Let me know when it's recording in progress. All right. Well, it's a couple of minutes
after. So I will call this special meeting of the board of county commissioners to
order. This is kind of a dual meeting with our uh monthly county coordination meeting.
So we get an opportunity to have interface with um uh the directors and elected from
around the county as well as, as the B zero cc today. This is a special meeting so
we can't adjust the agenda. So we'll, we'll jump right into it. And the first thing
as this is a special meeting, the first thing on the agenda is a public comment.
So I'll ask if there is anyone with us from the public or internally that would like
to make a public comment. You would have up to three minutes to make a comment. We
don't have any public with us in the room, but you can click raise hand or Star nine.
If you're on the phone to make that comment, I'll just comment that Stacey and I
have to leave a little early because we have to get on the radio at 12 30. So we'll
be leaving around 12 20. Ok, thank you. I see no public uh as attendees.
Ok, well, I will close the public comment and uh move on to
the. Next is the, I don't have the actual agenda in front of me, but you talking
about the state of emergency state of So next up on the agenda, we'll get to a roundtable
which will be the bulk of this meeting. So this really, this is just an opportunity
for dialogue with everyone. But as you guys, most of you probably know the B zero
cc on April 10th rescinded uh resolution 49 22 12, 10, all of the county kind of
internal uh declaration of emergency. So things like the temporary um uh
admin leave the paid admin leave enhancements gone as well as any mandates or recommendations
about vaccinations. Even we did make some modifications to the personnel policy which
were more just suggestions, stay home when you're sick, wash your hands, wearing
masks can be an effective mitigation to infectious disease and that's pretty much
it. So, of course, we know that COVID is still with us and we have more issues with
kids right now with the MS C. That was kind of a concerning development. I heard
there's someone in Clallam County that was hospitalized with a kid which comes out
of COVID, but it's something we're going to have to live with now. So um that's pretty,
it pretty much it unless Mark did I, did I miss anything or if anyone has any questions?
No, I think you covered it. Greg Chambers is back to full capacity. All meetings
can, can occur physically and at maximum capacity, there's still some departments
like public health that are guided by um you know, external impacts as well. So they,
they still have masking for um actual clinical care and I'm not sure they might be,
you know, they might have more discretionary masking going on in, in some departments
as well. But yeah, I visited Jeff Jefferson health Care yesterday and I was not required
to wear a mask. So things have loosened up considerably. Yeah. And at the board of
Health Doctor Barry reported that all the hospitals are consistently applying the
same um masking requirements, which is that any anyone, any health care employee
engaged in clinical work is wearing a mask and then maybe uh if they're not engaged
in clinical work and custom and, and uh customers of the health care system are doing
it only voluntarily, although it depends, there are uh IC U units, uh cancer care.
Um There are some units that require it um for all people entering. Ok, thank you.
Ok. So let me make one more, one more point that we tried to um uh include in the
revisions that were made to the employee policy um or personnel policy. It was just
to, to maintain a culture where masking is acceptable that it is not something that
is called out or questioned and that we, and you know, that's a lot harder to create
culture around than it is to put into a policy. So just really encourage departments
to um you know, not be, not have it be like, why are you wearing a mask or like it
really shouldn't be a subject of conversation. Um You know, there are people with
all sorts of reasons why they would choose to mask and that's their business. Um
And so just don't want it to that to become the outlier even though it is totally
optional, of course. Um But I'd like to maintain a culture where that is acceptable
and not called out as something unusual or weird or noteworthy even. Yeah. Give everyone
grace coming in wearing masks. That's the good thing about COVID is a lot of us.
Don't give it a second thought like, oh, yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't mean they have
COVID, you know, there's lots of reasons. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So lots of folks will continue
to wear mask as part of the culture now as, as it has been in other cultures for
decades and decades. Um OK, next up, we're gonna talk about the strategic plan update.
I think Mark's gonna just give us a, a quick update on, on how that is going. Yeah.
Thank you, Greg. Um So our consultant Barry Dunn and our Strategic Planning um leadership
committee we're making great progress right now. We're, we're in the environmental
scan mode where uh the consultant is reaching out to a number of stakeholders. Thanks
to Heidi and to the other two commissioners and others for putting together a very
comprehensive list of the stakeholders and influencing the people in the community
that Barry Dunn has reached out to interview or to survey.
They've also conducted a number of in person interviews at the county. On March 24th,
we had two different employee panels that interviewed in person in a group interview
setting with the consultants. And also on March 24th, we had elected officials. Unfortunately,
and that's elected officials, other than the commissioners, a number of them were
not able to attend due to scheduling conflicts, but I think we had five elected in
the room. Um And we also have, I'm gonna share my screen briefly. Uh We also
have our social pinpoint site. Is that showing for people? Yeah. Ok. So this is our
social pinpoint site. Um nice picture of the courthouse, a little blurb there about
our plan. And then uh a video uh where Commissioner Eisenhower talks about what we're
doing and why and how important it is. Um And then we have the three different areas
and maybe all of you have seen this already, but there's an ideas wall here and I'll
just call that up for a minute here where people can put um little post it notes
Um And you can see up top there, we have six different areas and they're color coded
and then we've got the sticky notes that people have, have added to the site and
quite a number of them. Um And then of course, there's
a survey that they can click on and, and take. Oops, I want one too far. Um
And then there's an open ended uh dialogue feature here called Envision Our Future
where you can talk about anything. And so this is one of the ways they've been collecting
input. And so Barry Dunn is taking all that. Oh, and we also had the employees survey.
We had 169 out of 370 employees take part in the employee survey, which according
to Barry Dunn is an exceptional participation rate. That's 45.7% of our employees
took part in the employee survey. And I'm really anxious to see what the employees
say about our county and our culture. Um So upcoming very done is synthesizing all
that. And on May 11th, we're going to have the B zero cc special meeting and that's
out at camp site and it goes from 10 o'clock to three o'clock and Barry Dunn will
report out on the environmental scan and we will begin to piece together what our
priorities are. And then following that, there's a strategic planning meeting with
all elected, with the exception of the commissioners and all of our department directors
and that's on May 26. And then on June 22nd, there will be a meeting with all the
electives and department directors to review a draft strategic plan that will massage
and that we will bring to the full board sometime after June 22nd. And so I think
we've got tons of valuable input and that was very important to us as we put this
plan together because we don't do this work for ourselves. We do it for our community
members and our stakeholders. And so anyway, I'm really happy with the progress we're
making. And I'd invite any other members of the Strategic Planning Committee to speak
up and share thoughts if you have any, any other thoughts,
I can just say as a member of the committee that the response rates we've been getting
are really good. So I feel I've done a lot of surveying in the, in my past professional
life and you know, to have the number of pieces of input that we're getting from
both internal teams and the community is really good. So I think it's going to inform
a very robust discussion amongst our leadership and I hope people will take time
to review the comments. I have looked at a lot of the comments on those post its
and there's also a word cloud as part of this. And every time we refresh the word
cloud housing is big and in the middle of the word cloud and it hasn't changed the
whole time. We've been looking at that. So, um but community is also big in the word
cloud. So, I mean, it's just interesting to see what's coming up, but that gives
us kind of a quick glance into what people are giving us input about. Housing is
the biggest issue. We go ahead, we go to Wendy, then Kate. I just have a
quick comment. Can everyone hear me? Ok. So our um dashboard which is something I
sort of monitor is I'll just get you some stats because they're pretty good. We've
had 4127 total visits with 1504 unique users,
280 unique stakeholders, uh 100 and 11 comments and 232 survey responses
and we've been wanting to get some younger people involved. So I sent out a big push
to all the area principals and they're going to send it out to their kids. So hopefully
we get some young adult responses into the mix.
Great. Thanks Wendy for sharing those. I, I actually have those on my list to talk
about and I skipped right over them. Thank you. Appreciate it. Ok. Yeah. Um Those
dates that you mentioned, Mark. Um I know I don't see any of them on my calendar.
It'd be great to get those out to a big busy group of people. Ok. All right. Um,
yeah, I, I guess I was mistaken. I thought that, um, those had been coordinated with
your calendars, but if not, uh, we will do that now.
Ok. Yeah, I do have one that the B zero cc Retreat. Yeah, that's the one I, the only
one I do have, we're not invited to the May 26th one. I like that. Yeah. But then
there was another one, the June one. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're invited
to the one. Um, but not the other two. And you, did you say that's June 26th, June
22nd second. Ok, thanks. And you've got the rope court reserved on the 11th of May,
right?
The ropes course can both sides. Yeah, you have to do something physical in this
process, I think. Yeah. Uh Well, we'll check on that the minute we conclude this
uh, coordination and we'll, and we'll have, um, Brett Black get an ambulance to stand
by.
Um, ok. Any other questions or comments about the strategic planning process as it's
going or suggestions? Ok. Did, did I understand you want us to bring horses? Do you
want me to bring horses to the bow side? Like? Yeah. Yeah, totally. I can, a horse
really do uh, a rope course. Well, the rope course is over at, uh, at uh Gibbs Lake
but, but we could, but, but we can ride over there. We can, we have our trail system
in there. So we can ride from both sides to Gibbs. Ok. Got it. Um, ok. Well, the,
the body of this meeting is just kind of going around and hearing from all of our,
our county leaders. So let's, let's start with that. Let's start online and I'll
just, I'll just pick and choose and call on folks and you can always defer, but we'd
love to hear from you and I'm going to pick on, on Bridget first. Anything going
on at extension. Bridget. Mm. Well, it's odd. I mean, Brits making, making her work
plan presentation on, on Monday. So this, she's prepared for that question, Greg.
I, I, I won't take too much of your time since I will be presenting on Monday. Uh
The big news that I'd like to share with everybody here is our, um we have our new
director, our interviews for the new director for W S U extension happening on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. Uh really excited about that. We have some really phenomenal
candidates and I know this information has been sent out uh to all of you, but the
presentations will be uh live in the W S U classroom, but they'll also be streamed
via Zoom uh Wednesday. We have Rebecca uh check uh presenting at 2 30
Thursday the 27th, uh ah Sharma will be presenting at noon and Friday, April 28th.
We'll have Rachel Cardone uh presenting at noon as well. And so, uh please, we'd
love to see you all there and we'll have, uh, the links to the zooms available on
our website. If you haven't seen them yet in your email, uh, you'll, there's gonna
be a big blast, the blast to get this out to our community. So I think I'll leave
it there mark since presenting tomorrow or Monday. Yeah. And you might announce also
Bridget about your 4h coordinator. Moving on. Oh, well, yes. Uh, so our 4h coordinator,
uh, well, she's still working for us. She's now working remotely and we'll be doing
so through, uh, the end of the summer unless we find a coordinator to replace her
beforehand. So, uh, I have the application, uh, process started through W S U extension
that usually takes, as you're aware, it takes about a month for that position to
get advertised and then we'll start seeking new candidates for the 4h position. Uh,
so we're sad to see Sarah go, but she's going to stay on and, uh, she's fostered
fantastic relationships in our community and, and is continuing to do that work.
Uh, just not in person. Great. Thank you, Bridget. Great news, sad
news. But, uh, you know, I'm sure none of us, all of us are excited to have a new
extension director and that this is going forward, but you're probably the most excited
about it. Yes, I am so fantastic and thank you. All right. Thanks a lot. Let's move
on to Stacey. I know, you're gonna need to leave early. But, uh, uh, Stacey Prada,
do you have anything to you wanna share? Sure, thanks. Um, so, uh, big changes in
the treasurer's office. We have chief deputy treasurer Sabrina Hathaway, who has
been with the county 31 years will be leaving July 5th and this is our last tax season.
So, swing on by and say hi. We have found a, uh, replacement or not a replacement,
another person for the position. Um and he will start May 1st. So I'll bring him
around and introduce him. He's from outside the county. Um, a lot of uh management
and accounting experience and we're excited to have him uh start. So more information
on that, uh and always this time of year, make sure you pay your property taxes by
May 1st. You get an extra day due to the weekend due date. Um And again, uh uh Heidi
and I will be on K P T Z uh right after this meeting to uh talk about property tax
and always call email whatever you need if you have any questions. Great. Thanks
so much. Um And anyone that has questions for, for any of our folks, please do interject
as, as they're speaking. Uh Brent. How's it going at D CD? Hi. Um D CD uh currently
has uh uh quite a few positions uh posted and available on the website and I really
would encourage anyone here. Uh that knows of qualified individuals including, uh,
qualified code compliance officers or planners um, to direct them, um, to our website.
Um, those are all posted now, um, and we are still moving ahead with a project in
the department, uh, including those that were, um, uh, subject to discussion before
the board, the CPA program, as well as, um, uh, really trying to move ahead with
our, uh, short or we call the stock plans. We have just to make sure everyone is
aware what a stock plan is essentially. It's a plan that's preapproved and it's already
been reviewed. And so it streamlines the whole process of getting your project developed.
And so we've recognized that as a need in the community. And so we're hopeful that
uh when the new building codes come out, that will have stock plans available for
community members. And then finally, the most important thing I would point out is
every three years, um The State Building Council adopts new codes and they
are adopted by reference. And so this year 2023 July
1st, we're going to roll out some of the most significant changes in our building
codes in many in possibly decades. And one of those changes is a new Wildland urban
Interface code that requires buildings to be more fire
resilient in response to what we've been seeing in our region with fires. And so
more to come, I'm hopeful to have some discussions with the board to share more of
the details of what this means. Great. Thank you so much, Brent. Um, why don't we
go to, to Andy? Uh, you wanna talk about the sheriff's office or any other agencies
that you work with? Do you have any updates? Uh, sure. Um, our front lobby was opened
last month, which has been a huge blessing to be able to get people to actually be
able to come in and talk to somebody about having to call first to be able to be
buzz through the front door. So that, that's been really nice. Um, we've been working
with Matt Court the last couple of weeks and he's been working on our last or the
back parking lot where we had the apple trees taken from. Um, so that's all done
now and we're looking at maybe getting some fences, some, uh, fence done back back
there, uh, for the end of the year. Um, we're still down about five officers in the
jail. Uh, and otherwise everything else seems to be going smoothly. Great.
Thanks so much and I'll just do the, do her put on the apple trees. They're doing
good at their new location. One died.
All right. Uh, Jeff, you want to give us an update from the assessor's office? Sure.
One of the things I've been busy doing is we've been monitoring the legislative session
which is wrapping up on Sunday and, and of course they're going to be voting right
through the weekend and meeting through the weekend. So we still don't know how some
things are going to turn out until, until the, which will be Sunday night. A couple
of bills we, I've been following closely is we had a senior bill that went through
and governor hasn't signed it yet. It was 1355 and that's the senior exemption bill
and it got out in the Seattle Times that the bill had passed and was put. And of
course, everybody's excited because it changes the thresholds for what you qualify
at for the senior citizen exemption. So they, a lot of folks calling in and news
circulating about it and it's going to be different in every county, what the threshold
is because it's based on the median income, the median household income in each county
as published by the Office of Financial Management. Well, they haven't published
it yet. They'll publish it about mid May and, and then the D O R will look at it
and then, and then officially set before August, what it will be for 2024 what the
senior threshold will be for each county right now. And for many, many years, for
almost nine years, it's been 40,000 in Jefferson County. It's going to go up, it's
going to go up to over 50 but we don't know exactly what yet. So a lot of it, it
will mean in the second half of this year, we'll be processing and the beginning
of next year, a number of media releases and then processing senior applications.
So it'll put quite a few people on the exemption program. Another bill we're following
is 5100 and four, which is, we produce shoreline aerials every two years and that
one also passed. And so by the end of 2024 we should have new shoreline aerials.
There are obliques so they will be able to see what slides have occurred throughout
Puget Sound, Long Hood Canal. And we'll be able to also see development along the
shoreline which we often don't see from the roads. And speaking of that, you know,
our appraisers are driving down right now, they're driving down a lot of driveways
to look at this part of their annual valuation of property and they're getting a
lot of concern folks, right, based on the news, you know, you hear about people getting
shot for driving down the wrong driveway. Well, that is being brought up a lot to
our appraisers and you know, what are we doing, driving down their driveways? And
of course, we have a right to be there, but, but you first have to have the opportunity
to explain that. So, so we're doing everything we can to deal with it and we are
very concerned about our safety out there and, and the news isn't necessarily helping
us because it's energizing folks to um consider the right of public officials to
be on their property. So anyway, that's coming up. Um, and other things we're doing,
we're in our appeal season and, and where we're processing board of equalization
appeals and I have the mill appeal coming up where they're saying mills worth virtually
nothing. And so that's an interesting case to prepare for and it probably will mean
a significant tax reduction this year but, or in taxes that they pay, But I don't
know that yet again, you know, first half taxes are coming up. And so we're looking
at that, I'm looking at noxious weed who's paying which state agencies are paying
their noxious weed assessment because we're still beating that around with, with
a, that says state highways have no noxious weeds along them. And so we're waiting
to see if they finally pay a noxious weed assessment. It's not a lot, but, you know,
it's like, oh, come on, guys pay, pay your assessment for once. So, so that's where
we're at. And, um, but otherwise we're staffed and, and we're, we're doing what we
need to do. That's great. I mean, I, Jeff, what are other assessors doing about this?
You know, distrust of public officials coming onto their property? Is there other,
it seems like it's not unique, of course to Jefferson County. But no, it's all around,
you know, and again, you know, we don't have a problem so much in platted areas or
the city where you can walk up the street, you don't have to be on people's property.
But, you know, out there in the country where you've got a lot of trees and you really
can't see what's going on, you know? Well, you can't see the houses you can't do
by law. We're required to physically inspect the property. That's a state law that
we need to get in there and look at it. Um, so assessors are doing the best they
can. Um There, there's some creative thoughts out there about using more video technology.
I mean, like Grace Harbor is looking into having cameras mounted on their cars, you
know, and I'm not sure about that. I mean, then, you know, kind of like Google Cars
where then you're streaming, you know, that's even more invasive in some respects
because you're capturing streaming video at that point. So, um and of course, there's
always discussions about drones, something that in one sense to a property owner
is less invasive because you don't see a person. But then on the other hand, it is
more invasive because you could be taking video any time. And um and so I don't know,
um you know, one assessor is actually using a helicopter to fly over uh rural lands
to inspect vacant land. Um And the other thing we're looking at, we do have some
state wide bills out there to try to move to where we can get oblique aerial imagery
from planes. Um accepted as a way to inspect property where you can do it from the
oblique imagery. Um, that would have to be flown on a relatively recent, frequent
basis, like every couple of years. And because of the high resolution, it's expensive,
but it's something the state legislature has been studying and considering whether
that's a good way. But again, you get into the privacy issues of just how detailed
are the aerial views? I mean, you know, when you talk about six inch detail, you
can almost make people out, coming in and out of the house. So, you know, it's how
far do you go? And is it really better than having someone come knock on your doors?
But um, like I said, people are getting used to not having folks knock on their doors.
You don't have meter readers anymore and everybody's doing it remotely and they're
kind of expecting us to go that direction too. So it is, it is a constant discussion
among assessors. It might be a good media, social media post. I don't know if Wendy's
done anything on that, but get the word out. People are doing assessments right now.
I have not, but I can add it to the list for sure. Cool. Um Great. That sounds like
a good suggestion too. All right, I, oh, let's see. Um How about uh Jen Moore?
You want to talk about uh anything to report from the, the courthouse or other security
courthouse? Security.
Are you with us, Jen? She's talking but we we're not hearing. Oh, maybe you're muted.
Can you,
there might be a microphone issue. You might want to click up where the mute button
is and make sure that your microphones, correct microphone is highlighted.
Well, we'll uh we'll come back to you, Jen. We still can't hear you. You don't look
like you're muted from here. So you might need to check on, on your hardware. Make
sure the right one is associated with the meeting. Uh Brandon, you want any, you
want to give us an update from Superior court.
Sure and apologies on not having my video on today. Um Things are kinda working as
they were pre pandemic in Speer Court. Um We're in the process
of uh reevaluating all of our local court rules and have set up some different committees
to update them and get them published out to the uh b broader County for opportunities
for feedback that will be happening soon. We're also organizing a color of justice
event that will happen sometime most likely later, 2023 which seeks to inspire youth
of color, ages 11 to 18 to consider a profession in the law and judiciary. So we'll
certainly uh keep everybody posted on that event really exciting. We have a lot of
really big changes coming up with child welfare law and juvenile services has been
coordinating with Clown County. We have a retreat plan for June 9th to discuss a
lot of the, a lot of those changes in child welfare. And then also we've been working
with Matt Cork and his team to, um, I think we're gonna put the, the, the benches
back in superior court like they were pre pandemic and I go back to that historical
feel and at the same time, uh, do some more updates in the courtroom such as, uh,
maybe removing some of the law books that nobody looks at. We wanna try to incorporate
some, uh, some more artwork in there, some more plants and try to make the courtroom
more trauma responsive and, uh, you know, give, give people a sense that, uh, you
know, they can, they can relax and, uh, and, um, you know, just know that they'll
be heard and that, that, that they belong. And so we'll be looking for opportunities
to kind of represent, uh, all of Jefferson County through artwork and, uh, and pictures
in the courtroom. So, if you have any ideas don't hesitate to reach out really excited
about that project, that's about all great. Can I ask you a question, Brandon? Um,
however, um, Blake cases go in,
they're, I think we're just about all the way through them. Uh, Ruth Gordon has been
contracted with the prosecutor's office for the last, uh, ever, ever since she retired
at the clerk's office and, and as like as she reports to me, she's gotten all the
way through the superior court cases or just about and is moving over to get through
the district court cases.
Yeah. Well, let's follow her lead and go over, uh, to judge Walker Mindy. Do you
have any update from, from, uh, district court? Hello, everyone. Nice to see everybody.
I don't have a huge update. I'll start with a kind of talking to, uh, to Kate's question,
um, to judge Mack about the late cases. Uh Ruth is starting on the district court
cases. We've created a really good work flow um on how to handle those cases. My
office has the first batch of cases that they're processing and so it's moving along
um as quickly as we can and I'm excited to see how that process uh continues. We
are down one staff member. And so if anyone knows of someone who'd like to join district
court, we are looking uh for one individual. Um Another thing that I'm really excited
about, I've been working with the commissioner's office specifically with Kate and
with the prosecutor's office to uh do a tour for the fourth grade class at Salish
Coast. So that's the whole entire uh fourth grade class. And so next Friday, we'll
have a bunch of kids running around. Um but they're really excited to be here and
to learn a little bit more about their local county uh government. It's exciting.
It's good to have kids around the house again.
Great. Thank you, Judge Walker. Um I see some deputies. I, if anyone else. Oh, I,
I don't know. Barbara.
Oh, well, let's, let's give Jen a chance Jen. You wanna try again to give an update
if you have one
star six will unmute your phone?
Oh, there we go. Try, try now with the phone. Ok. Can you hear me now? We can? Yes.
Ok. Sorry about that. I don't know why I don't have a microphone on my, um video,
but sorry about that. No problem. Um So not too much. Um, as far as security, courtroom,
courthouse security, um, just a little tidbit we've had last month, over
4009, 182 people come into the building, which is huge as far as um attendees of
the courthouse, we're definitely getting an increase. Um No major security events.
Um, so far in the last couple of months, which is also really good. Um So, yeah,
not a whole lot. We're just kind of plugging along. Great. Thanks Jen. Sounds busy.
All right, I see Barbara. You turned your camera on. Do you, do you have an update?
I know Prosecutor Kennedy is at a conference this week and yes, he is. Um, well,
we're just busy as usual. Uh, criminal deputies are very busy with cases and civil
is also busy with a lot of civil litigation going on right now and uh, and keeping
up with all of you people and your needs. So, um, we're just uh we're just plugging
along too. We did recently this week received a court of appeals decision,
having to do with restoration of firearms, which has been a, it's a issue that we
deal with in the civil department, um, when someone wants to come in and, uh, restore
their rights to carry firearms, you know, after a certain period of, after a conviction.
Um,
but it does provide us guidance on how to,
we are. We not have that guy who's, um, other than that, we're
the county coroners too. So, um, we're, we're definitely keeping busy on that. I
can attest to that having just come off of that shift recently and, um, enjoying
having a room in the office as well. So that's about it. Great. Thanks so much, Barbara.
Um, I see Matt Court on, I don't know if there's a, a, an update from facilities
but wanna leave a little space for you, Matt.
I think I saw him. I thought I saw that he was there.
Maybe you were the right name.
Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. He might be away from his desk. Who knows? Ok. Well, we'll give
him another opportunity and I'd invite anyone else. I think I hit every department.
But if, if someone has something they'd like to share now is the time online before
we go, uh, to the, to the room.
Well, we might give you one more chance. All right. Um, let's start here. We'll start
with Shannon and How's it going in juvenile services? Oh, yeah, you gotta, you gotta
talk on the microphone so they can hear you. They, they won't be able to hear you
online if you don't closer. Actually,
we, we're doing a couple retreats for juvenile court and Judge Mack said we're holding
a retreat for some new dependency house Bill 12 27 that's coming into play and we're
collaborating with, we also have a Reunification day that we're holding and uh we're
full staffed, which is great. Um I'm just now trying to prevent people from going
anywhere else, which I deserve because I have taken other department staff. So I,
I totally understand that I deserve it, but I am trying to hold on to those folks
as much as I can. Um And our team is like out of seven outside of contracted people,
but just our county employees that are 75 or new in roles less than six months in
our, our office. Um So I really would like to extend my appreciation and patience
for everybody else that is working through juvenile service. We're trying very hard
to figure out things. Um You know, there's a lot of times that we're maybe not getting
it smoothly the first time we're like maybe second try, but our intentions are always
good and we're trying to first and foremost not have any lack of service to our clients
and families that are struggling. So I'm pleased to say that as our first and most
priority. So some of the other stuff may not get in or get done quite as timely as,
um, the paperwork part. But we are, um, coming up to speed, I'm pretty excited about
the office that way. I think we have some really great people on board. I'm also,
um, applying for the therapeutic courthouse dog. Um, I got denied my first interview
because all they had was big dogs. So I'm gonna now try, I can't have a big dog.
Um So just personally, um and they did, they used to do medium size dogs as a company,
but now, um they only do big dogs. So I'm gonna try to also coordinate uh with the
prosecutor's office and see if they're interested in also doing source uh collaboration
on that just for our dependency court and all the kids interviews that happen and
all of that. So I'll figure out how to get that approved as it gets closer. I'm sure
there's a form for
uh it's just that it's actually a courthouse there, there's actually a category of
dog that's called a Courthouse Therapeutic dog. And it's trained um with a handler
and a caretaker to specifically go into court with folks. They sense anxiety, they
um they're attentive to people's emotional needs. Um And as well as like private
meetings that we have in our office with kids, um They could also be um in, in our
court room as well as for any forensic interviews or anything like that, that might
happen with kids when they're not busy, they can hang out in the commissioner's chair.
Well, um, yes. And so that would be something that, of course, I would figure out
when, when we got closer, how we would, uh, I'm sure there's some process that has
to happen for that. So, um, that's one thing we're thinking about and doing or trying
to go forward on. Um And outside of that again, just appreciate everybody's patience
and kindness in the sense of newness that we have going on. Great, thanks, Shannon.
Um Brenda, how's the auditor's office going? We're doing well. Um Getting
ready for a filing week for 56 different offices are up this
year. Um So Quinn has been working with the state because you can do it online, which
they encourage that. Um And so getting ready for that in the elections, there's some
new election bills that have passed that she's going to be working on which are some
automatic voter registration. When you go get an enhanced driver's license, you're
automatically, but it puts them in a whole new category. So we're gonna have a whole
new process because they're kind of registered but not, you have to contact them
within so many days and, and make sure that they still want to be registered because
they've proved citizenship because they've got an enhanced driver's license. So some
new legislation there. Um, recording has some new legislation. Also, our recording
fees, I think I hear is going to be the highest in the whole United States. It's
going up $100 and that was, I was just on a meeting right before here. We think either
July 21st or January 1st. So we had two conflicting information. So of
course, that's gonna affect uh a, a lot of things. So D CD, we record a lot of documents
for them. So it's coordinating all this fee increase. So we do have one another fee
increase happening with the county maps, July 21st. Um So
we might have 22 different fee schedules for a while. Um So it's recording
and um we're uh in, in our uh finance part, we're working on the annual report.
So I know that anybody that does finance, we're asking for information, grants, leases
and all that. So, no, me and Judy are working on that. Uh We did have someone resign,
their last day is Monday, which is sad because she helped with getting payroll up
and, you know, we're talking E S S employee self serve, which is gonna be hopefully
happening, but we'll have less staff. So we'll see how, how that goes. Um And Judy
Judy and I met about that this morning and she'll be um email in the affected people
that's going to help with this. Um We have another, we have someone that's going
to have a baby so she'll be out soon and licensing and then we have someone else
gave their notice because they're moving out of state. So we're going to be looking
for people to,
was doing well.
Yeah. So it sounds like there's lots of opportunities for people to work in the county.
And, yeah, I, anybody I talk to, I tell them there's lots of stuff happening in DC
T and lots of opportunity to help work for the county and make things great. You
did get some new staff, right? We have lots of new staff. Yeah. So we have like on
our front counter, you know, there's someone that's been there one month, someone
that's been there six months, someone that's been there less than a year. So, but
they're handling customers well, and, you know, we want the good customer service
and we want to be known for that. So they're helpful and um but we'll be hiring again.
Yes. Um So I think I covered apartment. Sorry, I'm trying to give you some. All right.
Thank you, Brenda Chris. How's, how's central services going? Doing? Great. Um Feeling
extra grateful that we're fully staffed. Uh Having listened to all my colleagues
today. Um Oh, thank you. Um So I'll hop around a bit. Um I just
did my board presentation not too long ago, but uh I'll try to keep it germane to
the public and to my colleagues um server relocation over to
the jail complex is still under way. We've had some delays due to supply chain issues
that we couldn't avoid. But nevertheless, the I T team and facilities have been working
well to make that a seamless transition for the county, the purpose of which is to
preserve our ability to stay completely online during a power outage, which is, which
will be significantly increased as a result of being down there. Um So we're excited
about that. We're moving to exchange online. That is long story short.
We have a pretty old email system. Thanks for the board's support on getting us to
a place where we can quickly transition to less or zero email interruptions. I know
folks who have been noticing that that's been happening a bit more lately. Fortunately,
we've been able to keep it to a minimum, but it's just time to update our system.
So that's, that's a friendly reminder to all of our department heads that our ability
to come back online after power outages is significantly improved when folks are
taking the time to clean up old files on their system. It's spring which means that
it's always a good time to do some spring cleaning. Obviously, uh please abide by
Public Records Act requirements, but anything that you can do in that department,
uh would be greatly appreciated. There's a number of cyber security enhancements
that we're going to be rolling out in the days to come that we're really excited
about we just recently hired a database specialist to address a number of needs across
every department. Most recently, he's been focusing on the implementation over at
D CD and other defected departments. But Scott has been getting rave reviews and
we are super grateful to have him on board and in the days and months to come, he's
going to be interfacing with each department to identify their database needs and
how we can sort of continue to move into the 21st century. So if he hasn't met with
you already, it's because we're triaging and he will be meeting with you soon. Lastly.
Oh, not lastly. Uh We'll be rolling out a ticketing solution for I T shortly. So
we're gonna be doing that as a uh as a in an effort to create some more transparency
and improve customer service with I T. Uh Things can sometimes get handed from one
person to the other. And it's helpful to know where your request stands. It's also
helpful to get a quick response and it's helpful to know when it's been closed out.
So that's a, that's part of our effort to enhance customer service. Like Brenda was
saying, it's super important for us as well. The last thing I wanted to mention was
uh thanks to the board of support, we have passed or they were able to pass a um
a contract for community wildfire protection plans, which is something the county
has sorely needed for a long time. We're one of the last counties in the state to
not have something. I'm sure we're really excited that a top tier firm S W C A environmental
consultants, which is a nationwide firm was selected to do the work over the next
year. They're going to be putting together a number of community outreach events.
They're going to be interfacing with folks stakeholders throughout the county using
their wildfire expertise to both inform the citizens and help us plan for
hopefully much mitigated wildfire events in the future. So we're really excited that
Jefferson County is gonna be able to be have that as a part of our community knowledge
set. That's it, Heidi Any, any uh update before you go before I, I wonder if Stacy
left. I, I did want to put out a shout out for uh road parade which the um uh sheriff
usually has an entry at right at the front of the parade and elected always go. We,
we cannot ask um employees or staff to go because then it would trigger overtime
issues. If you show, if any employees show up, we're not gonna turn you away. It
is not work time, of course, but um very fun to be at the front of the parade carry
in the Jefferson County banner.
Thank you, Amanda. Um Yes, I can keep it short. There's always clerk news but not
a whole lot to share here. Uh We are fully staffed Um and doing well, um, you asked
about Blake, so we have been doing some refunds. I hazard to guess we're maybe ahead
of everybody else in the state with Ruth working on this. So we're now going back
and re coding a lot of those orders to make sure that when the state takes over refunding
these in July, they will have access to all that information. So right now we're
doing them, people come in and we've pretty much established everybody who has a
refund and how much it is. Um we can get those out working with the auditor. And
then July 1st, it will transition to the state, but we're still a resource. We'll
solve the orders and how much they can and we will help pass them on to get them
where they need to go. So I'm looking forward to our education conference in June.
So I won't be able to make the strategic plan on the 22nd, but happy to comment whenever
great. And I'm sorry if that question should have been directed towards you. I, I
thought that Ruth was working outside. It's a, it's a group effort. Totally. I just
had the money piece. I thought I'd throw in there. OK. Can I go back to Chris? I
want to ask one more question about the uh the tickets. What is that gonna look like?
Could, should we direct staff not to just call up? I t once this ticketing system.
Can you break that down a little bit and also automatic locks on the computers. What's
that going to look like? I've heard some concern about that from some staff. So,
yes, thanks for the follow up. So all staff will be notified shortly about their
ability to email helpdesk at co dot Jefferson dot us showing up in person or making
phone calls is never discouraged. However, when those things occur, we will be creating
tickets regardless so that people from their desktops or laptops and their email
accounts can track the progress of a request that was made in person or over the
phone. Our hope is over time that folks will recognize that the quickest way to get
to the resolution that they're looking for is going to be via email that said, we
understand that folks are used to communicating with it the way that they've communicated
successfully in the past. Our hope is that when projects or support requests can
take time, that folks can have an increased level of confidence that something didn't
get dropped as a result of somebody being out on a Friday or getting sick, things
of that nature. So that's really what we're trying to tackle. It's going to increase
transparency and people's awareness of where their request stands rather than decrease
and we're not eliminating or turning away anybody in terms of routes to get what
people want. Um And then you asked about auto locking your desktop or your workstation
as you walk away after a certain time. Yeah. So, uh, at a previous conversation with
directors and elected, I let folks know that the, uh, state Auditor's office strongly
recommended that for cybersecurity preparedness, uh, that the county look into auto
locking all computers. We took that in stride and let folks know sort of what our
ideas were, uh, what our sort of benchmarks for lockouts were going to be, got feedback
from. Folks did an inventory of computers that should be exempted and took that back
to our I T team for sort of internal debate, shall we say in the days to come? We're
going to be asking all departments that don't have a strong public safety safety
exemption such as patrol vehicles or computers that would never see the light of
day that manage ac units for buildings that 10 minutes is sort of an industry standard.
It's somewhere in between the five minutes that we had initially talked about and
the never that people want and the never that many people want. So what we've done
is we've worked with a number of our folks who are the most concerned and tested
things out just to see how it would feel for them and gotten some good customer service
feedback from folks who are the most concerned about it. And hopefully we'll be able
to use that to bolster the need to move forward it long and short of it is individual
discomfort or individual discomfort does not supersede our need to protect our cyber
security infrastructure collectively. Yeah, it would, it would only take 30 seconds
for somebody with a flash drive with malware on it to pop it in and populate our
network. And so a minor inconvenience versus a hefty settlement because
we had a cyber incident and compromising and personally identifying information.
That's a disaster we want to avoid. That's exactly right. Thanks, Mark, thanks. Does
that answer your question? It does um one quick follow up and that's is the help
desk system gonna be entirely interfaced through email or is there gonna be a program
that the the customers the other staff can access to, to check on the status of their
ticket? Yeah. So that'll all be spelled out in the email that I'm hoping to send
today. Uh Essentially there's gonna be a web interface where you can look at all
existing tickets that you have all previous tickets that were submitted and look
at. Um And basically there'll be a knowledge library there for any patterns that
we notice where we can develop. Uh frequently answer answers to frequently asked
questions. So folks will not necessarily have to come to us for every little thing
going forward so that the web interface will perfectly link with the email, the email
conversations that will be folks will be most used to having. Ok, great. Thanks.
Um Sorry, didn't leave much time, but we talk all the time. Oh yeah, go ahead, Jeff.
Uh and following up our office is testing the lockout the 10 minute lockout and I
have no one of our main concerns at a time was that if you're watching a video, does
it lock you out? And no, it doesn't. I mean we could listen to a meeting and it does
not break out after 10 minutes. So which we very much appreciate. Thank you for the
assist, Jeff. That's great. Um Kate, do you wanna update on anything? Yeah, maybe
um Andy if I could just check in. Um and see. So um like I mentioned roadie parade,
um You get to look at the back of my head there. Sorry, I didn't even brush my hair.
Um um uh Typically the sheriff's office does secure the spot at the parade. Andy,
do you happen to know if that has happened? I, I believe Joe has already reached
out and taken care of that. If not, I'll make sure it gets squared away, but we'll
definitely have our old old car there to link the parade. Great. Ok. So I would love
to have others there. President. We've got a banner. I won't be there. I'm really
sorry to say first one I've ever missed. But um um Nico Winger is graduating from
college as some of, you know, Dave Winger's son. It's a really big deal. Um My sister
and Dean's son also, but Dave is in our hearts always. Um Just a couple of things
I've been working on lately. Um We did get a federal appropriation for a child care
center that we're doing in conjunction with the um uh Port Townsend school district.
It will be located at the Port Townsend High School uh with the Y MC A running it
and huge thanks to the financial team and Michael Mar, the grants administrator for
helping with a lot of work for that federal appropriation, but really exciting 42
slots of child care available breaking ground later this year. Um Also working with
a number of public partners on a potential aquatic center. So stay tuned, be a number
of opportunities to weigh in on that and it's going to be a big lift, but I'm hoping
that we can get that amenity for our residents since nobody's here from public works,
I don't think just quick shout out that the sewer is going, Gangbusters and port
headlock sewer. So first time we will have built a municipal sewer probably ever
and really making that urban growth area where our development and density will go
in the future. So we've um about $35 million to spend in the next two years, which
is exciting and um hired a sewer manager. Uh that position has been vacant for almost
two years, I think, and Monty has been filling it in addition to being a county engineer
and public works director. So huge win, um, to have scored actually an engineer from
the P U D sorry P D. Um Exactly. Um, so really, really great.
Um, and then also, um, related to that our biggest uh legislative priority this year
was getting, um, our point oh nine, what we call our P F funds, um, extended those
receptive sunset in the, by the law as it was written previously and it just got
voted on, passed through the second chamber yesterday and is off to the governor's
office to sign. So that is the fund that has gotten us to be shovel ready with the
sewer. And, um, um, so it's a big win. So good stuff happening. Thanks, Kate. I see
Jen has her hand up. Do you have a question or comment, Jen? Um, I do, um, I kind
of forgot about this. We do have a fingerprint machine up in our office for some
pre conviction type fingerprints for the prosecutor's office has been working with
us, but I know had sent out an email to some departments of some employees that might
need to be fingerprinted if they have anything to do with criminal records or anything
criminal history, anything like that. So, if anybody in your office needs to be fingerprinted,
please send them up to my office or give us a call and we'll get that scheduled and
done. We've done a couple, um, so far, but I know there's somewhere out there that
maybe need it done. So if you guys need anything, just let us know up here. Can we
send our teenagers up just to scare them? Sure. We got the cage and everything.
Um, and, and Mark, I, I didn't give you a chance, but do you have anything you want
to report back to, to the group about? Um, not really, um, one thing that I'm working
on, I've got a number of agreements. I have to um spend some time on one of which
is the transition for management of the gateway visitor center from the Jefferson
County Historical Society um to the Tourism Coordinating Council. Um I've got some
code, code work to do on procurement and a number of other things. Um but I didn't
get away for two weeks of vacation, which was certainly a good time for me and I'm
just happy to be back with all you. Great folks. Great. Thanks, Mark. And I'll just
really quickly echo. I just add one more public works uh item on since we don't have
anyone from public works, I don't think speak up if you, if I have missed you, but
uh working on the, the solid waste task force to look at, at capital planning for
a new solid waste facility. And tomorrow we're, we're starting to look at sites and,
and it's uh it's getting real so we'll come back. But um there's some real planning
going on that I hope will inform our, our our future capital planning too as, as
we move forward in that as, as a county, which isn't necessarily a new site. It's
not necessarily a new site, but there's multiple sites manage people's anxiety, not
necessarily a new site, the existing, you know, there's a no action alternative that's
being considered or expansion opportunities at the existing site too. Um And then
I guess unless there's anything. Oh, Jeff, go ahead. Yeah, Greg, I, I have a, I have
a quick question for you, you know, um when I come to work, I go through the Mill
Mill Road intersection, right? That's where I, I join highway, you know, highway
20 from Discovery Road, you know, with them putting around about there is the county
working with uh on the development of that round about because, you know, you've
got the Caswell Brown Village there that comes out there. You've got the mill traffic
comes out there and, and it's always tricky getting from Discovery Road on to Highway
20 at that little short stretch. So, is the county pretty involved in that discussions
on that, on the roundabout? I can speak to him and I don't know if Mark has been
in conversations with the city too, but yes. Um so the, the city successfully asked
the watch dot to delay that project, they were going to do the compact roundabout
there without addressing um um Discovery Road um that intersection nearby. And so
the they were successful in delaying that. And now it's kind of on the city and county
to come up with an agreed upon plan and maybe work with our legislators to get more
funding to do a more substantial um intersection redesign that includes discovery.
Yeah, so definitely um in the works and on the radar. Thank you. Thank you. You kind
of look like cousin it today in the meeting. I know nobody wants to see that.
Um Sorry. Uh ok, great. Well, great conversation. It's good to hear from everyone.
I wish we had more time for this. Um Yeah, I don't think we really have time to go
over future agenda items. I'm gonna bring back, you know, we're taking the road show
out again this year, bringing electors and directors out and uh, I'll put that on
the agenda for the next meeting to kind of talk about that process. It's always a
challenge to make sure, you know, the clerk gets as many questions as the commissioners
basically. Um, but uh, um we, we'll more, more information will come but um, I would
love to have as many players as possible and those dates are starting to get scheduled.
So we'll, we'll um, our office will reach out and communicate about that. So anything
else for the good of the order? We're a couple of minutes passed. Ok. This, this
uh meeting, special meeting of the board of county commissioners slash county coordination
meeting is adjourned. Have a great day, everyone. Thanks for being with us. Have
a good weekend.
Thanks for being recording started. You guys did much better than.