Board of County Council - Regular Meeting

04/21/2026.

And we will start with several proclamations. The first one, the National Poetry Month, and councilor Fuentes will read that with the Arts Commission members, Michelle Hanlon and Susan Dingle.

Good evening, everyone. I'm excited to be reading this proclamation on National Poetry Month. Thank you for being here. All right. So whereas National Poetry Month was created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets and whereas poetry is the artful expression of human thought and feeling and whereas appreciation of poetry nourishes the human spirit and whereas the purpose of National Poetry Month is to appreciate the legacy of poets to encourage poetry reading, to help teachers introduce poetry into the classroom and to increase support of the publication of poetry books and whereas the Clark County Poet Laureate serves the county by cultivating the practice of writing, reading and appreciation of poetry.

And Susan Dingle is the Clark County Poet Laureate for the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty seven term. And whereas Clark County Poets Laureate Armin Tolentino, twenty twenty one-twenty twenty four Gwendolyn Morgan, twenty eighteen-twenty twenty and Christopher Luna, twenty thirteen-twenty seventeen, continue to serve the community as ambassadors of literary culture through poetry. Now therefore, we, the Clark County Council, hereby proclaim April 1 through 04/30/2026 as National Poetry Month, signed this April 2026 by every one of our counselors.

Thank you, Counselor Fuentes, and all of the council members. We are so lucky in this county to have such an active and vibrant poetry community. We have several open mics that happen on a weekly basis. And our former and current poet laureates are out there really stirring things up and bringing the word to people regarding poetry. I wanted to also say, my name by the way is Michelle Hanlon.

I am the Vice Chair of the Clark County Arts Commission. I wanted to say that we are about to open the search for next year's Poet Laureate. That person will be Poet Laureate, I believe, from 2027 through 'thirty. And community should be ready to look for those applications or recommendations. You can apply if you're a poet.

You can recommend another person if you know a published poet. Those will open sometime this summer. So keep your eye on our web page on the county website and our social media. Right now I'd like to turn over the mic to Susan Dingle, our current poet laureate. She's doing great work out on the community. And I believe she'd like to share a poem with you.

Hi, everybody. I'm Susan Dingle. And it's really hard to see everybody. So with your permission, I will address myself, they're the council after all. Thank you so much for your acknowledgement of the importance of poetry in our community.

And in these days, it seems more important than ever before that we honor the diverse voices of people in our community. And I've I've had the opportunity to to support and encourage so many people as they have been finding their voices. And I wrote down some things that I was going to say, but of course I have forgotten to pick up those pieces of paper. I am the latest poet laureate following Armin Tolentino, Gwendolyn Morgan, and Christopher Luna. And we have all seen and encouraged the development of so many so many things within our community.

And this year somehow, it seems more than ever, there are so many new poetry readings and workshops and opportunities for people throughout the county. It's really quite amazing. And so you could say that we are celebrating Poetry Month in Clark County every month. One of the latest projects has been something called Zines. I don't know if you folks have have you heard of Zines at all?

So we have some Zinesters in the crowd. So there has been a wonderful new development called the Coove Zine Swap. And one of its many headquarters is down the street on Main Street at Birdhouse Books. And I just happened to swing by and I picked up a whole bunch of zines as a gift for you all. These these are one poem and one piece of paper made into a booklet by people who are of all ages and all walks of life.

And they're really just marvelous. So I'm going to leave these for all of you to have. And it wouldn't really be proper thank you to accept this proclamation without some form of a poem. But we do have a lot of business to get to, so I'm not going to read an epic. What I will read is I've been doing this thing for poetry months, which I recommend to all of you, which is writing a poem a day.

And I've been writing haiku, and I've just been doing it. And so today's haiku, this is haiku number 74. The wind scatters all blossoms, petals swirl and spin, drift toward the curb. I know, it's epic, right? And now one more, just just because.

This is called Haiku 73. A hydrangea bud between the opening leaves shows in a tight knot. So I recommend that all of you write some poetry. We've all got poetry in our souls, in our spirits, as your proclamation mentioned. So get in touch with it, and let it come out. And thank you again.

Thank you, Susan. And I really appreciate the Arts Commission. Our paths have crossed a few times over your term, and it's always been delightful. So thank you very much. Okay. Then moving on to our next proclamation, National Volunteer Week, which will be read by Councilor Little and Sherry Braga, the volunteer coordinator of Fort Vancouver Regional Library's Operations Center will be accepting. Welcome.

Thanks. I'm honored to do this. I'm a little tall for this one, I'll try to steal this one. Okay. Whereas Clark County joins other counties across our great state and nation in honoring community volunteers during national volunteer week, we celebrate the amazing efforts that volunteers put forth to support our libraries, neighborhoods, schools, faith based organizations, civic groups, government agencies, and more.

Volunteers are invaluable resource and are at the heart and soul of our cities, counties, and nation. And whereas volunteers create positive change in our communities by bringing their compassion, their time, their ideas, talents, technical skills and professional expertise to strengthen and help our county flourish and create a better quality of life for our residents. They provide support to recreation activities, public education, health and social services, housing and food service organizations, public safety and emergency preparedness agencies, literacy learning and to environmental and economic initiatives. That's a lot. Volunteers help communities provide basic human services, spiritual support, neighbor to neighbor assistance and assist and empower those who have been marginalized.

And whereas volunteers' contributions improve the lives of all residents and help maintain our local economy. Volunteers collectively demonstrate their power to make a difference and are inspiration for all of us to follow. And whereas Clark County recognizes that city volunteers are key to assisting the county to meet the needs of citizens and accomplishing our community goals, we acknowledge that volunteers help unite our great county through their selfless service. And whereas during the week of April, we call on all community members and organizations to help us thank, celebrate, and recognize the contributions of our volunteers, of all volunteers. Now therefore, the Clark County Council does hereby proclaim April 19 through 04/25/2026 to be National Volunteer Week signed by all the counselors.

Thank you so much for what you do.

Thank you so much. I wanna thank all of the Clark County commissioners for your support of volunteerism. And I know many of you volunteer quite a lot yourselves, so we appreciate that in addition. I am Sherri Braga, the volunteer coordinator from FVRL Libraries. And in 2025, we had eight sixty two volunteers that gave nearly thirty eight thousand hours.

Yeah. We honored these generous donors of their time over the last two Saturdays at FVRL Libraries. These volunteers help with our Read to the Dog programs, which promotes reading amongst our youngest citizens. Other great volunteers lead our language and art programs from practicing ASL, Spanish, Japanese, French, and English to line dancing to art shows and on the list goes. A lot of our youthful volunteers lead our gaming groups, which develops creative skills and wonderful social skills and just an opportunity as a community to gather together.

Volunteers also manage our used bookstores, keeping all those books recycling into good homes all across our service area. They are dedicated and they have hearts of gold. Washington State is a top performer in volunteering, frequently ranking among the top 10 nationwide according to 2025 data. Approximately 32.8% of Washingtonians engage in formal volunteering, which is higher than the national average. Our state ranks eighth for both total volunteers and per capita volunteer rates.

These statistics are collected by Peace Corps. We are also ranked fourteenth among the most charitable state in the 2025 WalletHub analysis. So I know this room is filled with people who volunteer, people watching online. And we just want to do a big shout out and thank you to all those that give their time that just make our community a better place to live and helping one another to be neighborly and thoughtful. And I'm a little biased, but I'm especially thankful for all those that help at the library. So thank you for taking the time to honor all those that generously give their time every single day.

Thank you, Sherry. We love our libraries and the volunteers are a huge part of making that successful. So thanks a lot. Okay. Our final proclamation is education and sharing day. I will read this one. And Rabbi Greenberg from the Shabbat Jewish Center of Clark County will be receiving it.

Thank you.

Okay, here we go. Whereas education, the cornerstone of a strong and free society, determines what we know and shapes who we are. In that light, education is important more than the mere transmission of facts and figures. Rather, it must prepare children for a life of responsibility and purpose, forming and strengthening their moral character. And whereas, a global spiritual leader and leading advocate for the advancement of education, Rebbe Rabbi Amonakam M.

Schneerson of Righteous Memory, stressed that the moral and ethical education empowers every individual to realize their full potential and make the world a better place. Such an education can nurture the unity of diverse peoples through encouraging increased acts of goodness and kindness, imbued with the awareness that even a single positive act of an individual can change the world and usher in an era of global peace. And whereas 03/29/2026 marked the one hundred and twenty fourth year since Rebbe's birth from childhood, he envisioned a world of peace and tranquility for all and advanced the sacred responsibilities and ethical values that have formed the bedrock of society since the dawn of civilization. To honor the creator, respect life, reject violence, act honestly, value family, promote generosity, and build a just and moral society. And whereas education and sharing day is observed in each year on the rebbe's birthday in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions toward the improvement of education, morality, and acts of charity around the world.

A day to pause and reflect on our responsibility to ensure our youth have the foundation necessary to lead lives rich in purpose and fulfillment through service and good works. Now therefore, we, the Clark County Council, do hereby proclaim 03/29/2026 as Education and Sharing Day in Clark County, Washington and call upon government officials, educators, volunteers, and citizens to reach out to those within your communities to work to create a better, brighter, and more hopeful future for all signed this April 2026 by the entire council. So thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you, counsel Marshall. Thank you, the members of the council. I'm Rabbi Gruenberg from the Chabad Jewish Center of Clark County. As she as the councilman mentioned, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the leader of our generation of the Jewish community of righteous memory. In '28 in 1974, the rabbi introduced a powerful idea, not just to give charity, but to become people who gives.

He encouraged every home, every classroom, every office, and every factory to have a charity box. As I'm going to, I will share it with all of you here. Charity box, it's basically like a piggy bank but for charity. That encourage all of us, adult children, to give, but to give constantly. Encourage every the goal was not just the amount, it was the habit.

Because when a child gives regularly, they go into adult who cares. Over time, the hand's becoming a given hand, and a person becomes a given person. That is why, so today, I will give this charity boxes the honor and to celebrate that day of his birthday as a day that we are basically start to practicing this good habit of giving. Although one day is set aside as education and sharing day, this message belong to every day of the year. Each of us has the opportunity and the responsibility to be an example, to teach by how we live, to bring more kindness and goodness into this world.

May God bless you all for all the work, the important work that you do for our county. And may your effort bring blessings, health, success, and happiness for you and your families. Thank you very much. Can I give it? So just basically for everybody here, we're going to finish the meeting.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you. We can set that by the back door, and people can pick one up. And thank you very much for sharing this with us today, and for bringing your children to share them with us as well. Okay. Yeah. Hi. Alright. Let's, let's move on then to the pledge of allegiance, if you'll join me in standing, and then remain standing for the invocation. Ken Turney from Casid Church will be providing that.

Okay. Try again here. I appreciate this opportunity to be afforded this, and I really appreciate Clark County's recognition of the wide variety of faiths that make up this this great county. It's it's not always a given from government agencies, and I think it's commendable for me to do this. I always feel it's incumbent on me before I deliver an invocation that this is not something I just do to be part of a ceremony or the tradition, and obviously not eye candy.

I'm just here to speak to you directly from my heart, and that I sincerely mean the words I'm about to share with you. And in doing so, I stay true to my faith and my conscience without apologies. And I sincerely invite everyone in this room to participate or not as your faith and your conscience might dictate to you. But if you would, join me in this moment of invocation. Heavenly father, I thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight.

I pray that you'll watch over the various dealings that the Clark County commissioners will be dealing with. Give them insight. Give them wisdom. Give them understanding. Give them the courage of their convictions, and give them grace as they deal with some issues, both mundane and significant, that may be divisive. Thank you for their willingness to serve. I thank you for every person in this room and the proceedings that will occur tonight. I ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Okay, we'll move on to councilor roll call.

Councilor Young. Here.

Councilor Belcott. Present. Councilor Fuentes.

Here. Councilor Little.

Here. Chair Marshall.

Here. Okay. Thank you for that. Are there any amendments to the agenda?

None tonight.

Okay. Then moving on, we have a public hearing on the franchise agreement for Fatbeam LLC, to operate and maintain fiber optic infrastructure in certain rights of way in unincorporated Clark County. And I can see the team is coming forward to brief us on this before we start hearing from the public. So welcome.

Good

evening, council chair Marshall. Dean Shattuck with Public Works. And tonight, we're introducing a request for a franchise agreement with FatBeam, another fiber company entering into our community. The franchise agreement itself assists in protecting the liability of the county, and it is a relationship that we seek with all utilities. And unfortunately, we don't have agreements with all utilities within the community. So as new providers come into the community, we do seek the franchise agreement to ensure that we do have that relationship with them. So if there's any questions, we'd be happy to expand on that a little bit.

Are there any questions from counsel? Don't see any. Is that that it for presentation?

Yes, ma'am. There is a representative here from FatBeam, if there are any direct questions associated with their infrastructure and their plans to move forward.

Would you like to come forward and say anything at this time?

To answer any questions. Should I know this all?

I don't know that we have any questions at this time. But

Yeah. I'm Paul Merritt, the CEO for FatBeam Fiber. Paul Merritt, the CEO for FatBeam Fiber. We've been in business for over fifteen years and are an Internet service provider only using the best technologies that's all fiber connectivity. And we won the we were awarded the school district Evergreen School District RFP to provide new fiber connections to all 41 schools. And that's kinda what brought us here today together. But we also look forward to using that for benefit of the community. We'll be offering fiber services to commercial service as well, businesses that are around the new fiber path as well as apartments and condos and senior living as well. So yeah, any questions for me? Happy to answer them.

Good, thank you very much. No questions at this time, so I think we'll hear from the community. Anyone signed up?

We do have one person that signed up in the room chair, and we do have a few that have their hand raised online.

Okay, and just a reminder, keep your comments to three minutes, and keep it to the topic of this franchise agreement.

Carmen De Leon.

Hi. My name

is Carmen De Leon and I go by Mello. So I read what the thing said and I'm trying to understand, but what I'm still understanding is that they're based out of another state so that means that the money is going to be leaving the state. And he just said that this is for the schools. Well just so you know, I think it was Sweden that determined over the last generation that the children's IQs had dropped. So they took away all of the Internet services and decided to go go back to good old books and paper and pencil and writing and forget trying to learn online because it's a joke and it has made our kids stupid.

So even though he says this is for schools, I don't know if schools really need it because it's been proving to make kids dumb. Anyways, and another thing it says is that it says, 1.1 says hazardous. Hazardous substances means any substance that has been determined by state law to present a threat to human health or the environment. Well, I'm pretty sure that has proven that pornography is damaging to the brain, and that early access to Internet and what the the the brain isn't ready developed for kids. So is there anything on here that's gonna protect the children from getting their hands on this because we need the kids to not have access to Internet.

We need kids playing in the dirt, climbing trees, and getting on with real life and not thinking that these things that they really do reprogram the brain. These fiber optics, the faster they are, they're they're they're rearranging the way people think. It's affecting people's cognitive upbringing, and this is dangerous to rely on the Internet. It won't bring back your hair or anything, but it will sure confuse a lot of people because it's gonna make more people brain damage, in case you didn't know that you get used to getting things on the Internet, then you're not used to reality anymore, and that's a damn Another one says liability to bodily injury. Okay.

Well, it's going to cause brain damage, and we know it. And another one says a failure to restore. So after ten years, are we going to look this back up? Because from what I see, every time they do something, it stays that way forever. And I don't see these people putting back all the trees and all the plants and all the grass after they come and mow it all down and built their structure. So if you really want to help the environment and stuff, we could do it without driver this optic stuff because we know it is for control of the population. They say it's convenience, but it's actually control. They put up these little fiber optic things with the radars, and they said they accidentally double charged everybody. Oops. And what if people didn't notice?

Oops. They just made a double payment. So go ahead. Screw people over. We know you're gonna do it anyways.

K. Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else in the room?

Nobody else signed up in the room. We do have, it looks like, one caller online. Okay. Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so. Go ahead with your public comment related to the franchise agreement only, the FatBeam LLC, and state your name for the record. Thank you.

God evening, and Jesus is my savior. Amen. Kimberly Goheen Elbon, live citizen of Clark County, Washington. My concern is that not only has, Fatbeam had no prior discussion with the Clark County Council, that's probably why you don't have any questions for them, but it's now a public hearing. We're having a public hearing when they haven't presented anything, any discussion before this council, and it's the very day it submitted to the people.

My concern is not Satbeam itself, but with this council having no prior discussion with this business and then asking for a public hearing. I question this form of government and its process to be transparent and timely to the public. Also, We The People also do not want any communications in Clark County that comply to a big government during the next pandemic, as mister Medvedji mentioned years ago. And or during a lockdown, attempt. You must, at that time, serve the people and our will if government tries to rule over the people.

And so I do have some concerns, about the wetlands. I saw the map. It's quite a large area that they're going to be, taking over. And, know, it says it leaves it to where it looks like it it might, they're gonna try to avoid or minimize in on wetlands located within and near the right of way, of this, property. So, I have great concerns for that.

We can't touch any wetlands anymore, and you take a little here, you take a little there. And before you know it, we don't have any more wetlands. And that's how it goes, and, we all know that. That's what the government does. So, we wanna make sure that we do not touch those wetlands, which brings me to the 5.1 hazardous substances.

I mean, I'm not sure about what's gonna be a hazardous substance there, but it's as it reads here, and but since you didn't have any discussion with this counsel, they may might not have read this, that there is a possible waste or pollutants or contamination into this right of way, or the county property that's there, which, is a public hazard to, the people that will be around there. Again, if memory serves me right, I don't have the map. I'm thinking it's somewhere there in the Forest Lane Commons area, if I'm not mistaken. But I it's a big area where there's a lot of people. So we wanna make sure there's no hazardous substances at all, and we wanna not touch those wetlands.

In fact, build some better wetland there if there's wetland there and, make it more presentable for the frogs and the bees and the bugs and, you know, grow, cattails for that.

Okay. Thank you. Your time's up.

Chair, that concludes public comment. Okay.

Thank you. Are there any concluding comments from you folks?

None from the PA's office, Chair. Happy to answer any questions. So thank you.

Okay. Are there any questions at this time? I think, it's pretty straightforward. If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Sure. I move to approve resolution number 2026Dash04Dash01.

I second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on now to open public comment and comment on the consent and separate business items. So again, three minute limit and it's open now. So, has anyone signed up?

Yes, chair. Jamie Bear.

Good evening, Clark County Council. My name is Jamie Bear. I am a Vancouver resident. I'm a registered voter in District 3. And I am here because I'm a public librarian. And thank you, Chair Marshall, for saying that you love the library, because I love the library as well. I have sixteen years experience working in the public library. A decade of my career has been spent here serving Southwest Washington at Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries. So don't take it lightly when I say I love the communities here in Southwest Washington. I'm also a union member.

I represent AFSCME Local three zero seven L, the librarian serving everyone across Southwest Washington. And I'm also a concerned citizen who is concerned about the conduct of the FARL Libraries Board. So you're probably aware of the library board setting aside the strategic plan, which cost our library district $400,000 because there is a disagreement of language. Because they voted their concerns, public came out in force to talk about why they supported the strategic plan as written. Our trustees sat there for two months, listened to hours of overwhelmingly supportive public comment and then voted on their own third option that did not have review by the public, that did not allow public comment.

And you maybe weren't in that library board meeting, but I was there. And you cannot imagine my heartbreaking as a librarian watching our public leave a library board meeting disheartened, betrayed. The trust in our library board has been broken. Do you know how many libraries there are in Clark County? There are nine.

And of those nine, seven of them have really active friends groups. And if you don't know who the friends groups are, they are our most engaged, our volunteer run. They raise funds for the library just because they love the library. Of those friends groups, six of them voted no confidence in our library board. These are our people who do nothing but things for the library, and they do not speak up about things because they trust the library to do its work.

This is a canary in the coal mine to demonstrate the broken trust in the library board. Now I'm bringing this to all of you because you have two candidates coming up, a Skamania County candidate and a City Of Vancouver candidate. And I know that in the past, it's just been a, yep. We we trust in these people, but we need you to build a better board to serve Southwest Washington where everyone can see themselves in the library, where people know they are heard, where I can do my work as a librarian. I'm very excited to start your Clark County Bookmobile this year, but I need to know that this county is actually going to pay attention to what our library board is doing and take accountability for the board members they appoint.

Thank you. Great. Thank you very much.

Maria Koch.

Hello. My name is Marla Koch. I'm a resident and enthusiastic library user. I am also here to speak on behalf of

the

libraries. I heard about some rumblings in the library board meetings, so I started attending in December. And I listened for three board meetings in a row as the community came out strongly in favor of adopting the five year plan as written. At the end of all that comment, the board voted against it. I was disappointed because I was for it.

But I was outraged because they voted against what the community was saying they wanted. Now maybe the whole community isn't represented there, but it was hundreds of people. So I think that's fairly representative. I know you had a special hearing about this, a workshop on March on April 11. And at the end of it, you concluded that nothing was done that would justify removal of your library board members.

I would just like to throw this out there. The word ethics was at in dispute. They wanted the word ethics removed from the five year plan. And they wanted to redefine intellectual freedom to open the door for censorship. The library board's rules of ethics say that they will maintain independent judgment without regard to personal benefits, special interests, or influence of partisan political groups.

I feel like the word ethics is charged because of partisan politics. So perhaps taking issue with a word that by in and of itself has a definition, has no charge to it, might be related to partisan politics. They are to avoid situations in which personal interests might be served. I don't want to guess at their personal agenda, but to vote against the community might be serving some personal interests. And they should be prepared to support the efforts of library staff in resisting censorship.

They were working actively to allow censorship. Another thing I'm concerned about is you have two people coming before. They were introduced last night at the library board meeting. I did a public request, records request on the Skamania County candidate they're gonna put before you. His name is Richard Mahar.

I'm looking at the letter that he sent to to promote himself. And he said, I am committed to representing the taxpayers in the district, including the nearly 50% of Skamania voters who did not support the most recent library levy. He is planning to be a champion for people who aren't in support of libraries. He said there are many ways people seek out literacy, education, and freedom. Libraries are one way, but not the only way.

I know there are opposing views, but I would hope our library board are champions for libraries. The community needs them to be champions for libraries. So this will probably come up as a consent agenda item soon. I hope you'll take a serious look at that candidate. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Please forgive me if I say this last name incorrectly. Brad Lospy?

That's really good. Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Get this up here. I'll bend over. Good evening, council. I appreciate I appreciate your time tonight. My name is Brad Laspeck. I'm the co chair of the Hazel Dell Paredevans. And the resolution concerning non county sponsored community events happened because of us, so I thought I'd give you a little bit of background. I've been doing it since '87. Costs go up every year just like it does for everything in the world and we struggle to raise enough money to do the parade every year. We'd got an email from Public Works that stated they wouldn't be able to support the parade this year and it was only for it was considered a private event.

Our big issue, I think, is that we think it's a community event. This year, we have 27 bands. We have 3,500 people in the parade. We have 15 to 20,000 people that watch the parade if the weather is decent, as we know. Kids get to get candy. They do chalk in the middle of the streets. It's free to families. All of our volunteers are are not compensated. I appreciate county staffs working on this. We got to the point, quite honestly, where we looked up what it would cost us if we could find anybody to do it, to provide the services that public works provide, and it was was not feasible financially or logistically.

There was no way we were gonna be able do it. So we were gonna thinking about canceling the parade for the first time in sixty years. We decided to throw a Hail Mary. We contacted counselor Belcott, who represents most of our district as our district two rep. She was able to meet with county staff, the county manager, and give us a reprieve for this year. And now the resolution is in front of you that would take care of it for five years. It puts a limit on it. If it's a little bit over the limit, we we can probably raise the funds for that. But it does put a limit on it. We do community consider it a community event, and we would appreciate you if you would, approve this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Carmen De Leon?

Yeah. I'm Carmen De Leon. I go by Melo. So it's my understanding it's open public comment. I don't have to stay on agenda items. Okay. Because to me, it may not seem like a big deal to some people until it is. And to me, it is a big deal. And it is when I look at New York that I used to love to go to, I wouldn't step foot there anymore. They're having Sharia law prayer three times a day at Madison Square Garden, and it sickens me. Because if I was to do that, people would come up to me, oh, you're pushing your agenda on me. Well, you know what? We need to look at behind that. It says in God We Trust. In the White House, they're reading the bible from start to finish right now.

There's a reason. Now I know it's not perfect. I know you lose half in the translation, but how many lives have been saved because it says do not kill? Because it has given people some guidance. I know it's not perfect because it came from humans. I don't think it's perfect, but I know that Sharia law sure the hell ain't perfect because if you're worshiping somebody who likes to molesque children, you know, we gotta have something in our what's it called? They say it's racist not to let them into the country. I say it's protection. And when our president says not to let certain people into the country because they have sworn to kill Christians. They are beheading us in other countries, I worry, because they are outbreeding us.

They're making it cool to kill babies. Oh, don't get pregnant. Don't worry about it. You have an abortion. They've aborted hundreds of millions of babies that we could have used because these people are having 10 kids. Muslims are having 10 kids, 12 kids, and our people are saying, don't breed. What are you, a breeder? They're gonna out breed us, and they're already taken over one of the cities I used to love to party at, and now I won't step foot. So if you want The United States to stay the way it is, we need to do something about not letting them. Yeah.

Go go ahead and talk to the legislators about not letting certain people into the country because they're not here to join us. They're here to overthrow us. And the devil is happy when we don't believe in God, and I've written that even the demons are smarter than atheists because demons fear the name of the Lord. And the demons want you not to have a God because you're easier led. So I'm just saying it's not racist to stand up for being a US God loving person, and I mean Jesus, Christian faith, and to put a ban, yes, on Sharia law because they say that certain states are letting people marry 12 year old girls, man.

Come on. You know? So it's not you know, you say you think people are hating on you, and then we're not. We're just saying, you know what? In my religion, my god says, maybe you believe in me, maybe you don't. But theirs is if you don't believe in me, I'm gonna kill you, and I have a problem with that. I hope you guys find the same problem I do.

Okay. Is there anyone else?

I don't have anybody else signed up in the room. Does anybody else in the room? Nope. We do have a few online. Okay. Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and unmute, state your name for the record, and go ahead with your comment.

Good job, Mello. Kimberly Goheen Elvin. The proclamation on education and sharing day reads nicely and has good ideas. But this is about a man, a rabbi Menachem Schneerson, and he did not teach children and adults about Jesus, our savior. In fact, his teachings explicitly rejected the core tenets of Christianity.

Under his leadership, published materials clarified that a Jew cannot believe in Jesus and must remain within the bounds of traditional Judaism. They view movements like Jews for Jesus as deceptive and contrary to Jewish faith. Many of his followers believe the rabbi was, the Messiah himself. Read up on this for yourself, but here we have our local Clark County Council proclamating such an, I quote, education and sharing day. I call foul.

Consent number nine, the two watch monitoring includes an alcohol monitor on which, is called a scram ankle bracelet, and this funding is greatly needed for those who cannot pay $600 a month as a release out of jail requirement as, my son was required this monitor, that funding had stopped months ago or he would be a free presumed innocent man today. Criminal lead prosecutor Dan Gasparino knows my son Cleve Gohin Rengo is innocent of wrongful assault one charge, and his case is my number one duty for law and justice to become truthful and constitutional, which will stop what I consider a broken judicial system here in Clark County. My duty includes consent number ten and eleven for the district court as I fell victim there, and I'm, actively pursuing accountability for my case. Consent number 14. My concerns are for Clark County Fairgrounds is the LED lighting.

And even though it seems like a, great light source, I'm concerned about constant flickering that is difficult for the eye to see, but is definitely there as it can cause eye strain, eye fatigue, headache, dry eye, and sleep disorders. LED emits high levels of blue light, which can be harmful for children and the elderly. So please take note and ask questions of health concern before installation of those lights. Under separate business number two, employment agreement for Kathleen Auto, the Clark County manager. First, and I've said this before, I believe this most powerful job must be an elected position.

Then we, the people, can hold that job accountable and have our power back. As a Christian and a caring individual, I respect Kathleen Otto and her knowledge very much, yet it's too much power for an unelected top official. And she'll earn $20,902 a month, which is approximately $690 a day plus bonuses and comp. Again, this is a very important position that must be held accountable to the people.

Thank you. Your time is up.

Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so. State your name for the record and go ahead with your comment. Julie Kepp, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so. Go ahead with your comment. Wendy Cleveland, we've sent you a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so, and go ahead with your comment.

Hi. It's Wendy Cleveland. I'm calling in tonight to ask members of the council to pull separate business item two from the agenda for further consideration. It feels like this is a very important decision that has been tucked away into an exceedingly long list of items scheduled for approval in Mass. The decision as to whether the current county manager stays in her role for another term seems to be something that should have been discussed, even voted on by the council. If that discussion has indeed taken place, I would ask if that violates the open public meetings act. Shouldn't the public be aware of such decisions and possibly be given the opportunity for input? Was anyone in the room there tonight even aware of this item listed for approval in Mass? I, for one, have questions. What was the process?

Were there other applicants? Was the job listed publicly? For the general public to be aware, the salary for county manager is currently $238,880, but will be increasing to 250,000 next year. Additionally, I'm asking for members of the council to pull consent agenda item number 24. Why is the count why is the council considering allocation of additional funds to the cleanup of Camp Bonneville when we still don't have a progress report from the last two years?

The company doing the cleanup consulting work has already been given 100,000 a year ago and approval for an additional year for another 1 to 200,000 with nothing more to show for than a feasibility study according to county staff last time I asked the same question. The BRAC agreement clearly states that no recreational use may take place on that property until which time that that cleanup is complete. Both the sheriff department and the FBI were using it under that header. The council voted to end the FBI con contract, which they should, but left the sheriff department to continue its use while breaking the same part of the BRAC agreement that the FBI was. Now we hear there's even more money being allocated to the same property.

Finally, we will be talking more about the comp plan in the hearing next Monday at 4PM. But before then, I just wanna remind you that the property that you are considering expanding the UGA for in battleground bears further consideration. BG had around a 100 acres left of Light Industrial within their city limits. They sold 60 of these acres to the same company as Maddox Industrial. That company has publicly stated that they plan to use those last precious 60 acres of Light Industrial's own land to build a church, a convention center, and a hotel.

That is nondesignated use of light industrial land. That can only be allowed per the GMA in Washington state law if the city can show a surplus of industrial zone land. I don't think the BG has a surplus of industrial land because if they did, then why did they give the argument to the planning commission that they must be allocated 450 acres of what is wetlands and land with ag capability for light industrial? BG said they needed it to meet the comp plan goal by 2045 of 7,500 new jobs. But I ask you, how many factories employing five five hundred workers apiece could they have fit on the same 60 acres within their already existing light industrial area? Thanks for your consideration.

Thank you. And just to clarify, the employee agreement between Clark County and the county manager is on the what is that called, separate business item number two, not the consent agenda. Is anyone else? Yeah, we have two. Okay.

Julie Kep, we've sent you a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so and go ahead with your comment. Julie, if you could unmute yourself. Okay. Just mute her. Yep. Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so and state your name for the record.

Me hit it one more time.

Caller?

Alright. Good evening. Hopefully, you can hear me.

Yes. Thank you.

Yeah. It's Rob Anderson here. Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated, and I'm speaking tonight, to oppose the proposed employment agreement for, county manager Otto that, would raise her pay to $250,000 in 2027. Last fall, manager Otto, stood before you and the public recommending a 1% property tax increase, bank capacity, telling us the county, faced a structural deficit, and we needed to contribute more of our hard earned money to keep services running. Now just a few months later, she's back asking you to shift some of that money into her own pocket with double digit raise on top of the 20% she already received a few years back.

So over $300,000 a year, that's with salary and benefits estimated. This isn't public service as we once understood it. Public servants used to accept lower pay than the private sector because they received outstanding retirement benefits and the rest of us, you know, mostly don't get. Now some public servants want both while the public is stuck paying the bill. In 2022, the county manager made $180,000, and now it'll be 250,000 in 2027, a huge increase while Clark County residents have seen only 4% wage growth overall.

Approve this, and you send the message that the rules are different for the people at the top. Some of you say you're for affordability in the working class or underprivileged groups. While you vote for this and raising taxes, vote after vote really shows your true values. I urge you to reject this agreement or at least, just have an increase of 3% only similar to most Clark County. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else?

That concludes public comment.

Thank you. Okay. Let's move on then to the consent agenda. Are there any items? We have a long consent agenda. Are there any items anyone would like to pull? Councilor Young?

Yes, chair. I'd like to pull items fifteen, twenty one, and 24.

Oh my.

Okay.

Fifteen, twenty four, and twenty five?

And twenty one and twenty four.

Oh, twenty one and twenty four. Okay. Anyone else? I would like to pull five. Okay. Any other polls from the consent agenda? So I would entertain a motion then for consent agenda items one through 29 with the exception of five, fifteen, 21, and 24.

So moved.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye.

Thank you. Item five. So this, I let folks know that I had some questions or just wanted to have a little more explanation of this, item related to the amount that's to be used for the fund balance, from the fund balance to the 2026 operating budget. Maybe I've got that wrong. But if you could I don't think the council has heard about this. So and the other two items that we have talked about. So if you could just brief us a bit.

Thank you, counsel. Mark Gasway, Clark County Finance Director. With me is Mitchell Kelly. He is our reporting and analysis manager. Each year we come to the council to request the amount to assign. It's a designation within our financial statements that indicate that there is a specific amount that we are setting aside of our fund balance for a specific purpose. And I'll turn the time over to Mitchell and he's going to explain the components that we are requesting to have assigned this year.

Yes. Mitchell Kelly, reporting and analysis manager. So as discussed, we have identified budgeted capital projects that will continue on and that's the first item. The second item is for continuation of projects that were already approved by council for the ARPA, remaining ARPA funding. The final one is to be used to balance the fund balance for the 2026 budget. So we're designating or assigning that so we don't overspend our available cash or available fund balance, and we're assigning it to cover what has been budgeted.

And that fund comes those funds come from?

Our fund balance that's remaining.

That's remaining.

That has been remaining over time. So we have a fund balance that's a certain amount, and we're just assigning this to cover what has been approved by council for '26.

Okay. Was this anticipated when we went through our budgeting? Yes. It was. Okay. Great. Thanks.

Yes.

Any other questions from anyone? Okay, well, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

It's been moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on then to 15, jail services.

Yep. Go ahead.

Yes, chair. Thank you. And I see director Shook online there. What I would like to understand is a little just a little bit more background behind this. I mean, this is a program that we initiated couple years ago, I think, and we've been part of the process. Now we're canceling that process because there were some obstacles that we couldn't jump through. But I'm hoping that you can ex explain this a little bit more in in detail and help us to understand what the impacts are going to be for the jail.

Absolutely. Chair and council, counselor Young, David Shook, director of jail services. So you're correct. About two years ago, May 2024, we came to counsel, and we requested permission to participate in this reentry demonstration initiative for Medicaid, through the Washington Healthcare Authority. Part of being of the cohort one was our goal was to help to kind of, be a part of developing the system.

When the Healthcare Authority started this project and these, different initiatives, they came at it or they approached it from a medical kind of a format. So many of the jails in Washington state to include our own, while we have a vendor who does health care for us, they are not providing the direct services where we're actually getting fully reimbursed for any sort of Medicaid. And so there's no other Department Center County that does provide direct services where we already have existing Medicaid processes and different things. And so two years ago, we, reached out or we got some project positions to help us to build this system. We went through three or four hiring processes, and we could not find anybody to help us with that.

We reached out throughout the state through different technical advisory groups. And and, again, for the size of jail we have, the kinds of medical that we're providing, some of the expectations of this initiative is that once you started, all inmates that qualify would actually have these services because of our 1984 facility, because of the way that we provide medical and not having a facility, the the actual how the facility is set up, capable of getting every inmate in to, assess, to evaluate, to get signed up, all those kinds of things. The other part is some of the funding that they provide, well, you could actually hire employees to do it, or new, like, support staff to accomplish that. Many of the processes, they don't fully pay for. And so the county would have had to provide the other components of that.

And so we approached this with a very conservative look because when we trans transition away from the sheriff's office, our support team was was minimal. And so we didn't have a lot of extra staff to throw into this project to additionally do that and, again, being careful about the rest of the system, the budget, and all those kinds of things. So we took a very conservative approach. Again, we weren't able to get the answers from the state technical advisers that were helping to kinda push different jails. And so the jails that saw or were able to move forward from cohort one and two to three, we did that.

We moved along and delayed our implementation of the program, waiting for that additional arrival. The other thing which we don't have is an electronic health record. Our vendor has one, but they don't fully, do any sort of billing to, Medicaid either. And so adding in different contracts amounts for that component to be added to the system for us to buy one of those systems is estimated to be about a million dollars. And the state had been working on a, statewide EHR electronic health record, but it's not going to be, ready until twenty twenty seven July.

And as you can see, the dates on this, this initiative this initiative goes for three years, and there is no information yet that is gonna continue beyond that. And so, again, we didn't spend any of the money just looking at all the hurdles that we were trying to approach. Now there are some things we continue to build. Again, we have some of those project positions that we continue to try to get into place to see if we can build some of those. But, at this point, the state approached us in January or February and said, are you all going to be fully implemented by July 1?

And we, again, we, discussed with them the hurdles that we as our size jail was having, and they said, if you can't do it, we need our $150,000 back. And so that's that's the the position that we're in now.

I don't

know if that's helpful, Townsend.

Yeah. That is helpful. What I would like to understand is the because we were pretty excited about this when when it first Sure. Absolutely. So what direct impacts does that mean? What does that mean for our ability to provide services in the jail?

Nothing changes with the services that we're providing now. Not all the services that we actually provide now would qualify under the the Medicaid, waiver. So we wouldn't be reimbursed for those basic care, procedures that we're providing currently. Only some of the services and, again, that's part of the coordination and management of that health system through our vendor. Again, not everything that we have to do or required to do to take care of our inmates would would actually qualify.

Understanding talking to some of the other, entities around the state, they were only getting about 30 of the effort that they were putting back reimbursed 30%. And so the counties or the cities that were actually able to move forward or did move forward. So example, King County, they have a full health facility that already does billing the Medicaid. So it really just added to what they were already doing in that existing, and we just didn't have that. So we're not lessening the ability to do anything.

We're growing our jail transition stuff. We're we're adding different programs with MOUD through, opioid abatement and the mental health sales tax. So we're we're we're definitely growing in those areas. We just are not able to fully, 100% all inmates, take care of this requirement that would be put on us as a jail.

Director Shook, this was a pilot program. Right? Because I'm remembering this from the legislative conversations with, Wasek. Right?

That's my that's my understanding.

It's a

three year pilot project.

Yeah. And how many counties not all counties participated in it. Right? I'm trying to go back a little bit.

No. Actually, many jails actually have pulled out of this initiative. I can get you the exact number if you would like it.

Yeah. No. I I recall this from my legislative conversation. So, yeah, it was like a let's try and see. Not that we have lost anything. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you for your efforts in this realm because it did seem as though it could be a great resource for us. It's disappointing and disappointing you had to put all the effort in and it not work out, but appreciate your your work on this.

Well, we're definitely gonna continue working with the state and other areas to improve what we can do. And then, again, if they continue it beyond 2028, we'll we'll definitely jump in when we can.

Great. Thank you. Okay. If there's no other questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve, item 15.

So moved.

It's been moved. Thank you. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay. Moving on then to item 21, councilor Young.

Yes. Thank you. I appreciate councilor Bellcock for bringing this forward. Didn't know that history. Looking forward to this, I think that when I first read this, I'm like, this is fantastic, because I fully agree. I mean, we talk about for the greater good. This is definitely a place where we're looking at that for the greater good. My question there's actually kind of two questions with this. One is what process do we look at for people who are organizing events to be able to see if they're able to do so at no charge? I'll just ask that and go ahead, and then I'll come up with the second question.

Thank you, Councillor. Ken Leiter, Public Works Director. And with me is Steve Gallup, our Transportation Division Manager, our traffic engineer, also available for any legal questions that might come up. Kevin McDowell is back there and can help us as well. So Steve, I'm going let you answer that question, and then I assume you might have some others as well.

There. With the staff report, we list some eligibility criteria to be able to have the the waiver of $5,000. So I don't know if you want me to go through that eligibility list.

Well, not so much eligibility, but more as if, I mean, I don't know how many venues would, you know, would attempt to receive these waivers of fees. And so if there's more entities than $5,000 covers, what what happens there and how is priority determined? Is it a first come, first served?

It's not a first come, first served. It is based on, you know, if you're gonna have a parade or a public event in the right of way. Like, for example, you've heard the Hazel Dale Parade, band of parades or, excuse me, parade of bands. They, you know, like Hawks and Funds Day Parade, the the Brush Brush Prairie car show, Amboy Territorial Days Parade. So it's typically those parades that we have.

I I think I read. I didn't I didn't make connect the dots on this. It maybe is it any entity can can get up to that makes it better. Okay. I thought it was a total waiver, like, annually of of $5,000.

Okay. No.

It's in advance. Big difference. Okay. Thank you.

And I can share. This is solidifying past practice and supporting those events in the unincorporated area. So this is just formalizing it, for record keeping, and for parameters for staff, if we were to get other requests.

Great. And then the other question that I had was with with insurance. And I know that tends to be a a it can be another financial barrier to some of these events. And so I was just curious if you I know I'm sure legal team looked at this, but are we doing our best to make sure that the insurance requirements are such that these organizations can actually procure that insurance?

Is there even insurance tied to this?

Yes, there is. And it's the second item here on the staff report. So doing our best to ensure that they can meet the insurance needs. I mean, this is to protect the county, of course, as well as the event holders in the event something should happen. It's pretty standard practice for us to indemnify and have the insurance request. So I'm I'm not sure exactly.

I I guess my question would be, are we looking at those the levels of coverage that are required and making sure that they're appropriate and not way out of the ballpark?

I I assume so. We haven't done this process yet, though.

And maybe Amber had no.

Evening, chair, councilor. Amber Smith's chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney. To clarify, normally with the processes and, what we look at through contract review for, the legal team or the deputy prosecuting attorneys that work for you, we ensure that there is indemnification language and there's insurance language. The Clark County risk management department that's part of HR and risk management, they are the ones that, work closely with our actuaries to help figure out what are the appropriate levels for insurance based on, generally speaking, its event sizes, what types of things were bound to occur, other factors and variables. And we, ask the offices and departments to work closely with risk management, in finding what those appropriate levels are.

Okay. So are those levels can they be different for different events tailored kinda to that, or is it just a blanket policy for all events?

I would say presumably, but I don't speak on behalf of, the risk management team with respect to that. I can say from past practice and experience that I've had with other jurisdictions, but not maybe necessarily directly here, that The risk team does, in fact, look at different factors and variables when it comes to different levels of insurance, it comes to a myriad of things.

Okay. And don't take that. I mean, we need to make sure that the insurance is appropriate. If we have a one size fits all, it can be very onerous for small events.

Yeah. No. Reviewed based on what is being considered.

Okay. Perfect.

And that's not addressed in the resolution. I'd just like to note that the resolution simply provides that insurance is required. Okay. It also sets forth who the additional insureds need need to be named as the county, the county's officers, employees. So so it's simply setting the framework for there has to

be

insurance. Here's what the here's who the insurance has to cover. The limits itself and and the type of coverage is actually not even addressed in in this resolution.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Kevin.

I'll go ahead and move approval of item number 21.

Okay. Any further questions? It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Thank you very much. Sorry for any drama that was created, and thank you, counselor Belcott, for helping to figure this one out. Okay. Item 24.

That would be me again.

And and, counsel, I again, Ken Lader, public works director. I'll just introduce Betsy as she's coming This is Betsy Wang, our program manager for Camp Bonneville. She'll be able to answer most of your questions, I'm sure. So

I don't really have any questions. I just you know, I've mentioned before, pretty much anytime something comes up on Camp Bonneville, I I plan to pull it just so that it's a more public conversation and that the and people can understand a little bit more about it. So just go ahead and give us a summary of of what this particular item is and what it means and anything else that you feel like the public might need to know.

Sure. So this item that's before you is a request to approve amendment number 19 for the environmental services cooperative agreement number W9128F0620160 for Camp Bonneville. This is an this, as the name implies, is a cooperative agreement that the county has with the army. This is as evidenced by you know, this is the nineteenth amendment. This is a process that has been ongoing.

And this particular amendment has been developed in consultation with the army after the county reviewed spending that has been ongoing over the past year in order to implement required institutional controls for the property for the cleanup actions. And there's been increased spending, and so one of the contract line items, number 11, which is for institutional controls, noticed was dwindling. And part of the ESCA agreement allows for us to move funds around as needed. So essentially what this amendment does is reallocate funding to allow for the county to continue implementation of institutional controls. That's done through moving remaining funds in line item number 12, which was for Clark County oversight time excuse me, Clark County oversight overtime.

That is actually accounted for in line item 11 already, so we're just consolidating funds there. And then we're also moving funds from, I believe it's 14, which is the Washington State Department of Ecology's line item for their oversight work. They've been doing extensive oversight work of late relating to the periodic review and REU2C RAFS work, Remedial Investigation Feasibility Study. We expect that pace to slow down now that the periodic review is behind us. And while they will continue to be billing, again, we don't expect as high of a billing as we've been seeing.

And then lastly, we had asked to open up line item 13, which relates to long term obligations. This line item was, I believe, in 2011 was the last time that that number was updated. And so not only were we asking to be able to access these funds to use towards our long term obligations, which relate to caring for our institutional controls, making sure that they're maintained, but to adjust that number to account for inflation. And so that increased budget is reflective of that inflation number. So and lastly, there's an increased period of performance for the line item 11 for the institutional controls implementation.

It just allows us to access those funds for a longer period of time in keeping with some of the other line item periods of performance. I also just quickly want to note in the staff report, there's a typo related to one of the line items. It says 13 when it shows 14. And additionally, the attached agreement from the Army, the ESCO modification, the period of performance for line item 11, it says 28 now. We actually have a revised version that states 2053, I think it is. And that's what's stated in the staff report. It's just not reflected in that attached table. We have that updated document. So I just wanted to, for the record, clarify that.

So the 2053 is accurate?

That is correct.

Wow. That's a long time.

It is a

long time.

Yeah. Unfortunately, yes.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.

So just quick question just to, so this is purely just a funding contracting modification, moving things around, and then stating the pop as I say in my this is what I do for a living, so that's all it is. It's just to correct the period of performance at the end.

That's correct. Yeah. And I know there was a comment, that came in suggesting that it was for increased costs for remediation work, and that is not the case here.

Okay. Great. Any other questions? Thanks for that clarification. Of course. Is there a motion to approve? So move. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. That concludes the consent agenda. And moving on to separate business, and this is from the county manager. Request approval for additional full time equivalents for law and justice personnel.

Yes. Good evening, counsel. So before you tonight is the request approval to of additional employees for law and justice using the newly approved criminal justice sales tax. Just as a reminder, the Washington State Legislature approved two additional funding sources to support law and justice. One was a local law enforcement grant program and the second was the Councilman at criminal justice sales and use tax.

This request is specific to the sales and use tax. Council previously discussed this specific tax five times in the last year, recognizing the need for the sheriff to add additional deputies and provided the initial direction to bring this request back to counsel for final consideration. This request specifically seeks counsel's approval to add additional staffing, including 26 employees in the sheriff's office. That includes 21 deputies, one of which will be dedicated to the HEART team, one sergeant, a volunteer coordinator, communication specialist, and two support staff. Additionally, 43 law and justice employees will be added to support the impact of the additional law enforcement.

That includes the courts, the clerk's office, jail services, public defense and prosecuting attorney. And then finally, there'll be three central service positions supporting this for payroll, HR and budget. Please note that the sheriff's office deputies will be added as positions become available, and then the support or impacted departments will be added as the impacts come to fruition. There is a draft headcount summary attached to the staff report that has the estimated timing, but I do wanna be clear though this is not solidified in stone as the sheriff's office will add new deputies as they have as they're ready to become filled. There's also a draft six year financial forecast that's attached for the new tax.

This will be updated annually during the budget process just to true up what actually occurred as, positions are hired. And just further note, this does not fully commit the new tax that we're receiving, and there will be discussions with counsel for policy direction on future allocations, which could include additional sheriff's office employees, law and justice, looking at our deficit and other options. As the council may recall, law and justice partners have been actively engaged in discussions over the past couple of years, We're identifying their needs and the impact to increasing law enforcement personnel and the importance of ensuring that that system is reviewed holistically to ensure that the adequate resources are there to maintain a functional system. Again, before you tonight is, the request to solidify the council support for adding additional sheriff's office deputies and other related positions. Happy to answer any questions council may have.

Questions? Counselor Fuentes, your light's on. Other questions?

I don't have any questions. Just a a quick comment. You know, I've been on the council now for close to three and a half years, and this is an issue that I wanted to address from day one. And it is it is nice to be able to do this, to add deputies and law enforcement in our community, and I'm grateful for the the revenue source that was allowed or given us the opportunity to use from the state. Otherwise, this would not be happening because we did not have the resources.

So happy to give you the the help, sheriff, and support the work you do. And this is the beginning of a larger conversation, like you said, on how we're going to be able to use the remainder of the funds to bolster law and justice in our community.

I have some questions on the six year forecast because as I'm looking at this, and it looks like, so we don't have a full year for '26. And then in '27, it looks like it's close to 15,000,000. And then as you keep going out, the price tag gets, it looks like higher and higher, but the resource doesn't go up as much as the, the cost. And I just it doesn't look like we have very much really left to do much by way of either adding additional staffing besides the headcount that was put together or anything we might wanna do related to addressing our structural deficit. So I just have concerns that this is a great kind of windfall for us.

But as we look out as far as all of law and justice needs, it's not going to get us there.

JULIE Yeah. Unfortunately, based on what you have seen from, I'm not going to say just for law and justice, but for general fund departments, there is a structural deficit. This has the projection yeah, Larry is still here. They can help. But this the projection for the revenue is in accordance with what we use for other sales tax.

The expenses on here is an estimate based on today, but this is going to change dependent on when people get hired, and we also have to increase that because they're employees. But you can see the projecting ending fund balance there actually increases over the years. So for 2027, it's at $11,100,000 and it increases out to 2,031 to 37,300,000 Is it going to fully balance us? No. But it will certainly make an impact that's needed. And counsel's going to have more detailed discussions on available funding here on what your priorities are as well as other funding sources that you may want to consider.

When might we have those discussions?

I'm trying to solidify everything. I'm hoping within the next month, but I mean, because we got jail that we need We to talk got lot of stuff. We got law and justice. We've got you know, we have a lot, and I think it's all gonna come to you in a nice little package that you can have a discussion to determine where your priorities are.

And including public defense? Yes. Yeah. Sheriff, would you like to add anything? Welcome.

Glad you could be here.

Good evening, everyone. I know it's getting late. I won't we've had long discussions about this over the years as we've talked about. I know some of the councillors are newer, but three of you have been around a long time. I think the county manager put everything together in a package. We've been working on this since you took the vote last July or August. We've been working on this personnel issue. So I appreciate your tentative vote in November. And I'm hoping that assuming that the vote is positive tonight, I thank you for that. The employees, you for that.

I know Kathleen mentioned it, but their bad projection doesn't have. If we do get some of that grant money, it's a good thing. We put in for about $6,000,000 and the jail put in for about $3,000,000 And we can use those if we get approved for that for full time employees until that runs out or however much we get. So that's a bonus factor that's not up there, but we can't count on it yet because we haven't heard back yet on that. So

Right. And as I understand, that can move things along more quickly in terms of hiring.

Yes. Exactly. And and as of two or three weeks ago, and I sent you at least a chair and email, we were actually at zero vacancies. That's the first time I've ever seen that in thirty seven years. It only lasted for about two days because every organization is going to have vacancies. But we actually went to zero, and we were ready to hire had they if there was tax money in there. So we've from 23, 24 vacancies a few years ago, we keep it within zero to three or four.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead.

No. This is just a long time coming. I fully support it. I'd like to move separate business item number one. Okay.

Thank you for your motion. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion?

Those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Okay. Then moving on to, item two. I have some notes here I need to refer to. Okay. So, this is a request to approve, employment agreement between Clark County and Kathleen Otto. I have a little, background information to provide, just, just, in terms of, the county manager has worked, for Clark County since 2020.

And, historically, there's been more informal performance evaluations. But this past year in 2025, we completed we established and completed a more formal evaluation process. And, to ensure that this continues forward, the chair, whoever the chair may be, will initiate the process annually, and that will be referenced in our rules and procedures when we get around to adopting those. And then also, the, raise may seem, high, but to provide some context, the county manager's position was not included in the contracted Baker Chili study that was done, which was a county wide assessment for compensation because several years ago, we were falling very much behind. And as a result of not being competitive in terms of salaries, we were loo we were losing staff.

It was having a significant impact. So for whatever reason, the county manager's position was not included. And then also, something that begins to occur if, that position doesn't keep up with the prevailing comparables is compression where those who are working under, the county manager are paid getting closer and closer to her salary. So that was an issue that needed to be addressed as well. And, I would just say that in through the process, the evaluation process, which included reaching out to the all of the department heads and the county wide electeds to get their input.

The evaluation was very positive and in most cases exceeded, expectations. So, this was the recommendation. Maybe I could read the recommendation in terms of salary. Well, the terms would be 05/01/2026 through 12/31/2028 with an option to extend one additional year on mutual agreement. And the salary levels that are outlined in the report, would, which, again, are comparable to public sector organizations of comparable size and responsibility.

Effective 05/01/2026, the annual salary will be 238,880. Effective 01/01/2027, it moves to 250,824 annually plus consumer price index adjustment and the potential for a merit increase. And then effective 01/01/2028, CPI adjustment plus potential for merit increase. We couldn't bring it fully up to comparables in one year, but this sets us on that trajectory. Are there, oh, and then the benefits, the employee shall receive all employment benefits provided to executive management employees, which includes department heads and, deputies of elected departments.

So with that, are there any questions or further comments anyone would like to make?

Chair?

Yes.

I just wanna say thank you so much, Kathleen. I think you are an asset. I know you are an asset to this county. You're on a tight ship. Your employees grateful for working with you and in the past year plus that I've worked with you, I've enjoyed it and thank you. And you deserve this and more.

Thank you for that. Other comments? Go ahead.

Yes. You mentioned tight ship, and I will say the ship has not been tight. There's been lots of holes in it, and I feel like the last three and a half years, we have been one by one plugging those holes, catching things up and bringing things at the county to very professional level to what the public would expect of an organization like us. So thank you for that work. I look forward to working with you in the future and setting more goals. And I mean, I really feel like things in three and a half years have really changed trajectory, and I appreciate your work and effort on that.

Thank you. Other comments? Go ahead.

Yeah. I just want to say how much we appreciate you and your work. We know you're modest and, didn't ask for this. We we decided to do this for all the reasons that the chair, provided. So thank you for what you do.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Just echo what counselor Young said. We've made some major improvements with department heads and movements on employees and all sorts of things and shifting and changing, and you're always very flexible and easy to get ahold of. So I very much appreciate that. Well deserved. Thank you so much.

Thank you all for your comments. And I would just say that things have gotten increasingly complicated and challenging, and having someone who can deal with a wide breadth of, issues at the same time has been essential. So I guess with that, is there a motion?

It's a motion to approve, separate business item number two.

Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Passed unanimously. Okay. Thank you, counsel. Moving on to item three, approval to create a capital project and authorize county manager to execute purchase and sale agreement and sign warranty deed, another closing document on a point seven acre located at this address in Vancouver.

Thank you, Chair. Ken Leider, Public Works Director. I was going to read that part, but you took the thunder from me. Online is David Stipe, and he will talk us through this one, and then we'll be available for any questions.

Okay. You're on mute. Yep. He's looking for that mute button. There we go.

Well,

There we go.

I I'm I'm having audio issues. I apologize. Chair Marshall, members of the council, as Ken later mentioned, my name is David Steiff. I'm the planning and development manager for the Parks and Nature division. We're here before you this evening to ask for permission to negotiate a purchase and sale of a point seven acre parcel on the Northeast corner of an existing Parks and Nature parcel that we refer to either at the Anderson property or the Anderson Dairy property.

This is the PIF five acquisition, to improve our level of service in this PIF district, and address some concurrency, issues with the PIF funds. The map apologize for the small text. The map before you shows approximately where the point five point 7 acres is. Again, it improves the usable acreage of the future community park on the Anderson property. Typically, our community parks are 10 acres or larger, and this property will just be just under 10 acres following this hopeful acquisition.

It also provides improved access to this parcel, for the future community park that we're planning to develop there. You can go to the next slide, zooms into the property. The property, as I mentioned, is in the northeast corner of the existing Anderson property, which is, two parcels there at the corner of, Northeast 182nd Avenue at Northeast 83rd Street. If you know anything about this area, the intersection of 182nd and 83rd is a nonstop right turn off of a Hundred And 82nd to head east on 83rd Street. And the speeds in this area, are, pretty pretty fast.

Folks are leaving the urban area and picking up speed to head out into the county. And acquiring this property not only helps us with the acreage and the dimensional, standards, that we would be looking for to develop a community park, but it also allows us to put an entrance to the future park at the furthest possible, location from the intersection. This is the part of our sort of normal PIF property acquisition practice. We, as everyone else in the county, we're a willing dollar willing buyer, entity. And the Edmunds family may actually be on the call this evening, but we struck up a conversation, Rick and Edmunds and I did, when we were doing some demolition work on the site.

And Rick had expressed an interest in, selling that property to the county to, enhance the park, which is a wonderful, gift to the community regardless of whether we're purchasing it, or not. If you look at the purchase and sale agreement, there's a range for, the price for the property of between 625,000 and $825,000. This is, not uncommon for the parts department to establish a purchase and sale agreement with ranges. It gives the admin the opportunity to end the purchase and sale agreement if property appraises below that $625,000 number, and it gives us the opportunity to, end the purchase and sale agreement if it appraises for over $825,000. Regardless of those those numbers, we pay appraised value for property, and we work with the real property services to get an appraisal and a review appraisal for all purchases.

So last slide is just the reiteration. If you can go to the next slide, is what the council request is, and, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Okay. Thank you. Are there questions?

I I have a question. David, did you say this was the former Anderson Dairy?

Well, there's two different Anderson Dairy. There's actually three different Anderson families. Okay. This is Linda Anderson and her husband owned the Anderson property, and this is not the this is not the larger Anderson Dairy that most people know on the count. That's why we typically call it the Anderson.

Okay. That's what I was wondering. So I thank you for the clarification.

No problem. Other questions? Questions?

Karen, thank you. What is the condition of the home?

Counselor Young, the the home's actually I've not been in the home. I've seen, pictures of the home, but it's a a CMU block, single story, ranch or rambler depending on, you know, what term you wanna use. And they've done a really nice job of caring for the property, and the home is, appears from the outside and the pictures that I've seen of the inside to be in really good condition.

Okay. Thank you. It's it's one of those things that are the challenge with purchasing property for parks is you're paying for the building that's there that is likely to be demolished. It's unfortunate, but it there's no way around it. I mean, everything's developed everywhere and, yeah, I mean, it makes sense with this being kind of a corner carve out of the existing site that we have, but it is painful to pay for that building and only have to know that we're gonna be demolishing. I'm assuming that's in the plan anyway.

I I'm that's what we have typically done with the the properties that that we acquire. That being said, we have a property on the Northeast corner of the the Prairie Steel property up north that we currently have a host in. We have a host in the Malton Falls property. We have a host at the Hobo Boat Launch. So we do have homes that we we keep, and and and we typically demolish the homes that don't have a whole lot of value to the park parks and nature division.

It's the this property or this home have potential to be a host house when the property is developed. And I wouldn't say that the foregone conclusion is to is to demolish the property. That being said, the the the budget request is to have a $100,000 above and beyond the the purchasing of the property for property security and and potential demolition. But right now, that's not the plan.

Any other questions? Okay. I'll entertain a motion to approve. I so move. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you, counsel.

Okay. Moving on to item four.

Thank you, chair.

I'll let you introduce this.

Thank you. Yeah, we're before you actually to kind of go with what David just said, willing seller, willing buyer. We're before you here tonight with approval resolution. We're requesting that you direct the county engineer to acquire proposed right of way and instruct public works to proceed with notification and publication for the necessary acquisition of additional right of way for the Northeast Hazel Dell Avenue and Burnt Bridge Creek Trail crossing. This is our project that we're doing in cooperation with the City of Vancouver to extend the trail and do that connection, make it safer through the area.

We are having trouble getting any kind of contact or feedback from this property owner. So Laura will go into that with you and I'll turn it over to Laura Henry our Program Manager for RPS.

Good evening. All right. Good evening, counselors. Again, my name is Laura Henry Slye. And in the room, I also have counsel, Kevin McDowell, for any questions that we may have in this regard.

And as Ken did state that in front of you today, have two resolutions for you. And for the audience here, and for your education as well, I just kind of want to go over a broad stroke of what this is all about. So under Washington state law, the RCW 8.08101, so every county is authorized to empower to condemn land for a public purpose. So the condemnation phase is in three phases. The first one is the initial phase where it's like, go forth and go get the right of way that is needed for the project.

And this is where we are required to identify private property for a public purpose. We do our due diligence. We stake the right of way. We hire appraisers. We hire an additional appraiser to review that appraisal, we share all this information with the project, with the property owner, and this is when we begin our negotiations.

And so this, the second phase, which is very unusual or rare for at least Clark County, is that we come to an impasse with the property owner for various reasons. And so we're asking the council to ask to provide proper notification so that we can set a public hearing at a later date. The final and third phase, which again is rare, is that during the public hearing, we would request that the council declare that this would be a public use and necessity and then direct the PA's office to go across the street and start the condemnation process on that. So to be clear, for tonight, we're asking for resolution for the initial phase and for the second phase for it to be able to set a date for a public hearing.

So let's talk about the project, because that's the fun part, right? Can I just ask you a question here? How does it and I know this the occurrence is rare. But even within that, are there times when, going from the notification to actually, doing the public hearing and implementing condemnation proceedings, is sometimes their agreement that can be achieved?

Absolutely. This is a good tool to get people to the table to talk. Great. Absolutely. This is my goal.

Good. Thanks. All right. The next phase

or the next slide, please. So for your education and the audience out here that this is this project is located in the Hazel Dale neighborhood. It's along the avenue, and it connects the Discovery Discovery Trail, which is located within the city of Vancouver, to the Burnt Bridge Trail, which is a county asset. The sidewalk will, connect well, the connection is mostly inside the limits of, Clark County. And the county secured the funding, and the county is supporting this effort by purchasing the right of way.

So would you go to the next slide, please? So part of the the next slide. Yep. So here you see a street view of Hazel Dale Avenue. So on the photo of the on the north on the upper the top side of the slide here shows that where those blue apartments are further away, that is the trailhead. Yeah. So Okay, the bottom lower right hand, Yeah. Right down there. That is the trailhead where the city is. And it would right right there where there would be a flashing I'm gonna kill this.

A rapid flashing beacon where it would be safer pedestrians to get across Hazel Dell Avenue. Then on the east side, we'll there we have a sidewalk connection up to the trailhead. The whole project is very small. It's about 800 linear feet. It's in it.

And then we have three property owners that we're dealing with or two we have conclusion with. So the timeline, if you go to this, so we're on a very tight timeline to make our construction deadlines is tonight, we are asking you to pass the the first and the second resolutions. The second resolution would set a public hearing for June 2. My goal is not to see you on June 2. But that would initiate the continent that would be where you would direct the PA's office to initiate that. And we're trying to get this all wrapped up by the August so that we can get that certification. That is an important trigger for us because that releases the construction dollars for us to deliver that project. That's kind of it. You got any questions?

Are there any questions? Go ahead, counselor.

Is the sidewalk slated for the west or the east side? It must be the west, because that's where the homes are.

Yes. It's the West side.

Alright. And you can't go on the East side? That's not a feasible option?

I believe that is not feasible. Yeah. We we did both.

Doesn't We went through this when we went on the bike Yep. Tour. And it and I appreciate you working with the city on this because we have amazing trails on both sides of this of this intersection here. And this horribly clunky inadequate connection between the two. So this is really a a great project for the county and the city both.

One of the things, if if you think about coming southbound on Hazel Dell Avenue, putting the connection on the other side takes the foot traffic all the way up to any traffic traveling southbound on Hazel Avenue. The site distance is pretty short coming around that corner. That makes sense. That's one of the main reasons. Yeah. But I'm not sure if there are others. Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, to me, this serves a significant community need and and a benefit to the community and certainly hope that we can work things out with this property owner and that everybody can win out of this, But I would support moving forward at this time. Thank

you. Any other questions? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve item four.

I so move item four.

Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you, counsel.

Thank you. Okay. And here we are at item five. Jennifer Daniel is coming up to tell us about this one and maybe Ken can introduce it.

Sure. I can introduce this again. Joining us is Jennifer Daniel, also with our real property services section. Our request before you for separate business item five is to authorize the county manager to accept a warranty deed and temporary construction easement from Betty J Tribe revocable living trust agreement and the date is on there as well as the parcel number. So Jen can describe this and please ask us any questions.

Hello?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ken, and good evening, counselors. For the record, my name is Jennifer Daniel. I'm a real property agent for Public Works.

This request before you tonight seeks council approval authorizing the county manager to accept a warranty deed and temporary construction easement from Betty j Tribe Revocable Living Trust for the Northeast 1 79th Street at Northeast 29th Avenue intersection improvement project. The county needs to acquire a 52 foot strip of land or 13,520 square feet along the southerly boundary of the tribe property, which is located at the intersection of Northeast 1 79th And 29th Avenue, and a 7,280 square foot temporary construction easement. The owners needed additional time to review the county's offer and signed a possession use agreement to allow the project to move forward while staff continued negotiations. The council approved and executed the possession use agreement on 05/28/2024. Just compensation for the land, temporary construction easement and improvements being acquired was established by an independent appraiser in the amount of $104,700 Staff reached a negotiated settlement for an additional $5,091 for a final compensation of $109,791.

The project is currently under construction and will improve the intersection of Northeast 1 79th Street and Northeast 29th Avenue to reconstruct the existing single lane all way controlled stop intersection to a roundabout, but constructed for a multilane roundabout to accommodate for future growth and traffic needs. Acceptance of conveyances for county road projects is completed by the county engineer. However, because the total compensation exceeds $100,000 county council acceptance is required under Clark County code 2.33 a point zero nine zero subsection I. Therefore, staff is requesting the council formally accept the warranty deed and temporary construction easement as the final step to complete the acquisition. That concludes my presentation today.

Thank you for your time and available to answer any questions you have.

Thank you. Are there any questions? I don't see any questions. I'll entertain a motion to approve.

Motion to approve separate business item number five.

Thank you. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. You can tell this is the last item.

Great. Thank you very much.

Have a good

much. You Motion carries. All right. And then finally, county manager report.

Yes. I just wanted to share that April, the month of April, is National County Government Month that it's established by the National Association of Counties or NACO. We're fortunate to have outstanding employees here who work every day to support our community, whether it's law and justice, community services, community development, public health and many more. I just want to say it's truly a privilege to serve Clark County and witness the positive impact that our staff has across the organization. Public service, as you know, is not easy.

It's not a we don't get a lot of thank yous, and it's not for everybody, but it's incredibly important. So I just want to personally thank the council and all of our employees for their dedication to our community here in Clark County.

Thank you very much. And I'm wondering why we don't have a proclamation.

I agree.

Think we did last year. Yes. We missed that one. Oh, well. Next year. Okay. Thank you for that. Anything else from anyone? I guess we've concluded our agenda. And without objection, this meeting is adjourned.