Ok. Well, Gang's all here. I'll call this special meeting and the board of county
commissioners to order, we're continuing our presentations from the different departments
on their, their budget asked for the 2024 25 biennial budget and we're uh starting
with juvenile and family court. So uh oh yes, we have public comment first. Thank
you for the reminder. I, so I get agenda up so I know what's coming up. But uh is
there anyone with us that would like to make public comment today?
Ok. Um Seeing as there's no one in the zoom room or on the uh in the actual room,
we'll close public comment for the time being and, and turn it over to Shannon. Uh
It's great to have you with us. We're just continuing. Unless someone has something
to preface it with, we'd, we'd love to hear about your, your presentation for the
24 25 budget and please do speak in the microphone. So, Kate and others at, at, at
my face. So hopefully that's working. Ok. Well, thank you for having us. I'm here
with Sasha Cooper, who is my lead financial uh assistant and uh really my right hand,
um We have, I actually, our budget is pretty, pretty straightforward. We didn't ask
for any ads. Um We're continuing on as with the natural increase. Um I think the
biggest things for our office is that um we have a unique role in the county in that
we really uh are in this uh quasi social service,
law enforcement kind of niche. Um And so we definitely have uh services that we
provide the fa families and youth in our community that are struggling that have
maybe experienced lack of services um or won't volunteer for services that are available
in our community. Um Or you are refusing to go to services that parents may want
them to go to. Um uh So we definitely fill those gaps. Um I like to kind of say that
we have a little bit of wind on the back of change for our kids and families in our,
in our uh community. Uh It's a really unique role requires uh our staff to have a
lot of training and motivational interviewing and case management and uh just what's
going on in our communities. Uh It's, it can be weight bearing for sure, because
there's a lot of struggling families that we work um hand in hand with uh and try
to collaborate with. Uh we really go by our kind of core values of explore, develop,
achieve and really a way forward for their way uh forward, really Um So we're not
asking for anything different. We've had uh in our office, we've been pretty stable
for a lot of years with a lot of longevity. Um And then there's this natural shift
that happened um where we experienced quite a bit of turnover in our office. So we
have out of, you know, we have eight staff, one is unfilled. Um And then we have
so out of the seven, we have five people in new roles. So even though I am one of
those, I have a lot of history still so I can provide, I mean, a completely different
uh role. So I think that we have really worked on our team. We have been really a
lot of training, you know, you have to really um spend that effort in the front training
staff so that they're comfortable with all the different nuances that you have to
do in the job, whether it's appeared in front of the superior court, judge file um
reports that are quite lengthy um or just, you know, need a 24 lesson, cognitive
behavioral program with the youth. So that that kind of skill set requires a lot
of training. So I feel like that's something in the budget that you may notice gets
spent because we're really trying to uh utilize uh all that we can in training our
staff and making sure they're doing have the best feelings to, to work with kids
and families. Um I also kind of highlighted the position vacancy that we had because
um, our numbers are increasing our referrals since January. Um, we have more referrals
now than we had uh all of last year. So, um, we're just double. Can I ask you what,
what, what, what's that number? I mean? Just so I know. Yeah, I do have that number.
So, um right now we're like combined between court involved and diversion um around
43 kids and we have two staff that serve all those kids. So that's a lot. And that
doesn't include, include our status kids, which are youth at risk. Chins petition
petitions, insurances. So that's just how many of those are there. Um Right now,
uh they are running about the same um truancies less because it's just starting to
pick up, it gets the most in May. Um As it goes forward, I think the risks are usually
under 10 for the year and they seem to be fine in that category. Um And our Chins
which normally are very few are now perking up with a new house bill 12.7. It's changed
dependency, some of those kids are going into that. Um So we kind of have reorganized
things where our civil program manager is doing the risks and Chins where we used
to have our court involved P OS probation counselors do that. So we're just, we have
a nice flexibility in our office because we can move where the number is. So right
now, we're handling our, our higher referrals and I'm definitely working uh juvenile
court administrator. I um because of just the past history I have, I think handle
some of those cases as well. Um So I just wanted to highlight the position because
I don't know how things are gonna, I don't know if we're settling after COVID or
if this is gonna trend even more up. So I really think it's critic that critical
that if I need that position, I can hire it. But right now I'm feeling like we're
shuffling and we're, we're really doing ok. Um So can I just ask you when you say
you have that position? Is that in your budget? But I'm filled? Yes. Ok. And thank
you. Uh Yeah, so it's just kind of, you know, in holding, in holding because I don't
also want to have someone that doesn't have enough work to learn the job. So right
now I'm really just, we're fine. Um But if something should, if this should trend
up and we're, then, you know, I'm comfortable going back to the PRE COVID numbers.
But if we, you know, because we dumped in pre-covid quite a bit and now we're rising
again. So we'll see where it lands, I can't really predict. Um But the other thing
that could warrant that position would be just that legislators have really been
toying with 18, 1920 year olds coming down into juvenile court and, um, and it went
to committee, um, and was, it's in committee now, but it almost passed last year.
So it's just one of those things that, you know, in order for something to become
legislatively mandated, it always kind of takes a little while, but we're watching
it and it seems like two things will happen. They'll either come to juvenile court
or they'll create a new sentencing grid for those, that age group. And we really
can't tell where that's going to land. Where do you think it should land? Um, I think
it's, they should land in juvenile court. Yeah, I think it's gonna be a lot to figure
out the prospect with it. Bigger counties will struggle with that. Smaller counties
will, will, will probably, like, I can see us really rallying around that age group
and doing some really great work. Um, they really are young and they oftentimes have
their first offense and the adult model is so different than the juvenile model.
I mean, we are doing curriculum, we have lots of in-home services, we have lots of
housing services. We have our, it's just the overall, I think it's, it's a better,
but I don't know how that's going to lay out because the bigger counties have more
weight in the decision. So we'll see, you know, what kind of numbers you'd be talking
about that. Well, we were just talking about superior court but then they realize
the district court kids are the better ones, probably because they're really the
ones that are stuck in this high kind of, um, uh, LFO or legal financial obligations
and, and less services, kind of, that's what happens when you go into the adult world.
So, um, I think that's what sent it back to, um, kind of the negotiation table just
because they hadn't really thought about that. They had, but they hadn't put it in,
in and people really wanted that group. So we'll see. Um, I've thought about contracting
or not contracting but doing something with district court anyway, we've talked about
maybe how some of those first time offenders can come, we could provide some services
to them. But, um, yeah, so that's the other thing. So I'm just kind of holding that
one out there. Um, so it's not posted the position right now. I'm just kind of holding
on to it and I just wanted you guys to know that that's what you see in there. And,
um, and, but I am pretty mindful about when that tipping point comes because I did
the job for 26 years. I kind of really have a good sense of when our tipping point
will happen and we'll need to hire. Um, but right now it seems to be fine with cruising
along. Um, let's see. Any other, anything on that. Well, I guess I'm curious you,
you said that the, that the number of clients I guess for lack of a better word went
down a lot in COVID. Was that just because of sentencing or what was their legislation?
Uh, people weren't holding in jails and juvenile facilities. Uh, it was just, you
know, that uncertainty and people being at home it just stopped, like trials stopped,
everything stopped. Um, it wasn't, we, we actually responded by doing a referral
of concern and so we had kids coming in but not official because it just was the
official systems just kind of stopped. And when they unclogged, were kids in a worse
off place from your experience or did I mean, dependency, kids suffered, I think
truancy for sure kids are suffering still from it. There's a, you know, everybody
talks about really the long COVID haul is this kind of social emotional effect that
it had on kids. We have half of our kids right now are girls, which has never been
the case. We've always had like maybe less than 5% girls. And so for them to have
increased, I think it's just some consequence of the whole COVID. Yeah,
something happened with our Yeah. So and they're, they're mostly assaults that are
happening with that group. So it's just interesting, you know, like what trends,
you know, there'll be all sorts of reports about they'll be researching kind of COVID
effects and
that's just kind of, and what's your demographic? I mean, is it middle school and
high school mostly I mean, there's elementary age kids too. You don't deal with any
anything. Ok. The only time we deal with the younger kids is through our Guardian
lighting program. So we, uh, have, you know, do that position and we train them up
and for the best interests of the, you know, what should happen for the best interest
of the child. So then those are little. So there's, but there's quite a few guardian
and light and volunteers. That's what I mean. Yeah. So there must be quite a few
of those kids there was and then House Bill 12 27 came into effect this last June
or July 1. Um and that really put a block on how dependencies can be filed. And some
courts are kind of like still pushing through and filing stuff and some, some, some
departments, you know, the uh DC YF is just now like that, we're gonna try to really
do these pre services and not. So we're experiencing that right now, which is ok
because then Katie Davis who's in that role, you know, she has, we have current cases
that we still are managing, but she's also kind of shifting now and it's a good opportunity
for her to learn the the other side of our office because there's only one of me
and being on a pager or on call 24 7 and kind of handling all that and not having
someone else that can do that. Is really kind of, that is a difficult position. So
she's kind of moving in and kind of learning that side so that we can, you know,
so that I can self centered, maybe go out of the country and have someone be able
to be like, and then Sasha of course, has all the logistics of the office. So, um
even though both of them are new, they're really, I've done a, an Ex Excel, um you
know, learning process, I would say. Um, so that's happening. Um So then I did some
adjustments with Judy's help around how to hand off that on call duty even. Uh And
then, let's see.
And then I still have one position at 32 hours. So, um, that will increase first
before I hire anyone. So once that's increased to 40 then that's a signal that maybe
the tipping point is happening for me anyway. Um
And then we, the state has changed its con it's contracting to um performance based
contracting. So they have a dashboard now and they rate you by your use of the money,
they give you to actually do programming. So there's a little bit they call it performance
based, but it's really about, am I meeting my targets? Am I giving, am I providing
that state dollars straight to programming? Um And we did really well on the dashboard,
we got all greens and one yellow because just of a drop out two kids and a 10, 10
program kid program can sway the the numbers. So we did really, really good on the
that dashboard. So that was a that was a nice plus for our office. So yeah, it was,
it was really like, ok, and that testament just to also social learning where our
dollars like, so how much time and we just had this huge learning process with that.
How much time do we are really using for serving kids and families and making sure
we get that time accurately sent to the state along with the incentives we give along
with like even we have like some navigation services, like driving them all of that
stuff. Um And so I think just the, the work that we've done around, ok, I know the
programs and I know the time that it takes. And so then we have this now way of really
dialing in. Ok. That means this person needs to really have that amount of time on
their time card. And she's so she's just got that down now. So that's just gonna
help us just be using that money, you know, not asking for more money instead of
giving money back. So that's our, that's our goal. So that's, that's the gist of
what we do and how we're doing it right now. Um And we serve, we do from the state's
menu of items. Uh We have family functional therapy, um individual alternative choice
training, which is called I A um and employment education training. Um And then we
also provide a low-risk program called Connect, which is a community restaurant uh
for lower risk kids and families. So those are the main ones we do um Along with,
of course, utilizing all the resources we have in our community. I'm curious how
the um programs like the Nest and the Empowered Teens coalitions, how the work that
those entities are doing feed into the work that you guys do. Huge. Like it's really
important for us to stay in connection and even what's going on with the teams that
are out in the county uh uh at Chimica, like it's really important for us to stay
connected to those and those are our partners. Um We oftentimes join in some like
different, they're going for grants, we'll join as a community partner and can be
a referral agency to that. Um So, yeah, I mean, all of that's really important is
we really connect with the Wise program here in town through DVH. We, yeah, we work
with both treatment providers. Um And by the time they get to the court involved
and not at high risk, sometimes those community programs aren't always a match, to
be honest and we have to really utilize then the programs that can serve and just,
you know, if the kid doesn't show up, they don't discharge. Those are the ones we
really need our kids at because they always don't show up. So wise is really, you've
got to be a voluntary participant, right? But they're a better match up, like being
like, ok, they didn't show up. I'm not gonna discharge them. Whereas they just go
through DVH, they have so many people going there and adults and all that, that they
just discharge it. Um, or we get them to know later that they haven't showed up.
Whereas wise is very responsive. they meet with them multiple times a week. They're
used to the kids and they're moderate and high risk kind of kids that they're trained
for. So it's a really good, nice match. They don't always succeed there, but we're
trying to really collaborate with them. And um it's the closest we have to like a
multisystem training kind of MST kind of model. It's less than, but it's also close
to and they just hired a new family therapist. So we're super excited about that.
But um but the Marcus Farley, who's our family therapist that we contract with. So
the chic and Power or the chic team center as a new, yeah, and Jeff kind of had the
struggles and so we're really trying to, you know, connect with them as well. I encourage
you to reach out to Jeff. He's new to the community, but he's got a lot of experience
and is a really good asset for that program. I have a couple of people in our office
that are going to meet with him, like, great, perfect. Um So, and he needs a whiteboard
if anyone has an extra whiteboard. Ok. Um Yeah, so that's just gen generally what
we do and how we're doing it kind of just trying to, we seem to have turned the corner
on all the adjustments and, and now we're, I think we're getting in like performing
mode, you know, we had a little norm, kind of a little storming and that, like, I
feel like we're like, we're like, great. Ok, Kate, I, I just wanted to give you space.
I don't know if you have any questions or comments about the kind of operations we've
got an updated on. Yeah, thanks. Um Could we scroll down to um, the, um, keep going,
the, the full revenues and expenditures, spreadsheets?
Thank you. Um Yeah, it's interesting. I, I, for some reason I thought that your department
was, uh, got more reimbursement or support from the state. Um, but that is that
basically, uh yeah, it ends up being like 8, 900,000 that come. Um
And is that, is that really out of the all out of the general fund? Yeah. Uh So because
we're a small county, we actually um from our, I think it says the CJ A
A funding or the DC Y A. Yeah, that funding is our biggest amount and I think it's
like 100 and 20 or 100 and 30 then it goes down to 100 and 24 most. Our baseline
uh, amount is for a small county is really only like 50,000. But because we serve
programs, we get incentivized. Um, so we get bumped up to that, uh CJ S grant which
is like 100 and 20 or, you know, get run in there. Um, but because we, during COVID,
right, they go, our numbers go down. We can't serve as many And then, right, we drop.
So we have a little bit of a repercussion from that. So we, we're, we're a little
lower in there. Um, and then some of the funding, like we lost the consulting grant
and that's just something that was in and out like that was not even like the out,
we didn't use it all because it was actually the work I did on the state level to
make sure programs were done well. So the hours I had the hours went out and, uh,
they decided the state decided to go about it a different way. So they're not, they're,
they're, they're consulting and their quality insurance program is totally changed.
So that was just no fault. It just, we lost that, uh DC YF consulting money. So that's
why that's not showing up. We didn't use it all anyway because I was the only, that
was just, I couldn't do like that much time anyway. So, yeah, so, and then the Casa
beca all of that standard, um, a small county allotment and then the ev expansion
we actually apply for and not many small counties do. That's how we get our family,
uh, functional counseling, training, counseling therapy. So, yeah, it's, we're actually,
uh, get more from the state than most small counties. But you're right. I think we
get more. But no, yeah. Yeah, I just hadn't, hadn't realized that it was a, a small
portion, um, of your total budget. Um Can you mail tax key that I always put, put
in there too, which is for diversion that because our diversion and I, and I, this
is a great use of the general fund. By the way, I'm not being critical of it at all.
We don't put the sales tax that we get in there that just, we always put that to
the side and it's like 100 and 20,000. So, um that I it's never been put in there
as a revenue for some. I don't really, no, it just kind of put it on the side. I
put it in the because that's what bar boys used to do with it. And I call Mark every
year and, or she told me she reminded me to do that and then we put it in there.
So I think it's like, I think I put it, um I can't remember now where I put it, but
I put it in one of the forms. Um
No, it wasn't an ad I think it was in the,
so you actually get that money in your department though. I think so. I might not.
I, I believe it's a representation of it could be.
Um, it was an old 1% funds in the program. Well, I think it was an old sales tax
is what she was telling me from 2010. It was proposition one special purpose. As
in past years, positive, positive revenue reflected in the special purpose sales
tax as that repeats for 24 and 25 could be in the neighborhood of 100 and 2 to 100
and 5000 respectively. These are numbers representing the percentage identified to
support local juvenile justice justice programming. Specifically diversion. So we
fund our diversion program
one more question. Um I'm curious, um I know the, I think the last time I was at
least shown a kind of analysis of the, the value of Proctor House was before COVID,
you know, and knowing how expensive it is to hold kids and kits app, you know, that
was, there's a lot of benefit to Proctor House and it was, it was, you know, financially
beneficial. Um Given the changes in the justice system has his Proctor has been able
to shift to provide some other um other services if there are fewer kids coming in
through the doors there. And kind of how, how are you thinking about the Royal Proctor
House? Given the changes at the state. Thank you for even steering me that way. That's
a great segue because actually our numbers are increasing in detention as well. And
Proctor has been utilized quite a bit since January. Um And I'm sorry, I don't have
those numbers. Uh But I would say we, we've probably had uh a kid in there at least
every week um overall averaging. Um And the thing about the F house that I really
appreciate um with our county is that there's so many kids that have to be incarcerated,
the first contact with law enforcement just because of the family discourse and those
kids are saved uh standard detention protocols and they actually go to a house. Secondly,
our kids get to stay in the community and oftentimes we use it as a reset and how
to get them into a habit of going to their programs and going to school predominantly
the men, girls or marginalized communities that are in the Proctor House. Um We have
a lot of LGBT Q plus kids there and just in general because that population I think
is increasing. Uh We, it, it may be a financial commitment but if we think about
a kid and having a place of where they stay, I really appreciate the commitment.
I wouldn't want my kid to be up in detention unless standard detention, unless they
really were being unsafe and couldn't handle living in, you know, uh a structured
facility that provided them, you know all the treatment needs they needed. Um So
the cost is significant but it's also the cost not to do it. I feel like it's significant,
it is way higher and we're so good at running the house and making sure that the
right kids are in there or how we um do that and we are. And so the second part of
that question is I have gotten a little more creative because we have that open position.
So in Kelly part contract, I have now included some of the state funding programs
that we do. So we get paid for Iafft and Eet um and C Os. Well, I'm having her
hours go towards those programs now too. So that's part of her contract is doing
some of those, but we're utilizing that her time in that facility, lots of kids will
show up their after hours to do those programs because we're only open till five.
And she's also doing some navigation stuff for us. So I'm trying to bolster her um
time to not only be for that Proctor House, but also to be doing some of the programs
that we have that the state provides us money for. And that maybe the staff, my two
staff that do probation counseling services are a little time consumed to be able
to do so. It has allowed us not to hire that third position because I'm filtering
some of those duties and just making it part of her contract just to get um some
creativity around there and you know, and utilize her because she, she also has a
lot of experience um in those programs. So, um that's, is that answer that? Yeah,
that's great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And she's doing all our transport. So
we also would have to hire a transport officer. So when kids are picked up and they
have to go to kids at you center a lot of times law enforcement don't, that's why
I'm on pager because law enforcement can't go out and drive them. So if they're not
their home eligible, because safety list then that she also provides that transportation
and any transportation needed to and from court transportation to like we have a
child study treatment kit, transportation to like a specialized eval. So that's also
without increasing her contract, I've embedded those things in it. Um
So it's just using that position more fluidly, but now I'm finding her time is going
towards actual kids in custody a little bit more. Um I'm curious about
maybe just a little bit the big picture of how are the, the issues that we're facing
as a community? Like, I mean, out of COVID our housing crisis, how are all of these
issues showing up at your guys' door? All they're knocking very loudly right now
this morning as I'm sitting here. So I think the housing one would be the biggest
like we're having a lot of kids and that 16, 17 year old, 18, 1920 you know, or the
18 year olds, we have 18 year olds, um, just because they turn that without housing
or crisis in homes, like parent doesn't have housing. Uh, a lot is complicated around
that. Right now. It's hard. It's really, we're feeling families struggling with affordable
housing, like they're just having to move farther out, um, to find housing or not
have housing at all. And then that causes a huge, a h huge crunch on the whole tension
of a home and ability to function. That's the biggest thing that we notice. Do you
keep track of the those uh you know, like a spreadsheet of the causes of why someone
walks through the door? That, that's a really great thing to keep track of and I
will put it on my list to pull off the shelf when I get under from. I, I'm also like
at this point, our policies and procedures are really need to be revamped. I have
a list that's pretty along with just trying to help the influx of people that we
have in our office. So I do feel like there's a lot of great stuff that I would like
to do. We've, we've electronic, uh we made our case notes electronic. We've done
some really good stuff that we're crossing off, but there's some stuff to be done
and all that. That's a great idea or just even keep track of how many have become
housing unstable while they're with us. Which I would say is a lot. I'm just curious
about what the underlying causes are. You know, it's a financial, for sure. For sure.
You know, if you think about households, which makes the biggest stress in a household
and it's the same stuff that creates uh, the need that, you know, this reaction or
impulsivity that happens. Stress chaos. Well, and if they're all crammed into all
crammed in one bedroom house because that's all they can afford. It's like tensions
and there's just less than supervision because parents are trying to work several
jobs. I mean, it's, it's a complicated situation. I do feel like, uh uh uh you know,
I, I could probably make a lot of money if I could really pinpoint it, but I would
say the family structure and the stress within a family is a big, a big driver for
kids going away from the family and then their peers become more important and then
there's the decision making that causes them to come in or there's a lot of stress
and they're already intense. So then they're going to school in intense mindsets
and then they're getting it back some haves and have nots. Right. That's a niche
bowling. There's lots of stuff that goes on that brings it to our office. Thank you.
But we are excited that there's more direct housing for that age. Group. I have to
say that maybe I hear come through Bayside has been really good about taking a little
bit younger kids, like the 17 year olds. Very good.
Ok. Well, you know, not asking for a lot, you know, of course, we're not making any
decisions today, but I appreciate you digging into the program, programmatic side
of it as well as the, as the rationale behind your, your um I guess neutral budget
ask. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate your
time. You've been amazing. By the way, she's uh she's also helping us revamp our
budget a little bit. So it makes more sense. No, Judy's been all in our being a new
administrator, like there's not a lot of, you know, you just kind of get thrown in
it because it was an off budget year when I got in. So I didn't have to look at it.
I just personally thank you very much. You're welcome. You're very fortunate to be
great.
That's the thesis for this. Uh Yeah, meeting. All right, great. Well, thank you,
Sasha Shannon. Thanks for your time. Bye
bye guys. Thank you.
All right. Well, uh it looks like we have D CD ready to go, Josh Chelsea. Please
come on up. Good to see you guys this morning. Good morning, dive straight into it.
Yeah,
and uh well, you know, we often use this uh opportunity to dive, you know, behind
just the budget into the the rationale behind the budget and, and what's going on.
So you know, we'll we'll turn it over to you guys to. Oh, sorry, Mark. Well, I just
say this is Cher budget cycle. Yeah,
from all reports you're doing a fantastic job. So. Excellent. Ok. Yeah, thank you.
Good morning. Um Jock Peters new development director. It's also my first that's
done that a couple of movies. So yeah. All right. But Judy, of course, as I just
stated, it has been very helpful in getting us up to speed and all the information
that we need to present. And we did of course, review the past information to learn
our predecessors did. So I'll start with a few remarks and then turn it over to Chelsea
for some of the numbers. This mission statement has been around for a while. They
haven't changed it. So we're sort of thinking broadly improving development of preserving,
enhancing the quality of life in our county. We have a comprehensive plan which by
its very title is intended to be to encompass many things. I don't know about all
things. I mean, I put it that way but many things, um goals and objectives where
my eyesight is hurting me a little bit about. Um Do you want me to read it?
I know I, I can't calculate that. That helps. Very good that um so um higher retained
qualified, dedicated staff, as you know, this has been actually a challenge in the
past couple of years, I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again for the
benefit of those listening. Who might I, but since I joined or rejoined the county
last summer in June of 13 staff members have left out of 20 it doesn't mean we only
have seven left because of course we hired and some of the newer folks left as well.
They got headhunted by other organizations the way it works sometimes. Uh, but we're,
uh, we're fighting back. We've stolen a few, all they bring jurisdictions as well
because, you know, I guess that's how you have to play the game. So, um, so that's
good. And I think we're, we're, we're looking good. Now, as I mentioned earlier this
week, I think I was that we have four people starting and we have the, and, uh, we're
still looking to hire a couple more kind of depends on the budget really, but we're
looking to hire a couple more to round out and just, just be a t over 20 FDE, um,
looking forward. So, historically, I think the department was meaning the max was
something like 26 or something about back in the two thousands. So we're doing everything
we can to, to bring people on to retain people to sort of reorganize our, our policies
in terms of keeping people up to date with training and, and, and things like that.
So that's a, that's a pretty important goal because when we lose people, we lose
not only institutional knowledge but just the capacity to do the work I'm supposed
to do. And of course, that has big implications on the community and our, especially
our applicant community. And when we last met, I asked you when you lost your last
staff member and you said it was in, that was about two months ago. So you've done
two months with no losses so that stability, right? Yeah. And before that, we had
reached a level of stability, I would say, even before Ethan, it was a special case
because you got a, you know, an amazing opportunity or to us. But uh sometimes when
people leave, they recruit their. And I think that was what happened there and the
same VV
10 Well, um create operational policies and standard procedures to improve and streamline
processes. Of course, this is something that we're continually working on in the
spirit of continuous improvement. And um as we've talked about before in this chamber,
you know, we've hatched the plan several months ago and we're executing it and we're
moving along and it does take a while to get it working. So we have now five consultants
on board Three landing two building. And we're, we're bringing in these four new
individuals including a permit center coordinator and replacing our planning technician.
It's a very important role in terms of just processing and the permit intake tracking
permits and those kinds of things and communicating with the applicants, which is
another, um, something that takes a lot of time and effort in a sense. I mean, uh,
you can't blame people for wanting to know where they're permanent, but it also means
you need people to be able to, to um accommodate those requests essentially without
affecting the ability to actually do the. Uh, so the next one is to eliminate the
current application backlog. It's a big boulevards and um, obviously related to the
previous bullet we're working on that. I don't wanna be too optimistic, but I, I
would like to see us, you know, by the beginning of next year should be in a completely
different place. But it takes, I think Mark said more like, what about middle of
next year? So somewhere in between it's like somewhere that in the first half of
2024 we can just be a completely different place where we can actually start to.
Does it go back to normal? I guess. Uh I know that's an interesting way to look at
it because what is normal, the pandemic itself apparently had two record years in
a row for, for permits at the same time that most people are working from home and
everything had changed. Um Normal, maybe it was back in the, in the, in the, when
we had those 25 26 people and then the great recession hit. And um, I wasn't with
the department at that, that time when all the cuts happened. But I will tell you
that the psychological effect of that remains and I don't wanna be in our position
again, which is why I mentioned before that we wanna hire these two extra people
including another plan or maybe in the long range side. But I wanna make sure that
we're gonna be secure because I don't wanna see us in a position where a couple years
on the road, you know, things change or, or that, you know, some great no rise up
and then we have to let people go because, um, I tell you that it has been, it's
made an impact and you can still feel it. And certainly when you talk to people that
were there, I think, uh, we want to complete that transition to digital permitting
process. As you know, we've, we've moved to gov that has bells and whistles, we're
using some of them, but not all of them. That's another longer discussion. But we
want to, uh, you know, completely move into the digital world as much as possible.
There may be some money to tap into from the state level from Senate Bill 52 90.
But there's also some things that you have to accept if you accept that money in
terms of commitments to certain timelines by permit type, not just a general permit
timeline. And although I'm not afraid of accepting those kinds of uh, commitments
eventually. I'm a little bit fearful about it now. So that's why I like, I like to
get through this permit backlog. And then when we have a new normal, we can reset
and perhaps take on some of those commitments that come along with some dollars,
especially to, to complete the transition to full digital permitting. So the actual
effect of that bill isn't for a couple of years as I understand it. So we have some
time to think about it. We're not the only jurisdiction that's struggling with even
understanding how to implement it. It wasn't the bill that was written by the counties
that was written by advocates like the building community for that. So we're all
like, and I think we're all because I went to A L the county meeting with a lot of
other counties, some of the bigger ones and I was the smallest, representing the
smallest county in the group and everyone's scratching their head about how, how
to do that. Really. So we're relying on the Washington State Association of Counties
a little bit to help us figure out what we're supposed to do with that bill. Maybe
there'll be some changes to it to make it more understandable. I suppose if not implement
revised code, to address identified fixes and to implement regulatory reform further.
So I'm aware of the certainly aware of the 2019, I think it was uh regulatory reform.
Um action by the board. I think it's been, we've done some of those things in order
to make that happen and including some code changes, but there's more to be done
and, you know, we're continually looking for places in the code where we see things
that we could possibly do it more efficiently or faster essentially and to simplify
things. And so we've been doing that and certainly since we have a new development
code administrator, uh Great Ballard, we've been, we've been acting on those things,
but really, I think there's another package of fixes coming, there'll be some code
changes that are part of this 2023 comprehensive Plan amendment cycle. But then I
anticipate a package of development code amendments to be worked on and put forth
in the first half of 2024 as well to help, to help um further that cause.
And then, um and then finally, so we have a, a co compliance program. There's a new
title 19 as you know, or fairly new, I should say, um that deals specifically with
co compliance. We have, we had a co coordinator who left and then we replaced that
person with uh Nikki Akins and it's working out well. She collaborates with other
departments with the sheriff's office, with the prosecuting attorney's office. But
we really, we still need to focus on that program and just build it, build it up
to where it's supposed to be. And in the right in the, in the right priority order
in the sense of how we do things in our county. And then finally, we do have ideas
about the office of the fire marshal as well. Uh Bill C is both the building official
and the fire marshal um that just giving them that title in a sense and, and, and
putting out in the community has resulted in, in a lot of um extra communication
out. Standing Phil Al always talking to the fire chiefs some more that will participate
in that community, our protection planning process and all of that is is taking his
time and attention and we wanna build that office so we can implement some of the
things uh that are part of that plan that we anticipate coming our way. Um continue
collaborating, tap into some other funds possibly. But really, we wanna get that
commercial fire inspection program rolling so that we can uh you know, just go out
there and make sure that, you know, after you issue a building permit or landing
permit, we can still, you know, do the right checks but hopefully safety when it
involves commercial activities or short term rentals, for example, you need say part
of our job. So, so we'll probably be coming back to the board with some ideas about
that that affect the budget and this budget, we kept it very simple, but we do have
ideas about how to build that office up and it would require some level of investment,
that's it. But that slide
this one. yeah, this just shows where we're at with the, with the uh over chart at
the moment. Uh We may main groups and people around in terms of long range planning
and development review right now, long range planning is, is uh they long range plan
reports to me directly so we can keep the development road administrator focused
on current planning. But as you know, as duties change, we may move that around a
little bit. And um yeah, anyway, that's you've seen the chart before. Um that could
change subject to change schools as we get new talent in and, and figure out the
best ways to, to place them within the organization. But it's essentially you've
got your front of house permit center and all the other functions that, that Chelsea
does. Of course, in terms of human uh uh hr and uh accounts payable and public records
and those kinds of things, the administrative side, but also just the whole meet
and greet outfront, dealing with customers taking in permits, using the money. Of
course, the building official and, and sort of the building side of the house or
is right now, we have a building official, fire marshal and two inspectors. Um but
where we have a spot still for a plans examiner and we have a plan about that. But
essentially we wanna get a plans examiner position there so that they can concentrate
on his building official and commercial duties. But it actually won't mean the addition
addition of another staff person if, if all of us are going to plan. And as I said,
we have Nicky, um, just reported to me as co clients and then, um, the suite of planners
under Greg Ballard that we are about to add to um, this month too, at least. And
again, as I mentioned, we're still um considering another planner that would either
be in long range or development review or a combination or we could take our current
um talent that's in development review and start getting more long range planning
tasks, less things that we're preserving next slide.
And here I'm gonna turn her over to Chelsea since she's been instrumental in the
film hr uh movement we've been doing. Thank you. Hi, I'm Chelsea. I'm the uh administrative
services manager D CD. I've met you all uh and Carolyn, I'm so sorry. Can you make
that a little bigger? I can't uh
Oh, I'm driving. So this is just uh so showing that past slide was our organizational
chart for the first quarter of 2024. Uh and it has space for 21.2 FTEs. Uh We,
like Josh said, we have four staff coming on uh this month and here you've mentioned
there if we hired two more, we get that, we get 21.2 FTEs. Can I ask which I'm I
have, I'm looking at the order chart. What, what are those four vacancies that are
gonna be filled? So permit center coordinator is gonna be a 0.8 FTE. We have our
planning technician starting in two weeks. We have an associate planner
under grade and then we have our senior planner. Ok. Nice. Right. And then the, the
open, the open positions are that plans examiner. Um And then depending on what happens
with that position, we may need a uh another community development tech or permit
tech upfront. Great, thanks. Uh And then we, so currently um kind of on the long
range side, we have a Chief strategy Officer position um that is not anticipated
to go for the full 2024 year. Um But that, you know, it's a little up in the air
as far as that position goes. Uh as I mentioned, our permit center coordinator position
is now 0.8 FTE instead of one, which is a little savings to us. Oh, we just talked
about all the current assistant planner. So we have one current assistant planner
position that's term limited ends in May we have a planner position open in that
work chart and that may be what you were alluding to like. We don't know if we'll
hire someone else or possibly move that person into that full permanent position.
And then, oh, we, so we had a reorganization before I got here. I think I was part
of that reorganization. Um And we have the backlog as we stated. So we're, we're
just really trying to fill all those positions aggressively to, we have to get through
this backlog. Uh And then I looked through our past like org charts
and from what I could find, there was a bunch of them uh on average, you know, between
18, what do I have? 18.4 and 20.4 FTEs over the last few years. And then the next
slide just shows like the first quarter or charts that I found for. And they're very
small, you cannot see them, but it says there, you know, 19.4 FTE 20.4. And then
the new one, and then this most recent one at the beginning of 2023 was 20.4.
I can just jump at the one second. So, so when I said 21.2 if we consider that, you
know, Brent has stated that he wants to retire at some point, he's doing all kinds
of great work for us now. And, but at some point, he's expressed the interest in
retiring. So that's why we, when I said a tick over 20 I meant after Brent and we'd
be at 20.2. So and again, but we figure we're right in the right in the ball park,
we can talk more later about, you know, what is the right size for the department.
That's a whole other thing. Of course, we have some space issues as well. But, um,
our new senior planner who is currently a planning director for another county is
gonna be primarily teleworking. So we don't have to worry about finding her a desk.
She's also rejoining the county, by the way, I may have mentioned this, but her name
is Motion and glad she used to work for the county back in the arts when, when Greg
and I did Greg Ballard and I was always sort of getting the, getting the band back
together. She wants to do more of what she loves, which is planning and not directing
at apartment so far, which is what you love.
And then I think we're gonna be getting into some numbers here. Uh This was just
showing the, the salary requests, uh historic historical request and the current
one just showing we're not that far away from what we were in 2022 and 2023 especially
considering the the wage increases that just went through. Um, so you can see 2024
department request salaries and benefits are just slightly over the 2022 and 2023
uh request. And then it looks like in so 2025 the salaries and benefits should decrease
a little depending on that chief strategy officer position that term limited. Um
That's supposed to be 4 21 million. There's a missing digit there. Is the, the account
to the right. Yeah, it's just the comment in the wrong 1 million. 20. 0, yeah, I
see it. Ok, thanks.
Got it. Ok. One thing to consider commissioners is that, um, you know, the
department may be requiring more general fund support and depending on how heavily
the consultants are used and how, uh, how full up they are stabbing. W Oh, that's
in here too. Don't worry,
please. Yes, the next one. Uh and then I was just kind of going uh section by section.
So we have our administration here. These are just notable expenditures, obviously,
salaries and benefits carry uh the the most the most of our expenses in administration.
Um We have operating supplies, professional services which are are pretty minor.
We have some consultants that do the technical, technical work for us uh
of the it inter fund, our rent of our building and then training, training is a fairly
large bucket. We have so many new people that I want to prepare to be able to get
them signed up for training and the software subscriptions like Tyler and our Adobe
licenses and things like that. Mhm. Sure. Please interrupt me if you have any questions
at any time. Thank you. Uh This is our planning department. So this is our largest
area as you can see salaries and benefits again, the largest portion and then the
professional services is where we get into a little bit of the unknown. I haven't
received any invoices yet. I know they're doing work. I have uh you know, a report
from one of our planners that we have, one of our uh consultant groups are doing
about 10 of our site development reviews a week. We currently have a backlog. There's
about 100 and 10 in the queue, but if they can pop out 10 a week and we get our planning
team up. But uh it's a really big unknown for us. It makes me very uncomfortable
because I haven't received an invoice yet. Obviously, we know what their, their salary
schedules are and things like that, but we're waiting to see how that impacts. But
I do, obviously in 2025 we should be scaling way back on consultants when we're fully
staffed and we hopefully don't have this large backlog. Um and the rest is very the
in the it inter fund training and travel. Uh We have some memberships and dues and
dues that we have to pay for and then the notices like the legal notices and advertising
for that department. Mhm. I think this is building so over to the left. Sorry, it
doesn't all fit because I can't see very well. Uh building. Ok. Uh same thing, the
smaller as, as we talked about these are building inspectors, plans, examiner, things
like that. Um uh Another we do have professional services for this uh for some of
our fire code inspections and plans examiner to help fill out since he's wearing
three hats. Um, and I did speak with Phil and we're hoping as this office of the
fire marshal gets going, there will be permit fees that should be coming in to help
offset these costs. But for life safety inspections, hospitality permits, et cetera.
Um And then again, our it and a fund training and travel and then vehicles just because
our building inspectors, they have to get around,
ok,
our permit, the like the permit center. So these are the folks up front um much smaller.
They, they, they take in a lot of our money, but they're a small part of our budget.
This is mostly salaries and benefits and then the it
and then we're gonna, this is getting into revenue. Again, it's very difficult to
project where we're going to be because we've been understaffed. We have a backlog,
but essentially what I did is I took how many uh so this is historic, these are historic
numbers 21 22 just showing what was budgeted. And historically, we've exceeded that.
Now, I heard there was a big permanent boom in, in the COVID era. Um But even, you
know, 2022 we still were over budget and I think 2023 but 2023 were not quite which
is the next slide. So this is where I kind of got into projections. I looked at how
many permits we had issued so far, found an average uh figured what we could possibly
do in the next few months to come up with a projected total, which is a little under
budget, but I think that's just due to, we don't have enough people to process it,
which we're getting, which should help us in the future. Um And then also on the
previous slide, I did want to point out we, we've talked about this before. I'm sorry,
Mark, do you mind going back? Uh one of the revenue lines there is the general fund
transfers. So, and again, I don't know the history behind this, but I do see, you
know, in 2021 we had 852,000. In 2022 our general fund transfer was
835. I can't quite see
the is all hard to read. Um And then, so 2023 General Fund transfer, uh
it was budgeted at 450. So, I mean, we're, we're almost, you know, a little, almost
half, not quite half of what it was historically. So in our 2025 I'm asking uh we
did this reorganization, we're carrying a lot of kind of administrative positions
now that are paid mostly by the general fund. Um So you'll see 2024 has a much larger
general fund request which should kind of consistently go down over time as we get
more uh revenue. Talk about the increased revenue from building permits. How, how
you're, um, because that's higher than it's ever been. So, so we got close, we were
almost at 700,000 in 2022. Um, and I, and what had been happening is we had had a
bottleneck because we had SDR backlog and we were waiting, this is not the case right
now, but we were waiting to collect any building permit fees until the SDRS were
done. So we have this big bottleneck. We're, I think we're doing them concurrently
now. Uh And what I did is I just looked at, we were on track to do
uh 738 this year and I, and I was figuring, and it's all depends
on who's building and what's building. But with fully, being fully staffed and with
consultants, you know, 850 permit. So another 100 plus permit. Ok. The whole
depends. Uh But that's basically with my projection, I was like, we could do 738
permits this year, which would get us to that expected revenue in 2023. And there
we should be able to process more next year, especially, especially in the community
when we get rid of the backlog and they feel confident that they can come in and
get their stuff built. So is that, uh is the average building permit $1000 or
if I had my calculator, I could tell you it's my notebook, but Uh, so the average,
because we do so many permits, we have some that are fairly inexpensive. I took an
overall average, I believe it was around $700. We do some mechanical permits that
are much less expensive. And then we do huge building permits. And so we, as pleasant
Harbor is ramping up and so there could be substantial permit activity associated
with the, the. Was that? Yeah, I mean, I've been watching that project since I was
on the plane and I agree that right. But I mean, we're meeting, um, we're gonna kick
start that program. Yeah, a couple of quick comment just to add, um, we, it's easier
to predict land use permit fees because we have a fee schedule. But with building
permit fees, it's based on valuation. So like, like Chelsea said, it depends on what's
being built. And I was thinking yesterday about our presentation from Jeff Chapman
yesterday and his talk about home values and how, you know, Jefferson County compares
to other counties in western Washington and how we're ranking with King County in
home valuations, average home valuation. So, well, I think we're seeing generally
larger permit, probably permits for larger homes here than other neighboring jurisdictions.
So, I mean, and this makes sense to me, but I just, I in my mind trying to ground
truth, the assumptions and I would say what, what Jeff said yesterday kind of backs
this up in my mind with home valuations. And then I guess just a couple quick comments
about, about how things like permanent revenue affects our department. So, so
we're not completely an enterprise fund in the sense that we rely solely and strictly
on revenue in that way, but it does and we do significantly. And so it creates uh
it's good in the sense that it doesn't pull from the general fund the way that it
possibly could have. It's the other way around, however, it does create a little
bit of volatility. And so it's difficult to predict exactly how it's going, which
is why, you know, we just wanna plan for whatever might happen in the future. I don't
wanna say that Jake doesn't say to our word. But if things slow down for some reason,
whatever that is, you know, we need to be able to kind of think ahead and prepare
for that and just the worst case scenario, game plan. The other thing I would, I
would mention is that I, I also, as Chelsea mentioned, we, we don't be new to this
budget process and not having participated in it last year, not really sure what
went into the decision to essentially cut our general fund allocation in half. I
think it has something to do with budget policy and some other things that, you know,
probably totally made sense at the time. But I will say that when you look at our
budget documents and you see that our remaining balance and down towards the more
like the 303 150,000 level or something like that, traditionally, like right now
we're sitting more at like 750 or something in that neighborhood. Right. Which I
feel much more comfortable with because that would just allow us to not be so fearful
about weathering a storm if you will economically. So, but if we go down, if we actually,
if this, your plays out and we go down to that more like 33 50 level, we're just
playing with fewer chips, I guess. And so, um, that's why one of the reasons why
we're just asking this kind of go back to where it was and if that's possible and
also we may be coming back in the fourth quarter pending. Um, when we start getting
these, these invoices, we're trying to hit that permanent backlog and what with the
real implications about this fiscal year? And in the fourth quarter, we may come
back and say, you know, if we, if we just change 2023 back to what it was in 2022
we'd be sitting in a higher balance like we did in the last year, put that out there
as a possibility, but we'll talk obviously with Mark and Judy about that before and
I don't know Judy or Mark, do you know the rationale? Can you, can you give us a
little more of the historical context that we should all remember, but I don't, I
can do that. Ok, I'll just so we had a general fund financial assistance policy which
the board accepted this last year. And the purpose of that policy was that um the
transfers from the general fund had a tendency to just continue to increase at 1.5
3% and they were just continuing to go up and up and up without any evaluation. So
what the general fund fund financial assistance policy did is that there had to be
a support to the ask for the money from the general fund. Typically, the revenues
for D CD had been under budgeted. And so what happened is that during those years
of getting those larger amounts, the the revenues were quite, were significantly
higher and the fund balance was higher. So the need wasn't there, which was uh where
we met in the middle to reduce that general fund um ask. And so um the goal is with
the General Fund financial assistance policy and transfers from the general fund
is for it to be there when you need it, not necessarily just give it every year with
an increase. And so that's the mindset behind that. So that's the historical side
of things uh as to why that was reduced. And when we did that review, uh there were
a number of departments that were untouched WC Extension, uh Parks and rec uh their
transfers were made the same and continue to grow at the same rate because their
need is greater. Um But we did reduce public health also. Um And that was a result
of our analysis of their fund balance and how year after year continues to grow.
And so what that tells us is that a bunch of that general fund transfer money is
just the form of the fund balance and uh better to keep it in the general fund and
have it available. Um, when there's a treatment, I appreciate all that. I I an additional
thing to consider about the way P CD is set up is that it is completely
legal or it is my understanding of the way things work. And this is from discussions
with our consultant working on our fee study to take in permit fees and to pay for
the operation of doing permits with those fees. However, there are lots of things
that we do that either we shouldn't be or we can't really use those permit fees to
do. And that would be like a lot of a lot of general things in the office and, and
maybe most importantly, the long range planning side of things like complying with
growth management and doing all the things that I know that the board
is, there's another way to recover, maybe things on that if you get into the fight.
So, yeah, so there's a lot of things that we do and, and in particular long range
planning, all of that stuff that we talked about, um, with the planning commission,
the board, about the things that we'd like to accomplish, none of that can be paid
for by somebody's building per fee. So, um, that's just something to keep in mind.
Just an extra kind of additional wrinkle to just strictly looking at it from the,
but from a members perspective, I know that we, I think the commission last night
voted to, to do a letter that they, you know, they'd like to see their, their budget
not untouched or increased or what have you. We have to, if you want to get into
that, we have some other, some response to that. But I guess the general not though
that if we want to do significant long range planning and working on our comp plan
and our regs and that, that's a requires general funds or some fund, some somewhere
else besides. So, um, commissioners, I'm, I'm very sensitive to what Josh just, just
talked about. I'm not using building uh permit revenues or uh development application
revenues for um, uh general fund activities. Uh Down in Clark County, the Building
Industry Association actually sued the county and won a judgment of about a million
400,000. So the county had to refund all that. Um And that's why the board appropriated
30,000 maybe two or three years ago for a fee study to ensure that P CD was charging
the appropriate fees for all their permit activity. And sadly, that study has not
yet been completed. And, um, according to Brent, uh, it should be completed by year's
end. And so we can look at the results of that, compare it against our current c
schedule and then amend it, um, to comply with that study because that study would
then give us, um, a very strong defense in the event that somebody challenged the
fees that we were charging. Thanks and hopefully, uh, things won't go down.
Ok, go ahead. Yeah. Um I'm wondering, Chelsea and Josh, if you're um, proposed budgets
here include, um, you know, I think we can anticipate getting more requests for,
um, deferral of, of certain permitting fees for affordable housing projects. And
I know that's a big, uh, policy decision. Um, but is that something you have any,
have you built in any assumptions here for that? And, um, I don't know, I guess,
curious if you also expect that we might see some more of those requests and if,
and how and when we might want to handle those.
Yeah. Thank you for the question, Commissioner Dean. We did not build in any assumptions
into the budget for that. And I have to admit, I, I'm on a learning curve about exactly
how this works. My understanding is that it's only the board that could waive fees
for any particular applicant. Like we're not, of course, in the business I guess
that's about having someone come in and say this is a good project or we're a nonprofit
or whatever it is and we say, oh, great. Then you don't have to pay the fees. My
understanding is that's really a board action and I'm a little bit fuzzy on what
happens if someone comes to the board makes such a request, the board grants a request.
What does that mean for us? Does that mean that immediately some kind of general
fund for other transfer comes over to us and makes us whole or we just kind of eat
it if you will budgetarily speaking. And people thought so, I really don't know the
answer to that question for and be interested in talking about it more. If, if that's
something that we want to actually consider as part of the budget process, certainly
you do. It just don't know how to do that. Yeah. Well, that would certainly, uh increase
pressure on the fund and it might develop in an even greater transfer from the general
Fund. And, um, you know, if you, if you recall yesterday, when we were looking at
the ad request, we have a million in a requests and we also have to digest very large
pay increases for staff uh in the general fund. And, uh, you know, we had a fee waiver
program in Clark County and that no fees on anything. And it was disaster from a
financial point of view. So I would, um, I, I know affordable housing is a high priority
but I would just caution the board. Um, when you, when you debate that subject, I've
certainly heard questions about it. I think even Brent Butler brought it up in regards
to the chip application. Right. I mean, that's like a requirement. I wasn't, didn't
he talk about that as being a requirement for, um, qualifying for the Chip grant
program? Yeah. And uh Clallam County is really struggling with this right now. Um
Quim City Council is not wanting to do fee waivers and it does make some funding.
Um They're not eligible for certain funding if they don't do it. So I think it's
gonna come knocking on our doorstep and we probably should be prepared to take it
up. Um You know, I think, I, I don't know the city's current policy but for a number
of years, they, they put aside, I think $30,000 of general fund dollars and it was
kind of first come first serve, but if there was a um affordable housing project
that met the longevity criteria, you know, guaranteed affordability for many years,
which most state uh funding agencies require anyway, um that um nonprofits were then
eligible for that fee waiver. So, um, you know, I think there are ways that we can
contain it but obviously would take, uh you know, a lot of uh forethought. Um you
know, long term projection about increases in that value and the impact of building
materials and that sort of thing, uh, would factor into that decision. I would think.
Um, I remind the board too that you weigh champions. So they're already, um, eating
some, uh, revenue that they used to collect all those small amounts. Yeah, if they
actually do the permit process, they still end up paying those camp fees because
they were deferred from those initially as well. But, uh, Kate, do you know if the
city counts? I mean, do you know how I, I think the city still does that have a program
about waiving affordable housing fees and development fees is that, were, were, were
they petitioning, were applicants petitioning the city council? Do you know the process
at all that they went through? I guess? I don't know, we need to do some research
and I don't know if it has, um, changed in any way. This was like 10 plus years ago
and habitat was largely the, the beneficiary of that. But, you know, we just have
a lot more, a lot more players in that space now and I, knowing what a priority it
is, um, I think it's something we would want to consider, um, setting up a, you know,
doing a resolution and setting up a process for. But I totally hear you, Mark, I
know there's gonna be a lot of tough decisions to make if you look at housing fund
board dollars too 15 $90 would be a good bucket to say, hey, let's take, you know,
a certain set out of here for that kind of. Ok. Yeah. Ok. Who you
thought, uh, please continue? Chelsea, that's basically we're just going through
the whole projected revenues. We do have a grant that we have applied for for the
Comprehensive Plan two years, um, 100 and $75,000 each year, which would help on
the long range side. Um, ok, I think that, let me see. Yeah, that, that grant and
that's essentially a guarantee the board approved the court letter. This past Monday
commerce has allocated money to jurisdictions based on several factors and we were
allocated 350,000. We do have to be careful about 100 and 75 in each state fiscal
year. So that's gonna be interesting. That's why we can't front load the whole process
too much. I don't think there's too much danger of that with us, but we also can't
just wait till, you know, we get to the end of that 2025 periodic update requirement
by June 30th of 2025 to do it all in, in that, in that year. So we have, we have
put, you know, Joel did a lot of work on that and, but then I think the board saw
the package that we put towards ecommerce there being very flexible about it, which
is nice, not so much between them. You know, you need to do 100 and 75 each fiscal
year, but flexible with how you get there. And we're also going to be looking at
additional funds to possibly if we could acquire other grant funding for a specific
topic area. An example will be climate, we need to look into whether we can do a
climate um application by the end of this month or not. For example, if we were to
get money to do that, then we could, we could focus on that project and just not
uh make sure we don't overlap and double bill if you will, but we could then move
money around within that 350,000 for the update um to supplant essentially or to
um in lieu of uh because we got this additional money to, I think I should say something.
So we're looking at that just there's no guarantees that we'll be chasing other grant
money, but we're going to try to and of course, if we had more staff in the long
range side, that would it sort of uh would help us get, get consistent funds over
time to keep those folks working. So that for example, the planet money is not based
on the states by any of my understanding is that we can go up to 2029. So we're trying
to think ahead of you a little bit about implementation after we do the update. What
could we then what can we envision now that would require funds to do some of those
things that we talk about in the continent. So some something else good for that.
I was like also with the recompete grant that were uh part of a coalition applying
for the the final amount that we end up are asking for. With our grant application
today is $60,000 in the phase one, which would give us 18 months to spend
$60,000 of planning dollars to help develop that area. That, that idea. Um And
also, and tell me if this sounds unreasonable, um talking about uh matching that
with our own long range planning dollars. And I think even the, you know, college,
uh commerce grant would probably qualify for that match. But, um, please tell me
if it's unreasonable to say that that total planning would be uh 100 and $25,000
which is what I um s
I guess my first thought on that would be maybe, but I don't know, only in the sense
that the commerce money is specifically tied to requirements for the 2025 period
update. So it would only be about it. It would be about whether we could characterize
that effort as fulfilling requirements as part of that update or whether that's really
something that we're doing on our own recognizance essentially to, for, for very
good reasons. In which case, maybe I would suggest finding another source for that
match. Yeah, in the spirit of trying crystal balling stuff, it also feels
like the Fort Hadlock urban growth phase one urban growth area is gonna create
an increased demand on your guys'. Work from your department just for um, not
only the Cedar Avenue project, but I mean, I've heard that there are land developers
speculatively purchasing lots within that phase one boundary and we'll probably be
applying for permits and 24 25 you know, anticipating sewer and construction in
25 26 27. You know, so I just, I think that there's another surge there. We don't
know how big it will be, but it isn't that fun not knowing,
but we can anticipate some percentage of us, you know, increase coming from the port
had black phase one's sewer boundary. That's why having those films on contract is
a great thing because it can flex us. If we don't have the work, we don't send it
if we do have the work we do so far. What's kind of the distribution between permit
work and, and long range planning? That's, I guess it's all been permit work. Really?
That's gone to the consultant so far. Yeah, so far it's been all development review.
The one firm S CJ Alliance has been working almost exclusively on the Pleasant Harbor
Master Plan Resort. We've had they on site meetings, we had a pre application conference
last week. Follow up work with that. There's been other staff time involved, but
really a lot of the, the bulk of the work is going to the consult the contract planner
for the staffing and even in the depth developer. So we've also though I did ask
S DJ to find us a geotechnical to, to find this geotechnical expertise, we have one
situation where we need a neutral third party review of a geotechnical report about
a, a home that's been red tagged because of its proximity to a failing bluff. So
in that case, we're actually taking advantage of uh their connections and, and working
through that contract. So it's offered us flexibility which has been very useful,
the other firm, the Atwell, who they've been focusing on development review as well
and most of these SDRS um under uh George's leadership, George Terry RSDR lead. So,
and then cross sound consulting. I just had a meeting this week with um Carla about
that. It's a sole proprietorship. But um I pictured Carla helping us with long range
planning and we talked about her playing a role in keeping us keeping us on track
for this 2025 periodic update grant, which is a big need of ours just to make sure
all the pieces are being assembled correctly if you will, because there are a lot
of moving parts of that in that grant. So can you talk a little bit about especially
in that context with the plan update come and the, the planning commission, we all
got a note from the planning commission asking, you know, uh, to, I think the budgets
25 K and they're, you know, they want more, you know, they want more support and
I, and I, it seems reasonable and that they're going to have a lot on their plates
both with the S MP hearings as well as the comp plan update. What's your, I guess,
what's your, what are your thoughts about their, their, their desires and, and, and
uh the budget that you guys are proposing? Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you,
Commissioner Brotherton. Um I guess my first response is that
support the concept really of the planning commissions telling the board, hey, we've
got a lot of work to do and we would like more support or full support from, from
D CD, which would of course require more resources to put towards that um towards
that effort. Um I would say that a couple of things to think about is we have provided
as much as I think we could have this year. In terms. We have Joel George, Alex Deaton,
Auburn, all and any and even sometimes working with the clinic commission. So um
from our standpoint, from a budget perspective, we don't really see the same, we're
not looking at it the same way that they are. I think um the basic expenses of the
planning commission, I think as Chelsea um pointed out to me, we're rolling at 33%
of the expected expenditures, but with the 2023 piece plan, efficient budget that
includes the Stipend program. So we were thinking well, under this kind of what Judy
was saying, instead of asking for more than you think you're gonna need for those
specific types of expenses. We, we pared it down um to, to back to what historically
we, I think we asked for with respect to those strictly those planning commission
expenses. Now, how you account for staff kind in relation to the planning commission?
That's where it gets a little fuzzy. I know that, you know, Joel was the lead planner
to the planning commission, you know, counts hours on his time sheet that he specifically
put to the planning commission, like going to meetings or preparing the agenda, like
very specific things. But if you're talking about the sort of the breath of comprehensive
planning, that's where it gets like, well, I mean, what's an hour spent on a planning
commission thing versus just a long range planning or competence plan thing? So I
think we tend to think of it more of the latter like we, we do a lot of work that's
related to long range planning that isn't strictly related to the planning commission.
So I think our preference actually, would we have we have that money to be more of
a, of a general fund allocation for long range planning. And then we, we figure out
how to use those, those resources. I think the playing commission was thinking of
more like if they cut our budget, that means we're gonna have less that, that time.
And we don't, we're not, we don't really look at it that way because I think we'd
have more flexibility if it were in the general, you know, if it was our allocation
for language planning. But really if it doesn't matter, it, it doesn't matter as
long as, as long as we can, we won't be sort of tied down to specific ways of using
that time if it's in the money commission budget versus not, if, if that's the case
or it won't be, you know, um subject to losing that fund in the next year if we don't
spend it, that's really what I'm thinking it all. We don't account for it appropriately.
If we don't basically on our time sheets, but more hours strictly on the planning
commission line, then we're gonna lose the money next year. And that's, that's why
to me that I don't really want, I'd rather prepare to get into that game and rather
have it be long planning. It has this much money. The planning commission budget
is really more about the hard activities of the plan. Now, they did talk about funding
like a retreat, funding. Some, some meetings of are in different parts of the county.
Uh Kind of like the board did this summer going out to other, we're going to go tomorrow,
go out to the west end. They talked about having another meeting in the west end
or some meetings in the South county, um, and district one as well because really
all the meetings happened in district two right there in the center. But you, so,
I guess if that, if that's part of it, that sure, that makes total sense, I guess
the out of it, I'm, I'm not quite, not sure, I'm not quite sure about. And plus we
can always, if we need more money can always come back and get a quarter. I just
for a little context. Uh The Planning Commission in all of 2022 spent $14,106. Is
that all stipends? No, 69 64 of them was stipend was a little on the benefit side.
So maybe 7500, no 8, 8500 was related to payments to the uh planning
commission members and um any other 6001 staff time? Oh, wait, no, wait a minute.
Excuse me? No, stipend was um 4900 and then staff time was about 85.
So is there, is there a budget for the planning Commission? Is there like, yeah,
25 K, it's like, ok, I thought it was,
it was, it was 42 5 78 and I think 2023. But I think in 2022 they only spent 14.
Ok. So 25 works adequate. Yeah, and that that's that would be for staff time specifically
dedicated to planning commission, 12 hours of staff time per meeting, which is quite
a bit to prepare for the meeting, go to the meeting, the other, the other work like
comp comp plan work, we have grant funding for, we have our our other budget. So
the actual long range planning as Josh was saying, is kind of covered by other things,
but six hours per, there's usually two employees that work on planning commission
meetings, six hours per person per the meeting is I and I worked with the staff and
they were like, oh, that's, that's plenty. Um So that's what we in the uh salaries
and benefits. That would be six hours per employee per meeting, usually two employees
working on each one. So again, it's just how you account for those hours. We we have
to put more hours into our time sheets if we're gonna need that, but then it becomes
a little fuzzier. Like, are you, what's the planned commission activity versus not?
I will say that planned commission has a uh a public outreach subcomittee and they're
interested in doing not just these full planning mission meetings in different parts
of the county, but actually doing more subcomittee meetings of the three district
planning commissioners. It would be a sub committee of the full body and then would
you be doing more outreach. So maybe there's some room there to have some funding
to do those things. Like if we might be, we needed to pay a rental fee for a facility,
for example, or some travel expenses, which we do have, you know, a couple $100 budgeted
for. Uh and we just basically haven't touched it for 2023 and there is there a travel
in here. Do we pay them for mileage? No, no. And I think that I'm assuming that that's
included with the stipend that they get for each meeting. Uh I could be wrongly catering,
but that's what I, I see a Kate's hand. Correct, Kate. Yeah, I mean, I think the,
what I've been hearing for years is that, um, the Planning Commission wants more
time from staff, um, that they feel that staff doesn't have enough time to adequately,
um, you know, uh get minutes posted on the website and, you know, there's just these,
these kind of ongoing challenges of getting information out to the public, to the
Planning Commission in a timely manner and they sense that that's a, a capacity of
the department issue. So, you know, I think, uh I think probably seeing that
reduction in, in staff time is challenging for them because they don't feel like
they've gotten what they need to be productive and it's very hard for us to weigh
in on that. You know, we, we hear one side of it. But um I just want to acknowledge
that. I think that's, that's where the, the rub is
and uh that may come from us historically being understaffed. You know, we do have
dedicated staff for that, but when they're wearing multiple hats, uh I, I believe
it can be difficult. Yeah, I, I agree and not gonna, not gonna dispute that thought
that it's been challenging for us to keep up with the work period and the Planning
Commission is part of that work. So this was also been um I would say, um an especially
challenging year. So with all that said, but that's it, you know, the, the, the um
criticism is legitimate in the sense that, you know, there has been times where we
haven't been able to do everything that we've been asked to do. And even last I've
been eating, there were some thought about asking us to do more in terms of h outreach
and, and we haven't fully completed that conversation. I was going to go back and
put some of it back on the commissioners themselves by saying, yeah, you have an
outreach committee. You're welcome to do those things. If we give you some information,
send it out, you know, instead of like relying on us to send it up because then if
we drop that ball. Um so, but they, I mean, if, if you were a policy idea on the
other extreme, I suppose, but I was talking more about, we have this long range planning
budget and we have to work within that. But if, if you, if you thought of it differently
and, and maybe similarly to the way that some of the planning commission commissioners
are thinking about it, if we had a, created a position and funded it, this is a planning
commission planner and, and that's what that person does and we funded that position.
It was in the planning commission plan, you know, then I would hire somebody or move
someone into that position and leave that person alone that in the sense of you're
the planning commission person. We used to have a planning mission clerk. Um, a part
time person, I used to sit next to her um Cheryl and she would do shorthand notes,
which I thought was, wow, because it just looked at a bunch of student and she had
tape recorder going and all that. And eventually we, we moved to the digital thing.
It's been a challenge, you know, um, we had some people that were dedicated to, we
put out an advertisement for a very part time clerk, hire to do plant fish and we
got a couple nibbles but nothing really big. So it's always been one of the planners
assigned to it that used to be the planning tech and, but then that person, so it
was really doing more permits. So it wasn't really a good fit. Um George Terry bus,
his garden has stepped up essentially, even though he's doing all this other stuff,
he, he started going to blank mission meetings without being asked to just sit in
the audience wasn't getting paid for it. Why, why, why you just be the blank mission?
They actually gave him kudos last night for the minutes. Best minutes we've ever
had. So, um, you know, so I've been trying to piecemeal and trying to get that service
essentially to the bank mission dedicated. And we, and so we even have Alex Henley,
who's a part timer with us and he, he's been, he's kind of tech whiz compared to
the rest of us. So he was there running the meeting making sure that nothing goes
wrong and we got totally zoom off, by the way. I don't know if the al told you about
that. Horrible. I've been zoom. He took care of it. He actually already got that
ban from Zoom that, you know, in the middle of the meeting in real time anyway. You
know, having, I guess I'm not really sure where to go with this, but I'm just saying
that that's what the board wants to do. Then, then we can talk about how to make
that happen. And having a planning commission staff person, is there an answer to
that? And, and sort of protected time in that way, wouldn't be pulled on to the many
other things that we're called to do. Do, do we see with the periodic update, an
increased need for planning commission input activity convening.
Are we, are we planning for that? I think the short answer is yes, I don't think
we've talked yet with the Planning Commission about actually increasing the number
of regularly scheduled meetings. We have two regular meetings a month that are two
hours in length, at least usually and that require a time. So it's really more of
a question of how much are we asking of our volunteers. And I know, you know, this,
which R I say, like the main resource committee or any other thing, like we can ask
a good amount, but then we might be asking too much. Sometimes we ask our planning
commissioners to have multiple meetings in a row. I've heard stories about them staying
till midnight this and that. Um I don't think we're building that into the schedule.
I think we'd rather build in like a, just a normal schedule for it. But I think these
are the types of things we can talk about at our, um, joint planning commission,
border county commissioners meeting tentatively scheduled for January 20th, a Saturday.
Uh We talked about that last night at the Planning Commission and, you know, everyone
had different ideas. Saturdays are bad. Saturdays are good, but I think that they,
they are essentially looking to commit to a time and just hopefully that most of
the members can, can, uh, can attend. I know I've talked to each commissioner about
that idea. So, part of the sub, the subject of that meeting is gonna be, how do we
want to do this? You know, how do we wanna scope this? What are the topic areas that
we really want to concentrate on the update? And it could be about how do we wanna,
how much time do we wanna dedicate? Is it more than two meetings a month of like?
Yeah,
I mean, I think what you're hearing is support for the Planning Commission. And I
think they've gotten, historically, they have gotten a short shrift, I think in some
ways. So, you know, whether the, the budget, what do you have capacity to support
the planning commission and the way that they expect is a question that I don't think
we're trying to answer for you but that we're, we're hearing and we've heard before
and, and we care about, I think, um, I don't know, I'm putting, putting words in
my, my, uh, seatmate's mouth but, uh, when I was on a planning commission that did
have those midnight meetings. So it's true. It does happen. Well, yeah, I think it
was, there was some midnight meetings. Yeah, I'm also curious about CAMS. I didn't
mention them really. But, uh, um, how has the free cams working? I've been, I've,
I've heard mixed reports certainly that, that people often use it as a, a speculative,
uh, um, thing, you know, that some people can make, you know, you can get a lot of
CAMS that would never have turned into permits because they end up being basically
an FA Q instead of a, a CAM. And I guess I'm, I'm wondering about, about your guys'
thoughts about that policy as we move forward.
What I would recommend on that is to schedule time, whether it's you individually
meeting with the development services uh administrator or, or um or scheduling time
in a workshop session with the board to talk more about that because I really want
Greg to weigh in on this since Greg's come on board. And as a bell and code administrator
has been taking on all the permit decisions, I've stepped aside from that as much
as I can to focus on other things. And so I think he's got his finger on the pulse
more about how CAMS are going. I know that when we were down in our kind of staff
n this year, it was really challenging to, to do that and we cut the time back and
then he basically came up, I think with another working policy until we can get back
up to speed. I know he makes himself available often for people to drop in. Um I
think for his style that's been working better, but I'd really rather have a, a more
of a complete discussion that involved him rather than kind of off the cuff for lunch
about how it's going. OK. OK. Can I, as long as I'm leaving the budget behind, how
about some uh um inner gov uh uh like, do we have,
do you have enough resources with the addition of Scott on, on, on, you know, half
time? I mean, what's, when can we II I get a lot of, you know, frustration from the
uh the end users about the lack of transparency and permits, you know, and some of
the uh the promised teachers and I know that it's uh at least as frustrating for
staff on the other side too. I mean, is it, is it a useful tool or still one that
you have to work around more than use? I can partially answer that. I've been asking
the same question since we can't talk to each other, since we can talk to each other.
Right now, I can say that I've been asking the same questions that you're asking
and Mark has um invited me to a meeting with our inter gov consultant on Friday morning
and we will get a full report and I can report on Monday what I learned at that meeting.
But I think that's where we're going to get the most information about the questions
that we have. Um but, and, you know, we have not been Chintzy with
support Scott Carpenter and I, I've been at meetings with Sherry and the, and the
group as they, you know, basically take inter gov back to a piece of paper and say,
what do we need this to do? Well, in part of tomorrow, it's gonna be, we need this,
we need this, we need this specific needs that we can decide to resource. Yeah. Thank
you both for, for answering that part of it because I was about to say that I think
that there's gonna be an update on Friday and we'll know more. It's I think, I think
a short, a short answer to your question is in the terms of how's it been going or
is it, is it working? Is that I think the jury is still out. It's funny because usually
when people say things like, well, I'm not an attorney but then they give the book
sounds like legal advice. So I'm gonna say I'm not a database ain because there's
a lot of things about a God that I just, you know, there's just like, it's like a
mystery to me. It's all Greek in a sense. Um And I think that has been part of the
issue is that for a while, a lot of staff have been building up those types of that
knowledge base and those skills to deal with some kind of software transition like
this. But those people aren't with, right? So that the left that left the rest of
us who have other knowledge and skills that were, that really is part of the job
description. And so being a database person or you know, software expert is not really
one of those things and I think we've been asked over time anyway to be those things.
Now, we have, as Mark mentioned some additional resources that has been working out
great and it's just a matter of time. That's what, you know, I'm crossing my fingers
on that. The other thing I want to say is just that permit center coordinator that's
starting on Monday with us. Um Aaron Martin, um she's gonna be by job description,
our enter gov point person. So that's been another trouble for us in a sense, like
just revolving doors, you step in and out. Um Different duties, people called away.
And I think that's been frustrating even for, for, for other folks that we're working
with in other departments because uh there's been a lack of consistency, I would
say, you know, over, over the last few years from D CD to try to, you know, be fully
in tune with this program and get everybody up to speed. So a combination of sharing,
developing the processes and the instruction manual essentially for how to use the
tool. It would be easier for not only for existing staff but bringing new staff on.
Plus we're gonna have a point person who's gonna be, who's part of her job will be
to really pay attention to that and be plugged into all those conversations that
are happening between it and health and Scott and Sherry. And so forth. Um, I think
it's gonna be real useful for us and Aaron does come with us with AAA skill set that
includes, um, more expertise, I guess in, in software and how it really works. I
have to be honest. A lot of it is just the, the, the stuff, the problems as a, as
a, one of the commissioners said last night, Cynthia who's an expert in these things
that something always goes wrong. Apparently with these big software transitions,
I think it happened with you. Right. But you just have, you don't know what it's
gonna be though until it happens. And now we're figuring that out and, and there's
a lot of like kind of grunt work that goes with fixing a lot of file naming and all
this other kind of stuff. And it really ties in with the way the county handles records,
the laser fee system, all of that is all tied together. It's way more complex than
I have time to even try to understand. I just know that it's a problem because I
hear about it all the time. And then in terms of us getting up to speed, I know the
big things are, we're almost, there is my understanding almost as relative, but we're
getting a lot closer to being able to turn on those bells and whistles that give
people the public access to, to, to the information that's on there. Whether a subscriber
you sign up or whether it's just you're able to find things. And uh we're also, you
know, getting closer to having full functionality for landing permitting. We're still,
we're much closer on the building side. We have a big need. Apparently someone who,
someone who needs to know, understand this arcade program called Crystal Reports
and how to turn word documents into reports so they can be useful through a tool
of permitting software. And we just, there's been one person part time and I guess
the, the fact is that we don't, we have yet to been able to, to feature any of the
things that we know to inspect in a permanent software, like doing a notice of application
or even a permit on the land side that's been frustrating. It's been a long time
now. So, and I know it's not anybody's fault or whatever and, and we may need to
find someone else who has this expertise in some hurricane software language. So,
I mean, I know I'm going into the weeds here, but I'm just telling you these are
the types of things that are stopping us from turning on all of those. I mean, I
worked with the Crystal Reports experts uh 25 years ago.
I have no idea. Still alive. All right. Well, thank you for indulging me any o other
questions for, for Chelsea or Josh. No, I just want to have ad cd budget meeting
every month so we can ask all our questions totally. I mean, the idea of meeting
once a month is, is just fine. Maybe we'll do topic by topic.
We're, we're very invested in, in, in giving you guys the tools that you need to
succeed. And we know, you know, we've, we've definitely heard from the public, I've
heard from the public. I just speak to myself, you know, about some of the challenges
that you, you know, very upfront with and, and are I know still dealing with and
make the job more difficult, a difficult job, more difficult. So I appreciate you
guys uh efforts and moving through this and good job. Is this really your first budget?
I don't believe it. One more factor that I mean on that, on that note is um and some
of these SDR numbers that we're, that we're going over since Greg Ballard arrived
as a development code administrator, we've issued between 60 70 building permits
that were kind of stacked up and waiting to go. So that's, that's good news. I think
we were almost caught up on the building. So the building permit backlog that was
associated with the current review with psychedelic reviews. So now we just gotta
tackle that c review back and just get back to reset the normal. Excellent. It'd
be interesting to know how many cams, you know, there was uh there was a table at
maybe before I got here, started in 2019, maybe at the number of CAMS that we did
every year would be interesting to see how making them making no cost associated
with them has increased, decreased or kept them static. Yeah, that would be good
too. I think that the data would be better probably through last year than this year
just because how unique this year was. And, and like I said, that kind of a change
in the policy. Um Plus the S pr program, a lot of the questions that people would
ask in C A are better answered and more specifically answered through doing a site
development review, went up in front of each property, right? The CS are meant more
for general inquiries and they were not really being used that way. It was more like
a, like an SDR light if you will. I know that I know that you're really interested
commission Brotherton in using other advanced tools like artificial intelligence
to try to answer questions that something we can explore. I will say that one thing
I I'm pretty darn sure about Mr Eisenhower is that the number of cancellations was
higher after they were great and it was before. Oh, interesting. So, I mean, I think
that the ferry system has the same thing, right? If you don't have to pay for it,
that's why they changed it. You have to actually pay up front here. Um Anyway, $5
C Yeah.
Yeah. Ok, great. Last questions. No. All right. Well, thank you guys. So much. Yeah,
I really appreciate seeing you. Good job
lots online for public work. All right. Do you wanna just jump right into it or do
you need a, a quick little break? I, I need it. I just run. Well, we'll just, let's
take a five minute break. We'll recess until 10 45.
The old brownfield that's supposed to come over. Eric said, or he's not coming over
yet.
Hello? Thanks for waiting. We got the, the public works crew with us. I will, you
know, skate back with us yet where they will call us back into session at 10 47.
Back up at the restrooms here. Not, not literally. Uh well, not literally. All right.
Um Great. So we have uh yeah, with Monty, Monty is out. So I don't know, Eric. Are
you gonna tee up the the budget conversations for the expansive public works team?
I am. Thank you. Um And then Carolyn will be bringing up. Do I have to do something
to bring up the powerpoint on this side or you just have to share, share your screen
little green button at the bottom of the zoom screen? I'm sorry. Yeah, if you can
manage it, Eric, then you can just, you know, move through it at your own pace. So
I think it'd be easiest if you have it at your fingers. Great. Um So for someone
has it open at the moment. So let's see. I'll do a quick save as so that I can make
it fully functional. Sorry for the hiccup. No problem. Don't worry, you have all
the time in the world. Eric. Yeah, we can welcome Al and, and Sam and Matt and I
think uh we're hoping Dale to come over to Dale have to accept a promotion to, to
join us.
Yeah,
great. Thanks for being with us, everyone.
Ok. And a lot of post it sound on the wall behind you. All right, we've heard about
this before. I think this wall.
There we go. Oh, and it was there for a moment. Oh,
greetings day. I'm still a little, a little chat about you helping Kate with the
uh the Excavator battle. But uh it's good to see you all the all, but nonetheless,
there you go and then you can put it into presentation mode. There you go. Perfect.
All right. Take it away, Eric. Ok. And let's see if I've got these controls down.
There we go. Ok. So thank you for having us. It's always fun to review all this stuff.
I know I've taken up your time on the engineering side, but I'm gonna take a whack
at, at presenting the whole public works, uh
team's budgets. So, um overview. We have five divisions as you know, road
maintenance, engineering, parks and rec solid waste and sewer. But really we have
six just to be fair. We have our accounting division that uh none of these these
uh these, these groups would function without and there was five people uh keep us
uh keep us on track and, and are responsible for pulling all these numbers together.
So just gotta give them some credit too. Um Public works overview, I'll jump in
here. This is the format. It's right out of your budget book. You'll see highlighted
in yellow expenditures, revenues and then on the expenditure side on in the orange
box to the right, you'll see the 24 and 25 numbers. So the takeaway is 24. You see
45 million, 25 29 million revenues down below 43 million. 44 roughly and
27. Not a new story to you. Uh, expenditures are outpacing revenues. We're dipping
into the fund balance to keep the, the, the, the, the train on the tracks. But uh
it's something we're, we're watching closely and have to continue to manage. So,
um next sheet uh shows just those expenditures from the previous slide. It breaks
it down by, by category. Biggest number is capital outlay.
Uh The second would be salaries and benefits. Yep. There it is. So again, probably
nothing new to you. Hey, Eric, can I ask if you go into, we're seeing your slides
on the side. Some of these numbers are a little small if you go into presentation
mode. I think I'm sorry. Iii I thought I was so it's cool that a single screen button
down at the bottom, bottom, right, just by the slider just to the left of the slider.
I think we'll do it there. Is that, let's see, I think you have notes on the side.
I think I've got the raw. I think I've got my screens reversed.
Sorry about that.
It's always hard to change it once you're in share screen, if you, you
just want to see the great slides. There we go. There you go. Is that correct? Don't,
don't touch anything. Yeah. Ok. All right. Other screen. Ok. Back on track.
Yeah, we're at the overview right now. But yes. Ok. So here's staffing. Um, you'll
see that the 66 A of 6.5 that's uh three, a lot of that's just shifting around within
parks and um roads. It is a small number is, is the shifting part. The, the bigger
numbers are the added three people for sewer kind of building up that team and then
solid waste that 1.82. But keep in mind that that number, you guys are tracking solid
waste, I believe and, and our staffing issues out there, we're adding folks, but
we, we can't maintain the folks we have. So it doesn't really mean that we're, you
know, increasing staff by that much. We're just trying to maintain status quo. So.
Ok, so there's a, there's a two minute overview of uh public works. So we're gonna
jump in by division now and then I'll I'll do engineering and road maintenance. Dale,
I'm not sure if Dale is with us, but um it sounds like he is.
Uh he can, he can jump in wherever and, and, and if you know, help out on the road
maintenance side, if, if need be. So engineering, we did the T IP briefing recently
and the pre briefing you guys are familiar with these numbers. Um Again, you see
expenditures revenues 24 request, 25 request that 10 million, 8 86 number is pretty
big for us. We've got a lot of projects, you know, teed up for next year, not sure
whether they're all gonna make it to the finish line just to mix my metaphors. Um
You know, we're waiting on, on permitting and, and right of way, but you know, the,
the, the the big takeaway from this is, is, you know, 10, 8 86 a lot of work staffing
issues, but we're doing that with $283,000 of local funds. Um So
2.6% I think that's a pretty good return on our investment. Um Just uh putting a
plug in for our engineering team.
Eric, do you mind? Do you mind just uh high level what, what's included in the projects
that $10 million? Sure. And, and I can direct you. Uh uh I will do that and in your
budget book, if you have that, I don't have a slide probably the easiest place to
see that is the annual construction program. Ok, great. I can blue and white spreadsheet
there so I can do this from memory. But just so I don't forget anything. We have
the Quilcene Complete Streets Project if it comes together. Um They have the Olympic
Discovery Trail again, looking pretty good but still not a surefire project for next
year. You know, just until we, you know, until we get it out to bid. I'm, I'm never
uh convinced Nailer Creek Culverts. We have those two Fish Barrier Culverts, one
on West Valley Road and one on Gibbs Lake Road. So we were able to just a digression
from the T IP discussion. We were able to, to get,
they were uh WDF WRC O managed Fish Barry removal board funds. We transferred it
to the Federal Protect Program. We were able to ask for more money and get it funded
at 100%. So that looks like a go for next year. The uh road departure project, that's
a the sign project again. That's a $700,000 in signs that
likely gonna start this year, but carry over to next year. And let's see, what else
do we have on there for construction? We're looking at uh the Lord's Lake Loop Road
Slide Repair if we can get that again, pulled together and then the Shine Road Slide
Repair. And I think that's the majority of the, the big construction projects for
next year. Great, thanks so much. Yeah,
this is road maintenance. So here you'll see the, yeah, again, expenditures regis
revenues 24 25 requests and then at the bottom you'll see the total road fund ending
fund balance and, and you can kind of see that progression on, on where that fund
is, is going with time. So there's a trend, I'm not sure what the remedy is. You
know, we work to make sure that it is manageable but the the fund continues to decrease.
Mhm.
So with that, I think I can turn it over to Matt Tyler and uh to review the parks
and rec parks improvement and the jump playground budget,
right? Hello, everyone. Thanks for having us today. Good to see you. Um I can go
to the next slide.
So first we're gonna start out talking about parks maintenance and operations, parks
and recreation, maintenance and operations and I just kind of give a quick overview.
I know you've all heard these numbers and seen them before, but a little bit unbelievable.
So it's always worth having a second look. Um Park use has increased about
threefold, 200% about threefold since 2009. But we use 2009 because that was the
last big year before the recession hit us. Um Parks maintenance FTE have increased
16% or you know about roughly half an FTE. So the basic story there is that
we're barely keeping up um just to increases in productivity and volunteerism and
so forth. So, um recreation programs uh have actually
decreased by about half. Uh The FTE, I mean, in recreation programming have actually
decreased. It's basically Chris and a clerk hire and a half. I mean, a couple clerk
hire, working um at the rec center. Um, his productivity is beyond
extreme. Um, 24 programs. That's 10 major programs per FTE.
Each FTE is where is taking care of almost 700 people and each FTE is um responsible
for 27,000 participant contact hours, which if you just think
about it, it's just not sustainable. Um And uh we just need more help in the rec
program in order to provide support, uh have a succession plan and make sure that
we're being responsible and that we can continue to provide these programs. Uh It's
too fragile, it's not a robust program. And if something happens, whatever could
happen to, to our recreation person, then we would lose the program. It would just
collapse. So now you can go to the next slide. So starting out with um what we're
asking now this shows our budget and this budget number at the bottom here. It includes
um our recreate our um general fund financial assistance requests is included in
here and that it covers our salary and benefit increases that were awarded and it
covers utilities, utilities have risen hugely that includes garbage and water and
power and toilets, um, all to serve the many, many new people, many, many more people
that are coming, uh, includes more repair and maintenance insurance. Uh, it includes
our partnership with the sheriff's office to help provide supervision in our campgrounds
and to help supervise all those increased campers and includes money for a new, um,
truck. Right? People, we don't have enough trucks right now. So that's on the maintenance
side. Um, what is not included in here is an addition and we have a general fund,
a request of 83,000 or so that we like to be added to this. And what that would include
is a new program to help us retain and recruit uh Park caretakers and camp
hosts of which we currently have three and we can barely fill these positions. Um
We have one applicant for Oak Bay, for example, uh the person at eight J Carol is
gonna stay for another six months, but I don't know what we're gonna do after that.
It's really hard to fill these positions and we would like to add an additional um
composed at quilting campground. This would be a new, a new Campo to help serve both
quilting campground and Lake Leon campground. We're gonna build a campsite there
for that host and this $43,000 that's in our ad request would provide a nominal stipend
uh to help these campos uh re recover some of the expenses up there. Um Incurring
as being our Campos. So we're basically asking way too much of these people. Uh We
can't keep them, we can't find them. And instead of asking for more FTE in maintenance,
we think this is a really, really efficient way to keep our services where they're
at. So this is a 43,000 in ad form. And the other bit in our ad form is a
0.5 FTE recreation supervisor to help uh with our recreation
programs. So a halftime person which would be benefit, benefited under the UFCW contract
and would help support recreation programs like uh the major ones we have including
the free drop in rec program. Uh We feel that they basically the rec programs would
stay the same. There could be some increases, for example, we could probably increase
the hours at the PT Rec Center um If we had this. So I think that's a good place
to stop and go to questions. Thank you, Matt. We, none of these ideas are new ideas.
It's uh you know, exciting and scary to see them manifest in, in budget asks. Um
But uh you know, questions, comments, Kate, I,
I'll ask a question, Matt just knowing that we're gonna have some hard decisions
to make if you had to choose one or the other of these two asks, which one would
you prioritize? Oh man, that is a hard question. Holy cow.
Um Yes,
I feel a little bit put on the spot by that. But it can I get back to you or can
I consult with Eric and? Yeah, sure. And get back to you. It's a bit of a snap question.
I don't want to mess it up. It's really important. Sorry to put you on the spot.
No, that's ok. It's reasonable, but I will definitely, um, talk with Eric and get
back to you today. Ok. And it is not a rush. We have some time here, ok? We'll be
meeting with the board next week with some parks items. So maybe we could uh kind
of this, you know, this this merges nicely with that conversation. Yeah, next Monday
we'll be over there talking. This is gonna say that totally makes sense but especially
based on the other the data you shared. So you know um this is where I, you know,
wanna give you a allocation of my salary every month but I I get to the end of the
month and I have $7 left in my bank account. So I shouldn't do that. We would all
get sorted. So um I get it and I, yeah, super important and you
know, campgrounds are important, kids are important. I just Yeah. Mm yeah.
1000% hear these needs that on that question, you know, not not to to push it
too much further but with the the camp post down in Quilcene, do you think that this
is gonna add to capacity I mean, I know that there's, it doesn't pencil any of these
campgrounds but do you see more revenue coming from the, the Leland and, and Quilcene
campgrounds? And do you see any other ancillary benefits down in South County and
other, you know, um, like with this person also do other parks and rec, uh, you know,
maintenance or anything and at, at, in the, in the south or is this really just Campos?
Well, I think it's really exciting to have a Campo in cool scene. It's a big benefit
in many different ways. Um where you want to find a way for them to also serve in
Lake Leland. Uh Lake Leyland is extremely busy and working. There would be a huge
benefit. And um, one of the big ancillary things is it would free up our other staff
to help serve in the other parks. So traveling, you know, daily to Quilcene and Leland
to do restrooms and garbage and so forth is, is a big burden. It would, it would
have a big productivity increase in our other parks uh for revenue maybe. But um,
I don't know how much I can promise there. Uh I mean, security and Peacefulness of
the community definitely uh to have someone there calming things down and looking
after issues and problems, it would be a big benefit to the community. I'm sure the
community would feel it right away. Great. Thank you.
Ok. Well, uh, thank you, Matt I think we're ready to move on. Eric. Ok. The, well,
I got a couple more. Oh yeah, keep going, Matt before we move on. Yeah. Um somebody
mentioned, I think it might have been Eric. We have a couple of parts of topics on
the agenda for Monday. Um One of which is a, a capital request for what, 72,000 to
electrify Upper Oak Bay. Yeah, that doesn't appear on this slide at all. That's an,
that's an add to what's here, right? That would be on this year's capital request.
It would be an expansion of this year. We could get that done this year, right? I
think we had 40,000 in the budget this year mark for that project and then that scope
has potentially expanded. So it was to come to the board and discuss whether we wanted
to do something more like the original scope or this expanded scope because there's
efficiency in doing it bigger if, if, if we can. Ok. All right, let's wait till Monday
to get dive into that. Ok. So if that's a good any other questions I can segue to
capital. We do. Ok. So parks improvement budget is our small modest capital budget
that we use to help finance uh projects. And uh for parks improvement, we have uh
capital request um
100,000, $100,000 total 2025 to replace the picnic shelter at
Indian Island Park and to uh modify uh the road that leads into camp beside uh for
security and Peacefulness of the camp. We don't need that road to go back up in there.
We need to put a gate. So those are the two capital request
in parks improvement. Great, you understand. OK. All right. Next slide,
I can make it work. Here we go.
So for jump, um this is a fun that we used to finance a jump project. Um It's Peter
down almost nothing that's left, but we do have an ask for next year to put a shade
structure $100,000 most at the most. Uh things cost a lot more than you think, but
a big shade structure to cover the orcas because you probably followed the issue
with the orcas getting too hot and the solution is not to remove the orcas or paint
them white or anything. But the solution is to put a shade structure because the
playground itself, we just realize it's too hot and the shade will be a huge benefit.
That's it.
Any other questions for Matt right now, we can always come back at the end. Um Quick
question that the fundraising that the jump partners are doing. Um That is still
for the next phase. Not for the shade structure. Correct, correct. There is a shade
structure in the scope of the next phase. So it would be removed from that scope
and from that budget perhaps or or they're also talking about adding a shade structure
over the next phase playground. I think the next phase had a shade structure over
the, you know, where the, the Sea Snail Plaza I believe is what it's called. But
now they're, they're talking, they're saying, well, I mean, it does get hot and shade
is necessary and, and we need to be looking ahead to, to warmer days and, and making
sure that it's manageable. Gotcha. Thank you.
Ok. Thank you, Matt.
So Al Cairns is next to present solid waste. All right, thanks for having us.
Thanks, I take it away. All right. Um Well, starting out uh with expenditures and
revenue, you can see the obvious trend on the ending fund balance as we spend that
down um to cover increasing costs um and to keep the fee as reasonable as possible,
um That's a trend that we can sustain probably through the 2024 2025
budget. Um You know, the 2.5% increase that we're anticipating um to to
begin here shortly is going to help in kind of uh arresting that uh trend. Um
And we, we are hopeful that it's going to be enough uh through this budget cycle
and that we don't need to come back to the board and request more than that um than
that fee increase at 2.5% over this budget cycle. Um revenues we've anticipated uh
a potential downturn um in revenue or tonnages. Um The two are interchangeable
um in, in trying to be really conservative about this budget cycle. Um You know,
we're starting to see a little bit uh of a decline in tonnages. Um And we suspect
that that might continue uh through this budget cycle next slide and please stop
me.
What's the analysis behind that downward trend and, and tonnages? I mean, you know,
we see consumption going up and population going up. So I'm curious, a lot of, a
lot of the increase that we've seen in tonnages is with packaging. Um And we're seeing
a lot of uh producer responsibility bills being discussed um in the state legislature
that may curb that increase in, in packaging. Um And, and so, and also we are long
overdue for a major market correction as well. And, um, you know, it's, it's not
that far back that we saw tonnages really drop off in uh in the in what was, what
was felt mostly in 2008 and 2009 with the major market correction there. But solid
waste tonnages were, were beginning to really taper off. Um Long ahead of that in
2000 six was, was kind of the peak of tonnages. And then it took, um it took 13 years
to get the tonnages back to uh where they were in 2006 at our previous peak. Um And
that's why, you know, a lot of economists look at tonnages as a, as a bellwether
for major market corrections. Um because it's, it's a, it's a really good um proxy
for um you know, disposable um income. So, thank you.
Yeah. So on the expenditure side, um you can, you can see that we're, we're
trying to decrease them as much as possible um in anticipation of revenues, maybe
not being where we want them to be.
So we're, we're trying to get ahead of this a little bit. We, we also though have,
you know, there's some, there's some capital outlay that we could curb should those
tonnages and revenue uh start to falter. Um We're hopeful that we don't need to,
we've got some long delayed improvements to both the transfer station and the cool
scene facility. We'd like to make those investments because they gain us a lot of
efficiencies as we found out limited capital projects, um can really increase efficiencies
which are, uh which we're desperate to, to realize given that we're 54% or more over,
over design capacity. Um And our customers really feel that um in longer wait times.
Um So, you know, with, with, we're, we're hopeful that we can purchase some rolling
stock and equipment that will increase efficiencies and material management and also
um uh potentially decrease injuries to staff as well. We'd, we'd like to make those
improvements and those purchases. But, you know, we, we're gonna keep a, a very close
eye on tonnage's revenue and, and decide at a later date whether or not we advance
those projects and those equipment purchases. Oh, I'm sorry. Can we go back to revenues
for a minute? I'm sorry, I was flipping through the, the huge, um, uh, budget book
and to, I had to scroll a lot to get to solid way. So I might have missed if you
said this. Um, but the, the discretionary revenue revenue you have here, that that's
from tonnages. Is that correct? There are a couple of revenues but, but overwhelmingly,
it's from tonnages. And I mean, that's like a 90% reduction from this year's projected
to, to next year. Like I, I'm, I'm just confused. Can you explain the rationale there
again? II, I know you said um correction, but that seems massive. I think uh I think
we're in the capital outlay slide. Can we go back one?
There we go. Thank you. Ok. That's seems a much more reasonable decrease.
Thank you very much.
So I think we can skip to the next slide. So I wanted to point out a couple of um
changes and goals and objectives. Um This is kind of the, the narrative that goes
with the budget and, and I, I think these are important to mention, um We've, we've
said out loud what um kind of the, the way that we operate, the solid waste uh uh
fund? Um And that is that it's, it's essentially a de facto triple bottom line um
methodology that, that we're applying here where there's a lot of focus on not just
the financial health, but our environmental stewardship and our social responsibility
elements of our program. Um And I think it's, it's important to um to memorialize
that both in the budget and we will be uh talking about that as part of our solid
waste management plan update, um which will start sometime next year when we're done
with the capital planning process. Um And it's important because we need some uh
a formula or a philosophy if you will um to, to, to give us some side words in, in
funding decisions and, and spending allocation uh thinking there. So that's why we've,
we've started that with uh listing that under our goals and objectives. The next
two points are carry overs from our last budget cycle. And then we're also wanting
to uh mention that um we do now have an mou with public health wherein we're we're
borrowing staff um on our um solid waste education program there. Um So we've brought
Laura Tucker who's been heading up that program for many years and has done really
good work on that. We've brought her kind of under the public works fold and, and
under my supervision there in directing that program. Um And then um for some reason,
there's, there's two bullet points here that, that are the same. Um My apologies
for that. Um We wanted to mention that we are, you know, in the midst of our capital
planning for um for replacement of very aging and outdated inefficient facilities
there. Um with a planning horizon of 40 years, so pretty substantial planning process.
Um I think you're all aware that we, we had enlisted the services of a uh consultant,
um that we, we grew dissatisfied with, we thought the direction was not precisely
where we wanted to go with that. And so we've canceled that contract and we are currently
negotiating a scope of work with a, with another prime consultant on that. We will
retain some of the uh sub consultants that were part of that, that first phase of
the process there. Um whose whose work product we were satisfied with the next slide.
So these performance indicators at the top that are not highlighted or carry overs
from the last budget cycle. Um They are, you know, the metrics that we're using there
as performance indicators or tonnages of municipal solid waste recyclables and moderate
risk waste. And then also the uh level of grant funding that we're receiving. You
notice a big increase um uh in 2023 that actually wasn't anticipated and, and
that's owing to um receiving 100% of the, what's called L SW I uh local solid waste
uh fund that's, that's um brought to us by our friends at ecology. We had a 60 40
split with those funds, um 60% going to public health and 40% being used to offset
costs to our recycling program. And now because we're uh administering that program
under the public works roof, we're receiving 100% of that. Um And then the next three
elements there are, um, are the performance indicators that we're using to measure
the triple bottom line, financial health, environmental stewardship, social responsibility.
Um, you in your binders there. Um There's a, a mistake that I wanted to point out
here where we're showing uh a revenue positive budget. Um That's incorrect. Those
are the, we're, we're still spending down um our fund reserves there. So I just wanted
to point out my mistake there. Um And then of course, you know, the state has a 50%
diversion rate goal. Um We've been above that since, oh gosh, I think 2010. Um
So we wanted to use that as a performance indicator. Um And then we wanted to also
mention our support of public health abatement program, um which we peg at a dollar
per ton of municipal solid waste that's increasing um over this budget cycle as well.
And then on the Social Responsibility Element, um we, we've got a brand new low income
discount program that we're about to roll out as soon as we get the fee schedule
rolled out. Um It, it's an unknown of what the, you know, what the demand on that
program is gonna look like, but we'll be tracking that and reporting that back to
the board. Um And then also our employment program for individuals with intellectual
or developmental disabilities. Um You may recall that, that used to be embedded in
the uh recycling contract with Spook. Um um We ran an RFP for that and, and we brought
on a new consultant or a new vendor for that program which increased the um the number
of employees under under that. So we'll be monitoring those numbers as well.
Any questions? Yeah, I, I just wanna um I saw that explanation in the
budget book, but I just wanna, you know, do the lab test on the um recyclables,
staying, staying the same for the next three years or the next two years. Do we really
think we're gonna see a decrease in the curbside dropbox recyclables by 10 over the
over 24 and 25. I mean, it just seems like, I don't know, I'm just not feeling as
confident maybe as you are. Um Well, the recycling program is an open question for
us. Um And we'll probably be works hopping with the board and early early next year
on the recycling program. Um There's a lot of legislative changes um that, that are
happening um that influence that program. It's something of a moving target and um
and then it's, it's unwelcome that uncertainty about, about the program, the extended
producer responsibilities that we keep seeing coming out of Olympia. It's a, it's,
it's sometimes hard to keep track of the legislative acts that influence that program.
Um And it's also our, it's our second largest uh expenditure line um
behind uh long haul and landfill. Um So next year, I think it's gonna be $620,000
for that program. Um And so I, I think we're, we're going to have to ask
ourselves uh about how we want to manage that program. Um particularly because of
the uncertainty that comes out of, uh, Olympia annually. I think if we stop taking
plastics, our, our tonnage will go down. Oh, sorry. Did I say that out loud? Thank
you. I, I, I'm, I'm fearful of that third rail myself. So, so thank you for your
courage there, Commissioner. Um, yeah, but I, I think it is, it is time to take a
really hard look at that program, uh, and figure out how we wanna manage it in the
long term. Uh, whether or not we wanna keep subsidizing it out of the tipping fee
right now. I think it's about $15 out of that per ton charge, so pretty substantial
and whether or not, um, it's a program better, you know, better managed by the, uh,
the invisible hand of the market, um, or whether we want to continue to subsidize
it with the tipping fee and, and what those two scenarios look like. Hm. And then
the, the related number down there in revenue is the sale of recyclables and from
everything I've been hearing, you know, that that value is just going down, down
down. Do we really feel like we'll get 100 and $25,000?
Uh, no, not under current market, market conditions. That's, uh, those numbers are
more fantasy than, than reality right now. It's a, a ridiculously volatile market
for the first time in our history. We're actually paying to dispose of, uh, those
materials uh or, or paying for the material recovery facility to accept them. Um
And, and that's fairly shocking given that we're, we're probably the second cleanest
uh um uh in, in, in terms of contamination rates of any county, um There's only two
counties in the state that continue to do a source separated program where we ask
the customers to separate them w being the other. That's an entirely privatized model
there. And one that we're um talking to our colleagues up there about um as a potential
model for us, but much more to, to discuss and to analyze before we're ready to um
uh present a recommendation to the board on that. Um But yeah, we're, we're currently
stockpiling our tap or tin aluminum and plastic bales right now. Um There's an ever
growing wall of those bales out behind the facility and we're, we're, we're hoping
to at least get to a no cost option for delivery of those materials right now. We
would be charged uh $13 a ton for those. So the first time in the, in the program's,
uh, history that we would have to pay for, for, um, uh, someone to accept those materials.
So, um, we still get, I wandered by the, the glass recycling area the other day,
um, found a number of curiosities in there. Um, fire extinguishers, which I guess
could be handy if they were charged, uh, television sets. Um, any number of other
sundry materials that don't belong in there. So, um, I, I think there's a good reason
why we're one of the last, maybe the last county in the state to have unstaffed,
um, 24 hour recycling options for folks. Mhm. Well, it'll be interesting to see
where we come out at the end of 24 on these numbers. Yes, it will.
Any other questions for solid waste? But I see. Mhm. No, thank you very
much. Oh, sorry, Kate. Yes. Just a comment. Um, I really appreciate you kind of,
um, formalizing the, the triple bottom line here and, and tracking it. It's, um,
I, I like the idea of bringing that lens to a lot of different programs. So, thanks.
It's really helpful here. We could just find $20 for a ring light for all on the
budget. We can actually see it right. There's probably one in the recycling bin.
Yeah. Yeah. Go look in the glass recycling.
All right, thanks. Al. Do you wanna speak to this? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I forgot
that we had one last slide. I I, you may recall that um, there were two benchmarks
in the uh fee ordinance. Um Now uh a resolution um that we increased.
Um So these were fun balances. Um, the under operational expenditures uh
In the previous ordinance, we had set that fund balance at 12% of operational expenditures
and we felt it was much more prudent to have a full quarter of uh cash reserve there.
Um, our rainy day fund, um, and you'll notice that uh we're gonna meet that uh, target
fund balance under operational expenditures in the first year will only be about
6.5% off in 2025. But we also increased um, the
12% fund balance for capital facility replacement um up to 25% as well to try to,
uh um to phrase some of the service debt that we would incur from a new facility
or a, a wholesale remodel of the current one. As a, you know, to, to pay that forward,
there is a benefit to our customers um will be far from, um, actually gaining any
traction on that um, in the next budget cycle, but I did want to point those out
and that's all I've got. Thanks al thanks so much. Last but not least we have
uh Sam Harper to present the tri area sewer.
Hello, good morning commissioners. Thank you for having me for my first county budget.
So, um, I guess I'll jump right in. Um, I guess I'm the rare one. We're all capital
overlay at this point. Um I'm sure we'll be talking about operations and maintenance
in the years to come. Um, so, so far, um, we have $35.5
million. Um And so we broke out between 2020 24 and 2025. Um, an
engineer's estimate of how it will be spent through the different construction phases
that we have for those two years. Um in this budget. Um So you'll see that we have
a little over 17 million for 2024. Uh not including soft cost um but for the construction
part and then about 6.5 million for 2025. Um So that is the uh we are projecting
to start an early March um February time frame the wastewater treatment plant. And
so that's ramping up the construction of the treatment plant and then the collections
and we hope to sunset the collections by the end of 2024 and the treatment plant
would go into 2025. And um with those two larger projects, uh we just
got our final estimate before we bid the treatment plant of $7 million for the treatment
plant. And right now the collections, um engineer's estimate is about 6.5 million
and this is without sales tax just um to put that out there. And so with those two
projects are quite a large chunk of the $35.5 million. And, but with also within
the numbers, um we have the on site connections that we are phasing, which is the
colors in the back, which relate to the colors of the project um for the people who
noticed the post its earlier. But we're also phasing the connections of the on-site
grinder pump. And as stated in the budget packet, we're going to connect as many
customers as we can until um the money runs out. So that and we will be going for
on site part just to um have that point, the treatment plant would be done somewhere
in the middle of 2025 and we would continue to do on site connections um into
26 potentially. So that's kind of how, how we came up with our budget is just how
construction usually ramps up and then ramps down as um the project continues its
life. So I don't know if there's any other specific questions. I'm happy to answer
so many questions, but it's great to see it. Uh This project manifest as a as a budget
now and it's uh getting more and more real so really excited que questions for Samantha.
No, I get question. I am. Yeah, I feel, I feel uh up to speed and I'm glad you're
on the team, Samantha. Thank you.
I don't have any specific questions. I mean, you know, I see that we projected that
we would spend a lot more this year in capital obviously behind us that we were planning
to do this year and I'm imagining those are in 24 now. Correct. Yes, that is correct.
Um, maybe could we just talk a little bit about the, I see the ending reserved fund
balance for Piff. Um,
you can just talk about why, why that's included here. And um, I mean, I'm assuming
that's the Piff Fund balance, not the sewer projects fund balance of Piff funds or
am I that? I think there's a balloon payment on um,
on a loan that was taken out that uh they're using pip money to repay that. I think
they owe 814,000 or something um in 2032. And so they're just accumulating fund balance
so they can make that payment.
And Kathy Kathy Taylor is on the line. She could con confirm that or correct me.
Yeah, that's correct. We're, we received 240,000 a year for the um from P and it's
used to pay the debt service. So this is extra um that we received from p that is
set aside for this balloon payout in 33 or 32. Great. So that's kind of the
accumulation of the, the difference there for paying out 2 25. It's getting 2 40.
It's the accumulation of that 15,000 or so? Yeah, I see it's changed over time. Ok,
great. Thank you. Thanks.
All right, I guess you've answered all our questions, Sam. Thank you. Thank you,
Kathy.
So I don't know if the board has any other questions. I also invite Kathy or Dale
Brownfield to add anything that anyone may have missed.
Yeah, I would just say this is a extremely well managed uh group um always very responsible
with your, your projects and your budget. So um thank you Bar
Yeah, I would just, no, I I just uh bring up our
shot staff shortages like always um you know, we're down five people here now and
um so budget for more for better pay to the staff is important.
Yeah. Well, we have negotiations underway there that, you know, we're, we're gonna
get there
then the cards though. Mhm. Thank you, Dale Kathy. Anything to add. Uh
No, uh the team does a good job and um of course, in good shape.
Great. I'm not sure if you were here in the beginning, but Eric definitely gave your
team a lot of props for uh getting us across the finish line to hear. So thank you
for all, all of the finance teams work. Appreciate all of you.
Thank you, Eric. Thank you for pinch hitting. I bet, I bet this went a lot faster
with you here than with Monty.
Good or bad. But I, I did what I could so great. Well, thank you all very
much. I really appreciate all the work and the, and the time that you took to uh,
take us through it, so have a, have a great day and we'll, we'll be in touch soon.
Thank you.
All right. And, uh, I guess that's, I believe the next schedule. Yeah, so we will,
uh, recess until one pm when we'll be joined by Ahmed and, and hear about the extensions
budget to start, everyone. Have a good lunch
and uh
I'm not gonna try to pause it. Maybe I know it's really, really care.
You just want to pause the recording, so I'll do that. All right. But it is one o'clock.
So, yeah, I, I take your point on it and we should probably uh bring this meeting
of the board of county commissioners back to session and continue our special meeting
looking at the budget requests for 2024 and 2025. And, uh, we'll, uh,
we're moving on to ST and Amrit Shar. I'm very, very happy to have you with us, uh
your first time presenting a budget to us. And we really appreciate you participating
in this process and helping us dive deeper into what our, our different uh partners
and, and uh departments need for the upcoming Biennium. So I take it away. Thank
you so much and I really appreciate this opportunity. I am joined by Bridget who
is our amazing master coordinator and also the former director uh I don't know how
she managed to do this role in an interim position because I'm already, I'm already
feeling all the, all the push and pull. Uh But enjoying it. So, so I'll get started
uh uh right away and uh Bridget, feel free to jump in wherever you think uh that
uh I'm missing out on something or something that needs to be added. So, yeah,
so I have to start by thinking by thanking each one of you. Um All the county officials,
the partner organizations and the community members for being the most amazing co
travelers on this journey. I have completed uh just over two months in this role
and in Jefferson County and uh in these two months I have experienced how the community
has embraced me with open hearts and arms. And uh I, I recognize that this is largely
due to the credibility and respect that WSU Extension has in the community and I
definitely owe some thanks there. So I will start by thanking uh the county commissioners,
the administrator for all their help, guidance and support. Um I thank all the employees
and volunteers both past as well as the present uh for their contribution to extension
and making it the trusted community partner that it is uh in Jefferson County. And
last but not the least, I wish to put on record. My heartfelt gratitude to my colleagues
at the extension office including Bridgette who is joining me today um for, for making
every day a rewarding and a joyful experience. Uh This has been after such a long
period in my professional career that I'm really looking forward to being in the
office every day. So, thank you so much, everyone. So this is the agenda for the
day uh for the presentation. Um I've broken it down into the seven kind of sections
and you will notice that um Bridget and I will not be focusing too much on the detailed
activities and outputs for each of the programs that we operate out of Jefferson
County. And this is very deliberate. Uh mark was kind enough to share with me the
recording of the previous budget presentation in 21 22 and 23 and one of the comments
that was made was everyone is already very familiar with with what we do here at
Extension in Jefferson County. So I'm taking that comment uh as as
as a leeway to guide us into these broader broad level uh
landscape of what extension is and what extension could be in the future. So what
we have done is to use this opportunity to provide a very broader lay of the land
within which extension operates currently and how we are thinking about it in the
future. And when we say we, I I mean to suggest both WSU uh the University
Extension system and as well as us in the county. So let me begin with the first
point in the agenda, which is providing an overview of Jefferson County. But before
I do that, as I alluded to, I will start with WSU Extension as a whole. So this is
from the website of WSU Extension. And uh as you would see, it is all about extending
knowledge and making use of that knowledge to change life within the communities
within which we operate. And the the motor that you see down below, which is engaging
people, organization and communities to advance knowledge, economic well being and
quality of life by fostering inquiry learning and the application of research. I
pay special emphasis on this line to suggest that the goal is very wide. And what
I'm, what I want to emphasize is that while we might associate a extension with the
programming that we are most familiar with, be it for or master gardener or whatever
is happening within our county, this does not, does not mean that it is, it has to
be the case going forward as well, which means that it has to cater to the emerging
needs as we are experiencing within the county. And, and that is something that all
of us perhaps should, should keep into consideration as we move forward. And I'll
revisit this point over and over again uh to try and see, try and make it clear as
to where I'm getting with this. This is again from the county uh from the uh WS extension
website. Uh So this is for the lack of a better word, I would say the big program
areas that we are we are into at the extension within WSU extension. But again, when
I talk about extension, yes, you should think of it beyond what is happening in Jefferson
County and think broader in terms of WSU as a whole. But I would also say that maybe
a third layer of this would be extension happening all over the US because there
is that potential of borrowing some, some good idea from, let's say some other uh
university Extension system as well. So these are the eight areas. And again, uh
all that I'm trying to, to suggest is that our current programming and the way it
looks currently should not, should definitely inform our programming and how we look
at extension. But at the same time, we can, we, we don't have to confine ourselves
into water tight compartments and say, OK, this is what it always has to look like.
Uh I also wanted to take a moment to talk about where WSU Extension sits within the
WSU system as a whole. And you might have noticed on the previous slide that extension
operate out of corner which is the uh College of Agriculture, Human and Natural uh
Resource Sciences. So that's the broader framework. And the reason I highlight that
is that currently within corners, there is this focus on building a more resilient
Washington uh and, and how it contributes to the land gran mission of Washington
State University. Now, what, what is resilient Washington? This is a more there is
a lot of deliberation currently going on. A lot of it has been documented, but I'll
present a very macro viewpoint of what uh the current deliberation seems to be getting
at. So they're focusing on these four pillars in terms of a qualified adaptable workforce,
strong stewardship of natural resources, unparalleled access to healthy food and
thriving communities, families and individuals. Uh What I wish to bring to your notice
is, are, are two things. First, the four foundational pillars continue to build on
the aspects that extension has always focused upon. So these are very much the extension
focus area. This is something that we are good at. This is something that we have,
we we already have credibility within the community within the broader university
system. The second point is that there is significant overlap to the to the areas
identified within the strategic plan of the Jefferson County. I've spent some time
reviewing the, the the strategic plan and as we move into the implementation phase,
I think there is huge potential in terms of getting increased resources, getting
increased, help, getting increased guidance from WSU given that it is already focusing
on this resilient Washington and this and these four pillars, I'll pause very quickly
to see if anybody has questions, comments or if Bridget has anything to add to. This.
Sounds great. Ok, good. I mean, I love that you're bringing this external perspective
into this process. Thanks. Thanks. So, with this
kind of more broader lay of the land, I would now move to the second part, which
is, which is extension within Jefferson County. And I know most of you are very familiar
with it. So let me uh step into my former teaching booths and give you a quiz.
So what you're gonna see on your slide are, are six focus areas that we currently
are actively uh there operating within Jefferson County. So you can count on your
fingers. See if, if, if, if those focus areas correspond to what is gonna be on the
screen now. And the first area is water and natural resources. This is basically
our beach nationalist and steam stewards program. Many of you would be familiar with
this. The second one is snap. It currently the position is vacant and we are being
supported through our partners within Clallam County specifically. Uh Now the more
obvious ones, perhaps the regional small farms, uh the nauseous weeds control, the
Master Gardener program and the MRC and the uh and, and the the water quality uh
programming that goes on.
And yes, of course, forage and the Youth Development program. The reason I'm not
getting into the details and the specific numbers and activities and impact numbers
is because most of this information is on our website in the form of these impact
reports. These are the latest ones offered 2022. Uh and you would be able to find
it if you go on to this link, if anybody wants to have a physical copy, uh these
are there in our office as well. So I would encourage if there is someone from the
public who wants to get to know any of these programs or each of these programs in
more detail. Uh I'll be happy to kind of uh either forward these uh impact reports
and soft copy or you're most welcome to come to the office as well.
Again, at the cost of repetition. Yes, the current programming looks like this and
perhaps, you know, extension and you're familiar with extension with what we have
been doing, but please
start thinking about what it could look like and we would, I would be very happy
if we start thinking of what the county strategic priorities are and where can we,
where can we kind of pitch in and how can we be the best partners that, that, that
we can be?
So with that, let me move to the third part of the first bullet point, which is Jefferson
County. I keep looking at this.
Organizational chart and trying to see where is it that we are within this broader
framework. And, and as I look at it, I I'm I'm particularly interested in
in, in the, in the department listed right to Jefferson co the Cooper of Extension,
which is community development, public health and public works. For sure, there is
huge overlap and for sure, there might be opportunities in terms of how we can collaborate
with these departments. I in some ways, it is already happening, for instance, in
the case of noxious ways, there is something happening. But I believe there is a
lot more potential even in terms of exploiting and, and, and, and nurturing the kind
of synergies that might exist within the departments that are in the county. So going
forward this this kind of horizontal partnership is again something that uh we would
love within the extension to kind of explore, especially as we move into the planning
for the strategic uh uh implementation plan for the strategic plan. Now, this is
the most current organizational chart for for WSU extension and two or three things
that I would want to point out is that uh within the water quality uh program, we
are hire planning to hire a new MC assistant. Again, the funding for this is gonna
come through the grants. So that is kind of taken care of uh for the forage Youth
Development. We continue to operate with a lean team of uh of of one coordinator
and three kind of teachers and volunteers at the Brennan after school center followed
by the agricultural development, which is the small farms coordinator. Uh Kelly Henwood,
who's currently working at 0.8 FTE uh given her maternity leave and then post that.
But we are planning to get her up again to full time. FTE we share, we share her
with, with other counties too. Correct. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Yes. Uh Then the
master Gardner program, Bridgette who currently is operating at 0.6 FTE. She was
uh she, she wants to continue at that level for now. Uh But for 2025
we want to open the possibility of her moving to full time FTE. And again, this is
in alignment with how we are exploring the possibility of in of making our, our programming
more meaningful and more interlinked and synergize with the other operations. Uh
We are, we are currently have two vacancies for the admin related staff, which is
both the admin lead and the office clerk, position, the receptionist. And that is
where Mark I was trying to reach you uh today morning and I'll I'll, I'll take that
conversation uh separately. But uh this is, this is one of the areas where we are
currently struggling. My team is already kind of uh come together and try to try
to see how it could share the burden and share the responsibilities. Uh But yes,
this is, this is one priority area. We have the interviews scheduled for the next
week and hopefully we'll be able to fill in these positions very soon.
Uh The C grant program again, we, uh this is kind of interesting. Uh I'm yet to learn
more about the program as a whole, but Sarah Friskin was operating out of her office.
She I believe has actively gonna be retiring or has retired. So, uh I don't know
what the future of this is gonna look like, but what I do know is that this engagement
and this partnership has opened up doors for us into the E grant and into the UD
University of Washington System also. And I would love to see how we can tap into
that network because again, that might open doors for us in terms of grants, in terms
of opportunities, in terms of networks, in terms of uh just general uh resource sharing
and information sharing. Finally, the Noxious Wheat Board again, uh which operates
out of uh uh extension. And we are planning to have a seasonal hire for uh for to
help assess Sophie who's the coordinator for this. So that's our structure. Um Any
questions again, I'll pause for a couple of seconds to see if anybody has comments,
questions. No, very clear. Thank you. OK, cool. Thank you.
So I also wanted to now perhaps highlight this idea of partnership with other counties
and uh uh and, and this is something that uh kind of uh was alluded to when we spoke
about uh Kelly, who is the small farms coordinator, kind of contributing to the other
counties and being a shared resource in that way. So I wanted to just highlight what
is it that Clapham, specifically Clapham and Kitsap County, which are the two neighbors
and perhaps the two counties with which we have the closest engagement at this point
in time again, with the caveat that this doesn't mean that there are no other counties
which perhaps share, you know, similar opportunities of engagement. Uh And, and we
should definitely be looking at that as well. So this is Clallam. I apologize for
the, for the density of text on this that's uh on this, on the slide and that this
is gonna be the case for the few of the slides coming forward as well. I hate to
do this, but I was, I was not confident because I'm uh I'll use this excuse that
I'm still new in the role. So I wasn't sure if I'll be able to do justice. Uh So
this is a text that I asked c to kind of share and rather than reading it through,
I thought, let me just put it and, and give you all uh a couple of minutes to kind
of go through it and see uh what is it that they're doing? But essentially uh the
faculty and staff at uh Clallam has been supporting us with the regional small farms
uh including the integrated pest management specialist Laurel. I have met her once
they had a meeting uh at our office itself and Dan who has been working with the
livestock uh uh livestock within Jefferson County. Similarly, as I mentioned, we
currently do not have a position for snapped. Uh And and Clapham has been supporting
us uh including the the Farm to Food Bank program and they've purchased close to
about 30,000 in the past from, from Jefferson farmers and forage coordinator again,
uh has been super super helpful with kind of on boarding uh and, and helping us through
the transition that we have had in the past few years. Uh I would also make a personal
note how cli who's the chef, the Clallam County director has been super, super helpful
for me as I try to navigate the ropes and try to understand more and more including
her generous offer to see how could I be part of the existing grants that Clapham
has and has been able to kind of work through the WSU system. I will come to it uh
subsequently in the slides but I think I, I would just, I would just lay it
out that grants is one of the ways forward and trying to see how we can reduce the
burden uh and, and exploit these opportunities that are there through various federal
and state grants and, and, and planum, perhaps because of the continuity of the,
of the director in, in that particular county has, has had at least to, to my knowledge
among, at least among the three counties that I know, which is Klam and Jefferson.
They have had the most success and clear has been really generous in, in, in offering
me guidance and even perhaps including me in few of the forthcoming uh grants that
are going to be uh going to be there. So that was Clallam
Kate has a question or a comment. Yeah. Ah do you, are you saying that, you know,
at this point
in time and
how
that might look like? I believe it is all grant funded? Uh We do not currently have
a vacancy vacancy as such. Uh So I'm, I'm not in a position to maybe give you specific
details on that. I'll, I'll ask Bridget if she has more information on this and she
understands this better than I do. I I understand a little bit better maybe than
Ed uh not a lot. So that Snap Ed uh program and grant has been managed out of Clallam
County and I didn't work to take it on because I didn't have the capacity to do so.
And so, uh, there has been uh a vacancy. We, um, the snap ed coordinator, I
think it was about 18 months ago, had left the position. And so it's being managed
outside of Callum County and, and we hope to fill it. Uh, but where snapped the grant
for this county versus Kallum lands? It will really be kind of as Ahmed and Cle continue
to, to work together to, um, you know, solidify what Snap looks like in Jefferson.
Does that answer your question, Kate? Yeah. So, um, um I'm forgetting the name of
the woman who was running that program. She left and went to Department of Commerce.
Right? Uh No. Um I think you're talking about, I can't remember her name either.
It's not a very useful conversation. We can't remember names but uh no, there was
AAA really part time, um, eight hours, uh a week coordinator that we had here who
was working a lot getting, uh with farmers getting um food from farmers into the
food banks and that's the direction Snap Ed was going. It wasn't doing more of that
classic education piece that Snap Ed uh Historically provides and again, that, that
program and, and how it was delivered and really has really been managed by Kallum
for the last few years. Uh Right before Cliff left, I think we got that contract
from Y MC A. But since Cliff knew he was leaving, he kind of turned that over to
um to cle to, to uh Stewart until we were able to uh work again on that
program. But, and it's a two county program, right? Yeah. Ok, great. Thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you, Bridget.
So this is Kapp again. Uh As I as I warned you, sorry for the density of the text
on the slide. Uh But this is uh what Jess who is the interim director at Kitsap has
been offering and the Kitsap uh I have been following their Instagram page, the small
farms program and, and just the quality of communication. Uh and, and, and the engagement
that is happening on Instagram and social media in in large measures that is due
to the support that we get from, from Kitsap in terms of the communication, administrative
support, the website and those kind of things. So that is definitely one of the things.
Uh they've also been supporting the, the farmers market uh through the WSF MA program.
I'm yet to learn more about this but uh both the chim farmer market and the, and
the farmers market at Port Townsend are supported by Kitsap. Uh I'll leave it for
a few seconds just in case anyone is reading and then move to the next one.
Uh This is again uh from Kitsap uh Jess again, lease this which is the Snap to market
match program. I also learned about it very recently. Uh I'm, I'm yet to learn more
about it. Uh Perhaps there are, I'm sure there are people in the room who know more
than I do about this program. But uh but this is again a classic example of how uh
how this partnership has evolved over the years and, and we are getting things from
Kitsap and Clallam and, and we continue to contribute to this partnership uh in the
form of the programming that we do for the Small Farms program. And that is exactly
what my next slide is, which is that uh it has few of the things, but I'm gonna read
out uh some, some other things uh from my notes, which is that the Jefferson County
Extension has housed the regional Small Farms Program and its full time coordinator
since 2016, the coordinator has created a robust program that provides educational
opportunities for farmers, not only in Jefferson County, but also Clapham and Kita.
The collaboration between the counties acknowledges our agricultural community and
food system as a bioregion with more similarities than differences, interconnected
challenges and opportunities. The regional coordinator has guided the development
of two new created specialist positions housed within Clallam Extension has guided
the implementation of the kids have far momenta program and these positions and programs
that have now been created in in these partner counties continue to provide support
to Jefferson County as was explained in the previous slides. The coordinator has
also guided other initiatives shared by partners across the region. Land works farm
to farmer program, eat local first, local farm tours and and more. The Jefferson
based coordinator provides education to Clapham and Kim such as cultivating success,
whole farm planning and agricultural entrepreneurship, produce and food safety, growing
trainings and more. So beyond programming, the regional farm, the regional small
farms program coordinator has housed all aspects of the administration of the program
including leadership and small farm development expertise to the, to the counties,
to the partner counties and thereby supporting the function of county specific small
farms uh programming. So in so many ways, the the coordinator serves as the anchor
of Small Farms program throughout the three counties. Uh something that I wanted
to highlight and II I think has been my revelation, especially as I was preparing
for this presentation was how this particular coordinator and the continuity of this
coordinator in this position for the past 67 years now has contributed to making
this regional partnership in what it is today. And uh mark, I know you keep talking
about how the continuity of, of, of a person in a particular position adds so much
value to the program as a whole. And uh I, I go back to this idea that especially
for community work and especially for meaningful community work, you need to spend
time and attrition if it happens too often, which unfortunately has been the case
with, with our extension office. Uh Just doesn't let things to settle down and, and
just doesn't let you to really look at the potential opportunities of how you can
solidify the program. So, so I believe one of the reasons why this, this partnership
between the three counties is, is at a stage where it is currently, which is, you
know, it is truly a partnership with all three counties kind of contributing uh in,
in different ways to making it the most uh collaborative endeavor that it is, is
largely due to the fact that we had continuity of, of personnel in these three counties
who were kind of focused on this work including uh Kelly, who has been in this role
uh in Jefferson County for for for a considerable amount of time. So with that, let
me move to the fourth part of my agenda. But before I do that, there are few acknowledgements
due. Uh I would want to acknowledge uh Judy's patience and help as I went into the
budget uh preparation phase, Judy and Naomi were super patient and uh and I really
appreciate and admire all the help. Uh This is including the help that Bridget and
others in the office provided me. Um So thank you everyone. I also want to apologize
uh in advance for a few of these few of these small errors that I've made in the
way, in terms of uh few numbers that might be off because I was trying to be too
uh methodological about this, especially with respect to the water quality grants
where the grant cycle doesn't match our annual cycle. And I was thinking, OK, maybe
I need to 3/4 that amount or whatever. So uh the numbers might be slightly off. But
I understand from Julie again that this is more of an approximate. So we are broadly
in that range. But another mistake that I have uh I have made is that I have included
uh the the planned expenditure within the, within the figures as of now, even the
unapproved one. So, so I uh so that is another thing and I'll talk about it as I
come to that. But uh just these Acknowledgments and apologies in advance. But let
me take this uh point. OK. Let me just pause here again for a couple of seconds to
see if anybody has questions, comments.
Beauty's head is gonna be so big by the end of the day. No, no, no,
no. I know. I think we're good at that. Ok. OK, good. Thank you. So
let me now move on to what I see as the strategic priorities for, for WSU and these
are again, very formative ideas and by no means crystallized. So I am actually utilizing
this opportunity to, to make this a generative kind of dialogue and I know this is
not the platform for it, but still, I would just throw it. I'm throwing it out because
I would love to have your inputs either now or later as to how we are starting to
think about it again. I haven't we, while we have had informal discussions within
the extension office, I'm yet to formally seek inputs of my colleagues on these ideas.
So, so treat them as my first attempts to articulate our approach going forward.
Uh And, and I'm sure Laura is gonna get added as I take these ideas to my colleagues
and then to other stakeholders. So
the the most important idea in my head is that ultimately, we have to look at this
overlap between what the extension priorities and strengths are, what are the county
and by extension, what are the community goals needs and aspirations, which I think
we have done a remarkable job in capturing them in, in the strategic plan. And that,
that is gonna be my starting document. And lastly, what are the organizational capacity
within Jefferson County extension? So when I talked about first extension priorities,
I was talking about WSU extension as a whole or maybe even extension, countrywide
extension because Forage and Master Gardener kind of are run that way. But when I
talk about the third one, I'm talking specifically about our team within Jefferson
County, within the Port Hadlock Office. And what are the organizational capabilities?
Because each one of us do bring unique perspectives and experiences and skill sets.
So I would try to going forward, try and see how is it that our programming could
be within that overlap of these three kind of circles so that we are able to create
the maximum impact and our most powerful
my operating principles. Again, very draft at this draft level at this stage would
be to go about partnerships. And when I say partnerships, I'm including and thinking
about partnerships even within our own programs. So snapped and forage, for instance,
snapped and perhaps uh uh master gardener or water quality and forage and, and
that overlap and partnership that might emerge within the programs itself. Secondly,
I'm thinking of partnerships in terms of organizations, both within and outside the
county. So again, going back to the organizational chart of where extension sits
within the county. So, so how can we collaborate with other departments, health and,
and public works and, and community development and other departments. So, so that
is definitely an area. And again, the partnership with other counties, including
going beyond Kitsap and, and Clallam. If, if there is, if, if there is a need and
if, if, if that makes it, that makes sense. Given if there is some something else,
some other county is kind of running a program that really falls into that into that
area of overlap. The second principle for me would be empowerment. And what I mean
by empowerment is that
I have always been inspired in my own work with the idea that the best kind of community
work is where you make yourself redundant where you're not creating this dependency
but are are empowering the community to stand on their own feet and then run. And
I believe in some ways that has started to happen with few of our programs. I would
say the, the rain gardens where now we are turning it back to the community for the
maintenance. I would cite the stream stewards program, one of our most successful
programs. We always get great reviews about it. But I think now Bob has already started
discussions with the, the Salmon Coalition nos uh to see if they can lead the program
and they seem to be the perfect partner and we don't have to hold on to this program
just because we created them in the first place. If you can find better partners,
why not? That is the idea. Let, let the community run with it. Uh This again, ties
back to my earlier idea of, of we do, the programming doesn't have to look like exactly
how it has been looking in for the past whatever number of years. Uh We are educators,
we are, we are, we have the expertise and we have the network, we have the linkages
with the university. We can create programs that truly cater to the emerging and
the current needs. And, and that is what uh one of the principles that uh hopefully
we can take forward.
This also means that we're gonna want to emphasize depth over the breadth uh rather
than trying to do everything, we would rather focus on the depth.
The fourth point is more about my own personal experience of, of trying to see that
the knowledge is not, does not reside with individuals so that just in case they
move out everything you know, gets lost. Uh but it is more institutional. Uh and,
and how do I do that? And that includes creating time to document everything, to
create and lay down a process to see that there is a succession plan in place, whatever
that looks like given the constraints that we have. But what, what are the kinds
of systems and processes that we have? Finally, I would want to highlight this idea
of asset based community development. I know we have long focused on needs as a starting
point. But we, we there are so many assets within the communities that are already
there. And as we look at what the community needs are, we can look at the assets
as a as a starting point in terms of how we approach this. And, and that is what
perhaps extension can do best because we don't have all the resources in the world
to really get to all the needs. But if we focus on the assets, we can definitely
make an impact in addressing them in, in some ways. So let me now move to the budget
big picture. So many of you are already familiar, but we have, we kind of operate
these two funds, 109 and 108109 is noxious speeds. Uh I'm not gonna get into the
details. You're already very familiar. Uh But within 108 we have these five heads,
which is water quality forage, master Gardener, small farms and the admin related
stuff, which is basically me and the admin staff that is there uh at head county,
however, noxious feeds and water quality kind of share the similarity in the sense
that they plan their expenditure based on the revenues that they earn. So it's kind
of matching. So you, you see this rectangle which is the revenue, more or less matches
the expenditure and it's kind of clean. However, what is not so clear and clean is
when you look at these three main programs, which is forage, Master Gardener, small
farms and the admin and and what happens there. So in terms of revenue, we have grant
fund as the main source, the indirect that we get from water quality and uh no speeds,
the grants, whatever few grants that we get and the rent and then broadly, the expenditure
could be mapped onto salaries and benefits, benefits, contracts. When I say contracts,
I mean all the third party things that someone else does for us. So this includes
the rent, this includes the utilities, this includes internet, this includes the
janitorial services and then the admin which is essentially the travel and the supplies.
And this is where the rectangle turns into this, this, this shape the trapezoid,
which is the expenditure being much more than the revenue. One thing that I would
want to add is that in terms of the revenue and in terms of the support that we get,
there is a huge support that we get in terms of salaries and benefits. And the programmatic
support that we get from WSU including two thirds of my salary, my benefits and the
benefits for, for all the coordinators of the program that are listed above and,
and the various other supports that we could potentially tap into in terms of grant
funding, in terms of legal help and other kind of support which I believe there is
a lot of scope uh to kind of dive into further. Can I ask one question? I'm sorry,
you said it and I and I missed it, but the GF under revenue is general fund. Yes.
Yes, that is General fund. Yes. So this is, this is what the revenue for 108 looks
like if I exclude water quality and you would say about 84% is General Fund. Uh then
is the indirect, about 15% then is a very small nominal amount with respect to the
grants that Master Gardener Foundation gives us. And we get some from, from land
works land trust and then we have rent, which is almost insignificant at this point.
In time and this is what the expenditure of 108 looks like excluding water quality.
Uh read it with the caveat that some of our Beak Naturalist program and, and, and
the funding for some of it is kind of embedded into this, but most of it is spent
on san salaries and benefits. Some of it is these contracts which includes the rent
and the general services and other things that I mentioned. And then there's the
admin support which is just travel and supplies and those kind of things.
And this has been the country as I read it. And I had access to the, the, the presentation
that was made in 2022 and 23. And if I look at it, you would see how the ending balance,
the the expenditure is more than the revenue. And again, this means that we are tapping
into the tapping into the general funds and the reserve that we have, that has been
a story in 2022. We started with a healthy balance and that was, and I'm quoting
from the presentation that was made two years back, which is was due to the lack
of programming in the after school programming at Brennan and the staffing vacancy
at forage. In fact, even this year, we are going to start with a healthy balance,
but that is again occurring due to the fact that, you know, we have had vacant positions.
Uh uh uh in in the office. So as I look at increasing the revenue and decreasing
the expenditure, yes, there is only so much that I could do. But I believe the real
star lies in terms of trying to tap into the grants tapping into the WSU system to
see how we can work across counties, how we can minimize the cost there and try and
convert this ideally into this inverted kind of thing where the revenues are more
than that. But at least in the short term, at least matching the revenue and expenditure,
I'll move into the almost nearing the end of the presentation. So the specifics of
109, you would see the total revenue matching almost matching the total expenditure.
Uh The small gap that you see is because we were not calculating the indirect according
to the latest rates. Judy came into the office, help us revise it, but we didn't
really have the time to kind of iron out the other details, but this is brought more
or less kind of taken care of. We don't have to worry about uh 109. We don't have
to get into the weeds there. Yes, good one. So wait 108 though is
where uh you know, you would see it again that, that trapezoid coming into picture,
which is our, our revenue is not matching our expenditure. And uh and I'll, most
of it is primarily due to the fact uh of, of the salaries me trying to get
my, my admin lead position to one ft my office clerk position at 0.6
ft. The mo a increases that have happened at WS UN. We are gonna be uh they become
effective October 1, but we are gonna be paying for it from, from our reserve for
now. But going forward, this would mean uh more support from the county uh and just
the inflation related uh increases that that are going to be happening. I would want
to point out that we have really looked at the historical figures and try to bring
our us down for some things like internet info services utilities. So we are kind
of asking a total of about 5000 less than what we had asked in the previous uh years
for, for these kind of things.
That's one clarifying question on that. Go ahead the ad and it's, if I, if I hear
you correctly, it's mostly kind of salaries um for the ad total is 49 5 and 24
and that would go forward, right? That's not one time. So then on top of that, it's
going forward. Yes, this is going forward. Yes. Yes. Ok. So I would, I, because this
is I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll in the few, in the next few slides, I have the details
of this as to why, why I'm asking these uh these this amount as, as, as a continued
support. So, let me come to the last part and I will come to your question and those
specific numbers. But when I see those current gaps and immediate priorities, you
know, uh and, and I'm borrowing from a framework that is that I have personally followed
uh and, and reference to in my, in my previous avatar working in the corporate and
then continuing with my own non for profit, which is when you look at financial success
and you look at these numbers, you, you get obsessed with, OK, what is happening?
But what you tend to forget is what is happening behind the lines. And essentially
the idea of Balance Scorecard as it is called an approach uh that was followed by
Cap and Norton in 96 is that if you have the organizational capacity, it is then
that you improve the internal processes. It is that which delivers excellent uh delivery
to the stakeholders. And that is what leads to financial success. And at this point
in time currently where we are, we are trying to rec capacitate the extension system.
All that I want is that I should be fully starved and all my staff should be fully
engaged. So that is my, my, my one line kind of a a ask and, and the rational for
the ask that I'm making this is this is what uh uh Greg you were asking about. So
this is for 2024 and 25 when I say admin support. I'm talking about the two positions
that the county supports for the administration of the office, which is both my admin
lead and my admin clerk position. Uh The, the, this, this part is the mo a
increases that is happening because of the 2.5% increase. This is also taking into
account, Kelly, who's the forage coordinate, who's the small farms coordinator moving
to one FTE instead of the 0.8. And then in 2025 the option of uh Bridget moving to
one FTE from her current assignment of uh 0.6 FT. And then this is the inflation
related uh uh increase that I'm I'm I'm demanding for. So that is it uh again,
fully staffed, fully engaged is, is what I'm looking at uh for the next two years.
I do wanna comment that uh I am looking at at the end of the two years covering all
administrative related expenses for the specific programs. For instance, for h would
would be able to generate enough revenue to cover the travel and the expenses. Similarly,
the other programs and similarly, I as the admin person and as the office lead would
try to cover the at least the travel and the stationary and the supplies that, that
go into managing my office. That's just a start, I hope to be uh generating more
revenues. But that's what uh I'm I'm willing to comment at this point in time. So
with that let me open um open to questions. Great, excellent presentation. Thank
you, Ahmed. Questions for extension Kate. He,
I have one question that might be more for Judy and Mark actually, which is um just
in, in trying to follow along in the, the big book. Um uh uh the ad
requests are not necessarily in the each chapter. Is that right? Like I'm just trying
to see where is the easiest way to review what I meant? Just talked about in, in,
you're not in each chapter, you're correct. Uh So um mine just turned blank. So it
says I have an error now. So I think it's just go back up to the top of your third
chapter or something like that under the form a the resolution of ads that OK, great.
Um So sorry, excuse me, while I'm just flipping around between a few different screens.
Um I do see in the performance indicators that um the the small farms uh
classes and workshops and participants look is expected to go down in the next couple
of years. Can you explain the rationale there, please? Uh I am,
I apologize. Uh K de I don't really know. I think uh Kelly had mentioned that how
the the numbers were not really correct the previous year or, or there was some gap
or something, but I'm not able to comment on it at this point in time
blanking on it. I would say though that the numbers that are currently in there.
We haven't done the strategic planning exercise. That is something that I'm planning
for for the next quarter, the start, the, the first quarter of 2024. And that is
gonna be my, my opportunity to really look at those numbers. I also think we there
is significant scope for us to stop looking at just output numbers and move towards
outcomes and really impact because, ok, you did some activity but that that's it.
OK. It it's it's done. What is the impact, what, what, what really did happen because
of that? And I don't think that is currently being captured in the way that I would
want it to happen. I didn't really have the opportunity. And also this was not the
right time because we are still not in the process of looking at the strategic priorities
and plans and really getting into the performance management cycle. I think I would
be in the best position. I can give you a short answer in uh in, in a week or so,
but I think I'll be really in a position to really comment on this once I move into
the next year performance cycle.
I thank you. Sorry. Um Can I ask a question about uh on the ad forms that were in
our budget book? A brief description says increased FTEs
sub colon, salary increase, County WSU sub coal and rent sub co co and travel.
So I understand that these transfers from general fund equal all of those descript
descriptive activities. But when you say salary increase, county plus WSU is that
like uh our share of the cost of living increase or what does that equal?
Yes. So what you see on the screen is something that I had detailed out in terms
of the specifics. Uh But when I say uh the salary increase from the county because
because of the increase, the 4% increase that is happening at the county level, uh
There is an increase in terms of what we are gonna be paying for the admin lead position
and the admin clerk position. And hence, that is the increase that I'm referring
to there. Ok. Also, as I said, uh, alluded to, I'm planning to increase the FTE
of the admin clerk position from, from 0.5 to 0.6. Uh and the admin lead position
from 0.8 to one per one FTE because uh I'm also adding certain more responsibilities
including social media and, and, and things like those and more record keeping. So
that's the idea with which I'm asking for a more uh more support from the county.
And we've already confirmed an increase in our lease with the Souls for mid year
24. Ok. Yes, that's the paperwork is yet to be finalized. They initially approached
us with the offer of 5% year two year three. I was able to negotiate them down to
a 4% year two and year three. And that's the plan going forward. Ok,
thank you.
So I would just wanna um I put my teacher groups on and I want to just say to amid
that you've done an amazing job putting this budget together. Um It was really a
lot of work since he just started um September 1 and budgets were due September 5th.
And so um we worked with him for the first few weeks and then um he's very detail
oriented. So, I mean, you did an amazing job, great presentation. And I just want
to say thank you for all your hard work and you're off to a great start. I appreciate
that. I started August 1 though. Uh Oh, I thought it was not.
So
I take the, I'll take the credit.
Well, and it's also um having worked out of that office, I know how complex it is
you're working with also the WSU budget process um and different fiscal year. And
so it, it, it is very complex. Good job. Thank you. Thank you Judy and thank you
everyone. Thank you, Mark and just just, I'm really, really indebted uh to everyone
as I said, as I began, I would, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'm very, very uh glad to be
working with some amazing people and, and with all of you who are just so supportive.
I love how you talked about the importance of continuity for program durability and
that just makes me glad that I'm going to live here with you in the community for,
for a long time on it for at least 10 years. I'm looking forward to it. I have you
on public record. I
absolutely. All right. Well, thank you so much, Ahmed. Thank you, Bridget for being
here and for all your work and, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll be in touch soon and,
and really appreciate the clear and, and, uh, and um, expansive uh presentation.
So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye bye. Thank you, Bridget,
bye. Have a good day.
All right. Well, I believe next on our schedule is Willie Bent. I saw him in the
Zoom room if you wanna bring him over and right after that, we'll get to public health,
save some, some guests already here. Good to see you guys.
Hello, Willie. Hey, hello. Hello. Thank you for having me, everyone. Um We go from
pretty complex and difficult to the smallest department and pretty straightforward.
So I will try to keep things as simple as possible for you all. Um I don't have a
powerpoint or a fancy presentation today. It was mostly just a wall of text and I
figure you're getting power pointed to death over a couple of weeks ago. Um, again,
we'll, we'll keep this, um, short and relatively sweet. Um So first I will go
in and, um, you know, unfortunate that I have uh a monthly audience with you with
our um briefings along with public health. So I, I feel like, you know, a lot, um
a lot about dem and the work that we do, but just as a little bit of a refresher
um department of Emergency Management, our role is to help the county uh prepare
for respond to and recover from major disasters. Um We do that by managing the emergency
operations center. Um We leverage volunteers very heavily to do that. Um We manage
an emergency worker program and partner, the State Emergency Management Division
to badge and credential volunteers to go forward and respond to emergencies. Um We
write plans and procedures on how to respond and we conduct community outreach um
to give folks tools um to be able to prepare themselves in the face of a major disaster.
And we are a very small department um uh because we do leverage volunteers in the
community so heavily. Um We're a total of 3.6 FTEs um in our department with 1.6
of those being um grant funded part time clerk hires. Um And so we get annual funding
from the state and from fa to fund those um fund those four people who are 0.4 FTEs
each. Um Last year was a very interesting year for us as it was our first um out
of the COVID pandemic. Um We had a three year response that really pretty much took
out all of our time and resources for three years straight. And we had a theme last
year that was, uh we called it back to basics trying to re-establish ourselves and
conduct um an attempt at conducting business as usual um throughout the, the year
in 2023 and we were able to on board just our 1st, 2nd, full time staff member in
Anna Piasecki, um who was brought on as a, a volunteer program coordinator as well
as helping out with some grant and finance stuff. I mean, as you heard um earlier
in the month at our briefing, she is unfortunately leaving us. I'm just a little
bit less than a year later due to the housing issues and some, some other stuff.
So more sad to, to see her go. But over 2023 conducted a, a lot of great work. We
started up our outreach and education yet again. Um We worked with our neighborhood
preparedness group to, to revamp their program and develop some new training materials
to kind of rejuvenate them coming out of COVID. Um We held our first um in person
tabletop exercise this spring, a simulated tsunami response. Um We got a, a fe a
accreditation for our Medical Reserve Corps, our group of doctor and nurse volunteers
to help um augment the healthcare sector during a major emergency. Um We just restarted
trainings for the community emergency response team. Um Another F ma training program
um and also implemented a, a tiered cert volunteer system. Um, that pretty soon we're
gonna hopefully be able to deploy our local volunteers to national disasters through
this program. And we worked with public health to um develop severe weather sheltering
plans in the case of heat, smoke and other inclement weather. Um We've started to
work to formalize our local disaster, air response team program, a local group of
private volunteer pilots um to help fly supplies in and up during a disaster. Um
We have also, I think most excitedly with, through the work of Anna, um streamlined
our volunteer intake process, um developed a uh we, we've acquired an online database
um to be able to streamline the volunteer process. We've revamped our badging and
credentialing program to match F MA standards and really professionalized our intake
to be able to better leverage um recruit, train and deploy um our volunteers. So,
um 2023 a good year kind of re-establish back to basics for us. Um Coming, coming
out of the COVID pandemic. Um So going into 2024 we're not requesting um any significant
change in budget. Um Obviously, we're gonna be looking at replacing Anna. Um Despite
how irreplaceable she was, we're gonna do our best and we're gonna look at replacing
that position as soon as possible. Um I mentioned a little bit earlier that those
four clerk hires are grant funded through two fa grants. Um And those grants additionally
fund some of our outreach and education programs, um specifically the All County
Picnic and a bunch of the materials that we print to distribute throughout the year.
Um One of the big concerns on an ongoing basis, um is that, that grant funding is
either going to be pulled from us, um decreased significantly, um, or just the priorities
from fa will change and we'll have to potentially spend that on something else besides,
um, the sustainment that we've been spending it on for so many years, unfortunately,
for 2024 that revenue stream looks to be, um, pretty much identical to what we have
been receiving in years past, so, no major changes there. Um 2025 continues to be,
um uh up in the air, we won't know until about mid to late 2024 but we're assuming
that we will, um, that we will get similar grant funding um to what we had gotten
previously. Um Yeah, so the only, the only change for 2024 some of the uh salary
increases as part um of the, of the, you know, Countywide, um bump there, um, in
2024 what we're hoping to do in terms of our work plan. Um The theme for that right
now is looking to be to deepen our bench to really lean into recruiting volunteers.
Um, uh, we've had a great year for on boarding, a great number of volunteers, um,
especially those who had come out of the woodwork during the COVID-19 pandemic, we
had about 450 people on our general roster to help out with our vaccine clinics to
distribute masks and other things. So we've been working to on board them. Um But
we really hope to look to recruit leadership volunteers to develop them. Um And to
really continue to build our team based on the infrastructure that we've put in place.
Um Over 2023 we're also really looking to start to document historical knowledge
um from some volunteers who are um starting to uh look to retire from their second
career as a volunteer, um especially as a number of them have also um either left
the county or gone to pursue um opportunities. Um We're also looking to update our
comprehensive emergency management plan throughout the year. Um That's due um on
a five year cycle, we got a year extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Um So we'll have to have that updated by December of next year. Um Finally, in 2025
the, the second half of this biennium budget request, um what we are looking for
um is a another position here in Dem. Um We were fortunate enough to add a position
about a year ago. I'm working in volunteer programs and finance. Um I'm looking to
continue to expand the Dem Staff footprint. I'm specifically in someone to, to work
in operations and planning And if, if Mark or Judy, if you don't mind pulling up
our organizational chart one more time, um It looked like that screen share had stopped.
I think this might be, might be the one thing that will be helpful as a visual aid
for me. Um We've developed the dem organizational structure to match the incident
command system, the the language of first responders that we use to manage the EOC
um right now with um an A P Seki position, um We have her managing the finance portion
of that organizational chart and would like um her, her successor to take over the
logistics um managing human and physical resources as well. On the right half of
that chart, um On the left, we have the operations and planning side. Um And I'm
looking specifically for another staff member to help take over um the operations
and planning portion um of the dem um staff footprint and activities um to really
help expand our capacity um in the face of climate change and the increased number
of responses that we are experiencing. Um you know, coming out of COVID, we immediately
had a major windstorm um on November 6th, that was a federally declared disaster
and we have routine power outages, snowstorms and, and other winter storms um throughout
the, the winter. Um This summer, we've had a number of very close calls with wildfire.
Um We've had inclement weather um in the summer over the past number of years including
the heat dome, smoke from outside the area. Then we have the ever looming threat
on top of the climate change, induced disasters of a major Cascadia abduction, Z
on earth, a tsunami. Um about a year and a half ago, there was the uh uh volcano
that erupted underwater in Tonga that caused a tsunami advisory across the state.
Um And so that was a another 3 a.m. response that our small dem staff in conjunction
with our, our volunteers and partners had to put together um as we built the infrastructure
through logistics and finance, being able to add additional capacity on the operations
and planning side, um would really allow us to meet the challenge of climate change
um as well as the increased expectations and demands from our community coming out
of COVID as they see what we can do here um within DEM and are becoming more and
more aware um around issues of disaster preparedness. I'm specifically in 2025 being
able to add that additional staff member. Um Our theme for 2025 after kind of back
to basics in 23 I'm focusing heavily on recruitment in 24. I'm 25 is the year we
hope to build capacity through training and exercise. Um So one thing that has been
missing um honestly, really in my, my five years um here in the county um has been
our ability to put together large scale exercises to actually test and stress and
strain response systems in a simulated environment. Um So we, uh about seven years
ago now, it was 2016, we were able to participate in a statewide earthquake exercise
called Cascadia A Rising. And we really haven't been able to locally do something
like that since I'm having someone in the operations and planning side to, um, put
in the, the massive amount of work beforehand to coordinate those major exercises,
um will not only benefit us in dem in the county's response. Um but responses of
our partners and our ability to work together as well. So in 2025 looking to build
large train um exercises, um train more and more frequently as we've started this
year. But we have a lot more to do and a lot more capacity to build and then actually
um start holding again, more, more regular trainings, more regular exercises and
focus specifically on writing some of the specialty, more focused plans um that we
haven't been able to put together the last few years. Um Things like our animal response.
So I'm focusing on being able to evacuate and take care of animals on top of people
during a major disaster. Um smaller plans like distributing food and water um on
a more granular level than what we have right now in our um emergency uh management
comprehensive plan um as well as, and I, I'm sure a lot of folks um in that room
will love to hear this, a continuity plan for the county. Um Something that's been
long overdue in putting together that um we've been robbed of the capacity to, to,
to put together. So, um we really would appreciate that single ask of support in
continuing to build capacity here in dem That's not to say we're not always looking
for other means to increase capacity here. Um We will uh through about the beginning
of next year um through the middle of next year. Um We're leveraging an opportunity
called Skill Bridge through the Dod the Department of Defense um to have an intern
um from naval magazine, Indian Island work with us here in Dem Part time um to uh
help in some of our plan writing um for that comprehensive emergency management plan.
So that will add additional capacity we're always looking for for new grants and
new opportunities there. Um Of course, that's hindered pretty greatly by Anna's departure.
Um But she was already bringing in um some money for a medical reserve corps um through
her work on the grant side. So, um that's where we're at in terms of emergency management.
I'm happy to answer questions, take comments at this point in time. Um Otherwise
I, I always appreciate the support and uh yeah, thanks so much. Great. Thank you
very much Willie. And I, I'm not sure if uh any department's done more with less
than the last couple of years So you've certainly demonstrated the need to have some,
some, uh, capacity and emergency management. Yeah, I appreciate that. But someday
it would be nice to do more with more. I know. I know we, I, I hear you questions
for Willie Com. Is there overlap between operations and logistics? Can they seem
to, they would have inform each other? Right. Yeah. And all four of those, um, the
I CS sections are very synergistic. Um So there are overlap between the two of them
here and there. Ok.
Um Lily, I'm curious, I think a couple of years ago we were talking about your um
desire for a volunteer coordinator. Um Has that shifted? And, or do you think of
it falling under a particular role or just curious? Yeah, that, that was Anna's role.
Her primary job was volunteer coordinator. Um When kind of rethinking her role a
little bit to include like logistics and finance with volunteer coordinations being
the bigger piece under logistics, which includes, you know, human and physical resources.
Um That was uh 85 to 90% of her work and I can't speak highly enough to what she
built in terms of a volunteer intake process for us. Um She was starting to work
with other county departments as well, specifically parks and recreation to build
some um volunteer capacity with them that was slated for some work this winter um
with Matt Tyler over there. Um And she had worked with public health um to provide
them volunteers for some of their outreach events. So, um in his position is that
volunteer coordinator role specifically. Um but just like everything here in de and
we end up wearing a lot of hats. So she was also doing great stuff. And I also wanted
to throw a little bit of logistics on their um uh physical resource on top of it
all. Ok, great. So it just isn't reflected in her title. OK. And I think to another
um uh priority for you a couple of years ago was um getting some support for social
media and communications. Um ha has that been folded in, in a another, you know,
we have Kepi obviously um but that folded in elsewhere or are you able to utilize
Wendy Davis? Um or kind of what's the status of CS which I think is so, you know,
so important and um I was always pushing for more of that throughout COVID. Yeah.
So we, unfortunately, we had some grant money set aside for a part time social media
coordinator for us. We ended up spending that elsewhere rather than onboarding another
person. Um We do end up leveraging Wendy quite a bit. Um She has been a fantastic
partner and anytime we need anything on social media, we, we go to her and um she's
at the point now where she usually, by the time we call her, she's already on it.
So um she's kind of dem social media support. Um In the interim, um Long term, we
are still looking um through those grants um from Fe Ma and State E MD to carve out
some more money for a um social media coordinator for us. Um But in the interim,
you know, we have those four that we're able to support and then our outreach and
education, the the programs, you know, including the cost of the All County Picnic,
some printed materials and that's all we've been able to afford thus far. But that's
still hopefully next. Great. Thank you. I'm glad that Wendy is helpful. Yeah, very
much. So. Great. Kind of a general question, Willie. I'm just wondering, I mean,
we, we ii I hear you and the need for capacity and the, you know, the desire to do
more with more and, you know, we certainly learned the need to develop slack into
our systems, especially our emergency systems. Do you think that the F ma and federal
appropriations have learned that as well? Do you see the landscape uh changing at
all or becoming? Are there more opportunities on, on the funding for from the national
level? Yeah. You know, there, there have been some more opportunities um coming out
of COVID, but they've mostly been directed to public health um since our public health
system was neglected for so long. Um They are rightly so receiving um a bulk of the
attention and the funding um from, from our legislators um at the federal and the
state governments as well, we have not seen an increase in funding for emergency
management um from the federal or state levels quite yet. Um Especially considering
the fact that um there has been so much funding uh to pay for some of the catastrophic
responses. Um In fact, just over the past month or so, f ma paused all non life saving
funding um to local jurisdictions because their disaster fund was so low. Um So we
have not seen that funding boost. Um There has been a lot of money um into public
health um that will help us in our um specifically around that Medical Reserve Corps
um as well as the um implement weather sheltering, um our public health. Um They've
been great in securing um air conditioners and air filtration um and air monitoring
systems. Um They're gonna have some money coming up for Medical Reserve Corps development.
So we're benefiting from that money. Um But we have not received um much of a bump
directly as of yet. Thanks. Um Lily, since you are one of our
more um one of our departments that's more as a proportion of your budget, probably
more funded by the federal dollars than um others. Um You know, we averted a government
shutdown but, you know, it seems very, very possible that we could be facing that
again with your fund balance. Like how much of a cushion do you have, if there were
to be a government shutdown? Is that something you have to worry about in terms of
cash flow or um do you feel pretty secure even if there were to be a shutdown of
a month or two months? Yeah, we um our, our grant funding is on a, a reimbursement
scale that is uh every quarterly um at the, at the minimum sometimes longer. Um We
do have a, a grant every so often that will reimburse at the, the end of the grant
after an 11 or 12 month cycle. Um So a government shutdown of a month or two wouldn't
affect us directly. Um But once we start talking three months or more, especially
if it was in the middle of, you know, let's say a grant application cycle that we
were hoping to have wrapped up so we could start spending those dollars comfortably.
Um That would then start to affect us a little bit. Um For the time being. Um Again,
a government shutdown month or two wouldn't be hugely impactful of us depending on
the timing um longer than that. Um again, would, would start to start to, to worry
us a little bit, um especially as it relates to our clerk hires. Um Again, they're,
they're just about half of our FTEs. Um and do, and honestly, they, they work um
16 hours a week, that's what we pay them for. They end up volunteering a lot more
than that. So I don't think we would say goodbye to them. Um, but it would hamper
our operations, um, pretty significantly. Thank you.
All right, I guess. Uh, yeah. Well, thank you very much, Willie. And uh it's, it's
great to see you. I know you guys do a lot over there though. I have to say I really
only ever seen you wear the one hat but uh it's, uh, it's good to see you. I appreciate
the work. I should have asked for a bigger hat budget, maybe, maybe 26 27 maybe.
All right. Take care.
All right. Uh Folks need a little break or anything or should we, we have our, we
have many of our public health guests with us. All right. Yeah, let's take, let's
take five. We'll come back at, at 2 25. I'll reassess until 2 25. Just getting in.
She promoted. Ok. So you're gonna have to leave your audio there. So just leave the
audio at the meeting and mute the computer that to the Panelist. Denise hadn't approved
her Panelist. All right, I'll call us back into session. Both Veronica and Denise
should uh accept the promotions to panelists. Hello, Denise and Barb online and Michael
and now Veronica, you're welcome to share. You should be able to share your screen
now and, and tee up the, the presentation and good to have the uh team arrayed in
front of us and online. Yeah. That's some firepower.
That's what the Commissioner brother said when he came in. I was like, what do you
mean that your home loaded for Bear? Ok.
Screen. Um It's all the stuff I know I'm getting rid of it. You might get, you
might stop the share and get it set up for presentation and then reshare easiest
when you share, you should be able to choose what screen is shared and then I just
need to get back to you.
Yeah,
I know but it was out of present or you know, presenting when.
So once I get in here um let me let me um oh.
Mhm.
Um It's not.
Oh
mm
but we're all actually this room.
Mm
sorry guys. No, no, no worry. Take your time.
Mm
You have me Supreme. We see a manager.
Yeah, here we a there.
Thank you.
Ok.
Your family. Oh hi. Mhm. All right. Take it away Veronica
and please do focus with the the microphone especially that we have to be pretty
close. Ok? And anyone else online can hear?
Ok. Ok. Thank you everyone. Um Another budget down.
So um uh as you see, uh Jen Mitchell has joined me and
Pinky Mingo and Alisa Hasr and online we have Denise uh Maner and
Bob Jones. Um So
we need to go in here,
Json County Public Health 2024 2025 bi annual budget and we are going to
today present to you. Um some highlights of our key factors in our current budget.
We're gonna review some funding, we're gonna share some plans on some services and
also um review our department. Um And then with that,
um we're going to discuss some trends um in the revenue and expense areas.
We're gonna discuss some fund balances and our utilization and carry forward. Um
Also some like I mentioned earlier, some expansion of services increased staffing
and S or space concerns or office space concerns. Um prior year refund um our current
challenges and what we're doing to look forward
and please, by all means, if you have any questions as we're going through this,
please just jump in. Sounds good. So trends, revenue expense and uh full time equivalents.
So we thought it was a good idea to um
there we go to um go over our um revenue and expense trends. Um
And the way we did it in this um graph is we look at our, in our
division individually. Um So it on this graph, you can see the salaries and benefits
um in the blue and in the orange um is our other expenses and then the line shows
you what our revenue trend is, is looking like and this is just administration division.
So we're gonna go through these pretty quick, fairly quickly. Um And then we're gonna
show you what the department looks like. Can I ask a question about this? Absolutely.
So it looks like in 20 like up through 21 the ratio of other to salaries and
benefits is smaller and then in 23 it got a lot bigger. What happened in that other
category to make that percentage of the um
expense. Yeah, I can tell you that our, my projection in 2023 we had some F DH S
dollars that were new that came to us. Um Ju July starting in July. Um some of that
was in Pinky's area um social services uh social services work. Um
and we have yet to figure out how to move forward with that at this time. Um And
so I did add some expenses to to that area um under contract uh special
services to offset that revenue.
Any other questions right now? Ok.
So in this division this is environmental p oh wait, let me go back because that
was admin. So I um answered incorrectly please. Excuse me. So this is admin. I uh
sorry, Commissioner um Eisenhower, I will have to look at what those uh expenditures
under other are for and under admin. Ok. Yeah, just it's a striking, it is striking.
Mhm But definitely in 2023 I did that in um environmental public health because that's
where those that really um so this is environmental health um same thing uh
same layout to jump at 24
dovetailing with the revenue. Yeah. Mhm.
And this is community home. Mhm.
Does look a lot like cigarettes just saying?
Oh, right
there,
filter filters are getting bigger over the years
first. Yeah. At least they have filters. Just a pen. Um, ok. And this is, uh, developmental
disabilities
and, you know, that makes sense that she has more expense than other in salaries
and benefits since she's basically one, it's pretty flat down in the green.
And then, um, this is, uh, this is the department as a whole. So all those divisions
added up. This is the department as a whole. Wow. In six years, your revenue doubled,
your, your, your whole line is doubled again. 4 to 8. So it looks like,
wow, you guys are just rolling in the dough. This is FPHS that has thrown us kind
of, it skewed us. Um Just, it highlights the emphasis on public health statewide.
Yeah. Can I the only as we're going through if there's only one of them? Now, I'm
forgetting which one which seemed to have uh expenses higher than revenue, but I
wasn't really looking at the totals in each of those, but community health is the
only one. So is that a, is that significantly higher than the other numbers? I gotta
look at there are some that. So here is um let's see, I went to
Oh yes,
this is development disabilities. You can tell you can see that in 2023 their revenue
is lower than their expenditures. Um And this is,
oh, it's 3,000,035 million
that maybe. And um this is
environmental, public health and, and they're gonna be just about, yup, in
2024. And then this is Admin and you can see Admin's kind of been all over the place.
Um We were way we were actually in the negative in 2020. Um
And it made sense because pandemic hit and we dipped into our reserves big
time with the pandemic. It took a long time for us to get our, our revenue back from
the pandemic. Um We didn't even know what was gonna come to save us from the pandemic
for a long time.
Uh In 2021. No, in 2020. Um Admin started in the negative of over
$100,000 in the whole, why is the revenue going down? I mean, doesn't it get, I don't
know IC R from foundational public health dollars and everything else? I mean, I
guess I don't really under the big bump from 2022. Why is it going down now? Yeah,
I mean, why isn't it the same kind of arc? I would, I would expect it to follow the
arc of the revenue track on the, in the other department of all the right? I mean,
if there's a percentage, I thought that's how admin was paid for basically. So I,
well, admin is not, the arc isn't supposed to continue to go up. We shouldn't, it
generally follow the revenue. But if all the revenue arcs go up except the admin
aren't going down. Why is the admin arc going down if it's a percentage of the revenue
from the other program? So, so, well, it's kind of like a nonprofit. We're not supposed
to be like making money in admin. We're supposed to be covering our costs in admin.
So it's, it's adjusted every single year. So it's just like a cost allocation plan,
you know, you're supposed to adjust that. Well, if you, you're not supposed to be
like making a lot of money, if you were to sum all the bars and you were to sum all
the points for revenue and compare the totals, you'd probably be close to even.
Yeah, and that's what you're supposed to be doing and that's exactly what we do every
year. Ok, I'm just trying to stare and compare and, and looking at, looking at that
and I'm sure. Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, we definitely and we do it through them. Admin does with our physical admin
fee and we adjust our physical admin fee. So yeah, so we definitely try to come out
as flush as you know, possible. So we're not making money, we're not charging the
other divisions too much or to us. Um So yeah, so why the drop in 24?
So if you can, if you see that the, if you see 2020 in the hole, right? So that's
because we have prepay, we are paying for the pandemic before we get reimbursed.
So then we finally start getting reimbursed in 2021 and 2022. And now we're starting
to even out because we're finally back in. Uh, yeah. Right. We're
finding back in the blood. Ok. So, does that make sense? No, but the question was
why, why are we going back down in 24 on, on the revenue side? Yeah. Well, the reason
why we're back down in the book is because now we're starting to spend money and
we're gonna be billing some grants and that revenue will come back in in 2025
eventually. So um yeah it it does balance out. It just kind of go like this. Ok?
Yeah that makes sense
any more questions about is a grand each year. Ok. Or future? Sorry. Mhm.
Good questions. Ok.
Oh did I go too far? No. Well that's where we were last. Ok so that's the
or? Oh yeah. Do we talk about? Ok, we need to go back to work for.
Ok, so here's water quality and water quality has very few revenue sources,
grants, special assessment dollars and um a small transfer from General Fund for
Lakes. So here you can see that um their revenue
has been kind of up and down too. But again, you know, you have this little spike
in 2021 and then now it drops back down.
That's just how it's been with this pandemic. It's just been kind of weird, but I'm
gonna show you later on in some of these uh other charts, they are going to be in
a deficit in 2024 and they are going to be in the red come 2025 if something
doesn't happen. Um And we are gonna explain that a little bit more as we go on for
now, this um chart I always like to look at, at something like this or at the, I
always put a chart together like this, that really explains how our revenue sources
pay for our FTEs. Um To me, it's just a little way to check things like say, for
instance, if you look at the glands down here, um that's the second cluster of columns.
Um That's the columns are 2021 and 2022. The lines are 2023 and 2024.
So as you can see, um 2021 for grants and 2022 for
grants, they, it actually our grant revenue went up in 2022 and then if you look
at 2023 the grade line and grants, they actually went up again, but then they dropped
down in 2024. And that is reality for us. Um
our grant revenue is going down. Um Now, the good thing is is that our state
entitlement revenue, which does include FPHS goes up. So we, that's good.
Um We just don't know if our FPHS dollars are going to continue to go up or
they're gonna just, I'm just saying that that's something significant to keep track
of. So that would seem to present a, a challenge in managing staff because you get
a grant specifically for this, you gotta a certain kind of person to do that and
then your grant over here on some other program goes down and you hired somebody
to do that work who has a specific skill set. You have to let that person go if you
don't have a grant revenue and then you have to hunt for a person to do this. Is
that something you see happen? Hopefully not, but has it happened in mcdonald's?
No, typically not. We typically don't go from rent or outside our, our services.
Yeah. Right. I mean, that the, the state entitlement, the, that's the foundation
of public health, right? I mean, that's just going, it's kind of breaking the chart
right now, right. So, I mean, do you guys have an idea? I mean, that is that the
indications that I've seen is that's like a new, uh, it's the new standard, not an
aberration, but I guess I'm wondering what your analysis of, you know, I mean, of
course, it's the whim of the legislature but, uh, um, it's a spike on a spike right
now. We see, you know, another million dollars in fps at HS every, every, every consent
agenda. It seems to me Yeah, I think we, um, hope for the best and then plan for
the worst on that one. It's been part of our managerial discussion as far as. Ok.
Well, if at p just magically disappears, where do we go from there? So, it's a continuing
conversation right now. This is what we have. But what do we need to support ourselves
in the future? If anything happens to any amount of this money that we realistically
are kind of dependent on at this point,
we also have to be concerned about FPHS dollars because some of it is um categorical,
like, you know, you can only spend a year, you can only spend a year, only $520,000
of our over 2 million FPHS dollars is flexible.
So
that's unfortunate. So this is just interesting, you know, that our grants that we've
had um like in 2021 for funding for, you know, like in
2021 for about 15 FTEs in 2022 it funded just over 16 FTEs.
So it's kind of nice to kind of put that in perspective when we have over 40 some
employees, you know, it kind of puts that in perspective.
This is the same graph. Um But it's super water quality, you know, again, you know,
they, they rely on their grant dollars and their special assessment dollars and the
special assessment dollars are located here in the Mercedes.
So now we're on to expenses
genuine soccer. Um So this is,
this is a chart and the next one as well where you'll see just the actual uh projected
dollar values, the cost, the additional cost. So not an actual salary cost but the
additional cost of it will put to public health with the UFCW increases. So that's
the 4% for the remainder of 2023. Um The 3% increase for 2024 and
the 2% for 2025. Yeah. So these are our additional costs over the next three years.
So at least you were approved in advance and were retroactive, recover these
costs. But these amounts, these three amounts will actually be added to each other,
right? So at the end of 2025 this bar is the sum of all.
Ok. So 500 K edition of the annual, I just want to say something to Mark's comment
though. I appreciate the fact that you guys started early on the bargaining contract.
Kudos big time. Um And it does help us in, in with our budget. However,
that's your statement is not entirely accurate in the fact that because you guys
were able to get it done so early or at or a little earlier, um It doesn't mean that
we can recover this uh these costs in from our grants because our grant applications
go out earlier. It's not true. Um So it, so um although I will say that we
do our best to build an uh uh an increase in our grant applications anyway. Um
However, these increases or not, there's no way for us to capture a 7%
increase in a given year. We, we're doing state fiscal year, federal fiscal year.
Um So no, we, there's no way for us to, to, to capture all of that. Um And
um our environmental public health uh grants are more flexible or they do allow us
to build an increase of our clinical grants. Our commu community health grants do
not. We we rarely do. We get to build in an increase with those. So those are
flat but but and also note the reason that 2024 is so much higher is because we
dropped those first three tiers um for salary levels. So some people are getting,
you know, 16 to 20% increase on their salary just by dropping those three ones. And
we do have a decent number of younger employees that were in that in that. Yeah,
and changing the steps from 2.5 to 3. Yeah. So as soon the top stuff, it's 3.5 plus
the three. Yeah.
And then the next one is water quality. Yeah, same thing just showing the impact
over the next three years of our expected additional costs, obviously much smaller
divisions, so much smaller impact, but still with their decreasing revenue, this
is going to affect. Yeah. So um I forgot how many years ago when we presented our
budget we presented, um, or we shared our goal that we were not going to go out for
as many grants that we were gonna live off of maybe one or two grants and then the
special assessment options. Well, the, the bargaining member
or the bargaining contract increases that have taken place since 2020.
Um, some, I mean, they're substantial, I mean, since the 9% increase that 1 9% I
mean, um Michael's budget or water Poly's budget, they can't cover
those costs. I mean, they just can't, um, because the cola is the CP I increases
for that one fee, the special assessment dollars or only, you know, 3% or even 2%
whatever they have, then I can't remember those exact increases. So, um, unfortunately,
I mean, I will take accountability or responsibility for not coming to you back
then when those 9% and those other big increases were approved. I didn't ask for
the county to cover those large increases for water quality's budget. Um, uh, and,
you know, at the time, I didn't think it was necessary but the compounding problem
is now apparent. Um And so I will most likely be having conversations with Judy
and Mark about that. Um, I've talked to Michael about Mike Mike Dawson about this.
Um,
do you commissioners have, um, any comments or any, um, advice? I mean, do you, would
you prefer Michael and his team to go out and get grants. I mean, it's a lot of work
to go out and get grades and it's a lot of work to manage grades and that's all Michael
has done in his career with public health or in his career with Jefferson County.
Um, he's good at it but it takes a lot of work, uh, you know, and he's, he, he's
doing it. But, um, yeah, you know, I mean, when, when the county makes decisions
like big increases like that, I mean, is it the department's responsibility to run
out and get a new grant to cover those or should,
should we come to you for those increases those co costs those temper? I mean, off
the top of my head, I would say it's probably like a, it's like, you know, we unders
we understand. I'm sure that Mark's thought about this and his budget analysis but
that there will be a need to help cover some of it. But I hope also that we rise
to the occasion and look for other sources of revenue. And I think that that's fair.
I do. I mean, am I wrong, am I, is that an accurate analysis or you're not wrong?
It's just those immediate ones, you know, that they add up those real big ones? Ok.
Well, I, I believe that it should be assured.
I mean, Kate, do you have any other perspective on that question? No, I mean, it's
it's why we have partly why we have fund balance. Right. Like it's a timing issue.
The grants that are being worked on currently don't have the, the new salaries, um,
to, uh, you know, they, they were not, the new salaries were not applied for. So
there's, there's a shortfall and, you know, in theory, fund balance should cover
that. And then as you start applying for new grants, you would put in the, the new
salaries or even the um you know, anticipated of knowing that they're gonna be increasing.
Um And so it's good that we have a few years out to be able to do that projection
now. Um So yeah, I think it is, I think it's both and there's a, a bit of a timing
l that um we have to cover but I I don't see it as a long term problem.
Yes.
Ok. Just sing it my response. Ok. Ok. Thank you.
Um This one just reviews. Um In 2023 we had the unanticipated medical insurance
costs that were definitely not included in what we had budgeted for. And we had to
make up that over $500,000 in addition expenses um so unexpected and then just projecting
what 2024 should look like with a 6% increase. Um and then possibly a couple of the
different ft needs if that is the direction that the divisions would like to head
with adding people depending on funding availability.
Yeah, that um, insurance uh really hit us hard.
Right. Well, we did enjoy the fruits of a holiday.
It was a short holiday longer for the staff.
And then these are cost allocation for things such as building rents, equipment,
phones and vehicles. So these are all bills and fund billing. Um, and
the things have within significantly, the cost of everything is going up at a significant
rate and it just shows how much over even just from 2023 to 2024 how much
our expenses are going? Um The major increases are in rent and equipment costs. Um
And then regarding the rentals, we're already at capacity in our current space, which
is the next
slide. Uh Since 2000, Washington State has maintained a space allocation standard
for a single space target of 215 square feet per person. So here's where we sit
currently based on that expectation. Uh In the main building, we are currently at
capacity uh with about 223 square feet per person. Um and water
quality, which is the detached space. We have about 100 and 24 square feet per person.
Uh DV hr over at public works with about 100 and 20. And then our totals for all
of our occupied spaces is about 202 square feet. We average it all out so that leaves
us with an additional about 1000 square feet. That we need to meet this standard.
Um And with the expectation of possibly increasing our staff, um where do we go with
that? So that, that last um little bubble that's, we would like to house everybody
again together because it's a, we're a department and it's, that's what we would
like, you know, it's so much more convenient, it's more efficient. Um Yeah, all of
the above, right. Um And so we did request
um more space by 2025. We'll put that in um the capital
uh budget request or capital fund request. And um we know that we're not the only
ones that have this issue. We've been working with um D CD. Uh We meet with D CD
and public works fairly regularly, fairly regularly to talk about office space issues.
Um We've done a number of things to uh help um working remote,
remotely. Um uh you know, we have a number of employees who do work remotely, they
also work hybrid schedules and sharing desk space. We still have people working in
closets. Um Yeah, so again, we know this is
not an easy fix for the county. Um We're trying to be uh team players and we're just
sharing this information. What do we know what that 215 This is where I want. Rico's
Brain, Kate, the Washington State standard, uh 215 square feet per person I have
the document I sent and that includes communal spaces and, ok, because it's big.
It's, but I'll send that to you if you're interested.
I'm, I'm curious too. Um, do, ok, because you, you
said that folks are working from home, like, do you feel like you've, you've reached
a, a stasis with, um, people's, you know, kind of choosing a, a work schedule that's
appropriate for their position. Um, and then, like, do you anticipate that changing
at all? Um, You know, it, there's been a trend of more and more people wanting to
work from home and of course, it's not appropriate for all positions. But um like,
I'm just curious that when we think about space needs in the future, do you anticipate
that changing at all?
Um You know, we've analyzed the positions, people have submitted requests, um and
we've honored some and we haven't honored others, you know, just based on the position
and the need and in our need. Um I think it'll change in the future. Uh You know,
it's hard to say, um, you know, we never knew what would happen with the pandemic.
You know, I mean, the pandemic made us open our eyes. So you never really know what,
what happened in the future based on today. Um
You know, well, I think we all need to be a little flexible in um the current situation
that we are we're faced with. Um And so I think we still need to be more flexible.
Um And you know, given the situation that we're in. So I guess my answer would be
I, I'm sorry for ramping a little bit. Um I don't think it will change. Um, because
of the fact that we're stuck, we're kind of stuck in the situation that we're in.
So, um, we're gonna be hiring more people that we know that we know we're gonna be
adding more people. So we're going to have to analyze as we, as we grow, you know,
and just be flexible. Does this reflect the amount of time people work remotely?
Like if you have one FTE works two days at home? Are they reflected as a 0.6 in this
space here or are they reflected as a full person? They're reflected as this person?
I guess. I'm curious, have you done the analysis on, you know, what's the actual
lived in space? You know, and is that the kind of uh you know, I don't know, third
scheduling that is is on the table that you guys are talking about as you, as you
try to expand and you know what is? Yeah, obviously it's fine. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's,
that's definitely something we're talking about, you know, like shared, we have shared
that, you know, people sharing that. Yeah, I check math in box number 34 80 divided
by four. No, no. The math is perfect and then hm
the heat.
Mhm. I like to double check with no go.
Ok. Um these next two slides, they give you the same information, but in a different
way because sometimes it's easier to view it in a different manner for some people.
Um So this is
uh this is our revenue sources by year since 2018. And then watching how that has
built at the bottom, it shows which part of the little bar belongs to which
piece. So we have grants, state entitlements. These other other is usually a miscellaneous
thing, like we get a refund here or there or some small amount of um general fund,
non categorical, general fund categorical. And then one time transfers, one time
transfers are going to be things like if we did a payout for someone who needs to
pay your and the FPHS money sits in the state entitlements. Yes. Ok. Mhm. Yeah,
that's when that or bar got so much bigger. So,
um and then
this one shows it by funding source and then, then here's our right next to each
other. Um I like this one a little bit better, but they are kind of scrunched in
there together. So, like,
see, it depends. Um So you can see the real increase of our, our grants and our state
entitlements. Uh in general, the fees are, are at a steady increase and everything
else. It, it's kind of about level. Um even though our revenue has increased over
60% it's still not matching, matching the expense growth which is our goal. Um
And part of it, uh part of what we're doing is looking at these which again have
stayed relatively stable. Um uh But evaluating that the inflammatory effects on the
of an increase on the community. So how does that affect our people out of the that
for increase? Sorry.
Um Oh and then water quality revenue sources. Um
It looks like but hopefully on my apology. Um
So there's Yeah, yeah. Um
so again going down but or starting to go down all in all categories even
since 2018, we uh just a smidgen after going much farther up in 2020
and this is that same breath just a long day. OK. Funding
source and fund balance
that she, oh, this is it. Mhm. Ok. So we've been talking about FPHS
and um you know, we could talk about F DH S all day and it's not going to save us
and then, you know, everybody thinks this is going to save public health and it's
not um is it helping? Yes, but you know, I like I said earlier,
520,000 of the 2.3 million that we're getting is flexible. Everything else
is not so it's categoric. So um I just want to really emphasize
that um we are looking at um you know,
how, how can we use F DH S to fill some of the gaps? Yes, we are doing that. Um
We are looking at expanding some of our services. Um but I wanted to show that. Yeah,
our first year of FPHS funding in 2017 was only 42,000. And yeah, it's grown quite
a bit and it is substantial. So, with that city, can I mention some? Oh,
gosh, yes, it is. I correct me. But the 500,000 of FPH is the FPHS that's
flexible. Um Does have limitations. It can't be used for permitting related expenses.
So, um any staff to review septic permits, staff to review food permits to food inspections
can't be used, I think. Right. I, I always imagine it on the community health side,
I guess. Oh my gosh. No, no, no, no. F DH S. There's, there's quite a bit of money
that is being earmarked for, for environmental public health, but it's for services
that are not funded by be ok. So we'll kind of get into that a little bit. I look
forward to learning about that and I can just add to at least the directors being
the whole thing forward from the directors being um this last um that they are not
anticipating any increases like our other skating problems at the Department of College.
So we're not gonna, they told us not to anticipate any cost of living CP I investment
that, that money is the money. So even now the money that we got for F DH S is already
already spent and already not enough for that.
Mhm. So, um some of the things we just wanted to find out, two of the four of our
divisions will use a portion of their care for in 2024 we've already mentioned that
earlier.
Um, and in 2025 the deficit continues to rise. Now I'm not gonna spend any time on
2025 the today. Sorry, but I don't really, I'm gonna be honest, I don't spend much
time on 2025 bedroom because we don't have that much information for 20. The only
thing that's really accurate in that 2025 budget is the salary schedule and the general
fund and the cost of that's pretty much it.
Um So we need to find the balance where revenues cover the costs
and have the least amount of impact to our customers, you know, because we know especially
during this pandemic that we can really have an impact on our people
restaurants. Oh my gosh, you know, install, I mean, everybody, we can impact so many
people we know that and um we have to be careful. Um So um and then
the last bullet like it says public health must remain resilient through instances
of emergency and large unforeseen costs. So um with all that said,
here's our, here's a chart I put together to talk about B balance. So
we have asked this question, what is an appropriate fund balance for public health?
You know, and I don't really get a straight answer. Um I'm not pointing any fingers.
It's just hard to, I mean, you know, there is, I know we have a resolution or a thing
but it doesn't actually spell out a dollar amount or a percentage. Um, so I wanted
to show this that yes, you know, look at that fund balance mark. Are you looking
at that for? I know you see that fund balance and it is high. I'm just calling it
out because I know you guys know it. But if you look at the trend and you look at
the revenue and expense, our revenue is now going to be lower than our expense. And
what I also want to point out is we covered our expenses during the pandemic for
the first almost year and nobody, nobody helped us. No,
we did that and guess what else we covered? We covered all of our benefits. Nobody
helped us with that over $500,000. That was not budget. We covered good work.
Exactly. And so what I wanna point out is that we have to be prepared as we always
do to cover another emergency and then another outbreak and not have to worry about
anybody else covering us. We have to be prepared for that. Nobody else does. We do.
Well, I mean, you're not alone, right? We aren't, I don't think so.
Dollars did public help get during that pandemic?
I mean, how many did you just said you didn't need it. But if you need it, do you
think you would, if you look at our budget in 2019? Not afterwards in
2019, what public health had to cover that pandemic or respond to that end? We had
nothing and we did it. And I'm asking, what did the county provide public health
out of all of the COVID dollars the county did? Or the arpa dollars the county had?
What did public health get? I don't know. Well, and you were getting additional funding
from doh from the state. We didn't have that commissioner at that time. We didn't
have anything at that time. We created a huge spreadsheet for mark
to request funding to request finding. I had to do so many versions of that spreadsheet
for you all. And I'm not complaining, I'm pointing out facts that public health must
be prepared to respond because we had nobody. I'm
being honest. So this, this orange revenue line here that spikes up the pandemic.
That this does not reflect a huge increase in revenue. What are you, what are you
referring to or an orange revenue line?
In what year? 2021? We saw pretty good increase in the fiber that 633,000
direct that we
got.
We have. But what I'm saying is we had to have a fund balance to cover everything
before any of those grant dollars and any of the F ma dollars came through and it
took over what, over a year to even get any of those FEMA dollars? That's what I'm
saying. And you have, and you have one now, so you're well positioned to weather.
Exactly. That's what I'm saying. What do you think an appropriate balance is? Well,
I think an appropriate balance is exactly what we have because that's what we've
had for three years now. And it's worked actually court and it's worked. But
all I'm pointing out commissioners is there have been times where we've been criticized
for our healthy fund balance from a few people. And I just asked them when they
criticize us for our healthy fund balance, what is a health? What is too much, what
should we have? Um, last year we um 100 and 55,000 of our general fund was
taken from us, um, because of our fund balance, I guess, y you know,
no, it wasn't just the fund balance. I don't have a mind if you like to respond,
not just the fund balance, we're gonna have to answer this doctor. Well, II, I
know transfers has come up in the past earlier today. So the same process that we
did with D CD and other departments was to evaluate how much fund balance they did
now how much they expected in revenues and see whether or not. Um And it was another
situation of where, you know, public health and other departments continue to get
more money every year without, without any support for that ask. So when we did the
support for the ask and then we, we met and we actually um then came to a place of
agreement of what and we only cut it by 100 and 55,000. So in, in my mind, that's
just, that's not a large amount, but it was what we could do to be fair with also
cutting other departments that have fund balances such as yourself. So it, it did,
it did impact that, you know, fund balance did impact that. So um yeah, I'm I'm not
complaining about that, reduced the transfer to the community development, but
they're from the time with the promise that if they needed more, they care and that
promise exists for public health
and, and, and looking at that fund balance, um I don't think you need help at the
moment. I, I let's, let's, I think we're, we're losing productive uh motion, I think
right now. So, I mean, you know, again, this is just to show our numbers which that's
what we're here to do. We're not, we're here to talk about the budget for the next
two years, right? And we all agree that having a fun balance makes sense. So what's
we've been saying it over and over and over again for about 20 minutes. So what's,
what else do we need to know about that? Absolutely nothing. All right. What's the
next slide, expanding services.
So um working uh so again, you know, fun balance is fun balance, but I would like
some um some guidance there, I guess because I would like to go to the Board of Health
um to establish an actual reserve reserve policy. Yeah, yeah, excellent.
Um Working with the pro um again, so this is expanding services, working with the
port towns of school district um uh to expand the school based health um clinic services.
They are focusing on Blue Heron. Um Again, this is something that's there in the
process. Um Students have requested services at this location. Um This would
eliminate their need or their requirement to actually travel up to the high school.
Um And again, you know, we can go on and on about how important these services are,
but uh we don't want to do that. Explorers. Um And thank you. And then um there's
a community meeting scheduled at the end of this month and then I'll let you talk
about all this next for if you don't mind. Um And so part of our FPHS money, we do
get some funding for um doing social services program along with King County. And
right now, we're looking at potentially going out to bid for a social services worker.
And the intent of the goal of this program is really to develop a um alternative
environmental enforcement program for those people with orient disorder, mental health
illnesses. Um where we have, you know, several of our, of our um complaints
where there are o other, other issues going on there. Um And just the, both from
a compassionate uh uh point of view as well as effectiveness, we know that our current
enforcement programs aren't effective for that um community. And so we would like
to hire somebody that would come and develop those policies and their seniors that
we would need to implement that program. So that would be step on using more foundational
public service. Love it. That does seem like a reasonable F DH s uh Great. Thank
you.
And so, and then, um this year we purchased a little, um
Yeah, like
I, I'm not sure. But anyway, it's really awesome. And so now we have a mobile harm
reduction um service available in the community and um which is fantastic
and we are um definitely needing more space like we've mentioned throughout this
presentation um because we will be adding to that
department review. Um You know, we spent 2023 in our status quo
mode, post pandemic. Um And we're gonna be focused on returning to foundational and
we were focused on returning to foundation services. So current challenges, you know,
we're still bound to outdated, recording with and tracking with the, you know, newness.
We're, we're getting, we're still getting most nervous. That's all I can say about
that. Um
I think on, on that note, I know um specifically for some of our tracking. You have
to run three different reports to get all the information we need on one page. And
so it's just inefficient. Um, as we continue to go through it, I know that we are
supposed to have some help with um, report running from there. Um But I think that
will, that's one of our challenges. Yeah, we're getting back, but we're, we could
use more help there. Um I will say though that like Judy and their team, they are
fantastic when it comes to
um looking at him expansion of services and programs, um you know,
increasing accessibility and with ways to extend inclusivity, um always a priority
for us and then balancing the need for additional space increase. Can folks
who have um financial limitations uh receive a reduced fee like we're doing right
now to lift solid waste transportation fees? Is that something you guys have done
in the past or do or? Yeah, we, we do in environmental health. We do that. Ok. So
I'm just seeing this challenge and remaining equitable. I'm just wondering if there's
any way to further um provide access to people by giving them reduced
fees. We definitely do that both in the clinic and both uh now and then the department
won't put a bill.
We, we, we Oh, ok. Yeah. And, and not, we, we don't, we, but you, you do the, so
the V no
waiver but they have to we have to, we have to, it, let's speed that up. Apple is
working on an ordinance that
the health and you do also have the C DB G grant for C
on a. Well, that, that helps, it doesn't really um reduce, it just helps pay.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather pay to treat you and then have you cover half the cost
of my care that might work out better for you. So that's, that's our presentation
for today that it was the last one? Ok. Any questions?
Excellent. No, uh very, very informative. Appreciate it. Um Kate, any questions or
comments, what I can say is you getting Stacy to run for? Uh uh oh
oh
um no, just iii I feel a little little rusty on specific ad requests, but I'll, I'll
go to the book and look those up. You wanna go over those real quick? Did you have
any ad requests? I didn't see any in the book that now? Ok.
Thank you.
All right. Well, great to see you a lot of good work happening and I had the one
by one thing at 23 did not seem like a status quo year. It seemed like you guys really
grew in a lot of great ways. So it was, it was.
Yeah. No, it's a lot of good work. Foundation of public health money is that, does
that have an end horizon? No, but who knows? But there's also no guarantee.
So it's every biennium. Yeah. Ok. Yeah, we're living like, it's not going to,
you know, cheers to Vicky. Right. Like her, she works so hard for that. And like,
if I could just say to you, I think the real risk with foundational public health
services, I mean, other than, uh, you know, a, a big recession or something which
would, where the state would really be looking at drastic reductions but is in, um,
uh new mandates coming attached to that. So, you know, for example, there's concern
that if, if the state does finally adopt the um the new school environmental health
rules that that will come out of that, you know, various obligations will come out
of FPHS. So that's the, I think the AAA more immediate concern. OK,
just take it out of what you already got. Yeah.
Well, I mean, it sounds like most of its categorical already, right? For specific
purposes. So there's less flexibility than I think was imagined when it came, it
came on the horizon. All right. Well, thank you guys very much. Always a pleasure.
Nice to meet you, Jen. Good to see everyone.
All right. And I think uh that was the penultimate presentation right today. So we
have one more, one more. Yes,
seriously. Well, welcome, Stacy. You might want to pass the, the shorty back over
to Judy and you can, yeah. The other ones are much more effective microphone too.
I
have much to say
is uh Thomas joining us at all. He will. Um I told like five minutes ago.
Oh, perfect timing. All right on schedule. Thank you guys. Thanks for being here.
Yes, details. Get them. Can anybody miss that?
You bring your own uh surge protector?
You know,
Thomas is coming down. We can, we can. Uh what's that? I just feel like I gotta yell
out for an hour.
I'm just like only five minutes of it. I know it just feels like I got a serious
headache in that.
Sorry? Yeah. Do you need a little break? I'm taking one
but we'll pay attention.
It's like, you know, you can say a lot of really important information about your
department and the time that you spent yelling at,
sorry, that's probably on recorded.
Yeah, I mean, I just felt
like I saw how, how good it looked with Veronica doing it. So I would go ahead. So
you wanna be. Yeah, there's two of you on there. So I probably, oh, sorry, no worries.
I, one of them will work. Yeah, you're running upstairs too. Ok. And then I see,
I, I'm supposed to do my lesion. I don't know how audio, make sure you do that. Well,
I did that but not sure. But you guys were saying to get that ready before
you in the lower right hand in the corner, straight. Pain it. Ok, then just go your,
ok? That might be overcomplicated. And so then this Yeah,
this, yeah, there you go. Ok, and then I can. Oh, there we
go. Ok. Blue sky. Who took that picture? Oh, nice one. Thank you.
You know that that corner when you're driving in, it's perfect to roll the window
down where you can like. Ok, well, thank you for your time going
over each of our budgets more in detail, I think um as much as this can be intimidating
to some people, I think it's a great opportunity for us to actually talk about what
we do and give broader context to what you normally see and what's happening outside
of your view. Um So, oh, are we supposed to do it? Uh
um, so I decided to go a little different this year instead of a fire hose of data,
we talk more about it and I know that uh Heidi has read every page of it and that
will have detailed questions. So we'll go with the flow there. All right. And
ok, so, uh we have four budgets in the treasurer's office. Treasurer's office is
the one you're used to Jeff com treasurer O and M and the re tech. And I'll go over
all of those and those are pages 3, 18 to 3 40 of the preliminary budget request.
Ok, so we're gonna start off with the most important is the word.
Sure our people. Mhm. So our team, we had a major uh
retirement earlier this year with Sabrina leaving and we have Thomas here. Uh
So we have a lot going on with a very small team. Um And I'm really proud of everyone
for how we've adjusted with such a huge loss of institutional knowledge and just
really stepping up to take care of everything. Uh Thomas has great a accounting skills
and I'm eager to unleash him on quite a few venues that we're trying to uh not scare
him off.
Um And this shows we have uh Katie in our office. She took the NACO high performance
leadership academy training and uh Barb is currently doing that. My goal would be
that we don't limit people's potential. There's always the idea that or the fear
that they could leave. But as they always say, there's the fear they could stay without
the ongoing training and education. And my goal truly is that everyone in my office
could go anywhere but they like it here and gonna stay. So uh we will talk some more
about that. So the treasurer's office is more than counting operations. And I thought
this would be a good visual to show that we're the bank for all of these taxing districts.
We hold all their money, we invest it, we're doing daily transactions or moving money,
uploading their warrants. They issue, there's a subset of them that issue their own
warrants. Some of them, the auditor's office does. So there's a lot of um range of
the financial staffing. We have uh a parks and rec district that has one person and
then we have uh Jefferson healthcare, a huge team of people as does the p the port
and the pud. But um I will now give you a pop quiz. Oh, cool.
Is the home of the Bobcats,
Brennan
Amanda Park,
like Amanda Amanda Park. So, these are all Jefferson County schools.
What's the,
that's what I was saying. That's what I meant by that.
I don't see the red haws on there. Uh They didn't have a logo like that on their
website. They had this uh swoosh for towns and school district. So they are there,
but they've gone for finesse rather than sophisticated. Ok.
And we've got cemetery districts, drainage districts. We're working with all of them
throughout the year and we give them monthly statements on their bank accounts for
giving them information on whether checks cleared. And it's a, a whole cash management
side that is beyond what the county does now, the county could say. Well, um that's
a lot of work. We're not seeing a benefit. Well, you do, we invest everything, we
have anything that they have that's cash that's not invested. We invest in general
fund, gets that cash. So it's not like you can get the interest. That's right. Sorry,
the interest, the interest on all of that money comes in. And so that has gone up
quite a bit. We've also been working with different districts to do more investing.
So, like the library who said, you know, you could put a lot more in and, and I'm
sorry, this takes away doesn't give as much to the general fund, but it's good public
fund management. Quit doing that. It's good management because I work for them too.
And they, they've said that they were able to, uh, staff a whole another FTE with
the interest that was coming in, um, this year. So, anyway, that's just one portion
of it. We've got their debt, we've got all kinds of things for them. Yes. I think
at the last finance committee meeting you talked about your pud pulling up stakes.
Yes. So they have adopted a resolution to become their own treasurer, which I think
is perfectly reasonable and logical. They have a whole team. They do monthly billing.
Um, so that does mean that, uh, they will be taking over their, uh, local improvement
district loans, which they, some of them have been paid off. But of course Marrows
Stone is still there and they're starting to do more with broadband and water systems
and other things. So, I think that they really are poised to be able to do it themselves
and we can kinda get out of the way when they're getting debt and other things that
when I'm the treasurer, exit treasurer, I have to get notified and do different things.
And so they're bringing that in house. My feelings are not hurt. I think it will
be good for them and I think, um, it'll streamline some things for us as well. Ok.
All right. So when we talk about the budget, the treasurer's budget is
quite a bit different than a lot of other budgets in that whole lot of money comes
straight into the general fund. So I just wanted to put up a slide that shows the
budget resources. So I monitor the economic and revenue forecast and I know Kate
gets that as well and reads it uh probably much more, I know much more in depth than
I do. Um But then we also have the budget suggestions from MRSC, the revenue, it
is, you know, very good for detail and what funds can be used for. Um And then the
shared revenue estimator shows down in the left hand corner, we only have two things
on that estimator which are liquor, profits and liquor excise. So I put those into
the budget, but on the right side is the uh economic and revenue forecast that came
out in September. And uh it's been pretty consistent for six months or so that we
do anticipate another quarter point increase for the fed's rate. So that affects
our interest revenue. It will affect, you know, potentially our uh um
loan line of credit that we're trying to get for the um the sewer, but it's, it's
all in there. So, so it makes sense, I mean, the pe D now will earn their own interest.
So that's probably their ask for that. So they could have told us to invest more
before. Um, but they will have hands on day to day knowing immediately what's cleared
and how much and so they could, um, keep a lower cash balance um when they know for
sure what's going on with their. Thank you. Yeah. Ok.
So General Fund, what I chose to do here was only show the items that come into the
treasurer's budget. So each month with the budget committee, I show the full General
fund, these are just those items and I didn't go into the details of like each item
which I worked with Judy and Mark quite a bit to say, ok, this is what I think is
gonna happen with our investment interest. This is what I think is gonna happen on
sales tax. And so it's a very collaborative effort and I know Mark usually has a,
a big spreadsheet. I chose to just show you a trend line um and a kind of the net.
Um let's see if there's money, right? So you can see the investment income toward
the top is that light blue. And so I anticipate more next year, but I also kind
of leveled it off for the following year. Mhm. Ok, because we also have cash for
our books that's going to go out that we've gotten $5 right now. So there's, there's
a lot of wash in there. Ok. So moving on to the treasurer's
budget which is 0012 50. This is the high-level revenue and
expenditures and the numbers up here for total revenue are what was shown in the
picture on the previous slide. And then I thought I would go into
expenditures. So for expenditures, I, I have a form a
adding $4000 which is for a property tax software program. Um,
the assessor pays for their portion and the treasurer pays for ours, ours is
smaller than theirs. We have kind of, we don't have ipads, we don't have other things,
but we do have an integrated website that they manage and all kinds of things. And
so what I did was ask for, um, only the amount that was above
1.5% that was detailed in the budget guidance. The rest of it is
the numbers that were given to me with the 1.5% just moved around in the different
categories to more align with how we're actually spending money. Ok. Um, so the
performance indicators, it doesn't mean a whole lot other than to say it's a lot
of work. And so we've got, you know, I've got six people on here. I'm really not
asking for more people. I know the FTE is a little bit different in the um preliminary
budget, but I think those are other issues with, I had numbers or amounts
versus FTEs And anyway, I'm I'm not asking for an increase in FTE so just
I will update that. I think what it says is I have 5.5 0.5
0.885 0.81. And then I'm adding or excuse me,
that plus 0.33 is our foreclosure um avoidance
program. So there's two portions, but just please note the, the crux of it is I'm
not asking for more staffing. I do have the position that I need to, um,
refine, advertise and fill. And so that will be next on my list. Ok.
Um You know, Milan, so for the treasurer's budget, I really put
this in as, um,
as those are the real buckets of our goals and objectives. Um, you
know, with people, I did this right before the meeting, I pulled up what our staff
tenure is and when I started in the treasurer's office, January, well, started
in 2014, November, but January 1 2015, the office had 100 and 9.2
county years including me for the office. It had 94.1
a treasurer's office experience and it's evolved, uh, in
21 we had another big retirement and we went to 41 years of experience in the
treasurer's office. Uh, this year with Sabrina leaving, um, as of
January 1 2024 we have the same staff. We'll be looking at 18.5 years of treasures
experience and 37.2 of working for the count of which 23 is. So
we have a very young and uh energetic and uh ready to hopefully work here while uh
team seems like you got 50 years of capacity. That's great. So that's another reason
why I'm so excited about how they're faring right now as uh Brenda mentioned, and
Judy should feel very proud of the work really hard to get the immune system and
the financials in alignment with the annual report to a point where we get a clean
audit. And this has been a huge amount of work over the last. Well, let's say four
years of working to get Muni set up and delay and on and on. So don't remind you,
this is a much better position. Can I ask a clarifying question about Muni not related
to the treasurer's office? But in the last presentation, are there issues with implementing
Muni at public health? Not that I'm aware of. Um I believe the people she had here
are not strong Muni users. And so the people that actually the rest of her finance
team are very spot on with Muus. So I'm not articulating some big Snag with Muni.
No, not that. I mean, I heard it too. So I'm not sure what that is. I just OK, 33
reports to get one. Well, and, and there is that Scott Carpenter was to help with,
I think some of that, but he's been focused on. So not sure, not the worst technology
problem that at this point except maybe getting cubes and yeah, so I, I was
so sorry yesterday and today and I will say that back in 2000 when the county adopted
the Unified Development Code D CD sent me to crystal reports training for $800. We
do have an expert and they created all of them forms that they complained about,
but I don't, I'd like to see him do better. Uh
No, it was not really a good thing. Long term that the consultant who came in once
a month and the planning manager were doing the crystal report and that maintenance.
So, uh absolutely, you wanna have, um, it, it, they can't be spread too thin.
It's good to understand it. But, um Crystal Reports, I think they're kind of like
a Volkswagen. It works really well and I can tell you j uh Chapman, our assessor
knows it extremely well, the SQL database. But anyway, it's, uh it's a different
thing than planning. And so I think uh I support their needs. Um, so
along with people, I really wanna make a more intentional effort for training
my team and really getting uh a, a financial team of excellence. I think that it
will not only um improve our professionalism and the quality of our work, it'll make
their work easier, it will add to morale. And just another reason to, to be
here and hopefully, you know, it, it, it's tough in the treasurer's office to have
a lot of other positions of, for financial stuff in the county that get paid more
and all of the districts pay a lot more. So we'll do what we can, um, with
this,
I'm not gonna go into the details of everything our office does. But, um, for
technology, we've gotten over some big hurdles of being able to use the programs
we have. I'm really looking forward to taking the next steps in being able to streamline
more things, having um more import, export functionality between our property tax
software and our general ledger and being able to have dis district access to see
whether a check is cleared or not and have more of. Um So these are big projects
that are getting closer to be able to work on. Um And then also
just our operations. Uh I think whether my team knows it or not, they are absolutely
on board with the lean um process improvement method.
And we're always looking at ways to improve things, but also talking about what the
benefit is of what we use already and what we've done in the past. So I'll move on
from that and we just talked about this whole page. Ok. So that was the rest, that
was all of it for the General Fund and that's the majority of my office and we can
certainly come back to these if you have specific questions. Ok. Um So this one is
the Jeff Com capital fund. We have this because the county has debt from when Jeff
Com was a county department and we continue to pay the debt. We collect revenue.
Basically when the communication sales tax comes in, we divert a certain amount every
month to Je com and um 119 and then
we send the rest of that communication sales tax to jet com and then we make the
debt payments each um twice a year. And so the schedule at the bottom is the
debt that shows both Jeff com and Jefferson County. And the blue one is Jeff Coms
and the right side is one that you wouldn't normally see, but it shows the total
communication sales tax. My projections, what we will be retaining for debt service
and how that would land. Are you talking about the tiny chart in the bottom left?
Yes. Ok. I but it, the point is I estimated the communication
sales tax to go up 5% next year. And so those numbers match the
department request. And um we have to make sure we have enough money when the debt
payments are due. And so I have to front load collection so that all of the year's
money is there by um October because they get their money on November
30th and the debt payments. 12 1. Well, for me to do that the last two years. We've
had to do emergency warrants and that's way too stressful. So we keep our fund balance.
We pay it on time. I work, uh, now with, uh, Matt Stewart at Jef com and, um, he's
really, um, in tune with all of this. So it's been a pleasure working with him. So,
um, this is the county debt and so we manage it, we pay it and I don't see
any, um, risk of it, of revenue not covering it.
Ok. Um
Next, we'll move to Treasure O and N otherwise known as our foreclosure avoidance
program. This program, we have a third of an FTE in this. So
as you've seen with other funds, I wholeheartedly, um, embrace and endorse
the new contract and the increase in wages. This does affect this program. So
next year I will need to, um, increase our foreclosure fees. There's, we've just
been drawing down on this and, um,
we'll need to do that to pay for the, the staffing. You can see it used to be a quarter
of an FTE. And I think, um, you know, it varies but, uh, I do also
wanna have a good
conversation with you and Mark and Judy about what that means because it would mean
if someone gets to the point of trying to get a property out of foreclosure before
the sale, it's quite expensive. They could start off with maybe $300 owed. And
by the time, right, now it goes to sale, it's, you know, 16 $1700 and it could go
up significantly more. When does that? I mean, it's three years of, of non-payment
of taxes. Right. That triggers it. So when does the, your 0.33 FDE jump in and start
to also, it's, um, it's cyclical through the year but
definitely there is, um, the beginning of the year before taxes are due in April
letters go out to everyone who is potentially going to be in foreclosure and this
is what will happen. And it's, you know, a $50 letter say you gotta, you gotta pay
up, you haven't paid for 3.5 years. So it's after, after that three year trigger
is already paid for them. But we also, um, personal properties do it a year. So those
are done annually, um for much smaller amounts, but typically, but um, that work
is annually, um, but it's just a lot of work tracking people down and really
trying to make sure that they get to keep their property. Um, and then, you know,
we have delinquent statements uh in May and December or November because we want
to give them notice of what things will cost uh before penalties go on. Of course,
legislatively, things have changed. And so the, the penalties don't apply to the
residential and all of these things, I think longer term will, um, affect our budget.
But we'll see, you know, Um, so it's a lot of work. Um, the numbers, you know, each
one, each single property is a lot of work. And so, um, that's the program, we
definitely try to improve collection with our training and technology. Uh We have
a lot more people paying online now than we have in the past. Um, which is very nice,
but that's not a anyway, it's, it's nice to have that. We also want to prostitute
train staff to allow to bring increased coverage and, and assisting the public. Um,
but really, it's educating taxpayers on the options. They have to avoid foreclosure,
which we do take virtual payments now. Um, in current year and prior
years, it, it depends. Um, but we always exceed or have fewer, um, properties in
foreclosure than our goal that was set when I came in before I came in in 2015. And
we have more parcels now. But really the goal would be we have to go. But, um,
so any questions on foreclosure, so many actually. But, uh, uh, you know, you
don't need to take a lot of time. I mean, if they, if they live on the property,
are there different rules? Isn't there like a Homestead Exclusion Act or something
that prevents us from kicking someone off? If, if they are, if their primary residence
as well. I mean, I know most of them are vacant land. There are different things
that we do need to do as part of the steps, but ultimately, they do need to pay,
um, a lot of it is educating people about, you know, if they qualify for the
senior disability exemption and getting them to provide the paperwork to the assessor's
office, there sometimes are people that just won't go get it there and, um, you know,
they could lower theirs, but a lot of them that end up going to foreclosure are land
that don't qualify for an exemption or, um, or,
um, I hate to put it this way, but we do live in a very,
um,
age demographic and so quite a few times they're deceased and you don't have heirs
or the heirs don't want to do what they need to do to, uh, keep the property. So
it's rare to have a resident that actually gets to foreclosure. We really try hard
to, to work with people to get them to, to do what they need to do. Um, you know,
and sometimes that does mean talking to families, talking to their church, talking
to programs that, um, you know, are willing to help them. I know sometimes people
really want to avoid that out of shame. But, you know, when somebody's kids are high
tech, you know, and somewhere I could just deal with their mother's property, they
like, you know, it, they're gonna be a lot madder if they find out if you don't have
a home anymore. So, um, it's, it's unfortunate but really the, the goal is to talk
to people and deal with what is without any judgment. Just how can we help keep it
where you need to be right. Mhm. Great. Thank you. All right. So we're moving along
and the next one is the re technology fund. So one of the programs the
treasurer's office does is, um, process real estate excise tax transactions and
we collect the local and the state and per city, all of the, the excise tax on
those phone transfers. And then there is a small, um, uh, $5 fee
that goes into this thing. This one is $5. Yeah. Uh, there's a five and a 10. But,
uh, yes, it's by which there is, um, some push by the assessors and treasurers associations
to up that to $20 in the next legislative cycle. I won't get into that. But, um,
this is a treasurer's fund, uh, in our county, uh, assessor Chapman and I signed
a memorandum that we would split it and that we've been going on, um, the
assumption of revenue of about $14,000 per year and transfer out 14,000 each year,
um, which we exceeded. Um, you can see that this line the middle so that 0 5000,
10,000, 15,000, we've been about 15,000. Um, for quite a few years, we had a lot
more in 2021 and 2022. 2023. I'm hard pressed to see that we'll get to 14,000. I'm
gonna guess we'll be more 12,000. And I thought next year might be even with that
because this is the number of transactions, not the value of transactions. And so
basically I use this to help pay for um my software and
just the technology we use, we send our excise tax affidavits information
to the department of Revenue electronically um periodically through the month. But
that was really where this started way back when it was initiated. So, um
thankfully, uh assessor Chapman and I get along and we're not fighting over this.
Some other counties have some real big discussions about it. And so we'll just see
where it goes whatever happens, you know, we'll work it out. So that's the the last
fund that I've planned to go over. So uh any questions,
questions, comments for, for Stacy Thomas really appreciate the deep dive. It's uh
it is great to kind of pull back the veil and in a way that we don't see your office
very often. So thank you
super clear. Yeah, yeah, really appreciate, appreciate the clarity and um appreciate
the the humble a request. Um It's nice when departments kind of take turns and you
know, we did add staff um in the last cycle uh to your office. And so um appreciate
a humble ask this time and we, you know, try to try to spread around the excess where
we can so appreciate it.
Yes. And, and it, it is, uh, a bit embarrassing. I have not filled the other position.
I know, but I can assure you, I'm, I'm working as hard as I can and, and working
on the priorities best I can, but I've got Thomas here now and we will make that
happen and so please don't take it away. But you have saved it for the last. Yes.
I think it's safe. How's it going? Thomas you doing? Good, good. Um, yeah, so far
this is 15. So,
yeah, still learning good. Another six months. You can add another year on to the
total, uh, collective institutional knowledge in the department. So, the number is
so small I would point to. Yeah. Well, glad to have you with us. Thomas. Really.
I mean, it's, it's, it's obvious, uh, the gap that you're filling and, and the help
that you're giving to Stacey's department in the treasurer's office. Thank you. All
right. Great. Well, you're, you're rounded us out, uh, with, uh, with class. We'll,
uh, I think we'll, we've got nothing else. Uh, so this meeting is adjourned. We'll
see you guys back on Monday. Um, I guess we won't see you next Monday, Kate. You're
with the Board of Health, but we'll see the following week. So, can you just mark,
we are gonna do county administrator, commissioners, non departmental at some point.
Ok. Maybe the following Monday. Yeah. 1 25. Um, 1 48 1 49.
Ok. I just want to make sure that great. Ok. Ok. We are adjourned. Have a good day.