Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

welcome to scotia county board of county commissioners it's the 14th of september 2026 and before we get started would you please join me in suiting the flag 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 thank you you just have uh commissioner burns and i today and we'll be for until the 29th when commissioner weeson gets back from a short vacation and uh we're here today for the consent agenda that for the month for the week of the week we're in

mr burns do you have any the things you just need to uh talk about yeah let's see um were you going to come cover number eight on public health or shall i Go ahead. So, number 8, interlocal cooperative agreement with Northwest education services district 189 to provide assessment planning and program development for school based behavioral health services in Skagit county. This is very beneficial to our students and I'm really glad to see this continuing in our schools. That goes through the school year. Number eight under public works. This amendment helps us keep the Jordan Creek temporary bridge project moving forward. And we're on, if I remember correctly, end of October to have that completed so that we can get access back for people. And number 14, Superior Court. This agreement is between Washington State Administrative Office of Court and Skagit County to provide reimbursement of a percentage of overall court security costs in order for the county to comply with the trial court security criteria established in GR 36. Chair 36, trial court security is a Washington state court rule designed to ensure safe, secure, and well-coordinated courthouse environments for employees, participants, and the public. So that's just making sure that we have a safe courthouse for everybody who has to go there to do business. And I think that's all I had covered.

Good. Well, I've got actually quite a few because there's a lot of money being spent, all for the good reasons. There's an amendment in a local agreement with the Port of Skagit to distribute $500,000 of economic development money to our lab at Swift Center. And that's one of our—everything out at the old northern state site is becoming very, very— positive you've got some really good innovative thought going out there and the lab is one that has some really good startup stuff going on number seven it's a resolution establishing a compensation and benefit package for non-representative county employees it's just important for everybody in our county to realize that we try to stay very close to our negotiated agreements with our non-represented employees so that the So there's no feeling of unfairness and they get adequately compensated. Number 11 is really important. It's a Marches Point landfill remediation project that's fully covered by insurance, but it is not without cost. They keep finding little areas of still leachate coming out of the area. And so now it's being raised another $89,947. and for a total compensation of that whole project of $11,999,039, $11,939,597 for the project. It is just incredibly costly, but again, this is because when we were, when I was young, people just kind of created landfills, and landfills sometimes are created near water sites, and so maybe you have now since become very toxic, and this one's going to be cleaned up soon. Again, it is covered by insurance. also the the cost of of um insurance for all of our ferries and all of our boats has gone up yet again to 111 942 thousand dollars that's just covers all of the and the added risks now as we've realized that we weren't adequately protecting the walk-on ferry when it was being used during haul outs so we added some more insurance to make sure that everybody's fully covered and protected and the last thing on my list is a good friend of mine chuck messenger is being added to our district two county planning commission and chuck has been very involved in our community and he will be a good addition to our planning commission So with that. Yeah.

I move to approve the consent agenda items 1 through 14, including all items requiring ratifications, vouchers, and warrants for Monday, September 14, 2026. And I second that motion.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That passes. Great. We have a couple. We have three different, two different, four different public works motions. Would you like to talk about the Nelson projects? I'm going to come back to Chuck. I'll come back to Chuck. Okay.

I am happy to be before you today. I'm Sarah Stoner, Agricultural Lands Coordinator with Skagit County Public Works. And as miscellaneous consent agenda items number two and number three, the Farmland Legacy Program has before you today two grant deed of conservation easements between Jenny and Jerry Nelson and Skagit County. The easements protect two adjacent farm properties. That's why it's confusing. Is it one item or two items? In the Bow area of Skagit County. So you can see the general area of these two easements on this map here in front of you. That totals just shy of 220 acres of farmland proposed for protection today in the Bow area. So the first easement of the two protects 99.4 acres, showing here on this exhibit map. And then our second easement protects 119 and a quarter acres. And so I've shown the two easements here together on this easement map. So hopefully that doesn't confuse it and makes it slightly more clear how they're in relationship to each other. And as a reminder, conservation easements like the ones before you today, they are a recorded legal agreement that permanently protects agricultural land from future development while allowing it to remain in agricultural use. The Nelsons retain ownership of their land, and as with all farm and legacy easements, the protections of the easement carry forward with the land regardless of who owns it. We have several photos of the open farmland. The land supports the Nelson family's double-end potatoes operation. And I'm just going to scroll through. I tried to do some magic where it would automatically scroll, but I'll just continue just explaining that it's an honor to see the continued support of Jerry Nelson in our Farmland Legacy Program. Mr. Nelson, hands down, has protected the largest amount of county farmland since the program began. nearly 30 years ago. So he has protected some 1,700 acres, which represents nearly 10% of the county's total protected farmland.

That's fantastic.

Participation in the program is entirely voluntary, so the Nelson family is voluntarily giving up their right to build single-family homes on these 220 acres, among other restrictions that protect its prime soil. So these 220 acres of open farmland will remain so in perpetuity. and the Nelsons retain ownership of the land and the protections carry forward.

And they also lose the right to one house for 40 acres as well, right? So this is a... Correct. I mean, I work out with Jerry at the gym, and I'll be glad to thank him yet again. But he's a very generous soul, and he's been very successful in potatoes. But this is, again, very kind of the family to turn this over to one of our most important functions in this county is to keep our farmland safe.

Yes. I will add, I don't want to speak for Jerry, but I do know I have heard him mention that the flip side of the coin in his participation is that it helps him reinvest in his business. So he's quite a savvy business owner as well. Yeah, please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information on these two easements.

Commissioner Burns? Appreciate all your work on this, as always. I'm really happy to add more land to the farmland preservation program. I think this is fantastic. um it's really wonderful that the nelson family is protecting so much farmland so much of their land and i do see how it could benefit the business as a whole but it also ensures that it will remain that farmland far into the future so it's great thank you all right so i would certainly entertain a motion for one for one two and three

You want to do the two farmlands separately? Let's do the farmlands separately, yes.

So I'll make a motion to approve miscellaneous agenda items number two and number three in the farmland legacy program grant deed.

And I second that. It has been moved and seconded to pass number two and three. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes. Great. right number one is uh the resolution appointing chuck messenger in the seat number four thank you sarah see number four yes someone's unmuted they might want to provide comments i'm not sure oh okay it's just the phone number okay someone else yeah this is commissioner yes i don't know if you can hear me at all we can good to hear you

I was able to build on those last two, so thank you for all the work on it.

Perfect, thank you. Yes, we're very proud of the farm world and Skagit County. Would you like to, we've got another one coming up now with appointing Chuck Messinger and then one more after that for resolution. So would you like to approve or make a motion to approve Chuck Messinger?

Yes, I would move to approve a check messenger for the apartment.

I'll second that. It has been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Great, thank you. That passes. And our last agenda item is to move to Remand resolution number R20250015. Any comment on that? Yes.

My name is Steve Orsini. I live at 4971 Guimas Island Road on Guimas. And I thank you for the opportunity to comment on this, for us, quite important situation. So I'm here today to speak to the resolution concerning consideration of remand of R-2025-0015 and affirming and reestablishing the 2025 ferry fare schedule. This resolution is based on the presentation by legal staff to the board at the August 31 hearing, which restated the argument made to the court that the assessment performed by staff in June of 2026 produced a number so close to the projected 2024 budget that no 2025 fair adjustment was warranted. This is the exact same argument that was presented to the court multiple times, the latest being July 31st, 2026. Each time the court has ruled this inadequate as not meeting the specific requirements of the January 15th, 2026 ruling. To date, there has been no honest recalculation of the 2024 budget report that resulted in the 2025 fairs. Based on the detailed information that we have received from the county in the last four weeks, we have confirmed major errors, including misapplication of CPI index and multiple examples of capital costs placed into O&M. which we have only recently been able to share with you. The resolution before you does not meet the court's order again. Frankly, it's wearing thin with the court. We ask that this item be withdrawn from today's consent agenda pending further consideration in the manner and timeframe specified in the more detailed letter that we have transmitted to you and your legal counsel this morning. Thank you very much. Anybody else?

All right. So our choice, you and Commissioner Wiesen, is to approve the miscellaneous agenda item number four or not. Is there a motion? I'll make that motion.

I'll second that.

It has been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Any opposed? Great.

Comment? look forward to seeing you all at our public hearing when we are looking at the next rates because i would like to hear what you all have to say and your input in that commissioner any comment yeah i really appreciate the information the group has brought forward to us my understanding is our

Prosecutor's office has been working on this, and they've sent some information back to the court. We have a 45-day window, and today's the day we have to make a decision. And so we'll send it back to the court and see what they come up with, see if we met the court's request. So I appreciate everybody working on this.

Great. Thank you. Appreciate you checking in today. My comment is we've all had very good conversations. I think the most fruitful conversations we've had for some time, and I am very firmly in belief we're going to have some positive movement in our workings with the people from Gwyneth's Island. So I thank them very much for the time spent and the very, very respectful conversations we've had. All right, with that, We will now adjourn. And do we come back today or not? We are done for the day. So that is it for today. We'll be back tomorrow morning. We are now adjourned.