Automatic captions. Names and wording may contain recognition errors. Repeated rolling-caption lines have been removed without rewriting the discussion.
[00:00:00]
with the uh spray fire. Um, as I remember, DNR and AISTA and a couple other companies came in and dropped trees that had burned but had not fallen and then chipped it and used it as hot fuel. Uh, but has anybody indicated either DNR or Vistar or any of the other utilities a willingness to be able to do that or is that part of what we're going to end up trying to find uh somebody to do uh on on the old trails fire? And >> so yes and no. Um so you're >> what part of that? So, you're correct that um a lot of the work that was done in the gray fire was was actually donated. Um we also had uh donated funding for for the the chipper as well. So, a good portion of that work was donated. Um to this point, um we've had
[00:01:01]
several meetings with DNR about postfire remediation. U the the subject of the hazard trees and the management of the hazard trees has not fully addressed yet. Right. >> Yeah. And that and that didn't have anything to do with, you know, personal property debris and things like that, >> right? Yeah. know there's a lot of trees in the common area and then Riverside State Park and and >> well I mean fortunate fortunately or unfortunately Riverside State Park is the is state park's responsibility and and so I I would assume um probably shouldn't assume anything these days but u I would assume that DNR is going to be managing the lift up that >> anything else I can add on >> what would be the len At the time of the >> this be a year contract, >> right? Right now it's >> Yeah. Right now, right now, we
[00:02:01]
anticipate it being a year, but it'll um it took six months for us to get the the declaration in in the gray Oregon fires. Hopefully, it doesn't take that long this time. it would be until we have and the the good news at least from my perspective is if if we receive the presidential declaration it's the state's intent to do a single state contract. So they will do one contract with DRC which means we will only have one vendor to to work with. So we will be uh responsible for managing the work that happens here on the ground. But instead of trying to keep track of, you know, four or five different contractors like we did last time, we'll only have single uh state contract to worry about. That will help be helpful as well. >> Do they have FEMA experience with all of >> Oh, yes. Yes. They're DRC is um they're they're a nationwide company. They do uh oh, they've done, you know, a massive
[00:03:02]
number of hurricane cleanups. Um they've done, you know, the the cleanups and and other large wildfires. They have a lot >> So they were actually in my office yesterday to stop by to say hi. So >> So when I drove around a couple weeks ago, I noticed that there was quite a bit of burnt trees in our rideway. And so I'm assuming that our road department is going to take care of those or not. >> I have not had that conversation um with Kyle, but um that does fall as as it's county property that does fall in their purview. Right. >> oh good. Kyle's on. >> Hey, good morning. Yeah, we will be handling a lot of the trees that are in the right of way. We may have to bring in some external resources to assist us
[00:04:00]
with that. Um we're we're talking well north of a thousand trees we're probably going to have to remove. So it's a pretty big body of work. >> So Shandra, if so, if we get the federal declaration that brings in funds to do this debris removal, you were talking it would be >> potentially one company that would do all of it. If we don't get that declaration, it's then just up to each individual property owner to to clear the the trees. Okay. Okay. >> And relative to this contract position that we're talking about, >> if we don't get the federal declaration, there's no work for that entity to do on our behalf. And we think the work that we have right now is covered under FMAG, but we're waiting to see if we're gonna confirm that we can use FMAG funds to >> because what she's doing right now is she's managing uh the coordination with
[00:05:02]
EPA to get the the household hazardous materials removed. So that's her focus right now. She's coordinating all of >> So what what all debris removal are we talking when we're that this discussion today? I mean there's been a lot about trees. Anything else that would be included in that? >> It would be it would be anything related to the provision of debris removal on private property. So depending on how the declaration is is worded and what they choose to include in that. >> Um it would be the management of of all debris related activities. >> Okay. So, could it be as broad as like what's left of the house, burnt cars, burn? Okay. So, ev everything could potentially be there. Okay. Um, we know there are families that are already starting debris cleanup. >> Do we encourage them to save their receipts and could they get reimbursed for this down the road if
[00:06:00]
>> the declaration came through or >> It depends on it depends on how the declaration is written. >> Okay. So, uh, but absolutely they should, um, save their receipts. We have, we have quite a bit more private funding, um, on this incident than we had on our previous incident. So, folks have the ability for uh, quite a bit of, uh, financial assistance. And so, they absolutely should have be tracking their costs uh, because there's there's many many streams of of assistance that that are coming in. It's really pretty >> Is EPA still on site with hazardous >> Oh, yes. Yep. They're they're moving. They're moving well. I I have not seen the numbers um yet today, but I believe they're about at 42% done. Um they might even be it might even be higher than >> I heard last week they were at 30%, so that makes sense. >> Yeah, they're they're um they are being
[00:07:01]
slowed down a little bit by the number of basements. um because that requires them to build scaffolding and to get down into uh the basement area and then they have to remove the scaffold to move it. So, it's it's slowed their pace a little bit, but um they have 17 teams on the ground working. So, they're making really good. So for the last fire >> when the declaration came, what was the uh the debris removal piece of was it for an underinsured? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. So that one um and also on the gray Oregon we also had state funding that was applied and uh that was income limited to um underinsured and and uninsured folks. So that one that had a very clear income limitation. >> So um when Commissioner Jordan and I met with the governor uh he had made a
[00:08:01]
request that we all send letters to the president to encourage a quick response and um of course we're still dealing with some of the other virus in some of the other counties. So that 30-day window hasn't started. But could we could legal uh draft the letter for the board uh for us to review and sign and send on behalf. But the other thing it would be helpful for uh is uh not only a letter from the board but a letter from each one of us as individuals. I mean, it could be one letter, but each one of us signed it because the I think what the governor was trying to push for was a influx of letters to try and persuade control or whatever. And so, um, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to sending an individual letter as in addition to
[00:09:03]
the board. Yeah, that'd be good. >> Work on the drafts. Thank you. >> I think anything that uh helps to narrate the the challenges that we have because, you know, I've said this in, you know, the meeting with with the governor with uh Senator Murray and others. Um unfortunately, after fire season, here comes winter and and it's really very very important for us to get that debris off the ground before it ends up uh in our our water system. All right, >> thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right, next up is George Doll and >> We got some friends with us today. Good
[00:10:00]
morning, everyone. We're always here. Well, additional obviously introduce us to your friends, George. Come on up here. Um, so today we're here to talk uh first about a grant with the Washington State Department of Commerce uh for wildfire recovery. Um, and so it's a half million dollar grant um that we're uh that we're looking for y'all to accept um to work with folks. And um and we wanted to bring with you a potential um partner solution for how we can utilize that half million dollars to help out folks in need. So we've got uh Pam and Lori with the Spokane Housing Authority with us. We've been in communication with them about some some ways that they might be able to use those funds to help folks out. And so I'll just turn it over to to Pam and Lori to to talk about >> Sure. Um I think uh Spoken Housing Authority is pretty uniquely uh prepared to administer a fund like this. Um our
[00:11:02]
existing capacity and program experience and operations uh lend itself uh pretty directly to the work that needs to be done uh to help uh the victims of the complex fires. um we could hit the ground running on day one. We have systems and staff in place um to do outreach and screening and make payments. Uh we run some very large um rental assistance programs for the state including the the department of uh health and this is the healthcare authority is what they actually call it and uh DSHS aging and long-term care. Uh we do that statewide. We also run a very large rental assistance program in six counties eastern Washington. Um each of those programs is about $60 million a year that we put out the door. Um we
[00:12:02]
have five grant coordinator positions and five uh service coordinator positions that are existing uh experienced staff that can take on this type of program. We're ready to go. We have software uh software called core relief which was designed during COVID that is specifically for this work uh that we can use to uh do both case management and make payments. And we also um have uh in our in our regular rental assistance program um we have been able uh to hit the ground running for folks that have lost their residences in that if they are at or below 50% area median income, we have a local priority preference for admission to that rental assistance program for victims of natural disaster. We have about 85 people uh through the disaster assistance center which we staffed every
[00:13:01]
day uh that we're working with now to get that rental assistance to them and that's long-term rental assistance. It's a permanent solution for those folks that are income eligible. Um, in looking at this particular opportunity, we think there's an opportunity to kind of pair these type of operations together because this is a lot more flexible for those people that lost their homes or were displaced uh for any period of time um that are over that 50% income limit, but maybe up to 140. And you guys will have to set that limit. Um, we could target this assistance specifically to them on the rental assistance side. And then on the operations side, some of the things that our program couldn't pay for for those 50% and below folks could use the grant to supplement those folks. Um, and that flexible funding in this grant could pair nicely with what we're already doing for both of those populations. So, um,
[00:14:01]
in one of the things the grant requires is the prior prioritization of the most vulnerable households. And I think we're we've already started doing that by helping those really low-income folks. Um, and I think um I we're just in a great spot to do this work immediately. Um, it's what we do and I'm hoping that the county will just think of us as an extension of your own operations. Um, in some respects we should be [laughter] and you think of what needs to be done with housing, you should be thinking about us because we are uniquely positioned to do that. Uh in looking at the budget, um when we looked at this uh last night, we assumed that the county would be taking the administrative part of this to help pay for your overhead costs. Uh and taking that off the top, we want to split the rest of it, which is about $450,000
[00:15:01]
between rental assistance. We want to put 65% of the grant to rental assistance and 35% towards operations. And what the operations cover are are many things. Um but it's not our administrative costs. We'll eat those. Um we're not asking for administrative fee. Um what we want to cover is just staff salaries um for [sighs and gasps] uh information technology, case management, uh outreach, um placement services, and then um we want to use the rest of the operations. You can use it for flexible uh expenses. And th some of those things include things like transportation, household goods, um cleaning products. Um you can buy somebody boots if they need boots for a job to go to or um you can do vet services. There's a whole
[00:16:03]
Yeah. birth certificates, driver's licenses. So that kind of flexible funding. and then transportation for any outreach that needs to be done. And then there's also a line item that says other costs approved by commerce. And I think as we go through and we start doing the the intakes and the screening, some some themes will come out of that that we may need to go back to commerce and say, "Hey, is this an acceptable cost?" But we won't know that until we start doing all of that screening. Um, which by the way, we're already working on those 85 families, so we're starting to see some of that. Um, that's pretty much it. I think we're just ready to ready to go um to do the work. >> Well, besides our infrastructure, our software systems, our staff that we already have in place, we also have partnerships in place with most of the providers within the community. Um, you know, Catholic Charities, Volunteers of America, Goodwill, SNAP. So, um, we'll be providing a good referral service as
[00:17:00]
well to those partners for things that this grant doesn't cover, but they can cover. And so it's it's taken them from the short-term recovery uh response for these immediate dollars to a long-term recovery as well and making sure that we are bringing in that that warm referral that handoff whatever their future needs are going to be as well. I think it's really important to note that that that when the dis disaster assistance center opened up um that that group of partners has been working together since since August 1st. Uh we were on the phone uh Sunday morning, August 2nd, ready to go. Um and so those partners have all been working together. One of the things we did at the disaster assistance center that I think was really helpful for us is that we created a one-page intake of QR code. So people coming in could scan the QR code with their phone, give us some basic information, and and so we've been we've been keeping a list of folks that were affected by the fires and we're coordinating that list with the other partners that were also the
[00:18:00]
disaster assistance center. So we have one master list and we're working our way through that now with those >> I think one thing that's really important here and with the housing authority they're um existing infrastructure uh resources tools are used to complex uh management oversight of federal funds, federal state funds. Um and this grant must be spent out by the end of January of 27. So we have a really short timeline to get these funds out into the community. So having a partner like the Spokane Housing Authority helps us to expedite make sure that we maintain uh compliance while we go really fast. So um so that's where really appreciate the housing authority being willing to to step up and uh be considered as a partner on this grant. >> We work with the department of commerce a lot so we're we're pretty um experienced in the compliance and reporting pieces of things and our software allows us to do that pretty The compliance is a big part of it. I
[00:19:02]
would be housing authority a lot at HUD and they are one of the 18 teams around because I think they'd be really good at getting it out of the club which >> according to HUD we are the 18 >> but Lori gets flown all over the country by her trainer teacher um utilize her a if you guys um are good with. We'll work on the contract. >> Oh, we're welcome to answer any questions you may have as well. >> Commissioner Brooks. >> Just making sure I unmute here. Um no, I think it's great. I I because I think you guys can get it out in a timely manner. I guess a couple questions I have is is what I don't want to have is this duplication of efforts on identifying the people in need because that's what the long-term recovery group is doing as well and they're trying to do it quickly too because of the worthy um you know
[00:20:02]
funds that are coming through. And so so I just want to make sure that we're we're coordinating with them to reduce the administrative costs and burden. Um, so again, more money is going out to the people that need it and less money if since we already have everyone already has staff. You just said you already have staff that are doing some of these things that um and which I know is different than overhead costs and and all of that. So, I just I just want to make sure we're being effective with working with the long-term recovery group because that is who we're, you know, the county has chosen to work with um to make sure that we're identifying those families uh properly and and not duplicating those efforts. >> Yeah. and and when I think I think where the where the lines kind of come together is that we can get this emergency assistance out the door and the long-term recovery center can start working on the intermediate and long-term solutions.
[00:21:00]
I think I think we are well suited to get the the dollars immediately out the door for emergency assistance and and try to to deal with that and then the long-term recovery center can start dealing with interim and long-term solutions for people who who are going to need more [snorts] and I think there's warm warm handoffs to be made for sure. Right. No. And and I think you guys are are really the right people for for this, but I I just want to make sure that that coordination is happening because otherwise we start to get well, I've got this list and I've got that list and it's like um you know, it's the auditor and me coming out that it's like we all need to be working off the same list and making sure that if if you find out something different than what they have that you know, you're working with them to make sure every everybody's list is >> Absolutely. Agree. There's too many lists out there already. [laughter] Burn it together. And and the long-term recovery group and uh a lot of the
[00:22:00]
providers and Inovia are now meeting uh started meeting last week. We're not going to meet this week, but we're going to meet every week. And so we'll continue to to create what that handoff looks like as we move forward together. But we're going to start meeting weekly. >> Okay, great. And then I just want to reiterate or just make sure I got the understanding that the 500 we got $500,000. The city got a million dollar. Theirs goes to their residents and ours goes to our unincorporated county residents. Is that correct? >> Yes, that's our understanding. >> And and we'll work hand inand with the city's contractor to make sure that that we're you know if if we get somebody screened and they're in the city, we can work with good goodwill who's their contractor. Uh, and we'll use a lot of the same methods. So, we'll work together with them to make sure that funding source. >> Great. Thank you. Like I said, I just want to make sure we're all working together and not duplicating efforts and and all of that. So, I I really do
[00:23:00]
appreciate you guys because I do think you are the right people at the right time to get this immediate funds out. I think the long-term recovery groups, you know, working very diligently hard on the worthy um donations to get those, you know, determined and out. So, um so I I I think it is going to take a village to to make this all happen um to the best of our abilities. >> So, thank you, >> Commissioner Waldruff. >> Good morning. Thanks. Uh, great to see you, Pam and Lori. Congrats last week on the grand opening of the new affordable housing units in the Spokane Valley. That was really exciting day. Um, I'm excited. I think some of my questions, uh, Commissioner Brooks already got answered. So, um, I guess just two things. the 85 households that you're talking about that you were you connected with at the U disaster
[00:24:02]
recovery center. Can you just speak a little bit more about those households and then what would you recommend as the um the range of household income that we should be setting for these funds? I think we've talked about 120 or 140 AMI. [clears throat] Sure. So, the 85 households that we're already connecting with were ones that we identified at the disaster center uh assistance center who um uh filled out our intake form there. Um we identified them as having incomes below 50% of AMI. Therefore, they would be eligible for our housing choice voucher program. So, we are beginning to reach out. We've already sent them all correspondence to say we want to begin this process, determine your actual eligibility so we can get them on a long-term rental assistance and also help them with housing location services. This is typical of our our our housing choice voucher program operations. So those households may have
[00:25:01]
additional needs, security deposit needs, application fee needs, um especially if they uh have come from their primary residence being um uh destroyed that that they may need some household goods. Uh and if they're in the county or located within the county, we see this grant can actually assist with those pieces that our funding could not. Um and so that's the first piece for that 85 households. We've already begun those conversations. In fact, we pulled that list late last week and started that eligibility process with >> And so some of those might be city residents though too and you'll refer >> You have to deter >> Yeah. Yeah. And >> but what your point your point is though that those folks can be helped through other funds as well that you already >> Yeah. We see these augmenting um our federal funds that we have. Great. Uh, does the commerce rules have any
[00:26:00]
limitations on the outer bounds of what the income thresholds could be or is that totally up to the county? >> They they leave that up to the grantees. So, we've got flexibility there that we wouldn't normally see in grams. >> So, will you have a recommendation for that or >> Yeah, I think so. I think my recommendation is that you set it at 140 and that allows part partly because you only have until January to spend this money >> and partly because a lot of the people that we saw at the disaster assistance center were over income for our programs and so we know there's going to be that window of folks there that that really need the help and we can prioritize people with the lowest incomes but [clears throat] I think give yourself that flexibility to go to 140. So the rules require a prioritization of the most vulnerable, but still have a wider >> You can Okay, good. >> And and we'll get to the to the ones under the 50, but that 50 to 140 I think
[00:27:01]
is going to be a big group of folks, Forward with >> Thank you very much for having us. See All right, Aiden, I'll be very quick because this is kind of a yearly action plan that that we go through. So, the caper is the consolidated annual uh performance evaluation report. Um, you have a a slide presentation in there. I'm not going to go through it, but those uh slides are available to you. Um, effectively I want to be as quick as I can recognizing your your uh agenda here today. So this is concerning our [clears throat] yearly entitlement programs at the federal level. So your uh CDBG home and ESG grants. I want to be very clear this does not involve disaster recovery because that's not a yearly award. It was a one-time um allocation amount. uh but effectively
[00:28:02]
these are the the kayfer is kind of a cumulative report of all the activities that we've done during the year and how uh those activities accomplishments go to our five-year consolidated plan goals. Uh you'll notice that in that CR05 on the presentation that while we had a lot of expectations for this year, we uh were wolffully under for our actuals mostly due to the fact that we contracted very late this year. Uh our period of performance for the 2025 program year was uh 71 of 25 last year to 6:30 of 26 this year. So, a lot of our contracts were executed in March of this year, which left a very small window for them to complete a lot of their projects to be included in this report. So, a lot of the accomplishments will likely be reported in next year's paper uh to kind of make up for that as a lot of those projects are still ongoing. Um, and I would just mention that we did have uh one public comment.
[00:29:00]
The public comment period was a 15-day period. closed yesterday and it was more or less just looking for more information about our our uh caper for for this year. Um but nothing about the overall program in particular. Um more or less just clarification. So if there are any questions from the commissioners, happy to answer them at this time. >> Any questions? >> Like we're good. >> It's all good. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Deb Sapone. thank you for having me. Um, my name is Judge Sapone and I am currently uh the judge handling our domestic violence uh docket here for the county um for the misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor level. Um I applied for uh last January a grant for postconviction um alternatives
[00:30:00]
funding which uh you did ratify and allow me to go forward with. This is a renewal of that um asking for additional funds and uh we were awarded that from the grant uh process. It's not a lot of money, but it is money that will go towards uh hopefully funding uh a couple probation officers to get trained in providing moral uh it's called DBMRT. So, it's uh classes to assist people in changing behavior. And so, we can potentially have a lot of that in-house training uh instead of outsourcing it out to and paying more funds uh to uh outside resources. currently work. Um the respons it is the responsibility of the defendant to pay for um domestic violence more recognition training and domestic violence uh intervention uh treatment and it is uh cost prohibitive
[00:31:02]
90% of the people that come before me. And uh this is a not a lot about a lot of money, but it is important for the people that come before me and it is assisting them. So I'm hoping to get uh read by. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Maybe not. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, are you standing in for >> Standing in for Preston. >> I believe he has trial this morning. So, I'm coming to you this morning with a grant opportunity. It is from WA Washington uh Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. Is a renewal of a grant we received last year and there are no changes to the grant. It's $95,624
[00:32:00]
that would go to fund a majority of salary benefits for a prosecuting attorney in our appellets >> Uh we do have another one, the DVHRT grant, which we brought to you earlier this summer. That one is the $200,000 grant to help implement the DBHRT field that will be utilized by the city police both on city police and that one we brought to you guys before. We're just so the briefing before was just conceptual and now we're asking contract. Is that what's going on? >> We're good. >> No, you guys are gentle. I appreciate
[00:33:00]
it. Let's have a wonderful day. >> Those two. Yes, that was the beach. Uh, Sheriff Kevin Richie. do a quick miscellaneous if you like. Go for it. Need to announce that the shrills meeting on September 18th has been cancelled. So there's no agenda to look over and I was asked to let you all know that that one's canceled. Um okay. I'm sure Richie is not here yet. So, um, Kyle still. Hey, Kyle. Uh, do you want to handle yours? The receiving the no further action >> I was going to pop down there right now,
[00:34:00]
but uh, yeah, we can hit this real quick. Um, oh, better. I've got my subject matter expert just walking into the room right now. >> Uh, Crystal Riley. uh she's a project manager in our stormwater group and led our uh and did the uh management of our public works ops building project. So if you recall that site was under uh uh covenant from ecology before we began work out there due to the existing contamination and we've done some remediation. We capped some stuff. We have new parcel lines. Um, so Kristen can walk you through um the the current one, which is another basically a revision of the covenants on the property out there for the ops building, the old Wilber Wilbert vault site. >> Uh, we have the presentation.
[00:35:03]
>> Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So, yeah, like Kyle said, we're just looking to get a on our public works off building site, which is just north of Boone and Sharp there. Um, so the existing covenant that from the early 2000s, you can see it's outlined in that red area. The new subject site is the blue area. that will be where the new covenant heads. Um, basically what the existing covenant says is we cannot damage the pavement without notifying a college. So, um, currently we inspect the site every year and then do maintenance on it for there's any cracks in the pavement, we'll fill those. Um, so what's nice about this is we can just extend our normal operations onto the new site and just do that inspection and maintenance
[00:36:00]
at the same time. Next slide please. So on the map there you can see the exact area that will be subject to the covenant. So it's the black hatched area. The the green areas show the exceptions to that. So those are basically where we put swailes. They ended up digging down to clean soil. So um we didn't have contamination in those areas. Um, you'll notice on the right side where the old building footprint was, that's cut out. There wasn't any contamination under there. And then the whole south portion of the site where the new buildings are, that is al also not subject to the the covenant. So, um, assuming there's no concerns, we'll move forward with finalizing that environmental covenant with ecology. Any questions? >> I think we're good. Okay, great. Thank
[00:37:08]
>> I'm scared. >> Oh, I was way down. >> Yeah, sure. >> Someone wants to get Dr. Sing. Dr. Sing >> Oh. Oh, Dr. Sing. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I didn't see Dr. >> Okay, Dr. Singh, take it away. >> Oh, hello all. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm trying to get my once more my video going. Oh, here we go. Um, good morning. Sorry, it's being slow. Anyway, I'll start talking and hopefully Here we go, the video. Good morning all. Uh, just a quick one. Today, I'm asking for your permission to renew our teaching affiliation agreement with Washington State University College of Medicine. This is the agreement set up so that we can have uh medical students here in the office. um and tell them all about how great pathology is.
[00:38:05]
>> All right. Any questions from anyone? How many students have you had come >> Gosh. So this year we had uh seven I believe first and second year students and four uh upper level so gen mostly fourth year students um kind of in their final year of training. >> Okay. All right. All right. Well I think looks like we're good with it. So thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay Doug you're up. Okay, good morning. Good morning, commissioners. You could have a very brief presentation. I am here to speak on the Freeman Valley School District
[00:39:00]
That's Oh, there it is. Wrong. Quick. Thank you. Um this we have actually had an agreement in place for the last is it 39 37 37 years with the Freeman um Freeman school district where we have been able to provide a community park. The land is owned by the district and we have um helped to fund in the very beginning fund some minimal improvements. And over the last couple decades we have funded effectively maintenance of the property by covering the cost of a dumpster and paying the equivalent of minimum wage for uh 20 hours a week for the park season. And essentially this right now today we spend about 10,000 a year to um to honor this agreement. Now recognizing um demand and budget challenges. Next slide
[00:40:01]
please. We have um visited with the school district and uh renegotiated the terms where we feel we can very efficiently provide um the annual blowout of the irrigation system and a small stipend of up to $2,000 annually that we would reverse re reimburse them for any repairs they might have to complete to their irrigation and water system out there. And so, um, we are looking to renew this for another 10 years, but we would effectively reduce the cost to the county by 60 to 80% over what we're doing now. So, that would allow us to continue this partnership to enjoy um offering the community a community park um in the southern part of the county for anywhere from two to $4,000 a year. Uh, next slide, please.
[00:41:01]
So we would discontinue providing that um maintenance of the employee and again uh the services we would provide would be uh the annual blowout and um if needed funds to help with repairs. So if the board is supportive of this then I would look to bring this back before you. Um the school district is uh supportive obviously in the negotiations. Um they are comfortable with this the next term and I'm happy to answer any questions and and looking ahead. We believe our budget can sustain this level um going forward of course. Any questions? >> We'll work to bring this before you next >> Thank you very much. >> Is any of our next presenters up there out there?
[00:42:02]
>> I can get started on Louiswis's if you'd like. He's walking over right now. >> Okay. Well, um, >> we also do parking miscellaneous. >> Oh, yeah. What was that? >> Horse as long as >> Oh, yeah. I see you down there. Yeah, go for it. >> Okay. Commissioners, uh, the Valley and Spokane Sports have been in communication with us in public works to try to figure out a solution for event parking for the course, the new cross country complex. They have uh events scheduled this fall. The first one, I believe, is September 22nd. Pretty large event. They need upwards they're thinking I can't remember if it's a thousand people or a thousand cars but it's a lot of parking and they have not had any success making uh an arrangement with any of the other paved surfaces out there and available. So we have walked a
[00:43:02]
portion of our Eden Pit which is off of me it's just south of that Amazon that's over there by Trent. Um, we have one of our large, that's our district four office out there. The western third of that site, uh, we don't see, it'll be a long time before we're crushing rock out there for that. We have plenty of available. Um, so it's, you know, future use, but it's way out into the future. So, we think it would be reasonable if we to be a good team player with the valley. That's going to require them to do a bunch of work and maybe this rain will help, but there's a lot of fire danger. There's grasses up high. There's 12 to 18 inch boulders kind of all over the place. So, we would need to have quite a bit of work out there that the valley is willing to do. Um, and whatever the reimbursement with Spokane
[00:44:01]
Sports is, the point is we're not doing anything. We would just be allowing the use of our site for a nominal fee because they're basically just renting some acreage for those event days in particular. Um, so the valley is crafting an agreement that we would be bringing in front of the board for that. So they'll have to mow or string trim the entire site. Risk management's been out there. It's got to be at 3 in. We got to assume everybody comes in in a Jetta or a Camry that's low to the ground. They have to fence the site permanently from our side, but also there will be areas that are just going to be not reasonable to improve to what a sedan can drive through. So, I'll have to fence that off and also install a secondary egress gate because right now there's only one gate. It's all doable. We actually have some old um asphalt grindings from Bigalow that are out there that we could put a price on and sell to them so they can use that
[00:45:00]
because not only do you pull a boulder, but now you got a six inch hole in the ground they're going to have to fix up. It's a lot of labor, but if they they do it and prep it now, it'll make next year a lot easier. So, you know, if because of the amount of work, we would anticipate, I don't know, a three or fiveyear agreement. You know, if if they're not good stewards, we could revoke that. >> Um, but it would be, you know, what they want to do is have everybody park there and then shuttle bus them to the course for these, you know, large events. Um, so if the board's comfortable with that, I'm a little worried about the timing of getting that agreement to you, it'll probably be at the 11th hour. Um, but if I'm getting head nods, I'll probably preempt with like a temporary access agreement so they can start the prep >> I don't As long as you're sure it won't conflict with any of county's uses for the property. >> You know, our district managers are very protective and they were actually nodding. So,
[00:46:01]
if Mike and Paul are okay with it, I'm I trust them. Commissioner Brooks. >> Um, so yeah, it just makes me think though that we still have work to do on Plants Ferry where they don't want to help with the road. Um, [clears throat] there. So, it's just it's one of those um makes me makes me think it's like uh yeah, they're we're we're trying to help them out. I mean, obviously, we put all this money and effort into Plants Ferry and they're trying to just finish the little bit of road that they, you know, for people to access. So, I don't know. I'm just just putting that out there that it's like we should be thinking about both of those things then. >> Maybe remind them of that, Kyle. >> You know, because because I don't know. I mean, I Doug's already left. you know, if if the grindings that you have from Bigalow would be good to just put on that road right now as temporary um
[00:47:01]
instead of using it there. Um so I I mean that's why I just don't want to use up our some of our resources if we could use it, you know, at Plants Fair to make sure that that road is in a little bit better shape because I know it's just a dirt road at this point in time. >> Yeah. I if Matt's in here as well that I don't think we have a shortage of grindings that if we were to do a >> yeah they're grindings for us they have some value but moving them is worth cost more than they're worth generic. So >> having them use them in place and compensate us at whatever an appropriate level is is probably good. Furthermore the location on the pit is not part of our 20-year crushing plan. I mean, it's realistically it's beyond a 30 40 year horizon before we'll meet that area and we can previsit at that time. We'll have termination language in the agreement >> Yeah. No, and I agree. I mean, that's out of my district and I've I've been there and seen it. So, I mean, I know
[00:48:01]
that I'm just, you know, [clears throat] we have other needs that uh the valley doesn't want to help us with, but they want us to help them. So just thinking through it, but I, you know, love the valley. I I didn't see any no shake head. [laughter] No head. remind my counterpart about >> You know, he's he's new there. Maybe he can shake something. >> Maybe. Okay. All right, Lewis, gonna throw it down your way. >> Yeah, good morning. I have just two easement uh items on the agenda here. Bring up the slides.
[00:49:00]
Okay, so this first one is on um Pines Road in the Valley 511 South Pines. Um, send map south. Next slide, please. So, they have a binding site plan. They were originally going to put in uh kind of like an L-shaped apartment building. As you can see on the the left there, they had a layout that worked um for our sewer uh access. Um, and now they want to do like two different buildings. And so they just wanted to revise our our uh public sewer access through their site. And so this is uh just the easement and paperwork to it actually makes makes our access better because this this new layout we're able to drive through and out different way kind of a U-shape. So it it works better for our access. So, um,
[00:50:01]
just to like say to accommodate their new site plan layout and, uh, so we're working through the paperwork with Jasper. I don't know that they'll have signatures ready to be on the next meeting, but in one shortly after, we should should have the paperwork for the board to basically extinguish or release the old easement and grant a new easement for our sewer access. questions or that one? Okay, very good. Uh, move on to the next one. Do you have another ement? I do have two ement documents. Two. There's L and M.
[00:51:10]
Uh, so this is a parcel or parcels um up near Arbor Crest. So just down the hill from Arborrest. Uh there's a hillside there. a parcel that ends in the 0.9080. They are looking at a preliminary plat um and they needed offsite sewer to get to their plat. And so this project, go to next slide. This project is um it's a collaboration between three different property owners um to get sewer from that Lacrosse Avenue up crossing up River Drive and then the north side of the road. So it'll it will serve future
[00:52:02]
Probably the most likely one is that parcel on that ends in the 09080. I think it was the Canes who own that property that um that's that's one where we've actually seen a preliminary plan for uh but the rest of those properties within also have sewer available to develop whenever they develop. Next slide please. I do have a very preliminary layout of what it might look like. I think this is pretty pretty schematic, but you know that that property is very steep and definitely would be challenging to try to build driveways and and houses up there, but they there's been various proposals over the years of people that have thought that they could develop that hillside. And so this lease would get sewer to it to be available if it happens. And again, we're working through the paperwork on this and we're very close
[00:53:00]
to being able to have the them sign the agreement. And I don't know if it'll be ready for the 8th, but in a future legislative meeting, it would be ready for acceptance of Greece. Any questions on that one? >> They're good. Thank you, >> Chair Richie. >> All right. Good morning. Uh so this week I have the renewal of the 2026 2027 SRD contracts uh for all the districts. If you remember a few years ago there was a a desire to have the districts cover uh half of the benefits. Um I think that was done through a tiered approach and this next school year we'll they will be at half. So they'll be covering half the benefits and half the salary uniform and then 100% of the specialty paying an SRD. All the contracts are set to renew um without any there's been a couple additional u SR or SRGS added. One of
[00:54:02]
them is a shared asset in the valley. Um and then the other one is Central Valley. Yeah, the Valley of the Last That's it. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> All right. And then the next is anou that uh we would like to enter into with the US capital police. Uh there's a new program this this year I believe that they started that anytime local uh police are used to guard uh members of Congress. The capital police will reimburse those funds. We don't work directly for them and we're not under their guidance or anything like that. We if if the um the member of Congress reaches out for help for one of us to cover an event, then we will do a paper It's been reviewed by legal and risk and it's pretty straight. It's pretty basic agreement actually.
[00:55:04]
>> Great. Good service. >> All right. That's all I had. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. oh yeah >> morning your time this morning. Um I'm here to update you on a revenue sharing plan that we have. uh we are an advisor to so um we Kyle signs the contract on our behalf but it's a plan or an agreement between WM and utilities and transportation commission and then because it's happening in Spokane County we are advised so this is a plan that's allowable through state law um and basically it's funded uh through through
[00:56:01]
revenue that's generated by curbside recycling Um, but I think the the part where I appreciate this plan is because it has to be in alignment with our comprehensive solid waste family plan. So, this plan that WM has with the UTC helps us achieve some of our education outreach goals that we have in our our Next slide. So, the budget for this plan is dependent on recycling revenue. And I will re-emphasize that we don't touch any of the money. We are an advisor. So we get a say in how money is spent and what it is spent on, but money does not flow into fund 435. Um WM retains that right to spend the money. Um and we just coordinate with them closely on what it's spent on. So um the budget really follows the commodity values for recycling. So uh some years we have seen
[00:57:00]
a big dip that was in COVID and post China sword. Um and then the last bianium that stretched over 2024 uh we saw pretty healthy recycling commodity values. It's dipped since then and we're seeing probably a likely trend of continued um slight falling revenues. So we'll the budgets a little bit less this year. Um but it's also based on household counts. So when we expand the curbside recycling boundary that we'll be in a public hearing about today, we could see a slight bump in this um revenue based on the number of households this covers. Next slide. So we break the plan up into five different buckets. I'll go over these pretty quickly, but this first one is knowledge sharing. So, this helps us um reach out to households in unincorporated Spokane County with information about how to do recycling, right? Um we we always support cart
[00:58:00]
tagging. It's a really valuable way to get the attention of homeowners. So, uh one of the last campaigns we did was on household hazardous waste and please don't include it in your recycling bins. um take sharps and batteries to our transfer stations where they can be safely handled, not where it's in curbside bins and ends up on a sorting line where you have people in in gloves. We don't want to take that risk for county employees or any of our residents working at WM Smart Center. They also do a lot of social media advertisements, commercials, um and then they also have an app on if you have questions about where a type of material should go. Should it go in recycling? Should it go in organics? Should it go in garbage or a transfer station? So that's the first bucket. This next slide please. Second budget is or bucket is around equitable outreach. Um and this has two two prongs to it. The first one is uh translation services. So trying to um
[00:59:01]
translate all the WM outreach materials into um Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian in addition to English. Um and the second prong is helping to promote waste reduction work by local nonprofits that have more of a niche focus um for minorityled waste reduction efforts or showcasing an event by Spokane Zero Waste um for clothing reuse. So trying to get out into the not traditional ways of reaching our our diverse population. Next slide. Um, this is one way we work pretty closely with WM. So, we have uh education outreach uh staff within solid waste and we coordinate pretty closely with WM. And so, if they're going to be at a farmers market, we don't send our staff to the same farmers market. That way, we can cover more events, provide more outreach um across a broad swath of community events um just to get the word
[01:00:01]
out to people. Next slide. And this is probably my favorite uh task of the whole plan and it's engaging younger minds and again we work pretty closely with WM. They focus on the unincorporated schools and so if they are already providing workshops we tend to focus on the schools where where they can't. So that way we can stretch our dollars our resources farther in collaboration with WM. Um I've been to a couple of these assemblies. They're very engaging. They're very fun. Um most the assemblies target the elementary school population. Um and then some of our workshops um most of them are focused on elementary education but we do have some that are focused on middle school and high school as well. Next slide. And the last prong of this plan is on multifamily uh assistance. And again this is kind of a two-phase thing. Um we
[01:01:00]
have technical assistance for multif family buildings and that's going around and seeing do they actually have access do residents in those u multif family apartment buildings do they have access to recycling and garbage and if they don't can we rightsize their bins so that way if we reduce the amount of garbage dumpster capacity we have actual um ability for those residents to recycle and then with that comes education and outreach It's a recycling tote on a door with some flyers about what can and cannot be recycled. And this is a continual effort just due to the in-n-out nature of apartment complexes. We see a lot more turnover than in like a suburban neighborhood. So, it's almost an annual effort to reach out to property owners to try and um re-engage that education cycle for And the last slide is just a summary slide of each of the five categories within this plan. The the actual budget
[01:02:03]
this year is around 400 $375,000 that WM spends in our neighborhoods um to help with recycling education outreach and just general awareness. And so without them, our our goals wouldn't be as far along as they are. Um, so it's a great partnership to have. >> With that, I'm done. Kept it short and sweet, but do you have any questions about that plan? >> Oh, Mr. French, >> I don't have any questions about the plan, but uh do I did get an email from constituent last week. I can't remember whether I forwarded to you or not, but if I did, I will. uh she was complaining that waste management used to provide uh not only uh waste disposal but also clean green and recycles and now
[01:03:02]
she's not getting that service. Did I send that to you? >> Yes, you did. >> Okay, good. Fine. Thank you. Well, then it's in trusted hands. Thank you. >> And the uh issue the amendment passes in the public hearing. She will have her services stored >> starting April one of next year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Uh jumping all over. Jamie Jamie over there. >> Kyle's excited. It must be good. >> Yeah. Well, it's been a lot of work. >> Years years of work. [laughter] Um, happy to do it, though. It's good work. So, um, I'm here to brief on the Thorp Road reconstruction funded through the Defense Community Infrastructure
[01:04:01]
Program, um, otherwise known as the DCIP. Next slide, please. This is a new funding source for Spokane County, essentially through the Department of Defense. Um, we applied for a preliminary application this spring and a couple weeks ago we were contacted by DCIP project management to submit a final application with the caveat that things are going to move pretty quickly upon submitt that final application. We were advised to start the um approval process with you now so we can secure this funding. Um, the project total is just under $3.2 million. re requested and expect to receive just over $2.2 million. This program requires a 30% match. So, will be um contributed through S3R3, which is the local economic development group on the West Plains. And that leaves $36,000 for Spokane County to contribute. Um, next slide, please.
[01:05:03]
This is a onemile road reconstruction project starting from Craig Road and terminating at uh Fairchild Air Force Base East Gates. This road is in pretty poor condition. It's old, has lots of edge failure. There's very steep slopes. It lacks shoulders. And what this project will do is they'll reconstruct the the road to a 30-foot width, include two foot drive lanes with 4ft shoulders with an additional two foot of gravel shoulders on each side of the road. And not only does this project improve a deteriorated county road, but improves access to Fairchild Air Force Base. It um facilitates a 9.5 million gate um and the funding that they've secured to open this gates. It removes we're estimating approximately maybe up to 20% of traffic from what has been designated as a high energy corridor. If you go to the next slide,
[01:06:00]
thank you. You can see the tra transfer, longitudinal cracking, the edge failure, and the very steep slopes. It's really If you move on to the next slide, there's a map. And this is a little bit busy, but on the lower left inset is project limits. On the top left is set in the orange is that high injury corridor basically is just starting at Craig road and terminating at their p FFB's primary access gate on US2. This project will complicate the complements the realignment and the roundabouts of frag and road which will be constructed If you go to the next slide, um, preliminary engineering is scheduled for 2027 and 28. Construction completed in >> I just wanted to let the commissioners know this is I think our third swing at this funding source as well as two swings at other defense programs. This is a little bit weird for us because we applied this spring and then they came
[01:07:00]
back and said you're selected to apply again basically, but it seems nothing's a guarantee. It seems very likely that that will result in the funding for this project. Um u working closely with Jeff at Fairchild got us a lot of good information on this. Um and they're moving on their end, we're moving on ours. We might beat 29, but we're not going to promise that in a funding application. Um, and uh I think the Drake realignment and roundabout is on ad or going to add this week. Um, and we do intend to be working on that through the winter. Um, that roundabout is offline, perfect for um make some visible progress out there this year. Um, and then finish that thing up next Well, a lot of these pieces all coming together. That's about 12 million right in that area.
[01:08:01]
>> A lot of work went into getting these >> Yes. Yeah. >> It's awesome. >> Thanks for everybody's help. >> Any questions? >> Well, thank you for your time. Have a great day. >> Interesting funding program. Have you ever been successful in a lot? Thank you. Okay. Um I guess I'll ask Jeff, do you want to finish with the preliminary budget role? Should we take it? Should we Should we have Heather um and Martha Lou kind of do their miscellaneous and then do you want to finish out the meeting with yours or >> I'm Heather coming while Martha rolls >> Okay. Yeah, let's let's take care of the miscellaneous. That way we can finish the whole meeting with the budget wrapup. So um you want to go while Mark's getting >> Yeah. So um my mis deals with the planning commission and uh last Thursday they were subjected to three hours of uh
[01:09:06]
rankress uh testimony, personal attacks, uh a variety of uh things and planning commission. the these are volunteers uh that give of their time and energies and expertise to serve the county and uh uh on Friday morning I got a call from the chair uh saying he'll never do that again and ready to resign. Uh this is uh they they can engage in these kind of activities with the board and you know the board can decide how they want to deal with that. But when when we're dealing with volunteers on some of these commissions, uh we we've got to be able to protect them. And so I would like to suggest that for the next uh um planning commission hearing, which is supposed to
[01:10:00]
be a workshop uh on the data center uh that we provide a facilitator uh to facilitate the meeting because the chair has said we will not do it again. And uh I would also like to encourage that we have security present at the meetings to uh be able to deal with those disruptive forces that uh don't have any respect for the legislative process and want to uh hijack it. Um, I'm very concerned that if we do not support our commissions, our volunteers, uh, it will lead to us having difficulty filling some of these positions with volunteers and subjecting themselves to personal attacks to um um, you know, these are professionals and uh, they didn't volunteer for this kind of nonsense. So that's my request to the board is the to provide some support to
[01:11:01]
the planning commission so that they can finish their work and and deliver that product back to us. >> The Commissioner Brooks. >> Yeah, I I completely agree. I know Brenda watched on my behalf and um some people spoke more than once. Um, so I think I I would ask that I don't know how it works on the planning commission, but my thought is it should be the same rules that we follow. Um, those people are all up on the dis. Um, so I I don't know. I'm Devon if you can look into if we can just have it be the same rules for us and any other public hearings that are being offered by any of our volunteer boards. um you know whether it's the hearing exam you know with the board of equalization or any of those that that they're adhering to the same standards that that we do and I I think you know it is hard because these are volunteers and they're not used to having these
[01:12:01]
kind of meetings I mean and so and and don't know all the rules and so I I would ask that yeah we have somebody there who can help manage uh that and I think because of the nature of the data centers probably security is not a bad thing. Um, the other thing is I would, you know, say to all of our commissioners, we need to make sure that our people are there. I mean, uh, that we have chosen to put on, uh, because I'm hearing that some people have have been absent. Um, and so we just want to make sure that, you know, what's going on right now, whether it's the data centers or the growth management act, I mean, our comp plan, that's really important. And I know, uh, we have one at large member that I think did resign. And I think Lane Brokott did officially announce that he's resigned. Um, so I would like to try to open it up and get somebody in as quickly as possible. I know there's talk about trying to wait till we're through the process, but I think we're still far enough along and, you know, far enough away that I think we need to get um those positions filled
[01:13:02]
if people are willing to put their names in. So, um [clears throat] I would ask that we we look at that, encourage people, but make sure that the people that we've put in for our positions are are attending because that was one of the comments is like there's I don't [clears throat] know there's supposed to be how many people on the planning commission and there was only a few of them that were there. So, um, you know, I just, you know, from from that meeting, there was a lot that came out of it, and I think we need to do a better job as as the elected officials to help help them. >> See, Scott Scott has just joined us. >> Okay. And I just say thanks, Commissioner French, because I do appreciate all that. >> Scott, did you have something to add? Well, um, no, I think what, uh, Commissioner Brooks said from, you know, observations was accurate. Uh, the
[01:14:00]
chair, uh, who has traditionally been really pretty good at at handling the public, uh, felt uncomfortable, uh, at this meeting and that's that is what ended up letting people speak multiple times. Uh, we didn't, you know, he makes the announcement up front. You can have one 3 minute or one twominut period. Uh but uh it was uncomfortable as those commenters became more and more voseiferous I would say. Uh and so it's we we anticipate that that's going to be the same for the final the two remaining hearings uh on September 17th and potentially October 15th. uh the last meeting you was 3 hours and that pushed the rest of their agenda which is the comprehensive plan and talking about preferred alternative and urban growth area. They agreed to continue that to this Thursday, the 3, where the data centers will not be on the agenda, but
[01:15:01]
will also then be subject to the uh uh open forum at the front of the agenda. And our suggestion to or was is going to be to the chair or perhaps a facilitator uh to do what you the commission has done from time to time and say we're going to have an open forum, but it's going to be limited to 15 minutes or 30 minutes. uh and it's these people and then then we're done and have to get on to the rest of our agenda. So, we've we've got a couple of structural things we can do. Uh but yes, if the chair uh and presumably the vice chair uh would be uncomfortable presiding in that situation that that's a different kind of dilemma. >> Do you have a suggestion for anything specific on that? >> Um, I don't uh but there are plenty here in the market and uh
[01:16:01]
I think it's got to be somebody that's very strong uh and can control the meeting and quite frankly because some of the folks are becoming much more aggressive. Uh, I mean, even your representative was trying to get control of the meeting and and uh ended up on the 4:00 news. >> That's not mine. >> It's not yours. Then it's Amber's. >> Yeah. So, I apologize then. I thought I was told it was yours. Uh but uh yeah, we just we we need to get control of this uh uh before it becomes uh really hostile for I mean we're elected. We can take the the abuse to the extent that we want to. Uh but volunteers shouldn't be subjected to this. >> Would you like us to reach out and try to find a facilitator for that? >> Please at least. >> Yes. somebody that has experience
[01:17:00]
running meetings. >> Yeah. I I honestly wonder if it couldn't be someone from the sheriff's office, you know, doesn't have to have their full gear on, but just a sheriff shirt. Um be be one. I mean, they know how to facilitate meetings. I think um you know, if John suggests somebody because I think it's got to be somebody who's got some authority that people will >> I mean, I think it's just to that point. Um, and I don't, you know, otherwise it's like Devon, someone from civil, you know, that could manage and, you know, >> she might have volunte. >> Okay. [clears throat] I mean I I mean I'm happy that we could pass a resolution saying that all other commissions follow the same you know pro you know um public protocol I don't know I don't
[01:18:00]
know how to say it you know that we >> they have they the commission has their own bylaws that also default to Robert's rules so I think it's just making sure the chair and the folks in attendance are aware that they do understand exactly that they do follow essentially the same rules that you all follow. >> The challenge is not having the rules. The challenge is enforcing the rules. And that's that's where the things start to fall apart is there's no enforcement element to be able to say, you know what, you've exceeded and that's enough. There's [clears throat] got to be something to hold them accountable. >> Commissioner Waldruff. Yeah, I I just I I agree with Commissioner French that I think I I observed the first two hours. I listened in on the first two hours of that meeting and I I think that normally the chair allows for, you know, random questions and and
[01:19:01]
clarifications and he does an excellent job. Um my suggestion is not to allow for that. That's where it kind of got off course. Um during Scott's presentation there was a lot of questions and comments and I think you know limiting that not having allowing for the presentation to occur and the Plan Commission to have their discussion and then having public comment after that would have been you know but you know it's you you learn that normally in a normal Plan Commission meeting that works in this meeting it didn't work and so Um I think we just have to enforce that the public comment is at a certain time in the meeting and if people don't want to respect that they have you know they they need to be removed from the meeting. Um, if a facilitator can be helpful to the
[01:20:00]
chair, um, I would be open to that, but it I think it's really someone that's just firmly enforcing that you will get your chance to comment and it will be after, you know, for instance, when Scott was done with his presentation. So, normally the chair allows for people to kind of ask questions, I think, during the meeting, but that didn't really work in this meeting. >> Okay. Um, we're done with that topic. Uh, throw down to a header. >> So, we have a request from Habitat for Humanity. They have completed their general fund portion of their uh housing project that was originally funded under ARP that was shifted to general fund. They built their 36 homes.
[01:21:00]
They have about 370 just shy of $375,000 left remaining um that's unspent at this point and they're requesting to use those funds to continue to build. So just bringing that forward for consideration. The desire is to let them continue um or to stop the project where it is as complete. And >> just one more fact, what was the original award? >> Uh the original award was 1.7 million. So they've spent about 1.325. >> Okay. Okay. Commissioner Brooks. So the the request that was basically they came under budget and so they're requesting to continue to do what they're doing and use it for the same intended purpose. >> I'm I'm okay with that. >> I agree. I have no problem with that.
[01:22:06]
Short and sweet. Okay. Maraloo. >> Morning. Well, last week we went from uh fire followup, including with scraps, to data centers and PAS. And so, the media had a lot of questions about those things. Um, this week it's going to be a Labor Day closure announcement. And I'm also going to be helping to promote the adopt a drain campaign, which is coming out of public >> What did you say? Adopt a what? >> Adopt a drain. >> Drain. Okay. >> It's I thought you said a drain like a body of water like a drink like on a golf course. Okay. >> Drain. Okay. All right. >> Yeah. It's a national it's a national
[01:23:01]
>> Have we have we done this previous Uh Spokane Valley and City of Spokane are also participating in this and it's basically an outreach campaign to get people in neighborhoods where there's a storm drain on the corner. Adopt that drain, make sure it stays cleared, especially with fall leaves and winter debris and all of that so it's not going into the water system. And then it's also um kind of tracking how much you cleared out. So it's a it's a campaign just to make sure that our storm drains are working effectively, especially as winter approaches. If they're if they're blocked, then you have winter runoff that freezes in the middle of an intersection and becomes a skating rink. >> Okay. So, >> I know there's always a push in the middle of winter of please shovel out
[01:24:01]
the drains in CA, you know, especially if a plow has come by thing, but Okay. >> All right. >> Well, we'll look forward to that one. Uh, also Scraps has been getting some uh about pets and in the followup of the fire and they're not doing any more like fire related response with regards to animals, but they always have great information on how to prepare if you have to evacuate. >> Thank you, Commissioner Brooks. Um [clears throat] yeah, just miscellaneous again, council governments is coming up uh on the agenda. I just want to make sure that everyone's aware. Doors open at 8. 8:30 is the welcome and opening comments. Um and then we've got the Spokane complex fire updates, you know, talking about nonprofits, FEMA, and if there's any other questions, and then this update on the safe and healthy task
[01:25:00]
force. So, are there any other items that any of the commissioners want on the agenda? And just so folks that that is next Friday, September 11th. >> Yep. Yep. >> Opening of the fair. And then we will open the fair at 10:40. Do the ribbon cutting and the fair will start. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. If that's all for miscellaneous, we'll move into a preliminary budget. roll up roll up. >> So, uh, two quick things before Tess and Randy take over. One, just a big thank you to Randy for coming back this month to help out. Been great having him. And then the second just wanted to define our terms. When we say we have a $30 million deficit, that means it would take $30 million more dollars next year
[01:26:00]
to supply to provide the same services. That's just the cost of inflation. Most of it is salary and benefit related. Medical benefits are going up 12%. Um liability is going up 49%. Um and wages and benefits we are heavily unionized. So those are in the contracts and set. That's not something that we can shift around without renegotiating contracts. Um I know for some sometimes you'll hear well why are you in the hole? We are not in the hole. We have a very balanced budget in 2026. It's more we need to change our spending or increase our revenue in 27 to keep our budgets balanced where we're we're always looking into the future in the budget office to make sure we don't go in the hole. Just wanted to make sure for the record we are not in any sort of deficit. We have a rainy day fund. We have a fund balance which is great
[01:27:01]
because we'll be spending millions of our fund balance probably related to fire recovery. Um so we do need to keep it for those those oneoff items because we'll be footing the bill for about 25% of the fire recovery. The feds reimburse about 75%. So So with that um >> thanks Randy and Tessa are going to go through our preliminary budget rollup. >> Yes. Uh Ros. >> Um good morning commissioners. Uh this is the mandatory by statute roll up of the budget on the first but I want to be here also. >> Yes. Um, so we thought we before we get into the budget uh pages that are in the packet that Tessa sent each of you a link to, uh, I believe that was Friday, >> yesterday afternoon. And that will also be on our website later today. Um, we
[01:28:03]
wanted to kind of go back to June of this year. So in June, Jeff and Tessa came to you and they talked about a structural gap. uh at that time they were projecting 274 million in revenue and 304 million in operating expenses. Now that's without capital. So uh at that time for 27 we were looking at about a $30 million gap. Um, and so when you did the budget process for this year, you asked agencies or departments to go back and budget based on the adjusted 2026 budget, which was about 200 a little over $270 million. With that, you also ask them to come back with what do you have to cut to stay there and or what do would you like back knowing that you would have at that
[01:29:01]
time we estimated about $3.6 million that you could then go and get some of those items back if you wished. So that that's where we started. If we go to the next slide, this is kind of that 3.6 number. Right now, our budgeted revenue is uh 284.7 million. Our adjusted target budget is So, instead of $3.6 million to buy certain things back, right now we have about 9.6 million. uh as p that increase is primarily due to sales tax which has been running strong in 26 and we could we expect it to continue to remain strong going into uh next slide.
[01:30:02]
Here you can see uh the requests that the departments have made that would exceed their target budgets. So for operating expenses they are requesting 32.6 million capital 7.8 for a total of 40.4 million. Now as we said on the preceding slide you have about 9.6 million that you can use towards these items. So for example if you used a million towards capital you would have 8.6 to use towards operating. So we still have a def deficit for 27. As Jeff said that could either be solved with cutting costs or raising revenues. So on the next slide and it's kind of reiterating that on the next slide is how are you as commissioners going to
[01:31:01]
address the structural gap we have. You can as you know from the cost side uh you can cut costs, you could cut services, you could delay funding certain capital items. uh you can vote to increase taxes or you can do a combination of both to get the budget in balance for 2027. So really it's all math. Um uh when I work the law firm you know you to balance your budget either expenses go down or revenues go up. Uh it's just math. So with that in mind, the next three slides that we have are paragraphs from an article written by Commissioner Rob Kaufman from Lincoln County, uh, published this year in the Star. And the first paragraph that we'd like to quote is, "Math doesn't care about politics, good intentions, or how badly we want something to work. It doesn't adjust
[01:32:02]
itself to feelings or make exceptions when the numbers stop adding up. Pretty poignant. Next slide. Another paragraph in his article. The Washington State Association of Counties recent health fiscal health survey confirmed what many of us already know. Counties are under increasing pressure from rising costs, state mandates, and limited revenue options. The gap between what we are required to do and the revenue we collect continues to widen. So, as when you went over that five-year forecast earlier this year, you see how those lines kept getting further and further apart the further out you go, which is what that paragraph is talking about. And then the last paragraph uh from that article that we'll read here today is although counties across
[01:33:00]
Washington are still providing essential services and balancing their budgets, most are only doing so by reducing services, delaying maintenance, and leaving critical positions unfilled. That approach does not and cannot maintain a consistent level of service. So, of those 32 million in us, this is what everybody would like to do to service the citizens of Spokane County. But as those gaps, as those lines begin to widen, it may not be possible for us to do that. Uh, any comments, questions before I go on to the next slide? Okay. So, then really it's just reiterating what we said before. So, what choices do the BOCC have to balance the general fund budget? You can decide which services to reduce, combine, or You can decide which capital projects to
[01:34:02]
You can decide which positions to eliminate. And those could be empty positions. Doesn't have to be a position with a person in it. Or you can decide which taxes to raise. And so the expense side, we'll hold off on that for right now. But let's talk about what your options are on the revenue side this year. Oops, I'm going to one. We'll talk about FTEES first. Sorry. Go to the next slide. So for the people for the departments or the agencies to meet their target budget they estimated that they would need to reduce staffing by about 230 FTEES in order to meet that budget of 32.6. Now, some of it could have been operating expenses or ammon uh like supplies or uh services, but to get to that 32.6
[01:35:04]
million, about 230 employees would be >> When a department gave a demo cut, we accepted it. But if they came in over budget, we divided the overage by the average FTE cost in that department. Some departments are more expensive than others. And that's where the 230 comes from. So if you were to accept the cuts that were given and balance it exclusively on FTEES, that's the math. >> And where are we at with regard to FTEES today? You will see that here in just a moment, Commissioner French there. >> Thank you. So, uh, we have, as we said earlier, we have currently 9.6 million of revenue over the target budgets. If you used a million of that for capital, um, you know, for example, it I
[01:36:01]
think was a million dollars. You usually have to, you know, buy new servers and things like that. That would give you about 8.6 million for operations. If you use that 8.6 only to buy back people positions and not for any other supplies or maintenance, that would save you in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 employees. So we would still have a budget gap of about 24 million which would affect 160 to 170 authorized Now currently uh we have about and I use the word about because it changes every day about about 75 vacant positions in the general fund. Now some of those vacant positions you may be part of the buyback. So we can't say how many of
[01:37:00]
those uh would cover the 160 to 170. But without additional revenue, you don't have enough vacant positions like you did last year to cover all of the FTPs you would need to reduce to balance the >> Yeah, we don't really have any authorized but unfunded positions anymore. Correct. >> That is correct. Okay. Workday does not allow for that. So when we talk about FTE or positions, we're really talking about a funded >> funded position. >> And we did have quite a few departments that they have been leaving positions intentionally vacant. Um the last few months and going into the rest of the year to allow for attrition. Um I think everybody prefers attrition versus a pink slip in those situations. So, I'd say some of these 75
[01:38:02]
funded vacant positions are intentional until they see what the board's priorities come through. Um, others are just a normal churn of people leaving and being rehired. Uh, so now that's if the class without additional revenue. So now if we go to the revenue options, uh there are a number of new options the legislature uh gave the commissioners this year. Uh the first two relate to sales tax. Uh the first one is the retail car rental tax. So this is an existing tax on rental cars uh that we currently collect. The legislature this year expanded the uses of that to include the criminal justice system. In the past, that was used for things such as maintenance and operating supplies for
[01:39:01]
Vista Stadium, for Plants Ferry, uh for improvements to Plants Ferry, uh the hub, things like that. But now you use for the criminal justice system. The legislature also allows counties to enact a new onetenth of 1% sales tax. That's the local law enforcement programs and that is only for the criminal justice system. Next slide. There are some new property tax options that the commissioners could vote for. Uh the first one is the veterans assistance levy. Now currently we pay the 1 and 1/8 cents out of our general fund levy. So today um and what's projected for next year we will levy about 68 million or 70 cents per thousand for our general fund. Today
[01:40:02]
1.18 or one and an eighth of that 70 cents goes to veterans assistance. uh the legislature now would let you put a new levy on the tax statements so that the general fund could keep its full.7 Same thing with mental health and developmental disabilities. Currently 2.5 cents per thousand comes out of our 70 levy and goes to mental health and developmental disabilities. the legislature this year changed those statutes so that you could now issue a separate levy uh and then keep that 2 and 12 cents general fund. The third new one is a little different. It doesn't really replace anything coming out of our current levy other than today we give approximately in 26
[01:41:00]
you'll give approximately $2 million to the public health district. This new levy can be used for uh hospital services. So clinic services. Uh so to the extent that if you gave still gave the health district $2 million and if you could say it is only for clinical services, this would allow you to add an additional tax onto your onto the property tax bill and then not use general fund dollars to pay the health district. So those are the three new property tax funds and then yes. So um ju just just so I'm clear on that. So I right now I believe the roughly $2 million that we give to the health district excluding the TB funding which is the thecluding >> what's it >> oh yes no TB is it so the roughly one point one >> yeah they five that that I believe is
[01:42:02]
>> extremely flexible they can do whatever they want but these dollars you're saying would have >> they would have scope they could use them for their general admin or Okay. Okay. Thank you. um next slide. Uh and then of course we have our three property tax options that we talk about every November. There is the 1% increase which is the increase over last year's assessment. We have the general fund bank capacity. These are the amount of 1%s you haven't taken in preceding years. And then we have a road levy shift that you could do, which is the 1%s not taken in the county road levy that you could move over to the general fund. So those are your revenue options that as commissioners, if you chose, you could
[01:43:01]
enact to help fill the $24 million gap. Currently, none of those are built into this budget. >> So, that's kind of where we're at before we start talking about budgets. Any other questions or comments before we get into the budget packet? Do >> you have a slide in here that says what each of those options is roughly >> I do not have a slide in there, but I could if you want to know. I do have roughly those numbers. >> Okay. I was just gonna say I I I know generally kind of ballpark where each of them are at. I think we've discussed in previous meetings, but >> our our estimated uh tax assessed value from a property tax standpoint is is almost um a hundred billion dollars, lots of zeros. It's actually around 99 billion, but 100 billion makes math easier as you're looking at these taxes. >> Thank you. Yep.
[01:44:01]
Uh so with that, let's start talking about the 27th budget. Uh you can go to the next slide some here. There is an eye test. Here's the roll up of the budget. Uh this is where we have the 284.7 million in revenue. As you'll see, uh sales tax has a big increase. We're estimating right now about $90 million in sales tax up from the original 85 million that we were estimating in June when they put together that first slide. Uh and expenses are uh the adjusted expenses are 275 million. This is the adjusted target. On top of that, we would add the 32.8. So that gets you to about 38 uh million. That is if you look at that,
[01:45:00]
if you think back to the first slide when they projected 304 million of they did not include the $4 million for debt. So actually they were within a million dollars be right on in their projection way back when before everybody went through the budget process. Uh, next slide. Here is the property tax calculation. So, right now, uh, and these numbers will change. These aren't final. Uh, this is based upon estimated new construction of $1.4 billion. Uh, Tom and his crew finishing that up. Um, with that, if you look at if we assessed the prior year's tax levy plus new construction, the general fund would assessed currently a property tax levy of around $69.2 million. Out of that, today we have to give a little over 1.1 to the veteran services.
[01:46:03]
We have almost 2.5 to mental health and developmental disabilities. We give just short of 1.5 to the tiffs and we never collect 100% of the taxes in any year. Uh in discussions with the treasur's office, we collect between 98 and 99%. Uh this uh slide here assumes a 99% collection rate. So that gets us down to our 63.5 million of property taxes that we have in the budget to collect for our general Next slide is our sales tax. So here originally we were looking at about 83.2 million for 26. Right now, we think we're going to be 5% higher than last year. So, we think we
[01:47:02]
will end the year closer to 87 million and we are budgeting a 4% increase for next year instead of a 3% which would take us to 90 million. That 4% is our 20-year historical average. So some years are higher, some years are lower, but the overall trend is 4%. This year is running strong. Again, we will get more numbers uh in October, um oh, excuse me, September and October. And we can look at our run rates and we may need to adjust these numbers up or down, but this is where we're starting at right now. Okay. And then you can see going out we're going back closer to cost of living three to two and a half%. But we never know. We don't know how the fires will impact things like that either. So, but that's where we're starting with right now.
[01:48:02]
Next slide. So, here's a a sheet. You've seen this when you do your budget adoption. This is just the revenue and expenses by agency. Again, this is at the target budget rate. Not a lot on that slide. The next slide, however, uh this is kind of where we start talking about what the asks are. So here, the first column is your assigned target and the second column is target adjustments. So for example, you've added a 400,000 for building and code enforcement to mitigate nuisance problems. That is so that is a new since last year and since the target budgets were set. Um the next couple are just some transfers but we have $4 million uh that was added to the target for debt. That's the new debt we issued in
[01:49:01]
2025. that the money for that will come out of reach. So that will not affect No, this time yes. >> So that won't really affect the pluses and minuses. The other one is >> the non-dep departmental. >> That is the non-EP department. The other 200,000 asked that wasn't in the target is the 200,000 that you gave the prosecuting attorney out of mental health sales tax. Uh so that's added in here. Now those are all revenue supported. The 400,000 potentially could be revenue supported also. Uh to the extent that that department is totally for nuisance mit property mitigation that can now come out of re 2. And when we see the uh CIP roll up, you will see I've added that line in there as a placeholder because
[01:50:00]
to use REIT, we have to have it on our >> And we are recommending on this sheet, Cooperative Extension historically has had its own line. We have had county paid staff at Cooperative Extension. Just by way of reminder, last year, some of the staff was laid off, some of the staff moved over to WSU. They are now WSU staff, and we only have a relationship with them, giving them funding. So that's why we're taking the negative 318 out of cooperative extension since it's just a contractual relationship now with no staff and we're we're recommending putting it in outside agencies because that would be more consistent with that new relationship we have with them. >> It'd be just like the health district. And then you can see the asks uh or the
[01:51:00]
requested adbacks by department. Uh and that's where the $326 million for operating expenses came. This next slide uh is really just a summary of all the ass broken down. You can see which ones relate to people. The top section there is just the things that we adjusted the target budgets for. Again, it was mainly non-depal service costs which is funded by um REIT uh 400,000 or excuse me for the um building and code compliance for the property nuisance mitigation which can be funded by REIT and then the 200,000 for the prosecutor's office which is to be funded by mental health sales tax. And then you have all the other asks kind of summarized going down >> just alphabetical um by agency and then in the department
[01:52:01]
preference order um within the agency >> and then of course this is a summary. When you get to the detail sheets for each department or agency you will see their write up on that. But this is just the summary of those requests. >> in preference [clears throat] of agency >> by the a the for each agency it's in their preference order. >> So if the agency has more than one request otherwise it's alphabetical by agencies are alphabetical. >> Within the same agency it is >> although I love the assessor. when we look um a couple of slides back uh each of the each of the agencies the revenue and expenses for each of our departments um I I don't know where we are so far this this far into the year I remember several months back there were
[01:53:00]
a couple of departments that were really lagging on their projections of revenue for their department. Are we confident these estimates for revenue for 2027 are >> That was one of the big focuses we took into this budget cycle and we spent a number of days reviewing the revenue submissions um in a number of different ways by agency um in total by line and yes we do feel confident that these are much more accurate revenue projections in total. Um some lines there might be some semantics between lines in some agencies. Um but in total we do feel it's in line with current collections and trends. >> All right. Thank you. Next slide. This is where we get back to the FTEES. >> One more. >> One more. Sorry about that. So here's his historical FTEES from 21 through current. Uh this is by each department. it shows their filled and vacant positions.
[01:54:01]
Um, and then an average salary. And then the far two columns on the right are either the employees that the agencies identify that they would have to eliminate or the numbers, excuse me, that they would have to eliminate to meet the target budget. or if they didn't identify specific positions, it was a mathematical calculation uh on the second to right column as Jeff talked about earlier. >> To your question earlier, Commissioner French, you see at the bottom of the the top section is public safety. They are up six FTE roughly. Most of those were um grant backed which is why they were approved throughout the year. The bottom section which is the other the rest of the general fund so to speak um actually down a half a person. So we're FTE
[01:55:01]
management this year has been a lot more closely held and watched and also I think just a new workday system where we don't have the unfunded FD round has been helpful. You will notice last year we had about 50 um 58 vacant while now we're at 83. So I think that difference there would roughly correlate to what departments are holding um for attrition purposes to meet their part of their um target We we've [snorts] really not increased FTES this year except for granted. Just a question on uh looking back in in I see that the uh status shows a particular date
[01:56:00]
snapshot time right so how is that measured looking at the past years on annual basis >> okay at the end of the day that way we have the same snapshot okay good thank Okay. Uh the next slide again is just re summarizing uh what we showed on three slides or three slides uh earlier in the presentation just the revenue options. The first one again is a no tax increase option. That is just using the rental retail car sales tax for the criminal justice system. And then the rest of the options are tax increase options. So you would either be increasing sales tax uh to the citizens of the county. Uh one nice thing about a sales tax, people that come visit also pay it. uh or property taxes, which would affect both homeowners and renters because I'm sure if I was a landlord and
[01:57:01]
my taxes went up, I'd pass it on to the renter as well. So, uh those affect all the citizens and really don't impact uh visitors that much. the 110th sales satch had conversation the last few months to do a public meeting which requires 10 days posting which in our world translates to two weeks or to do special meetings needs to be the special meeting um sorry the public hearing would need to be posted >> in September to be held no later than October 13th, which gives us time to get to the state, 75 days before the first of the year. So, one thing you will find us bringing up at the budget meetings this month um
[01:58:00]
is do you want us to work on posting the public hearing um at any Mr. Macio? I believe has the paperwork ready so we can post it on any of our 2pm consents for two weeks after that date. Um, I don't know if that's something you guys want to talk about today or not, but it is one we'll be bringing up until it's put the rest one way or the other because of the the timeline. >> And that timeline is just to have the tax effective January 1st. Yeah, you you could do it correct. If you didn't make the timeline, but chose to do it later in the season, that would push it back to April 1. Um, and then you would get seven months of revenue for the year instead of 10,
[01:59:01]
>> Because we don't start getting So, if it went into first into January 1, we don't start receiving revenue until the end of March. So that's that's worth 10 months and set preferences >> for the budget office knowing the world of revenue to work with would be helpful but that is definitely the call of the book. >> Um just a couple more pages left then we'll be done with this presentation. These are just the rollup of all the other funds. Um you will notice that there are some zeros in here. Um one on this page and more on the back the second page. Um we just haven't received any uh initial submissions from public And if there are any special revenue or other funds as we call these two pages um that the board would like highlighted, please um let us know and
[02:00:01]
we can help coordinate additional details and information and presentation >> and we'll keep updating this as we get those submissions. Um and then the very last page is kind of the budget calendar. Uh just reminding everybody again uh we will come back on September 14th will be the first budget roundt >> workshop excuse me not a round table it's a workshop right the workshop is till the >> yeah the round table will be the 22nd >> um what we'd really like to know is between now and maybe next Tuesday if you could uh if you can identify certain departments you would like to have make And if you have specific questions you would like them to answer, we would like to, if possible, start having departments present on the 21st. Um, just so that you have time, uh, with all the decisions you have to
[02:01:01]
make. Um so um I'd like to also you know and that also allows the departments to have some time to put it together also and be thoughtful about what they're presenting and not just throw some together because they you found out the last minute. So so as much time as we can give them uh as much many questions as you would like them to address that would be helpful departments. Uh if you have some questions, you can always ask them Um two key dates on here are November 16th. That is when we do the property tax levies. So those are all those property tax decisions. That is a 9:00 a.m. meeting on Monday the 16th. Uh and then also December 7th is a 9:00 a.m. meeting for budget adoption. Those are the two uh key uh public meetings.
[02:02:02]
>> Any questions? last night. >> Any department anybody has right now that they want to call us? >> can Yeah, because if you want to take some time, I mean, like I said, all the department submission is in the detail behind these slides uh in your uh shared folders. Uh, and it will also, as Tessa said, be posted on our website later today for anyone else to see. Also, you will see this year we added an FTE sheet with each agency. When you scroll, you'll recognize it as soon as you scroll through it. Again, the formatting will look familiar to you, but at the end of each department is an FTE sheet that shows um exactly where where they are in that department. Something we want to keep a
[02:03:00]
close eye on. >> I I would suggest if there of the um the operating requests over Target that was the 32.6 six um maybe the top three departments from that category, the ones that were the furthest over um sort of the target budget. Maybe have those come in, whoever those end up being, and maybe have have them come present as to why they're asked is is are one of the top three, I guess. So >> any anything else anyone else wants to >> Well, I I would agree with Commissioner Karns and the other the other thing I'm curious about. So um what is what is the total assessed valuation for property in Spokane County? Uh just uh after the right now we're projecting
[02:04:02]
the roughly 600,000 comes off for the fire we'll be at about 99 billion 600 billion. >> Thank you. I think uh we hear from sheriff, prosecutor and uh detention being so large and also important for public >> I think those are >> I think two of those are for sure the top three. >> Two of the three overlap for sure. I don't know. >> I think it's all when you rattled them off, I thought, "Oh, you're asking for what I'm asking. [laughter] It's a different way of getting >> I knew at least two or I don't I don't know what the third is going to be." But >> I believe coalesed on the same three >> plus or minus. Nope. >> Yeah, you did. >> The other one drops right below that. So four is really close. It's >> real close. exact report. >> Is that [laughter]
[02:05:01]
>> I think we're probably gonna want to hear from them. >> So, um >> no budget next week because we have the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Tuesday will be a regular business day. The following week starting Monday the 14th, we will have budget um every Monday through the season. We are not unless directed otherwise not planning on bringing every single agency through like we did last year but focusing more just the direction of the board which what you wanted to hear from um as see as as things come together play it more by ear I think hearing from everyone last year was good it gave everybody kind of a a level set on where things are but I don't know I have not heard that request again this year I've been hearing more a targeted approach >> and I do believe that the information that's provided in the packets the department they did a good job of
[02:06:01]
writing the impacts of the service levels reductions um to meet their target budget. Um so that should help the board understand and um potentially decide on some of the um requests independently without the need for additional presentation time. Anything online? >> Commissioner Waldruff, >> sales tax uh decision for public safety. >> Sorry, you c can you start over? You you kind of you cut out there. We only caught the tail end of what you were saying. Sorry, I just was wondering what's that
[02:07:00]
>> She's asking for the deadline on the onetenth of 1%. The deadline >> for the 110th one >> for the onetenth of 1% the deadline is it has to be to the department of revenue by October 16th in order to be effective on January 1st. Your last uh legislative meeting prior to that is Tuesday, October 13th. To give a 10day notice, which you typically do a two-eek notice on, would be September 29th. >> Okay. Thank you. Anything else? >> Yeah, this is great. and the share folder. Is that you you had sent out >> and as we compile more information and additional details come available, we'll continue to add it there. So save that link and
[02:08:01]
visit it often. >> Yeah. But 100 pages in there. >> Yep. Oh, I I think you asked for it, but you didn't. I uh you did a summary that said each potential tax would raise X number of dollars. We'll send that >> Yeah, update that and send it around. >> Thank you. >> that's it. Thank you both very much. >> I believe we have some executive >> We do. >> Okay. because we we it we took care of miscellaneous, but I'll just ask one final time. Any any miscellaneous items before we head to executive session? >> No. This this commissioner, I have to jump off, so I guess I'll miss >> I will catch up later.
[02:09:03]
All right, Vice Chair Curts, we have four executive sessions. Uh each are about 10 minutes. Uh the first is pending potential litigation no action 10 minutes Jeff McMorris Deon Curta Jasper Coulter Matt 04 Kyle Tuig. The second is 10 minutes. Penny potential litigation no action. Jeff McMorris, Deon Curta, Kyle Tuig, Brent Batabo. Third is penny potential litigation, no action. Jeff McMorris, Deon Curta, Kyle Tuig, Mike Sparber, Jasper Coulter. And finally, penny potential litigation. Uh, five to 10 minutes, no action. Um, Jeff Morris, Dan Gad, Ben Harris, Scott Chzn, Jacob Allent. Well, members. >> Okay. All right. But it is 11:21. We will be going into executive session for the four pinning and potential litigations for a total of 40 minutes. At the conclusion of that 40 minutes, we will adjourn for the morning. Um, no
[02:10:00]
decisions will be made while in executive session. We will reconvene for our 2:00 legislative agenda meeting. Um, thank you all for joining us. Thank you very much. No, I think we're gonna do you guys first just because you're the biggest group. Sorry, Kyle. >> Scott, you coming over? is Barber in the first group? >> Barber's not the first one. >> Barber and any >> he's in whatever. Okay. And then >> my number two. >> Yeah, number two. You give me number >> Yeah. So, you'll be up in about 10 minutes, Barb. >> All right. I'll walk over there. Suck. >> All right. Bye. >> No. Do you mind getting
[02:11:01]
And uh Scott's coming over. >> Scott, are you coming over? I saw him walk. >> Oh, I think he's there. Okay.
September 1, 2026 — Spokane County Board Briefing Meeting
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Yq379Zfog
Automatic captions. Names and wording may contain recognition errors. Repeated rolling-caption lines have been removed without rewriting the discussion.
[00:00:00]
with the uh spray fire. Um, as I remember, DNR and AISTA and a couple other companies came in and dropped trees that had burned but had not fallen and then chipped it and used it as hot fuel. Uh, but has anybody indicated either DNR or Vistar or any of the other utilities a willingness to be able to do that or is that part of what we're going to end up trying to find uh somebody to do uh on on the old trails fire? And >> so yes and no. Um so you're >> what part of that? So, you're correct that um a lot of the work that was done in the gray fire was was actually donated. Um we also had uh donated funding for for the the chipper as well. So, a good portion of that work was donated. Um to this point, um we've had
[00:01:01]
several meetings with DNR about postfire remediation. U the the subject of the hazard trees and the management of the hazard trees has not fully addressed yet. Right. >> Yeah. And that and that didn't have anything to do with, you know, personal property debris and things like that, >> right? Yeah. know there's a lot of trees in the common area and then Riverside State Park and and >> well I mean fortunate fortunately or unfortunately Riverside State Park is the is state park's responsibility and and so I I would assume um probably shouldn't assume anything these days but u I would assume that DNR is going to be managing the lift up that >> anything else I can add on >> what would be the len At the time of the >> this be a year contract, >> right? Right now it's >> Yeah. Right now, right now, we
[00:02:01]
anticipate it being a year, but it'll um it took six months for us to get the the declaration in in the gray Oregon fires. Hopefully, it doesn't take that long this time. it would be until we have and the the good news at least from my perspective is if if we receive the presidential declaration it's the state's intent to do a single state contract. So they will do one contract with DRC which means we will only have one vendor to to work with. So we will be uh responsible for managing the work that happens here on the ground. But instead of trying to keep track of, you know, four or five different contractors like we did last time, we'll only have single uh state contract to worry about. That will help be helpful as well. >> Do they have FEMA experience with all of >> Oh, yes. Yes. They're DRC is um they're they're a nationwide company. They do uh oh, they've done, you know, a massive
[00:03:02]
number of hurricane cleanups. Um they've done, you know, the the cleanups and and other large wildfires. They have a lot >> So they were actually in my office yesterday to stop by to say hi. So >> So when I drove around a couple weeks ago, I noticed that there was quite a bit of burnt trees in our rideway. And so I'm assuming that our road department is going to take care of those or not. >> I have not had that conversation um with Kyle, but um that does fall as as it's county property that does fall in their purview. Right. >> oh good. Kyle's on. >> Hey, good morning. Yeah, we will be handling a lot of the trees that are in the right of way. We may have to bring in some external resources to assist us
[00:04:00]
with that. Um we're we're talking well north of a thousand trees we're probably going to have to remove. So it's a pretty big body of work. >> So Shandra, if so, if we get the federal declaration that brings in funds to do this debris removal, you were talking it would be >> potentially one company that would do all of it. If we don't get that declaration, it's then just up to each individual property owner to to clear the the trees. Okay. Okay. >> And relative to this contract position that we're talking about, >> if we don't get the federal declaration, there's no work for that entity to do on our behalf. And we think the work that we have right now is covered under FMAG, but we're waiting to see if we're gonna confirm that we can use FMAG funds to >> because what she's doing right now is she's managing uh the coordination with
[00:05:02]
EPA to get the the household hazardous materials removed. So that's her focus right now. She's coordinating all of >> So what what all debris removal are we talking when we're that this discussion today? I mean there's been a lot about trees. Anything else that would be included in that? >> It would be it would be anything related to the provision of debris removal on private property. So depending on how the declaration is is worded and what they choose to include in that. >> Um it would be the management of of all debris related activities. >> Okay. So, could it be as broad as like what's left of the house, burnt cars, burn? Okay. So, ev everything could potentially be there. Okay. Um, we know there are families that are already starting debris cleanup. >> Do we encourage them to save their receipts and could they get reimbursed for this down the road if
[00:06:00]
>> the declaration came through or >> It depends on it depends on how the declaration is written. >> Okay. So, uh, but absolutely they should, um, save their receipts. We have, we have quite a bit more private funding, um, on this incident than we had on our previous incident. So, folks have the ability for uh, quite a bit of, uh, financial assistance. And so, they absolutely should have be tracking their costs uh, because there's there's many many streams of of assistance that that are coming in. It's really pretty >> Is EPA still on site with hazardous >> Oh, yes. Yep. They're they're moving. They're moving well. I I have not seen the numbers um yet today, but I believe they're about at 42% done. Um they might even be it might even be higher than >> I heard last week they were at 30%, so that makes sense. >> Yeah, they're they're um they are being
[00:07:01]
slowed down a little bit by the number of basements. um because that requires them to build scaffolding and to get down into uh the basement area and then they have to remove the scaffold to move it. So, it's it's slowed their pace a little bit, but um they have 17 teams on the ground working. So, they're making really good. So for the last fire >> when the declaration came, what was the uh the debris removal piece of was it for an underinsured? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. So that one um and also on the gray Oregon we also had state funding that was applied and uh that was income limited to um underinsured and and uninsured folks. So that one that had a very clear income limitation. >> So um when Commissioner Jordan and I met with the governor uh he had made a
[00:08:01]
request that we all send letters to the president to encourage a quick response and um of course we're still dealing with some of the other virus in some of the other counties. So that 30-day window hasn't started. But could we could legal uh draft the letter for the board uh for us to review and sign and send on behalf. But the other thing it would be helpful for uh is uh not only a letter from the board but a letter from each one of us as individuals. I mean, it could be one letter, but each one of us signed it because the I think what the governor was trying to push for was a influx of letters to try and persuade control or whatever. And so, um, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to sending an individual letter as in addition to
[00:09:03]
the board. Yeah, that'd be good. >> Work on the drafts. Thank you. >> I think anything that uh helps to narrate the the challenges that we have because, you know, I've said this in, you know, the meeting with with the governor with uh Senator Murray and others. Um unfortunately, after fire season, here comes winter and and it's really very very important for us to get that debris off the ground before it ends up uh in our our water system. All right, >> thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right, next up is George Doll and >> We got some friends with us today. Good
[00:10:00]
morning, everyone. We're always here. Well, additional obviously introduce us to your friends, George. Come on up here. Um, so today we're here to talk uh first about a grant with the Washington State Department of Commerce uh for wildfire recovery. Um, and so it's a half million dollar grant um that we're uh that we're looking for y'all to accept um to work with folks. And um and we wanted to bring with you a potential um partner solution for how we can utilize that half million dollars to help out folks in need. So we've got uh Pam and Lori with the Spokane Housing Authority with us. We've been in communication with them about some some ways that they might be able to use those funds to help folks out. And so I'll just turn it over to to Pam and Lori to to talk about >> Sure. Um I think uh Spoken Housing Authority is pretty uniquely uh prepared to administer a fund like this. Um our
[00:11:02]
existing capacity and program experience and operations uh lend itself uh pretty directly to the work that needs to be done uh to help uh the victims of the complex fires. um we could hit the ground running on day one. We have systems and staff in place um to do outreach and screening and make payments. Uh we run some very large um rental assistance programs for the state including the the department of uh health and this is the healthcare authority is what they actually call it and uh DSHS aging and long-term care. Uh we do that statewide. We also run a very large rental assistance program in six counties eastern Washington. Um each of those programs is about $60 million a year that we put out the door. Um we
[00:12:02]
have five grant coordinator positions and five uh service coordinator positions that are existing uh experienced staff that can take on this type of program. We're ready to go. We have software uh software called core relief which was designed during COVID that is specifically for this work uh that we can use to uh do both case management and make payments. And we also um have uh in our in our regular rental assistance program um we have been able uh to hit the ground running for folks that have lost their residences in that if they are at or below 50% area median income, we have a local priority preference for admission to that rental assistance program for victims of natural disaster. We have about 85 people uh through the disaster assistance center which we staffed every
[00:13:01]
day uh that we're working with now to get that rental assistance to them and that's long-term rental assistance. It's a permanent solution for those folks that are income eligible. Um, in looking at this particular opportunity, we think there's an opportunity to kind of pair these type of operations together because this is a lot more flexible for those people that lost their homes or were displaced uh for any period of time um that are over that 50% income limit, but maybe up to 140. And you guys will have to set that limit. Um, we could target this assistance specifically to them on the rental assistance side. And then on the operations side, some of the things that our program couldn't pay for for those 50% and below folks could use the grant to supplement those folks. Um, and that flexible funding in this grant could pair nicely with what we're already doing for both of those populations. So, um,
[00:14:01]
in one of the things the grant requires is the prior prioritization of the most vulnerable households. And I think we're we've already started doing that by helping those really low-income folks. Um, and I think um I we're just in a great spot to do this work immediately. Um, it's what we do and I'm hoping that the county will just think of us as an extension of your own operations. Um, in some respects we should be [laughter] and you think of what needs to be done with housing, you should be thinking about us because we are uniquely positioned to do that. Uh in looking at the budget, um when we looked at this uh last night, we assumed that the county would be taking the administrative part of this to help pay for your overhead costs. Uh and taking that off the top, we want to split the rest of it, which is about $450,000
[00:15:01]
between rental assistance. We want to put 65% of the grant to rental assistance and 35% towards operations. And what the operations cover are are many things. Um but it's not our administrative costs. We'll eat those. Um we're not asking for administrative fee. Um what we want to cover is just staff salaries um for [sighs and gasps] uh information technology, case management, uh outreach, um placement services, and then um we want to use the rest of the operations. You can use it for flexible uh expenses. And th some of those things include things like transportation, household goods, um cleaning products. Um you can buy somebody boots if they need boots for a job to go to or um you can do vet services. There's a whole
[00:16:03]
Yeah. birth certificates, driver's licenses. So that kind of flexible funding. and then transportation for any outreach that needs to be done. And then there's also a line item that says other costs approved by commerce. And I think as we go through and we start doing the the intakes and the screening, some some themes will come out of that that we may need to go back to commerce and say, "Hey, is this an acceptable cost?" But we won't know that until we start doing all of that screening. Um, which by the way, we're already working on those 85 families, so we're starting to see some of that. Um, that's pretty much it. I think we're just ready to ready to go um to do the work. >> Well, besides our infrastructure, our software systems, our staff that we already have in place, we also have partnerships in place with most of the providers within the community. Um, you know, Catholic Charities, Volunteers of America, Goodwill, SNAP. So, um, we'll be providing a good referral service as
[00:17:00]
well to those partners for things that this grant doesn't cover, but they can cover. And so it's it's taken them from the short-term recovery uh response for these immediate dollars to a long-term recovery as well and making sure that we are bringing in that that warm referral that handoff whatever their future needs are going to be as well. I think it's really important to note that that that when the dis disaster assistance center opened up um that that group of partners has been working together since since August 1st. Uh we were on the phone uh Sunday morning, August 2nd, ready to go. Um and so those partners have all been working together. One of the things we did at the disaster assistance center that I think was really helpful for us is that we created a one-page intake of QR code. So people coming in could scan the QR code with their phone, give us some basic information, and and so we've been we've been keeping a list of folks that were affected by the fires and we're coordinating that list with the other partners that were also the
[00:18:00]
disaster assistance center. So we have one master list and we're working our way through that now with those >> I think one thing that's really important here and with the housing authority they're um existing infrastructure uh resources tools are used to complex uh management oversight of federal funds, federal state funds. Um and this grant must be spent out by the end of January of 27. So we have a really short timeline to get these funds out into the community. So having a partner like the Spokane Housing Authority helps us to expedite make sure that we maintain uh compliance while we go really fast. So um so that's where really appreciate the housing authority being willing to to step up and uh be considered as a partner on this grant. >> We work with the department of commerce a lot so we're we're pretty um experienced in the compliance and reporting pieces of things and our software allows us to do that pretty The compliance is a big part of it. I
[00:19:02]
would be housing authority a lot at HUD and they are one of the 18 teams around because I think they'd be really good at getting it out of the club which >> according to HUD we are the 18 >> but Lori gets flown all over the country by her trainer teacher um utilize her a if you guys um are good with. We'll work on the contract. >> Oh, we're welcome to answer any questions you may have as well. >> Commissioner Brooks. >> Just making sure I unmute here. Um no, I think it's great. I I because I think you guys can get it out in a timely manner. I guess a couple questions I have is is what I don't want to have is this duplication of efforts on identifying the people in need because that's what the long-term recovery group is doing as well and they're trying to do it quickly too because of the worthy um you know
[00:20:02]
funds that are coming through. And so so I just want to make sure that we're we're coordinating with them to reduce the administrative costs and burden. Um, so again, more money is going out to the people that need it and less money if since we already have everyone already has staff. You just said you already have staff that are doing some of these things that um and which I know is different than overhead costs and and all of that. So, I just I just want to make sure we're being effective with working with the long-term recovery group because that is who we're, you know, the county has chosen to work with um to make sure that we're identifying those families uh properly and and not duplicating those efforts. >> Yeah. and and when I think I think where the where the lines kind of come together is that we can get this emergency assistance out the door and the long-term recovery center can start working on the intermediate and long-term solutions.
[00:21:00]
I think I think we are well suited to get the the dollars immediately out the door for emergency assistance and and try to to deal with that and then the long-term recovery center can start dealing with interim and long-term solutions for people who who are going to need more [snorts] and I think there's warm warm handoffs to be made for sure. Right. No. And and I think you guys are are really the right people for for this, but I I just want to make sure that that coordination is happening because otherwise we start to get well, I've got this list and I've got that list and it's like um you know, it's the auditor and me coming out that it's like we all need to be working off the same list and making sure that if if you find out something different than what they have that you know, you're working with them to make sure every everybody's list is >> Absolutely. Agree. There's too many lists out there already. [laughter] Burn it together. And and the long-term recovery group and uh a lot of the
[00:22:00]
providers and Inovia are now meeting uh started meeting last week. We're not going to meet this week, but we're going to meet every week. And so we'll continue to to create what that handoff looks like as we move forward together. But we're going to start meeting weekly. >> Okay, great. And then I just want to reiterate or just make sure I got the understanding that the 500 we got $500,000. The city got a million dollar. Theirs goes to their residents and ours goes to our unincorporated county residents. Is that correct? >> Yes, that's our understanding. >> And and we'll work hand inand with the city's contractor to make sure that that we're you know if if we get somebody screened and they're in the city, we can work with good goodwill who's their contractor. Uh, and we'll use a lot of the same methods. So, we'll work together with them to make sure that funding source. >> Great. Thank you. Like I said, I just want to make sure we're all working together and not duplicating efforts and and all of that. So, I I really do
[00:23:00]
appreciate you guys because I do think you are the right people at the right time to get this immediate funds out. I think the long-term recovery groups, you know, working very diligently hard on the worthy um donations to get those, you know, determined and out. So, um so I I I think it is going to take a village to to make this all happen um to the best of our abilities. >> So, thank you, >> Commissioner Waldruff. >> Good morning. Thanks. Uh, great to see you, Pam and Lori. Congrats last week on the grand opening of the new affordable housing units in the Spokane Valley. That was really exciting day. Um, I'm excited. I think some of my questions, uh, Commissioner Brooks already got answered. So, um, I guess just two things. the 85 households that you're talking about that you were you connected with at the U disaster
[00:24:02]
recovery center. Can you just speak a little bit more about those households and then what would you recommend as the um the range of household income that we should be setting for these funds? I think we've talked about 120 or 140 AMI. [clears throat] Sure. So, the 85 households that we're already connecting with were ones that we identified at the disaster center uh assistance center who um uh filled out our intake form there. Um we identified them as having incomes below 50% of AMI. Therefore, they would be eligible for our housing choice voucher program. So, we are beginning to reach out. We've already sent them all correspondence to say we want to begin this process, determine your actual eligibility so we can get them on a long-term rental assistance and also help them with housing location services. This is typical of our our our housing choice voucher program operations. So those households may have
[00:25:01]
additional needs, security deposit needs, application fee needs, um especially if they uh have come from their primary residence being um uh destroyed that that they may need some household goods. Uh and if they're in the county or located within the county, we see this grant can actually assist with those pieces that our funding could not. Um and so that's the first piece for that 85 households. We've already begun those conversations. In fact, we pulled that list late last week and started that eligibility process with >> And so some of those might be city residents though too and you'll refer >> You have to deter >> Yeah. Yeah. And >> but what your point your point is though that those folks can be helped through other funds as well that you already >> Yeah. We see these augmenting um our federal funds that we have. Great. Uh, does the commerce rules have any
[00:26:00]
limitations on the outer bounds of what the income thresholds could be or is that totally up to the county? >> They they leave that up to the grantees. So, we've got flexibility there that we wouldn't normally see in grams. >> So, will you have a recommendation for that or >> Yeah, I think so. I think my recommendation is that you set it at 140 and that allows part partly because you only have until January to spend this money >> and partly because a lot of the people that we saw at the disaster assistance center were over income for our programs and so we know there's going to be that window of folks there that that really need the help and we can prioritize people with the lowest incomes but [clears throat] I think give yourself that flexibility to go to 140. So the rules require a prioritization of the most vulnerable, but still have a wider >> You can Okay, good. >> And and we'll get to the to the ones under the 50, but that 50 to 140 I think
[00:27:01]
is going to be a big group of folks, Forward with >> Thank you very much for having us. See All right, Aiden, I'll be very quick because this is kind of a yearly action plan that that we go through. So, the caper is the consolidated annual uh performance evaluation report. Um, you have a a slide presentation in there. I'm not going to go through it, but those uh slides are available to you. Um, effectively I want to be as quick as I can recognizing your your uh agenda here today. So this is concerning our [clears throat] yearly entitlement programs at the federal level. So your uh CDBG home and ESG grants. I want to be very clear this does not involve disaster recovery because that's not a yearly award. It was a one-time um allocation amount. uh but effectively
[00:28:02]
these are the the kayfer is kind of a cumulative report of all the activities that we've done during the year and how uh those activities accomplishments go to our five-year consolidated plan goals. Uh you'll notice that in that CR05 on the presentation that while we had a lot of expectations for this year, we uh were wolffully under for our actuals mostly due to the fact that we contracted very late this year. Uh our period of performance for the 2025 program year was uh 71 of 25 last year to 6:30 of 26 this year. So, a lot of our contracts were executed in March of this year, which left a very small window for them to complete a lot of their projects to be included in this report. So, a lot of the accomplishments will likely be reported in next year's paper uh to kind of make up for that as a lot of those projects are still ongoing. Um, and I would just mention that we did have uh one public comment.
[00:29:00]
The public comment period was a 15-day period. closed yesterday and it was more or less just looking for more information about our our uh caper for for this year. Um but nothing about the overall program in particular. Um more or less just clarification. So if there are any questions from the commissioners, happy to answer them at this time. >> Any questions? >> Like we're good. >> It's all good. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Deb Sapone. thank you for having me. Um, my name is Judge Sapone and I am currently uh the judge handling our domestic violence uh docket here for the county um for the misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor level. Um I applied for uh last January a grant for postconviction um alternatives
[00:30:00]
funding which uh you did ratify and allow me to go forward with. This is a renewal of that um asking for additional funds and uh we were awarded that from the grant uh process. It's not a lot of money, but it is money that will go towards uh hopefully funding uh a couple probation officers to get trained in providing moral uh it's called DBMRT. So, it's uh classes to assist people in changing behavior. And so, we can potentially have a lot of that in-house training uh instead of outsourcing it out to and paying more funds uh to uh outside resources. currently work. Um the respons it is the responsibility of the defendant to pay for um domestic violence more recognition training and domestic violence uh intervention uh treatment and it is uh cost prohibitive
[00:31:02]
90% of the people that come before me. And uh this is a not a lot about a lot of money, but it is important for the people that come before me and it is assisting them. So I'm hoping to get uh read by. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Maybe not. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, are you standing in for >> Standing in for Preston. >> I believe he has trial this morning. So, I'm coming to you this morning with a grant opportunity. It is from WA Washington uh Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. Is a renewal of a grant we received last year and there are no changes to the grant. It's $95,624
[00:32:00]
that would go to fund a majority of salary benefits for a prosecuting attorney in our appellets >> Uh we do have another one, the DVHRT grant, which we brought to you earlier this summer. That one is the $200,000 grant to help implement the DBHRT field that will be utilized by the city police both on city police and that one we brought to you guys before. We're just so the briefing before was just conceptual and now we're asking contract. Is that what's going on? >> We're good. >> No, you guys are gentle. I appreciate
[00:33:00]
it. Let's have a wonderful day. >> Those two. Yes, that was the beach. Uh, Sheriff Kevin Richie. do a quick miscellaneous if you like. Go for it. Need to announce that the shrills meeting on September 18th has been cancelled. So there's no agenda to look over and I was asked to let you all know that that one's canceled. Um okay. I'm sure Richie is not here yet. So, um, Kyle still. Hey, Kyle. Uh, do you want to handle yours? The receiving the no further action >> I was going to pop down there right now,
[00:34:00]
but uh, yeah, we can hit this real quick. Um, oh, better. I've got my subject matter expert just walking into the room right now. >> Uh, Crystal Riley. uh she's a project manager in our stormwater group and led our uh and did the uh management of our public works ops building project. So if you recall that site was under uh uh covenant from ecology before we began work out there due to the existing contamination and we've done some remediation. We capped some stuff. We have new parcel lines. Um, so Kristen can walk you through um the the current one, which is another basically a revision of the covenants on the property out there for the ops building, the old Wilber Wilbert vault site. >> Uh, we have the presentation.
[00:35:03]
>> Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So, yeah, like Kyle said, we're just looking to get a on our public works off building site, which is just north of Boone and Sharp there. Um, so the existing covenant that from the early 2000s, you can see it's outlined in that red area. The new subject site is the blue area. that will be where the new covenant heads. Um, basically what the existing covenant says is we cannot damage the pavement without notifying a college. So, um, currently we inspect the site every year and then do maintenance on it for there's any cracks in the pavement, we'll fill those. Um, so what's nice about this is we can just extend our normal operations onto the new site and just do that inspection and maintenance
[00:36:00]
at the same time. Next slide please. So on the map there you can see the exact area that will be subject to the covenant. So it's the black hatched area. The the green areas show the exceptions to that. So those are basically where we put swailes. They ended up digging down to clean soil. So um we didn't have contamination in those areas. Um, you'll notice on the right side where the old building footprint was, that's cut out. There wasn't any contamination under there. And then the whole south portion of the site where the new buildings are, that is al also not subject to the the covenant. So, um, assuming there's no concerns, we'll move forward with finalizing that environmental covenant with ecology. Any questions? >> I think we're good. Okay, great. Thank
[00:37:08]
>> I'm scared. >> Oh, I was way down. >> Yeah, sure. >> Someone wants to get Dr. Sing. Dr. Sing >> Oh. Oh, Dr. Sing. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I didn't see Dr. >> Okay, Dr. Singh, take it away. >> Oh, hello all. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm trying to get my once more my video going. Oh, here we go. Um, good morning. Sorry, it's being slow. Anyway, I'll start talking and hopefully Here we go, the video. Good morning all. Uh, just a quick one. Today, I'm asking for your permission to renew our teaching affiliation agreement with Washington State University College of Medicine. This is the agreement set up so that we can have uh medical students here in the office. um and tell them all about how great pathology is.
[00:38:05]
>> All right. Any questions from anyone? How many students have you had come >> Gosh. So this year we had uh seven I believe first and second year students and four uh upper level so gen mostly fourth year students um kind of in their final year of training. >> Okay. All right. All right. Well I think looks like we're good with it. So thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay Doug you're up. Okay, good morning. Good morning, commissioners. You could have a very brief presentation. I am here to speak on the Freeman Valley School District
[00:39:00]
That's Oh, there it is. Wrong. Quick. Thank you. Um this we have actually had an agreement in place for the last is it 39 37 37 years with the Freeman um Freeman school district where we have been able to provide a community park. The land is owned by the district and we have um helped to fund in the very beginning fund some minimal improvements. And over the last couple decades we have funded effectively maintenance of the property by covering the cost of a dumpster and paying the equivalent of minimum wage for uh 20 hours a week for the park season. And essentially this right now today we spend about 10,000 a year to um to honor this agreement. Now recognizing um demand and budget challenges. Next slide
[00:40:01]
please. We have um visited with the school district and uh renegotiated the terms where we feel we can very efficiently provide um the annual blowout of the irrigation system and a small stipend of up to $2,000 annually that we would reverse re reimburse them for any repairs they might have to complete to their irrigation and water system out there. And so, um, we are looking to renew this for another 10 years, but we would effectively reduce the cost to the county by 60 to 80% over what we're doing now. So, that would allow us to continue this partnership to enjoy um offering the community a community park um in the southern part of the county for anywhere from two to $4,000 a year. Uh, next slide, please.
[00:41:01]
So we would discontinue providing that um maintenance of the employee and again uh the services we would provide would be uh the annual blowout and um if needed funds to help with repairs. So if the board is supportive of this then I would look to bring this back before you. Um the school district is uh supportive obviously in the negotiations. Um they are comfortable with this the next term and I'm happy to answer any questions and and looking ahead. We believe our budget can sustain this level um going forward of course. Any questions? >> We'll work to bring this before you next >> Thank you very much. >> Is any of our next presenters up there out there?
[00:42:02]
>> I can get started on Louiswis's if you'd like. He's walking over right now. >> Okay. Well, um, >> we also do parking miscellaneous. >> Oh, yeah. What was that? >> Horse as long as >> Oh, yeah. I see you down there. Yeah, go for it. >> Okay. Commissioners, uh, the Valley and Spokane Sports have been in communication with us in public works to try to figure out a solution for event parking for the course, the new cross country complex. They have uh events scheduled this fall. The first one, I believe, is September 22nd. Pretty large event. They need upwards they're thinking I can't remember if it's a thousand people or a thousand cars but it's a lot of parking and they have not had any success making uh an arrangement with any of the other paved surfaces out there and available. So we have walked a
[00:43:02]
portion of our Eden Pit which is off of me it's just south of that Amazon that's over there by Trent. Um, we have one of our large, that's our district four office out there. The western third of that site, uh, we don't see, it'll be a long time before we're crushing rock out there for that. We have plenty of available. Um, so it's, you know, future use, but it's way out into the future. So, we think it would be reasonable if we to be a good team player with the valley. That's going to require them to do a bunch of work and maybe this rain will help, but there's a lot of fire danger. There's grasses up high. There's 12 to 18 inch boulders kind of all over the place. So, we would need to have quite a bit of work out there that the valley is willing to do. Um, and whatever the reimbursement with Spokane
[00:44:01]
Sports is, the point is we're not doing anything. We would just be allowing the use of our site for a nominal fee because they're basically just renting some acreage for those event days in particular. Um, so the valley is crafting an agreement that we would be bringing in front of the board for that. So they'll have to mow or string trim the entire site. Risk management's been out there. It's got to be at 3 in. We got to assume everybody comes in in a Jetta or a Camry that's low to the ground. They have to fence the site permanently from our side, but also there will be areas that are just going to be not reasonable to improve to what a sedan can drive through. So, I'll have to fence that off and also install a secondary egress gate because right now there's only one gate. It's all doable. We actually have some old um asphalt grindings from Bigalow that are out there that we could put a price on and sell to them so they can use that
[00:45:00]
because not only do you pull a boulder, but now you got a six inch hole in the ground they're going to have to fix up. It's a lot of labor, but if they they do it and prep it now, it'll make next year a lot easier. So, you know, if because of the amount of work, we would anticipate, I don't know, a three or fiveyear agreement. You know, if if they're not good stewards, we could revoke that. >> Um, but it would be, you know, what they want to do is have everybody park there and then shuttle bus them to the course for these, you know, large events. Um, so if the board's comfortable with that, I'm a little worried about the timing of getting that agreement to you, it'll probably be at the 11th hour. Um, but if I'm getting head nods, I'll probably preempt with like a temporary access agreement so they can start the prep >> I don't As long as you're sure it won't conflict with any of county's uses for the property. >> You know, our district managers are very protective and they were actually nodding. So,
[00:46:01]
if Mike and Paul are okay with it, I'm I trust them. Commissioner Brooks. >> Um, so yeah, it just makes me think though that we still have work to do on Plants Ferry where they don't want to help with the road. Um, [clears throat] there. So, it's just it's one of those um makes me makes me think it's like uh yeah, they're we're we're trying to help them out. I mean, obviously, we put all this money and effort into Plants Ferry and they're trying to just finish the little bit of road that they, you know, for people to access. So, I don't know. I'm just just putting that out there that it's like we should be thinking about both of those things then. >> Maybe remind them of that, Kyle. >> You know, because because I don't know. I mean, I Doug's already left. you know, if if the grindings that you have from Bigalow would be good to just put on that road right now as temporary um
[00:47:01]
instead of using it there. Um so I I mean that's why I just don't want to use up our some of our resources if we could use it, you know, at Plants Fair to make sure that that road is in a little bit better shape because I know it's just a dirt road at this point in time. >> Yeah. I if Matt's in here as well that I don't think we have a shortage of grindings that if we were to do a >> yeah they're grindings for us they have some value but moving them is worth cost more than they're worth generic. So >> having them use them in place and compensate us at whatever an appropriate level is is probably good. Furthermore the location on the pit is not part of our 20-year crushing plan. I mean, it's realistically it's beyond a 30 40 year horizon before we'll meet that area and we can previsit at that time. We'll have termination language in the agreement >> Yeah. No, and I agree. I mean, that's out of my district and I've I've been there and seen it. So, I mean, I know
[00:48:01]
that I'm just, you know, [clears throat] we have other needs that uh the valley doesn't want to help us with, but they want us to help them. So just thinking through it, but I, you know, love the valley. I I didn't see any no shake head. [laughter] No head. remind my counterpart about >> You know, he's he's new there. Maybe he can shake something. >> Maybe. Okay. All right, Lewis, gonna throw it down your way. >> Yeah, good morning. I have just two easement uh items on the agenda here. Bring up the slides.
[00:49:00]
Okay, so this first one is on um Pines Road in the Valley 511 South Pines. Um, send map south. Next slide, please. So, they have a binding site plan. They were originally going to put in uh kind of like an L-shaped apartment building. As you can see on the the left there, they had a layout that worked um for our sewer uh access. Um, and now they want to do like two different buildings. And so they just wanted to revise our our uh public sewer access through their site. And so this is uh just the easement and paperwork to it actually makes makes our access better because this this new layout we're able to drive through and out different way kind of a U-shape. So it it works better for our access. So, um,
[00:50:01]
just to like say to accommodate their new site plan layout and, uh, so we're working through the paperwork with Jasper. I don't know that they'll have signatures ready to be on the next meeting, but in one shortly after, we should should have the paperwork for the board to basically extinguish or release the old easement and grant a new easement for our sewer access. questions or that one? Okay, very good. Uh, move on to the next one. Do you have another ement? I do have two ement documents. Two. There's L and M.
[00:51:10]
Uh, so this is a parcel or parcels um up near Arbor Crest. So just down the hill from Arborrest. Uh there's a hillside there. a parcel that ends in the 0.9080. They are looking at a preliminary plat um and they needed offsite sewer to get to their plat. And so this project, go to next slide. This project is um it's a collaboration between three different property owners um to get sewer from that Lacrosse Avenue up crossing up River Drive and then the north side of the road. So it'll it will serve future
[00:52:02]
Probably the most likely one is that parcel on that ends in the 09080. I think it was the Canes who own that property that um that's that's one where we've actually seen a preliminary plan for uh but the rest of those properties within also have sewer available to develop whenever they develop. Next slide please. I do have a very preliminary layout of what it might look like. I think this is pretty pretty schematic, but you know that that property is very steep and definitely would be challenging to try to build driveways and and houses up there, but they there's been various proposals over the years of people that have thought that they could develop that hillside. And so this lease would get sewer to it to be available if it happens. And again, we're working through the paperwork on this and we're very close
[00:53:00]
to being able to have the them sign the agreement. And I don't know if it'll be ready for the 8th, but in a future legislative meeting, it would be ready for acceptance of Greece. Any questions on that one? >> They're good. Thank you, >> Chair Richie. >> All right. Good morning. Uh so this week I have the renewal of the 2026 2027 SRD contracts uh for all the districts. If you remember a few years ago there was a a desire to have the districts cover uh half of the benefits. Um I think that was done through a tiered approach and this next school year we'll they will be at half. So they'll be covering half the benefits and half the salary uniform and then 100% of the specialty paying an SRD. All the contracts are set to renew um without any there's been a couple additional u SR or SRGS added. One of
[00:54:02]
them is a shared asset in the valley. Um and then the other one is Central Valley. Yeah, the Valley of the Last That's it. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> All right. And then the next is anou that uh we would like to enter into with the US capital police. Uh there's a new program this this year I believe that they started that anytime local uh police are used to guard uh members of Congress. The capital police will reimburse those funds. We don't work directly for them and we're not under their guidance or anything like that. We if if the um the member of Congress reaches out for help for one of us to cover an event, then we will do a paper It's been reviewed by legal and risk and it's pretty straight. It's pretty basic agreement actually.
[00:55:04]
>> Great. Good service. >> All right. That's all I had. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. oh yeah >> morning your time this morning. Um I'm here to update you on a revenue sharing plan that we have. uh we are an advisor to so um we Kyle signs the contract on our behalf but it's a plan or an agreement between WM and utilities and transportation commission and then because it's happening in Spokane County we are advised so this is a plan that's allowable through state law um and basically it's funded uh through through
[00:56:01]
revenue that's generated by curbside recycling Um, but I think the the part where I appreciate this plan is because it has to be in alignment with our comprehensive solid waste family plan. So, this plan that WM has with the UTC helps us achieve some of our education outreach goals that we have in our our Next slide. So, the budget for this plan is dependent on recycling revenue. And I will re-emphasize that we don't touch any of the money. We are an advisor. So we get a say in how money is spent and what it is spent on, but money does not flow into fund 435. Um WM retains that right to spend the money. Um and we just coordinate with them closely on what it's spent on. So um the budget really follows the commodity values for recycling. So uh some years we have seen
[00:57:00]
a big dip that was in COVID and post China sword. Um and then the last bianium that stretched over 2024 uh we saw pretty healthy recycling commodity values. It's dipped since then and we're seeing probably a likely trend of continued um slight falling revenues. So we'll the budgets a little bit less this year. Um but it's also based on household counts. So when we expand the curbside recycling boundary that we'll be in a public hearing about today, we could see a slight bump in this um revenue based on the number of households this covers. Next slide. So we break the plan up into five different buckets. I'll go over these pretty quickly, but this first one is knowledge sharing. So, this helps us um reach out to households in unincorporated Spokane County with information about how to do recycling, right? Um we we always support cart
[00:58:00]
tagging. It's a really valuable way to get the attention of homeowners. So, uh one of the last campaigns we did was on household hazardous waste and please don't include it in your recycling bins. um take sharps and batteries to our transfer stations where they can be safely handled, not where it's in curbside bins and ends up on a sorting line where you have people in in gloves. We don't want to take that risk for county employees or any of our residents working at WM Smart Center. They also do a lot of social media advertisements, commercials, um and then they also have an app on if you have questions about where a type of material should go. Should it go in recycling? Should it go in organics? Should it go in garbage or a transfer station? So that's the first bucket. This next slide please. Second budget is or bucket is around equitable outreach. Um and this has two two prongs to it. The first one is uh translation services. So trying to um
[00:59:01]
translate all the WM outreach materials into um Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian in addition to English. Um and the second prong is helping to promote waste reduction work by local nonprofits that have more of a niche focus um for minorityled waste reduction efforts or showcasing an event by Spokane Zero Waste um for clothing reuse. So trying to get out into the not traditional ways of reaching our our diverse population. Next slide. Um, this is one way we work pretty closely with WM. So, we have uh education outreach uh staff within solid waste and we coordinate pretty closely with WM. And so, if they're going to be at a farmers market, we don't send our staff to the same farmers market. That way, we can cover more events, provide more outreach um across a broad swath of community events um just to get the word
[01:00:01]
out to people. Next slide. And this is probably my favorite uh task of the whole plan and it's engaging younger minds and again we work pretty closely with WM. They focus on the unincorporated schools and so if they are already providing workshops we tend to focus on the schools where where they can't. So that way we can stretch our dollars our resources farther in collaboration with WM. Um I've been to a couple of these assemblies. They're very engaging. They're very fun. Um most the assemblies target the elementary school population. Um and then some of our workshops um most of them are focused on elementary education but we do have some that are focused on middle school and high school as well. Next slide. And the last prong of this plan is on multifamily uh assistance. And again this is kind of a two-phase thing. Um we
[01:01:00]
have technical assistance for multif family buildings and that's going around and seeing do they actually have access do residents in those u multif family apartment buildings do they have access to recycling and garbage and if they don't can we rightsize their bins so that way if we reduce the amount of garbage dumpster capacity we have actual um ability for those residents to recycle and then with that comes education and outreach It's a recycling tote on a door with some flyers about what can and cannot be recycled. And this is a continual effort just due to the in-n-out nature of apartment complexes. We see a lot more turnover than in like a suburban neighborhood. So, it's almost an annual effort to reach out to property owners to try and um re-engage that education cycle for And the last slide is just a summary slide of each of the five categories within this plan. The the actual budget
[01:02:03]
this year is around 400 $375,000 that WM spends in our neighborhoods um to help with recycling education outreach and just general awareness. And so without them, our our goals wouldn't be as far along as they are. Um, so it's a great partnership to have. >> With that, I'm done. Kept it short and sweet, but do you have any questions about that plan? >> Oh, Mr. French, >> I don't have any questions about the plan, but uh do I did get an email from constituent last week. I can't remember whether I forwarded to you or not, but if I did, I will. uh she was complaining that waste management used to provide uh not only uh waste disposal but also clean green and recycles and now
[01:03:02]
she's not getting that service. Did I send that to you? >> Yes, you did. >> Okay, good. Fine. Thank you. Well, then it's in trusted hands. Thank you. >> And the uh issue the amendment passes in the public hearing. She will have her services stored >> starting April one of next year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Uh jumping all over. Jamie Jamie over there. >> Kyle's excited. It must be good. >> Yeah. Well, it's been a lot of work. >> Years years of work. [laughter] Um, happy to do it, though. It's good work. So, um, I'm here to brief on the Thorp Road reconstruction funded through the Defense Community Infrastructure
[01:04:01]
Program, um, otherwise known as the DCIP. Next slide, please. This is a new funding source for Spokane County, essentially through the Department of Defense. Um, we applied for a preliminary application this spring and a couple weeks ago we were contacted by DCIP project management to submit a final application with the caveat that things are going to move pretty quickly upon submitt that final application. We were advised to start the um approval process with you now so we can secure this funding. Um, the project total is just under $3.2 million. re requested and expect to receive just over $2.2 million. This program requires a 30% match. So, will be um contributed through S3R3, which is the local economic development group on the West Plains. And that leaves $36,000 for Spokane County to contribute. Um, next slide, please.
[01:05:03]
This is a onemile road reconstruction project starting from Craig Road and terminating at uh Fairchild Air Force Base East Gates. This road is in pretty poor condition. It's old, has lots of edge failure. There's very steep slopes. It lacks shoulders. And what this project will do is they'll reconstruct the the road to a 30-foot width, include two foot drive lanes with 4ft shoulders with an additional two foot of gravel shoulders on each side of the road. And not only does this project improve a deteriorated county road, but improves access to Fairchild Air Force Base. It um facilitates a 9.5 million gate um and the funding that they've secured to open this gates. It removes we're estimating approximately maybe up to 20% of traffic from what has been designated as a high energy corridor. If you go to the next slide,
[01:06:00]
thank you. You can see the tra transfer, longitudinal cracking, the edge failure, and the very steep slopes. It's really If you move on to the next slide, there's a map. And this is a little bit busy, but on the lower left inset is project limits. On the top left is set in the orange is that high injury corridor basically is just starting at Craig road and terminating at their p FFB's primary access gate on US2. This project will complicate the complements the realignment and the roundabouts of frag and road which will be constructed If you go to the next slide, um, preliminary engineering is scheduled for 2027 and 28. Construction completed in >> I just wanted to let the commissioners know this is I think our third swing at this funding source as well as two swings at other defense programs. This is a little bit weird for us because we applied this spring and then they came
[01:07:00]
back and said you're selected to apply again basically, but it seems nothing's a guarantee. It seems very likely that that will result in the funding for this project. Um u working closely with Jeff at Fairchild got us a lot of good information on this. Um and they're moving on their end, we're moving on ours. We might beat 29, but we're not going to promise that in a funding application. Um, and uh I think the Drake realignment and roundabout is on ad or going to add this week. Um, and we do intend to be working on that through the winter. Um, that roundabout is offline, perfect for um make some visible progress out there this year. Um, and then finish that thing up next Well, a lot of these pieces all coming together. That's about 12 million right in that area.
[01:08:01]
>> A lot of work went into getting these >> Yes. Yeah. >> It's awesome. >> Thanks for everybody's help. >> Any questions? >> Well, thank you for your time. Have a great day. >> Interesting funding program. Have you ever been successful in a lot? Thank you. Okay. Um I guess I'll ask Jeff, do you want to finish with the preliminary budget role? Should we take it? Should we Should we have Heather um and Martha Lou kind of do their miscellaneous and then do you want to finish out the meeting with yours or >> I'm Heather coming while Martha rolls >> Okay. Yeah, let's let's take care of the miscellaneous. That way we can finish the whole meeting with the budget wrapup. So um you want to go while Mark's getting >> Yeah. So um my mis deals with the planning commission and uh last Thursday they were subjected to three hours of uh
[01:09:06]
rankress uh testimony, personal attacks, uh a variety of uh things and planning commission. the these are volunteers uh that give of their time and energies and expertise to serve the county and uh uh on Friday morning I got a call from the chair uh saying he'll never do that again and ready to resign. Uh this is uh they they can engage in these kind of activities with the board and you know the board can decide how they want to deal with that. But when when we're dealing with volunteers on some of these commissions, uh we we've got to be able to protect them. And so I would like to suggest that for the next uh um planning commission hearing, which is supposed to
[01:10:00]
be a workshop uh on the data center uh that we provide a facilitator uh to facilitate the meeting because the chair has said we will not do it again. And uh I would also like to encourage that we have security present at the meetings to uh be able to deal with those disruptive forces that uh don't have any respect for the legislative process and want to uh hijack it. Um, I'm very concerned that if we do not support our commissions, our volunteers, uh, it will lead to us having difficulty filling some of these positions with volunteers and subjecting themselves to personal attacks to um um, you know, these are professionals and uh, they didn't volunteer for this kind of nonsense. So that's my request to the board is the to provide some support to
[01:11:01]
the planning commission so that they can finish their work and and deliver that product back to us. >> The Commissioner Brooks. >> Yeah, I I completely agree. I know Brenda watched on my behalf and um some people spoke more than once. Um, so I think I I would ask that I don't know how it works on the planning commission, but my thought is it should be the same rules that we follow. Um, those people are all up on the dis. Um, so I I don't know. I'm Devon if you can look into if we can just have it be the same rules for us and any other public hearings that are being offered by any of our volunteer boards. um you know whether it's the hearing exam you know with the board of equalization or any of those that that they're adhering to the same standards that that we do and I I think you know it is hard because these are volunteers and they're not used to having these
[01:12:01]
kind of meetings I mean and so and and don't know all the rules and so I I would ask that yeah we have somebody there who can help manage uh that and I think because of the nature of the data centers probably security is not a bad thing. Um, the other thing is I would, you know, say to all of our commissioners, we need to make sure that our people are there. I mean, uh, that we have chosen to put on, uh, because I'm hearing that some people have have been absent. Um, and so we just want to make sure that, you know, what's going on right now, whether it's the data centers or the growth management act, I mean, our comp plan, that's really important. And I know, uh, we have one at large member that I think did resign. And I think Lane Brokott did officially announce that he's resigned. Um, so I would like to try to open it up and get somebody in as quickly as possible. I know there's talk about trying to wait till we're through the process, but I think we're still far enough along and, you know, far enough away that I think we need to get um those positions filled
[01:13:02]
if people are willing to put their names in. So, um [clears throat] I would ask that we we look at that, encourage people, but make sure that the people that we've put in for our positions are are attending because that was one of the comments is like there's I don't [clears throat] know there's supposed to be how many people on the planning commission and there was only a few of them that were there. So, um, you know, I just, you know, from from that meeting, there was a lot that came out of it, and I think we need to do a better job as as the elected officials to help help them. >> See, Scott Scott has just joined us. >> Okay. And I just say thanks, Commissioner French, because I do appreciate all that. >> Scott, did you have something to add? Well, um, no, I think what, uh, Commissioner Brooks said from, you know, observations was accurate. Uh, the
[01:14:00]
chair, uh, who has traditionally been really pretty good at at handling the public, uh, felt uncomfortable, uh, at this meeting and that's that is what ended up letting people speak multiple times. Uh, we didn't, you know, he makes the announcement up front. You can have one 3 minute or one twominut period. Uh but uh it was uncomfortable as those commenters became more and more voseiferous I would say. Uh and so it's we we anticipate that that's going to be the same for the final the two remaining hearings uh on September 17th and potentially October 15th. uh the last meeting you was 3 hours and that pushed the rest of their agenda which is the comprehensive plan and talking about preferred alternative and urban growth area. They agreed to continue that to this Thursday, the 3, where the data centers will not be on the agenda, but
[01:15:01]
will also then be subject to the uh uh open forum at the front of the agenda. And our suggestion to or was is going to be to the chair or perhaps a facilitator uh to do what you the commission has done from time to time and say we're going to have an open forum, but it's going to be limited to 15 minutes or 30 minutes. uh and it's these people and then then we're done and have to get on to the rest of our agenda. So, we've we've got a couple of structural things we can do. Uh but yes, if the chair uh and presumably the vice chair uh would be uncomfortable presiding in that situation that that's a different kind of dilemma. >> Do you have a suggestion for anything specific on that? >> Um, I don't uh but there are plenty here in the market and uh
[01:16:01]
I think it's got to be somebody that's very strong uh and can control the meeting and quite frankly because some of the folks are becoming much more aggressive. Uh, I mean, even your representative was trying to get control of the meeting and and uh ended up on the 4:00 news. >> That's not mine. >> It's not yours. Then it's Amber's. >> Yeah. So, I apologize then. I thought I was told it was yours. Uh but uh yeah, we just we we need to get control of this uh uh before it becomes uh really hostile for I mean we're elected. We can take the the abuse to the extent that we want to. Uh but volunteers shouldn't be subjected to this. >> Would you like us to reach out and try to find a facilitator for that? >> Please at least. >> Yes. somebody that has experience
[01:17:00]
running meetings. >> Yeah. I I honestly wonder if it couldn't be someone from the sheriff's office, you know, doesn't have to have their full gear on, but just a sheriff shirt. Um be be one. I mean, they know how to facilitate meetings. I think um you know, if John suggests somebody because I think it's got to be somebody who's got some authority that people will >> I mean, I think it's just to that point. Um, and I don't, you know, otherwise it's like Devon, someone from civil, you know, that could manage and, you know, >> she might have volunte. >> Okay. [clears throat] I mean I I mean I'm happy that we could pass a resolution saying that all other commissions follow the same you know pro you know um public protocol I don't know I don't
[01:18:00]
know how to say it you know that we >> they have they the commission has their own bylaws that also default to Robert's rules so I think it's just making sure the chair and the folks in attendance are aware that they do understand exactly that they do follow essentially the same rules that you all follow. >> The challenge is not having the rules. The challenge is enforcing the rules. And that's that's where the things start to fall apart is there's no enforcement element to be able to say, you know what, you've exceeded and that's enough. There's [clears throat] got to be something to hold them accountable. >> Commissioner Waldruff. Yeah, I I just I I agree with Commissioner French that I think I I observed the first two hours. I listened in on the first two hours of that meeting and I I think that normally the chair allows for, you know, random questions and and
[01:19:01]
clarifications and he does an excellent job. Um my suggestion is not to allow for that. That's where it kind of got off course. Um during Scott's presentation there was a lot of questions and comments and I think you know limiting that not having allowing for the presentation to occur and the Plan Commission to have their discussion and then having public comment after that would have been you know but you know it's you you learn that normally in a normal Plan Commission meeting that works in this meeting it didn't work and so Um I think we just have to enforce that the public comment is at a certain time in the meeting and if people don't want to respect that they have you know they they need to be removed from the meeting. Um, if a facilitator can be helpful to the
[01:20:00]
chair, um, I would be open to that, but it I think it's really someone that's just firmly enforcing that you will get your chance to comment and it will be after, you know, for instance, when Scott was done with his presentation. So, normally the chair allows for people to kind of ask questions, I think, during the meeting, but that didn't really work in this meeting. >> Okay. Um, we're done with that topic. Uh, throw down to a header. >> So, we have a request from Habitat for Humanity. They have completed their general fund portion of their uh housing project that was originally funded under ARP that was shifted to general fund. They built their 36 homes.
[01:21:00]
They have about 370 just shy of $375,000 left remaining um that's unspent at this point and they're requesting to use those funds to continue to build. So just bringing that forward for consideration. The desire is to let them continue um or to stop the project where it is as complete. And >> just one more fact, what was the original award? >> Uh the original award was 1.7 million. So they've spent about 1.325. >> Okay. Okay. Commissioner Brooks. So the the request that was basically they came under budget and so they're requesting to continue to do what they're doing and use it for the same intended purpose. >> I'm I'm okay with that. >> I agree. I have no problem with that.
[01:22:06]
Short and sweet. Okay. Maraloo. >> Morning. Well, last week we went from uh fire followup, including with scraps, to data centers and PAS. And so, the media had a lot of questions about those things. Um, this week it's going to be a Labor Day closure announcement. And I'm also going to be helping to promote the adopt a drain campaign, which is coming out of public >> What did you say? Adopt a what? >> Adopt a drain. >> Drain. Okay. >> It's I thought you said a drain like a body of water like a drink like on a golf course. Okay. >> Drain. Okay. All right. >> Yeah. It's a national it's a national
[01:23:01]
>> Have we have we done this previous Uh Spokane Valley and City of Spokane are also participating in this and it's basically an outreach campaign to get people in neighborhoods where there's a storm drain on the corner. Adopt that drain, make sure it stays cleared, especially with fall leaves and winter debris and all of that so it's not going into the water system. And then it's also um kind of tracking how much you cleared out. So it's a it's a campaign just to make sure that our storm drains are working effectively, especially as winter approaches. If they're if they're blocked, then you have winter runoff that freezes in the middle of an intersection and becomes a skating rink. >> Okay. So, >> I know there's always a push in the middle of winter of please shovel out
[01:24:01]
the drains in CA, you know, especially if a plow has come by thing, but Okay. >> All right. >> Well, we'll look forward to that one. Uh, also Scraps has been getting some uh about pets and in the followup of the fire and they're not doing any more like fire related response with regards to animals, but they always have great information on how to prepare if you have to evacuate. >> Thank you, Commissioner Brooks. Um [clears throat] yeah, just miscellaneous again, council governments is coming up uh on the agenda. I just want to make sure that everyone's aware. Doors open at 8. 8:30 is the welcome and opening comments. Um and then we've got the Spokane complex fire updates, you know, talking about nonprofits, FEMA, and if there's any other questions, and then this update on the safe and healthy task
[01:25:00]
force. So, are there any other items that any of the commissioners want on the agenda? And just so folks that that is next Friday, September 11th. >> Yep. Yep. >> Opening of the fair. And then we will open the fair at 10:40. Do the ribbon cutting and the fair will start. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. If that's all for miscellaneous, we'll move into a preliminary budget. roll up roll up. >> So, uh, two quick things before Tess and Randy take over. One, just a big thank you to Randy for coming back this month to help out. Been great having him. And then the second just wanted to define our terms. When we say we have a $30 million deficit, that means it would take $30 million more dollars next year
[01:26:00]
to supply to provide the same services. That's just the cost of inflation. Most of it is salary and benefit related. Medical benefits are going up 12%. Um liability is going up 49%. Um and wages and benefits we are heavily unionized. So those are in the contracts and set. That's not something that we can shift around without renegotiating contracts. Um I know for some sometimes you'll hear well why are you in the hole? We are not in the hole. We have a very balanced budget in 2026. It's more we need to change our spending or increase our revenue in 27 to keep our budgets balanced where we're we're always looking into the future in the budget office to make sure we don't go in the hole. Just wanted to make sure for the record we are not in any sort of deficit. We have a rainy day fund. We have a fund balance which is great
[01:27:01]
because we'll be spending millions of our fund balance probably related to fire recovery. Um so we do need to keep it for those those oneoff items because we'll be footing the bill for about 25% of the fire recovery. The feds reimburse about 75%. So So with that um >> thanks Randy and Tessa are going to go through our preliminary budget rollup. >> Yes. Uh Ros. >> Um good morning commissioners. Uh this is the mandatory by statute roll up of the budget on the first but I want to be here also. >> Yes. Um, so we thought we before we get into the budget uh pages that are in the packet that Tessa sent each of you a link to, uh, I believe that was Friday, >> yesterday afternoon. And that will also be on our website later today. Um, we
[01:28:03]
wanted to kind of go back to June of this year. So in June, Jeff and Tessa came to you and they talked about a structural gap. uh at that time they were projecting 274 million in revenue and 304 million in operating expenses. Now that's without capital. So uh at that time for 27 we were looking at about a $30 million gap. Um, and so when you did the budget process for this year, you asked agencies or departments to go back and budget based on the adjusted 2026 budget, which was about 200 a little over $270 million. With that, you also ask them to come back with what do you have to cut to stay there and or what do would you like back knowing that you would have at that
[01:29:01]
time we estimated about $3.6 million that you could then go and get some of those items back if you wished. So that that's where we started. If we go to the next slide, this is kind of that 3.6 number. Right now, our budgeted revenue is uh 284.7 million. Our adjusted target budget is So, instead of $3.6 million to buy certain things back, right now we have about 9.6 million. uh as p that increase is primarily due to sales tax which has been running strong in 26 and we could we expect it to continue to remain strong going into uh next slide.
[01:30:02]
Here you can see uh the requests that the departments have made that would exceed their target budgets. So for operating expenses they are requesting 32.6 million capital 7.8 for a total of 40.4 million. Now as we said on the preceding slide you have about 9.6 million that you can use towards these items. So for example if you used a million towards capital you would have 8.6 to use towards operating. So we still have a def deficit for 27. As Jeff said that could either be solved with cutting costs or raising revenues. So on the next slide and it's kind of reiterating that on the next slide is how are you as commissioners going to
[01:31:01]
address the structural gap we have. You can as you know from the cost side uh you can cut costs, you could cut services, you could delay funding certain capital items. uh you can vote to increase taxes or you can do a combination of both to get the budget in balance for 2027. So really it's all math. Um uh when I work the law firm you know you to balance your budget either expenses go down or revenues go up. Uh it's just math. So with that in mind, the next three slides that we have are paragraphs from an article written by Commissioner Rob Kaufman from Lincoln County, uh, published this year in the Star. And the first paragraph that we'd like to quote is, "Math doesn't care about politics, good intentions, or how badly we want something to work. It doesn't adjust
[01:32:02]
itself to feelings or make exceptions when the numbers stop adding up. Pretty poignant. Next slide. Another paragraph in his article. The Washington State Association of Counties recent health fiscal health survey confirmed what many of us already know. Counties are under increasing pressure from rising costs, state mandates, and limited revenue options. The gap between what we are required to do and the revenue we collect continues to widen. So, as when you went over that five-year forecast earlier this year, you see how those lines kept getting further and further apart the further out you go, which is what that paragraph is talking about. And then the last paragraph uh from that article that we'll read here today is although counties across
[01:33:00]
Washington are still providing essential services and balancing their budgets, most are only doing so by reducing services, delaying maintenance, and leaving critical positions unfilled. That approach does not and cannot maintain a consistent level of service. So, of those 32 million in us, this is what everybody would like to do to service the citizens of Spokane County. But as those gaps, as those lines begin to widen, it may not be possible for us to do that. Uh, any comments, questions before I go on to the next slide? Okay. So, then really it's just reiterating what we said before. So, what choices do the BOCC have to balance the general fund budget? You can decide which services to reduce, combine, or You can decide which capital projects to
[01:34:02]
You can decide which positions to eliminate. And those could be empty positions. Doesn't have to be a position with a person in it. Or you can decide which taxes to raise. And so the expense side, we'll hold off on that for right now. But let's talk about what your options are on the revenue side this year. Oops, I'm going to one. We'll talk about FTEES first. Sorry. Go to the next slide. So for the people for the departments or the agencies to meet their target budget they estimated that they would need to reduce staffing by about 230 FTEES in order to meet that budget of 32.6. Now, some of it could have been operating expenses or ammon uh like supplies or uh services, but to get to that 32.6
[01:35:04]
million, about 230 employees would be >> When a department gave a demo cut, we accepted it. But if they came in over budget, we divided the overage by the average FTE cost in that department. Some departments are more expensive than others. And that's where the 230 comes from. So if you were to accept the cuts that were given and balance it exclusively on FTEES, that's the math. >> And where are we at with regard to FTEES today? You will see that here in just a moment, Commissioner French there. >> Thank you. So, uh, we have, as we said earlier, we have currently 9.6 million of revenue over the target budgets. If you used a million of that for capital, um, you know, for example, it I
[01:36:01]
think was a million dollars. You usually have to, you know, buy new servers and things like that. That would give you about 8.6 million for operations. If you use that 8.6 only to buy back people positions and not for any other supplies or maintenance, that would save you in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 employees. So we would still have a budget gap of about 24 million which would affect 160 to 170 authorized Now currently uh we have about and I use the word about because it changes every day about about 75 vacant positions in the general fund. Now some of those vacant positions you may be part of the buyback. So we can't say how many of
[01:37:00]
those uh would cover the 160 to 170. But without additional revenue, you don't have enough vacant positions like you did last year to cover all of the FTPs you would need to reduce to balance the >> Yeah, we don't really have any authorized but unfunded positions anymore. Correct. >> That is correct. Okay. Workday does not allow for that. So when we talk about FTE or positions, we're really talking about a funded >> funded position. >> And we did have quite a few departments that they have been leaving positions intentionally vacant. Um the last few months and going into the rest of the year to allow for attrition. Um I think everybody prefers attrition versus a pink slip in those situations. So, I'd say some of these 75
[01:38:02]
funded vacant positions are intentional until they see what the board's priorities come through. Um, others are just a normal churn of people leaving and being rehired. Uh, so now that's if the class without additional revenue. So now if we go to the revenue options, uh there are a number of new options the legislature uh gave the commissioners this year. Uh the first two relate to sales tax. Uh the first one is the retail car rental tax. So this is an existing tax on rental cars uh that we currently collect. The legislature this year expanded the uses of that to include the criminal justice system. In the past, that was used for things such as maintenance and operating supplies for
[01:39:01]
Vista Stadium, for Plants Ferry, uh for improvements to Plants Ferry, uh the hub, things like that. But now you use for the criminal justice system. The legislature also allows counties to enact a new onetenth of 1% sales tax. That's the local law enforcement programs and that is only for the criminal justice system. Next slide. There are some new property tax options that the commissioners could vote for. Uh the first one is the veterans assistance levy. Now currently we pay the 1 and 1/8 cents out of our general fund levy. So today um and what's projected for next year we will levy about 68 million or 70 cents per thousand for our general fund. Today
[01:40:02]
1.18 or one and an eighth of that 70 cents goes to veterans assistance. uh the legislature now would let you put a new levy on the tax statements so that the general fund could keep its full.7 Same thing with mental health and developmental disabilities. Currently 2.5 cents per thousand comes out of our 70 levy and goes to mental health and developmental disabilities. the legislature this year changed those statutes so that you could now issue a separate levy uh and then keep that 2 and 12 cents general fund. The third new one is a little different. It doesn't really replace anything coming out of our current levy other than today we give approximately in 26
[01:41:00]
you'll give approximately $2 million to the public health district. This new levy can be used for uh hospital services. So clinic services. Uh so to the extent that if you gave still gave the health district $2 million and if you could say it is only for clinical services, this would allow you to add an additional tax onto your onto the property tax bill and then not use general fund dollars to pay the health district. So those are the three new property tax funds and then yes. So um ju just just so I'm clear on that. So I right now I believe the roughly $2 million that we give to the health district excluding the TB funding which is the thecluding >> what's it >> oh yes no TB is it so the roughly one point one >> yeah they five that that I believe is
[01:42:02]
>> extremely flexible they can do whatever they want but these dollars you're saying would have >> they would have scope they could use them for their general admin or Okay. Okay. Thank you. um next slide. Uh and then of course we have our three property tax options that we talk about every November. There is the 1% increase which is the increase over last year's assessment. We have the general fund bank capacity. These are the amount of 1%s you haven't taken in preceding years. And then we have a road levy shift that you could do, which is the 1%s not taken in the county road levy that you could move over to the general fund. So those are your revenue options that as commissioners, if you chose, you could
[01:43:01]
enact to help fill the $24 million gap. Currently, none of those are built into this budget. >> So, that's kind of where we're at before we start talking about budgets. Any other questions or comments before we get into the budget packet? Do >> you have a slide in here that says what each of those options is roughly >> I do not have a slide in there, but I could if you want to know. I do have roughly those numbers. >> Okay. I was just gonna say I I I know generally kind of ballpark where each of them are at. I think we've discussed in previous meetings, but >> our our estimated uh tax assessed value from a property tax standpoint is is almost um a hundred billion dollars, lots of zeros. It's actually around 99 billion, but 100 billion makes math easier as you're looking at these taxes. >> Thank you. Yep.
[01:44:01]
Uh so with that, let's start talking about the 27th budget. Uh you can go to the next slide some here. There is an eye test. Here's the roll up of the budget. Uh this is where we have the 284.7 million in revenue. As you'll see, uh sales tax has a big increase. We're estimating right now about $90 million in sales tax up from the original 85 million that we were estimating in June when they put together that first slide. Uh and expenses are uh the adjusted expenses are 275 million. This is the adjusted target. On top of that, we would add the 32.8. So that gets you to about 38 uh million. That is if you look at that,
[01:45:00]
if you think back to the first slide when they projected 304 million of they did not include the $4 million for debt. So actually they were within a million dollars be right on in their projection way back when before everybody went through the budget process. Uh, next slide. Here is the property tax calculation. So, right now, uh, and these numbers will change. These aren't final. Uh, this is based upon estimated new construction of $1.4 billion. Uh, Tom and his crew finishing that up. Um, with that, if you look at if we assessed the prior year's tax levy plus new construction, the general fund would assessed currently a property tax levy of around $69.2 million. Out of that, today we have to give a little over 1.1 to the veteran services.
[01:46:03]
We have almost 2.5 to mental health and developmental disabilities. We give just short of 1.5 to the tiffs and we never collect 100% of the taxes in any year. Uh in discussions with the treasur's office, we collect between 98 and 99%. Uh this uh slide here assumes a 99% collection rate. So that gets us down to our 63.5 million of property taxes that we have in the budget to collect for our general Next slide is our sales tax. So here originally we were looking at about 83.2 million for 26. Right now, we think we're going to be 5% higher than last year. So, we think we
[01:47:02]
will end the year closer to 87 million and we are budgeting a 4% increase for next year instead of a 3% which would take us to 90 million. That 4% is our 20-year historical average. So some years are higher, some years are lower, but the overall trend is 4%. This year is running strong. Again, we will get more numbers uh in October, um oh, excuse me, September and October. And we can look at our run rates and we may need to adjust these numbers up or down, but this is where we're starting at right now. Okay. And then you can see going out we're going back closer to cost of living three to two and a half%. But we never know. We don't know how the fires will impact things like that either. So, but that's where we're starting with right now.
[01:48:02]
Next slide. So, here's a a sheet. You've seen this when you do your budget adoption. This is just the revenue and expenses by agency. Again, this is at the target budget rate. Not a lot on that slide. The next slide, however, uh this is kind of where we start talking about what the asks are. So here, the first column is your assigned target and the second column is target adjustments. So for example, you've added a 400,000 for building and code enforcement to mitigate nuisance problems. That is so that is a new since last year and since the target budgets were set. Um the next couple are just some transfers but we have $4 million uh that was added to the target for debt. That's the new debt we issued in
[01:49:01]
2025. that the money for that will come out of reach. So that will not affect No, this time yes. >> So that won't really affect the pluses and minuses. The other one is >> the non-dep departmental. >> That is the non-EP department. The other 200,000 asked that wasn't in the target is the 200,000 that you gave the prosecuting attorney out of mental health sales tax. Uh so that's added in here. Now those are all revenue supported. The 400,000 potentially could be revenue supported also. Uh to the extent that that department is totally for nuisance mit property mitigation that can now come out of re 2. And when we see the uh CIP roll up, you will see I've added that line in there as a placeholder because
[01:50:00]
to use REIT, we have to have it on our >> And we are recommending on this sheet, Cooperative Extension historically has had its own line. We have had county paid staff at Cooperative Extension. Just by way of reminder, last year, some of the staff was laid off, some of the staff moved over to WSU. They are now WSU staff, and we only have a relationship with them, giving them funding. So that's why we're taking the negative 318 out of cooperative extension since it's just a contractual relationship now with no staff and we're we're recommending putting it in outside agencies because that would be more consistent with that new relationship we have with them. >> It'd be just like the health district. And then you can see the asks uh or the
[01:51:00]
requested adbacks by department. Uh and that's where the $326 million for operating expenses came. This next slide uh is really just a summary of all the ass broken down. You can see which ones relate to people. The top section there is just the things that we adjusted the target budgets for. Again, it was mainly non-depal service costs which is funded by um REIT uh 400,000 or excuse me for the um building and code compliance for the property nuisance mitigation which can be funded by REIT and then the 200,000 for the prosecutor's office which is to be funded by mental health sales tax. And then you have all the other asks kind of summarized going down >> just alphabetical um by agency and then in the department
[01:52:01]
preference order um within the agency >> and then of course this is a summary. When you get to the detail sheets for each department or agency you will see their write up on that. But this is just the summary of those requests. >> in preference [clears throat] of agency >> by the a the for each agency it's in their preference order. >> So if the agency has more than one request otherwise it's alphabetical by agencies are alphabetical. >> Within the same agency it is >> although I love the assessor. when we look um a couple of slides back uh each of the each of the agencies the revenue and expenses for each of our departments um I I don't know where we are so far this this far into the year I remember several months back there were
[01:53:00]
a couple of departments that were really lagging on their projections of revenue for their department. Are we confident these estimates for revenue for 2027 are >> That was one of the big focuses we took into this budget cycle and we spent a number of days reviewing the revenue submissions um in a number of different ways by agency um in total by line and yes we do feel confident that these are much more accurate revenue projections in total. Um some lines there might be some semantics between lines in some agencies. Um but in total we do feel it's in line with current collections and trends. >> All right. Thank you. Next slide. This is where we get back to the FTEES. >> One more. >> One more. Sorry about that. So here's his historical FTEES from 21 through current. Uh this is by each department. it shows their filled and vacant positions.
[01:54:01]
Um, and then an average salary. And then the far two columns on the right are either the employees that the agencies identify that they would have to eliminate or the numbers, excuse me, that they would have to eliminate to meet the target budget. or if they didn't identify specific positions, it was a mathematical calculation uh on the second to right column as Jeff talked about earlier. >> To your question earlier, Commissioner French, you see at the bottom of the the top section is public safety. They are up six FTE roughly. Most of those were um grant backed which is why they were approved throughout the year. The bottom section which is the other the rest of the general fund so to speak um actually down a half a person. So we're FTE
[01:55:01]
management this year has been a lot more closely held and watched and also I think just a new workday system where we don't have the unfunded FD round has been helpful. You will notice last year we had about 50 um 58 vacant while now we're at 83. So I think that difference there would roughly correlate to what departments are holding um for attrition purposes to meet their part of their um target We we've [snorts] really not increased FTES this year except for granted. Just a question on uh looking back in in I see that the uh status shows a particular date
[01:56:00]
snapshot time right so how is that measured looking at the past years on annual basis >> okay at the end of the day that way we have the same snapshot okay good thank Okay. Uh the next slide again is just re summarizing uh what we showed on three slides or three slides uh earlier in the presentation just the revenue options. The first one again is a no tax increase option. That is just using the rental retail car sales tax for the criminal justice system. And then the rest of the options are tax increase options. So you would either be increasing sales tax uh to the citizens of the county. Uh one nice thing about a sales tax, people that come visit also pay it. uh or property taxes, which would affect both homeowners and renters because I'm sure if I was a landlord and
[01:57:01]
my taxes went up, I'd pass it on to the renter as well. So, uh those affect all the citizens and really don't impact uh visitors that much. the 110th sales satch had conversation the last few months to do a public meeting which requires 10 days posting which in our world translates to two weeks or to do special meetings needs to be the special meeting um sorry the public hearing would need to be posted >> in September to be held no later than October 13th, which gives us time to get to the state, 75 days before the first of the year. So, one thing you will find us bringing up at the budget meetings this month um
[01:58:00]
is do you want us to work on posting the public hearing um at any Mr. Macio? I believe has the paperwork ready so we can post it on any of our 2pm consents for two weeks after that date. Um, I don't know if that's something you guys want to talk about today or not, but it is one we'll be bringing up until it's put the rest one way or the other because of the the timeline. >> And that timeline is just to have the tax effective January 1st. Yeah, you you could do it correct. If you didn't make the timeline, but chose to do it later in the season, that would push it back to April 1. Um, and then you would get seven months of revenue for the year instead of 10,
[01:59:01]
>> Because we don't start getting So, if it went into first into January 1, we don't start receiving revenue until the end of March. So that's that's worth 10 months and set preferences >> for the budget office knowing the world of revenue to work with would be helpful but that is definitely the call of the book. >> Um just a couple more pages left then we'll be done with this presentation. These are just the rollup of all the other funds. Um you will notice that there are some zeros in here. Um one on this page and more on the back the second page. Um we just haven't received any uh initial submissions from public And if there are any special revenue or other funds as we call these two pages um that the board would like highlighted, please um let us know and
[02:00:01]
we can help coordinate additional details and information and presentation >> and we'll keep updating this as we get those submissions. Um and then the very last page is kind of the budget calendar. Uh just reminding everybody again uh we will come back on September 14th will be the first budget roundt >> workshop excuse me not a round table it's a workshop right the workshop is till the >> yeah the round table will be the 22nd >> um what we'd really like to know is between now and maybe next Tuesday if you could uh if you can identify certain departments you would like to have make And if you have specific questions you would like them to answer, we would like to, if possible, start having departments present on the 21st. Um, just so that you have time, uh, with all the decisions you have to
[02:01:01]
make. Um so um I'd like to also you know and that also allows the departments to have some time to put it together also and be thoughtful about what they're presenting and not just throw some together because they you found out the last minute. So so as much time as we can give them uh as much many questions as you would like them to address that would be helpful departments. Uh if you have some questions, you can always ask them Um two key dates on here are November 16th. That is when we do the property tax levies. So those are all those property tax decisions. That is a 9:00 a.m. meeting on Monday the 16th. Uh and then also December 7th is a 9:00 a.m. meeting for budget adoption. Those are the two uh key uh public meetings.
[02:02:02]
>> Any questions? last night. >> Any department anybody has right now that they want to call us? >> can Yeah, because if you want to take some time, I mean, like I said, all the department submission is in the detail behind these slides uh in your uh shared folders. Uh, and it will also, as Tessa said, be posted on our website later today for anyone else to see. Also, you will see this year we added an FTE sheet with each agency. When you scroll, you'll recognize it as soon as you scroll through it. Again, the formatting will look familiar to you, but at the end of each department is an FTE sheet that shows um exactly where where they are in that department. Something we want to keep a
[02:03:00]
close eye on. >> I I would suggest if there of the um the operating requests over Target that was the 32.6 six um maybe the top three departments from that category, the ones that were the furthest over um sort of the target budget. Maybe have those come in, whoever those end up being, and maybe have have them come present as to why they're asked is is are one of the top three, I guess. So >> any anything else anyone else wants to >> Well, I I would agree with Commissioner Karns and the other the other thing I'm curious about. So um what is what is the total assessed valuation for property in Spokane County? Uh just uh after the right now we're projecting
[02:04:02]
the roughly 600,000 comes off for the fire we'll be at about 99 billion 600 billion. >> Thank you. I think uh we hear from sheriff, prosecutor and uh detention being so large and also important for public >> I think those are >> I think two of those are for sure the top three. >> Two of the three overlap for sure. I don't know. >> I think it's all when you rattled them off, I thought, "Oh, you're asking for what I'm asking. [laughter] It's a different way of getting >> I knew at least two or I don't I don't know what the third is going to be." But >> I believe coalesed on the same three >> plus or minus. Nope. >> Yeah, you did. >> The other one drops right below that. So four is really close. It's >> real close. exact report. >> Is that [laughter]
[02:05:01]
>> I think we're probably gonna want to hear from them. >> So, um >> no budget next week because we have the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Tuesday will be a regular business day. The following week starting Monday the 14th, we will have budget um every Monday through the season. We are not unless directed otherwise not planning on bringing every single agency through like we did last year but focusing more just the direction of the board which what you wanted to hear from um as see as as things come together play it more by ear I think hearing from everyone last year was good it gave everybody kind of a a level set on where things are but I don't know I have not heard that request again this year I've been hearing more a targeted approach >> and I do believe that the information that's provided in the packets the department they did a good job of
[02:06:01]
writing the impacts of the service levels reductions um to meet their target budget. Um so that should help the board understand and um potentially decide on some of the um requests independently without the need for additional presentation time. Anything online? >> Commissioner Waldruff, >> sales tax uh decision for public safety. >> Sorry, you c can you start over? You you kind of you cut out there. We only caught the tail end of what you were saying. Sorry, I just was wondering what's that
[02:07:00]
>> She's asking for the deadline on the onetenth of 1%. The deadline >> for the 110th one >> for the onetenth of 1% the deadline is it has to be to the department of revenue by October 16th in order to be effective on January 1st. Your last uh legislative meeting prior to that is Tuesday, October 13th. To give a 10day notice, which you typically do a two-eek notice on, would be September 29th. >> Okay. Thank you. Anything else? >> Yeah, this is great. and the share folder. Is that you you had sent out >> and as we compile more information and additional details come available, we'll continue to add it there. So save that link and
[02:08:01]
visit it often. >> Yeah. But 100 pages in there. >> Yep. Oh, I I think you asked for it, but you didn't. I uh you did a summary that said each potential tax would raise X number of dollars. We'll send that >> Yeah, update that and send it around. >> Thank you. >> that's it. Thank you both very much. >> I believe we have some executive >> We do. >> Okay. because we we it we took care of miscellaneous, but I'll just ask one final time. Any any miscellaneous items before we head to executive session? >> No. This this commissioner, I have to jump off, so I guess I'll miss >> I will catch up later.
[02:09:03]
All right, Vice Chair Curts, we have four executive sessions. Uh each are about 10 minutes. Uh the first is pending potential litigation no action 10 minutes Jeff McMorris Deon Curta Jasper Coulter Matt 04 Kyle Tuig. The second is 10 minutes. Penny potential litigation no action. Jeff McMorris, Deon Curta, Kyle Tuig, Brent Batabo. Third is penny potential litigation, no action. Jeff McMorris, Deon Curta, Kyle Tuig, Mike Sparber, Jasper Coulter. And finally, penny potential litigation. Uh, five to 10 minutes, no action. Um, Jeff Morris, Dan Gad, Ben Harris, Scott Chzn, Jacob Allent. Well, members. >> Okay. All right. But it is 11:21. We will be going into executive session for the four pinning and potential litigations for a total of 40 minutes. At the conclusion of that 40 minutes, we will adjourn for the morning. Um, no
[02:10:00]
decisions will be made while in executive session. We will reconvene for our 2:00 legislative agenda meeting. Um, thank you all for joining us. Thank you very much. No, I think we're gonna do you guys first just because you're the biggest group. Sorry, Kyle. >> Scott, you coming over? is Barber in the first group? >> Barber's not the first one. >> Barber and any >> he's in whatever. Okay. And then >> my number two. >> Yeah, number two. You give me number >> Yeah. So, you'll be up in about 10 minutes, Barb. >> All right. I'll walk over there. Suck. >> All right. Bye. >> No. Do you mind getting
[02:11:01]
And uh Scott's coming over. >> Scott, are you coming over? I saw him walk. >> Oh, I think he's there. Okay.