City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Wednesday, 05/06/2026, 10AM. This is the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners Board Work Session. Commissioners Wayne Fornier, that's me, and commissioner Grant are in the building with, commissioners Emily Claus and Carolina Mihiel online, and Commissioner Menser is excused at a conference elsewhere. Today's agenda, we are starting with Pac Mountain annual workforce update. So I'll invite up the Pac Mountain workforce folks, and go ahead and introduce yourselves.

Good morning. William Westmoreland. I'm the CEO for Packenote workforce development council, and I've got Annie joining me this morning. Annie is she joined our team, gosh Three weeks. Three weeks ago. Obviously, it's, like, ten weeks ago at this point. And she's leading our business development work. She's largely focused on financial empowerment for the folks that we serve. So just to jump right in, how much time do we have? Ten minutes? Or is it?

About twenty minutes?

Oh, Okay. Good. So we did pivot our annual report to a electronic format this past program year just to cut cost and to be a little bit more environmentally friendly. So that's available. And I'm I'm trying to go through the talking points so you don't really need to fall out in the report.

We also introduced this past year quarterly reports that really kind of set the stage for rolled up into the final report at the end of the year. And then the third, reporting thing that we have is called the impact report. And that really kind of, breaks down the impact of the investments we made from the workforce system as it relates to employers, to wages, and things like that, for the whole region and then by county. So, I'm gonna dig into kind of the overall performance for p y twenty four, which ended, last, June. And then I'll kind of lead into what's been going on for p y twenty five and then what, p y twenty six looks like.

And our, just as a reminder, our program year runs July 1 through June 30. And a reminder, Rachel is on or commissioner Grant is on our consortium of elected officials, and I believe she's the incoming chair at the end of

the program here.

Are you the founder?

Yes. If

she still wants to do it after Yeah. She will.

She will.

The works there today. Okay. So I'm going say that we have a outreach campaign we call it Opportunity Begins Here. It's really about connecting local talent to the local employment opportunities in our communities. So we report out our overall performance annually under that, label.

So our top line performance for, Thurston County, we had four twenty seven residents, served under our one workforce fund, and all of our state and federal, funds and resources go into one pot. And then when people are seeking services, we look at their eligibility criteria against all of that and pull the resources together to best serve them to outcome. So, of that, we placed 178 people into employment. We probably have about a 150 that we carried into the next program year as well. And then we of those people, we have 98, that completed occupational skills training, that could be in the form of a training program at one of the colleges or with a provider, but it also includes, incumbent worker training as a deterrent to being laid off and then also, on the job training opportunities like apprenticeships.

And then of those ninety eight, 71 earned a credential. So that would be an industry recognized credential that, employers would have an awareness of what their skill sets are like when they're applying for jobs. Then how that translates in terms of the folks that we placed in Thurston County, the top three sectors, in terms of how they relate to our priority sectors, for the county is health care, manufacturing, logistics and hospitality. Manufacturing is one of the leading average wages for the region, and Thurston County is typically the top performer there. Hospitality, health care and the other sectors that we look at, Thurston County is kind of right at the average of the region.

Lewis County occasionally, goes a bit higher on some of the hourly wages in the priority sectors. And then the economic impacts, the way we run our system is at the federal level, we're just required to if we're investing in individual resources, we're just required to show that a job is available for them somewhere in the state. Often with our local economy, especially when you push out to the coast, our mix of opportunities are different than the priorities or the the major opportunities for the state. So we put a lot of effort in making sure that the investments we're doing align with the local economy. So in other words, we don't want someone to be able to get a job in Tacoma.

We want someone to get a job down the road if that's at all possible. So the the growth industries, these are really more from a a skill set perspective. The occupations could vary depending on the sector that's in. But, business and finance operations, protective services and management roles is where we saw the most growth last year in Thurston County, and then declining, probably no surprise, sales, construction and production. Construction is usually an early indicator of economic downturn or upturn.

Sales is down across the region. It's also down across the country. Next step, we have what we call the, some of the details around opportunity, our opportunity model. Over the past four years, we've been working on different strategies, and they're really starting to come together in what we describe as the opportunity model. So we first focus on what's in demand in our region from a skill set perspective and then an occupation perspective.

We align our funds to drive investments in those particular areas. And where we've seen the most success is when we invest in occupational skills. Prior to the current system that we're managing, we were very focused on basic needs with our investment resources. So after what you saw us using the resources that come through the counties that support our work, we would invest in things like uniforms, transportation costs, housing costs, things like that. While we have the ability to pay for those things, we're not always the subject matter expert in those areas.

So we've been focused on forming partnerships with folks that in organizations that have those resources and expertise, and most importantly, especially, like, and child care, the relationships with the providers of those services. Under that approach as well, we've changed our investment strategy with employers. So we have implemented something we call sector strategy. So we convene the key employers across the region in our six sectors to hear directly from them as a way to inform how we run our system. And our board is predominantly employers, so that, alignment is important because this is a demand system.

PacMountain is here to serve employers, and how we serve employers is preparing job seekers with the skills that are in the demand in their communities. And then beyond that, what we found when we made our four year plan going into p y twenty four is people just aren't aware of the opportunities in their community. If they are aware, they have no idea how to get on a pathway to get to secure those jobs. So we launched the opportunity begins here campaign, two two and a half years ago. And, essentially, what we're doing there is just trying to do outreach, not from a service or government perspective, but from that opportunity perspective.

What can you do in your own community? What jobs are available? And how do you connect to those? And then we build our our process of recruitment and getting people into the training for these occupations based on that strategy. So it's a core piece of our strategy there. And then, just the last piece on that, we are an integrated system. So we have 22 partners at our signer MOU. A vast majority of those are now referring people under our opportunity begins here to WorkSource for Services. Three years ago, we had basically employment security, which oversees the UI claimants, making the bulk of the referrals. And then our outreach through OBH brought referrals in.

Now all of our colleges, all of our community partners, some of our training providers like Ajac, the legacy makerspace, ADU, these programs are starting to refer people to our system to get resources for their occupational skills training. That's a pretty big pivot. And then what that's resulted in, we served seven seventy six people across the region, 329 were employed, 332 trained, and 250 gained occupational skills. And the key piece on the employment piece is that we've focused a lot of that effort around their economic needs. So if they're in poverty or in the ALICE population working poor, we wanted to focus on getting them skilled up so that they could get to self sufficiency.

The a majority of those those folks, over 90%, have gotten to self sufficiency. From the employer perspective, we're really trying to work directly with them to solve real time problems for them around the talent they're, needing. So last year, we engaged nearly 600, businesses. We did 65 on the job trainings and 85 work experiences, which is primarily focused on youth. When you look at that from a return on investment perspective, last year's budget was about $10,500,000.

A bulk of those resources go directly to supporting, occupational skill development of the clients we're serving. And then a big piece of this, I don't know if you all are familiar with the community reinvestment project. It's resources that the state legislature are pushing through commerce and the office of equity to address the, war on drugs impacts on the BIPOC community. A bulk of those resources went to six counties in the first two years. And this past year, when the legislation came up, we worked directly with with commerce, through my leadership at PacBound and the Washington Workforce Association get those resources pushed out to all 39 counties.

That was a big win for our region. It's bringing $2,200,000 to support BIPOC employers and residents in all five counties across the our region. Last year, we had zero.

Can I ask a question on

that

piece? Can you expand a little bit further on how those funds are being used? What programs are being funded? I think that's very exciting.

So the money at the highest level is kind of split into two camps. One is and a bulk of the resources are distributed through the public workforce system. And then probably about a third, a bit more, are driven out through local advisory teams. And those were piloted the first two years in the in the six priority counties. So the resources that we manage directly, we use that to support. We do small business grants. Last year, we did 15. I think this year, we did 18 or so. Just small 4,000 to $6,000 investments into BIPOC owned businesses. All of our distribution was to BIPOC or BIPOC, what we call buy in for organizations.

They were established by someone in the BIPOC community, and they're targeting services for the BIPOC community. Along with those resources, we have, money that we could use for incentives. So as people work through their employment plan, we could invest directly into their, basic needs. So cash assistance, paying for different types of support services that might otherwise be challenging for them. It's really meant to bridge people as they become ineligible for TANF, SNAP, and other resources.

It's very effective, strategy, one that this last budget cycle, we actually received an increase in our funding, which was counter to pretty much everything else that's going on. So we were excited about that, but it's really based on that return. So PacBountain got 9% of those resources from the state last year as a total, and we had 47% of the outcomes in our region. So we're pretty excited about that that performance. It does allow us to get unspent money from other communities.

This year, it's a very different story. Commerce changed the rules around the incentives. And a key piece of that strategy is the matched investment savings account. It's a wealth builder, and it's limited use. And it's a commitment that the person who's making the savings investments are using it for an asset building like a home purchase, starting a business, education, things like that.

We think that the the entire state's struggling with the new structure, but we we think that'll that'll change up. And then, they're well past their deadline, and they keep kind of kicking the can down the road. But commerce is set to announce the LATs for all 39 counties across the state. Any day now, Pac Mountain did apply to be the intermediary to kind of manage and oversee the resources. And that's the $2,200,000 that's coming into our community. So we have about $400,000 for workforce development and those types of investments plus administrative costs there. And then this $2,200,000 will be a competitive process through the local advisory team for entities to apply for money, to provide services, start a business, whenever the committee thinks appropriate use under the guidelines of commerce.

Explain what an LAT means.

Local advisory team so they ran a procurement essentially to ask for people to settle these committees. And they were looking for representatives from the BIPOC community. From what I understand, we actually got the target amount, which was over nine applicants. And they we appeared to be the only one that has applied to be the intermediary. And the intermediary is not it's not about how you use the money. It's the technical things behind the money. So following proper accounting practices, running RFPs, things like that. Does that answer your question, Rachel?

I think so. And so I mean, just the $2,200,000 and I know the answer to this, but I just want make sure everyone has stopped. The two point just explain a little bit more about how we got the $2,200,000 and what that's about.

Yeah. So those funds were initially, this last fall, they were earmarked for the six counties. We pushed back pretty hard on that. And they still the association, which was in negotiations with the commerce on that, balked at pushing it. They didn't want to kind of ruffle the feathers of folks. They didn't want to put what was coming into the communities at risk. We pushed back on that. We talked to our locally elected officials, and we felt like we had the support to to make a bigger case. So we took it to commerce and office of equity, and, eventually, they agreed. And not only did they agree, they opened up the ability for the workforce boards to manage the resources.

That conversation really, drove that, to fruition. And then those resources, they come into the LAT, and then there's a leader of the LAT and a financial, entity. It could be both. So we're the financial entity. We work with the Biden for organization, Christina Riley Associates. She is a board member, tribal member, and she does, she focuses on apprenticeship and tribal supports. So it was a really strong application. We're excited to see the outcome of that. But she will run it from a programming perspective if we're successful, and we'll do the back end financial, sports. We can apply for resources. And we if we do what we're currently focused on and, why we brought Annie on is focusing on investing in the MAP savings accounts after someone settled into self sufficient wages or better.

And will you talk just a little bit about the savings account and exactly what that like, just really what maybe an example of if somebody used one of those savings accounts and how this really can help them.

Yes. So initially, we were very focused on basic needs around our service strategy for workforce development. Then we really got focused on occupational skills development. Part of our success I think the basis of our success around the occupational skills investments are the matched savings accounts. So those resources that are available through our CRP to do that, are really what's driving the outcomes. So the matched investment savings account allows us to match anything they can save. Now where they're in need when they're receiving services, it can be a challenge for them to take that incentive they're receiving or some of their pay to put into an account. But if they do, we can match it dollar for dollar. Before, it was two to one. So when they were making the decision, do I need the money to pay for basic needs?

Or can I put some of the money in the bank? Because of that two to one match, we had a pretty good response to that. But still less than 20% of the people served were in the match statements accounts. And our investments were more shorter term, technology, education, and transportation. We only had one person saving for a home, and they are still saving. So we're hoping that we could get some changes around that. But that account is a governed account. We partner with Umpqua. So we set up the account. The job seeker can start putting money in, and then we can match it two to one.

It has a, $10,000 match cap. But with incentives, that could mean that $20,000 is put into that person's account over a period of time as they're working through their plan. So the only way they could get the incentive and the match is that they're actively in the exit program and doing the things that are in their employment plan all the way up until the first year of employment, which was a best practice for retention with an employer. Any other questions on that one? All right, just a couple more pieces here.

So looking at the wages, the two top or two success stories to share here is getting someone through our system as an RN is very, very challenging. The system is actually built to not work beyond a two year, program. So under this program, we actually were able to work with, an RN who was in X and CRP who had a max savings account to get employment, and they started, work at 42 an hour. So that was pretty exciting. And we have a number of RNs, in progress right now that we're supporting supporting through all of the community colleges.

And then we also placed a corrections officer this year who also used the match savings account and sent the program to drive outcomes, and they landed in that position at, just under $73,000 a year. And then the other big kind of highlight in the region, we did 15, small business investment grants through CRP, 10 of those were in, Thurston County. I think just a couple of points for this program year, we were very successful. Commissioner Grant was very supportive of closing the Thurston County Worksource site, which was $50,000 a year or a month, sorry, lease. We co occupied that space, but two thirds of that was with ESD.

Two thirds of that was WorkSource. Our assistant partners had to support that. We are opening a new site in Lacey. Soft opening is on the eighteenth, and then in June 15, I think it is, is the grand opening, which will make sure invitations go out. That plus a relocation to Grays Harbor, a significant downsize of the facility there, reduced overall partner expenses, our system MOU by 35%. So our goal was 33%. So we're pretty excited about that. Very timely too with what's going on.

Yeah. And the new location is at the hub. And so and right underneath, there's the Mason BHO. Yep. And and so it'll be, you know A lot of

our key partners are within a five minute walk. So we're excited. When we started the search, I said anywhere but Lacey, and they brought us five locations in from the hub, and we picked up

And the bus the the main bus terminal for Lacey is just right within a block or so.

So It could be a better better location just for

from that perspective. It'd be great for job seekers.

Yeah. It's like the convenience of downtown without the parking issues.

Yeah. So

and then looking ahead to p y twenty six, our budget, we actually have a bit more resource in exa, but we did have a a decent cut in our WIOA, our core funding that flow through the county is about $300,000 We don't anticipate it's gonna impact staffing or service strategy. It'll just net a few less people that we push through the outcome for the year. We also are doing a cluster study. We'd lasted that in 2012 to to determine our priority sectors. We're coordinating with the Evergreen Coastal Economic Development District, to do that, probably this fall.

And then, we brought Annie on board to really expand our financial literacy to support the visa. The process, we went to a statewide service provider, and part of our challenges with this is that they're not really giving good support, to our clients. And right now, the last piece is we have, our service provider, which provides services around the region, about a $2,000,000 contract. It's out for RFP, and we should have someone selected before June 15.

That's a

lot of information. Any questions?

Good job. Thank you.

Are there any questions?

No. But I just want to emphasize that I think that we've kind of heard a lot of acronyms and different things in there. What gets really what's really impressive about the work that you welcome, Annie. We're excited to have you and the work that goes on in our region is that, Pac Mountain, and you heard all of this, has all of these different funding sources that get brought in together, lots of federal dollars and some state dollars and some commerce dollars. And what I've been really impressed with, William, since you've been around is leveraging more and getting all of these different pieces so that you can put it together to help our businesses, to help our job seekers, to help the buy in for population.

And so there's just been so many different ways that you've been getting money out the door. And I just am really impressed by it. And I appreciate

the hard I work. Appreciate that as well. And what I'm most excited about is we're hearing from employers in ways that we've never heard from They're noticing the work we're doing. They're benefiting from that. When I started here in the state in 2016, employers didn't know anything about WorkSource. They really didn't know how to use those resources. And we're we're, I think, moving the needle as assistance. So it's not just back now. It's deployment security, DSHS, all those other partners. We're working together in ways that we've never been successful at doing before.

I think that's

really great.

Great. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to let me know. And I'll get your answers if I can.

Thank you, William and Annie. Next on the agenda is Washington State Department of Transportation I-five Martin, Marvin to Mounts Road,

Vice Chair. I'm going to ask our public works director who is joining us via Zoom, if you wouldn't mind giving a quick overview and context for this presentation.

Absolutely. Thank you. So Karen Lee is public works director. Today, we've invited the Washington State Department of Transportation's project team to provide a status update on the I-five Marvin Road to Mouse Road Corridor Improvements Project. This project would provide environmental improvements and corridor congestion relief, excuse me, along I-five between the Marvin Road and Mounts Road interchanges through the Nisqually River Delta. So with that, I'd like to thank the team for joining us today and introduce the project lead, Grace Amundson Barnpao, who can, introduce her team and for the, presentation. So thank you. Grace?

Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I'm the project engineer for the Waterlasey design office for WSDOT. And here with me today, I also have Whitney White. Whitney?

Hi. My name is Whitney White. I am the design team lead for the Tom Waterlasey design office in Olympic Region. And our project manager is Alex Acheson.

Yeah. Hi, everybody. Alex Acheson. I'm with Parametrics, and I am the project manager for the consultant team that is supporting WashStock for this project. And I have Kirk Wilcox with me as well.

Hi. I'm Kirk Wilcox with Parametrics. I'm the engineering lead for the project.

And with that, we have a brief presentation to go over just to give you a bit of an introduction to the project.

Let's see. So I'm sending a request to share screens.

If we could get Kirk permission to share, please.

Yes. Permission was just allowed. So

Okay.

Thank you.

Alright. Hopefully, the presentation's showing up. It

is. Yep. Alright.

Alright. Obviously, we're here today to talk about the I 5 Martin Mounts Road Corridor improvements.

Sorry. Now my buttons are not there we go.

Briefly, we'll go through, we kind of already did introductions. We'll talk about our project overview, talk about the discipline report key findings, and discuss our next steps.

Okay. That's what I was thinking. The this project began with a federal planning and environmental linkages study that was published in 2023. And some context of what a Pell study is, it is, a preliminary study that combines planning and engineering, and it defines the purpose and need of the project, the problem we're trying to solve, why it matters, and so that all future, alternatives that are evaluated in the environmental process are defensible. So the PEL study looked at a full range of alternatives.

It incorporated environmental and community considerations very early, and then so it built a really strong foundation for WSHOP to move forward into the NEPA evaluation, and that was initiated in the 2024. But the purpose of the project, as you see on the screen, is, for, large items. One is to enhance mobility and connectivity along I 5. I 5, as you know, is already reaching capacity during peak periods, and congestion is only forecasted to get worse. Project traffic is is forecasted to grow by upwards of 30% by 2045, and there's currently no safe or direct access for people biking or walking across the Nisqually River Delta.

And key other purpose is to improve resiliency of I 5. This quarter is extremely vulnerable to flooding, to migration in the Nisqually River and aging infrastructure. The Nisqually River Bridge, the northbound bridge is was built in 1937. The Nisqually River Channel has been migrating upwards of 35 feet per year for the last twenty years, and it's threatening the embankments and bridge stability of I 5. And additionally, as we all know from the past Amtrak derailment in 2017, there are no viable detours in this area, so short closures have major regional major regional impacts.

Excuse me. Another huge part of this project is to enable environmental restoration and ecosystem resiliency across the the River Delta. I 5 was built on a series of berms and embankments back in the sixties, and they just block the flow of the natural flow of the river and tidal movements. This has significantly reduced habitat quality in key estuary for Chinook salmon and steelhead. And so this project really creates an opportunity to improve transportation and restore the river and estuary habitat at the same time.

And then finally, last but definitely not least, it is to support economic vitality. I 5 is a critical freight corridor, military corridor. It supply supports straight, statewide commerce and access to JBLMs, so improving reliability here protect protects supply chains, jobs, and regional economic stability. And so the project will widen I 5 to include one HOV lane in each direction between, Marvin And Mounts Roads, approximately Exit 111 and Exit 114. As I mentioned, previously, it's gonna replace the bridges over the Nisqually River and address channel migration.

Risks to I 5, it will be constructing a new grade separated crossing over the BNSF railway tracks east of the Nisqually River. It will be building a shared use path adjacent to I 5. One thing to note is that the shared use path will be connecting all the way up to Center Drive and DuPont even though the highway widening is only from Marvin to Mounts. Waushat did not want to leave a break in the active transportation system, so it's extending the shared use path into DuPont. And then some of the key environmental improvements, it will be realigning McAllister Creek, which is kinda hard to see on the screen.

It's sort of West of Exit 114. So that is to improve tidal exchange, water quality, and habitat. It's gonna be removing two existing fish passage barriers that are under I 5. It will be, installing facilities to treat stormwater runoff. And then finally, it's improving habitat, including creation of new fish and wildlife habitat in the area where the existing I 5 embankment would be removed.

One thing to note in this project is also we is in partnership with the Nisqually Indian tribe. Washtenaw has been coordinating frequently and consistently throughout this project on with the tribe and on projects they are also working on in the area. So I'm gonna turn it over to Kirk

Thanks, Alex.

And dive into some of the

Yeah.

Engineering details.

Great. So yeah. Yeah. Do we have some questions?

We have a question from

the floor.

Sure. Sure. I'm wondering, do you would you like questions now, or would you like them towards the end?

I think it's fine as we Yeah. Go. Yeah. That that would be great.

Thank you. I have kind of broader questions, but I'll I'll leave those to the end. But I guess I'll I'll start with, when you say the shared use path, like, are you can you talk a little bit about what that means?

What that is? Sure. Kirk, you wanna

Yeah. Sure. So it it it'll be a 14 foot wide, non motorized path connecting from, you know, for the entire length of the project, and as Alex said, extending up to Center Drive in DuPont, and it'll have connections at each interchange to the local street network.

It'll support multimodal, non motorized vehicles, such as bicycles, pedestrians, etcetera.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions so far?

I I think we're good for now. Alright.

Great. Okay. So getting into the details. So two of the main elements of the project as we're in the the NEPA environmental process that we're still working out is the length of the bridge replacement for the what goes across the Nisqually River. So today, there's the the main Nisqually River Bridges, the the the green steel truss bridges.

They're about 300 foot long spans. And then there's two flood channels, one to either side of that bridge where there there's other bridges you may not even notice driving through there, but those are the only three gaps in the I 5 embankment going across the valley. So during flood events, the water is all concentrated to those three channels. So one of the big parts of this, which gets back to the resiliency aspects that Alex was talking about earlier, is when we replace that Nisqually Bridge, we're looking to build a much longer structure for each I 5 roadway. And so we have two different options currently in consideration in the NEPA environmental document.

One is a 6,000 foot long bridge that would span roughly from the Nisqually Interchange across those two overflow channels and the river over to roughly it would actually go over the BNSF railroad tracks, but it would it would basically open up the whole eastern side of the delta. And then we're also looking at a 12,000 foot long bridge option, and that would remove all of the embankment across the valley and then would span all the way up to the the big fill where the where I 5 goes up the hill in into Lacey. The 6,000 foot bridge option, while it doesn't go all the way across the east side of the or the west side of the valley, it would cut through the the Big I 5 embankment for a new crossing for McAllister Creek to allow it to return back to a more natural channel to where it was before I 5 existed. And so this this visual here is showing an after view kind of looking over toward the VNSF railroad tracks. So today, I 5 is on embankments across here, blocking the floodway and and basically, you know, fill lot of fill in the flood plain.

So either of these options allow us to remove a tremendous amount of fill from the from the flood plains and wetlands and really restore the the ecological connections across the the I 5 Corridor. So that that's one of the big big pluses of the project. Then next, the other thing that we are working on as far as options in the in the design is the exact alignment of Southbound I 5 in in particular in the area around the Nisqually River and the the wildlife refuge, the Billy Frank Junior Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. One of our options, the the in line alignment shown in red, would keep the new Southbound I 5 bridge all within existing I 5 right of way. So that would be good from an impact standpoint of the project, but it puts us into a whole lot of additional staging steps in order to keep I 5 traffic traffic going during construction.

We would have to build a a pretty massive detour roadway system to make that all work because the with the in line alignment, the new southbound bridge would be directly over the existing southbound roadway. The shifted alignment shown in green would push out some into the adjacent Nisqually Indian tribe tribe owned property and the refuge property roughly about 35 feet to 95 feet, but that would allow us to build the new southbound bridge offline from existing traffic. And so it would speed up the construction considerably and reduce our our, temporary detour impacts. So we we figure it would save about two years off the length of the project. So we're still working out which of those is going to move forward through the the NEPA environmental process.

We're working with the Wildlife Refuge, the Nisqually tribe, and and others on that. So those are the big engineering elements of the project. Are there any questions on that before Alex gets into some of the environmental details?

Nobody's raising their hand. K.

Alright. So back to you, Alex.

As part of the NEPA environmental assessment, we are evaluating the following disciplines. They range from air quality to social and community resources, transportation. We are finalizing this discipline reports right now, and they are going through review with FHWA. Just to note, there's a couple of things. Energy and greenhouse gas analysis will not be part of the federal environmental assessment based on, recent federal administration changes, but they will be, part of the state environmental, assessments to notes.

And these reports will all be available when the EA is published. Findings of the reports found that next slide if you can, Kirk.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry. The project shows benefits that directly reflect the project purpose we outlined earlier. The addition of the HOV lanes in each direction improves travel times, increases corridor speeds and vehicle throughput, and reduces congestion. Removal of the embankment and replacing it with bridges helps reconnect the floodplains and restores, natural flow patterns, reduces flood risk, and overall improves the long term resiliency of this segment of I 5. It also we see that the project is delivering major environmental benefits.

We're seeing improvements to salmon habitat and overall ecosystem function. There's significant gains in wetland habitat as a result of removing all of the existing fill. And then in addition, the project includes new enhanced stormwater treatment, and this improves water quality and helps address pollutants that are particularly harmful to aquatic species. And so, overall, the most disciplines we've evaluated have shown no significant adverse effects. There are some localized impacts, but, our analysis has shown that those can be avoided, minimized, or mitigated as part of the overall project.

And so, overall, the project is gonna be improving not only how I five functions, but also restoring and protecting the surrounding environment. And then any questions on that before I move to schedule?

I I do not see any hands.

Okay. Where we are in our schedule right now, next slide, is that we are getting ready to, for NEPA documentation. You see, we are planning on getting NEPA published for public comment by the end of the summer, early fall, and then there will be a public comment period, with an open house to, collect comments. In, parallel with our NEPA documentation, we have are also working on a what's called a section one zero six programmatic agreement. This is focused on cultural resources.

We have been coordinating with the Nisqually tribes and other tribes in the area. The programmatic agreement, details what will be done if, things are found during construction. And then we are also working on a separate report that is essential called an individual a section four f, and four f is when transportation projects could use or impact, a a publicly owned park or recreation area. And this is specifically related to what Kirk had said that, we are evaluating an alignment that could shift into the National Wildlife Refuge, and Washtenaw would need to acquire property from the refuge. So we are coordinating with them, and as part of that, we need to evaluate impacts and mitigation related to that.

And then we are also preparing a biological assessment as part of the Endangered Species Act, and that is, in preparation right now. Long story short, all of these documents need to come together in order to get to a record of decision, and that is, as you can see from the schedule, will likely be at the 2027. So it is, moving along, and we are we'll have reports for you to review if you would like, during the public comment period, this fall. So any questions on that?

Nope. Thank you.

Next steps. We are our milestone, we are publishing the EA expected in this October. There'll be a public comment period. And, also, we have engagement, and, Thurston County has been involved in our advisory group engagements over the life of this project, and our next series of meetings will likely be this fall. And like I said, we're gonna be having in person and online open houses late October, early November.

Alright. Is there is there more to the presentation?

Sorry. No, that's it. Thank you. Okay.

Yes. Thank you. This is an incredible project. We appreciate the update. Does the Commissioner Mihiel?

Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much for coming. It's I do have I left my questions to the end just to see if maybe some of my questions got answered. But I do want to thank you all for kind of coming in and giving us an update on what is going on.

This is a project of very important significance to our area. And so my first question is on that time line piece that you discussed, right? I think as we've been seeing through flooding events, the river does keep going higher and higher every time. And sometimes it feels like we're sitting ducks just waiting for a disaster to strike and while the project's schedule is continuing. And so we're waiting kind of like for all the stars to align for something to happen, right, as this work is continuing.

And I'm wondering, what is the pivot if there is, knock on wood, a disaster on that? Of course, we cannot control nature and kind of the flow of the river. So, wondering how this, how WashDOT is ready to pivot.

I don't think we're quite the right group to answer that question for you. Unfortunately, we're more on the capital side for working on this project. We'd be happy to connect you with some of the Washington emergency management folks to talk about that kind of long term planning if that would be beneficial for you, but I don't think we're the right audience to answer that question.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I would I would love that. I mean, it's a question I think that gets asked quite a bit, especially with I was down there this last flooding cycle and and seeing how high the river was was up, it was it was very concerning.

And it was concerning for for the different tribal members that live right there, and they're also seeing this. They've seen, you know, of course, how much the the river has has continued to increase. And my next question is in regards to potential rail expansion. This has been an active conversation that our region has had. And the possibility, right, especially as there's a way to include that into this project.

And I'm wondering how how that fits in. Not saying that it's going to happen, right, as soon as as the bridge goes in, but, you know, for for the future, leaving that option open, where does that fit in?

I I think I can speak to that to start with anyway. So just just to bat you know, the point of background, rail so so most of this project is really about the big bridge across the Nisqually. Railroad bridges and roadway bridges really are different. You know, it's it's entirely different design criteria and everything. So they're they're they're basically a whole different structure type.

So for what we're designing, it's specifically for roadway use. There is room in the right of way when we're done for rail to also build in the corridor. So we are not precluding rail from the corridor. But to design the current roadway project for rail without knowing anything about what the long term rail type or location and so forth would there's really no way for us at this time to accommodate rail at a at a direct level. So, just, you know, from a from a from a technical background standpoint, there's a lot that would go into it to get to knowing what that rail corridor would would be.

Thanks. So, yeah, Grace, I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

I think the only other thing I would add to that is that we have a fairly set, scope and budget allocated for that, which is to address the highway bridge. If that was to change in the future, we could, of course, have a discussion. But at this time, rail is being planned for as part of the future corridor as per discussed, but not as part of this project.

Thank you. Yeah. I you know, when we're making these huge investments and this this is just gonna be a huge investment from so many partners and and the state. So

I think your dog's barking.

Being, able to

get to my

you.

Hey.

It's an Amazon package.

Being able to kind of plan ahead, right, and leave that possibility open. Not saying that it's going to go in when the bridge goes in, but leaving that open for the future, I think that's been an obstacle right now as we're considering it. And I think this just creates an opportunity. And I wouldn't want that opportunity to have a door closed and for future generations who are looking for that expansion to not have that accessibility to do it because it would take a full bridge replacement. So my next It

would not require a full bridge replacement in our current plan to accommodate future rail. It's just not something that we are including in this project. We are leaving space for it to potentially go in the future.

Yeah. Thank you.

And what can if I could add, WashDOT is looking is studying high speed rail along the I 5 Corridor right now. And so as part of that, it did you know, I don't we don't know what alignments are due, but that is that's a separate group that's looking at that, that they are currently studying that.

Can you tell I have side conversation. I know. But can you tell me a little bit more about that high speed rail study that is

That's part we can get you more information, but that's part of the that Cascadia program that has been going on for about the last year. They're looking at a master plan for I five. They're also looking at high speed rail city.

We'd be happy to put you in touch with that team.

Yeah. With that program.

Thank you so much. I would appreciate that. And then, my next, piece, right, as we're talking about the environmental, has conversations happened with Tacoma Power as well?

Related to?

I mean, they are part of the kind of water flow output as well that affects kind of the river. And Got it. And so wondering, you know, have have they been involved in in these conversations?

Not not directly to date, but we are it's our flood modeling is assuming that continued, you you know, flood, you know, flood control aspects of the dam that the dam is in place.

Great. Okay. Thank you so much for for going through my questions. I I do appreciate you all being here today. It's very exciting to get an update, you know, at least from from my point of view. And so

Yeah. I I I'm curious. Maybe it's not at the right point in the conversation, but I didn't hear anything about like, you know, this is the front door to our county. What are there any, like, design or aesthetic elements that you have to share about? You know, like, this this is our front door. We'd love it to look unique and, you know, beautiful, and I'm sure it will. But is there anything you can share with us on that front?

This is pretty early in design, but there will be some opportunities for those discussions as we get further down the project route. For example, there, will be some interchange changes that potentially offer the opportunity for aesthetic improvements in collaboration with the county, but that's not something we are prepared to discuss today. It's something that would be a discussion further on in the project. Wonderful. Anything to add, Chris or Alex?

Just one thing. So that the shared use path being on the on that new bridge, there's areas where we will be pretty elevated with with views out over the wildlife refuge and toward Puget Sound. And so we are looking to incorporate some some wider sections of that kind of, you know, pull out scenic, you know, spot that you know, spots that have great views out over the valley. So that's that's one element for the for the shared use path users that that will be definitely, I think, a great aesthetic benefit.

Excellent. Thank you. Alright. Are there any other questions? County manager?

Just a special thanks to our public works director who, after receiving this briefing, brought it to my attention and in collaboration with assistant county manager, Jennifer Walker, thought it'd be good to bring it here to the board of county commissioners. So we really appreciate our watchdog partners for taking their time, fighting their dogs, and being here with us for the presentation.

All right. Thank you. Moving on, the twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven biennial budget amendment one preliminary review.

Thank you, Vice Chair. We'd like

to invite up our commissioner's budget team.

I know they have a

presentation and some information to go through with you. I'll let them get settled, and then they can just introduce themselves.

Good morning. Love your shirts. Okay. Summer Miller, budget and finance manager and the commissioner's office. Jennifer Smith. To take notes of this first amendment. We have Dolly on us. She's upstairs, working away. So did you wanna kick us off? Good.

It's all yours.

Alright. Perfect. Thank you. So this is our twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven budget amendment one. It's our first review. Keep in mind, we will be back next week. Calendar holding on May 13 for your second and final review. If you have any questions that need answered between now and then, please feel free to reach out to myself and county manager. We're happy to set aside some time or to get those questions answered for you. Okay.

Moving right along. So RCW's 364100, 364140, and 364195 authorize the Board of County Commissioners to amend the county budget via formally adopted resolution entered into the minutes. This authority allows for transfers or revisions within department budgets and supplemental appropriations from unanticipated federal, state, or local funds. Before adopting a resolution for supplemental appropriations, the board must publish a notice of the meeting time, date, and amount of the appropriation in the official county newspaper once a week for two consecutive weeks.

So there was a public comment a few weeks ago to the effect that once the budget is set, you can't ever change it again until the next budget cycle. And I know that not to be true, but is this you affirming that that is absolutely not the case, how it works in the actual real world?

Yes. I didn't realize that's what I was doing when I put together a presentation. But yes, I wanted the board to be aware that you do have the right with proper noticing and following the statutes, which I have here, that you may amend the budget through amendment process or in the midterm. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you for that question. Okay, so moving along. Budget amendments are typically limited to emergencies, technical corrections and new awards to address the general fund deficit. The Board approved a motion in March 2026 prohibiting the fiscal year twenty twenty six request for general fund additions, new positions or reclassifications that increase expenditures. While budget staff support departments and offices during budget cycles, we do not stop or remove submitted requests.

We bring everything forward to you. This slide is probably familiar to you. Fiscal year twenty twenty six began with an adopted expenditure budget of $147,800,000 and estimated revenues of $135,900,000 as shown on the left side. Amendment one submissions currently increase expenditures to $151,100,000 and revenue estimates to $140,400,000 which is illustrated on the right. The center section reflects the projections from the April update and is subject to change based on evolving assumptions.

I will have better assumptions for you in our May budget update, which I believe is on the twenty seventh of this month. So moving right along. This particular slide is a condensed view of the operating requests recommended to fund by fund. You can find this graphic on Page nine and ten of your operating REXM report. Please note that all figures shown are reflected in thousands.

The maintenance request, general fund and all other requests are shown here. And note that in fiscal year twenty six, all other funds expenses that are reflected at 18,800,000 includes a carry forward of $14,000,000 in appropriations for projects funded by the 2022 and 2024 bond. I wanted to point that out because it just seems like a really large number in the midst of all the other figures there. And keep in mind, those bonds funded projects like the Thurston County Regional Justice Center, the Sheriff's Israel Road Building, Ballot Processing Center, and the FJC Security upgrades. So moving on to your capital recommendations by fund, which are reflected on page five of the capital REXM expenditure report.

These figures are also shown in thousands. Please note that these maintenance requests, policy requests, reappropriation requests are typically already built into your capital plan. And these are moving forward the expenditure authority in future years, either through reappropriations or maintenance requests as shown. Okay. So additional amendments and our timeline.

We do have two additional budget cycles scheduled for 'twenty six. The 2027 midterm adjustment begins with a call to budgets on June 23 with adoption scheduled for December 15. The second amendment of 2026 is set to open on October 5. The cycle is limited to items necessary for fiscal year end closeout and is expected to be adopted on December 1. And we will be back again on May 13 for your final deliberations and your decisions so that we can incorporate that for publishing on May 14. So it's a very tight turnaround time for us there.

I'll just add that we're very thankful to office and departments. They really heard the direction the board said about the types of requests that came through. And it's exciting to see a higher level coordination with our offices and departments. We're also very thankful for the auditors' financial team. They're doing a lot of work as well.

And then there's a whole group continuing to work on TC Connect, making progress and forging a path that is reconciling the system. But there's a lot of work entailed. And then just special thanks to our commissioner's budget team. Again, lots going on, but they're meeting their deadlines and working hard working together.

Thank you. I do appreciate that for my team, specifically, miss Walker sitting or miss Smith sitting beside me here for always working through our budget module. Okay. So our next steps, the team is currently finalizing the errata list. As you know from prior budget cycles, that's the list of items that need cleanup from your reports, items that were submitted after the deadline. Let's see. We'll present that complete list next week on Wednesday. And again, if you have any questions on anything that's submitted to you in advance, please reach out or anything that's on this report.

Two things we want to call out, commissioners. Yesterday, when the team presented on the internal rate study, we included a comment that I would like to put right, and that is the internal rate study will have an impact to our general fund. We're calling it now

Funded wide

services. We'll pay out the amount up to the contract, and then that amount will be reimbursed through the rates going forward. So it was stated that it would not have any upfront impact general fund, and we got that mixed up, just thinking backwards. The other item is we are working with office of the clerk of the courts on an approach that would help to address the front cover service. We have a meeting with her and her deputy today, Sumner

and I do.

And that would come

with a

budget proviso that would look to fund two positions. And the the funding for those positions would come from managed reversion because they've had a historic pretty high reversion rate as has been noted by this board in several different meetings. So we'll be working that through. And hopefully, we can send out an email update once we come to the specifics. There's just a couple more details we have to iron out.

But that'll have a specific proviso that'll call that out. And we're very thankful for the board who have worked together suggesting some alternative approaches and the clerk's openness to have these conversations because we think it could be a good fix operationally to get us through some of these challenging times and into better times. Summers, anything you want to add on that?

The only thing that I wanted to highlight for the commissioners is on well, first, I wanted to mention that this recommend to fund or not fund colorful sheet is manually processed by my team. I believe the county manager and I had a brief conversation about presenting the board with the option of not receiving this in the future. This was a workaround that we created when we were unable to pull this level of report from the system. If you find it helpful, it is something we can continue to produce. If it's, something you can do without because it is duplicative of the information in the package, it would save my small team time.

But for the purposes of this meeting, the green there's no notations here are net neutral requests. The pink highlighted boxes are technical corrections. And any of the lines that have no figures reflected are also just technical line item detailed cleanup. And we will be sending out a list of draft proviso language for the three areas that we're looking at currently, the clerk, superior court, and then district court. And we will

Juvenile court.

Juvenile court. Thank you for that. And we will also bring back the draft resolutions for your review. They'll They'll be sent to you in advance next week. And I believe that was a commissioner grant request during the budget development and adoption in December so that you can see what we have cleared through legal. All right. And with that, if you don't have any questions or if you do have questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I want to go back to the clerk budget conversation and just say that the clerk has been good to work with and very collaborative in those discussions. I I heard you saying that there'll be a a briefing going out to the commissioners. Could that include some type of joint public statement with the clerk? I know there's been some public narrative just recently that is kind of paints kind of a false picture of the of the situation, so it would be nice to have, you know, a a vetted public statement saying what's going on and how we're working through this issue. I don't know that we need to get into how we got here as much because I think that's been that's that's already been spelled out pretty plainly by the county, but it would be nice to show what we're doing going forward.

Good. Great perspective, California. And that was something that the clerk was open to as well. I know that our communications chief, Susan, has already put something as a placeholder together, waiting to get these details finalized, and then she'll be circulating to the clerk and to the board. But yes, a joint statement was definitely our plan to show that we all came together and we're working towards the public service and managing the offices and departments' needs during this current budget situation. Thank you.

Right. Is there any further comments for the budget team or the county manager on this topic? If not, we'll continue on. Item five, commissioner items. We have two listed items versus proposed letter of support for DNR land transaction.

That is you, Commissioner Medea.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

I'll start off.

The Board has been aware and has approved previous support, There is a parcel that we have an opportunity to support the transition from the state to, I believe, it's the

housing authority. Housing authority.

And so with that, I'll just pass over to Commissioner Mejia, who's been really at the forefront of advocating for this opportunity that can be beneficial to our county.

Thank you. Yeah. So we supported the request for funding that the housing authority did, for, you know, the purchase of this property. This I think this property has been discussed, many times and and the transfer of it. Now Department of Natural Resources is going kind of through that piece of of of the transferring from their role into the housing authority.

Of course, with this property, there would still have to be the next process of connecting it to sewer and utilities, but the housing authority needs this to be, like, under their their umbrella for them to go out for that funding, which in the past, when DNR did have a housing unit under them, they were able to get federal funding for it. But it was during that time where there was some transition in our federal government and no federal funds went out for any of the projects. So I think this is a great opportunity. Kind of what I'm looking for is just a similar letter to what we wrote to our, senators and our representatives in, earlier this year, which is there's an example attached kind of writing that to kind of, DNR and letting them know that we are supportive of them doing this transfer over to the housing authority.

If the board wants to approve

this, the clerk will work to update the letter for the board's approval if that's what if that's their desire, and then we'll work to secure electronic signatures.

Right. After sending the letter out to the board's review.

I move to authorize the or direct the board clerk to update this letter as as appropriate and prepare for signatures.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Next item, commissioners, reports on committees.

I've kind

of did this yesterday twice. Is there anything that has happened between yesterday at 03:30 and now? Alright. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.