Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

Here we go. Sounds good. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for joining us today for this August 24th, 2026 at Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners meeting. We'll now call the meeting to order. And at the beginning of the meeting, we will review our agenda to see if there are any changes needed and to approve the agenda. requested additions, subtractions, or modifications?

No, so moved.

Second.

Seconded. Any further discussion? Just a moment. I support the process, have a little structural change, but just in case, if there's some topic that we were, hey, let's talk about this today, it does notify somebody at the beginning of the meeting that we got something that

that are necessary to stay within public good with that um we'll call for the vote commissioner yes yes and chair votes yes okay so next on our agenda is citizen input is there anyone in the room who would like to provide public comment today yeah And I'm going to ask Deborah if there's anyone, is there anyone online with it? Seeing no citizen input, we'll move on to commissioner announcements.

The Behavioral Health Advisory Board Committee meeting was on Friday afternoon, so it was just a good moment for everybody to get together. Kind of a quiet summertime meeting. We just had a quorum looking for a few folks to be able to join this, sort of a little bit of a recruitment effort, which is what we talked about last month. And working with the Regional Health Improvement Plan, kind of looking at the specific line items in there for behavioral health.

From the beginning.

And we did have the managed camp meeting on Thursday. Everything is progressing forward. And thank you to the group that is going to be running the camp. And apparently, we had like 10 pets today. So it sounded like almost everybody had a pet that had moved in.

I know. Yeah. It's an opportunity for people to not have to be separated from their pets. Okay, I'll just mention that this afternoon the coordinate homeless response office is meeting at 4 and then the regional housing council is meeting at 5 30. any other announcements okay uh you know we can go on to our regular action Action item agenda. The first item on our agenda day is a work session on the amendments to the D.C. County Code for the Ambulance Service Area. And I see we have Tom Foon, Chris Bell, and Jared Jeffcott. I'm filling in for him.

Yeah, Jared was on vacation, so he wasn't able to join. Luckily, Drew was able to join with us.

Thank you. Okay. Whenever you're ready. Okay. Give me a second here. I'm having a little trouble. While you all are getting set up, it does give me a chance to ask a question or two about just this If I am tracking correctly, there were both red line copies and finished without red line copies of the materials in the packet. That's right. I wasn't quite sure. I read and then I started reading and then

I apologize. I have two different Zoom accounts, and it was defaulting to the wrong one.

Well, we know the audio was working at one point. Yeah. And we'll get you every time.

I can ask the rest of our panel. One of the things I was wondering about was what's going on in the world of ambulance services and ambulance service areas across the state. Are there interesting trends to be aware of or big changes coming or

Nothing crazy across the board. I know a lot of people are updating their infant service plans and everyone's kind of trying to get on the same page with how they look and how they're presented. There's been so many of them over the years. Some of them haven't been updated for a long time. There's some legislation for some inter-facility transfer stuff that they're looking at to maybe from like hospital to hospital and how those are... And whether the service area, like the provider in that area, so as for Ben, would have to try to refusal versus maybe giving it to somebody else, like the hospital potentially to be able to have that, which it's really early on. So I can't really comment much on it. But that's one thing that I've heard.

Interesting. Well, this is planned. Take care of those possibilities.

Yeah, I think that there's kind of a divided opinion on how that should look. And this goes back to the traditional method where each ambulance service area provider has that first right of refusal to do those or not, or subcontract that with somebody else if they would like.

But I know we went through the exercise with the Pine Fire District specifically to add the opportunity to put a next unit on the run card right it's like one two and three is my understanding is how it's working hasn't the private company wasn't able to hold up to that but we did allow them to be on the run card to yield the third call or whatever it was going to be yep and that worked out during the time period really well for the time

because before chief was there but um you know we'll still work with some privates in the area and um are able to have like some statement and understanding of them to be able to work together on things that we don't have the ability to do and they do so it's nice to have that in there um good it's good to hear I think in our region our within Deschutes County there are

Yeah, I mean, so there's private operators out there that can work with the franchisees, but the franchises themselves are helpful.

Yeah, they're typically in all fire departments within the region. So do EMS as well.

So there's nowhere in the state is there a franchisee that's not a public entity?

No, there are, yes. In like Multnomah County and Washington County, they have KMR and Metro West.

Yeah, 12 Valley to go to. OK. In Clackamas County saw it popped up. Lots of County that that's.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of the coastline has private expenses as their.

PSA holders interesting. Maybe I'll just email presentation. Somebody else to put it up. Yeah, it's just Chris. I'm going to go email to you.

Already bought this. Yeah, I could do that.

So another high-level, it looks like there's references back to state law a little bit more. Is that one of the scenarios here, the fact that it talks about OER 333 and all that? Was that kind of a guiding light for this content? Is it aligned with what the state's doing? Does anybody have an appeal for that?

Yeah, I think so. The references to general state law were to keep it flexible. OARs and statutes. So we wouldn't have to go back in and change them, you know, change the legislation or whatnot.

Was that a driving factor? Was there a driving factor of the state legislation recently, or is that just our timing and our...

I think part of it was this MS modernization effort, which I don't know if you can explain a little more, because I'm

Yeah, the state and Oregon Health Authority looked to kind of change the structure of how they administer all able service areas and some things in the state. So with those rules that they came out with, and it's just a lot of them are different committees and groups and like ATAB areas for like reviewing trauma, reviewing certain things. And so a lot of these things that we tried to address were within that as they're moving forward. They're still in the process of making those changes.

I'm going to be able to add a little bit to that too. So part of it was a lot of the ASAs throughout the state too were just reiterations of very, very old plans. So I believe that I think Multnomah County was the very first like revised new kind of copy there. And so Oregon Health Authority and the state were kind of moving towards a revision of the ASA plan even prior to the modernization of the EFS Act. Now there's some provisions within that that could somewhat change some of the requirements for the ASA, but it's nothing like that's super heavy or major or something like that. But yeah, that process was kind of already in place prior to that.

I think a lot of it was as far as driving part of Tom's presentation there was also just I think an observation in the committee with what happened a few years ago and by me just because I'm a lawyer I like clean language there was a lot of duplication and and quite frankly there was some mismatching or inconsistencies between the code and the plan that we noticed. Kind of a lot of that sort of arose in the circumstances that happened a few years ago with the Pine Fire. After that, we took a long, hard look at those documents and also just kind of, I think the committee really talked a lot about how those documents, which again are very old, I think they're 25, 30 years old, compared to how things actually work for franchisees, both internally for each franchisee, but also how they interact and how they contract. I think there was some desire to make things more flexible for people to be able to, for instance, subcontract when they need to define contracts what types of things should be easier to subcontract for and what types of things maybe when you're talking about, again, the fact that there are established franchisees, what we need to kind of protect against. And there are a lot of inconsistencies and duplication as far as some of the enforcement and complaint procedures between the plan and the codes. We really wanted to clean that up. And I think we have. So there, I think there was a, Those were a couple, both the EMS modernization, but also just kind of observations from the documents the ASA, but also with EMS in general across the country. I think we have a lot of input from the contractor on that sort of thing. Thank you.

Dan, before we get going, I apologize. I have two Zoom accounts.

I just didn't pay.

We have a shared account now at Public Health, so that's one of the reasons. Anyways, thank you for having us here today. I'm Tom Coon from Deschutes County Public Health. And I'm here today in my role as ambulance service area for the county. And I have with me, did you introduce yourself already, Chris? No, I haven't. I'm Chris Bell from County Legal.

And I'm Drew Norris of Bend Fire. I'm our AMS chief.

And we have a couple of our ASA members with us, so Chief Holsey back there as well, so... Anyways, we're here today to talk about the revisions to the county code and the plan. If you could go to the next slide. And the purpose of this presentation is to give an overview, a brief overview of the ASA. I know all of you are pretty familiar with it over the years. And I'm just going to run through that quickly, review the process we used to revise the code and overhaul the plan. I changed it from just revise the plan to overhaul. revisions, whereas the code had a little bit less of an overhaul done to it. And then a brief overview of the primary areas that were revised and answer any questions. Of course, you know, feel free to stop me at any point. Okay, next slide, please. And so just to review the purpose of the code and plan, it ensures all the areas of the county have qualified 911 EMS transport service providers. That's like one of the major parts of it. It establishes the boundaries for those providers. It ensures they're in compliance with Oregon revised statutes and administrative rules. And it gives us the ability to respond and investigate any complaints about the franchises or private providers. and establishes the ASA committee and provides the committee with guidelines. So that's the general overview of what the ASA is about. Next slide, please. Just threw in a map of the ASA county coverage area. As you see, we do in spots extend into other counties. Usually that's you know, where we have the EMS available, and sometimes the smaller counties don't have EMS close by in those very rural areas. Next slide, please. Once again, an overview of all the franchise ASA members. They have their logos up there, Bend, Black Butte, Crooked River, Lapine, Redmond, Sisters Camp Sherman, and Sun River. And all of these groups have a representative on the ASA committee that fully participate in the process. And also many who have helped me in revisions of the plan.

I have a question on the map because I see it's over the pass and then it goes down to like where 20 and the way to G. So who goes up there and picks up something? Does it come from Blackfield or what? Where do you send them out there?

Yeah, there's a little color key if you're able to read it.

Okay, so I need to go to the color key. Yeah. So Blackberry Ranch then is the one that's going to have to go up there.

Yeah, in that particular instance.

So they actually have a huge area.

Yes, but it is less populated area also.

Right, but there are a lot of accidents up there.

Yes. Yeah, I think that's definitely Highway 20 is a lot of their calls are for things that motor vehicle accidents.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, sorry to take you back.

No, it's okay. And Sisters is in the area too. So if Black Butte doesn't have an available truck to go out there, then Sisters can provide some.

Well, actually, I'm working right now on getting into urgent care in Sisters because the fire department is having four people a day come to them for medical help because we don't have that emergency situation. So it'll be interesting to see if we can pull it together. just because of all the tourists and everything they come through, plus the people that live there. They're always going to the fire station.

Yeah, that would be great.

Well, yes, it would be great.

Okay, next slide. So Chris covered some of this with you already. Why was the Cohen Plan revised? Far back as I could tell, it was fully revised, was 27 years ago, and I couldn't find any records that went further back than that. Also, Oregon Health Authority EMS program is now regularly enforcing compliance with the OAR 333-260 that defines the adoption and approval of ASA plans. Up to recent years, OHA EMS was very understaffed and they really weren't enforcing any compliance with the plans. And then in the last few years, they've become much more visible and present I hardly heard a peep out of them other than every once in a great while. So due to that, we started this process to update the code and plan, and about halfway through, then OHA EMS sort of reached out, hey, we're starting to get after all the ASAs in the state to request that they start revising their codes and plan. Luckily, we already started that process because we kind of foresaw that coming. The code and plan are inconsistent in language, like where the code says one thing, the plan says maybe something slightly different. We want to clean that up. It doesn't incorporate some changes to best practices or some of the laws, so we want to make sure that's all up to date. The existing plan lacked clear relevant standards and also didn't have updated maps that are now required, so the new plan has more maps in it. And the code and plan currently existing create potential for liability and difficulty enforcement, as Chris discovered in the past when we were looking at it. That's kind of another thing that kind of got us in the direction of, hey, we need to do something about this. Next slide, please. I want to just point out the difference between the code and plan. While the plan does exist as an appendix to the county code, the difference is that the county code and it's updated for this one in particular by County Legal with support and input from me. And OHA EMS will not review county codes. County Code Appendix A, the plan, is updated by a state committee, the administrator, county legal, local EMS-related partners, and the hired contractor. So there's many people in that work sector that contribute towards the plan as kind of their guiding document as well, versus the code being the law. And OHS, OHA EMS does review ASA plans for compliance. They have guidelines that we need to meet in order for it to be in compliance. I'll speak a little more about that portion in a second. So, Chris, this is your slide right here.

Oh, next slide, please. So, as Common mentioned, you know, when we had the situation a few years ago, we had a complaint and an investigation, and we worked with pine rule fire districts former chief on sort of resolving some um some differences as far as what could be done to generate new revenue and what was being done some of the things we're all familiar with what what occurred and what we really found out in the plan but in the code a lot was there were some inconsistencies there was some lack it was lacking some clear standards um and some references to the law and whatnot. And so what we wanted to do was first and foremost in the complaint, the enforcement process, In that situation, you know, we were finding things just as simple as there would be a deadline in the code that was 14 days. And then there was a deadline in the plan that was 10 days for what could be seen as or were, you know, the same thing for response times and things like that. And so we worked to clean that up. Wanted to have clear, more robust terms about subcontracting of services. It became pretty apparent at that point in time that there really was not much, if at all, in the code or the plan about whether or not even subcontracting could be done. And then if it were kind of what the standards were and what the process would be. So we gathered input from the committee and the franchisees as far as what they wanted and what they didn't want. what they thought would be easier, what they currently did. Really, there was just kind of a lack of standards. And so people were kind of doing things just as necessary and as needed without a real kind of generalized process. So we tried to get... nail that down a little bit better so everybody kind of knew what the expectations would be, what kinds of services can be subcontracted, what kinds of services shouldn't be or can't be subcontracted. And so we put together more robust terms in that. There's a whole new section in subcontracting. better transparency and information exchange from the franchisees to the ASA committee. There was really not a lot of requirements as far as what type of information, both at the inception of a franchise through franchisees doing business, through working with other franchisees franchisees and just kind of keeping the BOCC prize in their role as the board for the ASA, for the county ASA and whatnot. And so we added a lot more robust terms as far as what's required for reporting, both at the initiation of a franchisee. And I think a lot of the franchises are coming up for if not all of them are coming up for renewal i believe in 2028 yep is that correct and so uh we really wanted to bolster that to make sure that the bocc is is um in their role is uh apprised of what's going on and given the the information that we felt they should have in determining whether or not franchises should be renewed or put out um And also just as far as things like cooperation between franchisees, what happens when a franchisee stops being a franchisee, what happens when franchises are transferred, what happens when services are transferred, things of that nature. And so we really bolstered that. Approved definition of processes from Fran, I guess I've sort of covered that. more precise definitions as far as what's required and what's prohibited as far as things as granular as billing and whatnot and then improve consistency within and between the code and the plan. Again, what we really observed is that there were inconsistencies and we really needed to improve those. Again, those Those documents had been around for almost 3 decades, and I think when they were originally put together. That that was, I think, when the whole notion of an was 1st. Created and 1st came about and so I think those documents were trying to do the best they could the information they had. And so now, after. almost three decades of trial and error and kind of the franchisees working under both the plan and the code, we kind of came to an updated code that really improved that lack of consistency and clarity.

Next slide, please. Hey, the ASA plan revision timeline, just to give you an overview of what we were doing since we first came to you in March of 2024, when the ASA committee requested funding to secure a contractor. So we began a competitive RFP process July through September of 2024. The ASA committee helped lead that process. In October 2024, Fitch & Associates were the contract. They're based out of Texas, but they do this type of work with updating ASA plans nationally and also updated plans in Oregon also. So they're a pretty well-known entity. And the group felt they had a lot of the really core EMS experience that maybe some of the other applicants didn't have. Then November 24 through August 2025, Fitch & Associates had worked with our committees and some joint meetings, and then meetings with myself and Chris and our chair, Jared Jeffcott. And then also they tried to include some local stakeholders. They contacted some of the local hospital systems and asked for input. They didn't really get a lot of input at all from the for what was needed for the plan. And the ASA committee did provide them with a lot of input. They finally delivered to us complete revisions. But the thing is, they're looking at from their outside lens and not from the local Deschutes County lens. And there are many specific Deschutes County things that we know that they can't necessarily look up and find out themselves. So that's where the ASA committee members, people like Drew, Chief Halsey, Jared Jeffcott from Sun River Fire, and then also Dusty Miller from Redmond Fire, they all really gave me a lot of input in different areas where they had that tech specialty, tech special expertise related to technology. what was going on here locally in the Chutes County. It's not information you can just look up online. So we worked through that and then in early February I had to deliver the plan to OHA EMS for review and what they always ask is please let us review it to make sure you're in compliance before you take it to your commissioners for approval because after, if you do approve the updates to the plan, then I still have to take it back to OHA EMS for final approval, following commissioner approval. So we submitted it to them. They did come back with a few changes they wanted made. And of course that takes several months for that process to happen. And then our second revision we sent to them, they approved and said we were fully in compliance. And then at that point we were, Um, ready to bring it to all of you for approval. Unfortunately, this happened right when summer was beginning and trying to get people's schedules. To was a very difficult and that's why. We're here in the box. So, anyways, um, next slide. A little hard to see the, uh. Visual that's on that slide, but basically that's from the. administrative rule 33260, and it really lays out the order that they want your ASA plan to be in. So our original plan contained many of these elements within, but it wasn't necessarily in this exact format, so we lined it up exactly like the administrative rule, and that's where the contractor really helped organize all those things, and they really understand the administrative rules and what's needed. And also the contractor tried to include any standards related to EMS modernization. That's something that's being worked on at the state level to try to bring our EMS systems up to date, basically. And so that was another thing the contractor really helped with to get started. Here are the major changes to the plan. It now uses a word-for-word approved OHA EMS definitions and citations. We do have some definitions in there that are Deschutes County only specific definitions, but we have to also include all the OHA definitions, and then we have to cite exactly where that's from. We had to make sure everything was lined up. We now have some maps to be part of the plan, a map showing ASA boundaries and response time zones, a map depicting all 911 fire district and incorporated city boundaries. All those maps are within sub-appendix A, which is kind of like the new document we're bringing forward to where it has different information. such as maps, contact information, and basically everything that OHA EMS requires as part of our plan. So there's some things that we didn't necessarily in the past think were super critical, but now OHA EMS is requiring that. And during this time, since we were opening up the plan and support, this was the opportunity to make any changes to ASA boundaries, just in case people felt like the old boundary definitions were maybe a little outdated and they should change a few boundaries. A few of the agencies discussed this, but then in the end they said, just to keep it as is, it was fine. And maybe in the future we'll revisit this. But there was so much going on with the plan at this time that they kind of felt maybe it'd be better to bring that as a separate issue sometime in the future, if necessary. Next slide, please.

One more.

Okay. This is just a couple sections because If you looked at the track changes version of the plan, it is marked up everywhere. It's really difficult to follow because it was an overhaul. But just a couple examples of areas that had significant changes. System elements in Section 5 of the plan. System elements includes components, structure, and processes of the Deschutes County ASA. It covers things like how 911 calls are dispatched. That one we were pretty good with our 911 information, but we did update some parts of that. Chris Perry from 911 also gave a lot of input for that portion. Just a little more detail about how non-emergency inter-facility transfers are handled. Notification response time standards brought up to scale with the new OHA standards. And then Once again, just more references to OER requirements for EMS services. So much of this added information was kind of like boilerplate info that they wanted in there. You know, it's not necessarily things we're going to use all the time, but once again, it's part of the administrative rule that's in there, so we added it. Next slide, please. And then also Section 6, Coronation. This is a little bit more specific about how Deschutes County works in conjunction with other emergency response partners, mutual aid agreements. One thing I wanted to mention is because we're going through this process now, the fire chiefs in Deschutes County are working on updating their mutual aid agreement because it's somewhat dated at this time. So that's going on right now. should be updated sometime in the near future and that will be put on file with legal here once that's updated. A disaster response, Ben Duda from emergency management helped me out with a little bit with that section. So that's another one of our partners that helped. He helped with hazardous materials as well. And then specialized rescue, that's something like having to rappel into a canyon to get someone stranded or just very unusual wilderness situations. where it's not like a normal part of day-to-day activities. And in sub-appendix A, there is a section that lists all the specialized rescue services that each provider has. Next slide, please. So I mentioned the mutual aid agreements being updated. We are going to develop a franchise agreement, but we're going to wait until the franchise terms renew in July 2028. So that's more work that's going to start next year with getting ready for the franchise renewals because the 10 years is finally coming to an end.

But it was five years right before that, right? So it was extended to 10 years and now it's 10 years. We're 10 years. Oh, boy.

Yeah. I know. It just seems like yesterday. That was 2018. It was. And then the committee came and requested it's done every 10 years. And logistically, it really makes more sense to do it every 10 years. Five years is... fairly soon, especially since we are meeting regularly as a committee and I'm involved with oversight. So 10 years is fine. I'm happy to say I rarely get a complaint of any kind. I mean, just very minor stuff. And a lot of times it's stuff that falls outside of the ASA jurisdiction. But I am there as somebody that they can contact and I can refer them to whoever the appropriate contact is. And then I've talked so much about all the EMS rule changes, but there are going to be more OHA EMS rule changes coming up, and they're working on that right now. We don't know exactly. They said they're hoping, in fact, that October 1st, they're going to have some new rule changes, but they're not sure when we would be required to update our plan again. I'm sure sometime in the next year I'll have to come back to you, but it will be a much smaller update to the plan. And then, as you see in my last bullet there, OHAMS, my contact there, these were his exact words from an email. He said, you know, Deschutes County has a already does most of these updates. So I kind of felt like when they were reviewing our plan, they were asking us to do some things that they know are going to be part of updates in the future to their rules. So they're just suggesting, hey, why don't you change this now? And then you don't have to change it when the updates go into effect on October 1st. So anyways, I'll be back again next year for that as well. And then just we have one recommendation. No decision needs to be made today because we're going to have a first and second reading of what we've presented to you today. But after those readings, we're going to request that the amendments made to the Deschutes County Code Chapter 8.30 Ambulance Service Area and approve amendments to 8.30.100 Appendix A, and the service area plan for Deschutes County, as well as adopt the new sub-appendix A, which is part of the appendix, which is the new document that we brought to you today. And? It'll be a public hearing on Wednesday. Yes, a public hearing on Wednesday. And yeah, we can go from there. So any questions?

It's sad that we came to that conclusion. medical director, so Deschutes County EMS medical director, and I was wondering if there's going to be definitions. So under basic life support, what BLS means, it says approved, authorized by Deschutes County EMS medical director.

Yes, we have a medical director representative on the ASA committee, Dr. Rosenberg. Is that your

Kelly or our ears yeah okay suppose over here soon okay I know I think pretty sure he's here at Sun Rivers and other dispatch calls it says the PSAP shall have a medical director qualified for supervising position so it's just references to that and I didn't have a feel for and they have their own separate doctor people's and he reviews all of the calls that come into them we have a committee that from the ASA franchisees they go in and and

work through calls that come in and how they should be handled. And a lot of these doctors all work together in the ER. They're all ER doctors, so they know each other and work very closely as well.

And at the dispatch level, that's real key if they have to change their cars for the emergency medical dispatch system, that they're giving advice over the phone. So that's where that kind of comes in. So that's pretty tightly controlled at that point. Yeah, it's very difficult to change even if it's kind of worthwhile.

We do need you on the record for your name and identification and everything for a minute.

Eric Halsey, Fire Chief LaPonte.

Thank you.

Then another page, a couple pages later, talks about within two minutes, four minutes, two minutes, they're always changing the call response. So notification and response times are That's how I was tracking where this is. So the red lines.

Yeah, so that basically. Was that was reviewed by. In conjunction with prosperity from 911 and they had asked. Asked if we could change some of our response times to align better with their current standards. So, so this notification time.

So if receiving a call and having it dispatched back out or something like that, and it's going from two minutes to four minutes, is that correct?

Yes.

Yeah, that was- Is that substantive? I mean, because that's those critical moments.

Yeah, not really. That was recommended to us by OHA EMS, and I reviewed it with Chris, and he felt that that worked for them.

From our experience, they're much faster. Well, that's my thought. I mean, yeah, this is if all of a sudden there's just a high load, low staff, and bad situation, and this is like, oh, we're not doing what we said we were going to do. I'm sure it's a lot faster.

Especially for a cardiac arrest. They don't have to go through all the questions. They can hear that someone's not breathing and push a button, and they're getting them out right away.

I referenced a supervising physician, too. As I said, it just felt like I didn't have a feel for what all that was. You know, it's like another whole system out there that this thing's referencing all over the place.

I don't know that it's bad, it was just... Yeah, so the agency has their own position as advisor, and then the county has one, and dispatch has one.

I mean, if I remember correctly, back in the time when we were having... There were the tensions and concerns in the line. There was one of the issues was, well, is the district able to basically overrule the recommendation by either the clinic or the hospital? a role in smoothing those kinds of issues out if they came up again?

Yes, they could, but typically they help set our protocols and our standards of what we can treat with and what medications and how we go about the treatment that we give. Not so much do we transport or do we not transport this person.

And many things in the plan, the edits that were made are relevant to like our EMS ASA providers, but to the layperson might not make a lot of sense. So many things in here, there are the standards. They're like, yeah, that makes sense. And, you know, for me, you know, I don't really fully understand it without researching exactly what's going on. So, but this is like a working document for ASA providers. That's the intention of the plan.

You talked about how you and Chris have been thoroughly through all this stuff, but the full committee has been through all of these documents.

Many times with Tom and with Chris to review it and then send it back. We worked with Fitch & Associates as well in a couple of meetings to make sure we're getting the language correct and how things actually operate in District County versus in Texas or wherever other places so that we could have it

for what we needed. And we had some key members that were a little more, gave more input than others do as well. But yeah, like I said, working with tissues kind of 911, emergency management. So, you know, we kind of worked with everybody that's related. I also reached out to our public health preparedness coordinator and worked with her through a little section where we're referencing here, where public health is referenced. And yeah, so there was a lot of input that also, And the good news is I've learned so much from doing this that when we make future revisions, I would be able to do it because there was a huge learning curve. But now I would feel comfortable because I've gone through everything pretty thoroughly at this time.

I'll say, too, that when this process started, even before that, when the issues, the I didn't even know what an ASA was. And so I really had to kind of, you know, burn trial by fire and the committee and everybody involved in it were just amazing resources just to kind of know what was being talked about in the plan and kind of what was, and the code and kind of what the goals were. Because, I mean, you know, oftentimes as a lawyer, when you're going into a very specific situation, I mean, you have no idea what the practical aspects of what that presents, what that means, and to just have that as a resource. The committee was amazingly helpful, and the input was, it was very collaborative, and I learned a lot more than I ever thought I would learn about ASAs and how, you know, ambulances and EMS services are run, so.

Yeah, now the committee kind of used Chris as a member of the committee as well. He gives a lot of input. And also just day-to-day, he gets emails here and there from ASA members. They always work through me or copy me on it. But a lot of times there's some real specific legal things that come through to Chris. Now we have a resident ASA legal expert. Resume builder.

Just think you can go work in Texas.

Yeah, right. Consultant. So under the communications system, the system access talks about the PSAP is also equipped with text and 911 capabilities. So it's interesting to see that written in here. I don't know what the motivation that was, which is fine because I know that that's basically just the beginning for the next gen 911. There'll be position information and then also audio, visual, live feeds or whatever could happen in the It's just like right over the horizon, right? Yeah.

We utilize a thing called PulsePoint. If you guys aren't sure, it identifies you if you're a quarter acre or a quarter mile within a public facility and a cardiac arrest goes down, and that's run through our dispatch system. It's like I have it on my phone, so if there was a cardiac arrest in this building right now, I'd get a text, and it would give me directions on how to get there, be able to start care early before the units arrive.

Okay. In communication, Chris Perry also gave input. There are certain sections. Anything that's 911 related, he reviewed everything and made any edits.

Are there more questions or comments from listeners?

I'm just glad I didn't have to be taken to the ambulance when I got hit by the tent a couple of weeks ago. The other woman did. Yeah. No, because the pop-up tent popped up and came down on two of us. But anyway, I had blood everywhere, but I drove home to see my husband first. Because he was a new nose and throat doctor. Anyway, I'm like, oh, I'm sure I'm fine, right?

I guess I didn't hear about that.

Oh, no. Yeah, I know we were doing a dedication ceremony for the North End for ODOT. And they had a pop-up tent. And they didn't have any weights on the pop-up tent. And the dirt double picked it up and came down. And I could see it, but my purse weighed so much. I'm like trying to get out of the way. And it hit me like, you know, it could have been really awful, but I was just lucky. I just had a lot of blood and no, and it wasn't, my nose wasn't broken, but yeah, no, the other woman did go in the ambulance. So I proved that I was a horse person, right? Because you're used to a lot of blood and you can handle it. I'm a blood vessel.

Okay. Well, if there's no further questions or,

Wednesday but to wrap up for today and will will some of the franchisees be at the meeting on Wednesday as well they'll be sent an invitation to the meeting so kind of like today yeah I was trying to most trying to think about for a public hearing who who would actually show up to give

you know, give a testimony or, or, or an input on an ad hearing like that. I mean, it just seemed like the franchisees were the most likely people to provide any input then.

But just trying to get a feel for them. And many of them are on vacation right now. I was on vacation last week myself. So yeah, this time of year is just all good to be here. Okay.

Either on vacation or taking care of tourists.

Yes, or that.

Yes. So I've been really busy one way or the other.

Yeah. All right. Well, if there's no further questions for today, we'll see some of you at least on Wednesday. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. from number two on our agenda, the treasuries are important. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go ahead. We'll give Bill some room to come up to that.

I don't. My kids are too. That's always been the answer to five, six years. Thank you. Okay, thanks. See you soon. See you soon. All right.

We have Tom Kuhn on the agenda, and then we have Bill Kuhn on the agenda. Oh, yeah, look at that. Interesting aside, I had a meeting out at the hospital. By the way, for the record, I'm Bill Kuhn, Schutz County Treasurer, and I was involved in a meeting at the hospital this morning, and we were talking about the expansion of our ED, bringing in a modular unit. It could be up and running as early as the end of September, and it's going to add up to 11 additional exam rooms. out there. So we have a huge bottleneck in the ED at certain times. So moving forward with addressing that. Again, thanks for allowing me to present the July Treasurer's Report. As I usually do, I take a couple of minutes and provide a high-level overview of current economic conditions. Sound a little bit like a stuck record. We still have an extreme focus on geopolitical risk. Back at center stage with the announcement last week that the U.S. is ramping up economic warfare and Iran has threatened retaliation. Really the focus, and there were a few more details that were released this morning, but this is kind of a secondary focus, focusing on individuals, corporations, and countries that continue to do business with Iran. and are really trying to put a stranglehold on economic activity within Iran. And this action has, again, effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and avoided the 60-day ceasefire. And big picture ongoing issues continue to focus on ultimate control of the Strait and Iran's nuclear program, And it doesn't appear that there's really any easy off-ramps to resolve this conflict at this time. It's going to be kind of more of the same for the immediate future. The rising costs associated with the ongoing conflict continue to have an impact on U.S. government borrowing costs, with shorter-term and long-term bond yields remaining elevated. with two- and three-year yields at 4.11% and 4.18% respectively. The 30-year mortgage rate remained elevated at roughly 6.59% at month end, and this is driven by a 10-year Treasury yield that's currently at 4.631%. On a related note, it was announced that total U.S. government debt announced last week now exceeds $40 trillion. Our federal debt has increased by 50% since 2019. In terms of kind of understanding what $40 trillion means, I heard an interesting comparison last week that it roughly equates to the value of all single-family homes in the U.S. So if you took that cumulative value of single-family homes in the U.S., that roughly equates to $40 trillion. With this news, it's also estimated that annual interest costs on this debt have risen to a record $1.2 trillion right now. And at the end of last year, I think we were roughly at $1 trillion in debt servicing costs. And that also now exceeds our annual defense budget. That was last year's budget, not what's being proposed right now. On the heels of this news, Treasury Secretary Bassett announced that the Fed would be doubling the level of long-dated bond buybacks, where they're essentially creating a secondary market to stimulate demand and hopefully reduce yields. And what this is, is essentially debt reshuffling, not a debt reduction. And so far, this had a slightly positive impact on overall bond yields last week, mostly in long-dated 10- and 30-year bonds. But the underlying reason for higher yields still exists, which is heavy government borrowing, ongoing fiscal uncertainty, persistent inflation risks. and growing competition for capital. There's also been a wave of corporate bond issues, which are actually basically creating capital or competition for US government bond issuances. And also the rollover effect that happens at these auctions where bonds mature and then they have to be reissued. So there's kind of... taking care of the existing debt that's already out there in the market, and also new issuances to fund continued government needs there. Surprisingly, a latest CPI report for July showed that inflation declined by 0.1%, not much, but it was a decline, and it decreased the annual pace to 3.4% year over year. Over the month, gasoline prices, and again, we're talking about in July, dropped substantially due to the 60-day ceasefire with Iran, which has now been terminated. Even excluding food and energy products, prices were broadly flat for the month. So that was a little bit of positive news in July on inflation. It's now expected that when we see the August numbers, that that number is going to likely tick up with the increase in energy costs. And then there's still a lot of inflationary pressure in food. With this news, the market is expected that the Fed will hold rates steady during the next Fed meeting, which is scheduled for September 15th and 16th. In congressional testimony several weeks ago, Chairman Warsh said that cooler June and July inflation doesn't mean that the Fed can rest easy for the remainder of the year, but it does mitigate the sense of urgency to adjust policy and rates higher. So right now, the market does not expect a rate increase when they meet September 15th and 16th. The July jobs report showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 27,000 jobs during the month, which was significantly below analysts' expectations of adding 80,000 jobs. So it's about 120,000 job swing from the estimate to actual. However, this is the... kind of reading between the numbers, the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.1%, which was caused by a decline in the labor force participation rate. So fewer people looking for work, not necessarily more jobs available.

But John, the one good thing about that number was it was government jobs, wasn't it like fewer, 58,000? Before I knew that, I said to my husband, thank goodness. I go, well, I hope it's government jobs. And it was.

It was. Yeah. And earlier this year where we saw a lot of the job growth was actually in federal and state job creation.

A really tragic number is if you pull up inflation from 2019 to today, it's 30.61. It's inflation is so bad that, you know, people, their salaries are When are their salaries going to catch up?

The social income has taken a huge hit in terms of just, we haven't seen the wage inflation like we had previously. And costs, day-to-day costs have continued to stay elevated. And so, and we, you know, again, it's having an impact on how people choose to spend their discretionary dollars. The July producer price index, which tracks what businesses are paying one another, rose again and increased 0.1% month over month. And this also indicates, and I've talked about this previously, is that pipeline pressure on future CPI numbers is still out there. And I think that's going to continue to impact consumer prices as well as a result of that. Over the past few months, I've been tracking the Consumer Sentiment Index with the July index increasing by 1.4%, primarily due to concerns over business conditions in the labor market. In July, existing home sales fell 1.7%, hitting roughly a 4.06 million annualized number. And this dip was likely and highly influenced by average 30-year mortgage rates that hit 6%. 9% at the end of July, which was up from the early March lows as global tension pushed up borrowing costs. And I thought this was an interesting comparison. Earlier this year, when rates briefly touched below 6%, the typical household had roughly $30,000 in additional buying power than with current rates at over 6.5%. So basically they could buy a home for $30,000 more than what they can today because of that lower rate. And so that's also impacting home sales. Let's see. And again, at a regional level, I typically provide data on various markets within Deschutes County. The July Bend single-family residential market revealed a median sales price that increased to $780,000, which was up from $728,000 in June. With 187 sales for the month of July, 61 of these sales were above $1 million, and 57 of these were cash sales. So we continue to see a very high percentage of those total sales being cash buyers, which obviously are not influenced by or impacted by high mortgage rates. It is interesting that days on market for sold properties remain relatively low at 27 days, so less than 30 days from listing to sale. But the inventory levels have increased now to a three and a half month supply of homes currently listed. And that's up from earlier this year, we were at about a month and a half supply of homes on the market. Bend area single family building permits were down to 29 compared to 38 for the month of June. Redmond statistics saw median price rose to $525,000 compared to $515,000 in June, and Redmond area permits likely jumped to $58,000 in the month of July compared to $38,000 for the prior month. A median sales price increase for the month and total number of sales in the Redmond area dropped from 69 in June to 44 in July. So they're actually, they saw a higher number of higher priced homes sell, but fewer of them in July than what they experienced in June. Looking at other markets within Sheets County, Sisters had a $753,000 median sales price on 19 sales. Sun River was $885,000 median sales price on 13 sales. And La Pine came in at $396,000 on 8 sales. As I typically report to the board, I just received a copy of the Q2 2026 Compass commercial report. And that actually validates what I've been reporting for the last several months. There's now over the last. two years, there's been a total of 1,187 multi-unit units or multi-family units that have been delivered to the Bend Redmond market with another 1,406 units under development. So these are units under construction that have not been finished yet and are not available for lease. Bacon inventory now exceeds over 1,000 units. And that number's been building in that and that kind of pipeline for quite a while. At current absorption levels, it could take up to five years to work through the excess supply, assuming no additional development. So that's normal absorption. It's going to take roughly five years to work through that supply number right now. Now, obviously, no shock here, but the newer Class A properties, which are the units that are being developed right now, and these are the high-end properties that have a lot of amenities, but they've experienced the greatest pressure driven by higher rent thresholds and increased competition. In contrast, workforce housing and what they call class A B and C properties continue to demonstrate strong occupancy and relative stability, reflecting sustained demand and more attainable price points. And again, no news there, but the units that are staying full, or the properties that are staying full, that have somewhat limited vacancy are the ones that are really targeting kind of workforce housing and affordable housing. So any questions on any of that?

Go back to the geopolitical risk. Any thoughts on what the breakdown of the trade negotiations with Canada are going to be?

Well, that's an evolving situation. Last week, it sounded like they had a deal on the table. And this morning, it sounds like they're moving forward with implementation of the 50% tariff. And I, you know, again, it's hard to... combat the verbal warfare versus what's actually happening behind the scenes. But that could have a significant impact on their huge trading partner with the U.S. Yeah. So more to come there. But again, on Friday, it appeared that they had a plan in place. And then this morning it was announced that they were, you know, moving forward with implementation of it. tariffs on price cost of pure and simple. Primarily, you know, huge energy supplier, agricultural products and forest products. And so those three areas, I think, could be see a significant impact if that tariff is implemented. So more to come. It's evolving. You know, the headlines change day to day. So without further ado, our July Treasurer's Report. The portfolio balance stood at $321.4 million at month end, which was a decrease of $7.2 million from June. and an increase year-over-year of $15 million from last year. This decrease is primarily due to ongoing funding needs, and also we are in that kind of low cash flow cycle in our annual cycle right now, July, August, and September, before we start to get back into tax collection. So we're going to continue to see that portfolio likely decline over the next few months, and then we'll see an influx from tax receipts. towards the end of the year. Net investment earnings stood at 995.1 thousand for the month. That's the first time in a long time it's been under a million dollars for the month, which was 25.7 thousand lower than last month's earnings and 35.1 thousand lower than a year ago. And again, we've been talking about this for several months, but we're seeing the impact on monthly earnings from overall reductions in the portfolio balance. All portfolio category balances are well within policy guidelines. The LGIP rate has remained at 4% for the month of July. That rate's been steady since, I believe, February. And I think with the tick up in short-term rates that there's a likelihood that that rate might go up. I'm not forecasting that, but we are seeing shorter-term rates staying higher for longer. And depending on what happens with the economy and certain the pressure that the Fed is seeing in terms of bond auctions, that there is a lot of pressure right now on the shorter end of the yield curve. Overall portfolio yields did slightly to 3.9%, which was down from 3.92% for the prior month. And again, I've talked about, you know, potentially seeing a peak in portfolio yields a few months ago. But right now, I'm not so sure about that. Again, depending on what happens on the shorter end of the investment cycle, we may see some strengthening in bond yields. The average time to maturity is now 1.31 years, which provides a buffer against near-term rate volatility. But again, I think the near-term rate volatility is actually probably trending upwards. Any questions regarding my report?

The two-year Treasury rate that's been going up over the last few months, I mean, given the kind of economic instability that we're witnessing right now, is that basically just going to keep continuing to go up?

Yeah, I believe so. Markets don't like uncertainty. And typically, if there's any kind of flight to safety, it'll drive demand for bond investments and drive the yields up. And I think that's what we're seeing right now. It's just a huge, you know, the level of bond refinancing and new bond issuances. Rates are trending up to basically find a home for those investments.

Well, the substantial amount of treasuries that we have right now is a decent place to be.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, we're in a good place. We've been maintaining around $40 million monthly in short-term liquidity. And obviously, as we head into our busy tax collection season this fall, we'll have some pretty significant investing that will take place then. And right now, I kind of feel like the forecast over the next 90 to 120 days is rates are going to stay at current levels, if not continue to trend a little bit higher.

Investment Advisory Committee meeting. I'd love to, too.

We do. If you're on the invitation there, we're actually meeting early October. And we've got that meeting in place. It's always good when we get together with our private investment advisory committee members. They provide some significant, some great insight in terms of what's happening out in the market and kind of what they see as well. So looking forward to that next meeting and more to come. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. Thank you.

Number two, our finance report for July.

Good afternoon, commissioners. For the record, Robert Hempel, Chief Financial Officer. So we're here talking about the June, sorry, July 2026 financial report. And this is the first month of the fiscal year.

Can we say congratulations?

If you'd like. Congratulations. It's fabulous.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, I am a new grandfather.

Wednesday, my daughter had her baby Wednesday at 9.09 p.m. And so it's a great, great joy, too. And I was able to be there, be there for a couple of days afterwards. So it was really great.

I deduced that's what she was referring to.

Yes. I mean, yes. Anyway, that's wonderful news.

Yeah, that is great news. Thank you.

You can babysit now.

That's right. Our grandson's a month old already. How does this happen, right?

Okay, so back to business. So the first month that we're in, July. So there's obviously not a lot of trends going for the fiscal year. It's the first month of the fiscal year. You'll notice through the reports, if you glance through them, people's projections are just the budget. There's just a couple of changes I'll point out, but there's Not a lot of highlights given it's the first month of the fiscal year. I will say, as you look at the first column in the financial reports, it references fiscal year 26. Just a reminder, those numbers are not final yet either because we're still accruing back the expenses, posting revenues. We're going through all of the accounting work that needs to be done to get the final year numbers correct. Good generalizations for most funds, but there will be some funds where we'll still be making entries in it. So it's close, but not final yet. And speaking of that, so our auditors, Baker Tilly, they were here last week in the office. They spent the week here, and they'll be coming back mid-September for the next billed work prior to us issuing our draft of the Act for the Annual Financial Report, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. coming up to be finalized in November. Anyway, in your packet on page 12 is the first summary, our revenues year to date in a general fund, 2.5 million or 4.8% of budget. Last year, revenues were different, but again, we're still posting and moving things and revenues and expenditures back and forth between fiscal year. So it's accurate what was posted at the time, but I'm not concerned about any differences between fiscal years at this time. But if you turn the page, whatever, turn to page 13 and 14, this is the first FTE summary that we've had for the fiscal year. So as you may recall, during the budget process, there were a number of changes in the FTE, and that's why actually the footnote carries over on a whole separate page. We did a net decrease just from June to July of 10 positions, and they're listed there. And you may recall even during the fiscal year last year, mid-year, we reduced some positions. So this is basically as a result of the budget committee decisions and the board adoption of the budget. Page 15. Over time in personnel budget report, obviously, one month. No concerns there. I will go to page 20 in your packet, which is the general fund budget to actual report. The only thing that's different from the budget and what the projections are in the revenue line in the top portion, it's the Under other general revenues, $393,000, you'll see that variance in the far right corner. The good news is that's the annual PILT payment that was received. And so the general fund allocation was $393,000 more than we budgeted. We budgeted $500,000, but since the revenue came in higher, both Road, Natural Resources, and the general fund got a higher amount. And this amount was... index to inflation of how we do the split. General fund takes money, is allocated money off the top, and then the remainder is split 85, 15% between road and natural resources. So there was an increase for all. We'll talk about roads portion when we get to that. Robert, could you repeat again? Overall, how much higher did the bills come in than we had anticipated? The total PILT came in at $4.3 million. $4.3 million. And which was, I guess I don't, total combined all three funds, I don't have the total amount that was budgeted. Again, in the general fund, it was $500,000. We budgeted, we received $893,000. And when we get to the road fund, I'll mention that portion there for them. And that's substantial. And that helped, and that helped our forecast. You know, talking with Cam, I gave her the number, and then she plunked it in. Again, because when we do forecasting, I always tell you, it's a living document, and so we update the forecast as major assumptions come in. And with that assumption coming in, that helped us in our forecast. Now, as you know and recall, that this is just a one-time approval that these funds, PILT funds, are approved annually. So... We go through this process every year. Is it going to get approved? Is it not? What's it going to be? So it was approved for this year, and so we do have the funds. TLT on page 21 in your packet. Good news is starting off the first month of 15% increase over last year and 15.4% increase over what we budgeted for just that one month's revenue. Again, this is June activity that posted in July. So that was a good start to that month. We'll see how it continues to go. Again, our ending fund balance projection. Right now it's at 1.5 million, but this is before, after we get to the end of the year, we do budget adjustments. We will incorporate the 8% contingency or the contingency fund for this, so it will readjust some of the amounts in here. We'll have a higher fund balance because we want to keep an operating reserve in that fund to account for all these services under these transfers that the county is paying for just in case something happens, just like every other fund. Planning going up, but it doesn't go up, it goes down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, which the good news is we're able to do that with this one because it aligns with our policies for reserves and our funds and having the continuous amount there.

Well, I see the note B on here. We sure have it dialed in about what money is coming in, why, and when it was approved and how it can be used. That's right. I mean, that's been many years in the making. Just really getting crystal clear about those things. different levels. Yes.

And a side comment I can make, you might recall the last legislation that was just approved makes one of them was, you know, allowing a 50-50 split and also requires that counties report biannually to the state on their, how they use their funds and how the dollars are being allocated. The good news is AOC sent out a draft state of the survey that they're going to require counties and it doesn't appear to be too old, right? So it was way simpler than I thought it may be. We'll see what the final request and final report will be, but right now it seems it will be pretty straightforward, which is good news for everybody that has to report. There's not a lot of changes in these next three funds, so I'm just gonna skip past them and go to page 28 in your packet. Health Services Behavioral Health, Fund 274. They noted there, I just want to make sure you see it as well, again, age 28, behavioral health, 274. Their state grant revenue, they made a change there, increasing their projections, and they'll be coming with a budget adjustment later for that. And same with on their capital outlay, projections include the recently approved purchase of property, daily estate, and the budget will be forthcoming as well. And those are noted as the note A and C. Just want to point those out as well. Same on the next page, 29, for public health. They'll be recognizing some revenue on their state grant revenue and then see the materials and supplies. A budget will be forthcoming for that as well. On page 31 in the PILT, sorry, Road Fund, 325, page 31. This is where I had the footnote. PILT was budgeted at $2.4 million, and we received $2.9 million. And in fiscal year 26 and 27, we received, for the road portion, $2.4 million each of those years. So it was about $500,000 more this year for the road as well, that $517,859. So again, good news for the road on this part. They're still waiting for gas tax or whatever the result of state legislation may be. hi there, so we don't have any idea why that by built funded at such a higher level this year than just the allocation, you know it's that massive allocation and one of them, and how it comes down and what we'll gladly thank you are curious to hear what was happening in Congress yeah. Page 32 is Community Justice Fund 355. Nothing to report in the financial numbers, but just to note, you may recall that previously there was a Fund 030 that was juvenile. Well, through the budget process, those two programs were combined into Fund 355. So now in the requirements section, which is the midsection on this report on page 32, you see Personnel Services Juvenile and then Personnel Services Adult. So it's one fund now, but it's still broken out, and they're tracking it management-wise to make sure funds go exactly where they need to be. But it's now combined into one fund. Now to looking pages to 36, 37, 38. This is the Fair Funds, Barron Expo Fund, Annual County Fair Fund on pages 37 and 38. Just the highlight at this point is that the revenues have not been posted yet. That will happen in August. And same with a lot of their expenditures, they'll get caught up in August. They did look at their projections, but the actuals, sorry, the actuals have not been posted for the revenues and expenditures. But they did update the projections in both reports for the annual county fair, which is on a fiscal year basis on page 37 in your report compared to the annual allocation on page 38. So more details will be coming in next month when it's actually in the actual column for us. And there aren't any other comments on the rest of the funds. Again, we're just at projections. Well, I guess let me take that back. If you want to mention where we think we are on health benefits, there you go. We believe at this point, the actuals is ending $21.7 million for the fiscal year 26. I think there may still be a deposit as we're waiting for a refund, a Stop-loss refund of over $100,000. I mean, that's totally significant for that fund. I'm not sure that that's been posted yet.

It could have been significant.

Yeah. Oh, at what time?

Yes, it was.

I mean, every dollar has value, of course, compared to a $21.7 million. So it'll help. So again, great news to end the fiscal year on for fiscal year 26, which brings us into a good point for this first month in fiscal year 2017.

So it's almost 22 million, then, if that happens.

Yeah. Yep. OK. Any other comments?

Great. OK.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Congratulations again.

This weekend. Bye. All right.

No, I have one. He's getting rejected.

So I guess yeah, in the landscape, a musical event at this lake was Thursday night, Friday night, then it was down here in Bend on Saturday night or Sunday. So a couple times in Central Oregon, classical piano, Hunter, young gentleman, Uh, sponsored by our, uh, you know, visit center organ dollars too. That was the interesting part. So they're, they're a big contributor to making sure that goes year after year. This is the 11th year. They're, uh, 30 year around the West when classical music. I don't want to.

At this time, then we can proceed to our executive session. Do you, do you want to read our notice?

No, I know that I can go second or third.

Okay, the shoots guy more commissioners will now convene an executive session pursuant to over us 192.660. The authorization for this is over us 192.660, which allows the board to be an executive session in order to consider real estate transactions. Designated staff, the media are allowed to remain. However, the media may only report that the board met an executive session in the identified basis for meeting. Recording devices are not permitted. No final decision will be made in an executive session, and at the conclusion of an executive session, we will open the doors and invite the audience back to the meetings.

Okay, we are coming out of our first executive session, and County of Beagle Council, Dave Doyle, will walk us through the transition to the next executive session.

Sure, that was a informational executive session. There was no final actions taken by the board, so there's no direction for you to come. But now you need to convene as the governing body for 9-1-1. And so we're going to go ahead and read the executive session announcement that the board is going to convene as the governing body for the 901 County Service District. The executive session is held pursuant to ORS 192.660, which allows the board to meet an executive session. In this case, the board will be meeting to consider labor negotiations. Designated staff and the media are allowed to remain. However, the media may only report that the board met an executive session and the basis for that. Recording devices are not permitted. No final decisions will be made. And at the conclusion, we will open the doors and invite the audience back in.

We are returning from our executive session as the governing board for the 911 service district and directing staff to proceed as discussed. Thank you.