Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning. At this time, we'll call to order the Yamh Hill County Board of Commissioners meeting for March 12th, 2026. And Caleb, would you lead us in the pledgece 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.

Welcome everybody. We are glad that you're here. We noticed that someone very important is not here and that is our chair Kit Johnston and Kit had an appendecttomy yesterday afternoon but worked all the way up until then and then last night was pretty much saying he was going to be here and was very disappointed to hear that his surgeon told him that was not going to happen. Uh, so I was I was definitely expecting him to zoom in, but I think his wife is keeping him on a uh a pretty short leash because, you know, you can't keep keep down. He's a he's a worker. So, we miss you, Kit. Prayers for your speedy recovery and uh we'll look forward to seeing you back here next week. All right, we have our calendar session and is there any change to the joint calendar schedule?

None of my

Okay, public comment. We have received a lot of public comments related to a particular issue having to do with um uh circus animals and that's not something that we we do here at Yamh Hill County. So um we have seen those and uh we have noted those. Is there anybody in here in the room or online who would like to make a public comment? Okay, we'll move on to our department updates. We have none. Work session, we have none. We'll move on to the consent agenda. We do not have a consent agenda. Item H is old business. The consideration of approval of the second reading of an ordinance in the matter of amending the Amhill County Transportation System Plan to remove the Mhelis Westsider Trail Project setting the effective date. This has been continued from February 26th, 2026. In light of the fact that our chair is not here, I'm wondering if we can uh have consensus to uh put this over till next week and maybe have the first read the second reading and then uh put our vote over until the following week.

We could do both. We could, the more I thought about it, the more I know you asked if there's consensus to to continue this to next week, we could then do the second reading and everything next week as well. Okay. If there's consensus, is there consensus to put this over the week uh put this over the second reading and the uh vote till next week? Um what happens if we're split? Goes to next week. That goes to next week. Yeah. Either way, it goes to next week. Then we may as well just go to next week. Okay. Go to next week. So there is consensus. Do we need a vote for that or just consensus?

Consensus should be fine to continue it to next week. And so it'll be on the agenda under old business for next Thursday. Okay, there you have it. Thank you so much. Item I, other business, add-ons and non-consent items. consideration of approval of a memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon, Washington, and Yamhill County, Oregon, as the cooperating agency for the revision of the northwestern and coastal Oregon record of decision and resource management plan and the southwest Oregon record of decision and resource management plan. This is a cooperating agency agreement. Do I have a motion to approve? Yes. So moved. We have a motion to approve item I1. Is there any further discussion?

None for me. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The motion passes. Item I2, consideration of approval of intent to award the 2026 North Valley Road Paving Project to Roy How Construction LLC in the amount of $957,96. And this is the North Valley Paving Project. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. We have a motion to approve. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. The motion passes. On to item I3. Consideration of approval of a construction services contract between Yamhill County and Roy how Construction LLC for the 2026 North Valley Road full depth repairs and the Culvert Replacement Project in the amount of $217,514.50 50 cents effective upon issuance of notice to proceed through July 18th, 2026. And this is the Ribbon Road, Ribbon Ridge and Albertson Road section. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. We have a motion to approve. Any further discussion? None. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. Motion passes. On to item I4, consideration of approval of a memorandum of understanding between Yamhill County Health and Human Services and the Oregon Health and Sciences University to utilize the Oregon Behavioral Health Coordination Center data system effective upon full execution until terminated. And this is the real-time data tracking used to help behavioral health patients. Um uh they look at the status of patient beds. Is there a motion to approve? I make the motion. I move approval. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. Motion passes. On to item I5, consideration of approval to authorize Lindseay Manfrren or designate on behalf of Yhill County Health and Human Services to submit an application for funding for the Oregon Health Authority in the amount of $7,000. This is to stand up alternate care facilities. I've been in consultation with our emergency manager, Sergeant Young, and this is definitely something needed to take the pressure off the hospital. So, I move approval. Any further discussion? None for me. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

I. Motion passes. On to item I six. This is uh consideration of approval of a letter in support of the city of Newberg's request for community project funding for the project titled unlocking affordable housing in Newberg through strategic strategic water infrastructure investment. And I want to thank the chair for bringing this to us because this is the targeted investments for a particular community project and this is the community project funding on behalf of Congresswoman uh Andrea Selenus. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Although

and I would like to say that um this was brought to us by uh councelor uh Jarnell Halman in an effort that Newberg has done for a long time of seven years of bringing down the cost of housing and this helps to offset quite a bit of SDC's and other work other fees to be able to bring down that in conjunction with uh things like the hive project that's happening there as well. So, correct. Um, yeah, she asked the three of us to bring on this to sign a letter of support. So, I Yeah. Thank you, Chair Chair Johnston, for for getting this on the agenda. Uh, move approval. All those in favor signify by saying, "I

I motion passes. On to item I7, consideration of approval of a personal services contract between Yamhill County and Nathalene Nven for court mediation services March 12th, 2026 through March 12th, 2027. And this is uh basically um the uh county administers these for domestic relations issues. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion passes. Okay. Okay, we have no public hearings. And that brings us to announcements. Commissioner King. Yeah, I almost want to say none just to get this on almost a record for us, but No, this believe me, this is not for us for this board.

Not a record.

You got a minute and a half in there or something like that. But um this is this is might be a record for me. But uh I wanted to highlight some uh of the bills passed, eight law enforcement bills that uh my subcommittee of AOC um supported. Most of them passed, one or two of them didn't, but uh House Bill 4072, extended timelines of of arraignment for courts that are closed. Um when this came to us, I said our judge doesn't close the courts, so it doesn't really matter. But definitely on snow days or um you know heavy things when they close the court it it does help um just from the statute there. Um House Bill 4111 uh was we were neutral was passed on the ban on using immigration status in civil court. AOC did win an amendment though allowing us allowing us to use immigration status when it was relevant to defend to defend against a claim. Uh, House Bill 41-21 uh, AOC supported uh, passed the Spartacus Emergency Management. Um, unfortunately some of those uh, the parts were stripped out of the bill for the core 3 out in Dashuites County. Um, 4053 AOC supported and passed uh, EMS program fund. This allows the state to receive the rural health transformation dollars from the feds. Uh, Senate Bill 1530 we supported and it passed in the Senate but unfortunately died in the House. Uh, the rules that threatens uh, public officials and keeps passing. Hopefully it um will pass around next time around. House Bill uh 409 AOC supported signed by the governor veterans crisis task force. AOC gets a

seat um at the county. County VSO gets a seat um as do the sheriffs. OSP will provide admin support. Um, House Bill 4132. AOC opposed first section, supported the rest, passed vets omnivous, negotiated with Rep. Evans. Um, myself and Commissioner Deone and Judge Joe Deoskus um went and talked with Rep. Evans to and he went on record to um commit to bringing technical fixes around language in 2027 if the ODVA is heavy-handed with some of the language here. It's not what it was meant to be. Um, House Bill 4138 was neutral in the past. Law enforcement masking bill opposed portions of the base. Uh, we oppose portions of the base bill neutral on final message along with the law enforcement. Um, Senate Bill 5163, AOC opposed and it died in committee. Uh, county liable for um, Oregon constitutional violations. will likely see this come back in 2027. House Bill 4106 AOC supported and denied in the committee liability for protections for civil commitment transports. And I'll leave it there for this week.

Anything else? That's it.

All righty. On Saturday, uh, Chair Johnston and I and the sheriff and, uh, Jason, we were at the Gospel Mission fundraiser at Mesa Winery. And thank you for your contributions. all of you and they raised $56,000. It was it was wonderful to hear the stories of transformation of people who came in homeless wound up turning their lives around getting clean and sober and really going on to live wonderful productive lives. So appreciate Kay and K Sawyer and uh Dave Hogerberg and all the folks who have been working very diligently over the years uh to to support that mission. On Monday was AOC day, the HHS steering committee. We're looking ahead at the budget process for 2728. There are going to be a number of issues that are significant that were we're kind of kicking the can down the road, but we we're setting priorities regarding the county requests for behavioral health, public health deflection is going to be interesting this year to see what the funding is and the Medicaid dollars. But in light of the animosity that we saw last session with the requests for uh county contracts with the cathas, uh we we're thinking about hoping to bring county councils in earlier in the discussion. Apparently the uh DOJ put an end to those discussions and when we have our county councils in early, they can negotiate some of the issues in those those contracts. when it gets to the point where we're just sitting here trying to figure it out, refusing to sign, that's when you see the animosity. So hopefully they'll be able to uh advocate to open those discussions again in this session. No public uh health program cuts, no cuts to behavioral health or intellectual and developmental disabilities. Upcoming meeting with law enforcement over the transport of those civil commitment uh patients. Board of directors meeting uh due structure. We talked about past, present, and future. It's been a very contentious issue over the years when we look at what we're

paying for AOC dues and we have to wonder whether or not we're getting our money's worth, but it keeps going up every year and we have to make those decisions. So, legislative committee was a session recap looking ahead at 2728 session priorities. I met with assessor Derek Warf regarding the moderate income revolving loan which would require the county to become a sponsoring jurisdiction. and I'm something I'm going to be bringing to the board to take a look at whether or not we want to get involved in that and it's going to help projects that are shovel ready for moderate income housing. So, I think it might take a little bit of a heavy lift on our end, but our assessor uh says that he thinks that we can make this happen. So, more to come on that, but if there's nothing else for the good of the order, anything else, Ken? Okay, if there's nothing else for the good of the order, we'll go ahead and close today's Yamill County Board of Commissioners meeting. Thank you all for being here.