Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Chair Harrington and Commissioners, and over to you.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 Washington County Board of Commissioners meeting. Clerk Moss, could you do us the formal honors, please?

Certainly, Chair Harrington. Washington County Board of Commissioners, also meeting as all other county service districts, is meeting this regular session June 23rd, 2026. Commissioner Snyder?

Here.

Commissioner Fai?

I am present.

Mr. Treece?

Here.

Vice Chair Willey? Here. Chair Harrington?

Here. Thank you. For all of those who are able to stand, could you please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

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

Thank you. Next, we have our first opportunity for public comment. This is an opportunity for members of our community to share their thoughts on any topic for up to two minutes an individual, 10 minutes total. Clerk Moss, who do we have this evening?

Thank you, Chair Harrington. The first two we have is Lexi Garbino and Jill Latreille.

Welcome, and please start when you're ready.

Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Lexi Garbarino, and I, along with my brother Anthony, run Garbarino Disposal and Recycling. We're a third-generation family-owned company servicing Washington County. I wasn't planning on spending much time talking about numbers tonight because you've already received a thorough presentation from staff, GRAC, the rate consultants, and the Washington County Haulers Association. Instead, I want to thank you tonight for the process and affirm the decision before you tonight. I've been leading our company for the past five years, and what I've come to appreciate is how thoughtful and thorough Washington County's rate-setting process really is. Every year, we open our books. We provide detailed information on our actual operating costs, and county staff reviews it. Independent consultants review it, GRAC reviews it, questions are asked, assumptions are challenged, and adjustments are made. By the time a recommendation reaches this board, it has been carefully vetted by multiple angles. As both a business owner and a customer, I understand that rate increases are difficult. Nobody gets excited about paying more for a service. But I also understand what it takes to safely operate a garbage company today. Our trucks operate around schools, neighborhoods, businesses, cyclists, and families every day. We invest heavily in insurance, employee training, healthcare, equipment, maintenance, and regulatory compliance because those things matter. They protect our employees, our customers, and the public. What I appreciate about this system is that it isn't only about garbage trucks. It's also about people. The trades continue to provide one of the strongest pathways into the middle class, and our company is proud to provide family wage careers for people from many different backgrounds. We employ people who are raising families. We have former foster youth. We have individuals who have worked really hard for the second chance in their life. These aren't just employees on a spreadsheet. These are people that I know personally and that I respect their futures and have a lot for them that I want to give. These futures for them matter to me. I also appreciate that Washington County has built a system that balances operational realities with affordability through programs like the reduced rate program for customers who need assistance. That kind of balance matters. My grandpa did this work, my dad did this work, and now my brother and I get to carry on this legacy. My hope is that for decades from now, there will still be strong local companies providing safe, reliable service for family and family wage jobs and opportunities for working people throughout Washington County. We're grateful for our partnership with the county, grateful for the work that the staff does, the GRAC, and appreciate your leadership throughout this process. I respectfully encourage that you approve the process or approve the rates set before you, and thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Ms. Latre.

Good evening, Chair Harrington and Commissioners. My name is Jill Latre, a resident of Washington County. Potential illegal ballots were cast in the November 5th, 2024 general election for both Crandale-Cockman and Rosanna-Cockman in Washington County, Oregon. Both ballots were received on September 23rd, 2024 and accepted by Washington County. The Cockmans were first registered to vote in September 2021 at 13375 Southwest Hawksbeard Street, Apartment 211, Tigard, Oregon. This was their residential and mailing address. In September 2022, the National Change of Address records show that the Cockmans moved to 13370 Glacier National Drive, Apartment 1605 in Orlando, Florida, making them residents of Orange County, Florida. Both of their records were updated to inactive in the Washington County on November 29, 2022. They were left on the voter roll and still shown as inactive on October 1, 2024. Per the December 2024 voter roll, both records were updated to active on October 15, 2024. They were changed back to inactive on May 20, 2025 and left on the rolls. On May 7, 2025, citizen volunteers conducted a canvass of 13375 Southwest Hawksbeard Street, Apartment 211 in Tigard, their mailing and residential address. The current resident, Diane, said she had lived at this address for more than a year at that time and did not know who the Cockmans were. The Cochmans are still listed as inactive at this address in Washington County as of May 2026. If the Cochmans somehow managed to cast ballots in the 2024 general election, then the ballots were illegal since the couple no longer resided at the Tigard address. If the ballots were cast by someone else, then the ballots were fraudulent. Supporting documents are listed on your printout. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lutre. Clerk Moss, who do we have next?

The next two we have is Kelly Chapman and Ann Page.

Do we have Kelly Chapman and Ann Page in the room? Okay, so is Kelly Chapman in the room?

She may be online, so we'll check at the end of the last two.

All right, thank you. Go ahead, Ms. Page. Well, hello, good evening, You'll need to speak a little more.

Good evening, commissioners. Thank you. Can you hear me okay? Okay. So this is out of my wheelhouse, but I'm going to give it a try. And I came here to speak in opposition of the Century Boulevard extension. And so I am a resident of Washington County, and I live and reside, I'm a neighbor of NOVA WOODS. AND SO I'M JUST SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF THE RESIDENTS IN NOVA WOODS AND THE TREES AND THE ANIMALS. AND I, YEAH, THERE'S JUST A LOT OF, I'M NOT A PUBLIC SPEAKER, SO BEAR WITH ME. That is, to me, a sanctuary, and it's a peaceful environment. And I think the last thing we need is pavement and concrete to destruct the natural habitat there. And I think it's going to bring forth noise pollution and disrupt the harmony within that environment. It's a very quiet and peaceful environment. serene habitat and I think that for the I feel that the disruption it will cause is not going to be equivalent to the benefit that people think it will essentially i drive day in day out and never feel inconvenient with my commute i there is multiple avenues to exit the neighborhood and come through the neighborhood and i just feel with everything and and even the cost of 43.7 million i just feel that is not a good investment and nor is it wanted in our neighborhood. So I thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

So that concludes the ones in the room. So we'll go to the two online. So we have Kelly Chapman online, followed by Deanna Johnson. Kelly, can you hear us?

Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me?

We can. Please go ahead for up to two minutes.

Okay, thank you. Hi, my name is Kelly Chapman. I live in Tigard, Oregon, and I would like to express my disdain with the interpretation of the rules for public swimming pools. I own and live in a private residence within the timber crust condominiums. The county now requires that our pool adhere to the same rules as public swimming pools. These rules are unnecessary and government overreach attempting to solve some problem that doesn't exist. We've never had a problem in the past 20 years with our pool. Now, our pool, along with many others in the county, have had to remain closed this summer because we were simply unable to meet the overbearing government rules imposed upon us. Not only does this impact private homeowners like me, it impacts small business owners that are normally hired to service these swimming pools. I am requesting that the commissioners update the rules to clarify that swimming pools located wholly within a private HOA community are classified as private with regards to rules. Thank you.

Just for clarification, Ms. Chapman, it's extraordinary for me to do this, but I do from time to time. I can relate to the regulations that you're referring to about swimming pools, particularly in condos. The rules are actually set by the Oregon Health Authority. There are state rules that each of the counties then have to follow. go and implement. So sorry about that. My own neighborhood has a condo association and a swimming pool, and we're dealing with the same requirements that your neighborhood is. Thank you for testifying tonight. Clerk Moss, we have Deanna Johnson.

Yeah, it should be Deanna Johnson.

Deanna, can you hear us? Yes, can you hear me okay?

You are very low speaking. Can you get close to your microphone or turn up your microphone?

I'm hovering over my laptop. It's a year old.

There you go. You are perfect. Go ahead for up to two minutes.

Perfect. Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for this opportunity. It's ironic that I prior the last meeting, I didn't get a chance to testify kind of logged in late, but I looked up the reduced rate recycling collection service, you know, for Washington County. And ironically, the first person that testified actually mentioned it. So it's just kind of nice that I'm actually ran across this. But as my comments said, Is there a specific group or an individual who advocated on behalf of Washington County residents that championed for this reduced rate program and successfully got it adopted, for example, by waste management? Personally, you know, I'm shocked considering the difficulty I've had with more expensive utility providers in this county. And I'm just kind of wondering how on earth they got that approved within Washington County, For low income assistance, considering the battle I've gone through over the last 2 years with. Clean water services, and then I've highlighted, of course, the water company who raise rates 20%, and then gave a 20% discount and then proceeded to approve 2 more rate increases for themselves. So. That's kind of borderline unethical, but whatever. But I just kind of wanted to ask if there's a specific group or person in Washington County that advocated for that garbage service, low-income assistance discount program, and thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Johnson. We can have our county staff follow up with you to provide you with the history of that program. Thank you.

That concludes the 10 minutes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Clerk Moss. Next, we have tonight's consent agenda, which consists of nine items. One item from community corrections, one item from housing services, two items from land use and transportation, three items from health and human services, one item from finance, and one item from human resources. What are the wishes of the commission regarding tonight's consent agenda?

Motion to approve.

We have a motion and a second to approve tonight's consent agenda. All those in favor, please vote by raising your hand or saying aye. Thank you, commissioners. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously five to zero. Next, we have an opportunity to appoint members to the Washington County Garbage and Recycling Advisory Committee. We have an opportunity to reappoint Leslie Albert to the Garbage and Recycling Advisory Committee for a term ending March 31st, 2030. What are the wishes of the commission regarding this appointment?

Motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve this appointment. All those in favor, please vote by raising your hand or saying aye. Thank you, commissioners. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously, five to zero. Next, we have a proposal for our adopting the resolution in order approving the 2026 solid waste and recycling collection rate adjustments. And welcome to our meeting tonight. Please take it away.

Thank you so much. Well, good evening, Chair Harrington, Board of County Commissioners. My name is Mira Semantle. I serve as the Director of Health and Human Services here at the county. Rusty Davis was scheduled to provide this presentation, but at the last minute, he had the opportunity to be with his family and help welcome his new baby grandson. So that's why he is not here tonight. But in his stead, we have the extremely competent and wonderful Ms. Erin Stein. Who you are familiar with who it currently serves as our solid waste recycling operations supervisor? So I will turn it over to Erin for tonight's presentation Great.

Thank you Mira Good evening chair Harrington and members of the board. Thank you for having me this evening to present our 2025 annual rate review findings I I'll quickly touch on our agenda. I'm going to talk about your board's rate setting authority here for unincorporated Washington County. I'll go over our interested party engagement in the 2025 process. I'll talk about our 2025 rate review findings. And then I will wrap up this evening with staff recommendations for the 2026 rate adjustments. Washington County Code Title 8.04, Sections 320, 330, and 340 discuss rate provisions in detail. However, it is 330 that gives your board the authority to institute rate changes for unincorporated Washington County. Pursuant to 804.330A, the annual rate review process ensures that any rate adjustments, increases or decreases, are fair, just, reasonable, and sufficient to provide proper service to the public, while also allowing for a reasonable return for our certificate holders. With every rate review process which happens annually, we do interested party engagement, On May 14th, a notification of opportunity to comment was sent out in advance of our May Garbage and Recycling Advisory Committee meeting to our interested party list. We received no written comments this year. On May 21st, staff presented our findings to the Garbage and Recycling Advisory Committee members. They voted eight to zero to favorably recommend to the Washington County Board of County Commissioners that the staff proposed rate adjustments be approved. Additionally, we have eight service providers here in Washington County. Those were engaged throughout the spring. The Washington County Haulers Association members are supportive of the staff recommended rate adjustments. In addition, we had multiple haulers provide public comment at our May Garbage and Recycling Advisory Committee meeting. Those included SWATCO Sanitary Services, Walker Garbage Disposal, and WM. And furthermore, we presented to you all at the June 9th work session, and we're back here to present our final findings this evening. For the public's benefit, Washington County utilizes a return on revenue methodology. This is a standard rate setting approach when you have an industry that doesn't require significant capital expenditures or investments. What we do is we look at the prior year's system-wide return on revenue, and if it's more or less than our target, which is currently set at 10%, staff make recommendations for adjustments. In 2025, the system's revenue was $47,802,521. The net income was $3,049,762, resulting in a 6.38% return on revenue. We also take the time to look at each line of service to see how they performed. So we look at residential or can cart. They came in at a 6.82% return on revenue. Commercial or containerized waste, which includes our multifamily services, they came in at 5.28%. And then drop box, compactor, and occasional containers came in at 5.92%. Overall, for our residential customers, we serve over 67,000 households and for businesses, we're serving over 2,000 businesses. So what do these findings mean? Overall, our system underperformed by about $1.92 million. When we look at each line of service, we want to determine what adjustments are required to hit our 10% target. If you are an urban, unincorporated customer and you have a 32-gallon cart at your household, you would see a new rate of $31.68 plus a $2 recycling surcharge. for a total monthly rate of $33.68. If you're a commercial customer and you have a four yard container with once a week pickup, you would see a new rate of $334.97 plus a 4% recycling surcharge for a total of $348.37 a month. Compactor and drop boxes will see haul fee increases, and that equates to a new rate of $192.39 for a 10-yard box. Overall, the residential customers are seeing their bill go up about $1.07 a month. The commercial customers vary widely, but for that four-yard container, they'll see a $16 increase. And for Dropbox, they are going to see about $8.28 per haul on a 10-yard container. One of the really important aspects of doing an annual rate review is that we have the ability to address changing conditions happening in our system. Those could be economic impacts, those could be operational impacts. And this year we took a deep dive into three specific areas. First was staff, in addition to our CPAs, Marina and Company, completed a long-range assessment looking at the variations in service offerings and operational costs for serving rural service areas versus our urban service areas in unincorporated Washington County. We looked at a period of over 15 years. Staff findings was outstanding. that an adjustment in 2023, which adjusted the rates for the food scrap program to begin, left a gap in what the earnings were. So for this year, we're recommending, in addition to the 3.5% rate increase that would be for canned cart customers, an additional 2.1% rate increase for a total of 5.6%. percent in our rural service area staff also looked at changing conditions lots of lots of things have been happening in the region with regards to medical waste in markets and what we actually have available to provide this essential service We have been having to haul those materials well outside the Pacific Northwest for their management. That has caused increased transportation and processing cost. As a result, staff found that the return on revenue for medical waste came in at a negative 12.38%. And to return to that 10% benchmark, we're recommending a 24.5% rate increase. And lastly, staff will sometimes look at isolated materials. And one of those materials that we looked at in 2025 was the cost of managing refrigerant-containing devices. So those would be refrigerators, freezers, or air conditioning units. The rate that we had established in 2025 was not covering the total disposal cost, let alone the collection cost. So staff are recommending a one-time rate adjustment for those devices to $42.50 each. Just going to do a brief recap of our recommendations for your board. Staff are recommending a 3.5% increase for urban can cart service, a 5.6% increase for rural can cart service, and an adjustment for refrigerant-containing devices to $42.50 each. For dropbox and compactor and occasional containers, we're looking at an adjustment of 4.5%, an increase. And for commercial, a 5.2% increase for container service and a 24.9% increase for medical waste. Staff recommends that your board favorably adopt the following rate adjustments as shown as Exhibit A to the resolution and order to become effective on August 1st of 2026. I appreciate this board's consideration, and if you have any questions, I'm available.

Board members, do you have any questions or comments from staff? Commissioner Snyder.

Just to acknowledge for the public that we... spent a significant amount of time in our work session working through a lot of the details and asking a lot of questions. The team clearly did robust work, both the staff team, our advisory committee, and also, frankly, partnering with our hauler. So I'm satisfied and I don't have additional questions. Just want to thank everybody.

Commissioner Treece. I'd like to express the same appreciation. And I think we're in a little bit of a unique situation with a staff that's so well-informed, working closely with the GRAC, our community representatives, and the haulers. So seeing haulers in the room tonight, listening to staff, I think we're at the right place. And that's a... a relationship that I feel very strongly we need to continue to move forward, and I really appreciate that. Sitting on the Regional Waste Advisory Committee also gives me a view into what's happening at a regional level, so I really appreciate the staff work and all of the participants as well, so thank you. Commissioner Willey.

Yeah, and just to add a little bit more content to this, for the folks who aren't engaged in this whole process, this financial information is as of December 31st, 25. So any rate increases... are delayed until august first and so i think it's important to know that in that in this past six months or seven months we've seen significant cost to one of the major cost drivers which is fuel and so uh... this is uh... this is a delayed process we appreciate the fact that we have that time to go through and we again appreciate the staff but To all the haulers, we thank you for your dedication and staying in there and fighting the good fight when the costs are out of your control. But this will be a seven-month delay on real costs.

Thank you, Commissioner Willey. Anyone else? Commissioner Fein.

Just to make sure that I'm not the only one not saying thank you from the dais here, I want to say thank you for your great work. As you know, we did have a great conversation, and I did look for some of the questions that I asked to make sure that, which led me to actually review the past video. But I just want to say thank you. It's a good thing when Your work is both appreciated by the franchise and the community. Otherwise, you'll have a bit of a work cut out, and you're not having that. You're actually having franchise that agree with you, and then the community, I myself included, I'm not complaining. So good work, good job, and I appreciate all the flyers that come to us as well. That big poster, it's on my fridge every year, so thank you.

Thank you. I join my colleagues in the appreciation of thanks, so I just ditto for all of them. I also want to recognize Beth Vargas. We did receive your letter, and I also appreciate the engagement with the various haulers, including those who have joined us this evening. All right. Seeing no further questions or comments at this juncture, I would like to ask for a motion to adopt the resolution and order approving the 2026 solid waste and recycling collection rate adjustments. I move to adopt the order. Thank you.

Resolution and order.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All those in favor of the motion, please vote by raising your hand or saying aye. Thank you, everyone. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously, five to zero. And all I have to do is see on our agenda tonight that we did approve a couple of resolutions in order on the consent agenda. So I stand corrected from our CWS meeting. All right. Next, we have our second public communication opportunity for this evening. And with this second communication period, individuals are provided with up to five minutes to share your thoughts on any topic, 30 minutes maximum. Mark Moss, who do we have this evening?

Thank you, Chair. And in the first two, we have Pam Code and Dale Feek.

Hello, Board of County Commissioners. I am here speaking to the same topic that Ann Page spoke to tonight. I'm speaking to the Century Boulevard Extension Project, which is an unwanted county-funded road that will run through my neighborhood, destroy habitat, and diminish quality of life for residents who are angry for not being sufficiently engaged and notified throughout the planning process. So I'll provide an overview of the legwork that I have put into pursuing this issue The issues that still stand for me after speaking with Commissioner Willie Thank you for that and the land use and transportation director yesterday as well as respond to as well as present some alternative solutions that I see that I think could be positive. All right, so up to this point, I have spoken at city council twice. I've spoken one-on-one with three council members. I gathered 36 signatures from my neighborhoods, and I actually did that as a test of, like, am I... DO PEOPLE REALLY FEEL THE SAME WAY THAT I DO ABOUT THIS? AND I UNCOVERED A LOT OF HOW I FEEL AND MORE FROM OTHER PEOPLE IN TERMS OF NOT APPRECIATING THE ROAD. AND I ADDITIONALLY SPENT A LOT OF TIME GOING THROUGH THE NOISE STUDY THAT'S AVAILABLE ONLINE, AND THAT ENDED UP BEING WHAT OUR CONVERSATION WAS CENTERED AROUND, COMMISSIONER WILLIE AND I. So I am going to go through and respond to some of the things that Commissioner Willie said, and also the LUT director said, that just kind of demonstrates the points of the people who feel similarly as I. The LUT director, I believe it was, said that, I asked him, What bearing does the noise study, which was very, very poor, I should add. It had lots of errors and inconsistencies, and it was not conducted to the standards of that time. The manuals that they used were outdated, and I can provide that information to anybody who would like to have it. I asked, like, what bearing does this noise study, do the concerns with the noise study have on the road? And the response I got was that they didn't have to do it, but they did. So it's kind of an odd thing where it's like it just raises more questions about why would you do something if, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO. WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING, NOT ONLY DO IT, BUT DO IT POORLY AND THEN POST IT FOR THE PUBLIC TO SEE? IT'S ODD. AND IT JUST RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT REGULATIONS ARE THERE. AND I ASKED THE CITY TWO DAYS AGO TO LET ME KNOW WHAT REGULATIONS WENT INTO THE ROAD. perhaps they've passed it on to the county, and I haven't received anything back yet. So anyway, I'm just flagging that as odd. So I also, you know, one of my biggest issues or, like, concerns has been public engagement. Commissioner Willie, you actually said, did I go around and ask people their opinions? Well, maybe not. And so you confirmed exactly what people are not happy about, which is that there wasn't really an intention to seek public comment. I, in fact, went into this meeting hoping and believing and having the benefit of the doubt that actually you did mean to, or you thought you did, and you didn't know, you just didn't know. And that's the only reason that public opinion hasn't factored in more. But that turned out to, I was proven wrong. It does seem time and time again that public opinion just is not being valued here, and there hasn't even been an intention to seek it. So that, to me, is undemocratic. You said that when people buy a house, people should know that a road's going to be built. I shared that with the people who are supporters on this issue, and they were a little bit shocked. They asked, how would you know? And the other thing that I'm kind of like, we live in America. People can buy the house they want and then still advocate for the outdoor environment that they would like as well, especially when it's paid for by techs. pair money and it's 43 million dollars. One of my questions has been why isn't this area a special natural resource? And you said that it used to be and then you changed it for the road. This area has habitat, a waterway and wetlands and it's all being Degraded for the road and I'm just kind of Shocked that you would admit that it's worse than just you know it never having been I do want to call you guys to kind of like Let this become an inroad with citizens if you could please reconsider this issue and just do a vote again. I Think that my time is up.

Yes.

I Had mr. Feek

Chair Harrington and Commissioners Dale Feek, I did email you earlier what I'm going to share with you this evening. Even though I failed to do that during the Clean Water Services, I'll send that to you tonight. First of all, though, I want to say a few words about Sandra Nelson. She died, and as you know, she's made public comment before you for quite a few times. Before she died, she made a list of people who she wanted her son to email right away And her son did that, and I received that. So Sandra and I respected each other, and we liked each other, even though we disagreed on some issues. So rest in peace, Sandra. Love, Dale Feek. What you have before you is an email from Timothy Snyder. During my clean water services time, public comment. I didn't have time to read something to you that I said was the most important of the three items that I had. It has to do with the demolition of effective government by the Trump regime. And it's a Effort is systematic. It's based upon a plan of 2025, and they're doing it. I mean, they're dismantling the Department of Education. They're changing it over to other things. Musk and his team, you know, dismantled many things, took money away from the... I mean, it's just terrible what's happening. So what you have before you is an email from Timothy Snyder titled, Utopia of Violence, the Unlearned Lesson of the Iran War. That's dated June 21st. Timothy Snyder begins with, in Iran began with a dream of violence. The question now is whether the nightmare that followed returns to the United States. The use of force does not magically lead to the outcome you want. You can think that firing some missiles and dropping some bombs will end Iran's nuclear program. overturn its government and lead to victory that makes you feel grand about yourself. And then you can find that you no longer have any leverage over the nuclear program, that you have strengthened the power of the regime, and that you are paying hundreds of billions of dollars of reparations as the world draws conclusions from the capitulation. To be sure, the inherent unpredictability of violence was joined by other factors in this foolish war. It originated in the human incompetence and the strategic ignorance in the White House. The chief executive, sadly, is a super loser, bent on superpower suicide. Now, that's a very important term, superpower suicide. Other people talk superpower murder. Superpower suicide, you've got to name what it is if you're going to try to counter it. Supersider, superpower suicide. In the long run, the lesson for Americans is that our domestic politics will have to be restructured such that no aspiring tyrant can fight wars at whimsy. But there's a more pressing concern for Americans. Will the tyrannical emotional state that brought us the war now be applied inside the United States? The emotional state, the utopia of violence, is not closely tethered to reality and has to be considered in its own right. It has causal force, as we have seen in Iran. There was no thinking behind the decision to go to war. There was, however, a vision, a feeling about how the world works, a utopia of violence. The war began not with a plan or a strategy for what you do. You strategize there as county commissioners. Or a strategy, and that was my insert there. Or for that matter, any sense of the national interest. The attack on Iran began with longing. A subjective sense that violence is pleasurable and can bring a utopia in which desires become reality. In the statements of President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegg, such utopia of violence is palpable. Now I have one minute left. I'd appreciate if you'd skip, read through. I sent you the email. I'm going to skip to the conclusion of this. So I'm skipping to page three. And so the rest of us have a simple duty to recognize the utopias of violence, to note the risk to the republic. The fact that Trump and Hegseth and Vance are thinking about using violence at home does not mean that what actually happened Seeing a utopia of violence for what it makes is far less likely to be realized. Indeed, the only way to get the soldiers at voting booths is by determinedly looking away and pretending that this isn't what Trump and Exxon and Vance wish for. 20 seconds. Utopian thinking can be a sign of weakness rather than strength. as is in this case. Trump is extremely unpopular, as was his war, as are his political policy generally. His charisma depends on a television projection of strength, but he has just lost his whimsy war and looks terrible. The men who stand behind him are still less popular.

Thank you, Mr. Feek.

Thank you, and you'll read the last two sentences yourself. Thank you very much for listening. It's very important.

Thank you. Clerk Moss, who do we have next?

The next two we have is Sarah Ginta and William Simpson.

Hi. My name is Sarah Tenda and I'm here with a three-week follow-up to my June 2nd public commentary about the ADA accommodation request to allow the public to start using the display monitors that the garbage service people were able to use and that was very helpful. And today I brought my husband with me, and I'd like him to introduce himself.

I'm Bill Simpson. I've been a resident of Washington County since I was two, so 62 years.

You'll have your own five minutes, sir. No, I called about this very problem because I anticipated that you would give me this very hard time. All I wanted to do is introduce my husband because I'm talking about him on his behalf as an ADA advocate, and I spoke to you. I spoke, now you're using up my time in rebutting, so you're going to have to add some time to my five minutes. But I spoke to Dr. Manriquez about this very issue of whether we needed to sign up for two five-minute slots or ten minutes or one. So I knew you were going to do that. That's how you are. Make up rules. Okay. Bill? Are you a disabled veteran? Yes. What was your service to our country?

I was in the Air Force for 12 years.

Could you speak on there?

I was in the Air Force for 12 years.

And you have a disability.

Yes, a hearing loss.

Yeah, you don't have to say your disability is. So I did submit some slides to accompany my talk today. And I emailed them to the clerk. I was again told and denied that we cannot use them. with my public presentation, but hopefully they can be included in the record, which will go not tonight, it will be in the next one. I found out they don't get attached to the actual one, so that even makes it more difficult for people to follow along from home. So I talked to the ADA compliance officer, who is Dr. Adrian Monriquez for Washington County, and just to recap what the request was, The request is regarding a hearing limitation that impacts Bill's ability to understand unassisted spoken words in a public forum. And he has processing limitation that impacts his ability to purely follow auditory presentations without parallel visual reinforcement, which is something staff and commissioners enjoy when they do presentations and was allowed up until recently with the public. So he has been denied an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from the county meetings. And he just represents one of many in a similar situation. So I want to read to you next, and I've submitted the slides, from the ADA statement from the county's website regarding participation. Oh, no, I read to you that last time about the participation assistance. What I want to read to you now is a resolution on access and opportunity adopted July 2025 by this commission, so just 11 months ago. I'm going to just read portions of it because of the time limitation. And it reads, whereas Washington County remains committed to providing respectful and compassionate service to residents, Be it resolved and ordered that on the 22nd day of July 2025, the Washington County Board of Commissioners will, one, understand the principles of access and opportunities as follows. Access refers to the intentional design and implementation of systems, environments, and practices that enable all individuals to obtain and utilize resources, services, and opportunities. This involves proactively identifying and removing physical, technological, and linguistic barriers that may hinder full participation. by fostering environments where anyone can engage meaningfully. Access ensures that individuals are not excluded due to factors such as ability, background, identity, or socioeconomic status. Next, I'd like to read to you from... policy that was adopted in June of 2023 about your ADA policy, and it's listed on your website via the Office of Access and Opportunity. It says, Washington County is committed to providing equal access to county-managed facilities, programs, services, public right-of-ways, and activities to people living with disabilities. Washington County recognizes its obligation under the ADA to proactively modify its policies and procedures when necessary to ensure that people living with disabilities are afforded an equal opportunity to participate. The county shall seek to receive and interpret all such requests for accommodation liberally in the light of most favorable to the individual making the request. Clients and community members do not need to use the words accommodation or modification for the county to integrate through the request as such. We offered a simple solution that is free and readily available. There's no economic burden to the county. to accommodate this request for anybody who maybe has dyslexia or hearing loss and needs the parallel visual presentation monitors. I don't know how long it's going to take to have this determined. I'm told it's in process. It seems like it's a yes or no. And if it's a no, I will have to take it to the Department of Justice as a civil rights violation, which nobody wants us to have to do that.

Thank you, Ms. Guenther. Clerk Moss, who do we have next?

The last two we have is Angie Thompson and Judy Morrissey.

Chair Harrington and commissioners, my name is Angie Thompson. I've been a Washington County resident for 18 years. My husband, two sons, and I live in Tualatin. I am here this evening to let you know that three of us are very frustrated as we were unable to vote our current our correct ballots during this year's primary election. I will try to explain the situation the best that I can. We have a second home in Wasco County and I wanted to register our two vehicles there as a secondary address. In late March this year, I went to the Sherwood DMV to do so. I explained the situation to the DMV employee and explicitly stated that our primary residence is and was to remain in Tualatin, and that Wasco County address was solely a secondary address. One of the cars is registered to my husband and me. The other is registered to my youngest son and me. I am listed as the second person on both vehicles. When our ballots arrived, like a lot of people, we set them aside and didn't open them immediately. As election day approached, we decided it was time to vote, but when we opened the ballot envelopes, we got quite a surprise. I had received a Wasco County ballot instead of a Washington County ballot. At least the ballot was for my party. My husband received a Washington County ballot, but it was a nonpartisan ballot instead of the ballot for his party. My oldest son received a Washington County ballot, but it was a Libertarian ballot instead of the ballot for his party. My youngest son received a Washington County ballot. It was a nonpartisan ballot, which is his registered party. It was too late to make any changes, so I ended up voting for state races on the Wasco County ballot, but I wasn't able to vote for my local candidates. My husband voted for his nonpartisan ballot, so he wasn't able to vote for his party's candidates. Both my sons simply didn't vote. We couldn't make sense of any of it. Why did I receive a Wasco County ballot despite explicitly stating our primary residence is in Tualatin? Why didn't my husband and son also receive Wasco County ballots since they were on the vehicle registrations? Why did my husband's party change while mine didn't? Why was my youngest son's not affected at all? I told my neighbors what had happened and they pointed me to the election integrity team here in Washington County. who suggested I get a review of my address and voter history, which I did. My record showed that on March 20th, 2026, my residential address was changed to the Wasco County address and our Tualatin address was changed to my mailing address. My husband's party was changed to independent on November 17th, 2025. My eldest son's party was changed to libertarian on June 13th, 2025. We initially thought that my husband's and son's parties changed may have been connected to the vehicle update. However, we found that they were made much earlier and at different times. We can't understand how this happened because neither one of them wanted to or made an effort to change their party. We feel that our rightful votes were suppressed because of the current election system, which clearly has problems. This is unacceptable. We are now having to take the time to straighten out this mess. Hopefully we can. I am asking you, my county commissioners, to please take the necessary steps to do whatever is required to make sure that voting records are properly maintained in Washington County. to prevent things like this from happening again. From what I have heard from others and seen on social media, our family is not alone in experiencing this type of thing. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. And I do hope you'll follow up with the Washington County Elections Office to get what you need. Thank you. Go ahead, ma'am.

hi chair harrington and commissioners my name is judy maurice i have been a resident of washington county for 23 years my husband and i live in rally hills our four kids grew up and moved away over time however we have continued receiving ballots for a few of them for several years when receiving their ballots we either destroy them or return them to the elections office To get to the bottom of what is going on, we recently had a review of our address and the voter history for everyone registered at our home. What we learned brings me here tonight. Our daughter Amanda is married and living in Georgia where she registered to vote on March 27th, 2018. And all these facts matter. So I'm reading them out and where she has been voting ever since. Even so, we continue to receive her ballots for six years. The Washington County record shows her status was active until it was changed to inactive on November 4th, 2024. Although inactive, she is still registered at our address. Our daughter Jessica is married and living in the state of Washington, where she registered to vote on October 7, 2016, and has been voting ever since. We continued receiving ballots for her, as well as for several years. Her Washington County record is confusing, as it shows her voter status was changed from active to inactive on September 21, 2010, which precedes her earlier registration and activation date of April 23, 2012. I believe that is a typo, and the date should probably read September 21, 2019, because her ballot stopped being sent to our home after that. In any case, she is still registered at our address. Our daughter Martha moved to Utah in July 2020. She is not yet registered to vote there. However, she remained active in Washington County until her status was changed from active to inactive on November 24, 2024. She is still registered at our address. Finally, our son Isaac moved to West Virginia where he registered to vote on June 2nd, 2023 and voted there until November 2025 when he moved to New York. His status was changed from active to inactive on December 15th, 2022 in Washington County. He is the only one for whom we did not receive ballots after he moved to another state. However, he is still registered at our address. Please note that despite all four of our children having an inactive status, I just returned ballots to the elections office for two of them, Amanda and Martha, on May 19th, 2026, the date of the primary election. We are constantly told that inactive voters don't get ballots. Obviously, that is not true. Okay, it seems to me there is something wrong with the system that number one, allows people to be registered to vote in more than one state, number two, makes it possible to vote in more than one state, and three, allows people to remain registered and receive ballots at an address where they no longer reside. It also allows inactive voters to be sent ballots. This is a recipe for voter fraud. In our case, we destroyed or returned the extra ballots we received. Would everyone have done that? How would anyone, including anyone in the elections office, know if a person voted a ballot that wasn't theirs? How many such ballots actually get through the process? How many such ballots get counted? Shouldn't people be removed from the rolls if they are no longer in the state or in an address? How long does it take to remove someone from the voter rolls? Whose responsibility is that? Is it the state's? The county's? Having experienced firsthand the results of shoddy voter registration management, I have lost confidence in the veracity of our elections. There are just too much opportunities for fraud. As a citizen and taxpayer who pays for the elections, I believe it is within my rights to expect a voting system that is trustworthy. How can we believe that the system is secure when ballots are sent everywhere with no controls and no real proof that the person submitting a ballot is the one to whom it was sent? Given all the instances of hacking, shoddy voter registration practices, and internal and external lawsuits that have been made in the news, hanging on to the current election system is unjustifiable and potentially criminal. Fair and honest elections are a matter of civil rights. It is time for a true change. And I ask you, to take steps to make the necessary changes in Washington County because the state system is clearly not working. And I invite you to comment on my comments if you care to.

Thank you Ms. Maurice. We don't generally comment on community public comment, it's incoming. So we have heard your testimony and received it in writing, and we thank you for it. Thank you for taking the time. All right. I believe that's it for our second public comment time for this evening. Next, we have board announcements. Commissioner Willey let me know he had something he wishes to address.

Yeah, I'd like to respond, I bet. It's unfortunate that Ms. Code left because I wanted to respond a little bit on corrections on some of the things that she said. Our conversation was very good, but what I let her know is that the Century Boulevard arterial has been on the drawing board since the 80s and the 90s. And it was back then when the city of Hillsboro and Washington County worked on a road design that would allow for north-south arterials as well as east-west. And what we discovered is we have pretty good east-west. We didn't have very good north-south. Cornelius Pass was about the only one, and it was a two-lane road. Brookwood has since been developed, as has Cornelius Pass, but that's not sufficient. So we, so Century Boulevard was in the design stage well before South Hillsboro was ever designed. I had all this communication with Ms. Code. She understood it. She has lived in her neighborhood for three years, and so most of the study has been well in advance of her and most of her neighbors, quite frankly. As far as the significant natural resources, I have no idea. I certainly didn't say we designated it and then we changed it because I don't have that authority. What was told to her was that it was designated a significant natural resource, but that doesn't mean you can't put a road through that. It only means that you have additional studies. like an environmental impact studies which was done, traffic studies which was done, and so all of those things were met to allow for that project to continue. And then lastly, what I recommended to her was that she reach out and continue to do her homework, which she did a very good job, and ask her to maybe find out from ODOT, because they're the ones that sets the speed limits on these kinds of arterials, to find out what the projected speed limit was and to try and make sure that It wasn't going to be too high, which also creates a lot of the road noise and certainly permeates into the neighborhood. So that was my recommendation to her. And I also recommended that she stay in touch with the project and what was going on because she did put an extremely large amount of her personal time in reading the documents, and I commended her for that. So that's my response to her. Thank you, Chair.

thank you are there any other board announcements this evening prior to my going through the standard yeah i have a quick comment here and then thank you my comment is i also uh... delphi thank you for speaking kind words to Sandra Nelson's passing away. I was fortunate enough to receive that email from her son and I just wanted to say to her family and to her two sons and her grandkids my deepest condolences. She was a very engaged constituent. I learned a lot and in the end became friends more than So I just wanted to say may she rest in peace and in heaven. And I hope may her memory be a blessing to her family and to everyone that was in touch with her and came into her contact. And to Judy, I do want to say to you that today, this afternoon, earlier, we had a presentation updates from our elections office where they provided some great updates about the primary that took place on May 19th. And maybe not in exact words as your questions that you've asked, but I asked those questions. So I want to recommend that you watch that and see the answers that they provided the staff. It was very honorable and good responses, but take a look and then please come back next week and also educate us.

It's highly unusual for commissioners to use this time to comment on public comment, and I would urge commissioners to think carefully about that in the future. The standard board announcements on our next meeting will be Tuesday, July 7th. We'll start with the Washington County Board Work Session at 9 a.m., We will pause that and go to the Housing Authority Board of Directors meeting at 10 a.m. Then after that, we'll hold the Washington County Board of Commissioners meeting. It's approximately at 10.30, and then we'll reconvene the County Board work session later that day. On Tuesday, July 14th, will be a Washington County Board work session starting at 11 a.m. that day. Is that correct? It seems unusual.

I'll double check that.

I'll say 9 o'clock instead.

Madam Chair, that is, you have the CWS meetings before that.

Yes, thank you. That's right. We will start the County Board of Commissioners work session at 11. On Tuesday, July 21st, we'll have Washington County Board work session starting at 9 a.m. We'll pause that for the Washington County Board meeting at 10 o'clock and then reconvene our work session after that. On Tuesday, July 28th, we'll have our work session starting in the afternoon, no later than 2 p.m., and the Washington County Board meeting at 6.30 that evening. I think that's it for board announcements this evening. I would ask for a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting.

So moved.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please vote by raising your hand or saying aye. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. We are hereby adjourned. Thank you.