City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Okay. Good morning. Welcome to the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners agenda setting work session for Tuesday, 04/28/2026. It is 09:03AM. My name is Ty Menser, chair of the board.

To my left, vice chair, Tricia Wayne Fornier, commissioners Caroline Mejia, Rachel Grant, and Emily Klaus on Zoom, county manager Leonard Hernandez and assistant county manager Josh Cummings, clerk of the board Amy Davis. The meeting is being live streamed to the Thurston County YouTube channel and written public comment may be received up to two hours in advance of the meeting and distributed to the board. Action may be taken at this meeting. First up is an agenda review for next Tuesday first review of next Tuesday's May. So pull that item forward, and we start at 2PM.

Meeting called to order by vice chair for new. And pledge of allegiance to be led by, that needs to change, Madam Clerk. Land acknowledgment, approval of agenda, public comment related to agenda items, county

manager update. Anything county manager? A couple of items, but we're saving them as a surprise.

Oh, boy. Okay.

For next week?

Yes, sir.

All right.

$50,000,000 in debt. Surprise.

Good surprises, to be clear.

Okay. Any other questions on standing items? Hearing none, go to consent item one, resolution to establish fund 4540, CPED Technology Fund.

Ashley is coming up. Good morning, Ashley. Just want to thank CPED for delivering and following through on some of the ideas that they had last year when we were talking budget. This is the outworking of their innovation and ideas. And so I'll hand over to you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Good morning, commissioners. Ashley Rye, CPED Director. The next three consent items are all items to establish new funds. So the first one is for a new technology fund. The second one is for a grant fund. And the third one is for a streamflow restoration fund. The intention behind this is to ensure transparency, accountability, and compliance with governmental accounting standards. These funds will allow us to segregate revenues from other county resources, track them accordingly, and also make sure that funds we're collecting specific to these different buckets are only spent on eligible items.

Happy to answer any specific questions about the three different funds as that applies to all of them.

Okay. Is it helpful to your, financial team to have this?

It is very helpful. So as part of the budget process last year, the Board of County Commissioners implemented a new technology fee. So the technology fund will be in place to be able to segregate that fee so we can ensure it is only used on eligible items identified in that resolution. Similar with the streamflow restoration fee, so that was another fee adopted by the Board of County Commissioners that helps fund our unfunded mandate by the state for streamflow restoration projects. And so all monies collected will be put in that separate fund so we can ensure it's only being spent on eligible items.

And then thirdly, having a separate grant fund. Right now, our grant funds are intermingled, and the budget already comes from our general fund. Being able to pull it apart will allow us and the Board of County Commissioners to better track monies that we're getting in from outside sources and making sure that we're only spending them on grant eligible items.

Questions for Ashley? One, two, or three. Okay. Thank you. Item four is district court amendment to interlocal agreement with City of Olympia for district court services.

Thanks, Chair. I know that we have Frankie Peters, but I'll start off and then I'll hand over to Assistant County Manager, Josh Cummings. I want to thank the team for working with City of Olympia to bring some needed amendments to our service agreement with them. I'll hand over to Josh to kind of talk about what high level and then Frank Eastern to answer any operational questions.

Thank you, County Manager. The partnership with the city of Olympia as we took on their court and transitioned it to district court has been extremely positive. We appreciated the partnership with Superior Court, District Court, the City of Olympia, and Frankie. The amendments to the ILA include two new full time security for the standing up of the court, at district court, security screening and equipment, including cameras, and an additional court administrative personnel. If there's any more details you'd like, Frankie's here.

We also have the dollar amounts. But this has really been, I think, a example of partnership and positivity when we talk about what a partner and a customer needs and how we could implement that in a way that's professional and positive as well. So thank you to Frankie for your hard work and partnership with, Debbie and the folks at the City of Olympia. Yeah, we knew

that we were moving very, very quick in order to help the City of Olympia meet some timelines and the board gave us clear direction. So we anticipated that there was going to be some operational items that may not have been considered when we did the full overview. And so these are key components to keeping the operations running smoothly. And again, thankful to the City of Olympia, city manager Jay Bernice, assistant city manager Debbie Sullivan for their openness and engagement to move this forward. And Frankie did a ton of work on the back end to pull all of this together.

And I might add that the additional cost in the ILA, this ILA amendment was approved by the city of Olympia on April 17. So they've already approved it. They've figured out how to fund these extra items. And so this is us receiving the money from the city of Olympia in the amendment. Frankie, anything to add? No. Nothing to add. Just happy to answer any questions.

It's a good thing. Certainly. Questions? Anyone else? Okay. Sounds like we're good to go. Thank you. You guys you pretty much covered all the questions I had. Item five is setting a public hearing for a proposed ordinance amending Durst County Code section two zero seven zero one o regarding Board of Health composition.

Yes. Thank you. Doctor Jen Freiheit, the director of public health and social services. Good morning. Yes.

This is a request to move to set a public hearing on June 2 at 03:30 or soon thereafter on the proposed ordinance amending Thurston County code section two point zero seven point zero one zero Board of Health Composition in order to align with the RCW seventy point zero five point zero three zero as it pertains to tribal membership and authorize the clerk of the board to adjust the date and time of the hearing as needed. And just a little bit of background, the Board of County Commissioners discussed the updated Board of Health configuration during their 11/05/2025 board work session, which included a change in the overall number of members as well as expansion in the number of tribal representative seats within the Board of Health. And this update is in the best interest of the public through expanded inclusion and representation of Thurston County communities. And the amendment also allows for growth of partnerships that will improve, public health disparities throughout Thurston County. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Kudos to Doctor. Freiheit and her leadership with the Board of Health. Lots of changes that took place, but they were able to walk that through and to facilitate the change in the composition, I think, a very effective manner. So in that same time frame, bringing on new tribal members of the Board of Health, also adding a youth advisory component. It's been a busy time for the Board of Health. And it's great to see them moving forward. The meetings are so much more streamlined and functional and clear communication coming out with our health officer. A lot of great signs in public health.

Questions on item five?

Are we doing any kind of press release or any kind of release on?

We haven't signed on it, but we could.

I think it

would be nice.

Yeah. We can definitely work with public health and Susan, our chief communications manager, to get him something out. Okay.

The story is kind of cool since Princeton County helped craft matrix. So beginning to end, it's a good story.

It is, yeah. It's good.

Thank you. You. Next up is also public health and social services, Washington State Department of Ecology, freshwater algae control grant, Paterson Lake.

And I will talk about item six and seven slightly together. They sort of go together. But this is a request for the board to move to approve the Washington State Department of Ecology, Freshwater Algae Control Grant for Pattinson Lake in the amount of 50,000. And the next one is also for Pattinson Lake. These are first time grants for Pattinson Lake as they are new to Lake Management District.

This particular one is a three year grant that will be used to support the development of a cyanobacteria management plan and will be effective upon signing of the agreement. This funding will continue to support the development inflow outflow study reporting and subsequent treatment recommendations that will be determined based upon the results of the study. The Lake Steering Committee will be responsible for the development, implementation and execution of the plan as well as reporting and auditing requirements of the grant. And item seven one is in the amount of 59,800 And this is a management of the invasive aquatic plant species, in particular, the fragrant water lily, which is a class c noxious weed that can form dense strands in water that can cover hundreds of acres. And so the Lake Steering Committee will also be implementing this project in compliance with their approved integrated aquatic vegetation management plan and responsible for all reporting and auditing requirements of the grant.

As a side note, was super cute to see in our Take Your Kid to Work Day, the board reenactment, to see the kids have to pronounce noxious and obnoxious. Noxious weeds are so obnoxious. That's pretty cool.

It's not wrong.

All right. Any questions on six or seven? Hearing none, we'll go to item eight, public health services, request for proposals for opioid settlement pooled funding community grant applications.

Before you go, I just want to this item is huge. It's like the tip of a, I don't know, two, three year workload that Katie Strozek, who I can see in the audience, and public health staff supporting along with our jurisdictional partners. There's been so much work that has come together, the establishment of that group, to actually meet. And so bringing this item is substantial. For the weekend, several months back, they were clamoring on, we've to get this done.

And I really appreciate the hard work of Katie Strozek in working with the attorneys on the interlocal agreement to get that revised. That was stalled for, I think, over a year. And they were able to move that forward. So the fact that we're able to bring this item forward is huge. And I think you've said, Commissioner Mentzer, sometimes these items come. And it's hard because they don't always reflect the amount of work, blood, sweat, and tears that went into this. But I'm really appreciative and thankful for the hard work of staff. So I haven't stole all your thunder. Now I'll hand it back over to you.

Right. And thanks to Legal and Risk for moving it through really fast and everything. I mean, were many, many hands on this. So the BOCC approved the pooling of $500,000 per calendar year during the biennial budget process to pool the other local jurisdictions. And with the pooled funding from Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater, there is a combined total of $2,000,000 that we'll be able to put out as a one time funding opportunity for the opioid settlement pooled funding community grants.

We would elicit proposals for services related to expanded access to medications for opioid use disorder and other treatment connections to care and or address the needs of the criminal justice involved individuals. And all proposals will be welcome. So with the BOCC approval, the RFP will be released on May 6. Proposals will be due by May 31. And then we'll have recommendations at the regularly scheduled June 3, Opioid Abatement Council meeting.

Then And we'll bring those forward by the June so that we can hopefully begin contracts, by July 1. This is a long time coming. We needed the ILA in place. Now we have the RFP, which we modeled after, what we had done similarly with treatment sales tax, got it through all the approvals with each of the cities and our own legal and everything,

and we're ready to move on it.

So excited to get this money out into the community.

Yeah. And also special thanks to Commissioner Grant, who sits on that group and has been a great leader in pushing these things through and working with partner agencies.

Shouldn't because we want to highlight that work and because we're asking the public to do something, shouldn't this be a department item? Not a We can make it a department item. Commissioner Grant.

Yep. That was what I was gonna actually ask. And, you know, I just wanna also, you know, public make sure that we commend Katie and, her amazing work. And, you know, I let all of you know that the, you know, the committee that's been working on this is really excited, and we're I think we're all on the same page and and ready to get this money out the door. So it would be great if we could highlight it at, Tuesday's meeting. That'd be great.

We'll be ready to do that, chair.

You're there anyway, doctor Fryhite, because I see other public health I'm just curious.

So in we we've had a a a presentation from the coroner and we've had a presentation from Medic One and both of those agencies have said there's been a dramatic reduction in overdose responses with Medic One and then a dramatic reduction in opioid related deaths. I was wondering if there's any analysis done as to what has caused that reduction. And then if something's working, we could ensure that we're funding whatever is working because if I mean, that's not a small change in, responses. That's that's dramatic.

Yeah. We can, round that up with public health and social services, maybe come back at a board work session.

Yeah. If we're doing something right, it would be important to make sure that that's, you know, acknowledged and and maybe there's some priority funding going to whatever we're doing this work, I mean, if there's if that's a thing.

And Katie is working with our epidemiologist team, so certainly, we're pulling some of that together. We'll bring that up.

Okay. Yeah. Medic one had some really good information too. Thank you.

Okay. Perfect. Let's go on to item nine, Sole source purchase of 12 solid waste drop box containers. Public works. Good morning.

Morning. Chad Meese, public works director. Public works is requesting to purchase twelve forty yard cubic 40 cubic yard drop boxes for use at our solid waste facilities through a sole source vendor contract. We have a contract with public services for operations, maintenance, transport, and disposal, services, and that contract requires the county to provide 22 of the drop boxes used. Many of our current owned drop boxes are in life and require replacement due to some unique operational considerations of sole source purchases required.

Dropboxes are not a one size fits all purchase. Republic's trucks only work with a certain box and rail configuration that they currently purchase from Waysquip. We've received a quote of just over $96,000 to purchase these 12 Dropboxes and the vendors confirmed we are receiving a 22% discount on their list price. A sole source justification form was submitted and approved by the internal auditor who confirmed that this, purchase complies with all RCW and county policies.

Any questions on Dropbox containers? No. Okay. Perfect.

Thank you

very much. Item

10, sheriff's office, Washington Traffic Safety Commission grant for a law enforcement liaison. Sheriff Sanders, I see this.

Good morning. This is a a really small interlocal agreement. It's traditionally been held through the Olympia Police Department and the Traffic Safety Commission. This is just basically a small stipend of funding for us to take over kind of the liaison for putting out the traffic detail grants. So basically, the Traffic Safety Commission picks an agency within each county or with each within each region to basically be the ones to, like, promote to the other agencies.

Hey. This money's available. It can put the details out and kinda coordinates DUI emphasis, distracted driving emphasis, whatever it is, aggressive driving. So OPD used to have this, and they've asked us to take over, I believe, OPD. They don't have a traffic unit anymore, so it kind of fit more naturally with us now that we have a dedicated traffic sergeant and two dedicated, traffic deputies.

Any questions for sheriff? No questions. Thanks, sheriff Sanders. Thanks. Alright. Items eleven and twelve are vouchers. And if there's no questions there, we'll go to item department item one, which is community planning and development, official comprehensive plan and development code excuse me, amendment docket for twenty six-twenty seven.

Good afternoon. Good morning again. We haven't skipped forward that far. This is the final action for the board to adopt the docket that we worked through at the work session last week. We have gone ahead and updated all the docket sheets to integrate the feedback that we received from the board. And we'll have the website updated with the final list following the board's final action next Tuesday. Happy to answer any questions. I know we spent quite a bit of time on this last week.

What are you preparing to say about it? I mean, it's such a huge topic in terms of just introducing the item.

Yeah. Happy to make adjustments. At this point, we were thinking that we would highlight all the work that's been that was done to get the comprehensive plan updated. That's three years of community work and board work that we want to make sure that we reflect on. It really sets the stage and is the foundation for the current docket or a lot of the items on the docket. So we were going to highlight that. And then we were going to highlight the specific board priority items that were referenced at the two work sessions. So that's on the record again, the decisions that you made and are reflected in the docket sheets. And if there's anything else that you want us to include in that, we can.

Chair, the only thing I'll say is Ashley and I can see Anna in the audience, well done on facilitating this process and bringing it together. In the time I've been here, that was such a great streamlined approach that you facilitated by giving the board ample time to review the information that you and your team took time to break out to be very comprehensive and focused. It's not always easy to take that much topic and boil it down into a very effective I think we had a two hour just under two hour session where the Board was able to identify their priorities. And again, just to highlight the lamination and the board and all those things that you put in, that's all a lot of intentional planning so that the board could have a clear approach and that the public can see why the Board is making the decisions they're making. And that's not to mention all the other outreach you did.

So just on behalf of the organization, thank you for your leadership because it's really showing the results and the clarity of bringing that forward.

Appreciate that. Also, shout out to my team that makes all that happen.

Go, CPED. Go. All

right. Any questions? I think we're good there. Thank you. Yep. Public health social services has the next item. Contract for local home funds with BHR BNB Building LLC for BNB Apartments redevelopment.

Thank you. And this is a request for the board to move to approve a contract with Behavioral Health Resources, BHR B and B Building LLC for the total amount of 950,000 for the redevelopment of the B And B Apartments for affordable rental housing. In March 2024, BHR submitted an application to the RHC's affordable housing advisory board, THAB, annual request for proposals for affordable housing capital projects. And the redevelopment will replace an aging seven unit single story apartment building with 19 units of newly constructed affordable rental housing, serving individuals with incomes below 30% AMI and those between 3050% AMI are struggling with mental health or substance use disorders. Four of the 19 apartments will be reserved for individuals who are homeless.

And all residents of the new project will have the opportunity to receive supportive services through their extensive outpatient programs. And the location is 2104 State Avenue Northeast. And so TAB recommended this and the RHC approved it at their 05/08/2024 meeting, which received unanimous approval. The Board of County Commissioners approved the preliminary funding award for this project at their 06/18/2024 meeting. And this award will require an affordability period of twenty years, which will be secured through a lean package and is funded through the local home fund.

Pre contract requirements and BHR have been done by our office and BHR is ready to proceed with the project. So we're just bringing it for you for the final wrap up. Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions

for public health? Just concerns that using the local home fund for things when we have the Quincy Street Village unanswered operating funds question still hanging out there. Is there

And this was from 2024 and funding from there. So I would have to get back to you if that funding could even be applied or used in this situation. I'll find out more.

Yeah. I know that the RHC is continuing to work on the response to the mayors and working to create a work session for the RHC members to sit down and really talk about all the different funding opportunities and come back to the board and the respective other councils with how they're going to approach that. I will say just because this topic touches this, It was really wonderful to see Tom Webster's leadership of the RHC meeting, this one that just passed. He facilitated some changes to the agenda. He had a very packed agenda, and they got through it all under ninety minutes.

Yep, under ninety minutes. And he also facilitated different changes to the structure of the meeting that was approved, I think, unanimously by the RHC members. So I know some of these changes I've heard from my peers in Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater. There's things that they've been wanting to see change in the meeting just so that the meeting runs better and is more effective. And the changes they've made to the agenda where they call out what the action item is, he's just providing a lot of clarity.

I know it's a lot of work that Tom is undergoing and he has a lot of pressure points. And so I also want to thank Doctor. Freiheid for her overall management and coaching of that group to see a different outcome. And it was wonderful to see that they're moving to in person meetings and some of these other meeting enhancements that I think are going to benefit them as they tackle these big regional topics.

Thank you. Sounds good. With that so the last meeting, my understanding there was a large funding package that was discussed. Is there any way that we could get a briefing on that prior to it becoming a work session or agenda item?

Yep. We'll bring that to a board work session. It'd be good to debrief. And I'm sure Commissioner Klaus will have some perspectives about it as well. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Public comment related to general matters, commissioner community reports, and that's the end of the meeting.

Okay. First kosher item up is proposed electric bike committee nomination. We have a draft letter, I think, that was circulated. This is supporting John O'Callaghan. He's here if anyone has questions for him. My understanding is that the state's creating this, new committee, and he would like to be part of it and has a major commitment to this issue and a lot of experience writing the various types of, technologies. So, and it seems like from my perspective, he'd be a good appointment to the committee. So board, any questions or concerns? No. I think it's a great

great appointment. John's got something like thirty plus years in city government and maybe even more. And then, he was on TRPC for quite a long time, so he's got a lot of transportation experience.

Yep. I forgot to mention that for sure. Yeah. It's in the letter, though. Any questions? We should thumbs up on for this letter. Okay. Everybody's on board. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Chair, all of my electronic signatures.

Thank you. Send it where it needs to go. Other commissioner items?

Chair, if could, just want to give a special thanks to the staff and the team that worked on the Bring Your Kid to Work Day. This is the second year in our revised format. I think we had close to 200 children and our staff workers participating. It's always awesome to see them get selected as commissioners and run a meeting. It's great to see the chair go heavy on that gavel and pound it.

But just a special thanks. I know there was a lot of staff, support staff that were working throughout the organization at two campuses pulling all of that together. And so we really appreciate that level of work. And the other item I just wanted to highlight is that we had an opportunity to tour the sheriff a new building. It's the first time I got to tour the building.

And I think this board has a lot to be proud of. I know that we are working with Susan and the sheriff's team on doing a press walk through, hopefully, in mid May sometime. But just a high level that the Board approved this in 2025 and they are days away from being complete with the adaptive reuse. It's a $14,000,000 purchase for a 55,000 square foot LEED gold rated building. And to look at the amount of opportunities in cubicle furniture, etcetera, that were left in valued at over $2,000,000 the county more than scored.

And it just goes to show that when as this Board has taken a new look at the county facilities and even the purchase of our new downtown campus, the county in the last two years has solved decades worth of facility issues and is making steps forward to change the the the the very look and feel of our county. It's phenomenal. That building is amazing and would have been a fine. The fact that we were able to, through the the board's connectivity with the community, be able to work that through as a deal, it's phenomenal. So just super excited to see how space transforms the way we operate, but also transform staff morale, and that the county is on the move right now, and that we have had three successful remodels.

This one is on budget, on time, and that we're looking at six other buildings to remodel the capacity that we're building. It just flies, such a wonderful banner of the county's new direction because of this board of county commissioners and the decisions, hard decisions, bold decisions, creative decisions with financing that they've been they've been making such an exciting time to be part of this team.

It was echo what the county manager said and then, like, taking it to the next level. Like, the central services team was awesome. Yes. They highlighted various ways in which they were really collaborative with the sheriff's team and the architects in a way that solved a whole bunch of problems and that kept things under budget and got the core items covered. For for with some other things that were not that important, but it it all made it was all very heartening to see, you know, the voters coming through public safety dollars and then us being able to do something. I just think that this budget is going to be pretty spectacular from a financial standpoint.

And a key piece of that, Chair, is as the county manager mentioned, the adaptive reuse. So having a partner customer in the sheriff's office that understood that there nothing was gonna be perfect. It wasn't a brand new rebuild. It wasn't a brand new build. It was a rebuild in terms of adaptively reusing what we had. And so that the sheriff's office and central services were able to find common ground and partnership and some levels of compromise, that makes this project move forward. And that's what we're gonna need for the buildings down town as well. It's understanding that it's not a brand new build, that it's adaptive reuse, that that's going to make the process efficient and affordable for the citizens of our county. And the clear direction from the board got us here. So thank you for all of that.

I think it'd be great to have the central services project team when they're ready. I think they're a little bit busy right now still. But come and do a after action with the board on what made this transition. I mean, remodeling 55,000 square feet of facility with a use that is specialized as a sheriff and being on time and under budget is unheard of. So to be able to do that in this environment, there's I know that we're working with our communications team to really tell that story so that when we work together to have that press tour of the building, there's a lot of things that we can highlight and show where the county is headed and the decisions that it's making to become a good steward of public funds.

And the one thing I just learned, I think I sent it to the county manager was that the same architect team we're using with our courts is basically doing the exact same thing for Pierce County, adapting for their courts, adapting old buildings and configuring them and getting them ready for update and expansion. And so it's going to be awesome to have lessons. Whatever they're learning there, we're going to benefit from because they're going through that same process with the same type of space to our neighbor to the north. And Yes. That made me feel more confident about what we're doing and who we're doing it with.

Yeah. Okay. Any other commissioner items? I I I thought I'm I'm gonna miss Tuesday meeting, and, it might be good for a commissioner or looking at you, commissioner. I'd I'd like to I'd like to pay some tribute to senator Hunt because that was really sad news. And it would be important for the board to, I think

Acknowledge.

Make some acknowledgment there. So if somebody could put some

you can work with the clerk.

I appreciate that. Commissioner Foyer, you had some

The third annual Thurston County Art Contest is coming up. The theme for the twenty twenty six contest is Thurston in Motion. Capture the energy and movement of Thurston County, including its changing seasons, active communities, and evolving landscapes, from flowing waters to open prairie and forest paths. Artists are encouraged To e bikes. Artists are encouraged to interpret what makes this region feel alive and in motion.

That's that's cool. It's a good theme. Who came up with that?

I'm assuming Matt and Taylor. Yeah. They do a fantastic job. Good job. They've done well, so we just let them run with it.

Yeah. That's good. And I

think this building shows the benefit of wonderful art. We

have Yeah. Comments walls were blank Yeah. Shortly ago. They do a great job.

Anything else from commissioners? Okay. We're adjourned. Yeah.