Legislative Meeting - Regular Meeting

2026 2 PM legislative agenda meeting for the Board of County Commissioners. Please let the record reflect that in the hearing room we have Commissioners Jordan, Waldorf, and Kearns. We are joined virtually by Commissioner Brooks. Also want to state that there was no public comment that was submitted for any of our agenda items today. And so I will ask everyone to please rise for 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 for all. Okay, I will ask my fellow commissioners, are there any items anyone would like to take separately today? I am going to request that we take item 5F separately today. That's 5F, F as in Frank. And then we will lead into open public forum. We have one individual who signed up ahead of time, so Ian Robertson, please come forward. If you could state your name and address for the record, and we'll queue up three minutes for you.

Thank you. in Spokane Valley. Good to be here. I just want to say a big thank you for those of you of what you're doing as a group in the forming of the Sobering and Recovery Center. I want to thank the two ladies for going down to Texas and taking a good look at what we recommended. Boy, that's two years long ago and moving in the right direction. I only have one question, and I don't need the answer right now, but I'd like to meet with Well, yes, remember the project we did, Josh, with the Salvation Army there, but with Ms. Waldorf or one about after the 23-hour crisis relief center, what do we do next? And I have some suggestions, but I want to hear what the plan is first before I add there. I just spent a week up in Alaska, seeing what they were doing about the similar things there, and found out that my niece up there, they say she's the prime authority on that. She's written a book on it. And I learned some more things. So I'm just looking forward to working with you. And I want to just say just a big thank you for all of you. We're stronger as we work together. And working as a county and with the cities and with the private facilities and all that, thank you so much. So that's God bless you.

Thank you. Thank you, and we will definitely get you an answer to that. Is there anybody else who would like to participate in open public forum? Second call, anyone online? No one online, so third and final call. Seeing no one, then we will close our open public forum, and I will look to my fellow commissioners for a motion on Items three, four, and five, except for item five, F. Mr.

Chair, or Vice Chair, I move to approve item three, four, five, A through E. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Seeing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously. All right, that brings us to item 5F. And I did just want, I was hoping we could get a, if we could ask our legal counsel or our CEO to just give us sort of just for, so everybody understands what this vote is today. There seems to be a little bit of confusion out there. So if we could get just a quick Reader's Digest version on what step is being taken today.

I'd be happy to, Commissioner. So this item today is specific to authorizing, the board authorizing an application to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. What the application is is certifying that the county has met all of the necessary conditions that the legislature and cjtc put forward to be able to apply for grant opportunities that fund certain defined public safety initiatives which could include paying for a percentage of new deputies these grant applications are available across the county across the state to counties and municipalities provided that they meet the certifications and the legislative body does confirm that they've met the certifications. So that is the extent of this action today. It's simply to be able to acknowledge that the certification that makes the county eligible for a grant program is in place and is submitted to the CJTC.

And in addition to the grant program, it also allows us to implement the one-tenth of 1% public safety sales tax.

Well, it does. The board can do that. regardless of this application, there are some specificities in the legislation. If the certifications aren't met prior to the board enacting it, then there is a $100,000 monthly deduction from the sales tax. So this doesn't, this action specifically doesn't now enable you to do that. That's a different action by the board, but it allows you to get the full amount of the 1 10th councilmanic if that's what the board decides to elect to do. Is that helpful? Is that what you're looking for?

Yep.

Okay.

Yep. Okay. So is there a motion on item 5F?

Mr. Vice Chair, I move to approve item 5F.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Commissioner Waldrop.

I just wanted to thank the sheriff for coming and answering all of our questions. Lots of questions this morning about this and sounds like he's done a lot of work with his team to make sure our policies are meeting the guidelines of the state to be able to apply for the grants. And so I appreciate all his hard work.

Okay. You know, this is one, I understand what this is, is this is a first step in a process. I expressed some of my concern this morning. I do have some concern on the attestation form, some of the language on there that in regarding that your agency or your municipality meets all of the requirements, there is language on there that says I declare under penalty of perjury under the law of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct. This is an agency, this is a department that does not report directly up to the Board of County Commissioners. I still have some concerns about that language. We did hear several ideas on how grant dollars could be used. I know there was discussion about it being used on FTEs, which I just personally feel is not a fiscally responsible way to spend grant dollars on FTEs, because if those grant dollars dry up, then you do not have funding to keep those individuals employed. And we have seen that bite us in the past. So I will be casting a no vote today. I would like to see more of a plan drafted on how those grant dollars would be spent when we reach out to them before I would feel comfortable in doing this. But based on this morning, I don't think this is gonna hold up the process, but those are my concerns. And so I will be voting no today.

Mr. Jordan? Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. I just wanted to note that I've received a number of emails from constituents who seem to be under the impression that we were voting to raise taxes or whether to raise taxes today, and that's just not the case. Just to make that clear to people, it was clear from the sheriff's presentation this morning that this is basically an administrative application TO THE STATE THAT WOULD POTENTIALLY ALLOW THE COUNTY TO HAVE THE OPTION TO APPLY FOR THESE GRANT FUNDS OR TO EXAMINE AND POTENTIALLY ENACT A COUNCILMATIC ONE TENTH SALES TAX FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AS WELL. SO I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE APPLICATION MOVE FORWARD. I APPRECIATE THE LEADERSHIP OF THE GOVERNOR IN PARTICULAR IN PUTTING TOGETHER THAT GRANT PROGRAM FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND I'D LIKE TO SEE US BE ABLE TO take advantage of those state funds. So I'm encouraged to see the sheriff make a commitment to apply for those funds. And then I think the board and the sheriff should continue to be in dialogue in the coming weeks about the budget and how we can continue to meet public safety needs going forward.

All right. There is a motion on the table. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

And I will be opposed, nay. So motion passes three to one. And that will bring us to a final hearing on presentation. We're gonna lead off from Tessa.

Thank you. Ron, I think we'll have the resolution up here on the screen in just a moment. This is a final public hearing for various budget amendments. A large number of these are impacting the 2025 budget, just kind of finalizing year end details. AND THERE ARE A COUPLE FOR 2026 BUDGET SO I WILL POINT THOSE OUT AS WE GO THROUGH. STARTING OUT HERE, WE HAD ADDITIONAL SALES TAX REVENUE IN 2025 TO THE TUNE OF $2.1 MILLION. WE'RE APPROPRIATING THAT REVENUE TO BE SPENT ON VARIOUS AGENCIES IN THE AMOUNTS LISTED ON THE SCREEN TO COVER VARIOUS SHORTFALLS IN THEIR 2025 EXPENDITURE BUDGETS. Next in 2025, we appropriated Doofbee balance from the sheriff's DEA federal Doofbee for a vehicle purchase. We also approved a Doofbee purchase of two additional canines out of the canine Doofbee in the sheriff's budget. For parks, we received some additional revenue for the centennial trail maintenance. So we amended the 2025 budget by $22,000. This animal control item is related to a debt issuance we did late in 2025. We refunded bonds that paid for the animal control facility. So this is an accounting adjustment to recognize the revenue and an offsetting expense related to that debt. There are similar ones coming in the other funds as well. Item F is for detention services. We are appropriating $440,000 in fund balance to support 2025 union contract settlement expenses. Item G is starting the 2026 budget amendments in the general fund. We are increasing the internal services budget by $412,000 supported by fund balance to pay for various workday, our new software support contracts. Item H is $270,000 from fund balance to support the essential facilities siting process under the law and justice department. Item I, we are appropriating $750,000 from fund balance to support the small arms range turn lane. That project is a continuation and a final item on the overall small arms range project. And then the last item for the general fund for 2026 is $690,000 supported by fund balance to support unanticipated legal services in our non-departmental agency. Our other funds, we're again back into 2025 here on some of these. We are appropriating fund balance for $100,000 to support plants ferry improvements out of the hotel motel excise tax. Next up, we had a project in the housing trust fund that was done more quickly than we had anticipated. We'd built it into our 2026 budget, but it instead was ready to pay in 2025. So we had to adjust with fund balance in 2025 to support that project. The medical insurance fund is appropriating fund balance to support higher than anticipated claims in 2025. The TPA fund is appropriating additional revenue received that supports payments to Visit Spokane and Spokane Sports. Debt service fund, we're appropriating revenue, a transfer in from hotel motel tax to make 2025 debt payments. County capital improvements, this again is our big bond issuance we did at the end of last year. 2025 revenue proceeds to support campus infrastructure improvement expenses that we had ongoing last year. In the solid waste fund, we are appropriating revenue from the bond refunding that we did, similar to the animal control item. Item R is 911 excise tax. Additional funds were needed to pay for 2025 expenses. We had some accounting prepaid expenses that utilized budget that we needed to adjust for. Item S, we had dental insurance fund needed to appropriate $5,000 of ending fund balance for higher than anticipated costs. And then the last item is various encumbrance roll-forwards from 2025 to 2026. The big items here are internal services for our liability that the board decided to fund from fund balance. in we acknowledged it in last year's budget process and are carrying that forward in to 2026 to pay for liability and then non-departmental is a majority of our arp contracts that we transferred into the general fund dollars and we have the rest of this year to spend on those contracts any questions any questions for tessa

Okay, thank you. This is a final hearing, so anybody wishing to testify on final hearing item number 6A, please come forward. Second call. Third and final call. Seeing no one wishing to testify, we will close the testimony, and I will look to my fellow commissioners for a motion.

Mr. Vice Chair, I would move to approve item 6A and all the budget amendments contained therein as presented.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion, comments? Seeing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Motion passes four to zero, unanimous. Well, that does it for our printed items, agenda items. So this brings us to miscellaneous. Are there any miscellaneous matters for the good of the order? None, okay, then I will throw it down to Scott Simmons and Matt Folsom. Are there any executive or closed sessions?

Commissioner, we have one closed session item today under labor negotiations.

Okay. Well, so we have one closed session. It is 2.18 right now, so we will adjourn our legislative meeting, and we will give folks a few minutes to clear the room.