Greg? Oh, I mean I did before. I like it. But you
know, I I think we're really that doesn't seem like our main purpose right now. I'm
happy to have you stay on it. I'm not. I mean I'd love I'd love to serve on it and
I guess it could be rescheduled but it is Tuesdays right now. Right. Um No it is
Thursdays leave Wednesdays. Find it is it a regular regular Wednesday every
month? Every other month. It has switched. It was quarterly. It's now every other
month And it is to some of these, I might not have on my calendar yet this year.
I don't think it's Tuesdays though. Sorry? Well I mean I'm I'm not I'm not pushing
for it. I'd love to serve on it but I know that you value that committee as well.
So if we come back and we need to do some reconciling between you and I kate, maybe
we can pick it up. And it is Tuesday's 3-5 is also during the yeah 4000.
So I've got developmental disability that time. Okay, we'll work on that.
Uh Okay. We talked about covid coordination.
Um We talked about TLT workgroup. We talked about the job. Um You want
to keep E. D. C. I assume
I do, but if it's I'd be willing to give it up if need be friends.
I think it's it's I'm more in a position to be receiving.
Um So elected officials quarterly meeting. It's all of us. We each have an empowered
teens coalition Finance comedic committee. I I automatically served this year.
Um Fort warden is Kate
Heidi Heidi. Are you, are you hard core on that one? I mean that's, I know a really
time consuming one but there is, it is a infrastructure for the whole county. It's
not just for district two. So I don't think you you have to have that hold that role
but if you want to respect it, I think I should stay in it because what I found out
that I'm doing is a lot of uh setting up meetings with my neighbors, you know, for
the for the public works staff and hosting those in my kitchen and headlock. So it
feels like that would would be hard when to give up geographically and subject, you
know, I feel like, yeah, it is a lot of work and so I would almost give it a three
but I didn't um health board were all on that. So a
couple of things on this, if we could rename this board of health. Um and
um a couple of things. One is that's going to become a little more work for the chair.
We're restructuring the how the meetings are planned and the agendas are made um
each week. And um I had a conversation with David Faber today. Um I need
to follow up with Apple and dr barry about this too. But you know, the the chair
of that should go to the city this year, but it's gonna be a brand new city council
member. Somebody who's never, there is nobody who's ever served on board of health
before. Um So I could see that we talked about, he was going to run this by his folks,
seeing if the county could keep the chair of that for two years and then the city
would take it for the next two years or something. I mean, is that a convention because
we've had citizens in that role as chair to? It doesn't, it's not like jefferson
Transit where it flips back and forth, is it? Um I think I think that was a little
bit unusual to have um a citizen but um I mean for the first number of years we did
rotate to alternate between city and county, so it is not in the bylaws um But so
just just know that there might be a little bit of change there and so whoever takes
that on would have a little bit more of a role. Would you want to stay in that role
kate? No, I don't I'm not necessarily um I don't know. I don't have a feeling about
that, but I do think it wouldn't be wise to have somebody who's never served on board
of health, come on as chair. Do we need uh so this is marked as this is the whole
board so that's us attending, right. Yeah. I don't know if we need to put it in it
just but it's something to be aware of that. Whoever ends up in that chair role is
gonna, but do we want to say if it's from the county who wants to be in that role?
Yeah, the board of health elects that. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Um Okay. Hood canal coordinating council, this one,
it says we're all on it, but I've attended once. I mean is it should we just put
you there kate or are we all on it by statute? Yeah we are a government so yeah
I'm fine with you staying there. Mhm. I guess kate's gonna join me on the housing
fund board though. Right. I'd love to. Yeah. Great. Oh I thought
we might have to arm wrestle for that. She were trying to take things away from hiding.
She doesn't have to be really controlled here. All cherry picked. I just had to fight
to keep my sewer and it's gonna be busy this year. Um Okay.
Um I C. G. Everyone you'll have a bit more of a role Heidi with
sharing every 4th 1.
Um Okay
happy to keep it. I had I've had 11 meeting so far with it. You know it really it
depends when you know someone that's in. What is it the police papers that needs
some dental work. You know you approve it that's pretty much it it's very barely
a one. Okay um Jeff come I really enjoyed Jeff calmer. Making
good work. I'd like to hold on to that.
Hey you're not gonna fight for it. No. Are you getting ready to fight for something?
You had that glimmer. I looked in your eyes. No but I did just I just want Greg the
they did just open up the boosters for 12-15. Right sign up for the clinic. Yeah
I might have to might need to buy a break after all do that? There's gonna be room
kate.
Okay. Sorry focus focus. Um Greg. You're good staying with that. Happy to Yeah.
Uh And are you looking at are you guys all looking at the meeting times to confirm
that they're still accurate as we go. Um Jefferson cloudy clean water district. I've
been serving in that role for a year and I've enjoyed it because I've learned a lot
about uh I'll take that one. I feel like I'm I'm happy to do it.
Okay.
Uh J Prep
Greg is so good being the lead on that. Uh Yeah I haven't I don't think I've been
to any j prep meetings this year, so I've been not a very good lead. I mean they
conflict with a lot of meetings.
Yeah, I'm happy to I feel bad calling myself a lead in that but uh I went to a bunch
in 19 and 20 and I you know, I think there haven't been that many either. So yeah
we can believe that as as it is.
Um Or could we make something out of hock and just say there's a J prep meeting this
week and anyone attends. I mean if we're not if we're not showing up. Oh we are not
the main attraction at those meetings
you should. They're very they're very informative but yeah no we are we are attendees.
Okay. Well next time you can't go to one. Let me know when it is. We're all invited.
Yeah. Okay. There. quarterly. Right. And they come in our packet every week. Okay.
Okay, invite you get an invite from Willie. Okay. Sorry Willie if you're hearing
this, my lack of knowledge. Um So transit we're all on that and
then Transit authority finance and vice chair again, we don't really appoint that,
do we? Yeah. So we should um we should probably eliminate
that. I mean it is it is an extra monthly meeting. Um So I appreciate that it's a
one but we don't necessarily know who that will be. Um That will be. So I'm
phasing out um as chair. David Faber plans to in the rotation. This it would be the
city um David will be the one who has served so he plans to move into chair role.
So um since Heidi needs to be getting rid of you know, handing things off, assuming
Greg will be vice chair.
We don't still I don't think it's appropriate to put it here. I mean we're chairs
and not chairs and many of our groups and I think you know those ex that extra work
is just extra work. And should we put Greg's name in there for balancing our numbers.
I mean these numbers are a guideline, you know I have four meetings a week from only
cap and I have you know, one meeting a year for disability or so. I mean it's not
like we're trying to balance the work. I think I think we should we should keep two
assignments that we control. Okay I talked to you guys about caltech would like to
stay in that role. Um Marine resources Committee. This is this is when I
sad but you know it really deserves someone with more time
we both served in it so I'm happy to take it back. Can we should we set that one
aside to see who I mean I really enjoyed going out and helping with you know putting
out oysters and all that oyster shells. But yeah it's one of those ones but we don't
have a lot of ex officio participant. Um You know I did help facilitate
that letter on the Navy seal. You know getting getting the Marine Resources Committee's
input for us and there is work on that front coming up. It sounds like, yeah I'm
happy to do it. I'm happy to have it do it. It's Tuesday evening that doesn't ever
really conflict with anything. Great. Okay we'll leave it in flex for right now.
So mental health field response team. I think I've attended that once or twice. I
mean that's an offshoot of the behavioral health advisory committee. It was considered
that as a subset of that.
Okay that's that's that's the presentations from the awardees essentially.
Keep it. I think it doesn't it doesn't. Yeah after a lot of time. Okay. M. R. S.
C. Kate. Are you on that. Yeah and that's an individual one.
Uh Yeah we should move that to the separate putting asterix by those things and I'll
make a I'll move them to the bottom a little sunset at the bottom. Uh Navy military
liaison kate. Your name is in red there. Mhm. Yeah I mean it's a it's
a role I kind of inadvertently adopted. Um So I don't know that it was an official
it was never kind of an official appointment. Um
I don't have a, so is that when you just raise your hand to do or? No I just started
having a lot of contact with the military and we're always at the whim of they invite
different people to different things all the time and we don't have any control over
that so um you know we could eliminate that um and we're just going to have our own
you know feels more appropriate because they do reach out to me because I live right
there. Yeah I'm fine with getting rid of that. Okay
um NEko this is a new one that we talked about. Nico funding, federal issues and
funding. And is that something that you were already doing kate? Yeah again by default
not by appointment. Um But I do think that with infrastructure funding um that it
would be a good thing, you know like I said we're doing a monthly call with the lobbyists
in D. C. So um I'm happy to continue to serve in that role. Um You know there's some
overlap with the with the sewer Heidi. Um So different stuff though. I mean different
than you know on the ground with community members and it's good to have I think
two different folks are working on very different aspects of it. So I don't I don't
see a conflict there and I think you'd be perfect for that kid. So I'm happy to write
kid's name and then I'm happy to do it. Okay. N. O. D. N. O. D. N. O. D. C.
I enjoy that. Well actually yeah I enjoy it and I'm supposed to share it this year.
So okay we'll leave we'll leave you there then and then. No. Are we doing Nolan this
year. Yes. Yeah that nests a little bit with
an O. D. C. Um It makes sense to keep those together and the legislative steering
committee to I mean you're yeah olympic area and aging Greg are you?
I'm happy with that. I'm learning a lot. We're gonna get silver nest going and home
share. So yeah. Um The olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary. It's another one I
put in red here with my name. It's their quarterly meetings and there they've all
been by zoom. I haven't traveled anywhere. They keep talking about wanting to have
one in person but that hasn't happened. Is anyone excited to take this on Greg maybe
you because it's your more your district. I was I served in that role for the first
year when it was physical and it was a huge time commitment. Um uh, just to get out
there. Um I'm, you know, again, it's one of the, it's it's education, I don't know,
I'm not uh I'm more excited about some of your other ones and I bet they'll keep
having a virtual option and it doesn't feel like there's a huge role for us so that,
you know, if, if you miss one, it's not, I served on it for a couple of years and
I didn't, it didn't feel like um we had such a critical role that we, you know, that
it was imperative, so I'm happy to take it on done kate can have it. Who's the new
coordinator? Heidi hasn't been announced yet?
Let's see. Okay. Cat board Greg, that should probably be a three. Honestly, I mean,
I do have four meetings a week.
Get that's what you get for, getting stuff done, create all that work. Olympic consortium
board, its workforce development. I'm happy to keep that. Okay,
uh, olympic discovery trail. I'd be kind of interesting that interested in that one.
I haven't uh, I think I know the least about this. So it's, it's a group of folks
that I have not really uh, interface with, so I mean if you're looking to unload
that one idea, I'd be happy to take it. I'm not looking to, yeah, second Wednesday,
does it work with your timeframe? Let me just look forget Holy Cap,
it does conflict with Holy Cap. So is that
the peninsula trails coalition? Yeah. You were on it before kate. Although I didn't
do the peninsula trails coalition meeting every month, but we were meeting much more
regularly with the three Amigos. The trail advocates. Right? So they're
different. Yeah. And the older cat meetings are kind of set in stone on, on 2nd Wednesdays.
Right. Well, I can, I would be happy to keep that one. I would be good to keep something
that I'm and there's a lot of activity in District two on that with the Anderson
Lake connection happening. So let's think about me staying in that. Okay.
Olympia craig. I'm happy to stay that. Stay with that. We have a new, uh, new director
that was part of the hiring committee on and I've got him, he's gonna come out and
do touring all the counties and I, he's agreed to come out and do a biochar burn
with me. So that's, that's where I'm working on bio track.
Okay. Parks and rec, I left my name in black and I didn't, I'm working on a capital
improvement plan, but I mean it's something, it's work that can be transitioned.
I love that committee, but I'd be interested in that one. I haven't served on that.
Okay, well, let's, let's see how it all balances out. Yeah, I'm happy to take it
back to if, if it's, if we're out of whack. And um, uh let's
see. P. R. T. P. O. Kate. Sonic. Greg's interested. Yeah
and you know I'm not there's lots of stuff I'm interested in so I don't need to take
it from kate. I know she enjoys that one. Yeah. I'd love it. Just got started with
it. I'd love to get a little more traction in education. I withdraw my interest.
Still interested in the outcomes though. Okay. Portland O Village Council stays with
Greg if I just left my name there because I'm not sure we're gonna have anything
this year. And and also if if I I was involved in the
uh big project review so it might be a good idea for me to stay in
stand up. If if the popular plan comes into
question, I don't know. What do you think Mark Mark's really involved in piff.
Yeah and you know Heidi uh you really grabbed the reins and did a good job with the
RFP um last year. And um and I think with the scrutiny that that popular replacement
plan is coming under that having some continuity would be smart and sounds good.
We'll send everybody your way that has complaints.
Yeah apartment you just sound partnership leadership council. I want that. I'm just
kidding. That should get bumped bumped to uh whatever we decide to name those self
um self appointed. Not that's not accurate. Special assignments.
Thank you. Very good. Um puget sound's partnership ecosystem board we should remove
that.
Mhm. Mhm. Getting there. You guys Peterson partnership straight year
in L. A. I said I wanted to keep that in mind. Do
um Salish behavioral health Greg. You good stand there.
Okay, shorelines hearing board. I just took that on too. So that should be a special
assignment, yep. Okay slack. You know, I want
it. I got I got I got to redo the recycling video. I talked to al about it and he's
okay with me giving it up. But you know, it's my favorite committee. You know, I'm
not, I'm not taking it from me. You're gonna have to give it up before I take it.
I just gave it up. All right, President coordinating council. Let me just say on
record, I want slack at some point to. I've never had it. Well, okay, we can add
it up and if we're, we need to make some changes, we can arm wrestle about it. I
know you've been, you've been really consistent with that. It's yeah. Um tourism
coordinating council.
You can take it on. Yeah, I'd be happy to as well. It doesn't conflict, it's always
interesting meetings. I think it really does dovetail nicely with, but it's no reason
for it actually to be associated. So I mean, I don't, I don't feel like I have a
lot to offer in the realm of tourism. Um So I'm not sure I'm the best appointment
for like, I don't know that I would add as much value as you would. Greg, I think
you've been more involved, but I'm happy to take it on I guess kind of depending
on what. Okay, I like spending time with that group. Okay man. Okay. And
then
coastal subcommittee is that these are all special, the next ones are all special
appointments. Right? This should not be special. It shouldn't. Okay, we need a representative
that we appoint. And then how about the Housing Finance Commission?
That special assignment
I have applied for it. I haven't heard if they gave it to me
um Legislative steering committee. That's kate. Is that special? No,
and timber counties is not special. Happy keep that.
Okay. In the water utility coordinating council is not active.
So
I wish we had somebody else doing math while we were having this conversation. We
could each add up our own. Oh, was I supposed to be writing down which one was mine?
Do you need me to go through it? Okay. Okay. But like, so B. zero
cc. I'm just looking at points. Is that we each 23 points or just Heidi
does three points I guess that's Heidi. Okay.
Greg. Sorry, like Jose C. just being the chair is three points. Not that much.
That's what it was on the list. I didn't change it.
Yeah. I don't know. I don't doesn't matter. It's let's let's add them up. I don't
know yet And one day in, guys. Right?
so then you I also was adding and I think the I think I was adding in the
board points if you're you know it was the whole board. Mhm.
Just looking at the four that I've got my added I'm up to 30 I haven't taken anyway
and everybody's counting the board board ones. Right I am
sorry I'm going slow.
Did I give MRC to somebody? That's not that we've moved that two special assignments
I would contend should be a three if we're really waiting. I changed it to three
on this list. I was going to update it. I'm 31 without actually adding
everything up. Which is the difference. And I didn't did I just did you guys decide
when you decide to take parts? Oh right I was gonna take parks 32
tiny.
Mhm.
I'm at 29
30 ish.
I mean with a quick tally so that sounds pretty even I'll update it and
do a proper tally.
Yeah.
Okay so we left
marine resources up in the air. Right.
How many did you have Greg?
I think 29 or 30. Yeah.
So do you want me to keep it or I can take it on either way.
We gotta unload some from Heidi. I think it should take it. Okay I think we're within
the margin of error of this Very imprecise system. It is very imprecise. Yeah
if you love it and want to keep it Heidi? I that's fine if you want to get rid of
it, that's fine. Do I do really like it, but I feel like I like a lot of stuff and
that's a weakness of mine and you know, I mean if I was based on what we've been
talking about in the last year, feels like actually District three stuff might be
coming up more than one or two with Pleasant Harbor coming online more and mhm.
So it might be a better Greg
subject matter Knowledge Committee. Oh, we want to think about it that way.
Yeah, I mean with puget sound partnership, like there's a lot of overlap too with
let's put you there.
Okay, I will update this list and see where we're at. We can always make fine tune
adjustments next monday if we need to. Okay, staff could also do it if you're right.
Right,
but I'll update from our conversation today, Save it in the drive, so everyone has
access to it. Thank you.
Okay, well that was the last thing on our agenda. Is there anything else for the
good of the order?
We need to do any following conversation from our um Caswell Brown conversation.
I mean, mhm Greg again and rookie mistake twice. Um
I think having a little bit of a conversation about, you know, whether we do want
to kind of own this and uh Um seriously think about Phase two, you know, I mean we've
kind of uh we're gonna have to do something, we can't leave folks without, you know,
flushing toilets and everything. So I guess it's pretty clear to me, my my opinion
is very transparent. I believe that we should support this and and look for a budget
and and be rigorous but I guess I think that we should Be willing to to spend up
to another 500,000 to get the infrastructure um squared away and ready to go for
an emergency shelter for years to come.
Um I'm sorry, can you repeat that last part? The so the $500 to get basic infrastructure
in but not necessarily committing to the next phase? Oh yeah, I mean there is no
next phase that is um uh you know fit to print quite yet, you know, continuing the
conversation at the housing fund board internally here um with the
providers but going finishing finishing the first um permanent emergency shelter
I think is something that we should commit to. Outdoor emergency shelter.
Mm Yeah, I I'm happy to support that and it feels like the kind of bare minimum right
to get to put infrastructure in um like kind of basic human dignity stuff. I am totally
supportive of it and I would like to see us update this marks magic sheet RP funding
sheet to see where we're at because this is a november version and I know things
have changed around the sewer and so I would like like to maybe revisit that worksheet
that you created. Mark. Yeah that that was when we had the workshop on the capital.
Yeah what's up Caroline? My p public under Caroline. I keep a running
tally of all our power use and covid funds and there's a tab for the art. You can
click on that and you can see where what I've spent thus far and what's been and
what's been approved for expenditure. It might be good for us to review that in the
next monday meeting. Just just feel like maybe periodically to review it just to
see where we're at. Right. Well the board hasn't made any um any decisions that would
would have modified what you committed to previously but certainly a refresher would
be valuable. We'll just converse. Sorry Caroline. I was just gonna say that
uh initially there's three million. 229,000 and um of that you know two million was
supposed to go to jefferson community school and that you know of course didn't happen
but there was 378,000 for Fort warden P. D. A. I'm not sure if that's on the initial
list that you saw. I'm not sure timeframe wise when that happened but I do keep track
of everything. Um And then there was another cuisine food bank they were um requesting
a B. C. D. Fee waivers. So I kind of put that they're on our palace too but I'm not
sure how much that would cost but I do make notes on that list to update it weekly
if needed. Yeah so I'm sharing my screen again. This this right here this block
Um is what what the board committed out of trench number one
and you can see that that the board overcommitted which means that
That over commitment has to come out of Trance # two. And then in the in the biennial
budget you approved you approved 750 for the sewer in 2023 which um
least a million 600,000 In the General Arpaio The six 26.
Um So the 150 for the Port of Port Townsend has already been spent. The 150 for broadband
has been spent. Um Caroline did we send the 290 to the hospital for child care? I
think we did pull it up I think yeah I'm put up I think I think that
was if they get the grant okay Um the 500 for
for E. D. C. Premium pay is going to be paid out on Wednesday. No
exact no I have to update that. It's actually a bit more than that. Yeah so so if
if this comes back for a follow up discussion next monday I'll work with Caroline
and we'll have actual numbers in here and then I know there have been conversations
about funding for the sewer and where we would pull that from. Uh Right I think all
three commissioners have now been briefed on the financing requirements for that
project and I do think that we paid the 3 78 out to the to the P. D. A. For that
loan guarantee. Mhm. So alright, so we'll get that,
we'll get that on the agenda for next week. Okay,
anything else you guys, you know, seeing those notes from D. N. R. About thorndike
and the other projects? I just, I've never really had a lot of face time with bob
Winslow, but as we go through the TLT and everything, I wonder if we might want to
invite D. N. R. And specifically bob Winslow out to have a brief workshop with us.
Yeah, I think if we did that we would want to invite the land trust too because that's
where those projects originated, those three projects specifically. But yeah, that
would be good. So that would be a monday agenda item, mark, That would be a
monday meeting agenda item at some point. Um We just got these emails from D and
R about the to Quimper wildlife corridor projects and the thorndike project and uh
we'd like to have a workshop with bob Winslow and Sarah space from the Land trust
bob Winslow from D. N. R. Sarah space from the Land Trust. Just an update on those
projects. And and that's the one we executed the agreement on. Right, yeah. And
right
that the Land trust is going to pay for
um we talked a little bit about upcoming agendas. Um I think that is it next week
we're going to need to talk about the county administrator position. Yeah. Yeah Rothman
steve Worthington will be be with us for that. Um And then I think Greg you and Cindy
brooks have been talking about um E. D. C. And I think we're having a workshop with
them on criteria for the 500,000 and grants. I think that survey that went out was
part of the getting information for that. So yeah I guess. And he's ready for that
on the 10th. Yeah.
What else in terms of future meetings though,
are there items agenda items? We just talked about doing a three Pro TNR three Projects
Update. Are there other items that people would be interested in seeing on the agenda
in the short term? We should probably add to the agenda for the next couple of months
the legislative update
as a standing agenda item. Yeah. Yeah. And each of us can just talk about what we're
hearing and we're working on and testifying on the legislature will be virtual again
for um testimony. There will be some in person floor in person. Floor votes will
be in person for legislators only
too easy. Yeah. Yeah.
Anything else you'd like to see it? And then short term
just looking through something we're gonna have to um tackle
this year. Is this e signatures required by the state
um and it is just an impossible, I find an impossible task to track. Um
Yeah. Yeah. Um So the state contacts the chair directly saying
something needs to be signed um but it's not it's often weeks before it comes onto
our agenda or weeks after and so it's, you know, I end up having to do searches on
all of our agendas, seeing if we have passed that or not. So as an office, we're
gonna have to come up with a better system for that and um you can't sign anything
until it's been approved by the board, so it's a bit of a liability and nobody's
been able to identify a good workflow um for this, so just uh you know, something
to think about and then, you know, something we talked about every year this time
of year is are there uh changes we want to make to kind of how our office operates,
um you know, ways of improving communication or workflow. Um I think things are better
now than they've been in the time that I've been here. Um But I think it's always
good to ask ourselves that question once a year. Um Ask staff that too, so I always
wondered if we should have uh one of us meet with the team like have a staff
meeting. Yeah, how does that, I mean truly, I think county administrator role and
I think he's been holding that role very well, but as we, you know, transition towards
a new administrator, it might be good to think about one of us, Commissioners sitting
on. Do you guys have staff meetings? Mark? Uh not formal, no, but you
know, I'm down there daily and work work through issues and whatnot, but things seem
to be clicking pretty well.
One thing I really liked that we did at the maritime center was a huddle Where we,
we meet for 10 minutes every morning and just say, you know, what's, what's your
top priority today? What's one thing you're stuck on? You know, there were three.
I forget what the third thing we cover, but we just went around really quick and
I don't know if that would be something that the um, commissioner's team would find
helpful or useful
Caroline, are you gonna jump in? I was gonna say we kind of do daily huddles amongst
ourselves and if there's issues that arise to the level that we need, uh commissioner
input input, we usually ask that of you um when they arise or Mark. Well, um if we
need input from something, but normally we usually have daily huddles or throughout
the day, like Mark was saying we just tackle them as they come up basically. I just,
I don't know, so I'm just asking. Yeah, so so Caroline you don't feel they're kind
of issue like things that we could be working on as a team better that would support
you guys more. Yeah, if there was some big item, I would definitely be everyone's
input on that. Um Right now, you know the signature thing we are looking at and I
talked to julie just today about that and she said that um Phil hunsecker might be
working on something with that. Um It would be nice because you know when the contracts
come through us, it doesn't say it's an e signature document. If it did, we could
just put a little note on the side and said okay this one was approved this day but
we don't know how to identify those. So we might be pushing that back on the department
to let us know. So it might be just as simple as you not knowing or Heidi not knowing
what to sign. And she just asked the department, you know, hey it was just approved
and put that on them but we're still working on how to tackle that and so we might
need your help for that. Yeah and kate I'm only aware of the one example um where
we kept getting emails from the state. I think it was commerce or something wanting
you to document sign. Um That's the only example that I can recall where we had an
issue with the state on electronic signature. Have you had more examples than that?
Oh I spent hours every week trying to resolve and and you know that I won't be the
signer on it like I mean there's just you know each department each agency has a
different system within document but all within um saw the uh state
access Washington um secure access Washington. Um And you know I mean I've gone back
and forth with staff so much on these. It's it's really um inefficient. Okay so that's
a bigger problem than I understood because I I haven't been privy to that. I've been
shielding you from it Mark because I mean I'm totally capable like I managed grants
in that same system for years. Like it's not like I don't know how to use it but
it's just um something about only only emailing the chair and not the staff. So every
you know it's the communication is triangulated and um and then I have to loop in
our staff to see you know make sure things have been signed and um so it's
just poor a communication system but it's not just internal, it has to do with all
the state agencies. Um And they want every single contract to be e signed now. So
I signed many a week a signature and they all take quite a bit of time. Maybe it's
something we can ask if the state can on their documents show us that they'll end
up requiring a signature because right now there's a spot for you to sign. So um
when the chair signs that we think that's done we don't know that there's another
level of doc you sign. So if they are in their contract to put that on there, maybe
we can we can figure it out that way. Right? Yeah. Hot
potato. She's throwing it at me well and it's and it's what four different state
agencies regularly and then other ones less regularly. Commerce, fish and wildlife
ecology and department of health, the pain all the time. Do we need to send a communication
to those agencies indicating that we have a new chair and to relieve you of that
burden kate? It'll be relieved automatically. Yeah, but then every, you know every
grant they have to go in and enter Heidi as a authorized signer. Um So staff has
to know to do that. Um Like it's just you know, at least once you're in there you're
in there for good. So like Greg when your chair again, you will still be in the system
um but maybe not necessarily linked to that grant um trading
computers and all this um is coming online this year. And I think that you know,
I would love to I have not been able to attend any of the trainings but having a
really deep dive workshop I think would both be helpful and being able to to demonstrate
to the public what's coming also make sure, you know, as representatives of the public,
sometimes we have a different perspective than staff and going through these and
having uh um you know, eyes on it as we, as we get ready to roll that out I think
would be helpful. So I'd love to have a kind of a big deep dive on internet, go through
the system and talk about how it's gonna look, you know, it's gonna be really iterative
over years, I think as it develops and I'd love to understand that pathway. Right?
That yeah, that'll be that'll be later in the year, but but I'll work with julie
and get that on the planter.
Okay, can I confirm a few of the board ships we just made um kate
is taking parks and rec
I thought I had you down for swag and tourism coordinating council. Were you taking
all three of those? I was, but I'm happy to give parks and rec Fine. Let's leave
you there. I just had you both written there, so I didn't underline one when, when
we finished our conversation. So what's your, what's your level of overwhelmed Greg
and I'm uh you know, hard to tell looking at these two pieces of paper, honestly,
you know, um but uh happy, happy to go either way. I mean, I'm happy
to do it. I'm not feeling this looks looks manageable, so hmm.
Okay.
Do you have other questions? Heidi? No, those were mine hanging chads. Okay,
okay, back to agenda. Planning. Was there any
anything else?
Sometimes I feel like really interesting things happen in the committee meetings
I attend and I feel like maybe I guess I should just be reporting them out the week
after they happened, but I maybe don't, but like right now parks and rec is undertaking
a capital improvement plan kind of and we just did a whole um whole committee planning
process that was really, I thought useful and what came out of it was that there
was kind of this aha moment where we realized there were common projects like projects
that were like the same flavor of projects at different parks and that was like we
can save money by hiring one person to do this in three parts, you know, and it was
kind of neat to watch that happen real time. Um and I look forward to seeing how
that capital improvement plan, the rubber meets the road because I think it, it felt
like a really good process at that point. Heidi I sometimes I try to bring back,
you know, one or two slides from some of these great presentations that we all see
and you know, I'd love I'd love a little deeper dive into some of the things that
you guys see too. So I think that's a it's a good good resolution for me this year
to to share a little deeper information from our many assignments. Yeah.
Mhm. It just took note are 45 monday months this year or january may august and october
Mhm.
Already going somewhere in january. You caught on quickly. You too. Yeah. Where you
going? Heidi?
I'm going to skiing and also I'll be gone one monday and uh March for my 50th birthday
as well on the 21st, right?
50. You kids are so young. Hm You're
still you're still a young commissioner chair. Mhm. Oh, someone just quick note uh
Mark and I need to finish up. I'm sorry, Mark, I didn't get the draft to you. We
will be sending out a update to all staff on omicron from the health department um
will be coming from Mark, but policy Management Group, we put together kind of the
salient talking points. So um you'll be seeing that I'll work on it this afternoon
and maybe Mark want to send it out in the morning. All right. I'm not sure that omicron
you're talking about. Oh, Macron, I can't help it. I said macron for years. I know,
I'm just giving you a hard time. I will say that jefferson Healthcare also seems
to be on the omicron omicron bandwagon, I don't think for years.
Yeah, it was part of this system of uh classes and and figure
skating, you had to move through the ranks and it was the greek alphabet. So that
was like you aspired to omicron, You were pretty good. If you're a micron, I never
got there.
Um Well, the first when, when a macron was first identified, the new york times came
out saying it was a macron, not omicron, but they have since had to retract that.
I mean, regardless of the word now, so we changed, right? Not on that one. Won't
let that one slide.
It's terrible. Hmm.
Okay. Anything else?
I'm doing my side work over here? I don't think so. I mean, there's a lot of like,
you know, populating our calendars and contacting staff who have new assignments
for and Heidi ones that you're passing off. It's really, you know, it can be nice
if you kind of helped make that introduction. So it's been great working with you
and you know, just, I don't know if any of them are really outside of the county
family much, but um, that could be a nice way to have, you know, staff feel
them. Yeah.
Mm. Okay. Okay. Well Then I guess I would adjourn the meeting at
403 on Monday, 3, 2022. Thanks everybody.
Nice work today. You too. See you soon.