Legislative Meeting - Regular Meeting

Okay, well, welcome, everyone, to our May 26, 2026 Board of County Commissioners 2 o'clock Commissioners Consent Agenda Meeting. Let the record reflect that all five commissioners are present. And there is no written comments for anything on today's agenda. So with that, I will have us stand for the pledge. Thank you. Okay, that will take us to our open public forum. So I'll start our open public forum. And I have one person signed up. And so Becky to go.

My husband serves as a volunteer for the annual cleanup event for the Latah-Hangman Neighborhood Council. I am here on behalf of Pat Nault, who serves as a cleanup coordinator for our neighborhood council, delivering her words to this board. This year our event is scheduled for October 3rd. I was dismayed to learn that the Community Corrections work crew, which was an important part of our cleanup event in 2024 and 2025, will not be available to help this year due to funding cuts. I'm asking that you investigate restoring the funding for this program ASAP. The cleanup event is a pop-up featuring 30-yard dumpsters provided by the city, set up in a fixed location, often near a school or park where there is space to manage a long line of traffic on a Saturday morning, but in our case, a privately owned lot in Vinegar Flats. where local residents can dump refuse including large heavy items such as appliances, furniture, and mattresses at no cost. In the space of four hours, we usually fill about eight of these huge dumpsters. The WIC crew has been instrumental working with a small group of volunteers to maintain our ability to quickly remove the trash from the personal vehicles of neighborhood residents and efficiently fill the eight-foot-tall dumpsters. We were grateful to have them. This is hard, heavy, dirty work and our volunteers tend to be teens and older adults who appreciate the extra muscle to get the job done. Officer Michael Gray closely supervises the work crew. Neighborhood residents often compliment the good manners and helpfulness of the crew members. Last year, one of our customers sent a letter to this spokesman review complimenting the crew and their willingness to engage in this public service. The letter writer used this as a teaching moment for his grandson, who had accompanied him to the cleanup. Without the help of the Rook Crew, I am concerned that our event, and the many other cleanup events in which the Rook Crew has participated, will be slower, pose more risk of injury to individuals moving their own refuse into the dumpster, and probably result in the waiting line of vehicles backing up onto Inland Empire Way. It will also deny these young, energetic men the experience of public service and the satisfaction of a hard job well done. Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Thank you. I do not have anyone else sign up to testify, so I'll open it up for anyone else that would like to testify on our open public forum. Okay, this is my third and final call for anyone wishing to testify at the Open Public Forum. Seeing no one online and no one else in the audience, I will close the Open Public Forum and look to my fellow commissioners.

Madam Chair, I move to approve Items 3 and 4, including all sub-items, on today's agenda. Second.

I have a motion and a second for Items 3 and 4 on today's agenda and all sub-items. Is there any discussion?

Madam Chair. Yeah. So... Last night and then again this morning, there was some reporting on, I believe it was Channel 6, talking about Item 4C and how the county had before it approving $100,000 for our agreement with the Spokane Regional Health District with regard to navigators. And the story represented it as being a one-time, first-time funding event, and that's not accurate. The county has been providing funding in cooperation with the health district for navigators, and this is just an extension of that agreement and stuff. So I just wanted to clarify that for the public that This is a continuation of the county's efforts to work collaboratively with the health district and our other partners to try and address the issue of the presence of PFAS on the West Plains. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Any other comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. That will take us to miscellaneous, so Mr. Simmons or Mr. Folsom.

Nothing for miscellaneous, Commissioner, but we do have a closed session for labor negotiations.

Okay, so then with nothing else coming before us, I will adjourn us, and then we'll go into closed session for whatever length of time we need. So thank you all very much. Hope you had a very nice Memorial Day weekend, and we'll see you all back next week.