Here
recording in progress. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. I will call this special meeting
of the board of County commissioners to order on this Friday, September 1st. Um We
are here for uh a hearing to consider whether to dissolve drainage district number
one A K A the district um and take potential action. Oops, sorry,
let me that.
Uh So we're gonna, we have to stick pretty closely to our agenda. So unless there
is something uh pressing, I will, I will jump right into um the procedure for today's
hearing. So welcome everyone to this public hearing regarding drainage district.
Number one, also known as the Chimp Drainage District. The public hearing is now
open. If you joined this meeting via the phone, wish to provide hearing testimony,
please stay on the line. You will provide be provided an opportunity to speak during
public testimony and the same. If you're on Zoom, we'll ask you to raise your hand.
Thank you for being here before we open public testimony. We will listen to a staff
presentation on this issue and mark, are you gonna lead us to that?
Y yes, Commissioner Brotherton. That is the plan. Mhm.
And So I'm sharing my screen and I've got a short presentation that pretty closely
mirrors the presentation that was made a number of weeks ago when we had the board
approve the public hearing notice for today's hearing. So, as has been
said, today's meeting is to discuss the Chima Drainage District, otherwise known
as drainage district. Number one. And this hearing was stimulated by a memorandum
uh from the county auditor to um our board of county commissioners um indicating
that in the view of the auditor's office, the Chico Drainage District
met the requirements to be declared inactive. And also pointed out that state statute
required that by 1 September 2023 the board conduct a public hearing to discuss the
drainage district its inactivity and to decide whether or not to keep the district
in place or to dissolve it.
And so just a few facts about the district. Um It was formed in, in 19 19/100 years
ago. Uh its purpose was to manage a drainage and flood control system for the benefit
of the folks in the valley there, the Chico Valley uh who um farmed the fields.
Um It is known as a special purpose district and it's organized under chapters. 85.06
0.010 and 85.38 0.180 of the revised code
of Washington. Um No district funds have been collected uh through the assessment
process since the mid 19 sixties and the district has been inactive since 1974 when
the governing board resigned.
So for those not familiar with the district, this is a map indicating the boundaries
of the district. Um pretty good size, um kind of an interesting shape but it, I
guess it follows the watershed mostly. And um anyway, that,
so the district encompasses the people that live in it and they are the ones that
would benefit from its activities.
So just for the purposes of illuminating what inactivity means
for the listening public. Um RCW 36 96 010 lays
out the criteria um that a district must meet in order to be declared inactive. Um
So number one, it has not carried out any of the special purposes or functions for
which it was formed within the preceding five proceeding consecutive five year period.
And we know that to be the case, no election has been held for the purpose of electing
a member of the governing body within the preceding consecutive seven year period
or in those instances where members of the governing body are appointed, not elected,
where no member of the governing body has been appointed within the preceding seven
year period. And we know that to be the case and the special purpose district has
been determined to be un auditable by the state auditor. And I think a records check
with the Department of State Auditor's office, Commissioner Eisenhower reached out
to the State Auditor's office and they have no record of this district being in existence.
And so it is therefore unau um and so uh the district does meet all three
criteria for being declared inactive.
So the, the board actually has a number of different options. Um It can declare the
district inactive and leave it in place. They can declare it inactive and dissolve
it. They could reactivate the district in its current form or repurpose the district
to add irrigation uh slash watershed management or improvement to its mission. And
so the purpose of this hearing today is to take testimony from the public and have
the board deliberate on which course of action they would um prefer to take.
And so um staff recommendation and this is in consultation with
Commissioner Eisenhower would be to declare the district inactive and keep it in
its current form. Um And beyond that, to continue to gather information regarding
the district and what residents of the district wish to happen and schedule another
public hearing for a final decision. Uh Oh, I'm sorry. Now that last recommendation
piece was from, from the hearing notice meeting and I should have, I should have
deleted that. Um So, you know, that's my error, so that the other
public hearing for a final decision, that's the hearing we're having currently. So
with that um Commissioner Brotherton, uh I'll turn it over to you. Great questions
or comments before we take public testimony. Um Since this is Heidi, since this is
Heidi, and since I've been the kind of the lead on this issue, um there have been
a couple of conversations with the conservation district and other interested parties
about the potential for uh utilizing the drainage district in the future. But there's
not a current plan in place to do that. So it's the interest of folks to have time.
And so we're thinking between now, September 1 2023 and September 1 2024 to do that
due diligence and have those conversations to decide whether we um dissolve, keep
the drainage district, dissolve it or change it into a different form. So, um this,
the recommendation is based on the desire of stakeholders on this issue to have more
time to deliberate and come up with a plan for the drainage district. Ok, Kate, did
you have your hand up? Yeah. Um and Heidi covered some of that. I was just hoping
to hear kind of what the process has been. Um I know the stakeholders have been meeting.
Um Could you say Heidi, I, I think there's been a, a consultant working with the
stakeholder group. Is that right? And kind of who who is convening that? And under
what umbrella we have a consultant on contract. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah.
So we, we retain peak sustainability. They're the consultants that have been helping
us with outreach on this and we've had a number of meetings with a variety of stakeholders
and there's more work to do there. But, but as Commissioner Eisenhower said, there
is a fair amount of interest in keeping the district active in further
investigating what its future form ought to take.
Great. And um how, how many um landowners would you say have been involved in that
process so far? Not many because the process has been talking about an outreach plan
to engage landowners. So we've had two meetings and both of those meetings have been
largely focused on how to best engage landowners in the drainage district. There
have been so far, I think, um, you know, three, maybe three landowners involved in
the two conversations. We've had one because she's a staff at the drainage district
and another because she offered to organize to do this facilitation earlier and we
engaged peak sustainability. So Christy Kissler from River Farm has been uh at both
of those meetings and you said staff at the drainage district, but did you mean conservation
district? Sorry. Conservation district? Ok, great. Thank you. And I was wondering
kind of what, how big it is now and with any of these future decisions, you know,
assuming we do the take no action uh alternative, which seems like what you're recommending
right now. I mean, there's like 400 or so landowners in that area, but only I, I
don't know, 30 or 30 to 50 or something that are on the creek itself? I'm just curious,
uh, can the size of the drainage district evolve as part of this process or is it,
uh, kind of a yes up or down on the, uh, outer boundary of it and how it impacts?
I guess that, you know, the tax assessment would impact the size question is a good
one. I don't know the answer as to whether it can be changed or not. And right now
it's everything in West and East Chico Creek that drain into Chico Creek. So it's
about just under 400 tax parcels and 300 something landowners. And
I did look and it's a majority of the landowners, at least mailing addresses are
in Chico or Port Hadlock or Port Townsend. So there are mostly local landowners.
Ok. And it was described in the Greater Conservation District report as pear shaped
and it did not look pear shaped in that map. Is there something I'm missing? It's
not evolved, has it? Uh No, it's no,
I don't know what pear shake comment came from. I don't know. I thought I read that
in that. I was kind of going through the conservation district report historically.
It sounded like a, it was a Peter Bales, uh, quote, I thought, um, ok. Any other
questions before we open up for testimony? All right. Well, let's start in the room.
It sounds like we might have people there, Heidi, would you mind managing those folks
in the room to get them up for testimony? No. So are are there folks in the room
interested in making testimony if so raise your hand? Oh, wait, I should, I should
let me open first. Ok. As you elected officials who want to hear your testimony on
this issue, your testimony will help inform our deliberations and decisions. I'll
now open the hearing to listen to your public testimony. If you join the meeting
via the Zoom link, please click on the raise hand icon located at the bottom of your
screen to raise your hand and you can hit star if you're on the phone to click raise
hand. Uh Let's see when called upon. Please address your comments to the board not
to the audience. Also, please be respectful of opinions by others that may differ
from your own. Each person will have up to three minutes and because this is a hearing,
uh please identify yourself and where you live. Um Oh, I see Barbara has joined us.
Barbara. Did you have anything you wanted to share before we take testimony?
Here? I am somewhere. Let's see. I turn on the machine here. Uh Yeah, good
afternoon everyone. Yeah, I think Barbara has drafted a resolution for us to consider
it after the hearing. Ok. But there wasn't anything that you needed to say before
we listened to testimony. Barbara. No, no, I was just um I'm just here for questions.
If you have them. Ok, thank you. Well, I'll turn it over to you. How do you wanna
um, manage those folks in the room that might want to give testimony? Yeah, and I
saw Roger's hand go up before you uh open the hearing. So Roger, do you wanna come
up? Ok. It looks like Kevin's ready to help you. Always ready to help. I see our
folks at uh peak consulting are with us too. Maybe we should bring them over into
the to be a family. What are their names? Is that one of them? What about Sierra
Vivian's the peak consulting person? Is there? Sierra Sierra raises her hand, um,
or Joe raise their hand if they want to make testimony. Ok. We're ready for you.
Go ahead, Roger everybody. I'm Roger Short. Um 17 20 Center Road. I've lived on Chico
Creek for 70 seven years. I probably know more about what's been happening
in those last years than anyone is still alive. I feel kind of jerked
because no one's really come to try to get an idea of what I want, what would be
best for the creek. But since 1980 I've taken the attitude, I didn't want to activate
the drainage system or do it because there was taxation involved with it. I do not
think that Dray's district at this point would ever stand for any type of taxation
to any of the parcels. I kind of think the landowners can be responsible for it if
they're taking some of the restrictions from fish and wildlife and riparian areas
are kind of taken away from it. I like had Heidi's comments about um, let's keep
it activated but don't dissolve it at this time. The reason we don't dissolve it
this time is because there's an access for maintenance along the creek. And if the
drainage district is dissolved, that access for maintenance will be lost. And that's
the main reason that I have for the drainage district at this time. I think we totally
need to revamp how it's put together and divide it into smaller sections to take
care of certain areas that are problem areas. So we're not alienating them the other
36 or 450 landowners because it won't fly that way.
Um I have new ideas on what could be done on to maintain drainage, but at this
time, I have dissolved my hands from trying to do anything for maintenance. We have
not done anything for the last two years and as a result, we have about 50 acres
of water on the land right now that is no longer able to pasture without the ecology
guy gal coming along the highway and saying your cows in the highway, cows are in
there water, you have to get them out. Well, I say, keep your damn water at home
and they'd be out of the water. So anyway, I a available for comments later on if
you need any more questions, but I know a lot of the history of what's been going
on. Thank you. Thank you, Roger.
Anyone else in the room interested in making comment, Jeff, Jeff Chapman County assessor.
I'm Jeff Chapman, the county assessor as Heidi just pointed out. And, uh, uh, we
have currently in the county, we have seven different benefit assessment districts.
Uh, we have noxious weed, We have a conservation district. Um We have two fire ones
and the, the fees are very low and they're based on what benefit the property owners
receive. We do have experience with another drainage district, which is the Port
Ludlow drainage district which has worked very well for 10 years. It was a, an an
assessment that was set up by and is maintained by public works and we apply it and
decide how much each parcel shall be charged. Um We've had no appeals on any of these
because you know, they, they work very well. And I, and again, I think if it does
come down to having an assessment, we can set this one up so that the property owners
will be satisfied with it. Thank you, Jeff. Anyone else in the room want to make
a public comment, Mike. No, no. Anyone online who wants to make a public comment
today.
Don't see any hands, Greg. Ok. I'll make one more call online. If anyone who would
like to make public testimony on this hearing. We would love to hear from you. Um
As I see that director of the conservation district Joe, if you'd like to come over,
we already benefited from uh a lot of your work in, in the research for this. So,
do you have anything to add? I'd love to hear it from you.
All right. I'll make one more call. Oh, looks like it's coming over.
Is he coming over as a speaker or, or as a testimony giver? I don't know. Let's ask
him. Hi, Joe. Thanks. Thanks for joining us today, your testimony or, you know, if
you have something that you want to add as a staff of the conservation district,
that would be fine too. Ok. Um I'll, I'll just uh uh make a comment that uh the conservation
district is working on a management plan. Uh We just started that uh and that's thanks
uh to the uh Jefferson County uh Environmental Health with uh they got a ecology
grant and as part of that uh grant from the Department of Ecology that's helping
to fund this effort to develop this management plan, which is being done in concert
with the outreach efforts that uh the county is doing with peak sustainability. So
those two processes will go hand in hand, one, hopefully will inform the other and
we'll figure out uh two things. What, what, what are the biggest problems and how,
how should they be uh addressed what opportunities are there for, for restoration
and who, uh, whi whi which organizations are best, uh, ones to lead that effort.
So that's, that's what we're hoping to do there. And then, uh, Commissioner Brotherton,
your comment about the pear shaped district, I think, I don't remember for sure,
but I think that's in reference to the watershed, uh shape, not, not the, uh, so
the, the drainage district is, is within the watershed, but uh um the two are not
exactly the same. Got you. OK. Thank you for, for clarifying my mistake. Um All right.
Uh Thanks a lot, Mr Holtrop. Uh Anyone else like to make testimony before I close
this hearing and we deliberate.
All right, seeing no other hands, I will uh close public testimony
and to the public hearing is now closed and will deliberate and, and make a decision.
So it's pretty, I think the options that are outlined are pretty easy, right? We
can dissolve it, we can do the take no action alternative. They think Heidi and staff
have all recommended and I think that's what testimony lean to as well. It seems
like there's definitely plans in, in, in the offing already with peak and the conservation
district. So, or we could of course spin it up uh If we would decide.
Go ahead Kate. Yeah. Um Well, and take no action is a little misleading because it,
it's, it still requires us to declare the district inactive correct. Yes. Yes. Yeah,
we have a, yeah, Barbara prepared a resolution to that effect that I can put on screen
if that would be helpful because I don't think it's part of the packet. No, it, no,
it was not. Um, so while, while Mark's doing that, I can, um, say that it, it
sounds like there is um, good work under way that is gonna help determine next steps
if any. So, um, it sounds to me like the declaring the district in active and not
dissolving it as the prude thing to do today,
right? So the resolution has three sections um that are on the screen,
the period at the end of section three, if you want to add that.
Ok. Yeah. And I promoted uh Carolyn to clerk of the board, not deputy and I added
her certification as well. Great. And I'm fairly comfortable even though we didn't
have this before we heard testimony. It's literally verbatim from what the, the other
attacks that we had and everything. So as long as you guys are OK to move forward,
I think considering this resolution seems great, maybe we can go back to the beginning
of it so we can see the name of the resolution. All right, I'm happy to make a motion
that we adopt a resolution determining that the Chima Drainage District is an active
pursuant to chapter 36.96 of the revised code of Washington a
second. Ok. It's been moved and seconded to approve the resolution, determining the
district is an active pursuant to chap 6.96 of RCW. Any further questions or comments
all in favor of the motion on the floor indicate by saying I I in your post. All
right, that is unanimous. Thank you, Heidi. Thank you, Barbara Mark Joe, everyone
for all their work. I know this is many hands went into this. So, and, and thanks
for the auditor for making sure that we're uh you know, toe the line and, and, and
comporting our business on the up and up. Um Vivian. Vivian, I, you didn't have a
chance to speak. I don't know. Uh Was there anything that you wanted to, to say to
the, the work that's going on before we um end this meeting? I don't know if you
want to shed any light on the timeline or anything. Yeah, I think a lot of what we've
been doing is just trying to gain some insight from folks within the district on
like um Commissioner Eisner Hower said, how to engage. And so we haven't start talking,
talked about the what but just really thinking through um what's gonna work best
for the landowners within the district. Like what, like what time to have meetings
and stuff, literally, really trying to make sure that we get the logistics and the
place, right? So that people feel like we're really there to engage them, hear them
and, and get the feedback that will allow a meaningful decision next year. Based
on that feedback, you start in February, everyone's free in February.
Yeah. Yeah. So, ok, thank you. You're welcome. Any other last thoughts on this topic
before we adjourn this special meeting? Yeah. OK. You did not dissolve it. You just
said we're gonna continue inactive for a year and then discuss it again. We declared
it inactive. Yes.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah, like we're all all aligned on it today. Happy day. We have a consensus opinion
across our testimony as well. So, ok, if there's nothing else, uh we can't talk about
anything else today. Unfortunately, Kate, did you have something? Ok. Um So as, as
a reminder, we have uh Labor Day on Monday, so we will be back here for our regular
meeting on Tuesday. So everyone have a great Labor Day weekend and uh this meeting
is adjourned. Thanks everyone. Thank you.
I see. All right. Can you sign this for Greg, please?
Thanks for being here, Roger. Thank you guys. Thanks for getting me here, Kevin.
No worries.
Ok. Mhm.
Ok.