Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Well, good morning, everybody. A full house to a lot of great issues that we're going to be dealing with today. It is Monday, August 24th at 10 a.m. And look at this crowd. Look at all these beautiful faces out there. All right. First thing we're going to do is we're going to call the meeting to order. And then we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. So please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. For members of the public wishing to comment remotely at the Board of Commissioners regular Monday business meeting during designated public comment times, the following options are available. For internet users, please click on the raised hand feature to signal that you would like to comment. The sound will be unmuted and the internet participant is encouraged but not required to identify themselves. The participant will be called upon to speak at the appropriate time. Closed captions have been enabled. Members of the public can view the link to instructions in the chat. Please note that we will not be able to assist you should you experience technical difficulties. For call-in users, please dial star 9 on your keypad to signal that you would like to comment. The first four digits of the call-in number, or the last four digits of the call-in number will be announced, and call-in participants are encouraged but not required to identify themselves. All right. Item 2, presentation slash recognition. First up, we've got item 2A.

Okay. Oh.

That's swearing in ceremony for interim sheriff.

OK. I'm going to change some things up here. I'm going to make a motion to amend the agenda to move three item for the first matter this morning. Do I have a second?

Second.

OK. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on it?

This is a resolution so that we can formally take care of the paperwork necessary to appoint and swear in our interim sheriff.

So we're just getting everything in the correct order.

All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion carries.

All right. Item 3A, resolution appointing Kenneth A. Dickinson Jr. to serve as interim Kitsap County Sheriff, effective August 24, 2026, and to hold office for the unexpired term of former Sheriff John Giese until the results of the 2026 general election are certified.

Great. Thank you, Claire. Okay, I'm going to read the full resolution as it is very important. There's some very distinctive timelines and actions that were taken during that timeline in this legal process in the state of Washington. So hopefully this will wrap everything up in a nice bow and there's hopefully 100% understanding. Okay. appointing Kenneth A. Dixon, Jr. to serve as the interim Kitsap County Sheriff, whereas Sheriff John Giese resigned from his position effective June 29, 2026, which was prior to the end of his elected term, and whereas Chief Penelope Sapp was appointed by the Board of County Commissioners on June 30, 2026, TO SERVE AS ACTING SHERIFF AND WHEREAS ARTICLE 2 SECTION 15 OF THE WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES VACANCIES IN ANY PARTISAN COUNTY ELECTIVE OFFICE SHALL BE FILLED BY APPOINTMENT BY THE COUNTY LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY OF THE COUNTY And the person appointed to fill the vacancy must be from the same political party as the partisan county elected officer whose office was vacated and must be one of three persons nominated by the county central committee of that party. And whereas. The Democratic Central Committee of Kitsap County solicited and interviewed candidates interested in the appointment and, on June 25, 2026, provided a board of county commissioners with a list of three persons nominated for possible appointment to serve the unexpired term of the former Sheriff John Giese. And, whereas, on July 14, 2026, the Board of County Commissioners conducted interviews in public, correction, in open public session, and three persons nominated for consideration and deliberated the qualification in subsequent executive sessions authorized by RCW 42.30.1101H held on July 14th, July 22nd, August 17th, and August 24th of 2026. Whereas, on August 17th, the Board of County Commissioners voted in open public session to appoint Kenneth D. Dickinson, Jr. as interim sheriff, subject to completion of the statutory required background check process, which has been completed. And Kenneth A. Dickinson, Jr. is declared to be duly qualified. Now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners resolves as follows. Kenneth A. Dickinson, Jr., being referred by the Kitsap County Democratic Central Committee, is hereby appointed as interim sheriff to fill the Kitsap County Sheriff vacancy and to hold the office for an unexpired term of former Sheriff John Giese until the results of the 2026 election are certified. In accordance with RCW 36.16.0507, Bond is set for Interim Sheriff Kenneth A. Dickinson, Jr., conditioned that he will faithfully perform the duties of the Kitsap County Sheriff during the term of the appointment in the amount of $5,000 by Western Surity Company as Surity. Adopted this day. Adopted this day, August 24th of 2026, we are now going to sign the resolution.

Wait, we should. Yeah, we'll make a big, yeah. Good point. Do you want me just to make the motion?

That'd be great, yes.

Okay, so I move to adopt the resolution appointing Kenneth A. Dickinson, Jr. to serve as interim Kitsap County Sheriff. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion?

Well. I LOOK FORWARD TO CELEBRATING, KEN. I'VE KNOWN YOU THROUGH LEADERSHIP KIDS APP AND I THINK FIRST I REALLY WANT TO THANK Penny Sapp, our current sheriff, for stepping up, as well as the party for sending the three highly qualified individuals. Thank you to Chief Myers and Chief Mengi, who are both here, for stepping up as well. And it'll be good to have this process behind us, but I think the stability of the Sheriff's Department is going to be just solid until we make it through the end of the election cycle.

This is it.

Thank you and I'd also like to thank soon to be interim Sheriff Dickinson for stepping forward and I don't know if it's appropriate, but I would like to be able to do a round of applause for interim appointed sheriff. Regardless, our interim sheriff SAP and the team. Chief Mangy and Chief Myers, who have really been holding down the fort for the last few months. Penny, your leadership has been exemplary, and we are in a far better place than we would have been without you. Thank you very much.

Wow, how do you follow that? Ditto? Absolutely. I think not only just the exercise of this governance process really made sure that we crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's to make sure it was transparent, it was professional. um and for our citizens but i think just as importantly for all of our deputies on the road to know that there's a leadership that backs them from the top all the way down to make sure they can just execute their duties on a daily basis and that's 365 seven days a week and we appreciate all of them so the leadership is in place we are going to do a transition here And this is exciting time. So without further ado, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Resolution carries. All right. Now what we're going to do is we're going to sign it because it's unsigned. We wanted everybody to see this. We're going to sign this and we'll get it notarized with our clerk of the board here. Commissioner Walters? That's a beautiful sculpture there.

Great. All right, we'll move on to item 2A, which is now the swearing-in ceremony for interim sheriff.

And Sheriff Dickinson, stick around and we have a budget to write.

All right.

All right.

All right. Next on the agenda is item 2B, Recognition for Pacific Building Navigation Center National Association of Counties Award.

Okay, who's, Carl, you presenting? Okay. Oh, Doug's there, okay. The computer out.

And while Doug's getting ready, we'd like to call up the members of Kitsap Rescue Mission who run the Pacific Building.

Okay.

Come on up and be recognized while we... And then our original... Our original person who actually conceived and designed and worked on this, Kirsten Jewell. We can't have the Pacific Building without Kirsten. And then Judy Ray, who was the one who basically saw from beginning to end and made sure that it happened.

THEY'RE WORKING. ARE THE STAFF HERE? IF YOU'RE PART OF THE PACIFIC BUILDING STAFF, COME ON UP.

ABSOLUTELY. yes and then also from care who is the group who actually makes sure that the pets that come into the Pacific building that they are able to be in shelter they work through the county going out to the encampments making sure people's pets are ready to come into the Pacific building and that would be Diane and Carol come on up

Thank you, Commissioners. My name is Doug Washburn. I'm the Director of Human Services. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to say thanks. In Human Services, most departments, we tend to go from one project to the next. You get done, it's successful, we move on. We don't take enough time to say thank you to our partners and our staff and our managers for all the work they do. This was a huge project that took several years, and we want to thank you for giving us this opportunity. Carl, do you just want to talk a little bit about the award? The award that they were specifically given before you start is from the National Associations of Counties. It was for an achievement award specifically for the Pacific Building and the innovations that that brought. Commissioner Walters accepted this for us on our behalf and the county's behalf at the National Association Conference. Carl, do you want to go into a little bit of background on it? Yeah.

So the Pacific Building is a 75-bed, 24-7 continuous-stay, low-barrier emergency shelter. It's the only shelter in the Kitsap County that does accept pets. We have 10 dogs, 10 cats that can be in the shelter at any given time. If you want to see a cat on a leash, go over to the shelter. It's still hard to get used to. Since it's continuous stay, people have a place to be. Unlike where you have a drop-in shelter where people don't have their own space, their own locker, their own bed, they're actually out on the streets. So this is the model that works amazingly well. They've produced significant results in getting people housed. We have women, children, couples, families, and where they take care of all their needs. McKenty Vento comes out and transports kids to their individual schools as they need to be there. In the back area, They have created a garden area that the guests tend to, and then the vegetables and fruits that are from that garden go into the kitchen. They serve three meals every day, and that does include Christmas and holidays that go with that. So they've done an amazing job with the shelter right now. And the building is amazing, but it's the staff that make it work. So there's a picture of inside. We have a vet room. The vet room is a clinic that is unique to our shelter. There's not another shelter in the state that has one. That way the pets can come in. They can get their vaccinations there. They can do minor surgeries there, and that does keep the pets healthy while they're in the shelter. There's also four kennels so that when owners who have pets need to go to an appointment, they can put their pet in that kennel and they can pick them up when they come back. So it gives them a little flexibility to be able to do the things they need to do to move on with their life. The gym, which was a gym, is now the kitchen and cafeteria where they served in... How many meals did you serve last year? Yeah. 45,000 meals were served in 2025.

And that's all we have. So again, thank you to everyone that made this happen. Thank you to the commissioners for funding this and supporting it all the way along. And when commissioners are going to come down for a picture now, if we could do that, please.

And we also have coins to thank you.

Thank you.

Doug, you finally got a coin. Thank you.

A little bit more. I've got some space there. Thank you all. Thank you. I do okay sometimes. All right, I'm going to take a few. One, two, three. One more.

And the next national award we have, two in one year, is amazing. It's from U.S. Aging. We have the Director of Aging and Long-Term Care with us here, Stacey Smith. This was for an Aging Achievement Award for their food services that they do for aging, Kitsap food for older adults, and from Kitsap Aging and Long-Term Care. So, Stacey.

Yes, good morning. Stacey Smith, administrator with the Division of Aging and Long-Term Care. Our mission is to work independently and through community partnerships to promote the well-being of older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers to remain independent and safe at home. We were given this award from our National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, which represents 622 of us across the nation. And it really is to highlight programs that meet our local needs and that are easily replicable. So here you see a picture highlighting that we were one of four Area Agencies on Aging receiving the National Nutrition Award. So the other states were in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Utah, and we represented the West Coast. through this program. So this was a partnership that really did start with our advisory council. These are the people that live in our community. They're the voice of older adults. And they went before our local leaders at our state legislature and promoted the need to meet the need of food insecurity for folks on fixed incomes. Pretty easy. However, it took a big grassroots effort. So we used all the advisory councils across the state of Washington, as well as our advisory council. So I do want to recognize Steve McMurtle. He is here on behalf of our Aging Advisory Council as our chair. If you could stand, please, Steve. Thank you so much. Really did lead the conversations with our local leaders in Olympia in January of 2025. and asked, you know, one in ten people, older adults, are struggling with food insecurity. Help us, state legislature. Please give us flexible funds to meet this local need. And so we asked for $27 million statewide over two years. We knocked it out of the park. We brought home $32 million to our local communities. And for Kitsap County, that's just a little over $400,000 per year. And we work very quickly to get this in the hands of our local food partners. So we have food bank coalition members, and I like to just call them out. They may not be here with us today, but we've got the South Kitsap Helpline, St. Vincent DePaul, the Bremerton Food Line, Central Kitsap Food Bank, North Kitsap Fish Line, ShareNet out in Kingston, and then on Bainbridge Island we have our Helpline House. We worked with our local partners to get this money into their hands to meet the local needs. And we told them, we've got money for you to spend to meet a need of older adult in your community. How can you use these dollars? They submitted project plans to us. And on that last slide, you saw a picture of the senior food counter. This was a food counter that... That's present in St. Vincent de Paul, but you'll also see it at South Kitsap Helpline. That's how they use their dollars. They brought additional dairy, perishable items, meats, cheeses, shelf stable, and then hats and gloves and seasonal items. This is for an older adult. A person over the age of 60 that lives in their community can come every day if they need to. to meet their local need. And let me share with you, March of 2026, we did a community needs survey of our older adults. And we asked them, what are you struggling with the most in Kitsap County as you age in place? Typically, the last 10 years, it's been housing. It's been transportation or health care. But this year, for the first time ever, it's food insecurity. It's food. People are really struggling with living on their fixed incomes, and it's just not going far enough. So these dollars came at the right time, right? In 2025, calendar year 2025, through our local partnerships, starting with our grassroots efforts, we provided over 17,000 meals in our local communities. So this next slide is another example of one of those projects. This is the Groceries to Go. You maybe have seen this through the Bremerton... Food Bank, it's a great opportunity to just highlight how the Bremerton Food Bank used our dollars that were given to us through our state legislature to put together these food bundled packages. And then they used the Meals on Wheels volunteer drivers to get them home to the folks that are in their homes, making a huge difference to individuals in our community. I would be remiss if I wouldn't point out that we also work with our tribal partners. So we have the Port Gamble Scholar Elders Program that also is benefiting and wanting to partner with these programs. So I just want to wrap up by showing this last slide, which is a picture of myself getting the award last month in San Diego at our national conference. there with the CEO of caregiving.com, as well as the president of U.S. Aging, our national association, and then CEO of Cumulus Care. This is a great demonstration of how we use our team effort to address our local needs and our immediate needs using advocacy first. So thank you for giving me an opportunity to recognize this great work.

Great. Thank you, Stacey. I would like to have everybody come up so we can get a great picture of this achievement. I mean, this is important.

So we've got some staff from Aging and our council members. So please join me.

Let's bring them up.

Okay.

One, two, three, four, five. Yeah.

We also have points to present. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Doug, did you want to join us for this one? No, I'm good on this one. OK. OK, I need everybody over on two feet. There we go. One, two, three.

All right. Item 3B, a resolution appointing Jamie Pope to the Suquamish Community Advisory Council to fill a regular vacant position for a three-year term ending June 11, 2029.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to move that we approve the resolution appointing Jamie Pope to the Suquamish Community Advisory Council. Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Yes. I have some discussion. It's the mission of the Squamish Community Advisory Council to actively facilitate communication among the Squamish community and mutually develop and promote a sense of community vision and pride and to communicate to the county and other government entities the desires and concerns of the Squamish community. We have been seeking a new member of this group, and we found Jamie Pope. She actually heard that we needed new members at a town hall meeting in Suquamish when the current co-chairs solicited and told the community we were looking for people. So that was great. She's lived in Squamish for about seven years and is really interested in roads and safety, road safety throughout the community. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Master's degree in cybersecurity and I was struck and talking with her about how organized she is. So I think she's going to be a good, productive member of the group and will fit in well with other members of her community who are serving on that council.

Wow. What a resume. Jamie, are you here? Is she online by chance? Okay.

Any other discussion?

Oh, I had the opportunity to meet Jamie at the Squamish Community Council's picnic just a few weeks ago. And what an amazing group of community members that really just want the best for their neighbors. So it was great to meet her as well as the rest of the council.

Great, great. Sounds like a great addition. All right. We have a motion to second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Welcome, Jamie. Okay.

3C, resolution reappointing Steve Warnert and Bruce McCain to the Suquamish Community Advisory Council to complete an additional three-year term ending June 11, 2029.

I'd like to move that we approve the resolution reappointing Steve Warnert and Bruce McCain to the Suquamish Community Advisory Council. I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Yes, so this is the same council that we just appointed Jamie to. Both Steve and Bruce have been serving on the council, so this is a reappointment. And I'm really glad that they are willing to continue to serve their neighborhood in this way. Steve has been the co-chair for the last couple of years. He's a member of the West Sound Cycling Association, also a strong advocate for pedestrian and cyclist safety. And he joined the council basically to get informed about to get involved and to give back to his community. And Bruce has served on the council since 2024. He's actually one of our newest members, but one of our longest serving, longest residents on the community. He's lived in Squamish for a long time. He has a PhD in microbiology and brings extensive expertise on environmental issues, including working on a NOAA team that studied the effects of pollution on fish in Puget Sound and is the author of numerous scientific articles. He's previously served on the boards for FishLine and the Kitsap Environmental Coalition, and he has been the SEAC secretary for the last year or two. Both of these gentlemen put a lot of time into their service and have done a lot for the community in the time that they've served.

Wow. Anything else, Commissioner Walters? If you want.

No, again, no. Great to meet everyone and their involvement.

Yeah, another robust resume, joining the Advisory Council. Are they here by chance?

No?

Online? OK. All right, so we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? OK, motion carries. Welcome, both Steve and Bruce. OK.

Item 3D, resolution appointing Dana Sweeney Schumacher to a three-year term on the Kingston Community Advisory Council.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to move that we approve the resolution appointing Dana Sweeney Schumacher to a three-year term on the Kingston Community Advisory Council. Second.

Okay, we have a motion to second any discussion.

Yes, the Kingston Community Advisory Council was formed to provide a forum for community discussion on the many issues and interests found in Kingston. Its goal is to enhance communication between the residents of the Kingston area and Kitsap County government and to coordinate efforts of the council and community members who are all working on an array of improvements to the Kingston community. So cool thing about Jamie about Dana. She is a downtown Kingston resident and owner of a general contracting business headquartered in Kingston, and she's excited to be able to ensure that the residents of downtown Kingston have a voice on the Council. She has been directly impacted by decisions related to Kingston, the design standards and the UGA, and is very interested in helping with community emergency preparedness and having Kingston and North Kitsap area work towards better civilian emergency coordination and organization. Importantly, she has been volunteering with the Kingston Affordable Housing Committee, and she's really interested in helping members of the community have safe, clean, and decent housing. She has, in her personal life, she lives in a multi-generational household with family members who are differently abled and differently aged, which provides her firsthand insights into the needs and strengths that Kingston community presents to all of its residents. I know her to be a thoughtful and really intelligent member of the community who has

Opinions isn't afraid to share them and is constructive with her with her comments Okay any more discussion Okay, well All those in favor say aye aye opposed, okay Welcome Dana, and I'm also gonna welcome Steve and Bruce with a round of applause Is Dana here We're online.

Dana's working, I'm sure.

Dana's working. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Welcome aboard.

Item four, county administrators' comments. None today. Thanks very much.

Thanks, Roy. Okay.

Item five, this is the opportunity for the public to address the board on the regular business agenda, including the consent agenda and non-consent agenda.

I don't have anybody signed up for comments. Is this on the consent agenda, sir? Okay, that'll be at the end. Thank you. Okay.

I do see one hand up online. Peggy Manchester.

What was the first name? I'm sorry.

Peggy.

Peggy, okay. Hi, Peggy. Go ahead. You'll have two minutes.

First of all, this is Andrew Manchester. I'm using her account because that's the one we normally use.

No problem.

Yeah, I get it. Not offended. The issue I would like to talk about is the process of getting a vehicle towed. A co-worker, his mother had a car.

Yes. Andrew, what we're doing is we're taking comment on our consent agenda right now. I think what we'll do is we'll wait until the end for, I think, your subject.

Okay.

All right. Thanks, Andrew. Perfect.

Is there anyone else online who would like to speak on the regular business agenda at this time? Please raise your hand.

Okay.

I'm not seeing anyone.

So I move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Agenda approved.

Right. Item 12 a revenue contract amendment E between Kitsap County as the administrative entity for the Salish behavioral health administrative services organization and Washington state healthcare authority to provide additional funding and updates to contract terms to ensure access for approximately 4,000 individuals to behavioral health services for an and underinsured individuals, including crisis and inpatient services across Jefferson, Clallam, and Kitsap counties.

All right.

My name is Jolene Cron. I'm the executive director of the Salish Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization. We provide oversight of crisis services and un-underinsured behavioral health services for Column, Jefferson, and Kitsap County, with Kitsap County being our administrative entity. I'm here to present on contract KC343. 25-E, Amendment E provides additional funding to update the contract terms and ensure the access for approximately 4,000 individuals across the three counties for behavioral health services for un-underinsured families. Non-Medicaid individuals and crisis services for any individual who is also not covered under Medicaid in those three counties. The new contract term is effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2027. The funding estimate at this point is $9,491,187. This contract is on a fiscal year, so it does start July 1st. We do see a scheduled amendment to this mid-year, every year, just for information, in January as well. So this is our annual allocation for the next contract period. It includes the allocation of general fund state in the amount of $7,832,866 to support those ongoing provision of services in those three counties, and an additional $1,658,321 in federal block grant funds. That includes mental health block grant funds, substance use prevention, recovery, and treatment services block grant, and then specific identified either mental health or substance use block grant that is identified to specific programs outside of our general allocation of those block grant funds.

And that is my presentation. Jolene, I'm looking through the contract and I'm just trying to see it since it's all broken up. Do you have a general idea of how much money then is of that goes to Kitsap County?

Kitsap County is generally 68 to 72% of population. Many of the programs are broken out by population. Much of the funding is identified based also on what is referred to as utilization. So we pay for the overall portion of the system and it serves the entire population. So if we have a higher utilization in another county, we may see that percentage shift again based on utilization and the needs of the community.

Thank you.

Yes, my question is, is this more or less than you received from the state and federal government last year?

It does look less because we did have the adjustment related to COVID funds and the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA funding. So the overall amount did decrease from the last contract period. That is why it does look different. And that funding had been allocated over five years but remained in the contract at a similar level.

But this funding will sustain the level of service we currently are providing?

Correct. We don't currently anticipate any change in the level of service. We actually did see a slight increase in a couple of areas related to crisis team endorsement and the purchase of an electric vehicle for our crisis teams.

So just so I understand, so 60 to 70% is Kitsap and then the rest is Jefferson and Clallam.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Anything else?

I'll make a motion to approve the revenue contract amendment E between Kitsap County and Washington State Healthcare Authority. to provide additional funding and updates to contract terms to ensure access for approximately 4,000 individuals to behavioral health services in Jefferson, Clallam, and Kitsap counties. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

12L, Revenue Contract with Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Home and Community Living Administration to provide a variety of services for disabled adults, unpaid family caregivers, and persons 60 years and older.

Can I share my screen? Hello again, Stacey Smith, administrator with Kitsap Aging and Long-Term Care. Again, we are a division under Human Services. I always like to reiterate our mission, which is to work independently and through community partnerships to promote the well-being and independence of older adults, adults with disabilities, and their caregivers. So I'm here before you today to ask for a review and signing of our largest revenue grant, CONTRACT KC376-26 WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON STATE SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES HOME AND COMMUNITY LIVING CONNECTIONS ADMINISTRATION AND KITSEP COUNTY FOR A TOTAL OF $6,228,035. THIS IS A SLIGHT INCREASE AS YOU'LL SEE FROM THE STATE FISCAL YEAR which is a little under $6 million. This grant revenue contract starts, started last month, July 1st of 2026, and runs through June 30th of 2027. It's our standing contract. It is the one revenue contract we asked the state of Washington to please put all of our revenue into one document, so it's not multiple documents coming through.

Then we asked you to separate it.

Yeah. So there's lots here. And I just tried to highlight some of the purpose of the grant. But there's a lot of programs that are supported. So this really is a blend of our federal and state funding to support the services, again, for disabled adults, unpaid family caregivers, and individuals over the age of 60. And it really is a great demonstration and blends our direct services that we use staff here at Aging and Long-Term Care to deliver directly to our community, as well as we subcontract with our community partners to really leverage their expertise in serving our local needs. So this revenue contract comes with instructions. There's not a lot of flexibility here. So my intention was really to highlight the programs that are really funded and supported through this blended revenue source. So first off is our largest program, which is our Medicaid, what we refer to as our COAPS program, which is our in-home case management program with just over $4 million a year serving over 1,345 people every single month. stay safe in their home. So these are low-income people who meet nursing home level of care, but they choose like most older adults to live at home. This program and our case management staff support that work. The next is our Aging and Disability Resource Network. So this is a service that's free to our community where people could call us, walk into our office, schedule an appointment, or we meet you at a community fair, an outreach event, and we share with you the services that we have available for free of charge. These are federally funded, state funded through this contract to deliver to our community. We serve about 3,000 people a year through just this very informal contact. This is again delivered through our direct service staff. We have a family caregiver respite program where we support close to 85 family members supporting an older adult to stay safe at home, delivering close to 7,000 hours, respite hours, to that caregiver. And then moving on to care transitions. So this is a fairly new program. We've had it in our organization about two years. This is solely devoted to supporting an older adult discharging from our local hospital to stay safe at home. It's pretty simple. If you need assistance to stay out of the hospital, we're here to support you. Please outreach. We have a registered nurse in our office that goes out to where people are and helps keep them safe at home. So there's a little bit of money of this contract that supports that work. And we look to support about 35 older adults per year, but we really touch about 25 people a month through this program. The rest of these are subcontracted to our community partners. So I'll just move through them pretty quickly. It's our Kinship Navigator Program and our Kinship Caregiver Programs. This is subcontracted money directly to our Community Action Program, Kitsap Community Resources. And this is to support that traditional grandparent who is raising their grandchild, or an auntie that's raising a person under the age of 18. So think of that missing gap, if you will, that older generation supporting that younger generation. And we have two programs to support families. Again, please outreach to Kitsack Community Resources or call our office to learn more about those services. Next is our senior nutrition program. I highlighted that earlier today. That's that $400,000 that as a result of the advocacy of our local advisory council to bring very flexible dollars to our local community partners. We have a senior farmers market program. It's a small amount of money that goes really, really far. So this is just under $70,000 that provides $80 worth of food to an individual over the age of 60 who self attests to a moderate income. They use that money then at their local farmers market or all year long food stand. 900 individuals for the first time ever, unfortunately, all those vouchers were gone the first month. First time ever. This is our community's needs that we're meeting through food insecurity. Again, moving along to our senior home delivered meals, a little bit more money to support providing over 2,000 more meals to folks that are homebound and older through Meals on Wheels Kitsap. We have a very small senior drug prescription education program. So think about safe medication management and disposal. So we do a lot of that education with a little bit of money. Everywhere we go, we're talking about it. And then last but not least, a program is called our Medicaid Transformation Project. We serve about 100 people per month in this program. The state has put a pause on accepting new individuals into this program. due to funding caps that have been met across our state for the need to support people staying at home. So we continue to be able to serve that 100 people because the pause was put in place December 1st of last year. We're waiting for it to be lifted, but we still have staff who are serving 100 people per month through this program. So I just use this opportunity to highlight some of the programs, not all the programs. But if you feel like we could be an assistance to you, a family member or a constituent that might come your way, I've also left our contact information. And you can get to us really easy on our website through Kitsap Aging. That's a domain that we have purchased, so it's easy to find us. So with that, I would ask if you would please review, sign, or if I could answer any questions regarding grant revenue contract KC376-26. Thank you, Stacey. All right.

I don't have any questions, so I'll make a motion. Okay. Okay. I move to approve the revenue contract with Washington State Department of Social and Health Services to provide a variety of services to disabled adults, unpaid family caregivers, and persons 60 years and older with a fiscal impact of $6,228,035. Second. Okay. Any discussion?

Thank you again, Stacy, for reviewing the great programs that your division provides. Thank you.

Thank you Stacey and everybody in your camp because I know personally I know two people that depend on a lot of these programs and it's vitally important just to survive and it seems like a lot of money but it really isn't because it stretches out and makes sure that we can touch everybody that we can and obviously we wish it was more but thank you for all you do. Thank you. No further discussion. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Thank you. Approved.

Thank you. 12S, revenue contract with Washington State Employment Security Department. to provide funding to manage employment and training programs for adult dislocated workers and youth in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties. Services include job search, upskilling, work experience, on-the-job training, supportive services, job counseling, and follow-up services. Approximately 343 individuals will be served through this project.

Is Alyssa here?

I am. Good morning, commissioners.

Oh, there we go.

And, Bill, Darlene, the director of our program, is also online.

Great. Hi, Alyssa. Hi, Bill.

Good morning, sir.

Okay. You have a presentation, it looks like.

We do.

Okay. Go ahead. Come on.

Well, good morning. Everyone appreciate your time with us. So just give the brief looking at our agenda. I wanted to introduce both Alyssa who you already see and Lucy bench, who is our program analyst who will be talking about some of our expected outcomes today. So we'll just go ahead and get started. Yeah, with Alyssa.

Thank you. Sorry. Our program, the Olympic Consortium, has received $2,058,795 in program year 2026 federal WIOA funds. The funding will be allocated through our youth, adult, and dislocated workers program with $677,764 going to serve 101 Olympic eligible youth participants in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties, 743,913 to serve 164 eligible adult participants in the same three counties, and $637,118 is provided to serve 78 eligible dislocated workers in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties. The funding will support a variety of employment and training services aimed at individuals to secure and maintain meaningful employment. This slide is a three-year funding comparison of each of our WIOA programs, youth, adult, and dislocated workers. Overall, our funding has remained relatively stable with modest declines to our youth and adult funding and a net increase in our dislocated worker funding despite year-to-year fluctuations. Our expected outcomes from our 25 carrying participants that are still working through the program. We have 71 youth. 106 adults and 20 dislocated workers. We look to add new enrollments with our 26 funding of the 30 youth. 58 adults and 58 dislocated workers. We hope to have employment at completion of 18 of those participants for youth, 90 for adult, and 35 for dislocated workers. Three youth look to have post-secondary at completion. And employment two quarters after exit, 21 youth, 74 adult, and 25 dislocated workers. And three youth post-secondary, two quarters after exits. This is data that is also reported to our Department of Labor.

Yeah, these are some of the strategic investments which we're seeking to put our dollars toward. One, to continue expanding workspace learning opportunities. These are either on the job training or paid work experience opportunities that are for participants and really go to local businesses who hire them. Increase access to industry recognized credentials and trainings, both working through our two college partners in the region, Olympic College and Peninsula College. and other nonprofit and for-profit training providers throughout the region. We also strengthen employer partnerships and high demand industry sectors, focusing on those jobs, which we know will be increasing in our community things like the maritime industry, construction trades and health health programs as well. We will continue leveraging all of our funding streams to reduce barriers to employment. And finally advancing career pathways for youth and priority populations, such as those returning from justice involvement. uh back into the community and so those are our strategic investments and with that we'll appear to answer any questions you may have

OK, any questions?

I don't have any questions, but I have the pleasure of representing us on the Olympic Consortium Board, so I'm happy to make the motion. I move to approve the revenue contract with Washington State Employment Security Department, KC-367-26, to provide funding to manage employment and training programs for adult, dislocated workers and youth in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you all for presenting. Thank you, Alyssa. Bill?

Thank you. Thank you.

Item 12U, Contract Amendment B with the Salvation Army to extend contract to December 31st, 2026 and provide additional funding for the Emergency Shelter Program, which serves 800 households annually for people experiencing homelessness.

Welcome back, Carl. Good to see you.

Hello again. I'm Carl Borg. I'm housing and homelessness. Microphone. There we go.

Thank you.

I'm Carl Borg, housing and homelessness program manager for Kitsap County. I'm asking for approval of contract KC219-26B for shelter funding for the Salvation Army. Salvation Army is our only drop-in shelter in the county. Currently, their contract is we're adding an additional $704,812, bringing the total contract to $1,387,201. The shelter operates 91 beds and a drop shelter serving breakfast During the summer their census is lower In past years that has been in the 30s this year. It's been 53 in June 57 in July and 55 in August and I would also like to take this opportunity to Introduce the new majors who have just arrived have Major John Turley. To me. To me. I'll get it right eventually. Having just arrived, we'd like to have you introduce the commissioners, and if you'd like to talk a little bit about your background and let them know where you've come from.

We've been greetings, by the way.

Thank you.

Greetings, commissioners. We are John and Sabrina Toomey. We just arrived from Grand Junction, Colorado. We've been Salvation Army officers for over 32 years. But first time in Kitsap County. We were stationed briefly for a year in Bremerton. Not Bremerton, but Port Angeles. So we just want to say thank you for allowing us to come and introduce ourselves. And we're grateful for all the help you guys give us. Great. Welcome. Welcome aboard.

So I'm asking for approval for contract KC219-26B for $704,812 from July 1 of 26 through December 30th of 26. Okay. Thank you, Carl. Do I have a motion? Sure. I'm happy to make that motion. So I move that we...

I move to execute KC-219-26, Amendment B, with the Salvation Army.

Second. So we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I do. I would like to say something. First of all, welcome. We're delighted you're here, and thank you for your commitment to keeping the shelter open in the evenings through the year. That, as you know, means a great deal to the community. And I just want to confirm the $704,000 that is 100% grant-funded, Carl, where is the grant from?

The grant is from the Department of Commerce. Every year we do our contracts are yearly because halfway or May or June, they give us the second year of what they call document recording fee backfill. We are funded with document recording fees, but due to the lower amount of funding coming in through that, the legislature allocates yearly funding, and that's what this is.

So it's possible that this grant funding will continue through the state funding that's passed through to us?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome. Welcome to Kitsap County. And thank you so much for serving our community the way that you do. We've all toured the Salvation Army. We know that you have never been set up to be an overnight shelter. So I can't express enough how thankful we are for serving our community in that way. And we understand the extra... hoops you have to go through to be set up every evening, and it's not easy. And as our community works through how we're going to build another shelter or how we're going to shelter these individuals, I just I can't express enough. We are so grateful for the service you're providing in this gap. So thank you. Our pleasure.

Absolutely. And welcome. Is this your twilight tour is just are you planning to do any more or is this a

Yes, this is our swan song. We retire in three and a half years.

Three and a half years. Well, the wealth of knowledge and experience that you bring to this is, I think, is a blessing to us and our community. And we're welcoming you with warm and open arms to our community and everybody involved. So thank you for what you do. It's our pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Any more discussion? No? Good. All right. Let's vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you. 15A, affirm contract amendment A with Road Art Construction, Inc. to continue work under emergency declaration number 135-2025. for Phase 2 Pump Station 24 Emergency Repairs.

All right. Welcome, Matthew.

Good to see you again. Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Matthew Oxford. I'm a Capital Projects Manager in the Capital Facilities Division of Public Works. Hold on one second.

Hold the line.

Thank you, Chris. I'm accompanied here by our director, interim director, Chris Piercy. The item before you this morning is a contract amendment to contract KC 505-25A with Redardi Construction. This contract is under the emergency declaration number 1352025 for emergency repairs to our pump station 24. Next slide. Pump Station 24 is the largest pump station in our central Kitsap sewer service area. It is located in Commissioner District 1 in the unincorporated area of Polesville. And we have an image here on the slide showing its location. The scope of work for this project is to install new jib cranes, upgrade our HVAC system, and install new VFDs, or variable frequency drives, and replace our MCCs, motor control centers, and most importantly, to upgrade the odor control system for the pump station. The total budget for this project is estimated at $6 million. This current amendment is for $3,024,854.96. and the project is scheduled for completion by October of 2027. So the recommended action before you this morning is to affirm the contract amendment Casey five zero five to five a with regarding construction for phase two repairs to pump station 24. Okay, thank you Matthew. And I'm available for questions. Any questions?

Thank you.

First of all, could you go back to the inside of the pump station? So that look at that, right? And then go back another slide to what it looks like from the outside. It looks like this, like you would never know there was so much important equipment inside that little brick building. So when we say we have a pump station failure, it's a pretty significant piece of infrastructure.

And it's underground, right? Yes, those pumps are underground. It's all underground.

So the first phase of this project, we installed these three pumps that you see here. And then under the second phase, since this contract was approved at the end of July, we were able to get our jib crane installed and already started relocating the VFDs on a temporary basis to implement the new VFDs. So you can see the jib crane here in the photo next to the two contractors.

And can you confirm you've been in touch with the next door neighbor so they know the odor control is going in?

That is correct. Chris Piercy reached out to the neighbor and confirmed and passed along my contact information.

Great. Thank you very much.

I think it's I think it's all kind of out of sight out of mind and no one really thinks about it until you know till till it's broken. Or the odors starts moving around.

Yeah, I'll make a motion. Move to from the contract Amendment A with Rodarte construction to continue work under emergency declaration number 135 dash 2025 for phase two pump station 24 emergency repairs with an estimated cost of 3,204,854 dollars.

Second.

Motion second. Any further discussion?

Just to note that that's coming out of our sewer construction fund.

That is correct.

Okay.

All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you for all your work. Thank you.

Item 15 B interlocal agreement with Silverdale water district to adopt and implement the 2025 central kits up recycled water master plan. This plan establishes the next steps for both parties to advance the recycled water program and provide recycled water services within silver Silverdale water district service area building upon more than a decade of coordinated planning and infrastructure investment.

Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, I'm Chris Piercy. I'm the Interim Public Works Director. So as Clara mentioned, the interlocal agreement before you today is a long time coming. It's been a lot of work over the course of many staff, many iterations of leadership between Silverdale Water District and Kitsap County Public Works. So I'm very pleased today to bring this to you and be Really, this is the precipice of us doing something real, and that is connecting our effluent lines essentially to Silverdale Water District's recycled water infrastructure. As you can see, Silverdale Water, over the course of the last several years, have already begun to lay pipe for this system. There's some notable businesses in Silverdale that are ready to use this water, and really this is that first stage where we will connect to their system and open up the lines for the use, irrigation usage. It won't be anything new. TO EXOTIC, BUT THIS IS OUR WALK BEFORE WE RUN STAGE. OUR HOPE IS THAT IN THE NEXT FIVE TO TEN YEARS THAT THAT USAGE EXPANDS TO SOME ENVIRONMENTAL USAGES AND EVENTUALLY PERHAPS EVEN SOME OF THE MORE EXOTIC USES OF RECYCLED WATER SUCH AS, YOU KNOW, THE ACTUAL POTABLE STUFF. BUT I THINK THAT THAT IS PROBABLY OUTSIDE OF OUR LIFETIME. BUT THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING. So really this is as you can see here. This is an aerial shot of the treatment plant and to the south there The very bottom is kind of hard to see on our screen, but that is our planned Spot right now to hand off the water to Silverdale on Madison Street there we hope to have this all set up and established within the next five to six years and Turn on the tap once the tap is turned on we will revisit this agreement and start talking about how and when and how how much they're going to use of this water Our current conceptual idea of water usage early on for irrigation usage is at max about 365,000 gallons per day. To put that in context, the CK treatment plant is designed to handle up to 6 million gallons per day. So it's a pretty small chunk of that that's currently available to us, but we're hopeful that as we expand into these other uses 10 to 20 years out that it'll be a meaningful reduction in the amount of wastewater effluent that's being discharged into Port Orchard Bay at the moment. And here's sort of a picture of what that could look like. So as we get further down the line, the hope is that the current projection would be that about 3.5 million gallons would be usable by Silverdale Water and others should they choose to hook up to the recycled water system. So with that, like I said, we're excited about this project. It's been a long time coming. It's nice that it's finally real. And I think Silverdale Water is also very excited about this. So I'm glad to bring this to you today for your approval. And once it's approved, we'll start marching forward.

Okay, any questions?

No questions, but I know we asked to have this taken off the consent agenda because it really is a milestone moment for this project. And it's such a great partnership that we have with Silverdale Water, so I'm happy to make that motion. So I move to approve the interlocal agreement with Silverdale Water District, KC-361-26, to adopt and implement the 2025 Central Kitsap Recycled Water Master Plan.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? I have to say Commissioner Hoffman is probably very happy that this is moving forward. He talked to me about it the other day. So we're ready to vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Congratulations. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. Okay. Okay.

And then item 15G, contract with Washington State Department of Transportation and Kitsap County to transfer the full protect grant award to WSDOT. And in return, WSDOT will execute the design in accordance with county standards and manage construction of the replacement of an existing fish barrier with a fish passage structure, structure Burley Creek passing under Spring Road.

Okay, great. Our county engineer, Joe Rutan. Good morning. I want to first of all say thank you for Friday. So you joined a very important meeting that our schedules conflicted all over the place. And you jumped in, and we really appreciate that. So thank you.

Thank you. Once again, Joe Rutan, Public Works, county engineer for the short remaining few weeks. I'm appreciative that you took this off of the consent agenda, because I have a fun little story about this project. So about two and a half years ago, I was sitting at my desk trying to get piles off my desk, cleaning off the plate. I got a phone call from the Washington State Department of Transportation local design office. They were working on the culvert underneath SR16 at Mullinex. And this is part of their projects replace their fish passage culverts that they have to get done by 2030. They had been working on this for several months and someone came to the realization that the culvert extends out past the Mullinex northbound on-ramp and goes underneath Clear Creek Road. Clear Creek Road is not a DOT facility, it's a county facility. So they had no funding or legal authority to do any of that work. So a big pile of work just showed up on my desk. So we scrambled, tried to figure out how to deal with this. It was about over a $5 million project that we were not planning on, and they were already well down to design. So we quickly put together an application for a federal grant, a protect grant. And we were successful in obtaining $4.2 million. But that still has a million-dollar match from the county. So as we continued to work this through, we worked with the Department of Transportation and Partnership and convinced them to take the grant from us And that would be the county's full and complete contribution to that. We do not have to come up with the million dollar grant match. So this went from having a $5.2 million project laid into our lap to now we are going to get this done with no local county funds. It'll all be State Department of Transportation and federal grant funds. They will also do the actual design, permitting, and construction. So we have no capacity issues to provide to them. And then upon completion of the project, they will dedicate that culvert back to the county for our ownership. So we are going to get this done with no local funds and no local capacity issues. So it is a really good story and I appreciate the opportunity to come up here and tell it. So we are asking to, there is a general services contract here with the Department of Transportation that specifies us granting the funds to them, and the very important line that that is our entire financial contribution to this project.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you for that and all the hard work on that. I know when you approached us on this, it was an eye-opener for sure, but Yeah, thank you.

I had some panic discussions.

Okay, do we have a motion?

I'll move to approve the contract with Washington State Department of Transportation in Kitsap County for a fish passable structure replacement of a fish passable structure on Burley Creek passing under Spring Road for the fiscal impact of $4,236,000.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

Again, thank you. Thank you, Joe, and for the work to get this 100% grant funded. It's like the best way to get a project done.

Absolutely, I have to add to that that I shout out to wash dot for being flexible on it. I know it's a if everyone doesn't know the fish passage is a court ordered project statewide that they need to get done by 2030 and we don't have the funds in our budget to support that and they jump they jumped in and they made sure that it didn't put any more burden on local dollars. so i want to give wash dot a uh hats off to working with us and being flexible so thank you for that um before we before we conclude this is this your last um commissioner meeting joe oh

I was just thinking that this may be my actual official, I have a few briefings that I'll be giving you, but this is, I'm completing 24 years as a county engineer. So have dealt with a lot of culverts, a lot of roads, a lot of funding issues over those times. Started this career in the 80s and it was a very different environment. But you have great staff here and the people. It's time for me to move on and make room for people that have a lot more energy and enthusiasm I still have enthusiasm, but let me tell you, it's been a joy to work with the people coming on board. This county is set up for success with its staff.

One second, Joe.

Wait, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry. I diverted us. We probably should vote on our contract and then honor Joe. Perfect.

All right.

Sorry about that.

If there's no more further discussion, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. County Engineer Rutan. Thank you. I don't know if you've received one, but, you know, that's for all you do. It's a very minor thing that we can show, but publicly we are telling you thank you very much for all you do and have done for ourselves. It's meaningful.

Thank you. Joey, we're not prepared with cake and all of that for you. I want to say, Mr. Chair, I laughed out loud when Joe said pave the way for somebody with more enthusiasm because you have retained your enthusiasm and your enthusiastic personality since I've been here. Thank you for everything.

And paved. Paved the way.

Nope.

Not lost. Thanks, Joe. Okay.

All right, next up, 16A, revenue contract with Washington State Office of Public Defense for public defense funding for fiscal year 2027.

Good morning, commissioners. Just one second to get set up. Sure.

You guys both lost the agenda in the absence.

Okay, here we go. I am Amber Dunwoody with the Department of Administrative Services, and with me I have... Stephen Lewis, Chief Public Defender. So the item before you today is our grant agreement with the state for the funding that they provide us for public defense services. Um, we're appreciative of the money that they give us. However, we just wanted to spend a minute highlighting how it is really just a very small amount of the total cost of providing public defense services for the county. I'm delighted to say that the amount has gone up and will be going up a tiny bit more for 2027. But as you can see, we are in the, you know, certainly less than 10% of the total cost of the program. that is mandated by the state that we provide, and they just don't give us anywhere near enough funding for it. So while we're grateful for that money and we are grateful that you will approve the grant agreement, which will allow us to receive that money from the state for this upcoming state fiscal year, we just wanted a moment to highlight that this is a rather expensive service that we're required to provide, that the county taxpayers are subsidizing 90-plus percent of every year. So Steve is here to answer any technical questions about public defense. Otherwise, we're ready to hear what you want to know and what you have to say.

Any questions for Mr. Lewis?

Yeah, Mr. Lewis, you can please share the impact to your department of this mandate.

Well, I guess, I mean, the... We're grateful to receive what we're receiving from state OPD. Obviously, it's just a fraction of our cost to the county. I guess the bigger concern is that the Washington Supreme Court has recently mandated that we reduce our caseload significantly over the next 10 years. Essentially, this is in response to the public defender shortage that is really nationwide. It's certainly statewide here in Washington. I think the thinking behind this sort of policy move by the court is that Part of the reason for the shortage of public defenders is sort of excessive caseloads, which has caused people to abandon public defense work. I hope they're right, because essentially the fix that they've chosen is to basically Increase the demand for the thing that we have a shortage of Right. We don't have enough public defenders. They're causing us to look for more public defenders So if we don't find them over the next ten years Either the Supreme Court is going to have to change this policy prescription or a lot of people are going to be sitting over in our jail without an attorney because we won't be able to provide it to them because of these caseload ceiling mandates. The Supreme Court did give us a little bit of flexibility in the sense that Essentially, their order was to go from a ceiling of 150 felonies down to 47 this year, and 300 misdemeanors down to 120 misdemeanors this year. But they gave us sort of a 10-year grace period where we can make those reductions by 10% per year until we get there. And so we've done the most conservative thing we can do, which is adopt that most conservative graduated implementation schedule for these reductions. And so beginning July 1st of this year, we do a caseload ceiling year from July 1st of one year to June 30th of the next year. And that just gives us the maximum amount of flexibility to see, you know, are we going to have enough attorneys given the amount of cases we have to, you know, basically fulfill this mandate. Because the thing that makes it so uncertain is we have no control over our caseload. Of course, that's a product of policing and prosecution, which we have no control over. But I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Yes, and this might be more for Amber. Amber, what would be the impact on the county budget, the increase in the attorneys that we're going to need over the next 10 years?

Gosh, I'm not entirely sure I can tell you that to add an attorney. It's about $170,000 with salary and benefits. So if we have to add 20 plus attorneys, that's I mean, it's definitely in the seven figures.

Thank you. I think we pulled this from the agenda because this would be a contract that we would simply just approve, but we just wanted to highlight this is a statewide problem and the impact that it will have on Kitsap County.

And I'll say this goes to a long list of underfunded and unfunded mandates coming up out of the state to all 39 counties and then in this case specifically Kitsap County and really $400,000 may seem like a lot of money, but out of the how much.

More than $6 million in costs annually?

Right, on something that we are legally bound to provide people just so they can get a free and fair trial. Frankly, it's disgusting, but that's my opinion. But I appreciate, Steve, your balance in trying to work this out with what you have to make sure that everybody gets... Gets heard. We'll do our best commissioners. Thank you.

OK, alright, I am.

I moved to approve revenue contract with Washington State Office of Public Defense. Casey dash 380-26. FY270124 for public defense funding for fiscal year 2027. Second.

OK, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your time and all your work.

Agenda item 19, this is the opportunity for the public to address the board on public hearing items. The board will open each public hearing and then invite the public to comment on that topic. The first public hearing is 20A, petition submitted by Richard and Karen Blondin to vacate unopened and unnamed right-of-way in Suquamish.

OK, a couple of admin notes here. What we're going to do is public comments will be three minutes long per person. And if anybody is online, do we have anybody online yet? Do you see? Probably quite a few. OK. Three minutes per person. If people choose, they can provide a written comment to us, which sometimes is preferred. But we will not go over three minutes, because there's quite a few people, I think, that is ready to speak on a couple of these public hearings. So, well, good afternoon, or good morning still. Good morning. You can just turn on, yeah, thank you.

One second. So I'm sharing my screen. Do you see it? No?

There should be that Share button at the bottom of the Zoom window.

Yeah, here we go. Perfect. Okay. Good morning, Commissioner. Sorry about the delay. It's okay. I am Andy Takemeyer. I am presenting this road vacation on behalf of Molly Foster on our real estate team. Richard and Karen Blondin have petitioned the county to vacate a portion of unopened right-of-way known as a platted walk dedicated to the use of the public in the Suquamish area of North Kitsap. It's located in Commissioner District 1 and Richard and Karen are here in the audience today just to watch the process and participate if needed. So the requested portion of this right-of-way was established in 1910 when the Platte of Suquamish was created. I'm going to just kind of move on. So it's the red up there on the top of the screen. There's no evidence that this section of right-of-way which dead ends onto private property at the north end was ever improved or constructed for public use. This section of right-of-way parallels the shoreline. So the west side there is water where it says port. And you'll kind of see that it bisects private property. There's private property to the west of this area and private property to the east. So it parallels but does not provide water access. The areas remained undeveloped since the land was platted in 1910. There's a couple photos that the owner had provided that we wanted to share today. So that line represents an approximate location of this platted right-of-way, which as you can see, runs directly through private improvements that were built in the 50s, 40s, 60s era. So the trail has not been used by the public ever. So these are kind of just some photos to show you what is currently there. And then I'm just going to end on the plat up there. So this request has been reviewed by appropriate staff who are all recommending approval of the vacation. Please keep in mind when reviewing these road vacation requests that staff comments are based on any foreseeable use of the right-of-way being needed for road or non-motorized purposes for the public. A reminder as well that the road vacation does not convey title. It simply releases the public easement from the land and the area reverts back to its origin. In this case, the area would revert to the owners of those parcels that are bisected by the easement. The vacation has been advertised and posted on site with the public hearing date. All comments, emails, and letters received were submitted for public record. Per Molly Foster, she said she did not receive public comments on this vacation request. Also, as a courtesy due to the location, the Suquamish tribe was notified and they did not respond. Do you have any questions? I have a picture. So it's typically posted on one end of the vacation where it can be visible. So I believe it was on the south end of the easement is where it was posted.

But that would be, would that be facing a next door neighbor versus facing a right of way where neighbors would see?

Well, so the right of way starts, if you look at, if you can see on the map, the right of way starts at the very south end and it moves up. So per law, it is posted technically on either end. The north end, you can't really even access it. So it was not posted there. But on the south end, you can access it. So it was posted on the south end of the vacation request. So we, per RCW, have to post it at the location of the vacation we typically can't post it you know out on the frontage road on the other side of the property if that makes sense i hear if that's where you're kind of getting at yeah okay any further questions all right do we have a motion no we have a public hearing oh that's you're right

We've had so much today. Okay. All right. At this time I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for comments. It is now open. I have nobody signed up. Is there anybody online that would like to make a comment?

I'm not seeing any hands up.

No hands up? Okay. Did anybody mean to sign up that would like to speak? Sir? Yes, sir. When you get there, please state your name so we can document it.

My name is Vinton Leinart. I'm a resident in rural central Kitsap, and I would ask the board to make a public comment about not... of not making changes to the Puget Sound Air Quality Control Agency.

Okay, sir. Right now, I'm sorry, right now, that's probably under general comments at the end. This is on the petition by Richard and Karen.

No, I'm sorry.

That's okay. No problem.

I was waiting for the public comments, and you asked for a public comment.

Yes, sir. Okay, no problem. Yeah, we'll get those here in a few minutes.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Anybody else, any changes?

Anybody raise their hand by chance?

I'm not seeing anyone online with their hand up at this time.

Okay, so we have no further comments. We're going to go and close the public hearing.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to request that we continue the public hearing for decision only to our next meeting.

Okay.

Which would be September 14th.

September 14th. Okay.

All right. Any objections?

All right.

That's fine. Thank you.

We'll go ahead and move that to September 14th for decision only.

Can we get a vote, please? Oh, a motion? Yeah, sure. A second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Okay.

And I want to say it's very hopeful that there's no comment. So thank you for coming to Port Orange. coming down to Port Orchard for this. It seems like it should be smooth. It means we had a public hearing today, and we'll make a decision at our next meeting. Okay.

It'll be for decision only. So we'll have time waiting for public comment to come in, and then we'll make a decision only at that. We won't have any more discussion about it.

And no more open public hearing.

Right.

And I'll just also add that per RCW, this was posted the required 21 days ago prior to this hearing.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there a maximum time?

No.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks for being here today.

Thank you.

All right. Next up, item 20B, ordinance proposing amendments to the Kitsap County Title IV impact fees, providing an 80% exemption from transportation impact fees for eligible early learning facilities.

Okay. Okay.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm going to need the last presenter to end their share so I can share, or maybe Claire can help me. All right. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Rafe Weisham. I'm the Director of Community Development here at Kitsap County, and I'm here to present a potential amendment of Kitsap County Code Title IV impact fees. So this proposed amendment would provide an 80% exemption from transportation impact fees for early learning facilities, for eligible early learning facilities. So a little bit of history. Childcare has been a priority, specifically recently. In 2026, your priorities included evaluate ways to support expansion, availability, and affordability of childcare services, including an assessment of impact fee reductions or waivers. I highlight the below portion, the assessment of impact fee reductions and waivers, because that's specifically what I'm here to discuss while we continue to look at other options to provide expansion and affordability for child care services. Additionally, the comprehensive plan includes policy supporting availability of daycare facilities, including in goal seven of our rural and resource lands chapter, which encourages expanded access to child care services for our rural residents. So this was really a two-step process. The first step was to assess the potential impact fee reductions. So the RCW there on the screen, it prohibits jurisdictions from charging impact fees, exceeding those of comparable commercial uses. So the Department of Community Development collaborated with Public Works to figure out if our current impact fees for child care centers was compatible with or comparable with some of those commercial uses. And what we found was that we were over, probably exceeded where we should be for those child care centers. So that led to a reduction from just over $61 per square foot for transportation impact fees for these child care centers or early learning facilities down to about half or around $33 per square foot. So that was step one. And I was able to do that with the director. I have authority to do that without needing to come to you. So I've done that and that's already been implemented. The next step was to assess any waivers. So in 2021, Senate House Bill 3031 authorized counties to reduce or exempt fees for those early learning facilities under some conditions. One of those waivers is to reduce it by 80%. And that's pretty simple. There's no covenant required, no ongoing compliance monitoring that the county has to do, no reporting that the early learning facility has to do. We can't increase unrelated fees to make up the difference. And of note, park and school fees are not affected by this because ELS are classified as non-residential use, so the only fee that is charged is the transportation impact fee. So this proposed ordinance would amend Title IV and provide an 80% exemption for those transportation impact fees for those early learning facilities. Specifically, the proposal adds verbiage in KC 4.110.030 that says an early learning facility as defined in RCW 43.31.565 shall be exempt from 80% of the transportation impact fee otherwise required under this chapter. This proposed amendment supports those county goals that I mentioned at the start of this presentation, and I think it's important to note that we consulted with the roads division because they're the ones that are financially impacted by this, and we are aligning this recommendation to you today. One example we had was there was an early learning facility that its proposed impact fees were over $100,000 to start their early learning facility. Through these two-part reduction, we've reduced those impact fees to just around $9,000. So what was Basically a showstopper for this early learning facility now. They are moving forward with their application to provide that child care So I think it's this is a this is a win for the county. This is addresses our child care Shortage across Kitsap County, so I'm asking you guys to support this as we move forward That's great, that's what I've got all right open to questions or public comments

Okay. Right now, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public comment period. I have one individual signed up, Mr. Jamie Com. Co? Clough? Clough? All right.

Good to see you, Jamie, from KBA. Okay. Good to see you. Thank you so much. Good morning, commissioners. Jamie Clough here representing the Kitsap Building Association. I want to thank both the commissioners, county staff, DCD staff, public works staff for taking this big step to help us provide child care for the county. This 80% reduction takes an original impact fee from For the average early learning facility from about $113,000 down to $13,000 and $600. So huge, huge savings for us. This is a significant step towards expanding child care capacity and supporting working families throughout Kitsap County. We've already heard of new daycare providers previously priced out of opening that can now submit plans to begin building the services that Kitsap County desperately needs. We would also hope that this process has highlighted the broader effect that impact fees can have on the feasibility of new businesses and essential community services. Early learning facilities often operate on tight margins and significant upfront costs can prevent otherwise viable projects from moving forward. We encourage the county to carry this lesson into future policy discussions and consider targeted relief when fees create a barrier to services Kitsap County urgently needs. As always, the KBA stands ready to work with the board, county staff, and community partners to identify practical solutions that reduce barriers, support essential services, and promote responsible growth throughout Kitsap County. Thank you again for your leadership, and we thank you for taking this important action.

Thank you, Damian. Okay, I have nobody else signed up here in chambers. Did we miss anybody? Okay. Anybody on line with the hands up would like to comment?

Not seeing any hands up.

Okay. All right. So I'm going to close the public comment. Okay. Do I have a motion?

I'm comfortable taking action today if you are. I am too. This has been tossed around for quite some time.

Yeah. And again, I want to thank DCD staff for this. This has been a priority in the last couple of years. And this is one area that we can absolutely make an impact. I know Heather's been involved with the comprehensive plan on child care on that end. And then also just want to note that Kitsap Economic Development Alliance. We've developed a toolkit along with the Child Care Action Council so that those who are interested in opening, especially in-home centers or their own early learning center, that there's a toolkit that kind of gives you the step-by-step of what you need to do to do that. And that's available at the Child Care Action Council. So go to their website for the Kitsap Tools for Success. So I just wanted to Make a plug for that and now I'll get to the motion. Get to the details alright so. I move. To amend the Kitsap County title for impact fees to provide an 80% exemption from transportation impact fees for eligible early learning facilities second.

Alright, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any further discussion?

Yes, I'd like to say something. This, to me, first of all, I'm not sure that commissioners would have been aware of how high the impact fee was had the department not brought it to us. So for that, I am thankful that your staff took a look to see what we could do. Secondly, it is extremely gratifying to see the entire community, including the Economic Development Alliance, HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE TO THE ECONOMY OF OUR REGION. PARENTS CAN'T WORK IF THEIR KIDS DON'T HAVE SOMEWHERE SAFE TO GO AND KIDS LEARN BETTER WHEN THEY HAVE SOMEWHERE SAFE TO GO WITH HIGHLY QUALIFIED CARE PROFESSIONALS. AND SO FOR US TO BE TAKING THIS BIG STEP IS REALLY, IT'S JUST REALLY IMPORTANT. I THINK IT MARKS A BIG CHANGE IN THE WAY PEOPLE IN KITZAP COUNTY THINK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILD CARE.

Yeah, again, I don't know if I could follow that up with anything, but I have to say, I appreciate Rafe, you and your staff really working hard on this. Um, this is something really all walks of life. Uh, the Navy has been really involved with this with our sci op program coming into play. There's going to be an influx of probably families coming in here that's going to be looking for childcare. And we've been constrained for quite a while. Quite a while. So this is a great first step to making it easier for childcare providers. So thank you to your team. Okay. Do I have a motion?

I made it.

Second. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioners. And I just want to highlight that I'm just the one bringing the good news to you. But you mentioned Heather already and the great work she did. And then Tina Rice and Veronica Bassin really worked to get this through to the finish line. So I just want to acknowledge those folks. Absolutely. Thank you, Rick. Thank you.

Item 20C, resolution amending resolution 008-2026 regarding the Kitsap County 2026 long-range planning docket to add an item and remove an item for the proposed 2026 comprehensive plan amendment.

Thank you. I'll just take a minute to get set up.

Okay.

Okay, thank you commissioners. My name is Heather Cleveland. I'm a long range planner with Kitsap County Department of Community Development, and I'm here to present the proposed 2026 docket amendment resolution. This is just a reminder from our Kitsap County Code 2108040A that any amendments to the comprehensive plan have to be done in a batch and are docketed. But the commissioners do have authority to update that docket, and that's what we're proposing here today. The two amendments include, one is an addition, and that's the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space PROS element update. And I'll go into detail about that in a little bit more. And then the other is to remove the Illahee Community Plan. And both of these are related to updates to our comprehensive plan. The PROS element update, and some more details on this. So in 2025, the PROS plan was updated by resolution. AND THE YEAR PRIOR TO THAT, THE PRO'S PLAN, THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN WAS ADOPTED, BUT THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, THE HIERARCHY IS ABOVE THE PRO'S PLAN. SO WE DID A GAP ANALYSIS THIS YEAR AFTER THE PRO'S PLAN, WHICH HAS MORE DETAILS, AND THAT'S BROUGHT FORWARD BY THE PARKS DEPARTMENT. WE DID A GAP ANALYSIS FOR SOME OF THE ITEMS THAT WERE MISSING FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, AND SO THOSE UPDATES TO THE PRO'S ELEMENT IN THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN IS WHAT WE'RE PROPOSING. Additionally, the 2025 plan that the Parks Department presented and was approved by resolution includes updates in inventory and level of service to the parks, and that will be updated in the capital's facility plan. Additionally, it's proposed that the Ilihi Community Plan be removed from the docket, so not updating that in the Comprehensive Plan this year. There's an evolving understanding of the scope of work as it relates to the Ilihi Community Plan, so we're proposing to remove that from the docket, but continue to monitor it through our work plan. It's also our understanding that that aligns with the priorities of the Board for 2027 as well, to continue to monitor that. Moving forward, so the comprehensive plan, as I mentioned earlier, is something that is amended annually once per year. And with that, we're moving towards the end of 2026, so it needs to be adopted by the end of 2026. And with that, the drafts will be, the document will be, the amended comprehensive plan drafts will be published September 1st. And our first hearing for the public process will be with the Planning Commission on September 15th. And then after that, incorporating those comments, the second draft, which will be before the Board of County Commissioner hearing, will be on October 26th. And then we'll have the Board of County Commissioner hearing for those amendments on September 9th, and then looking towards deliberations and adoption in November and December of 2026. Folks can find more information about the comprehensive plan amendments, which includes the addition of the pros element, but continues to include the Silverdale Center plan. So both of those will be part of the comprehensive plan of amendments. So the Silverdale has not changed. Those can be found on the comprehensive plan webpage. So if you go to Kitsap County, look for our department and then click on the comprehensive plan page, that's where folks will be able to find those draft documents along with the opportunity to comment when the comment period opens. I'm happy to answer any questions about the proposed amendment to the 2026 docket.

Thank you. Any questions?

Thank you. This is not a question about what you just presented. This discussion does not impact what will be on the docket for 2027, correct? That is correct. there was a property owner zoned urban who wished to be downzoned for development reasons. Is that on the 2027 docket? That wasn't part of the 2026 docket, correct?

That's correct. It was not part of the 2026, but my understanding is that's being discussed for potentially the 2027 docket. Good clarification.

Thank you. Anything else? Okay. All right. We are now going to thank you. Appreciate that, as always. Now we're going to open up the public comment. I have nobody signed up to provide comment. Is there anybody online?

We do have a hand up. Okay. Tawny Cowan.

OK, and can we make sure we get the timer up and make sure it's for this item? Yeah, I was just about to say that. And is it Cowan? Is that how you say it? I can't see. I can't.

I believe so.

Ms. Cowan, is this for the long-range planning docket?

Yes, it is.

OK, great. And let's get the timer up for three minutes.

Perfect. Chair Root, Commissioners Walters and Rolfs, my name is Tawny Callan. I'm an independent journalist for Kitsap County and the founder of Porter to Politics. I support the board's ability to adjust the docket. Removing the Ilohi Community Plan from the formal 2026 Comprehensive Plan docket and placing it on a monitoring work plan is a sensible step. Not every planning exercise needs a full amended cycle. I'm more cautious about the new items, especially the rural land analysis. That work is framed around measuring whether Kitsap is meeting the 76-23% urban-rural split. Using government analysis to steer private land towards regional density targets risks putting property rights second to planning goals. Rural landowners should not face new overlays, restrictions on legacy lots, or title rules on agriculture and forestry simply because the study finds the county is off target. Any updates to the parks, recreation, and open space element should restore hierarchy without expanding public land goals or new open space designations that limit private use. The resolution claims no fiscal impact. Staff time and the policy changes that follow these studies still cost the public. Those costs deserve clear tracking. I asked the board to keep three principles in view. Property rights come first. Analysis should not automatically produce new regulations and public participation must remain meaningful. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Coward. OK, anybody else?

Not seeing any other hands up online OK.

Okay. Public comment is opposed. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion?

Do you want to continue or do you want to?

I kind of defer to you.

I'm fine doing it.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't have my mic on I'm fine making I'm fine going through with this today because it's really it's a it's a Many staff work on the docket. It's not it's because of the work will still continue as clarified by Commissioner officer earlier.

Yeah, okay, okay All right want me to make them?

Yeah, I moved to approve the resolution amending and Resolution 008-2026 regarding the Kitsap County 2026 long-range planning docket to add an item and remove an item from the proposed 2026 comprehensive plan amendments. Second.

Motion second. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation. Okay.

Item 20D, ordinance amending existing code KCC 17.110 to clarify the definitions of research laboratories and warehousing and distribution. Sorry.

you.

Okay, apologies for the delay there, but good morning, commissioners. For the record, I'm Garrett Ballou, planner with Kitsap County DCD. And this morning, we have the public hearing for the proposed Title 17 definitions updates. And so specifically, these are two definitions within Title 17 to the definition of research laboratory, as well as the definition of warehousing and distribution.

Okay.

And so- This morning we have just a brief presentation covering the definitions as well as the background for these definitions and why we are proposing changes and clarification to those. So we'll go into this brief presentation, open the public hearing, and then We have deliberations scheduled for Wednesday, this upcoming Wednesday, the 26th. But at the board's discretion, we could move into deliberations after public hearing or continue those to the 26th. So just want to lay those potential options forward. And note that there is also one proposed change from the draft ordinance, not to the definitions themselves, but more of a ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE TO LANGUAGE WITHIN THE ORDINANCE THAT'S IN THAT DELIBERATIONS MATRIX THAT WE CAN TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT ONCE WE DO DELIBERATIONS, WHETHER IT'S TODAY OR ON WEDNESDAY. SO THAT SAID, I'LL GO AHEAD AND JUMP INTO THE PRESENTATION HERE STARTING WITH THE SCHEDULE. So on July 21st, we had a combined meeting with the Planning Commission after a public comment period where 27 written comments were submitted to the Planning Commission. We went through a briefing, a public hearing, and findings of fact during that meeting. And the Planning Commission recommended the proposed edits TO TITLE 17 AND WE'RE MOVING FORWARD NOW TO THE PROCESS WITH THE BOARD WHICH IS WHERE WE'RE AT TODAY ON THE 24th. BEFORE THIS WE ALSO HAD A BRIEFING WITH THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AT THE DCD MONTHLY UPDATE BACK IN JULY. And the reason for these proposed changes in clarifying these sections of code, these definitions, it revolves around a changing landscape with technology, specifically data centers. And data centers are often large-scale development projects. These can have substantial land use impacts and resource impacts. They also have infrastructure requirements associated with them. They can require significant amounts of electricity and water for their operation, which may have implications for local utility districts, impacts to natural resources and environmental conditions, including water quality as well. Currently, the county is awaiting guidance from a variety of agencies and groups who are providing some of that guidance to folks at the local level. So a few of these that we're keeping an eye on are the Governor's Data Center Work Group, which convened in December of 2025. They recommend reporting requirements for large utility loads, as well as directing the State Department of Ecology to develop data center siting and operating best practices. SO THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE'RE KEEPING AN EYE ON, AGAIN, WANTING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE THE FULL PICTURE HERE AND GETTING ALL OF THE GUIDANCE THAT WE CAN FROM THESE OTHER AGENCIES, INCLUDING THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY. THERE'S ALSO BEEN A FEDERAL EXECUTIVE ORDER, 14365, DIRECTING THE U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE TO REVIEW STATE AI LAWS FOR CONFLICTS WITH THE NATIONAL MINIMALLY BURDENSOME AI POLICY FRAMEWORK. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE NOT SEEN YET, BUT THIS IS ALSO IN THE WORKS. And at the more local level, more of a local level, excuse me, there are county associations including WASAC and the National Association of Counties who are collaborating to develop legislation and best practice guidance for counties moving forward. And so these are all initiatives that we are following closely to ensure that we are making the best decisions that we can regarding this evolving landscape with these data centers becoming more commonplace throughout the country. And on that note, jurisdictions around the nation, as well as Washington state, have received applications for data centers submitted under use classifications, such as research laboratories or warehouses. And in some cases, the linkage between proposed data centers and the similar use can appear tenuous. And so we are addressing a couple of our definitions within county code to ensure that the intent of those definitions stands while we're experiencing these changes. in this realm here. So the proposed revisions to these definitions in Title 17 will provide greater clarity regarding the intended scope of those uses in Kitsap County. So here's one of the proposed changes to research laboratories specifically up on the screen. And so I won't read all of the change there, but the biggest shift is that it specifies here in this proposed definition that research laboratories characterized by the presence of researchers, technicians, scientists, engineers or similar personnel conducting research, investigative testing or experimental activities, on site in those laboratory testing areas and workspaces. And it specifies facilities whose primary function is equipment operation, utility service provision, storage, warehousing, or other activities not involving ongoing research, INVESTIGATION AND TESTING ARE NOT RESEARCH LABORATORIES. SO THAT'S THE MAIN DISTINCTION THERE IN ENSURING THAT THESE TYPES OF FACILITIES ARE TRULY BEING USED FOR RESEARCH ONGOING TESTING EXPERIMENTATION BY ON-SITE RESEARCHERS AND PERSONNEL. And the second and final definition that we are taking a look at with this code update is warehousing and distribution. And the focus on this change is physical merchandise and physical materials being stored on site in the warehouse for subsequent sale and distribution and moving those physical objects elsewhere. And so this is... REALLY THE MEAT OF THE DEFINITION HERE AND THAT LAST SENTENCE, A USE THAT DOES NOT MAINTAIN AN INVENTORY CONSISTING EXCLUSIVELY OF PHYSICAL GOODS SHALL NOT BE CONSIDERED WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION. THAT IS REALLY WHERE THE CHANGE LIES. ALL RIGHT. I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS ON THESE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE DEFINITIONS.

ANY QUESTIONS? All right. Okay, no questions. Garrett, thank you. Thank you for that brief. Of course. Okay. And right now I'm going to open the public comment. I don't have anybody signed up. Mr. Peterson, did you sign up for laboratories? I have you for... There it is, yep. I got double copies here. I got you. Come on up.

Did you get this?

I did, I did.

Our pleasure. Okay. Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. I am David Peterson, and in regards to Kitsap County Code 17.110.658, research labs on page 3 on the draft ordinance lines 26 to 28 state, quote, or other activities not involving ongoing research, investigation, testing, or experimentation by on-site personnel are not research labs, unquote. BESS and data centers are new and emerging technologies that are still being developed and are constantly having ongoing research, investigation that requires testing or experimentation, improving the system's facility. In consideration, existing research labs can be a data center. Please see attachment A that shows three examples of data centers that function like scientific labs. In regards to Kitsap County Code 17.110.743, warehousing and distribution in the draft ordinance line 39 states, quote, consisting exclusively of physical goods, unquote. In reading the director's interpretation dated July 13, 2026, found on Washington Kitsap Bulletin's page, it clearly states, quote, facilities that do not store significant tangible goods, unquote. See attachments B and C. Since the director's interpretation cites tangible goods, quote, unquote, and the word tangible, quote, unquote, is a clearer description, the word physical should be replaced with, quote, tangible in the edits. In conclusion, I am requesting the BOCC, the Board of Commissioners, not to adopt the current draft ordinance amending Kitsap County Code 17.110 until further studies have been done to develop a better definition of what a research lab is and for DCD to define in detail what a data center and best facility are as well. These are extremely important definitions that can change an entire facility like example attachment A. They are supposedly research labs, but in reality, they're also data centers. So that is the reason why I'm bringing this to your attention, and it could present a problem later down the road. So I would again hope that the commissioners would go towards further studies and definitions in that particular chapter to make sure that things don't go in the wrong direction and end up basically causing major, major issues down the road. That's all I got to say about that.

Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else wishing to comment? Okay. Nobody else? Anybody online?

I'm not seeing any hands up online.

Okay. I'm moving slow for past experiences. Okay. All right. Public comment is now closed.

Excuse me. I want to pick up the comment, but there's still an issue that you have on the agenda.

Yes, sir. So right after this, we'll have a general comments where anybody can speak. So yes, sir. I appreciate your tenacity making sure you get heard. Thank you. Okay.

What do you think? So Garrett, we have scheduled time for deliberation on the 26th.

Correct. Yes. Okay.

do we want to continue so the motion would be that we've closed the public hearing but i moved to continue the public hearing to wednesday october august 26 for the purpose of continued discussion i second that okay your motion is second any other discussion on that i'm looking at claire to make sure yeah just for decision only for decision decision only yeah and

He's watching her head go up and down like so.

So Wednesday we would make a decision or we would we would deliberate and then make a decision later.

We could do either right? We can make a decision or we can extend it again for decision.

Yeah, so it would be scheduled for deliberations and decision on Wednesday. Okay. Is that correct, Clara?

Yeah, you can do it either way. You can do deliberations on the 26th. I think the plan was to have adoption at the September 14th meeting. Is that correct, Garrett? Or were you looking for adoption?

Either way.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. So to the discretion of the commission. Okay.

So I think we're fine if we move for deliberation and then we can decide at deliberation to come out. Is that correct?

What time is it scheduled?

Let's clarify this.

What day is the deliberation? Yeah, so we do have deliberations currently scheduled for August 26th at 1130. So that can be for deliberations. And then if you want to move adoption to the September 14th meeting, you can do that or you can do it at that deliberations meeting.

Okay.

With the permission of the second, I'd like to withdraw my motion. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we extend the public hearing to Wednesday at 1130, August 26th for deliberation.

OKAY.

SECOND.

OKAY. SO WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND. GOOD. ALL RIGHT. I'LL GIVE THEM A THUMBS UP. ALL RIGHT. DISCUSSION. DISCUSSION. YES, MA'AM.

YES, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK GARRETT TO TAKE A LOOK AT MR. PETERSON'S VERY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON LANGUAGE AND BE ABLE TO RESPOND AT OUR MEETING ON WEDNESDAY. And then I second. Most of the public comment that we received, there's really only a half dozen or so comments, were concerned about data centers in our community, one that was not as specific to the language of the ordinance as Mr. Peterson. So that's why I'm asking you to just take a look at that. But I also want to... emphasize that the changes to this language are not precluding research and warehousing in the county. And I've just been made aware of one really exciting research opportunity that may be happening at the Port of Bremerton with the University of Washington's Oceanographic Institute, where they've received a federal grant to bring all that national research and equipment to our community. So like we're continuing to move forward. even while tightening up our code. So that's just a comment.

Yeah, and I did appreciate Mr. Peterson's comment in his, I don't know if his, in his written comment about the need to define BESS and data centers. Is that coming then in a future definition? Because it's not part of this discussion.

So the definition for data centers in code, that would need to be a part of a separate look at those. I know that there's continuation of the best project. And so... I think potentially Jim could maybe speak more to what's being done as far as code on that. I know that there has been work on that. That has been continuous and site visits out to best facilities. So that would be potentially a part of that.

So that's coming. This is like phase one just so that we're locked down so that things aren't slipping in under... Right. So that we have more.

Yeah. Clarification of existing definitions. And to your point about the research or Commissioner Rolfes' point about the research centers and those being exciting opportunities throughout the county, changing these definitions, it doesn't preclude existing facilities and it doesn't change those other research facilities or new research facilities and it doesn't. impose additional requirements or restrictions on those. It's just defining further what a research facility is and the confines of that to ensure that the intent of these definitions are met going forward. And same with warehousing and distribution.

Thank you. Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

All right. We have a motion and a second to continue for deliberation until the what date again?

26 Wednesday August 26th at 1130 a.m.. Okay.

Thank you all right All right, let's vote all those in favor say aye aye Oppose okay motion carries continue Okay Item 21 this is the opportunity for the public to address the board on general interests I Okay. It looks like I have four people signed up. Okay, we'll get you in line here. I appreciate that. Mr. Peterson. You have two minutes this time. General comments. Thank you for clarifying.

It's going to be a little harder this time to get my two-second space there. Let's see how it goes. Speed reading lesson for the day. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm David Peterson. DCD Director's interpretation says data centers are not warehousing or distribution facilities because they don't store tangible goods, product. I agree. Physics 101 asserts that energy is intangible. It has no mass or volume and no physical dimensions or takes up space, according to Attachment A. Quote, electrical energy is not tangible. has no physical body, it is stored in invisible electromagnetic fields, and is a property, not an object, unquote. Moving on, let's talk about ACUPS. During the May 11, 2026 public hearing, I stated that by using ACUP in wetlands and protected zones puts our wetlands and water supply at great risk by unseen events or accidents that sometimes happen. It would be a great relief to see DCD adopt Kitsap County Code that would not allow for any bus or data center to be constructed over any private or public wellheads that have one, two, and three time travel zones as listed in the Washington State Department of Health webpage. During the July 27th public hearing, I requested the same. Let's briefly discuss the pros and cons of substations, best and data centers. Substations do not use as much property as the other two and use no water supply whatsoever to cool them and have an extremely low failure rate and are now using mineral oils and ester fluids made from biodegradable plants. In regards to BESS and data centers, both use lithium ion batteries, which need to be cooled by water, up to 5,000 gallons of water per day before the state becomes involved, per attachment B. The aquifer recharge areas are the only clean systems available to the local communities. They both produce noise and require battery changes that cost approximately $5 million to remove and destroy. In addition, Dependability is not secure, as we are led to believe, since the batteries, as they are being used, all produce toxic chemical and gas, such as hydrogen, which is extremely explosive. A key goal of the wetland regulation is to achieve no net loss per DCD's critical area handout. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Peterson.

Five seconds. Yeah.

Thank you very much for your comment. Thank you very much for listening.

I hope it has helped and we'll move forward. Absolutely. Okay, next on the list, Mr. Alvin Cleave.

Good morning, commissioners. My name's Al Van Cleave. I've been a Lolo resident for 24 years. As you can see, that's the Kitsap County I reside in. That's not the only spot that's like that. I understand the position you folks are in. Bread and circuses. It's got to be tough to be administrators, straighters, during the time of bread and circuses. Federal governments give us certain financial data. They lie to the state. The state, in turn, lies to you and then forces mandates on you. We spend these monies, and what's really resonating to me about this, this problem's been going on my entire life, and it's gotten worse. We heard people this morning that talked about issues that correlate with this. It affects the money we spent in law enforcement. It's a horrible thing. It's not getting any better. I watched a lot of approval of a lot of expenditures this morning. My question is, when does the county go into these groups? I understand the cause. But the money we're spending without personal accountability and responsibility in getting better... is going to perpetuate this cycle of expenditures. All we do is spend. We get no results. I'm looking for results. I'm into helping hands. But we cannot perpetually keep spending like this and having this type of stuff go on. Look what's happening in Seattle. I mean, it's a horrible thing. I'm asking you to start looking into some of these agencies, NGOs, because I've done a little looking in, and the salaries are very lucrative for individuals involved with these NGOs, but they're not producing anything. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Van Cleef.

I'd like to ask Tori if you could follow up with Mr. Van Cleave about where this photo was and who cleaned it up. Thank you.

Okay. Next on the list is Kim Van Cleave.

I just want to say that in light of the sheriff announcement today, I just want to thank the commissioners for appointing Kenneth Dickinson as the interim sheriff. After listening to the interviews, he's clearly the most qualified, in my opinion, for this particular position. He avoids the controversy surrounding the incumbent advantage of the upcoming election, as well as there's a current controversy, time limits me from going into that, however, that's of public record into the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office. So that's appointing Sheriff Dickinson being completely apart from that and being a part of the current controversy.

uh sheriff's office since he's been retired um i think is a really good move and um just wanna thank you for that thank you it's always nice to get good thank you okay all right who else wants to make general comments go ahead yes sir Yeah. What's his name?

Vincent.

My name is Michael Gustafson. I'm a resident of South Kitsap County. I want to first thank you for the thick cushions on those hard chairs we just experienced in two hours. As we celebrate our 250th year as a country, it's a good time to reflect on why and how we became a different kind of country, free of a king and an autocratic parliament. Thomas Jefferson was one of five drafters of the Declaration of Independence. He strongly supported the statement, all men are created equal, and the concept that ours would be a representative government by, for, and of the people, the people being the public. Thomas Jefferson had fathered six children by his house slave, Sally Hemings. He wanted his own children to be free citizens. Virginia's economy was dependent on slave labor, the strong public support to maintain slavery. Unwilling to act in opposition to the people he was elected to represent, he was compelled to vote to follow the wishes of those he represented. Even by doing so, he condemned his own children to slavery. The food for thought for the county commissioners from this message and my questions to you today, when you cast your votes of the three of you, do you represent the people who testify to you or some other constituency? The other question, why do we bother holding public hearings? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gustafson. Okay. Mr. I'm going to go with, you want to go?

Sorry, I got out of order.

I'm sorry about the chairs.

My name is, again, my name is Ben Leinart. I'm a resident of Central Kitsap and I attended a public meeting in Central Kitsap by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. They are proposing rule changes to Kitsap County and the period of of remarks ends 31 August and I haven't heard any remarks from the board of commissioners to the agency. I looked at their meeting minutes and there's no comment about where Kitsap stands in reference to making those rule changes. And I would propose to the board, the commissioner board, that they oppose those rule changes to the Puget Sound Air Quality Control Agency. if you have any questions of me to help you support that. I've looked at the meetings and so forth and the main objection The main rule eliminates rural residents from being able to get rid of their yard waste by burning. And the main problem with smoke is actually wildfires, not rural residences.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Okay, sir.

For the record, Richard A. Brown, I lived in Kitsap County for the last 87 years and testified since 1970 to the county commissioners. There's only one way to satisfy housing in Kitsap County, and that way is to get the growth hearings board out of the picture. The way to do that is to do what 19 states are currently doing that's down to 15 states now that plan under the Growth Management Act. The primary state that made beyond what we're going through is Florida. Florida amended their comprehensive planning to eliminate the Growth Hearings Board from overruling counties as to housing. That's exactly what the three of you should do, is go to the State Association of Counties and say, we no longer want to be controlled by the Socialist Growth Hearing Board who's located in Seattle. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay.

All right. Anybody else like to make a public comment? Mr. Peterson? You had your time.

I have 15 seconds left.

Yeah. Hold on one second. Can't do that. I appreciate you. Good effort. Good effort. And I'm going to go back to online. Andrew Manchester, are you still online?

I see them online, but I do not see a hand up.

Okay. Mr. Manchester, if you could put your hand up. So we can call on you for general comments.

All right. It looks like they're ready to speak.

Okay, great.

Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Yes. I'm still learning the process. Um, sorry about that. Uh, I would like to bring up the issue of how cars are towed. A coworker had his mother's car stolen. by break-in, and they drove the car away, then abandoned it. The authorities had the car towed. She had to pay $605 to retrieve her car, plus then she had to get the car repaired. No contact was made prior to the tow company contacting her to retrieve her vehicle. I would like to propose that victims of crimes be able to retrieve their cars for free upon providing a police report. I also would like to see that phone calls be made prior to tows so that maybe the car owner could retrieve the vehicle and go to a repair shop. This happened to another friend of mine. The people in Port Townsend called him. He was able to go get his car without it being towed, and there was no additional burden placed on him.

Thank you. Thank you, sir, and I appreciate your patience. Okay, anybody else online?

I'm not seeing any other hands up. If you'd like to speak and you're online, please raise your hand at this time. Okay, there's no other hands up.

Okay, thank you. All right. Moving on.

Perfect. And then the last item on the agenda is item 22, board of commissioners comments.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to go back to general comments. Thank you for everyone who spoke. You are heard. We took notes. Sometimes it seems like we just go through a process here, but we actually are, we have notes all over the place, and we try to follow up with what we can and what we do. So thank you, and everyone was heard. So thank you very much. Okay, Board of Commissioner comments. I have a few, but I'll start.

Oh, I, yeah. The only thing I was going to say it's fair week. So thank you everyone. I, the last couple of weekends have been time to submit. for the different arts, photography, canning, vegetables, all of that. So just thank you to everyone that's submitted to the fair. And it's always one of my favorite times of year. And then the rodeo in the evening and the, what is it, on Sunday? Bowls on Sunday. Yeah, so everyone have a fun, safe fair.

All right. And pie contest?

Oh, yeah. And I'll be there to give pie awards. I get the honor of giving out the ribbons. And that will be 1 o'clock on Saturday.

Great. Thank you. Go ahead.

On a more serious note, but not more important. What do you mean? The fair is very serious.

But not more important, she said.

I am our board's representative on the Washington Association of Counties Legislative Steering Committee, which is all 39 counties have a representative, and we work at East-West bipartisan way to identify top priorities for counties going into the legislative session, so we're working on our 2027 priorities. And two of the meetings that I've been part of and that we're hoping to move policy forward on that are priorities of ours are related to liability reform, especially as it pertains to medical liability in our jails. And then we're also starting conversations about how to streamline our juvenile facilities. And our superior courts are aware that I'm having these conversations. But Mason County is also interested in maybe working with us. In all cases, we'd be providing the same kind of, I guess, care for people in the facilities, but while consolidating services and streamlining things. So just so you know, things are moving forward. I don't know if we'll be successful. And then the public defender priority that we saw a presentation on earlier today, I know from being in the legislature, that won't be resolved until our lawsuit is resolved and all of the counties have chipped in to sue the state on behalf of getting our public defense costs covered. But that continues to be the number one priority for all 39 counties. So just so you guys know, I've been busy zooming with the other commissioners on legislative priorities. And then I also want to say in response to one of the public comments made about Thomas Jefferson, I just in the last year read the book America's First Daughter, which was kind of an autobiography, not auto, it was a biography of his oldest daughter. It's very long with small font, but it's a hard read, but it really chronicled his personal life, and she was like the first lady. His first wife died and he never remarried, and his oldest daughter was like the first lady in the White House when he was the president, and it chronicled all of her responsibilities. And all of the emotional and political torture that he was going through, you referenced it a little bit in your comments. So if people are interested in politics, which I think anybody who has stuck around for this point in our meeting is, it's a really interesting history.

Thank you. I don't know how I follow up with all that, but I'm going to. Okay. I'm going to start with we, Commissioner Walters and I, last week went to the KEDA's SIOP briefing on government contracting and the things that are coming with that. And then we went to the Port of Bremerton on Friday and sat through a really great brief on how the Port of Bremerton is going to support our region and how SIOP is going to affect that. I have to say that there were some pretty amazing numbers that were coming out of those meetings and what's going to happen for the next 12 years. SIOP, the shipyard

Infrastructure Optimization Program.

Thank you very much. Is a 12 year, but more like a 50 to 80 year plan to upgrade or add and upgrade our shipyard to receive the new class of aircraft carriers. Just in the five to 10 years in front, they're looking at a $15 billion investment into our economy. And that's everything from truck drivers to construction to electricians to plumbers to pipe fitters. It's a huge deal. And we are probably two steps closer to that now, depending on what happens in October at the federal level. IT'S GOING TO BE A BIG IMPACT ON OUR COMMUNITY. SO I JUST WANT TO THANK KETA AND EVERYONE WHO JOINED. IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN READING UP ON IT, KETA HAS A GREAT PRESENTATION ON THEIR WEBSITE. BUT THAT'S GOING TO BE A SHOT TO OUR ECONOMY HERE IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS OR SO. I JUST WANT TO ADDRESS, TOO, THAT IT LOOKS LIKE THE NEWS JUST REPORTED THAT THE USS LINCOLN, A 10-month deployment, if anyone understands about deployments, they're usually about six months because of just the logistical supply just to keep people fed, let alone fight a war. They've been out there almost 10 months. You heard some negative news reporting out there that's been debunked for the most part, but they are going to be returning. They're supposed to go to home port San Diego, but there are some rumors that the chief of naval operations is going to send them here which will make our third aircraft carrier. So they're coming off combat operations, Operation Epic Fury in the Middle East, and they've been grinding for 10 months now. So I just want to say thank you to the crews and the Navy and all they've done for our country. Coming home from war, it doesn't matter if you're on a ship or on the ground. It's a relief to come home to your homeland and really be able to get off the ship and and take some well-deserved time off. And again, I appreciate all they've done. Let's see. Our staff has been working hard on our coop cog, which Why is everything? It's been a long meeting, hasn't it? Holy cow. Our government operations for emergencies, so continuity of government. And our staff's been working very hard on our emergency procedures. So it had been updated for a while, so they went through completely and made sure that we have a good plan and a good checklist. And this is a living document, so this gets updated all the time. So in case anything epic happens around here, You know, we are a national strategic location, which I won't go any further than that for our enemies. And also, we're an earthquake fault, so we want to be prepared for that, so all that. But I just want to give props out to our staff for working very hard on that. And I think I want to close up with my comments. I know it went pretty fast this morning with the interim sheriff's appointment, but I want to go back to Sheriff Sapp, and I want to just thank her for being an eternal chief to the jail. She put herself... She wore dual hats for months, and I don't know how she did it, to be honest with you, because she was juggling everything, and she ran everything... So smooth, we didn't even see a bump in the road. I thought that was... I thought that was extremely noteworthy because not many people can do that. And being the first sheriff of Kitsap County, woman sheriff of Kitsap County, that's a big deal. The fact that she just flawlessly took care of things, started working some pretty major legislative issues that we have to work on right now and run the jail. all at the same time. And the sentiment within the sheriff's office and the morale in the sheriff's office, she kind of put everything at ease, calmed everyone down, and led like a true leader should. She's an absolutely force multiplier. She's a great American, but she's an even better human being. I think that's the key, the recipe to the key of her success there. So I just want to appreciate her publicly. Once again, I know everyone has. But it's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. So I'll stop there since this has been a really long meeting. But go rodeo. Go Bronx. Go roping. Go bulls Sunday.

Sorry, Rotary. I'm not going to make it today.

Okay. Anything else? All right. We are adjourned.

All I can say is I'm not leaving you guys along with the agenda again.