I don't know, iphone says nine. Ok. Yeah, good. Everybody ready to get
started. Yeah,
good morning, everyone. I'll call this meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners
to
my phone's just fine. Um uh What is it? March 25th. Um Any
announcements before we get started? Just got a couple of things. We're gonna take
a recess at uh 10 a.m. and also um on the agenda, we did not include that there will
be public comment after or at some point during or after the three o'clock workshop
on the emergency shelter closure. All right, let's start this morning with public
comments and welcome comments from the public on any topic. Um If you would like
to provide public comment on Zoom, you'll hit the raise hand button. You'll be uh
asked to come over to accept a promotion to Panelist and if you click that everybody
will have up to three minutes to speak. It is helpful if you state your name and
place of residence, so it is not required. Ok, let's start in the room who would
like to provide public comments. Ma
sorry, my back is out a little slow here. I feel that.
Hi guys. Um ok, so this morning, I would like to start with RCW title
70.54 0.0 50 which is about
um the law enforcement and health care providers that have a duty to um
render aid to people who have contagious uh disease. So there was a guy that came
from Quim and I'm sorry for having to describe this, but it can only be described
as his legs looked as though rabid dogs had bitten off uh
about seven inch chunks of his flesh. And uh Quinn did
not render him aid or um you know, bandage him or do anything. And you know, it was
raw and oozing pus and he came over here because obviously, you know, it was either
Port Angeles or Port Townsend and he was picked up here by the nonprofits. Uh
And um that's how we do. They didn't know when they, they picked him up because his
legs were covered, but uh they discovered it and uh you know, so one of uh your,
your are your guys, our guys um saved his life really? And he's gonna be on his way
into treatment. But um I wanna say that, you know, there's like a list of seven things
that police officers have a duty to provide and one of them is medical aid. And so
it wasn't you guys, it was quim and they did not even bother to do anything at all.
And they knew because he was in jail. So, uh they send him on his way and, you know,
you have a duty to protect the public because he law enforcement officers and health
care workers are protected, you know, by law from discrimination out in their jobs
and out in the community and the public is not and we certainly are not. And we don't
make the policies or the polic see decisions so bad, bad boys swim good on you guys.
You saved somebody's life. Uh He's on his way to treatment. Um And so then I wanna
zoom out a little bit and I wanna talk about transparency and you know, the first
day of Obama's uh thing was he wanted to tell all the agencies, I want transparency.
Well, that means also being honest about your failures. And so if you're honest about
your failures, um what it does is it increases the trust uh out in the community
when you can openly talk about what you don't think you did a good job on and what
you can do better on. And also it helps in terms of the problem of homelessness is
not going away. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so um what I wanna say is uh um you know,
get Samaritan down in California, they are opening up 100 and 84 units of these tiny
village homes. They just opened up 94 they're opening up 80 in a month for a total
of 100 and 84 and it can be done the government and uh did it, did it in Mons in
Missoula, Montana. They did it in Denver with beloved community and you know, there's
a community first in Austin. So don't bury your head in the sand.
Mr K like,
hi guys. Uh, Gordon King still be street to Port Townsend. Uh, since Washington
statehood, um the state is allowed free holding of shellfish farming up until
1970. Thai needs to promote the farming of, of uh buys and the associated economic
benefit. Um comes along with it.
Uh The family that I work for, they started farming shellfish 100 and 30 years ago.
Um and have been strong community supporters over that time, shellfish farming has
been an important source of rural jobs in counties where industrial and urban development
is not polluted the water so badly that juvenile shellfish can't survive. Um
or that the, the the animals themselves are unsafe to eat.
But um the shellfish industry has and continues to work hard for included healthy
marine waters. Claims of damage caused by shellfish farming are not backed by scientific
studies. The same cannot be said for the damage caused by upland urban development,
which scientific studies clearly show causing damage to our marine
environment. Um
You might wonder why it is a concern about just having a public hearing for conditional
use permit when we all acknowledge that it is important for good arms and required
by state regulation to have AC P but there's various types of cups and the problem
with a, um, the problem with the public hearing is it takes a lot more resources.
Uh, the companies such as Taylor Shelter that I work for, we have a lot of experience
in public hearings and we can survive them but small farmers can't. And Commissioner
Dean is familiar with this, how difficult it is to even be a nut plan, uh small farmer.
But if you allow for uh public conditional use, more conditional
use permits for uh with public hearing for good aquaculture, you will be
preventing uh small growers and start ups from, from being able to uh to, to
get into the business. And then most of what you hear, public hearing is a lot of
rubbish anyway, just as if you read many of the comment letters that we've had on
good farming over the last couple of years, speculation and then if somebody has
science, which disagrees with them, they say, well, it's old science. Well, maybe
it's old science, but I know how to find old. But compared to no science. Anyway.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr King.
All right, please raise hand on zoom. Um If you would like to provide comments and
we will uh offer you the opportunity to be promoted to Panelist. At least I had her
hand raised and then she took it down. So I'm not sure if she was just there she
goes.
Welcome Lisa. You can unmute yourself and uh you'll have three minutes.
No,
thank you, MS Caron.
Who else in the zoom room would like to provide public comment. Please hit raise
hand at the bottom of the screen
than anyone else. Ok. We'll leave it open for a few more minutes in case anyone gets
moved to do so. Um any responses from my f measures.
Um Oh, sure. I'll go, uh, appreciate the comments as always to, to Gordon and, and
Lisa, I, I appreciate, you know, we, we, it's not on the agenda this week, of course,
but we're looking to it. And II, I think I reflected that I do know the cost that
public hearings have for small businesses through previous regulatory, um, questions
that we've considered. So I, I do hear you and I hear Lisa as well and, and, uh,
uh, I look forward to being able to wrap this up and I, you know, I understand, um,
and to Maggie, I'm, I'm sorry about the gentleman. I'm, you know, it's always, I
guess it's nice when it's not our municipalities that are, you know, screwing up.
So I, I appreciate the props and
you can, you know, you can sell them aid. You can't do that, you got to render aid
so that they can, you know, they, they have protection and that's, that's certainly
what we're, we're trying to do is to uh you know, render aid and support with, with,
with all of the, the resources that we can bring to bear. So, um I, I will say, I
do think that we have you listed a lot of um uh kind of alternative options to shelters
that different groups of public and private agencies have done, you know, Austin,
it's a faith based uh you know, kind of master plan resort essentially. And I, I
think we really tried to do that with Cowe Brown and, you know, we are a small municipality
compared to the, I would say probably the smallest county in California. It's gonna
be maybe let's, let's let, we're not able to do back and forth. The public can't
even hear. Yeah. No, no one can hear you. Maggie because, uh m so I appreciate it.
I just say we're, you know, I, I agree those are good models and ones that we, we,
we've tried to emulate uh, here and, and tried to push forward and it's never enough
because this problem is larger than Jefferson County. It's larger than Washington.
It's a, it's a nationwide problem and a worldwide problem right now. And we keep
doing what we can and it doesn't make it any easier and it doesn't make the impacts
of failure any slighter. But, uh you know, just keep soldiering on. So I appreciate
you being here.
I don't have a lot to add except for, um, to the aquaculture industry. I mean, I
grew up in a small commercial fishing family, you know, one boat and I know that
um the budget every month is tight on time and money as a commercial fishing family.
And I imagine that it's the same for small shellfish aquaculture operators. And I
your comments resonate with me Gordon. So, um I mean, I've, I don't need to say more
on that, that front. Um And, you know, I spent some time doing some reading this
week in preparation for one of our sessions later today. And 11 thing that strikes
me about the house, housing, homelessness, um jobs, all these issues that
are, are interconnected is how there are all these new legal decisions being made
and we're constantly doing catch up or waiting for the next decision to be made.
So it's interesting as we, as we march through these um processes, there are state
decisions which we are agents of the state that we're kind of waiting for as we make
decisions in the interim. And it seems that just seems really tricky and challenging
to me. So I look forward to our future conversations on these issues and I appreciate
you being here, Maggie every week to raise up the issues of the moment in the community.
Um So I don't have anything else to add. OK. Uh I don't have much else either.
I will. Um I don't know if, if I've confessed this in this room before that I was
uh I was actually a, a labor enforcement agent. Did you know this about me? No, I
don't think so. Giving away all my secrets. Um worked for labor and industries and
actually had a badge to enforce labor law um and worked with the agricultural community
exclusively. Um I was working on a very specific project. I didn't like, you know,
I wasn't going out and busting people but I had to have this certain authority for,
for my position. And, uh what I learned was how, um, how
migratory the, the farm worker population is. And I think that's one of the challenges
in us kind of understanding the economic impact of the shellfish industry that, that
a lot of the folks who, um, were picking oysters are also picking, brush out on the
west end part of the year and then they might go over to farms and SKT. And, um,
you know, we were, we were trying to kind of keep track of who was where. And, um,
so when I got into economic development work, I realized just how, you know, it's
just a, it's a, a tricky population to track, to track employment numbers. Um, you
know, they exist. But I think there's, there's a lot more activity that goes on than,
than we really understand. Um, you know, and it doesn't help that they're often working,
um, predawn hours and, you know, with the tides. And, um, so I was just kind
of uh I was surprised I lived in this community in Quill scene for many years at
this point and to, to, to learn what a large labor force there was working on the
peninsula. It was um it was really eye opening for me. So
bad. I did have to once somebody did not want to let me on their farm. Um Yeah.
Um yeah, it was interesting
to tear shadow handed up for a moment and then he pulled it back down. So I don't
know if he, that's good. He had a comment. I was, I wanted to respond to you anyway,
I think. Oh, great. Ok, I'll get to him in a minute. Um He's, he's still interested.
Um So yeah, more to come on. Uh Shirley Master Program. We do not have a date for
the hearing, I don't believe um or for next steps yet. So stay tuned. We'll announce
that as soon as we get it figured out. Um Maggie, um I was thinking about you this
weekend. I spent much of the weekend working on a um appropriation federal appropriation
request for the, the new shelter facility. And um just, you know, uh so
aware of the um kind of day to day struggles and you eliminated
one for us here today. Um And so really hope that we can get this final gap funding
so we can start construction on a new facility and be able to provide more services
um in one permanent facility. Um, instead of the, this kind of endless, the eight
years I've been here. It's just been this fear of losing the shelter downtown. And,
uh, and we're at a crisis point again right now. So, uh very much on my mind and
uh fingers crossed, um on the funding front. All right. Um I'll open it back
up to the public. Anyone like to provide public comments. He said raise hand.
So let's see.
Ok, I'm gonna close public comment. So if anyone wishes to speak, please raise your
hand.
Ok. Seeing none of close public comments and let's take a look at the consent agenda.
Mm All right. Please rest
one sit. Your,
it's official 4000 L still our, our official paper. Even with the new editor with
the new editor. Yeah, it's like a door down there. Another new editor got, you know,
it's not an easy road to hoe no independent local journalism. So it's like they're
gonna be the last independent paper standing. I'd be proud of that. I think it's,
you know, we've talked about Carl Hansen kind of stepping away from many of the roles.
He was the ID D uh intellectual and developmental dis disability ability advisory
board chairs for a long time. And I think he's going to do some work with Clown Bay
Correctional and lots of good stuff out there. So, um sorry to lose him, but I know
he's still doing lots of good work is that a particular um role that on that board
that needs to be filled? Um There, it's open. Is that a particular? Uh, no, I think
it's just a community, a community member. There is some increased funding for IED
and the legislature this year. So we're getting a transition to work staff member.
There's gonna be an additional staff member in public health coming from that, that
they've been working hard on so soon.
Great to see Vicky Norris again who introduced me to the drink the Bijou, which I
really like.
Maybe they'll serve them at our library breakfast. Maybe it might be a little early
in the day. Maybe there's, if it was anything but booze in it, that could be a non
alcoholic issue. I don't know.
I look forward to seeing the um Melox videos that Gabe is gonna be done with public
health
continuing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to move that we uh approve and
adopt the consent agenda as presented one second. Any further discussion. All those
in favor say AAA
consent agendas proved kind of related. You made some good jokes about the ordinance
ordinance at public health last week. I appreciate it. The board of health joke.
So thanks for, you know, and we all need to contribute to the cringe humor occasion.
So, thank you. Yes.
All right. Shall we look back at our weeks, Julia has her hand raised. You don't
wanna let her know. Oh, um I, I
Julia, I closed public comments but because we have time there is no reason not to
reopen it and have you come over? So we'll bring you over for public comment. Ok.
Number.
Well,
I, I can speak to that. Thank you. Um You of course, are always welcome. It's a public
workshop. We'll be having an executive session from 130 to 245 and then I think we're
starting at three. Is that right? Um And it will be kind of, it'll really be the
debrief of the, the Wednesday meeting that you attended last week, Julia with uh
with community health and environmental health, really talking about public um potentials
for response to the closing of the shelter ideas to keep it open and everything are
kind of still percolating and developing. So it will be primarily what, what we can
do um to, you know, proactively react to the imminent closure of the American Legion
shelter
and there'll be public comment as well. I mean, I would say close it because it's,
you know, it's a mouse. So OK, we will uh perhaps see you later. Julia and Maggie.
All right, let's move into breathing.
Anyone inspired to pick us up? Yeah, I mean, I go first, let's
see with you guys. Of course, yesterday and I went to the north. I'm sorry, last
week, last Monday night. Yeah, sorry, I was not with you yesterday. Last Monday,
the 18th and then I went to the North Hoot Canal Chamber of Commerce Meeting. Um,
and it was good kind of work. Yeah, it's, it's interesting that definitely, uh, a
lot of, um, a lot of plans down south, you know, so we gonna have continue some community
conversations and the chamber is really kind of still finding its feet for. What
is it for? How can it provide, you know, um, good value to its members. So I think
it's, it's, it's a real positive group right now. Um On Tuesday, we met with some
uh a builder out in Port Ludlow, uh you know, frustrated with the, the pace of regulatory,
the regulatory path. And then I uh we had the Quilcene Brennan Empowered Teens Coalition,
you know, that Holly is leaving to come to Port Townsend Empowered Teens, which is
sad, but I do like the approach that they're looking at is less about what education
you have and looking more for someone that lives in South County now. So just wanna,
you know, hey, it's a $32.32 an hour, um 40 hour a week job to, to help kids uh with
prevention and uh all the things that the Empowered Teens Coalition does, which is
a lot of fun projects usually. So I just want to put it out there. Anyone in South
County who uh uh is interested in this kind of work, prevention, work for kids, for
drugs and alcohol. There's a real good opportunity with public health right now.
Um And they'll be tag teaming. Uh Holly and oh, what's the chimica will be tag teaming
until they hire someone for the building?
Uh, missed the budget meeting again because of the team Jefferson. Uh, rec competes.
Everything's percolating along there. Data is, you know, all the plans are starting
to get refined. I'll talk a little bit more we met on Friday as well. Uh We had our,
we had an internal meeting um on with uh public
health and about the uh the legion shelter closing that'll get manifested here in
this workshop today. Um My quarter ended school. Congratulations. Spring break, spring
break. Yeah. Uh Let's see on Thursday, uh Board
of Health was was good and uh had the jobs creation meeting. I think where all the
infrastructure projects where we compete are pretty solidified, still trying to figure
out how to move them into the narrative. But so it's the, the the four that kind
of were were there before and it's really where there's fluidity in the projects
is the workforce development and barrier removal. I did push my chat bot that I created
job job which is a barrier removal chat bot and I think it was received well, so
did A I create that for you. I created it in A I if we have extra time, we can, we
can use it. It's you can use it over the phone. So you can just call it up and it
will help you connect to services, but it still needs to get programmed with all
the specific services that you want to do. But it was just trying to get ahead of
the hype mark. Put an article on my desk this morning about the uh, the hype cycle
of a chat bot. Yeah. Yeah, we're already past the hype cycle. Yeah, it's no, there's
a lot of hype and there's a lot of, you know, fear but there's uh applications where
I think it could be directly applicable. My basic pitch was, you know, we're looking
at these resource hubs that in Port Angeles, in Port Townsend and Quim where people
can come in and connected to the existing resources and DC YF working connections,
childcare and everything. And it seems like everyone has a phone in their pocket.
So if they can make a phone call and get the same connection and, you know, something
that will be a, a soft on ramp, it seems like it will uh get to those places that
are often uh more originally served. So it's the basic argument. Uh Holy Cap
Thursday evening. Um Tammy's doing a great job. I'm, we're still like there's this,
I'm doing this uh trying to get logged back onto this hud uh real estate react attack
thing to do this one small grant draw and it's incredibly frustrating. They keep,
I couldn't do the form because the form is only for new coordinators and I was a
previous coordinator. So they just canceled it. So I opened a ticket and a week later
I get a, you know, instructions. Oh, you need to do this. So we'll close this ticket
and you need to do this. So I did. Exactly. I wrote them a letter on the letterhead.
Exactly. With all the information they provided, they said, ok, it'll take a week
and then over the weekend I get a note that says, oh, you didn't have this bit of
information. So we're closing this and you can't, it's just, it's like one of these
bureaucracies that has got obviously interlocking tech systems that don't interface,
well, that are probably legacy systems that, you know, they, they do what they do
and they just don't interface with. Uh it's so frustrating. Um So I'm doing that.
Uh maybe a chatbot can fix that, you know, it's, it's the way I, I read this great
book, uh Recoding America by Jennifer Polka that talks a lot about this and it's
often the tech problems are really policy problems and, and creating how the tech
gets created, you know, and it's uh tech problems are often usually bureaucratic
problems. Yeah. Um Then a Behavioral health consortium had a quick
meeting to consider pursuing a grant um and just kind of talking it through with,
with different stakeholders. Um I, I, yeah, I don't know if we're gonna do it yet
had a quick meeting with Diane mcdade from the healthier together as we get ready
for our task force. Still no district three applicants for the task force but district
two, yeah, lots of good district two and district one applicants. So I think there's,
there is uh I'm, I'm excited about the, the work coming up. So I'm gonna have to
make a few phone calls. I got a couple of people that expressed interest but then
haven't applied. So I think I need to call them and say, hey, uh, I'm pretty sure
you're gonna, you know, get this plum roll if you decide to apply. So, um, and then,
you know, kind of a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and lots of good fun with
the family. And what did you do? Saw Miko Case down in Olympia? Yeah, she was fantastic
and saw Dune and just kinda built a fence. It was just, it was a good productive
weekend. So beautiful weather. Uh, good day for an outdoor pool. An outdoor
pool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The lake, you mean the lake? Yeah. Awesome. Let's see. Looking
back, I, if I get some light in here, I think I would generally just reflect on caregiving.
It's, uh, never really been in this position and hope to never be in it again. But,
um, you never know what's coming. So, every day is a new adventure. Yeah.
So threaded amongst all of that newness and adventure. Um, uh, on
Tuesday, after being here with you on Monday, I had an early morning check in with
Dwayne Emmons from DNR and I think I had mentioned in a previous meeting that in
the legislative session, they pass a $15 million proviso for continue continuing
on from the work that we did with the $83 million proviso in the last session. Um,
the $15 million proviso is partially for, uh, encumbered lands, counties and partially
for acquiring more acres of structurally complex forests, not in Jefferson, not on
the Olympic Peninsula, mostly in Thurston Pierce, Snohomish County. So other counties
that were interested in seeing some of their structurally complex acres protected.
And then, but I had heard in the previous week that Jefferson County had been pulled
out of the encumbered lands language in that proviso. And I was like, huh, that's
interesting. And so I called, I called a few people and I finally was like, I just
got to talk to DNR. So Dwayne and I had a conversation and he said, yeah, it was
interesting when we pulled the acreage of State Forest Transfer Trust lands that
were encumbered in all the counties. Jefferson County only had 73 acres of our
trust, the county trust lands. So there are many more acres, thousands of acres in
the Common school Construction Trust in Jefferson County that are encumbered by marble
mule and spotted owl. But of the State Forest Transfer trust. It was only 73 acres.
And that's why we were pulled out of the encumbered lands proviso this time. Which
makes sense to me. So, um, but the proviso did pass. Yeah, 15 million. It was 60
then it was 30 then it was 15, so $15 million passed. And did you ever find out about
the, um, the Quinault project? So, that's, there was a proviso for a big course.
I find out, but I hear what the outcome of that was. It did pass and I'm, I'm just
so curious where it originated and, uh, I think the Nature Conservancy. Right. Yeah,
I, I mean, that's what I heard initially when it was introduced. Yeah, I'm
so curious where that, so I haven't heard a lot from the Nature Conservancy in the
last year or two. They divested some, I think from the west end and they haven't
been involved in the, any of the work groups I'm on, you know, they were originally
very in the trust fund transfer work group and they have, they haven't had any staff
on any of those, so I don't, I haven't been engaged with them as well either, but
that's, that's what I heard when that pro that quint proviso came up. So, but I can
find out for sure. Um, uh, then she's still Tuesday morning,
had a call with Pinky regarding a property in Chimica that is, has some code compliance
issues. But also has a lot of work going on and they wanna do some, they need to
do some revenue generation and um thinking and I were just kind of troubleshooting
how to thread the needle between the code, compliance progress and authorizing them
to do some other activities on their land. So it's always an interesting uh dance
that has to be done, right. Um And then I spent the afternoon getting ready for the
evening drainage. Just the last of our first three Chemic Drainage district focus
group meetings. And this was definitely the best of the three. The first one kind
of stumbled on technical issues. The second one, I felt like we didn't get to what
we were trying to get to, which was having individual landowners, identifying problem
areas on their properties. But in this last session, we had a lot of folks, probably
50 people there and a lot of good um conversation in the room. And I felt like we
actually left last Tuesday evening with a sense of support for the drainage district
from members of the community. And um we'll just have to, um we're gonna do a
survey, a postcard and a survey out to all the landowners in the drainage district
to try and get a sense of where the entire land ownership um folks are at and then
we're gonna do another focus group um kind of to report out on what we learned from
that survey. So remind myself the, the boundaries of the drainage district still
exist because we have, we didn't, we didn't shut it down. So we're just, it's inactive.
But, um, as it develops, is it possible to change it if there's like, some people
are like, oh, we're upland and we're a house, we don't care about it or is it, is
that a difficult, it's legally possible. And that's a question that's come up. But
we have to research um how that gets done if we were to change the boundaries. Gotcha.
Ok, cool. Well, thank you for bird dogging that. Yeah. So let's see. I feel like
that process has been going well though. Um Wednesday budget meeting with y'all.
Um And then I had a um meeting and walk with uh one of the forest activists just
to check in on the legislative session and kind of what's next. And I feel like we're,
it's interesting. I feel like I've been working on this for stuff a lot over the
last couple of years and we're just getting started. It's um yeah, the conversation
is getting more interesting as time goes by. Um And then Wednesday, late afternoon,
I had a community foundation gathering to talk about board recruitment and kind of
priorities in the upcoming kind of couple of years. And um I feel like I really,
I really appreciate the group, my, my, the cohort of us who were involved with the
community foundation um is really looking to the future and trying to figure out
how to tune our activities to what the community needs are. And I appreciate those
conversations with a super smart group of mostly women. We did our board, I'm on
the board recruitment committee and we did our uh survey of our existing board members
and where the gaps were. It's men. We have 11 gentleman on our board. Yeah.
So stay tuned for a for, asks for help on that. Um Let's see, Thursday
morning, I did a walk and talk with Een Beg in the port and um he's
got some ideas about the airport and so I have some calls to make to Josh at D CD
and just to find out what's possible. But, you know, there's interest in the Jefferson
Timber Collective and citing themselves at the airport and Aaron and I had a long
conversation about that and there are a few ideas. I had the same conversation with
Aaron already. Aaron provided materials that I gave to Josh and he's talked to Eric
Taves and sort of. Um so Eric's doing some work. Awesome. So we'll see what we can
do. Yeah, great. Um And then I attended the Timber County's caucus for the first
half of it before joining you guys at the Board of Health meeting. Um
And Friday, I met with a candidate for state rep, was entertaining, interesting with
someone I hadn't met. And then I spent the afternoon much of the afternoon driving
around with Brent again in the phase one ug A boundary in havoc and uh meeting with
some folks at Bayside about the Charrette coming up in April and May and it just
seems like there's a lot of work going on right now around the. Um, well, like I
think Brent's kind of mission is uh middle housing, right? But there's also just
a the nexus with the, the sewer development and the kind of the visioning process
for the phase one ug A boundary. So, um interesting conversations there
and I think that wrapped up my county work last week. Let me see. Yeah, I did find
a little information about the Quinault um $25 million. Um So the Nature
Conservancy did partner with the Quinault. Um This is funding from the Natural Climate
Solutions account to support the buyback of 11,000 acres of forest land within the
reservation that fell into private ownership during the allotment era. This project
would allow for over 3 million additional metric tons of carbon to be stored across
the Quinault Nation's lands over the next 20 years. Yeah. So they got the full 25.
Yeah, great. Yes. All right. Last week, I spent a lot of time on the um
federal preparations. So, um Steve King at the city did a lot on the Mill Road one,
but still had some, some time invested there with our, um our delegation and
um some, some group meetings with all the project proponents. It's good. Um We
got our, our district staffers up to speed on our, our two requests and priorities.
Um So he had a association of counties bylaws committee meeting, still trying to
structure the organization to keep everybody on board. Um It seems to be uh going
pretty well so far so ish and peers are still at the table. So, um more to come there,
uh budget meeting on Wednesday morning, not a lot to report there starting to see
a decline in sales tax, curious if that's gonna hold or if it's just a a normal variation.
Um Still it, it's under budget, it's still higher than last year. So hard to say
if that's really um you know, decreasing but um hurts a little bit. I'm not uh
Jefferson Transit Climate Action Plan um doing some review and uh interview with
the consultants working on that. Um Let's see, totally spaced by
childcare team meeting. Um It's just too wrapped up in the writing the appropriation
request, unfortunately. Um Let's see. Yeah, my, my whole week is like Caswell Brown.
Caswell Brown. Caswell Brown uh certified the presidential primary on Thursday and
Friday um had a lot and we ended up having to um
reject 420 so 430 ballots. Um You know, this is by far the most
confusing ballots, it only happens every four years and then it keeps changing. So
almost all of the rejections were because of um people not choosing the same part,
not doing a declaration of the party and signing that on the back or that their party
declaration on the envelope didn't match the vote. Some people declared both parties,
um some a lot declared none. Um And in some of those cases,
um because if, if there's either no signature or no party affiliation, they were
contacted and asked to come and update their ballots that it could be counted. But
by far most did not. Um So interesting. I was wondering what was gonna happen based
on the number of p personal phone calls I was getting on what to do. Yeah, you're
getting personal phone calls on my community reaches out. What do I do with this?
And I'm like you did you indicate a party and then you vote for your candidate of
that party, you know, but, and you follow the instructions like that's the thing
is a lot of people, you know, want to kind of outsmart the instructions and it just
means that their ballot doesn't get counted. It's really too bad. Um I don't even,
I don't like that. We can choose the party there and then you have to sign an affidavit.
I mean, I don't know, you know, I thought about games, game theory and everything
but I, you know, yeah, just went with Marianne Williamson. Like I'm going to in the,
in the general. I'm kidding. I assume that she did. But I, I can't, I couldn't, I
couldn't sign to a different party for, like, a game theory. I don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, it's a weird process and it, it is a function of the party. It's a political
party. So if, if people don't like it they don't have to participate. It is not a
necessary part of our democracy. But, um, it is, I get that it's unsatisfying for
lots of reasons. I found it that satisfying myself. I think people found it confusing
to that. Even though if they followed the instructions, it wasn't confusing. But
we do, we get rank choice voting. It would be super confusing and much better. Yeah.
Um and just as usual, you know, seeing a lot of signatures that clearly have just
not been updated. Um So I really encourage people to update their signatures with
the auditors. It tends to happen at either end of the age spectrum in particular
and we really want to count as many votes as possible. But, and the other thing I
have to say, I, I, you know, I see in doing those checks, I see a lot of names of
a lot of signatures, un matching of kids. I know who are off at college and I do
not sign your kids ballot. It doesn't work.
Um Let's see, had a board of health meeting.
Um
got a great update on the um Septic Cashier program. Great work by environmental
health
meeting on Friday with uh Junior from Jefferson healthcare or kind of monthly walk
and talk did the radio show with Wendy Bart. Um We're allegedly talking about childcare,
but I realize there's so many things that the Y MC A has jumped into fully and just
been really um you know, such strong community partners think largely because of
Wendy's willingness, eagerness to jump in. And so I talked about the um food programs
and the childcare they currently provide and the uh Seventh Haven project as well
as our project of the high school. And um so very appreciative um of all of her work
and then had a um fairgrounds meeting trying to hire a um assistant to help
with the county fair. Excuse me, that'll be um posted relatively soon. So if anyone
wants a part time seasonal job helping pull off the county fair, keep an eye out
for that. And then just lots of time working on the Caswell Brown funding request
yesterday. Got it all finished and then accidentally hit refresh and lost it all.
And so we recreated it. Right. Yeah, most of it was in a word documents like I know
better. I, I, I, I was doing it the smart way but still I ended up losing some work.
So um can you send it, can you send it to us? So, yeah, we did over lunch. That would
be good. Yeah, like in advance of our conversation this afternoon. Yes. If I feel
out of the loop a little bit on that,
um How would folks feel about uh recessing a little bit early that I just got the,
the call that I was supposed to get at 10 o'clock. So, um if I could return an important
call, that mess you up at all, Caroline, if we recess it early and try hitting pause
and see if it crashes. Ok. So if you're listening to A B capture, we have trouble
sometimes when we hit pause. So please join us on Zoom. The Zoom link is on your
A B screen and that won't go away. The agenda won't go away. So please join us on
Zoom if we lose you. All right, let's um recess until 10 o'clock until 10. Yes, I
call it. Yeah, it's too early. So, ok, like 10
part of
I never end up seeing them all in the correspondence. I just pick and choose. I,
are you seeing when you look in laser fish? Do you see? This is what I see? Nothing.
I can see who it's from and what this, who it's to but, and I can see they do. Yeah,
I mean, I, I looked at a couple this morning but not, you know, not enough of them.
Ok, I'm gonna restart my computer and see if that helps. Yeah, I did have to restart
this morning. All right. You ready? Ok. Uh we are coming back
into session. Sorry, my phone call went for a little bit long. What's working?
All right. Would you like to do any briefing from last week? Ok. So Monday the 18th,
I'm here with the board and then on the 19th, uh senior management team meeting at
nine and then I joined your um, CBS funding conversation. Ok. I'm very impressive
watching you operate
and then 18 meeting at, at two o'clock, Kevin and John Morrow were not in attendance.
So, so, um it was me and Aaron Berg and he took me out onto the newly finished Jetty
and, and that's where we had the conversation about the airport, uh Business, business
Park and additional things they'd like to see accomplished there. Then on the 20th,
uh B budget committee meeting followed by a one on one with Josh Pierce. I
attended the enforcement committee meeting uh at one o'clock and substantial discussion
about the encampment policy. And um, and then of course, I think you might have seen
the memo from, from Philip this morning or this weekend. Uh and
I attended the opera uh
was a check in. Um Apparently there are a number of counties that are having difficulty
obligating all their arath funds. We can help, I think compared to the average, I
think we did quite well. Um Thursday, the 21st 1 on one with
Brent and I had lunch with uh Chief Black and we had a good discussion about changing
relationships. Now that uh Brian Tracer has come to the county to be our deputy fire
marshal and the fact that we need to update our 2014 IL A with East Jefferson.
Um, and what we think we'll do is have a three way with the city of the county and
East Jefferson fire at some point. And so looking forward to that and then Judy and
Carolyn and I met with, uh you know, I met with Judy and Carolyn to go over that
uh non departmental budget in advance of the appropriation hearing we have coming
up and then agenda review with Kate and Caroline for.
And then on Friday, I met with Josh and Brent to sort of synchronize uh Brent's activities
with Josh and then um then a call regarding the shelter closure uh with Philip Unser
in preparation for today's activities and when you were in on that and then, um then
Josh and I um reviewed the D CD budget and um when we bring in a supplemental appropriation
to the board for you to consider in April, that was my week.
Great. Uh Shall we look ahead? Sure, I can go 1st
1st, a reminder that I am leaving on Saturday for a week long vacation. I'll be gone
all next week. But can um you join Monday morning if there's stuff that needs
to happen? Um I will be missing the in person second in in person. Recompete meeting
So if anyone wants to spend, uh, four hours at the Peninsula College next Wednesday
on the third, let me know. Uh, but this week I, what do we do? I got, uh,
that was done. I'm actually meeting Bruce Seaton about Glen Cove tomorrow. Go check
their office out and then E DC Finance Committee Tuesday late morning.
And then there's a, no DC has put on a, with a PNNL uh Port Townsend Roundtable on
marine renewable energy. So, as you know, they've been talking about this for a while,
tidal energy, but the um you know, I don't know, it comes up and then it fades away.
The conversation usually ebbs and flows.
That's a good one. Thanks. Thank you. Um Yeah. Uh and then on
Wednesday, the team Jefferson recompete and then uh Wednesday afternoon, our recompete
coordinator una who is on board now with Clam County is gonna come out to the, the
boat school first and I'm gonna join for a tour of the boat school on their spring
break. And then we're coming over to a port uh boatyard tour with, with her and every
kind of the local team and some of the grant writers, I will have to leave early
there to come and chair the Housing Fun Board, which I'll actually be in person for
thankfully. And then, I don't know, I've got a bit of a conflict with the uh rescheduled
Jefferson County Quarterly meet up that I was going to do because you had another
appointment a couple of weeks ago. Uh Heidi, not that it's on any one of our calendars
only, but it's been rescheduled for 4 p.m. this coming Wednesday and I can the 20
the 27th can join after, after um uh virtually, I can join
after uh the Housing Fund Board. I, I can also join after the Empowered Teens coalition
chic so I, I can take that back. Ok. That what uh on Thursday, I'm gonna skip Jeff
com, I think and go to uh some Jefferson search and rescue training up on Hurricane
Ridge. So I'll probably miss the, the monthly meeting of no DC as well. And I let
Karen know I did participate in the agenda planning. Then on Friday, II, I think
I'm up for KPTZ. I must say, did I trade that for? No, I think I'm up and then uh
I have a weekly call with, with Dan mcdade. Now as we kind of get ready for the,
the task force going the healthier together task force. And then we have our weekly
uh North Olympic Peninsula recompete Coalition meeting and then getting back together
with the Behavioral Health Consortium for the, the go no go choice on that grant
application, which would be for $250,000. But I think there's, it might not
be enough to justify, you know, I don't know, like it, it's, it's, it's kind of marginal
whether it would be worth it, the chance of getting the grant, the administration
of it for. We're not quite what service, short service. Basically, if it's training
it, it's probably worthwhile in my opinion. And if we're talking about on boarding
new, uh, substance use services, probably not with them.
And that is my coming week and then Saturday morning I get on a plane early. Where
are you going again? Vallarta. I'm living vicariously through other people. Um Yes,
I, I've planned vicariously through other people so I don't really know where I'm
going, but I believe it's Mexico. That would be, I wish someone would plan a vacation
for me. Right. Um Can we talk a little bit about that? Wednesday, April 3rd. Yes,
meeting. So uh Wednesday the third, it's gonna be in person at noon at
Peninsula College, uh free parking for the day. Um And it's, I think we'll be getting
our information back from West is STEM network. So a lot of the research that Peninsula
College has been commissioning and some that, so that data is supposed to be back,
which will really inform the uh the barrier removable conversation and kind of what
that side of the, you know, which is a little squishier than the, than the concrete
projects. What that will look like is gonna start kind of the, the sprint starts
then when we get the data. So that's the idea I would be interested in attending.
Um What about you? How do you, I'm happy to defer to you. I have a conflict of, for,
no, it would be great to have someone there. So I will probably be going there lots
of options. And the, you know, I think Eric is on vacation too, so I'm not sure who
will be going to town. He was the last one and a man. Really knowledgeable.
Yes. Right. So, I just, I don't want to miss speak or misrepresent. Yeah. Yeah. No,
I, yeah. No, you can, I mean, if you bring any food, make sure it's up to quality,
you know, sorry, I don't have a wife to be baking while I'm at work. Be careful.
Stacy is, yeah. She's probably listening right now and I certainly was not at work
when she was baking for me. Stacy wants to bake for me. Wait, you'll be in Mexico
now. She's gonna be out of it, you know, I mean, maybe you can get a husband to bake
for you. That happens too sometimes. So I've heard of that. Um, the, I have a conflict
that I can probably move. So let's plan on me attending. I would love to have you.
That's awesome.
It's funny. I have something on my calendar that day at climate survey and chic,
why? I think I will remember these cryptic notes as long as you don't drive there.
Hm. Ok. Figure that out. All right. Hey, do you wanna look ahead Well, looking ahead
to me feels like I don't know what the right metaphor is, but ok, so let's
see,
just thinking if there's anything nothing this weekend, ok. Next week,
next week, on the second, we have a regularly scheduled Marine resources committee
meeting and I think as I estimated months ago with the departure of Monica
Montgomery, um, Sarah Fiskin bless her heart is holding, holding the ship together
and keeps trying to retire. But yeah, it's, you know, so we're, we're looking for
a new uh WSU is hiring for that position, but that's in progress still. So I feel
like flying a little closer to MRC right now is a good thing to be supportive of
the team um on Wednesday at the Jefferson County incident management team meeting
which I think I said at the first of the year that I was interested in going to those.
So here I am going to one um Thursday morning is the 03 a
Council of Governments meeting and then the afternoon is the Jefferson County Parks
and Recreation Advisory Board meeting will be my first one back on the parks and
rec board. And then um Friday, we have a um forestry
meeting with Mallory in the afternoon and I have myself on the for KP DC on the fifth
of April. I'm definitely not doing that. So that must be me. Yeah, I'm out that day
too. Ok, great. Well, I will think of something titillating for that. I'm not gonna
have a KPTZ this week. I gotta think. Still. Did I look at this week for you guys
or did I just skip the next one? Yeah, the first meeting is on the fifth of April
5th of April. So yeah. No, I didn't look at this week. Ok, so this week um we have
our first board of health sub-committee meeting for the um
all the issues that we started talking about the last board of health meeting. So
that's uh I got an invite from Pinky at two o'clock tomorrow the 26th.
Oh, yeah, there it is. Yeah. No, I'm going to that too. Physic sanitation. Yep. I'll
be a little late for the, I remember I told them I'd be late for the renewable energy.
Ok? And then the Community Foundation board meeting in the evening. Um
mm Wednesday. We have, I have the Chim Power Teens Coalition and the rescheduled
quarterly Health and Human Service um coordinators, collaborators,
the, the WSU Tanya Barnett meeting. That's always awesome. It's just a big, big round
table of folks sharing what they're doing and where they need help from each other,
which I feel like is a really valuable um sharing that happens and you're planning
to go to that. Mhm I'll go after empowered teens. I'll leave empower teens a little
early and I'll be a little late to that. Um Wednesday or Thursday. Uh My first meeting
of the law library Board of Trustees for the county. And um, Thursday
afternoon is a solid waste advisory committee meeting. Is that a new one? The law
library board of trustees, apparently there's always been a commissioner on the law.
The county Law Library board never heard of this. I never heard of it. And Brandon
reached out and said, was I interested in being in the law library? I was assuming
he talked to you guys as well. No, you were his first choice, I think. Ok. Well,
maybe, maybe because he made it up. Maybe I've said out loud in meetings before that.
I'm a library nut, which I have. So I don't know that probably was it. So, so you
probably heard me say that. So, yeah, that's a new one. Swack Thursday afternoon,
Democrats meeting Thursday evening. Hoping to,
hoping to receive the endorsement of the Jefferson County Democrats from my potential
bid for county commissioner before final week. Even for incumbents, I guess. Yeah,
excited. Um And then the most exciting event of the week is that my eighth grader.
My goddaughter is uh doing her eighth grade presentation for Sunfield graduation.
So, super excited to attend that. Um, headaches, migraines. Does she suffer migraines?
Oh, that's a, that's a Yeah. Or we wait to bear. And then I had the Washington Wrist
Pool conference on my calendar, but I'm not going to that. Are you going to that?
Just virtual? Yeah. Ok. And then I also have Greg's vacation on my calendar and I'm
not going to that. I mean, you know, try to sneak in and then I already talked about
the following week. So. Yeah. Ok. Um Greg is the, the no DC um
energy event, is that open to the public that is open to the public? I think. Let
me double check.
It's a round table one. Let me just double check. Um Let's see. So tomorrow um
I don't have anything until the afternoon. Housing. No, sorry. It's Wednesday tomorrow.
I'm meeting with TM Tier to talk about the f advisory committee and um the recommended
language change that we'd like was a to take on as part of their legislative work.
Um And he has been working on that issue for a long time with the different advisory
committee. So we have some great input. Um and then have the Jefferson Transit Climate
Action Plan team meeting tomorrow afternoon Wednesday. Uh I don't have anything until
the housing fun board meeting. So, Greg, if there's, you know, if you want me to
kick off that meeting, you know, and get it started on time and then hand it back
to you or whatever. Um I am open. Thank you for that Thursday. Um It's our
childcare group meeting. Um
Actually, I think that one that was canceled. Well, I'm not sure and then a gender
review and nothing on Friday. I have a shockingly light week. Um And the following
week I am out. Uh, Thursday and Friday. Should I have marked in my calendar?
Something fun, I hope. Yeah. Go to Joshua Tree. Oh, I've never been. I love that
desert. Yeah, I'm excited. Although the forecast isn't great. My sixties, like I
want flying south, I want significantly warmer than here, but still should be dry
and in bloom and looking forward to it. All right. Mark.
You're right. Um, so sh short week
and today, of course, with the board, tomorrow, nothing scheduled a day to get some
contract work done. And then on Wednesday we have a, a
mist um person on the teams call all day. Um So the county staff can
um get questions answered about uh about m and tools that are available to increase
productivity and that sort of thing. So that's really kind of a neat, neat deal.
So they'll just be on, on teams and available to consult at any time of the day.
Huh? That's cool. And then in the middle of all that at 11 o'clock, uh Willie Ben
and I are gonna travel to City Hall to meet with John Morrow and staff about the
all hazard mitigation plan. Um trying to get what we need from the city in order
to wrap that plan up and get it submitted to the state. And then at one o'clock meeting
with Apple and some of her staff to go over her strategic plan, all the public health
tasks and then of course, the Charrette at 530 I think that's at the library.
Um, what's that? The, the tri area? It's UG A zoning. It's got three chats, uh, put
in.
Is it the one Brent's doing at the library?
And then on Thursday, um, Washington County Risk Pool starting at 930. So I'll be
in on Jeff com for a half hour and then I'll, I'll give you regrets. Thank you. Um
And then the gender review on the 29th uh wrap up Risk
Pool. And then in the afternoon, uh Sarah Millen son and I are huddling with um Bob
Braun to strategize for upcoming negotiations with FOP corrections and with the central
services and that that should finish my week. We're going two weeks out
and if you're still in fine. Yeah, I was good. I do have one more conflict. I I neglected
but there is a intellectual development and developmental disability Advisory board
tomorrow at 245 that also conflicts with the marine Renewable Energy and II I sent
a note to see if that was public. Um the 26th. I am a conflict. I think the afternoons
are not great for me. Um 2 45 2 45. I could do that. Ok.
Is it Zoom? It's zoom. I'll forward the invite to you. Thank you. Mhm.
All right. Um How, how do we wanna structure our day
and it's not public this one? It's just Uh, ok. Industry. I'm sure they'll have public
ones.
Um, any, any priorities to discuss this morning?
01 thing, you know, there's been a, that letter of support for the whole tribe's,
uh, fire services that's been kind of flying around. I think the fire marshal to
say was gonna, um, write a letter of support. But did you guys get that letter? I
just wondering if we should also toss in our support. I have not. Let's see.
Mm. Mm.
Let me check it here.
Is it?
I, I think it went to the sheriff's office on the,
uh, do, do, do, do
it's a fire. I can just put it on the screen and Phil was gonna send, uh, send this
letter. Is that right? Mark? Do you remember? Do I think you, you were the one suggested,
Phil? So here could send this letter in? Sure. But, um, you can join in as well.
Yeah. So let me just throw it up real quick.
They went and ended up going to facilities and sheriff's office kind of the different
part of the, the whole government that operates with them.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
You might want to change it a little if, uh, Phil sending the same one in. Mm. I
could, uh, take a stab at it over the break.
What funds are they applying for? Mm. I mean, I think it's like, gradually directed
spending. I think that's what you said last week. Right. Well, this is, this letter
just came in. We sent a different one for them. That was, I, I talked to Vice Chair
Lopez. We did send that letter in support of their congressionally directed spending.
This ended up coming to public works in the sheriff's office and we forwarded it
through the fire marshal to its like it just the three.
Maybe it should say that in the letter
probably
perf maybe we fully support this request for mm allocation from. I should probably
uh verify that that is what they're doing. I mean, that's the assumption that I make,
you know, uh I remember hearing when we were out at the West end. Is it three or
four years ago now that um response to fire is a really big concern and the
West end? Yeah. Yeah, you just wait times that are, are too long to be
of any use. Many residents that are not in any fire district at all. So it could
be, I could see adding some language about that. All right, I will uh take a stab
at making some changes over the lunch break and bring it back. Josh is reporting
that Phil is out of town at a conference. And so he has
suggested that that you send a letter. Yep, that sounds good. And I won't make that
many changes, some of that context that we talked about. Wait to back.
Um
I'm trying to find um an email. I'm not sure if you both got it as well, which is
um the, the Association of Counties, the um
it's a sample submission form that went out um
where we will s how we'll submit our um legislative priority requests for
consideration. Ok. So these are due on
Friday, April 19th. 0, is that that survey? It's a chat form. But we in order
for legislative priorities to be considered, they have to be submitted by them. So
we have talked about the um
um changing the language on that specific statute um regarding the um
was the Land Bank, San Juan County Home Fund or something Home Fund is what they
call it. I can, I can, I can write up something on that. Yeah, that'd be great. I'll
forward this email and then maybe we could discuss the um um language and then uh
10 years I work on the uh the advisory committee language. But is there anything
I guess we should just be thinking about if there are any other requests we want
to make? Um, you know, I, I worked last year on the LAM proposal that did not get
accepted largely because it just seems like the Democrats aren't very interested
in considering any changes um or does it feel politically feasible? Yeah. So it's
a question if we want to revive, try and revive that. I, I feel it's really worthwhile
and, and, you know, democratic voices pushing it is the only thing that's ever gonna
get listened to. So I would say that's worth pushing again. I appreciate your leadership
on that. Ok. And I would totally agree with that. And the, the members of lost a
really, like it, the staff feel like, you know, don't, don't have us working on stuff
that's gonna take a lot of time and isn't gonna be successful. So that's the um challenge.
They, they kind of push it into the no basket. And it's interesting to know, like
from Senator Short or someone else who is a legislative proponent of it, they feel
like, you know, it has a, we could revive it. Yeah, cause a couple of bills have
passed in recent years. Um, I think it's a bit of a horse trading, you know, Republicans
get, um, some of what they want and then, yeah, some quid pro quo, what
do we need to trade? Well, I, I don't, I don't think we need to trade. That's the
thing Republicans need to because we want it to happen.
But the, is within the Democrats. So, um, are there other counties, let me inform,
um, allegiance with anybody? Is there any other, a lot counties supported this? They
all really liked the proposal. Um, but it's the legislators and future wise that
don't, and therefore less sex staff for loud voices. Yeah. But there might be, um,
you know, we could certainly tweak it to, you know, try to make it more appealing.
But if you'll remember that. Um You know, I, I was linking, getting more density
just for housing where Lamar could meet certain environmental right conditions. Um
So I thought we were kind of tailoring it too. I know there's still interest in some
of our, you know, our land
and it, I mean, we could specifically put in just affordable housing projects. It
seems like that's getting easier to kind of verify the state is recognizing more
ways of assuring that that would be appealing to that RCW too, you know, I mean,
they, they, they're linked so you could kind of, I don't know, put it in a denser
area, you know, like affordable housing, you know, I don't know, it seems like more
connections make things more complicated, not less complicated. So I don't know if
that's a good strategy.
Well, another thing to think about in the session is it's a full budget cycle, you
know, it's the beginning of the biennial budget. So, are there any budget capital
or operating asks? I mean, we've got our septage study funded thanks to our legislative
delegation. So, are there any other efforts that you guys know about her?
Yeah. And I think the Aquatic Center was um you know, that on the list of future
um appropriation requests, but I don't think we'll be Yeah, it doesn't seem right.
Yeah. Um I mean, if, if, if we knew by the end of the year that we were going to
the ballot saying we could maybe consider it, but it's at this point it seems premature
and we don't need that for was sack. That's not on the April timeline. Yeah. Um
Anything with timber or natural resources, I'm sure there will be, but I, we're still
in the midst of our work groups, you know. So I think coming out of those work groups,
there may be legislative pieces, but we don't, we're not there yet. Carbon and carbon
and forest work group. Right? Is, we're about halfway through those meetings is I
have a long-standing, um, um, annoyance with the, the fact
that the, um, tax sales tax on gravel is destination based. So it gets, you know,
produced here. Yeah. So, you know, crushed and a fair amount of impact. Certainly
to roads, heavy, heavy trucks on our roads and then all of the, um, tax goes to the
destination, which I've always thought is unfair, but I've been told it's for some
reason, it's a third rail issue. Yeah. Third is like, I'm not touching that.
Um, and, and I won't be around to be pushing these through. It will be up to you
guys to make progress on these. So I don't know if that's one we wanna consider.
It's been very difficult to even get, um, to find the, where it lives and just like
I've explored it for a couple of years and just got nowhere on that. Interesting.
Yeah, it's some strong lobby that doesn't want that touched. Is there anything
with a new UG A coming online? You know, that we wanna be? I haven't heard of anything
from Josh AD CD or anything legislative that we need to work on and as that ramps
up, that's more internal. Right.
Of course, they're busy. I do. I worry about DC T, like the flurry of people trying
to get in before the, uh, international building code changes is a real impact too.
Um ok. Well, we have till April 19th. Um It doesn't look like a complicated form.
I'll resend this to you guys just so it's at the top of your email, make my lunch
loops here. Ok.
Anything else we wanna get through this morning?
I'll just let you know that TED Boat is off of Cala Point. Thanks to our colleagues
at DNR uh T boat that's been parked there for a couple of months. They were able
to get it off last Friday morning. Excellent. Yeah, we had very little uh hand in
that. Had it been abandoned, it had been put on. It was the one the super entertaining.
I felt like an entertaining story where the boat, the 83 ft Coast Guard Historic
Coast Guard boat had sunk at the Irondale Beach and the guy had put a buoy so he
knew where the boat had sunk and then he came and tied this tug boat to the buoy
and then that windstorm six weeks ago or the, the buoy, the boat, the
tug boat that was tied to the buoy pulled off and pulled the rigging off the 83 ft
Coast Guard vessel and the whole shit, excuse my language, folks washed a sh store
on the Cal Point Beach and it's been sitting there for the last 67 weeks, eight weeks,
maybe now. So, um DNR has been working to get all of the, you know, all this go through
all the steps to get it removed. And I woke up on Friday morning with a, with a Mex
text. I'm living in Irondale now, right? A text from a neighbor saying the tugboats
gone. So I texted the, I'm like, was it you guys or was it the boat owner? And they
said it was us. So, yeah. Derelict vessel removal program. Yeah, nice. But that one
we wanted to get off the beach before it started to break apart. So done and done.
Great.
Well, um, we don't have any business we adjourn and have a, a long lunch. We'll have
a, um, I know we're gonna try to adjourn a little bit early this afternoon to write.
How do you have a heart stop at 44. Ok. But anything else you wanna try and cover
boards and committees is on there? But
I might wanna look through the list now or do it later. I think we're gonna be busy
this afternoon. Yeah,
I heard Caro Carolyn saying about you, they look at boards and committees so she
knows as well.
What's the list
Amanda asked? Uh if someone wanted to go to the connection, uh fair coming up. All
right. Thank you. Yeah. Talk about boards and committees or? Yeah, they were hoping
to have one of us there throughout the day and I said I could do a couple of hours.
I had a, I have a conflict at the beginning. I think it's April 20th. Is that right?
I'll look at my calendar. Um, so I told Mark and Amanda that I could be there for
two or three hours. Yeah. So I have a thing in the morning on Marrone but then after
noon afternoon, 12 o'clock, I can be at the Connectivity fair and I have it in my
calendar. I can go to some, I don't have it in my calendar but, uh, who wants to
be there for the morning? That'd be awesome. I can do the morning since I'm the closest.
Or no, it's Jim. This year is not. Yeah, it's ok. I, I be happy to do morning. Um,
yeah, just, uh, I don't have anything on my calendar, so I'll do the closing shift.
Is that ok? I can do noon to two.
Ok.
It was 2 to 4 or something. Yeah, two hours. Yeah, it was 10 to 4 I think. Let me
see. I have the email 10 to 4. Yeah. Ok. So I'll do 10 to
12. Sounds good.
Ok. Then back to the boards and committee vacancies. Mhm.
Looking for people for planning commission talked to PLVC last week, a week. I guess
it was a couple of weeks ago.
Wait, it says planning commission. No vacancies. Oh, well, there's a district three
vacancies still. Ok. Ok.
I won't even talk. No. No, she's gonna whisper, subvocalizing conservation futures.
District, three citizen.
Um, I see that there's a note about a sailor sailor behavior, health administrative
services organization vacancy, but I'd say be based on my last couple of meetings
there. They're doing a good job of filling vacancies right now. So I don't think
we need to help yet. District Four Noxious Weed board is just waiting there for me
one day when I'm like, oh, I've got more time.
Looks like we're pretty staffed up though. It's awesome. Thank you community housing
fun board. We had one applicant after the deadline but you know, I still should consider
them, so I'm sure we'll. Ok. So two, we just have one, we have one applicant. Ok.
Um ok, because there was one in the agenda request or in the uh calendar item was
that received a little late? Yeah. Ok. All right. Um
I wish um I wish we were doing a better job of getting these to Wendy to promote
on Facebook. Wendy are Wendy? Um This would be a great, oh, Wendy Davis should
be promoting on Facebook you know, I would imagine there could be a number of people
interested in housing fund board to do a better job of getting it out there.
I, I have not looked at a legal notice in the newspaper in about 10 years. I'm not
sure who does, does somebody want to follow up with Wendy and Mark? Ok.
She's away this week, I think. But, yeah, and I, I've been doing some Facebook posts
so if something comes up, um, let me know. I still, I'm immune to Facebook.
Mhm. Yeah. No, it's, looks like it's going pretty well though.
So I don't think we have anything to discuss on boards and committees. Really? Did
you guys do all your training? Oh, I did it a long time ago. I feel, I feel like
when people ask me that now I'm like, is there more training? But I, I did it out
of the gate. Yeah, it comes up again. Oh, don't remind me. And I have, I have all
the state stuff to do now too. I got confirmed by the Senate for, uh, um, one of
my state roles and so I have this whole new layer. So maybe I said I had a bunch
of free time this week. Maybe I'll do it. Although I have to do the two, other two,
um, appropriation to, you know, each, each member of Congress has a different, different
questions. At least you have the same in a word document out, right. Yeah. Ok. Yes.
Um, but they ask questions in different, you know, slightly different ways and so
it's still gonna take polishing. Um, so I, I hope they help you. Polish. No, still
not, not using a I to help you, uh, refine that at all. No, no, I did think about
it yesterday when you were, like, had to redo it again. Yeah, I've never actually
used, uh, any, you know, chat GP T or anything except, um, you know, they offer it
now when you're making a Facebook post they offer, um, you know, and it gives you
prompts for like, you know, make this more cheerful, make this more. And so that's
the only dabbling I've done is in that very limited context and I was impressed.
Hm. Yeah. Um, I don't dabble on Facebook much. You got too much. I feel like I have
too much human interaction right now though. Yeah, I know.
Um, but I did, I had dinner last night with the Dean of the Evans School and was
asking about A I, and how they're approaching A I and, um, the dean was, she was
just totally embracing it, which is great and she's even a little older than us and
she just feels like, you know, this will, um, yes, of course, change the workforce,
but make even more valuable, the things that humans, that only humans can do. Um,
so I was glad to hear they were wholeheartedly jumping in, um, and wanting to be,
you know, on the cutting edge of public policy around A I, my MP program MB A program
next year is gonna focus on A I as well. So, yeah, the educational institutions are
paying attention. Yeah, I had that study. I took to my son yesterday and he's also
at a school of public affairs. Um, and he's been very interested in using it for
a long time, but I, I didn't ask him how that's, you know, how, how much it's part
of his program. But interesting. Yeah, someday we're gonna need a little presentation
from you. I can do that. I can give you my slide deck right now if you want.
Yeah. Well, you mean just ask a, I does end up for you right now. No, I have the
A I slide deck that I started the A I think tank with. I'd love to see it. You want
to? I'm saying in an open public meeting, would you share it with me, please? I mean,
I'll share it right now. Do you want to just look at it real quick? Take a few minutes.
Yeah.
Let's see. I'm sure some of the lots of the stuff I have talked about before.
Let's see. Yeah, I find you real quick.
Oops.
So I logged in when I do that one to see
and presentation.
Thanks.
I'll do it real fast. All right. See it. All right. Planning for A I in the public
sector. I'm gonna go my screen actually forward it.
All right. So you can see this road map created an A I, it's uh kind of illustrate
some of the strengths and the weaknesses of A I because I made this cool looking
road map in like five seconds. And you also see that rivers just turn into roads.
So it's not really a necessarily a perfect road map, right? So um uh A I is all about
kind of this, this generative A I that we're talking about that we want to be, you
know, general uh artificial intelligence soon is uh kind of predicts what comes next,
whether it's an image or anything else. So, um on policy side, we've been, you know,
we have the think tank that's been looking through it and we really need to figure
out how we're going to, you know, what are the guard rails that we need? We obviously,
we have it in Facebook now, we have it in, it's gonna be in all the Microsoft products
soon. This, I mean, I just created this in the free Canva program and it created
these A I images for me. Um And there's been a lot more, I forgot my like, what kind
of prompts did you give to create that image in Canva? I believe I said, please create
a roadmap that could be used as a metaphor for um for A II I can't remember exactly.
But uh you know, basically create me a road map. And then so there's kind of two
different regulatory paths. United States does not have a universal policy though.
There's been some changes as the Biden White House has, has released an executive
order as well as uh a framework guideline document. But we have piecemeal regulation
throughout the States. In Europe, there's a lot more regulation. They have the European
Artificial Intelligence Act in 2021 and they're identified what some of the high
risk impacts might be. You know, like if it's dealing with transportation or automation
of industries and health care. So they recognize in that regulation that they don't
know what the problems are going to be. So like the United States where even the
first blueprint for an A I governance by the Biden administration, there's kind of
seven principles that come up for all of these and they are the European one really
put in an ethics code. Uh that is very similar to these seven principles that we
can look at real quick. Um So this is the, the growth and uh there's been a lot of
legislation, basically the number of A I related bills that were passed into law
um around the country, the world. And you can see that there's a, a huge increase
in the regulation that's coming as it as this grows. But in the United States, it's
a little more fragmented. So this is kind of a heat map of, of, uh, legislation around
the country. Washington is, you know, like what we would expect with California and
Massachusetts, Maryland is one of the ones that has more, uh, laws that have actually
been passed. But many, you can see most have zero amount of regulation on A I. So
it really, um, I think the problems can happen and, you know, some would argue that,
that the development of the industry would happen quicker too with less regulation.
So that's, I mean, mo most A I um developments have been happening in the United
States, you know, we're still ahead and part of that is the lack of regulation. So
it's
um and then it's just really challenging here, you know, so in the United States,
nine have passed the US Congress and, and 80 were proposed in, in 2022. So it's just,
it's hard for us as a Federal union to get our arms around this. And so
people are trying, but it's not been very successful so far. So is that all the state?
This is the Federal, the US Congress and what kinds of things are passing, what are,
what are, what are we able to get our hands around our head around her? Um A around,
I don't know the answer I can bring back. I'm not sure it would just be interesting
to know like the difference between what's being proposed and what's actually making
it through the Yeah, that's a good question. I don't, I don't have any data that
I could answer that one. So the blueprint, uh this is out of, out of the US and it
kind of talks about these, these principles, right? So safe and effective systems,
you should be protected. And imagine these are being used by the county. You know,
whether we're using it to write emails or help craft emails or, you know, the kind
of the far end is, you know, the C A bot, the customer assistance meeting bot, you
know, like when can we start providing service and, and kind of take work off of,
of a staff member shoulders. Um but it becomes really problematic, you know, there
was a lawsuit against Air Canada because they had a chat bot that was like a customer
service chat bot and it uh someone called and said, what's your bereavement policy?
Can I buy the ticket and then get reimbursed later? Because I've got, I've got to
go to a funeral. Da da da and Air Canada did have a policy, but the chat bot just
created a new policy out of whole cloth and said, oh yeah, totally, you can get reimbursed.
And so um I'm not sure what level of courts in Canada, but they uh reinforced that
if your A I says something you're, you know, you're, you gotta, you gotta live by
it. Um Algorithmic discrimination protections. That we've, you know, heard stories
about like when Amazon was using algorithms to, you know, do their job, uh you know,
first filter of, of job candidates and they ended up, you know, filtering out the
nonwhite males, you know, the the institutional biases can easily get magnified and
replicated with when once you turn it over to an algorithm and data privacy should
be able to, you know, protect it from abusive data practices. Um Oh yeah, there's
55 principles in the blueprint. They've been expanded to seven. This is not totally
up to date, notice an explanation. So if someone is using an automated system, it
should be disclosed and you know, you should give credit when you're, you're generating
things with A I and then people should always have a human alternative. So if you're
not comfortable with, you know, your building application being processed by, you
know, the algorithm that we have in five years, then you should be able to opt out
and say I'd like a human to review my plan or whatever. Um So this was a quick uh
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. All these images were created actually
in Dolly. So that first one is Archimedes because you know, Dolly is chat GP
TS image generator. OK. Um So, you know, give me a lever long enough and A and a
fulcrum to put it on and I can lift the world that's and the A I is, you know, exponentially
more powerful over successive generations. And it really does challenge the paradigm.
I, you know, I think didn't uh the scientific community rejected that we are in a
new e era recently, right? Were we the Anthropocene? We're not in that yet even though,
but uh I think that we are in a new one now. I think we have just left the information
era and we are into the artificial intelligence era. So we'll see how it plays out.
Right? Would agree. Yeah. Ok. Um Pandora's box, that was the second image I asked
to make a, a tech Pandora's Box in Beli. Um And we just know it can be used. We're
seeing it already deep fakes and, and uh and it really does, you know, every time
there's a disruptive technology, what is that? Yeah, we're still reeling from the
impacts to our social fabric from, you know, phones and the internet. So what is
this going to do? It is going to change the way that we interact at schools and education?
Oh, yeah. One of the things that uh one of the peer reviewed studies that I reviewed
about A, I talked about the declining quality of the model as more and more A I is
writing newspaper articles or writing this and that it won't, the model will be based
on a predictive A I and there won't be, you know, it'll get worse and worse as it,
you know, just apes itself like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy until it
won't be, you know, so just the quality of discourse could really decline um opportunities.
And that's that 32 hour work weeks up there. Um uh I can't remember what I prompted
that, that one was why is that an opportunity under A I? Um Well, you know, as we
continue to do collective bargain and everything, I've been looking at San Juan County
that, you know, went to a 32 hour work week. But uh I mean, it's, it's white, this
is the first kind of disruption to white collar job. So, you know, we've heard about
the lawyer that didn't uh check his, his work and, and you know, the A I just made
up precedent out of whole cloth, which it will do not very truth, but it also means
that, you know, if everyone is a doctor and a lawyer in their, in their pocket, that
really could be an equity opportunity, you know, if everyone has the access to a
real good medical opinion right away, that's something that's pretty significant.
And a lawyer too, you know, I need a contract for this real estate transaction I
want to go into. Um, and in the lower one, I asked dolly to make me a paper clip
factory because uh you, you've heard that uh sorcerer's apprentice metaphor. If you
have a I, you know, I, I just made this machine that will, you know, create paper
clips as efficiently as possible. And then soon humanity is in the way of creation
of the paper clip. So you got to destroy humanity so you can more efficiently create
paper clips. So it's the, you know, Mickey Mouse and the sorcerer's apprentice, that's
a real. And then of course, as we talked about implicit bias, perpetuates through
the system as it does, misinformation is affecting architecture. Um Yeah, you know,
uh I think it will but I mean, it can, you know, that engineer stamp maybe, I mean,
you like thinking about, you still have to have a human kind of go through all the
work and say, yeah, that, that, that's still pencils, right? So I think it's going
to reduce the number of lawyer time or architect time, but it makes the time that
you have more critical
um A I policy by A I or this is, you know, we don't have to go through this because
we've already kind of moved on Seattle's A I policy which got updated we're more
interested in. But as we were going with the uh our little think tank I, I created
with Chat GP T A social media policy. Um It's not really readable. Um I will be bringing
something back. So I don't, I don't know if we need to go through that, make that
readable I did in subsequent. And this is, these are the references and then this
one I can't remember what the prompt was, but Dolly made me that one too, I think
in the same Tacoma. But, um, where, where's, where's the role for A I, in, in government
I think was what I prompted. All right. That's it. Sort of artwork. A lot of artwork
in that. Having fun with a I. Cool. All right. Well, thank you.
Anything else?
Ok. I wonder if A, I has a new, um, cure for stage four pancreatic cancer. Um No,
not yet. But it might be if once we have our little machines that are always monitoring
us, maybe it's like, hey, you have stage one pancreatic cancer and uh that would
be pretty helpful. Totally. Ok. I digress. All right, we
will recess until 130 at 130 we'll be going right into executive session so we won't
be coming really back into open session until three. Sounds good. Thanks everyone.
Ok.
Good afternoon, everyone. We are coming back into session and we are going right
into executive session with the county administrator, the chief, civil deputy prosecuting
attorney, the deputy prosecuting attorney and Department of Community Development,
chief strategy officer regarding potential litigation. Is that exemption as outlined
in the Open Public Meetings Act RCW 42.30 0.1 10 parentheses. One parenthesis, I,
we will be in for an hour and 15 minutes from 130 until 245.
All right.
Recording in progress.
Ok. We're recording. Ok. Hi. Everyone. Um We are gonna need to extend our executive
session uh for another 15 minutes. So as a reminder, we are in executive session
with the county administrator, the chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney, the deputy
prosecuting attorney Department of Community Development Director and the Chief strategy
officer. Regarding potential litigation exemption is outlined in the Open Public
Meetings Act RCW 42.30 0.1 10 princes, one princess, I, and we will be, uh
extending until three pm when we'll come out for a workshop. Recording, stopped,
announce it's ok
for recording in progress.
Probably want this back.
Hi, everybody. We are coming back into session. We will not be taking any action
and um, it's gonna take a few minutes while folks uh come back into the chambers.
Um, so just to hang tight and we will get started on our workshop. Um, momentarily
as a reminder, um, we'll be having a workshop from three till 4 p.m. to discuss emergency
shelter. Tell folks they can commit
and my conflict this afternoon went away. So if we have to go longer, we can't.
Yeah, please bring Apple and Alyssa over. Let me see. What else is there?
No.
Yep, that's it.
Hey, Anya, hey, you on here. Sorry about changing the time on you.
Oh, well, glad it worked out.
I know it's like 20 degrees warmer than any other room in the building.
Yeah,
it is too bright. Can you do that?
Yeah, we don't, we never want to see the light of day. We're just moles in the hole
in here.
I wish for everyone is we're back in session.
We're just
Kate. Kate needed a rest. A pit stop. So she's getting her pit stop. She'll be back
before the record. It is being recorded. All right. Well, I'll do a little bit of
an introduction. Are, are you ready? Ok. Um So this is our, our, our workshop on
the shelter closing. There's a lot of issues that are circling around this, but we're
dealing mostly with what the county can do about the acute issue of the American
Legion shelter closing and how to look at the uh the surrounding issue. So we've
got some guests appreciate Amelia and, and anya being here there with the harm reduction
team. Is that an accurate description? And uh so they're gonna present a little bit
of what's on the ground. You know, I'd love to hear about the, the Port Townsend
uh response as well as you know, what's happening up I Ds Hs and just kind of what
you're seeing and get your perspective. Got Alisa from environmental Public Health
and Apple. Uh at least it's kind of filling in for pinky about some other um some
grant funds that Jefferson County has access to and then we'll come back around to
some other solutions for the medium term problems about that shelter actually closing
what can be done. Um And what what avenues we can pursue, what are the resources
that we can bring to bear? So just for the the record, the kind of the big problem
statement is that the American Legion shelter, our emergency shelter for Jefferson
County, which is operated by ICAP looks to be closed at the end of April. April 30th
will be the last day. Their contract with the American Legion goes until June and
then there is no contract. After that, the end of June goes to the end of June. Ok.
The cap is looking for a little bit of gap funding to build a new permanent
support of housing and emergency shelter facility on the Caswell Brown phase one
location off Mill Road that will be, you know, a year at the very rosiest
outlook. So we have longer term issues of what to do when the weather gets inclement
again and the winter is here and it's not so easy, easy. Um And it's more challenging
to be unhoused. So there are potential impacts to the city and the county.
Um when we don't have a shelter that are, are very real and impact people's ability
to, you know, move around unimpeded. And we are very cognizant of the um legal protections
afforded people that are unhoused and how without the shelter, those legal protections
really extend or they expand. And we were, we, you know, we are not looking to impair
any legal protections. We want to keep people as safe as we can. So with this, this
workshop was really to kind of bring everyone here up to speed about what the situation
is. What are our options in the short and medium term? We're not really looking at
even the winter right now, but just what can we do through the summer? Can I ask
a question? Was the city invited? Is there anyone here? Is, are any of you representing
the city? No one here is representing the city, the city we had a meeting um where
most everyone here and, and many of the s uh social service agencies were at last
Wednesday where we discussed a lot of these options and the city was present there
and um we can, we can bring them back. I can, I mean, I think we can, we can speak
to the um to what they're actually doing on the ground. But I, I know that they're
very motivated that they um we had housing fund board members, of course, from the
city Ben Thomas was at this last meeting, but um the city is similarly impacted,
right? I mean, they have lots of uh public, public land too that, that is, you know,
it changes without the shelter. So they're motivated as well. But I just wanted to
kind of talk to county staff and get input first and you know, there's enough, there's
a lot of grist for the mill so we can bring the city in? Ok. Um
why don't you? And Anya Amelia, you can come up and take a, take a seat, drag a seat
up and you guys, I'm, I'm about ready to hand it over to you. I just wanted to update
you about the city. We got an email from the city code and banner people. KT and
Adrian and they're having a public hearing next Monday, April 1st at 6 p.m. to address
some of the codes related to emergency sheltering. And I can forward that email to
you with a notice of that hearing, please. Yeah. Yeah, great. Um And then I guess
I was gonna ask Anya and Amelia if you know, kind of what is the situation? What
have you been, um, encountering out there with our, with our unhoused community especially?
And, and what are the solutions that you see working? And what do you see as, uh,
a course that the, the county can take over these summer months especially? All right.
Yeah, I've, um, been working for the county on staff for a year this March. Um, and
over the last year, I've seen the geography of our own house community, um, be swept
and pushed around into different locations. So last March, there was, uh, a lot of
folks living in community in the woods in the Evans Vista woods um, that got swept
maybe last like May or so. Um, for a longer term project of developing that into
affordable housing that probably won't be for the people who are living there, but
that's the plan. Um And so that kind of like made people scatter. Um, some people
were able to get into Caswell Brown into the temporary, um, you know, units there,
the teeny house shed like units there. Um, and a lot of people were just like pushed
deeper into the woods or outside of the county for away from transportation and further
away from, um, you know, necessary basic services that we need to survive. Um Right
now, the largest like visible encampment we see behind Ds Hs which is, um, partially
on someone's private property who's a very kind and generous landowner who has just
been trying to work with the our unhoused neighbors who live there. Um, and has been
doing a lot of his own, investing his own money in like, um, putting trash cans there
so that people can collect their trash. Uh When we do outreach, we do outreach a
couple of days a week. People ask us for garbage bags. People want to keep their,
um, their tents where they're living their homes. Um, as clean as possible. There
aren't dumpsters for people to be actually putting their garbage places. So, you
know, garbage bags pile up and then rats and things dig into them and then they're,
you know, not super effective anymore. Um There are also, you know, our buckets full
of feces. Um, there, there isn't like a porta potty nearby. There isn't a facility
where unhoused people are welcome to go use the bathroom. Um There isn't showers
nearby. The closest shower I know of where unhoused people are invited to use is
through the Y MC A and you have to have a token to do that, which we distribute,
but that these things aren't accessible to people who are living um outside right
now. Um Yeah, I think with regard to the Ds Hs like encampment, I think it's really
important to note like, um I know that there is now a dumpster on city property that's
like pretty close and people can utilize it and there's plans to get port of parties
in. Um And I know that there was a huge struggle on the part of the landowner who's
like a w a lo a local working class fisherman and a super nice guy and he's out of
town for months out of the year. I know he's been working really hard and talking
to you guys to try to get um those like basic necessities like set up and you know,
um like, like you said, like people are asking us for trash bags or asking us for
trucks, containers like they want to be able to manage their space better and they
literally have no ability to do so. Like if any of us have ever lived in places without
garbage pickup, like we all know how hard it is to even just like get to the dump.
I that you don't have a car, you know, like this is really real. And I think that
um from our perspective, I mean, like, yeah, we work for public health, we work on
the communicable disease scene. We don't want people not having a place to go to
the bathroom. We don't want people not having a place to throw away their trash.
Like nobody wants this and it's problematic. You know, for everybody like, you know,
neighbors, people who are just like coming through town, like people always mention
like, you know, the trash is always the first thing that gets mentioned and if we
can just allow people a way to manage that, it will really make a difference. And
I'm really emphasizing this because I know how hard it was for this landowner to
get this sorted. Um If we are looking at a situation where we know the shelter is
gonna close and you know, you asked us here right to talk about the possibility of
like what's called a supported encampment where we would be like, hey, here's where
you can't, you're not gonna get evicted, you're not gonna get swept. There's gonna
be a trash, there's gonna be like some portable toilets. This is a place where you
can be and you're not gonna get um you know, like pushed out. Um I think that's the
absolute bare minimum of what is responsible for the city to provide if the shelter
closes. It's something like that I support an encampment and it was very challenging
for um Mr Anderson, the landowner to like, create a situation like that at his place.
I really, I know that there is a lot of rules governing this stuff and there's lots
of like conflicting like codes and um, you know, different agencies have different
authority, but I just really want to state for the record like we are the government
and we should be able to, if there are government issues, like making it hard, we
should consider it our responsibility to come together and sort that. Um at the very
least, you know, and I think that we can do that. It's possible I know that um our
code officer is really in support of this, like I know that we can do it. Um and
it will make it a lot easier for us to reach people and provide services and like
fulfill our goals of like, you know, managing communal disease, helping people get
into treatment, helping people stay as healthy and functional as they can. Um So
that's like a pitch for that concept. I also want to say though, like really clearly
like that does not mean that we shouldn't be working on a shelter and we should have
a, a year round shelter care. Um I now currently I'm a nurse, I work for public health.
Um Before that I worked at Jefferson healthcare for over a decade. I worked in the,
er, and I mean, many of the folks that we just heard to the shelter, they're on
medications, they're using assisted devices to get around, they're carrying all their
stuff and they're elderly. Like, truly, um, we can support people in an encampment
and we should support people in encampment. But also, like, I don't want the focus
to come off of the people who are still in the shelter who like for whom camping
may not really be sustainable for them at all or possible for them. Um So, you know,
like, yes, we support this concept of the support in Canada, but that's the very
minimum. And we wanna make sure that like we're not taking our eyes off the prize
of having a your own shelter. I know that work is ongoing by some of the folks here
to do that. Um So, yeah, those are like the things that I think are important to
kind of like hold the pieces. Thank you for that. And let's, let's, I wanted to stay
on this supported encampment just to kind of tease this idea out a little bit. Um
And I agreed, yeah. No, it's, uh, you know, so supported encampments is, you know,
we have the emergency encampment ordinance which would allow the county or a
religious based organization or a nonprofit like Holy Cap in the case of Caswell
Brown to um, go through a conditional use permit process to create uh a safe place
essentially. And that would, you know, so that is one option that is open. But as
Amelia said, a lot of these, the folks from the American Legion Shelter that uh are
at risk of being completely unhoused are mobility challenged. You know, it doesn't
mean that it's um humane, I guess. Uh well, can I ask the other way around? So,
um these are folks who do not want to live in a congregate shelter. They're choosing
not to be in the American Legion shelter where there's capacity right now is that
I don't think there's a possibility people are being moved out of the shelter right
now. There is, there is an end in sight
if you know that it's a, that's not, I mean, people do make decisions about, you
know, like they may, they might choose to prioritize like relationships or able ability
to have possessions or, you know, they're making their own decisions about their
lives just like all of us would. So they might just decide that it's not worth it
to be in a shelter for a finite period of time. If they could be like in the, you
can't maintain relationships. Is the shelter at 8 a.m. You're in 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Is that what the hours are there? 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. So you're in at four and you're
out at 8 a.m. and you bring everything with you so people might, you can keep a certain
amount of stuff, keep a certain amount of where you have with you or back, you have
to take whatever you have with you or back. So there's a lot of, there's only no,
no, there's nine people that don't have a place to go and let's, we'll give everyone
a chance to talk, but we can't, people online can't hear if we're talking away from
the microphone. So let's try to, you know, keep focused and we'll make sure that
everyone, one reason that the sanction or supported encampment came up is because
if, when the emergency shelters close, it's my understanding that legally, our sheriffs
or the police department here can't sweep an encampment on public property because
there's nowhere else to go. So there potentially people could go park camp at, at
Qatar or people could go camp at chats AOA and people who, you know, live outside,
it would, it wouldn't be, they would be protected from being swept. So if people
are allowed to sleep outside, then let's get like one teeny step ahead and say like
here is a set of porta potties and here is a dumpster and you know, here is a space
that like that you can camp even though actually you could camp anywhere because
we can't legally sweep you. And there's Yeah. No, I just want to say that on the
support encampment idea. I I've outlined one path to that which would be, uh, you
know, using the emergency ordinance. Uh, some organization could, or the county could
create this place. We couldn't, as a county say that's now, I mean, it would violate
our ordinance, I believe. And, and Barbara can always raise her hand if I'm mischaracterizing
anything to say that's now a supported, you know, it would be complicated to say
that's a supported encampment, but a faith based organization is, is protected too
by, by state law to be able to do this. So that would even be a faster path to creating
a supported encampment. If there was a faith based organization, even if they weren't
the owner of the property, they were gonna say, yes, folks can camp here. And then,
um, you know, potentially at that point, um, grant resources could, could be brought
to bear to support that sponsor Faith Based sponsored encampment that would be protected
by RCW and can be done quicker than the, the cup process that would take to make
an ordinance under our, make an encampment under our emergency ordinance. So the
city and
the city is, I think they're trying to develop an ordinance pretty quick. So because
they don't have that ordinance, it's, they're working towards it. And I don't know
exactly that hearing that you referenced. So we do have an ordinance. So for when
we're talking county property outside the city, it's, it's uh slightly different.
We'd have to go through our own process even if we wanted to do it. And we just to
know we're not, we don't have to recreate a real cities across the United States
and across the world have supported different forms of supported encampments. I brought
um a case study and practical, a practical guidance for authorized homeless encampments
that the Seattle University School of Law Homelessness rights advocacy project put
together. And, um, all, I'll email you guys this PDF, I'll email you my notes of
a summary of it. Um But we don't have to, uh we aren't subject matter, experts, experts
on this. We're, you know, health care providers who do outreach, who are realizing
like people already are camping. And so how can we show up for them with their material
needs right now? And there are lots of resources out there that the city and the
county can look to um other cities and counties who have already done this and already
developed codes and policies to make these functional. Well, we were the first county
and the state to do this. So we have Brown. So we, we are committed and familiar
and there's actually either earlier or I'm not sure exactly the time limit, but there's
an example of a supported encampment like the fairgrounds happened, right? Like there
was um that there are some spot for Warden and some at the fairground where like
this was this kind of model was enacted like PRE COVID and that you know, was functioning.
So, I mean, that's the possibil. That's the thing you're trying to. 2014. She was,
well, she was not the way it did not go well over COVID. Let me just say, but in
2014, I was, I was not here for it. So I don't know, I don't know how well, but it
has, it has been done before. This is the camp
before your time. Well, it was, I mean, the encampment that happened at the fairgrounds
was, uh, extension of that. That was, it was so it was still going
at it 48 of 50.
And to your point earlier about, like, people to be in the, not, I just want to say
there are always going to be people who choose to be in the sold because it's a high
barrier place. So, I mean, that's a reality that I'm, I'm gonna push you on that
a little bit high barrier. It's, it's, it's got some barriers. It's not, no,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna call it, but it is the lowest barrier housing in the
county. Right. Well, I mean, as an, er, nurse, like, trying to find people, vets
who are discharged from the hospital and have nowhere to go. I mean, oftentimes it's
full, there's definitely like for folks who are carrying all their stuff and have,
I mean, there are definitely barriers and I think we need to think about it from
their perspective is like, there's a lot of barriers to, um, being able to, like,
be in that space. I mean, people will always tell you, like, sometimes it's scary
to be in a shelter, sometimes it's dangerous. Sometimes your stuff gets stolen. All
these things are factors that people have to take into account. So I think it's just
like, you know, just on the, on the topic of like, being like, hey, it's real that
there will always be folks camping and if we can prevent like, you know, people not
having a bathroom to use, then let's just do that. It's, you know, from public health.
I think it makes a lot of sense. All right, I want to make sure we have time for
public comment. Oh, yes. So Apple, I was about to come to Apple and Alisa as well
to talk about uh Apple if you talk about whatever you want. But I'd also love to
talk for you to talk a little bit to the uh uh the grant potential in, in public
health. I will stick to that point for the large part. Um I just wanna say that,
you know, the distillation here of this conversation which has many nuances to it
and it's good to have us all in the same room to think through these things from
the Chinese perspective in terms of what, what can we offer to do um to support the
situation. I think it's gonna take many things and anya and, um, Amelia have firsthand
experience of working with folks who are experiencing helplessness and have a lot
to, to bring to the conversation in terms of, um, what they're seeing and hearing
and the relationships they've built in order to serve folks who have less access
to sanitation and to, um, clean supplies and to renew supplies and to trash bags
and to, um, you know, you name it. We've, we've got a really wonderful way to um
be in community with folks to provide things for them that are basic life essentials.
That being said, I think it's really important to focus in on this workshop specifically
on the sh the shorter term term part of this larger um conversation about how we
can show up for folks in our community. Um I wanna just briefly elucidate that we
have in public health right now, two different um parts of of funding that's specifically
dedicated to this type of response as far as public health is concerned. So, um being
engaged with issues around sanitation and removal of um of waste. Um And I think
that it would be wise to sort of get a sense of where we're at leading up to June.
We have 22 funding sources at the moment that are currently active. We have AC C
LP which is a community Litter Cleanup Award from ecology. We have about $36,000
left in that account, but it must be used by June 25th
and it is limited to cleaning up and disposing of solid waste and septage from public
lands. I'm gonna jump in. It's June of 2025. So fortunately we have a little more
time. That one I thought there was a roll over to next year. I'm sorry, I got the
information though. Thank you so much.
Great. So we have about $36,000 left to be used through to next June in 2025
the following. June. Thank you. Um The other pot of money is through our foundational
public health services dollars that come from the state, from the state legislature
actually into the public health um governmental system. And our health jurisdiction
here in Jefferson County receives foundational public health support money. F DH
S money for various reasons. Um One of them is to address issues of, of homelessness.
Um It's a, a fairly small amount of money and it will end um June 30th of this year,
but we'll roll over into the next year. So this is ongoing funding. It's a contract
through um the state that we get, we'll get year over year, it's new, but we will
get it year over year, at least for the foreseeable future. Again, that award is
about $55,000 per year. And at this point at the end of March, we have about
$6000 left in that account. So we have $6000 there to use between now and June 30th
of this year, it will renew and we will get another uh basically the same amount
for July 24th through June 20 si uh five.
And at the moment, we're working on a potential local agreement with the city um
to start using some of those funds um to help with removal of waste from active encampment.
So that could be a combination of dumpster removal. It could be a combination of
um offering to locate and then service um Porta potties in various
locations. So we have 222 funding streams here, um which will continue on through
this summer and into next fall and winter. It's just not very much and I don't expect
that either of those. Well, the ecology grant will end in June of 25. Um The FBHS
grant will go well over year to year, but I don't see that it will grow much in the
next few years. Apple, can I ask? So you said the foundational public health money
started at 55,000 and we're down to 6000. So what did we use that? Uh initial 49,000
ish for like what, what, what are these, what activities are these funds? The, the
the needs competing with is what I'm trying to get at. Thank you for the question.
Um I don't have the grant in front of me, so I won't read it to you verbatim. But
we have been, we have en encountered and kind of collaborated with the city so far.
The Evans Vistas um uh site was of concern in terms of what public health could do
to help with waste removal. And maybe at least I can talk a little bit more about
some of the strategies that we used there in combination with the city um and then
activities that were part of that spend. Yeah, we assisted the city with that removal.
And, um, I, I would say the other, uh another part of the FBH Home was the Department
of Health as core groups that they've pulled together, that they're trying to deal
with issues on a statewide basis. And part of that funding is um, funding the core
group work. Um The other thing I wanted to mention about the community cleanup grant,
the other, um, we have 36,000 through June of 2025
that's limited to public and public property and public right of ways. So for example,
where there's an encampment on private property, um, we can, we can use it for that
clean up.
Ok.
All right. Thank you. That, uh, does that kind of conclude your, your, your bit there?
Apple. It does if you have any questions, I mean, I believe that, you know, we, we
are poised to help in ways that public health is, is able to, with these limited
funds and those strategies tend to focus on um waste recept receptacles
way it's removable and then the, the availability of uh um poor potties, et cetera.
But I think that's a huge part of as both Anya and Amanda were saying that's a huge
part of just the basic level dignity of helping folks in an emergency situation.
And we're gonna say emergency vis a vis the fact that the shelter is closing. And
so there isn't a designated available shelter past April 30th for folks to be in
whether they've chosen to be in it in the past or not. Great. Thank you very much
for that. So I guess I'll just kind of review options that have been discussed that
you might have heard about a couple of others that have been talked about for um
dealing with the closure of the shelter. One is uh pud donated a mobile home, um
like a double wide to Cos Brown. It's been, it's there now but not uh loaded up and
that was kind of deemed impractical for a couple of reasons. One, our ordinance limit
to the 50 they're already at 50. So there really isn't space for it. They'd have
to do some sort of uh variance and the costs for making that operational would include
sprinkling as well as septic upgrades. And so it just really doesn't seem, I just
kind of seems like throwing good money after bad, basically. And that's been promised
to the people at Caswell Brown. That's like AAA kitchen and a facility for people
to use who have been living there. And that's what I understand people who live there
or want that to be. Yeah,
it was a little, little concerning though when I heard that at the meeting. Actually
I have to say. But yes, I've heard that too. I mean, there's, uh, I'm not sure, um,
there's lots of different utilities that, that place that can have but it would,
it would be a shed with a double burner plug in stove and a little refrigerator and
a sink and it's all outdoors
and
I think it's
a,
and I think
of the people who live there. Right. They, they also, I heard from the folks there
that they, they really don't want anyone else there. I mean, uh, yeah. Uh, so the,
the mobile home is, is not a strong solution. Um, and it would be great as a kitchen
and a gathering space. I agree. That is a great use of it. Um, the, another option
just is a new coalition or faith based group or coast again, can potentially
take over the shelter. And, uh, according to cap, we'll give everyone a chance to
talk, but it's just, uh, um, uh, but we have to, I mean, that's still early days
but that would be a fairly, uh, you know, hand over the keys and it could continue
to operate if both the American legion who have not, have not, uh, talked about how
long that could go on. Um, but that, that's one other option. And then, uh, I gotta
say, I mean, I would love to be able to continue that as, you know, as long as we
can, it seems like a, well, I know it is a less than ideal location and the facility
is, has some challenges. Yeah, I, I would really love if we could put our noses to
that Grindstone. Yeah, I agree. And I'm happy to reach out to the, uh, the American
Legion and, and do what I can to help, uh, build a connection. Maybe we'll hear something
about that in, in, in public comment as well. Do we know how, how a, a uh, would
approach that? Um, you know, I, I broached it with them and they were the ex excited
about the idea, you know. So I think that they would really, most of the furnishings
are owned by coast. They're not owned by Oly Cap. So it really would be a matter
of just handing the keys over, I think. And, and that's my understanding. So cap
is open to that idea for sure. And that, you know, I don't know, like could that
even be negotiated to cap finishing out their contract, you know, with some support?
So there's, there's a, there's AAA myriad of paths that might lead to the shelter
remaining open. And I, I agree, I think it's the strongest option for keeping especially
those folks that have mobility challenged and, and older um out of the elements over
the summer. And II, I would like us to be
creative and willing um active participants in that. And it's, it's complicated due
to our structure that we can't have these conversations outside of the setting and
we all have our different committee assignments. Um So I guess I'm just wanting to
state that like, I'm happy to put effort into that and, you know, maybe more, more
hands make a lighter load. So I, I think I spent a lot of time in that shelter when
the church groups are really active in providing meals. And, you know, I think there's
some, some good infrastructure to build on that is, was disrupted during COVID. Um
But with a, a community wide effort, um I could see it as a viable solution. It's
going to have to be worked, not just, I mean, that coalition needs to be rebuilt
because it's, it needs some younger people in it to help if it's gonna, if it's gonna
work, I think we'll hear more. I hope in public comment, it's gonna take more hands
on, on the, on the toe. Um And then the third option is, or last option is really
supported encampments that Amelia and Anya were here to speak to. And that's um we
could also, we don't have to make this decision now as we pursue keeping the shelter
open, there's also the option of uh you know, uh I know that uh Chief Strategy Officer
was, was instrumental in getting the cup done for Cowe Brown. So we could find a
piece of land and say we're gonna just, you know, we're gonna duplicate this as much
as we can as quickly as we can and create another space. We don't have a property
that's appropriate for that, you know, on hand or anything we had to purchase one
last time. Um But that was a large scale. So that path is um pretty fraught and
00, it was incredibly expensive. Yeah, so it's uh all of these, any uh any path except
the inertia that we have already with the existing shelters will be much more expensive.
So we've got, we should at a certain point when we come back and start making decisions
about where we wanna, you know, put our shoulder into it. It also probably means
um you know, the conversation about explicit budget in the housing fund board, recording
dollars for emergency shelter. Um And uh also uh potentially other
funds that we would have to support it with because a any organization that's going
to come in is not going to have uh the financial resources to keep this going as
a year round shelter by themselves.
Um And obviously the city should be part of that conversation. I did see Ben Thomas
is listening and if um is there additional capacity at Casal brown and
in terms of not the current site but like the phase one site or is there any kind
of, there's been that was talked about since it's already been flattened and everything.
But the goal is that they get the funding to build the shelter. So if that shelter,
I mean, putting an encampment there would only slow down because you'd have to move
it before you started building. So it's not really a very practical site either.
So, what about like an ex sorry? What about an existing, like, park or public space
that the city already own in town? Like Kai or one of the other parks? I don't live
in town that, you know. Yeah, I mean, I think it would have to be honestly a city
park because otherwise you're talking about moving people from the city out to. So,
yeah, I mean, I can't exactly volunteer that, but it's a conversation we can have
with the city and we can support it. There's no emergency housing and people just
pop up in one of the parks, the city wouldn't legally be allowed to sweep them. That's,
that's great. And thinking as I'm hearing this talk to is like, I really appreciate
obviously, I think the high bar keeping the shelter open is ideal, but I also think
like it's reasonable to just state for the record. Like we should really in my world,
ideally, we should be doing both like we should have a shelter and we should also
have some kind of encampment support where, which we do. I mean, we do have one cos
Brown is, you know, I mean, that's funded with public money. I mean, that is literally
one. There's, you can have how many, at what point does it stop? You know, I mean,
that you could have 20 of them and they could fill up. I guess my point is like K
Brown is not a place where people can just go and use facilities and have a dumpster
and have bathroom access. And if people as we kind of like, identified are gonna
be like outside of the shelter system, like there's always gonna be some, it'd be
nice to just know that we could be like, yes, we have like the legal stuff in place
where we can like when we see a concentration and we know that there's gonna be like
all kinds of environmental and health impacts, we could put a dumpster and put some
bathrooms and just know that this is like something that we don't have to invent
the wheel every time we can be able to like, be prepared to do that when, if, if,
when it's needed. And if someone overdoses it that is supported encampment is that
county liability? I don't think so. I, I don't even know why that would be
like, I don't, it's just a place where people are like, if someone overdoses in a
City Park is a county liability. Now. Um I'm asking because I don't, I don't think,
I don't think it is, but I, I think that you, once you start sponsoring places, there
is a lot of liability, the lower risk of overdose when people are in communities.
So like an attractive thing about a supported encampment is that it's supported.
And when people are living in community, people look out for each other. You know,
we distribute thousands of doses of naloxone to people all across the county. And
when we know that people are concentrated in places, we can put up a, you know, an
emergency box that has, has naloxone and that has a first aid kit. But when people
are scattered in the woods and they're camping alone and they don't have access to
those resources. There's actually a much higher rate of overdose. And I don't know
what happens when people overdose in Kathy's woods. But I know when people overdose
at Caswell Brown, which has happened there, it's really because people are there
and people care about them. And then, and then more people want naloxone because
they're like, wow, that saves someone's life. Like, let's let's get more in here
and let's keep looking out for each other. And people really do have a strong impulse
towards forming community and looking out for each other generally. And when we force
them to scatter, we break that and when we have a place where they can be then we
allow it to build. Yeah, I,
I think that's appropriate. So yeah, you guys can stay there or do you want to manage
public comment? Sure. Sure. Um
Yeah, we'll be doing public comment here in just a minute. So um thanks. Um Thanks
for the great work. Um Anya and Alisa, is it Amelia? Sorry, nice to meet you. Um
and um Apple and a Lisa um appreciate it. So, uh we will open this up for public
comment and um we will provide up to three minutes for each person to speak. Please
only speak to the items we've been discussing here today. Um uh Let's start with
folks in the room. So who would like to provide public comment? Julia.
Hi, I'm Julia Cochran. I now live in Heidi's district. Welcome
to Paradise Hockett Lane. I know all about that place. So, um
there's a third leg to the whole support encampment thing. There's the porta potties,
there's the dumpsters and there should be a camp host. And my view of a camp host
is we find an individual in the encampment already who II I is able to
function at the level of if there's an emergency, they'll call somebody and that
we buy them phone minutes and we give them some type of stipend and what level depends
on where the money is coming from and what's available, but something um and sort
of designate them and they help with the self governance model and they give that
safety net and that would have saved that baby's life. So liability comes when you
don't do the necessary things. When you do the necessary things and they don't work,
then you got liability problems. Um So uh the other comment I was going to make is
that I don't find this shelter low barrier. I know that I A uses those words all
the time, but we see people regularly at the winter welcoming Center who've been
permanently trespassed from any shelter program by OI A which I don't think they
should even be allowed to do. Nobody should be permanently doomed to die in the woods.
Um And some of those people I've put up in hotels and the hotels don't complain to
me. So they're not that outrageous. Um So that's my comment about that one.
I would like to find a drop off spot for trash bags because I think I could get people
to donate them. If I could say here, there's a box outside this door, just dump them
there. Something simple. So that's just sort of a request to the population or people
who deal with this. Um I'm interested that coast is talking about continuing taking
over the shelter. I'm fascinated by the idea. I hope they're reaching out to um,
civic organizations also both the traditional ones like Elks and stuff like that
and the nontraditional ones like local 2020 the community build. Jefferson community
gives all of those. So it's sort of like, you know, that we should all be in coalition
together, not just religious organizations because the religious organizations are
all suffering. Um
I think that's mostly what I just want to say. I mean, the winter welcoming center,
especially if a shelter closes, we wanna stay open. We're going to have to find a
new space. Pope Marine Building is used for things during festival season which starts
sort of immediately. And um I'm staring at the KKPTZ trailer because that's gonna
become available pretty quickly. I think rumor has it and um because we
offer a basic safety net for the people who are not allowed into the, who are permanently
trespassed from the shelter. We give food, we give water vouchers, we give shower
tokens. We give um supplies like razors and toothbrushes and soap and stuff, um
hand warmers. And so all of that Narcan, yes, Narcan female supplies that
whole thing. So the winter Welcoming Center would like to become more stable and
be open forever. The Welcoming welcoming center. Get rid of Winter Julia. Do you
think the welcoming center would consider being involved in management of the shelter
if we needed a new entity to be involved there? Yes, but we'd have to grow our board
and grow our capacity because right now me and Paul Hines are the two really active.
All board members, Elizabeth Hier, his wife is the other member of our board. So
we need to grow our board, but I think we'd get help from Brian Richardson and various
other people. Ok, thanks.
All right, Maggie.
Ok. So they still haven't dealt with the environmental health issues in the shelter,
so it really shouldn't be extended. Um And the other thing about Caswell Brown is
um, from what I understand, um, the showers are not in great condition and neither
is the kitchen. So that's gonna prevent people from going, wanting to go in there.
And, uh, the third thing would be, um, we went out and spoke to Heather from
Bayside and apparently she's got a couple of units, but when I tried, um, with another
consumer to get on and get a online, uh, application, we couldn't do it. I
called them and I said, you know, this isn't gonna work for people who can't work
a computer or are, um, you know, blind, half blind or deaf or, you know, hard of
hearing. Um, and I wondered if they could set up a system where they could fax an
application to an office and somebody can fill out a paper application and then mail
it or personally return it to them. Uh, because it's, uh, I can't figure out how
to do the email thing. I can't figure out what they want with their outlook or their
hotmail. And, uh, I tried calling them and, and so that's something they need to
work out that if they want disabled and medical people out at their, uh, Bayside
units, they need to be able to, um, work with people who can't work with technology
or it sounds like they kind of can't work with technology very well either. So there's,
there's a hard, uh, time figuring out how to get those applications and then get
them back. So, uh, you know, and it sounds like there are people that are being passed
up. So we don't know if they're saying we have two empty units or two units that
are gonna be available soon and please get on our waiting list or whatever. But,
you know, we would like to know from Heather. So, ok, another kind of barrier
Ben.
Hello everyone. My name is Benjamin Castro. I'm the manager of the Winter Welcoming
Center. I'm also a recovery advocate, recovery coach and community advocate, advocate
in the community of Port Townsend. Um I know not only manage the Winter Welcoming
Center, but I also do numerous hours work worth of outreach. Um on a volunteer basis,
I'm in constant communication with the campers at DS HS. I'm in communication with
the property owner. I have um
I have some uh on the ground knowledge of, you know, opinions and things that people
tell me numerous complaints from the way a cap has managed their uh they're sheltered.
I've been uh the recipient of numerous dozens of complaints from people over the
last few years um of how they've been treated by a, a monitors and managers and the
past manager and things like that and people that were kicked out for some very minor
and some very major violations. One of the things that um is a barrier for people
is if they do not have a valid identification, that can also be a food stamp card,
that can be a temporary ID document, that can be something that shows who they are.
If they do not have that document, they at this point, they are not allowed into
the shelter at the American Legion because that is against the program rules that
were set by. It sounds like a cap or the management of the shelter. So that is a
barrier that has been coming that I've been coming across for some people. Uh I picked
up a person the other day who was literally sleeping on the sidewalk by Don's pharmacy
in US bank and it was very for and I contacted the shelter manager. It was very fortunate
that he had a piece of paper that said what his identification was because if he
didn't, he would be stuck in this area trying to get to um Portland, but he would
be stuck in Port Town zone without a place to sleep. And he was also injured. So
it was very fortunate that he had identification. If he had not had identification,
he would have, I don't know what have what would have happened, I would have had
limited options, um, through our, um, our help fund and also my own, um, dollars
that I put forth to help people. So that is one barrier that has been a thing. Um,
other barriers include people getting kicked out for valid medical reasons at the
shelter. People being trespassed due to mental health behaviors. The only reason
a person typically gets permanently trespassed is if they make direct threats to
staff or threaten violence and things like that. Um The American Legion has 450 members,
two of them at this point, I believe are in support of continuing that shelter there.
And so they are, there are various opinions from the commander of the American Legion
that have to do with not continuing services. Basically, unless somebody new comes
in and that can be a new coalition that has certain affiliations that are not limited
to what they believe are other people who they have worked with. So that is one of
the barriers if the American Legion were to continue, it would be based on certain
criteria that they would have. So that's what I want to talk about. The shelter is.
So I'm hoping this encampment thing may work or may not work depending on the next
phase. Thank you.
All right, sir. Would you like to provide Comet? I don't remember being the insurance,
right.
How about online, um, feel free to hit, raise hand and you will be asked to uh hit
acceptance of the promotion of Panelist. Takes just a second.
Anyone else would like to provide public comment. You can raise hand
to um M MS Morey and then MS Yarnell.
Good afternoon, Barbara.
Here we go. Thank you. Um I appreciate that you're really making some real effort
in getting community voice and what's going on with our shelter as a whole all across
the country. Um I, one of the things that I think is essential for us, regardless
of whether it's an encampment or whether it's in the shelter building or whether
it's the Winter Warming Center or Welcoming Center. Um, no matter what we're doing,
it's important to have the voice of the people we're going to be serving heard and
it's important now that people know what their rights are and what their responsibilities
are. Um And this includes things like if you're going to be trespassed from the place,
you have a right to a hearing. You have a right to know first of all what you're
being trespassed for. Secondly, you have a right to a hearing with impartial individuals,
not the one who tres trespass you, but or they are underling but an impartial second
party. And the third thing in this, you have a right to challenge that, that trespass
if it happens to you. And this is really important because sometimes we get, we get
personality issues, we get things that are not really legal infringements um in behaviors
of people. We get just plain personality disorders. Um, and we do get some cases
where there are serious issues that need to be dealt with. But my experience has
been, and I've been involved in housing stuff since beginning of time. Practically
it seems like, um, forever and at various levels with foster kids and foster kids
getting out of the system and then with shelter and then so on. And the one thing
that has made the difference in all of the programs that I've been in is the involvement
of the participants as respected parties of the activity, whatever is going on. Um
This can be things like in an encampment, um having having the people elect who's
going to represent them, not be appointed by an agency. Like currently, there's some,
some people at Kesla Brown who were appointed by OC and that's fine if OC tried a
real good job there. But, but the, the residents aren't necessarily behind that particular
individual as representing them um at the camp or at Kesler Brown. And that's not
what falls on anybody that's to say if the people are involved, the people who are
the residents there, the participants, there are involved. It's more likely to be
a positive community setting. It's more likely to get their co-operation in maintaining
things in um working together in figuring out how to solve issues including issues
with individuals um who may need to have a little bit of um guidance instruction,
um support and, and that's, that's an essential thing. I also support everything
that Julia Cochran said. So I won't repeat it. But there are some very important
things that she was saying about the community, getting the general community involved
and we need to be approaching rotary and, you know, it just not just the churches,
um the churches have done a good ship, a good job of leadership during the last several
years. Um It's important that we get the whole involved at all levels. And one way
of doing that again is volunteers. Um Back before the pandemic, we had volunteers
at the shelter regularly. I was one of them, some of us stayed overnight. Some of
us were just there for meal, but we had direct contact with the people who were living
at the shelter and that form. Do you mind wrapping up Barbara? Sorry, Barbara, do
you mind wrapping up? We're at the three minute mark. Ok. All right. Thank you. Um
And anyway, my point is we are a community. It takes the whole village, the whole
village includes all of us, including the residents and the agencies and the governmental
organizations and so on. And thank you for what you're doing. Thank you, Barbara,
Miss you now.
Good afternoon. I just would like to say that I really want to um state how much
I appreciate. Um Julia and Maggie week after week. After week coming and giving their
views and their ideas and everything that they want and need. I think that's so important
and I think that, uh, as me, as just a normal citizen, um, might not even
understand quite how important this all is without people like them speaking up.
And I think this needs to be a much higher priority on the part of the county because
you have a winter warming center. Great. But we have higher temperatures than we've
ever had before either. And it's just as hard to be cool in the summer as it is to
be cold in the winter. So, um we really need to think about what we're doing and
make some really good solutions for um the problems that we're facing. Thanks. Thank
you, MS here. No, anyone else in the zoom room wish to provide public comments. So
we just do 11 come in a piece
to give everybody the same chance to speak. Has public comment to come up here. Sometimes
I raise my hand for public comment. It's ok.
Um Sorry, I know I've talked a lot but I wanna just jump on what this person just
mentioned because me and Ben were actually just talking about the concept of, yeah,
people need shelter from the cold temperatures in the winter. And now it's true,
climate change is happening and there are people at our in our department in public
health who are working on this very issue right now of like, cooling centers and
shelter from heat, which is something we've never really had to deal with that much
in the Pacific Northwest, but it's becoming a major thing and we see casualties,
you know, like in the, er, we always see casualties in the winter when the temperatures
are extreme and we're seeing in the summer as well. So, I mean, that's actually really
valid, um, angle to pursue in terms of like, how could we frame if there's a way
to like frame continuation of that shelter under like, ok, now there's heat threats
as well. Um And I'm curious, like I haven't mentioned this to any of um like our
colleagues at public health who do environmental specific work, but I'm curious if
that angle might be um something that we could also pursue as a way to kind of like
pull in money, pull in resources and um create a little more stability for the shelter.
Ok. Would you like to provide comments? Ok. Come on up, you have up to three minutes.
OK. I will only take one of those uh the whole idea behind the uh sandy
cans and things like that. Maybe there's a way to navigate that away from that and
go another direction because that idea logged in somebody and you're treated,
you're different. You, it's not a regular bathroom, you're not going to a regular
toilet. Everybody knows your common sense is that's for baseball games parks and
uh you know, places where you don't have access to a bathroom is what a Sandy Can
is for, is not for you to use at home generally. And uh that idea it could be
navigated around. I think it would help the, the mental thinking of. Uh I gotta go
to the bathroom, you gotta go down the baseball field. Mhm. Yeah, I
got more about
nobody likes using Santa. Can it not
the, that's not temporary. That's your bathroom. Yeah,
thank you.
All right. Um, well, um, what do you think? Are your next steps, Greg? We all, we
all kind of run down that with legion and, and reach out to the commander and see
if there is any hope there for a, a different agency. I think Ben, you know, kind
of confirmed what my uh impression is as well. So we'll see if there's anything there.
Um, you know, I know public health is working on this internally and we'll, um, you
know, keep this is really just kind of to bring everyone up to speed with the conversations
that are going, but we're, we're all talking about it and, and uh, there's no one
answer to all of this, of course. Um, well, and just to state too that, you know,
there are some new funding sources available. So we had some um, back bill of reporting
fees. Um, I don't know if that was for 23 or for 24 but that was 27,000 legislature
allocated $25 million in competitive, uh, uh funds for backfilling recording fees.
Again, both for, uh, very low income housing. So those are two sources. Um So, you
know, I, I don't think, I, I think we're gonna have some, some funds to help with
this. Um, so let's, uh, can I just like, do we need to create any sort of like,
kind of group to be trying to? Well, I'll say one thing in response to public comment
if I can. And that's, you know what, since I've been here, I've heard issues with,
with operation of the shelter and it's a challenging facility to run. Um No, no question.
Um But one thing I am pushing for a right now is a policy council for the housing
department the same way they have a policy council. This is a Julia idea for years.
But um you know, it's uh there's a, a big vacuum of leadership right now in a cap,
especially in housing. So trying to turn that crisis into an opportunity and look
for an opportunity to give um you know, more voice to the, to the uh to those with
that we're serving. So I hear that message and, and trying to, you know, these things
just don't happen quickly, right? You can't switch it. I've, I've heard that no one
or nearly no one has been permanently trespassed that you get a within a year you
can get back into the facilities. But, you know, whether that is actually an achievable
action for everyone, I don't know, so often it can feel pretty permanent. And I think,
um, often if you've been um pushed out once you don't have a lot of inclination to
go back, so even those one year trespasses can turn into a cessation of services
for a particular individual that we don't want. Well, and it speaks to how substandard
the facility is because it's, you know, it is like Barbara Mori referred to, you
know, it's, it's a a small space, it's a lot of shared space and if there's personality
conflicts, it's very hard to be comfortable at that. So,
yeah, no, it is living in hell with our spouses, right? Even the people we choose
to live with and I, I was just, I know you had a comment to make um, question. No,
no, go ahead. So, so what I'm understanding is that, um I mean, I think we can't
lose the fact that we're working towards a permanent shelter, right? So the goal
there is to have that, what, what is the realistic time frame for the permanent shelter?
I feel like we need to be working on the today to permanent shelter. It's, it can
get built in a year. Um But we still have a significant funding gap that we've just
put in a, you know, thanks to Commissioner Dean, we're working in partnership with
a cap on that congressional direction spending. So once that funding comes, it can
be built, I've been told within a year opening fall 25 conservative estimates.
So I feel like whatever strategy we, we should, we're working on now, we should have
that, you know, realistic, maybe it's maybe it's middle of 26 as a realistic time
frame, right. And work, work towards that as our interim solution so that we're not
having to, um, pull up the bootstraps in six months and come up with another interim
solution, right? It'd be nice to have everybody with the same understanding of what,
what we're working towards. Yeah. And the, you know, the obvious challenge, I think
we all know this is that there are, you know, a lot of people have differing needs
and we do not have the capacity to meet the needs of a lot of different populations
who, who need services. So I know that the, the new shelter and permanent support
of housing at L A cap will not satisfy everyone. And you know, there's still gonna
be populations that aren't served by that. And that's, um, that's an unfortunate
reality, but, you know, hopefully we keep making a little bit of progress. We were
so much better off than we were eight years ago. Sorry, I think we're gonna try and
wrap up, we got to get out of this room, um, relatively soon. So that's ok. Sorry.
Nobody can even hear you because it's an online,
uh, theory. Has anybody done their homework as far as finances go and making a community
instead of a building to have in and give a road to live on.
It's another population that, uh, way of serving, you know, another population. That's
a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. And then I just want to amplify what Barbara said that
it is going to take the whole community, you know, as we led with it, you know, coast
can't do it by themselves. Jefferson interfaith coalition can't do it by themselves.
I have committed to, you know, volunteering one night a month at the, at the shelter.
If uh if we can keep it going, we're gonna keep, we're gonna keep deliberating here.
OK, so we can wrap up, sorry, sorry. Um If you guys don't mind, maybe you could go
out in the hall and chat if you like, but we're gonna try and finish up our, our
meeting. Um Yeah, that's why I wonder about kind of what entity can help
move this forward. I think local 2020 is a great idea. I mean, you know, community
build and I mean, they, they Jefferson Community Foundation, these are all groups
that can like we have a meeting tomorrow. I can bring it up as a topic.
Um And I mean, I think you will need, you need city and county involvement and I
know
we tried to have a meeting here. Could we have?
You're welcome to sit and listen.
Um It's, it's outside of the current purview of the housing fund board, although
that has a lot of the right players in it, especially where the funding sources um,
come to bear. Um, and so I just wonder if there's a role there where we could actually
have conversations and, you know, be able to move this forward outside and like the
city, that's a good place for the county and the city to come together too. So I
think Emma's coming to our next housing fund board meeting to talk about maybe this
ordinance, I forget exactly what, but I think that's a place that we can have the
County City conversation pretty easily and then bring it back for a workshop after
it. Right. And I think too that, um, getting an update on the finances and where
we're at, um, with funding and sales tax revenues just, you know, get some sense
of what kind of funding we might have to, um, put towards this. And it would, it
would be good to get buy in from the housing fund board to dedicating, you know,
that 27,000
towards this effort, we can just, you know, wrap it into that budgeting emergency
shelter outside the RFP. And then the source of the fund that Apple was talking about
earlier. I mean, public health has that to do with, as they will obviously be nice
to have it all kind of coordinate, right? So that it's the most effective reach in
the ground. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like they're doing a great job with those dollars,
I think specifically about the shelter. Um So public health is holding shelter. You're
aware of this, right? Um Greg has been, yeah, where, where this is a workshop
following up on those meetings to just let people know and they, yes and we're gonna
be like reaching out to community or to try to like and all kinds of folks in the
community to try to bring as much resource as we can into the concept of like running
the shelter under a different entity like that. So we have a meeting that where I
think a doodle poll is out looking in the middle of April uh to uh another meeting
to, to get people together for that purpose. And what, what is that? Uh Laura uh
GTG is, is convening that and it's the same group that met last Wednesday. And it's,
it's just kind of um trying to wrap our arms around it. You know, we're gonna try
to get more about the shelter closing. OK. So, so then you probably know a lot more
about the middle of April, right? Yes, you have an answer.
Well, yeah, I hope that would be nice. I know it's frustrating, but we don't ever
have a chance to talk to each other. We can't unless we're in front of all of you.
So it's really important that we have the opportunity because we make decisions together
and I, I, I've been sensing frustration but
um ok, I mean, I, I do think the like having a bunch of different ad hoc meetings
going on is gonna be a little bit complicated. It would be nice to come to some agreement
on how we wanna strategically kinda address this crisis. So if you heard the cats,
there's a lot of cats down at Cos Brown. Um Yeah, no, II I, you know, I think the
right people are at, at the, the, the the table. Uh I mean, it's, I, I I'm not sure
if it's something the county can lead like the shelter conversation. I believe the
right people are at the table. We have, you know, uh Julia and Barbara and Amelia,
Anya and Pinky and, and we have all the different uh folks as well as cap at the
table. So those will keep going and, and uh
victory after victory and you, you'll talk with,
talk about the legion and see if there's a pa a possible path there and what it would
look like for them. And, you know, I would say to get us through this year, but also
to get us through the end of 2025 is really kind of, that
was kept invited today. I did not today for this. I only invited county staff today
and uh next time I would probably invite city and county. Um, but cap was at the
Wednesday meeting and, and the meeting that you were at the, the week before. And,
uh, you know, uh, we understand their position, you know, and I, I think it's, it's
honestly for the best of the shelter that if it continues, it's operated by a different
agency
and it seems like there's general agreement about that. Uh, yeah. Yeah. you know,
but we can always, if we, if it's not quite right, I wouldn't mind putting pressure
on to kick it another month down the road until the end of that contract that
Oh yeah, I guess
the end of June is two months. Ok. Thank you for that. Yeah, that's true. Ok, thank
you. Thank you guys. Yeah, thanks everyone. I really appreciate your input more to
come. Thank you, Apple. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's
all right
back to our agenda and that letter for the whole tri Oh, great.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you Julia
for being very good.
Is he like?
Yeah,
it's still, we're still in the meeting. We got a few more things to take care of.
Give me a call. We can talk later. Yeah.
All right. Yeah, thanks.
Also, I didn't make a huge amount of changes since we've heard we have not sent one
from the fire marshal, but I did add that second paragraph and adjust to theirs.
It, there's still what I'm eating. So
you got help.
Bye.
This looks great. Ok. So five by seven shelters on public property. That's what you're
looking at. Cat Ha Way because the homestead out. All right. Hi, Maggie. I'm, I'm
kind of looking forward to it. Actually, I can tell.
All right.
All right, I'll, I'll move that. We approve, uh, signing and sending this letter
in support
because I don't really know. It didn't come from my normal. So it actually came from
public work. So I just want to make the assumption. Well, hopefully some money will
come from somewhere. They're sitting it out everywhere. Its greater than that. I
will second the motion and we'll open up for public comment. If anybody in the zoom
room like to comment on the letter of support shown on the screen.
Last call for public comment on this letter
hearing none. All those in favor of approving and sending the letter as shown, please
say, II I, all right. Yeah, I'll send that off to Wendy.
All right. Anything else for the good of the order?
Um
Yeah. So you want a candy? Do you, would you like a microphone? I I need to hear
you speak out loud. Can you also had some letters that you were talking about this
morning? Ok. Um For affordable housing, Kate, you had some letters you were talking
about this morning?
I did. Can you go into more detail with you?
Yes, those are all my notes that you had a letter for the whole tribe fire department
and Kate wanted to discuss some letters for um
affordable housing projects.
Was that legislative?
Right?
I can't remember because you were T ad L this morning. I know I need to get letters
of support for our um requests but um I don't think I said that it's just,
we're gonna have to do a bunch of letters here too. So I did in the
application and beef up that.
All right. Anything else? Mm.
No, nothing from me. This is
just make sure nothing pressing in the email. Oh, just fy, I, um, um,
Daniel Pailthorpe from Senator Murray's office is coming on Thursday to look at both
the Mill Road project and, um, Caswell Brown. So, who is Daniel Palethorpe? Yeah.
Yeah. Uh, Senator Murray requires staff to see the projects, which he thinks he actually
has seen them both, but he's still making the trip to come see them. So that's great.
So have, um,
public works join, um, at Mill Road, hopefully the city as well. And then a cap is
lined up to join us at Caswell Brown. Excellent. Yes,
those, uh, daffodils have opened up significantly in the course of the day. They
look very nice against your shirt too. You're very springy. Yeah.
Mhm. Um, Mark. Did you see the indigent defense lawsuit that was brought against
the state was dismissed? Yeah. Unfortunate
that counties are not within the zone of interest under constitutional guarantees.
In question, the counties cannot assert claims premised on right to counsel as those
rates are held by individual indigent, criminal defendants, not counties. So kind
of like say you don't have standing zone of interest, I guess is the
uh so we should we get Hunsucker take on that?
Mm. Ok. Anything else for the good of the order?
Not for me? Not for me. Ok. 12 minutes to spare.
Well, um, thank you everyone and we are adjourned.
Good. I bet you the state would come after us if we refuse to appoint attorney. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.