City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

All right. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners meeting for Tuesday, 05/19/2026. It is 02:05PM. My name is Ty Mentzer, chair of the board. To my right is vice chair, commissioner Wayne Fornier, commissioner Carolina Mejia. To my left is commissioner Rachel Grant and commissioner Emily Claus. Our county managers, Leonard Hernandez and assistant county managers, Josh Cummings and Jennifer Walker. Clerk of the board, Amy Davis to the far left. We are live streaming to the Thurston County YouTube channel and receiving written comment up to two hours in advance.

The meeting is distributed to the board, and, of course, we will be taking actions at this meeting. So we will begin with a pledge of allegiance to be led by Commissioner Hir.

Please stand and join me. 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, liberty, and justice for all. Thank you.

Vice Chair of Land Acknowledgement.

We'd also like to start today with a land acknowledgment. We would like to acknowledge and thank the indigenous Salish peoples whose elders and ancestors have lived on and stewarded the lands and waterways of this county with great care and who continue as sovereign nations today, specifically the Squaxin, Nisqually, and Chehalis people. Truth and acknowledgment are are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. The purpose of this acknowledgment is to disrupt ongoing erasure of injustices done and remember history is a stepping stone towards healing. We commit to working together to honor our past and build our future with truth.

Thank you. Next, we have a, approval of agenda, and there's a couple of proposed motions. Let's take them one at a time. There is let's start with the first one. I believe that was commissioner Fournier.

Sir, I move to remove consent item six from the consent calendar and move it to department item nine one.

Second.

Motion is second to remove amend the agenda to move the Department of Island's consent item to a consent from consent to, Department of United Any discussion on that motion? Call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Think that was Thank an additional you. Yeah.

Chair, thank you. So I do have a motion. To remove item seven one from the agenda today, which is the ordinance for permit review process annual code update, the land use appeals. Second.

Motion was made and seconded by Commissioner Klaus. Discussion on the motion?

Yes. Thank you, Chair. While So the board did delay this six months, and I know when the chair brought this matter up and and we had discussion on it, We kind of gave that extension to kind of have more cases come through have that experience for the new commissioners. And at this time, I I guess I'm asking to extend that. When the board decided to add it this add this to the agenda, it, you know, it was with a five o vote.

And then, this morning, we learned that, you know, there were other thoughts, on that process. And so, you know, I guess well, it's frustrating that, you know, we we come in and and, you know, second review, and and then it's we're trying to have these discussions last minute. It just doesn't give the ability to really get into all the details on it. And so at this time, I'll just request to remove it from the agenda today.

Mr. Fornier?

Yeah. For me, I'm cool with removing it. I think we all received public comment from one of our constituents. There was one point made that I want to stick to, and it's that when we we talked this talked about this last year, we said that we wanted every commissioner to have had an opportunity to go through one of these processes, and it was pointed out that our newest commissioner has not gone through that process yet. And so I think it it would only be fair to stick to that that sentiment and then, maybe review this after, all commissioners have had an opportunity to go through the quasi judicial process. So I support the the amendment.

Other discussion? Commissioner Klaus?

Yeah. I wanna say thank you, commissioner Mahia. This is a surprise to me, and I'm very happy to hear that you're willing to move this from the agenda to allow for us to go through an appeal process. And we do have one this week, so we can bring this topic up again soon. I did spend my whole lunch getting my comments ready.

So now I don't have to go through the whole spiel, but I will say, I think this is a well deserved opportunity for the community to, really see that we care, and we are hearing their comments. We're hearing them out. And I know this matter has been delayed, already, but I think following that same sentiment that, we said before about wanting to go through a process so that all commissioners can kind of understand the value in this process is a great idea. And, these decisions are complex, but this was a big one. And so I was nervous to move it forward, and I wasn't sure how the vote would, pan out today.

So I'm, grateful that we're having the opportunity to move it, and I will, still be voting no when it comes back up. So I hope we're ready for that conversation, but it's been a lot of thoughtful, debate and deliberation. So I just wanna thank the board for that, and thank you, commissioner Mahia, for your motion.

I will say that, I'm in favor of this item. I for the many reasons I've put on the record, there were three votes to approve it at the end of last year, and I suggested a delay because I thought it was a significant change that would be useful to have more than three as kind of a super majority, at least four commissioners supporting it. I thought there were four commissioners. In fact, I thought there were five commissioners supporting it as of week and a half ago. This morning, I learned that that two commissioners are changing their vote. So I think I'll just abstain from this. I still would like to have four commissioners approve this. I still think it's good. It's a good change. It's consistent with what every other jurisdiction in our region does.

But given that we're still divided on the topic, and there'd be more to come, I'll abstain from this, from this particular vote to remove it from the agenda. Commissioner Klaus.

Thank you, sir. I just wanna respond to one thing you said because this was a five o vote to move it onto the agenda, but that doesn't mean it was a five o vote in support of the motion itself. I have never been in favor. I've been on the fence, but I've been leaning toward not wanting to remove our ability to be part of the quasi judicial process. So I was not in favor of moving this forward and passing it today, but I was in favor of putting it, on the agenda because it was already in motion, and I didn't wanna I didn't feel like I would have the traction to halt it at that point in the process.

I was still receiving information and input from constituents, and those conversations have been ongoing. And the more I learn, the more I lean toward you know? Well, I'm definitely already on the side of not thinking this is a good idea, but, our own planning commission voted ten zero to keep the board in this process. That unanimous recommendation, I believe, deserves more weight than it's been given. And, other jurisdictions removing themselves is a trend, not necessarily a concrete argument. We're not obligated to replicate decisions made in different communities for reasons specific to those communities, which is why when it does come back up, I'll be voting no. But I will be voting yes to remove it today.

Okay. Well, I'm gonna need to respond to several of those points. I've never once voted to put something on an agenda that I thought was bad policy and that I was going to vote against. So that's I'm sorry if misinterpreted your positive vote, but that's very surprising to me. I think the ten oh Planning Commission vote's been given more weight than it was entitled to because, as I've outlined on several previous meetings, no one ever made the case to the Planning Commission as to why this would be a good policy change. And if this goes back before the Policy Commission, Commissioner Mahee has suggested that to me in the conversation and maybe having it, I'll make a presentation and let them see. We'll see if that 10 o vote still holds. I'm almost certain it will not. So I just wanna say those two things. Commissioner Grant?

Well, being the newest commissioner on on the board, you know, I I do appreciate this. And thank you, Commissioner Mahia, for being willing to kind of take a pause because I do want the ability to go through the process. I'm also very much in favor of what you just suggested about planning commissioners, because that was one of the things for me is it's hard to well, not going through it, it's very hard for me to be able to make a decision. And so I think just having some more time for us to talk about it as a board for me to continue to learn and to understand would be a good way to

go forward. So thank you for your time.

Any other discussion? Call for the vote. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? I'll be abstaining. So that motion carries.

Move to approve the agenda as amended.

Doctor. Second.

Doctor. Is there any discussion on the motion? Call for the vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Doctor. The motion carries. Okay. We have approved an agenda, so let's go to our presentation. Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Ellen to present.

Thank you, chair. Good afternoon, board. Ellen Nassi, management analyst. And today, we have a proclamation, for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders month. We have some speakers first, and then we'll have a presentation out in the lobby. So I'd like to invite up Lynn Crowley from the Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition of South Sound or APIC.

Thank you. Hi, everyone, and good afternoon to all of you who are here. And I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for the opportunity to talk with you and accept this proclamation. I do have a little bit cold. I want to first apologize.

So if I sound very nasally, that's why. But still, it is so important for us to take this opportunity to thank what has been able to happen for all of the AA and HPI, which is Asian American, native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the state of Washington. We have come a long way, and currently, the populations in the state has gone up to about 10%, which is really wonderful to know. And the community includes a lot of folks coming from all of the places, from earlier immigrants of the state to more recent immigrants that come from Southeast Asia and all of the Pacific Islands. And I'm really happy to say that we have some great friends that are joining us to help us with the celebration.

But we also want to take this opportunity to really say that all of us, because of our very adverse backgrounds, people don't want to see us, you know, as one person. That's very important. We are truly very diverse. And because of that, the culture we are representing are very diverse too. Don't want to take it lightly to say the Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition of South Puget Sound is a very easy organization to try to pull everybody together.

We really wanted to see how we will be able to build bridges between the different groups as well as with the general community and help people to know about the all the different and beautiful cultures that are represented by all of the groups. And so I want to take this opportunity again to say thank you, but also welcome to all of you. It's an invitation to all of you for participating in our Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition's hosted celebration event this Saturday, which is May 23. We are going to have it at the South Puget South community college, Lacey campus on the 6th Avenue there to have this one day event. But this is only one of those activities we are doing for the whole month.

I wanted to let you know because we have been trying to also showcase a lot of other celebration activity that's presented by all the different groups, right, in and around this area, the South Puduchi area. Some of you probably already know that the recent rise on anti Asian hate crimes are still existing. Okay? While we are doing all of this celebration, I don't want to forget to say that we are aware of it. We want help people to also be aware of it, and then see how we will be able to kind of break down those cultural barriers and also misunderstanding so people will be able to really accept us just like one of your own.

Because we are truly all made up of this community together. So I don't want to take this opportunity to say too much more except that, you know, if we are truly open to all of you, I'm hoping that you will be also opening your heart to all of us too. By just coming over, say hi, you know, get to know some of the groups that are going to be present at the celebration event, plus more. Because there are so many people who we have been wanted to invite to join, but every year, we only get to have so much time to do this. So some people already are suggesting to us, maybe you should do a two day event.

So we will see, you know, down the road, maybe with more of your encouragement and support, we will be able to do that, especially in the Olympia area, which is the capital, you know, of the state. So thank you again for the invitation, and truly honored to have the opportunity to represent the Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition of South Puget Sound to address all of you. Thank you. And I do have a lot of friends who are here with me too, who I love to kind of acknowledge. I'm so glad to see them from our governor's office, the commission on Asian American affairs, as well as so many of you, many faces that I can recognize.

And, of course, the beautiful performers who are going to be here. You are going to come. Right? Okay. So anyway, thank you so much again. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Lynn. Next, I would like to invite up mister Nam Nguyen, who is the executive director of the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs.

Thank you. And thank you for this body for recognizing AANHBI History Month. My name is Nam. I am the executive director of a small state agency that elevate issue affecting the AANHBI community to state government, state agency, and the legislature. I'm also a Thurston County resident. Well, I was. I moved to Seattle in November. The reason why well, the food's better up there. I'm joking. My wife's actually got a job in Seattle, and we in between her and me, she won.

So we ended up moving to Seattle. But I just wanna highlight the contribution of AA and HPI people in this particular county, of which I used to count myself as. We contributed in every aspect of life. We're only 10% of the population, but we are involved in government. We have former mayor from our community. We have representative Caroline Olympia from our community. We have churches. The Islamic center here was founded by Cambodian refugees, Muslim Cambodian commune refugees started the Islamic center here. There's various starting of Korean churches and Buddhist temple where all are welcome. We also have many businesses here as well.

My haircut was done by a barber who's been serving this community for over twenty years. My shoe was repaired by a cobbler who's been in Downtown Olympia for over twenty years. And as well as the many restaurant that people enjoy, but it's not as as as it seemed. The Thai restaurant here was the most of the Thai restaurant here are actually owned by Vietnamese Americans. Most of the teriyaki, which is Japanese dish, are owned by Korean American, a lot of fried rice. So things have changed over the year, and our culture has changed over the year. But we are a part of this community. We contribute to this community and the fabric of this community. And thank you for recognizing this month as as and welcoming us into the fabric of Thurston County.

Thank you so much. And next, I would like to invite up Rocco, who is part of the Laumau? Laumua. Laumua. Thank you. The Laumua dance group.

Hello, and thank you for this time. Before I start, my name is Rocco Faalele, also known as Aleppoi Mauna Talia Falili. I am one of the advisers for Laumua. Laumua was, founded probably 2014, so pretty recent. And, it was, at first, like a a community thing, and then we opened it up to conjoin five or four schools from the Thurston County and, which is North Thurston, Timberline, Olympia High School, and River Ridge.

So four schools conjoined into one group until Lammua. Lammua meaning capital. So these four groups, we just came back from a competition, and we were the representatives for the Thurston County. So yeah.

That's awesome.

And we are a Samoan based dance group, but just because we are a Samoan based dance group does not mean just Samoan kids in our dance group. So as the adviser of Wamu, I invite all of you guys that are here today to not experience individually, individuals, but unity of cultures and community from North County. Again, these are the kids. These are the future, like we all said, and these are the ones that represent the North Thurston County every annual competition in Tacoma. So thank you guys, and give it up for my kiddos because they work really hard.

And, hopefully, you guys love our performance and our presentation that we guys we have for you guys to show unity instead of individually. Thank you so much.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. I also want to acknowledge that we have folks here, from Sway Nart Mart from Sway Nart Market, who are individuals that are, putting up cool events around Thurston County. We also have Lacey Commission on Equity here, and some other representatives from organizations around. So I appreciate everyone who showed up today. So, chair, I will turn it back to you to read the proclamation. Like you heard, Lamoa has is going to grace us with dance performances during the break, during the time of recess. And then we'll recess for however long you'd like, and then come back to your regular meeting.

Is it, like, twenty minutes

Perfect. Be Perfect.

Okay. Let's do the proclamation, and then we'll do that short break. This is

a proclamation of Thurston County for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander whereas Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Heritage Month is celebrated in the month of May to commemorate the arrival of the first known Japanese immigrant to The United States on 05/07/1843 and to honor the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on 05/10/1869 that was built with the labor of Chinese immigrants, and whereas we acknowledge Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is marked by a deep rooted history, including both proud and painful chapters and significant cultural and systemic barriers, and whereas Washington State and Thurston County has been home to generations of Asian Americans, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders who have made significant contributions to the community, and whereas this year's theme, power and unity, strengthening communities together, emphasizes the importance of collective strength, storytelling, and building bridges between these communities, and whereas Asian Americans, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders have shared their traditions and rich culture while representing their communities through public service, art, science, and medicine, and military services for the betterment of all citizens, and whereas we commit to the recognition and support of all Asian Americans, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders in Thurston County, Washington State, and the nation.

Now, therefore, be it resolved, the board of county commissioners of Thurston County hereby proclaim May 2026 as Asian American, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Thurston County and encourages all residents to celebrate the accomplishments and sacrifices of the community adopted this May 2026 by the Board of County Commissioners.

Okay. It's about 02:30. We will be in recess till 02:50 and pick back up with public comment on agenda items. Thank you.

Boarding in progress.

Back on the record in our business meeting for Tuesday, May 19. Next up is public comment related to agenda items. We will have a public comment period at the end for any item. If you're have a time constraint and must give comment here, you can take it. But let me go through the guidelines. The board of county commissioners welcomes comments from the public at all meetings. There are guidelines governing such comments to ensure they are appropriate, and do not take advantage of the fact that most meetings are televised. Introduce yourself when called in the area of the county which reside. State the agenda for this piece, state the agenda item you are speaking to. Address the board, not audience or staff.

Please silence your cell phones. The board does not directly respond to public comment, but the county manager may follow-up with specific items on an as needed basis. Speakers will have three minutes to address the board, and speakers cannot donate their speaking time to other speakers. Please be respectful. The board reserves the right to restrict a person's opportunity to address the meeting for good cause.

No comments that are lewd and offensive, inflammatory, hateful, defamatory, discriminatory in nature. No outbursts of any kind. No comments that are commercial in nature, such as promotion of a for profit business. No electioneering comments. Written materials may be provided the county to the county clerk of the board and but will be considered public record subject to public release upon request pursuant to the Public Records Act, chapter forty two fifty six.

The last one, I know there's some folks here about battery storage. We have to preclude remarks about pending land use permits or quasi judicial matters. The board is hearing an appeal tomorrow regarding an issue, an application regarding a battery energy storage system. I guess we can hear a comment if it relates to the abstract principle of battery energy storage or county guidelines, but no comment may be made with respect to specific project that will be heard by the board tomorrow, which is in the Grand Mound area. And I'll have to cut you off if I hear comment of that nature because that we're basically judges, and you can't lobby judges before a case in a court case.

And that's the kind of situation that we find ourselves in tomorrow. So with all those advisements, first up is Rhonda Larson Kramer. On deck is Ms. Kramer, I saw her, and she might have left. And okay. Then Ms. Reiner? Dave Toller. Okay. Mister Pettit, you're

up. Good

afternoon, commissioners. I'm John Pettit from the Rich Road area. You have two items on your agenda which I'm going to address. My first one is actually I'm going to you've taken it off of the agenda, which is item number seven. CPED, I have found CPED has been making direct contact with hearings examiner ex parte contact, which invalidates anything the hearings examiner has ever done as far as I'm concerned.

We have proof of it as one of the people that are directly affected, and that means that the whole process of the hearings examiner is tainted by bad management in CPED, reaching out in order to get a verdict against somebody without a hearing process. All people involved in that should be fired. That's your job to make sure they're fired. Number two issue. Central services. The issue has to do with some engineering for Plum Street. This

an agenda item, mister Pettit?

It is an agenda item.

Which one?

You might wanna know about that. It's it's item number six. And the obvious is is that there's an intent of spending potentially $3,500,000 on engineering and design services. And that money is not in the capital budget. It's not in the capital now one of the it's the same basic story as what you're gonna be facing with an audit item from the state about even purchasing that facility.

It's not in the budget. Now I realize you may have been told stories about that that would fit under the Thurston County infrastructure upgrades. Well, just wanted you to be aware it doesn't fit. There's a description that goes along with every project. The description for that project would be the building condition assessment by Ming analysis identified structural equipment and the systems that have exceeded their lifespan, the major repair and replacement of these projects by HVAC systems, etcetera.

And in order to know what the system would cover under this project, you need to read this Ming study. If you read the Ming study, it has identified 22 properties of which two are parking lots that are allowable uses for those bond money that you stole when you made a decision to purchase Plum Street, of which I've told you before there's important liability issues for yourselves, perhaps removal from office. But you don't need to compound yourself

by

throwing more money that's not in the budget. Check it out. Find out where that money's supposed to come from. Otherwise, that much more liability for you. Thank you.

Anyone else in the boardroom for an agenda item, public comment? Anyone okay. We need to go through is there anyone online who is here to give public comment on an agenda item? Come off mute if you are. Ms. Barrientes, you'll have three minutes.

Hi. My name hi. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Heidi Baranthas. I'm a resident of Thurston County, and I'm here to speak on agenda item three, the $52,067 CDBG contract with All Kids win.

I submitted a comprehensive policy letter to your offices yesterday detailing this item, and I'm here to place those explicit requests onto public record. While addressing weekend food insecurity for our youth is a vital mission. The structural execution of this contract contains two critical equity gaps that this board has the administrative authority and the moral obligation to correct before final approval. We must stop designing public programs using a one size fits all model that leaves out our most vulnerable children behind. First, providing food that children cannot medically safely eat is not a public benefit.

It's an administrative waste. When we send weekend food bakes containing standard gluten or allergy heavy items to children suffering from celiac disease or other severe food allergies, we force them to choose between intense hunger or severe illness. They are left staring at food that they cannot touch. This is a profound issue of health and financial equity. I pulled current retail data to look at the exact metrics.

The standard box of Kraft macaroni and cheese is about a dollar 24, while gluten free alternative is $2.88. Because the gluten free box is smaller in ounces, families face a staggering 181% true markup per ounce just to secure the same amount of safe food. Low income families cannot absorb a 181% financial penalty for a medical diagnosis. Because these are federal CDBG dollars, this program must comply with federal civil rights and accessibility standards. I ask that this contract explicit explicitly require all kids when to provide medically compliant allergy friend allergen friendly babes to the children who need them.

Second, this funding must break down the arbitrary barriers excluding homeschooling families. Many families who homeschool qualify for nutritional assistance, Yet they are systemically locked out of these food bags unless their children sit in a public school building for at least half time. Hunger does not check an attendance roster. These children reside in our county and they experience the same weekend food gaps. As detailed in my email, I ask that you condition the approval of this budget on three mandates.

A medical accommodation clause to establish a clear intake and distribution process for allergy friendly medically necessary weekend food banks, a homeschool equity at apologies.

I lost my

I'll need you to kinda wrap up, and it sounds like you submitted some stuff in writing. Yeah. Ahead and finish your thought.

Equity access policy for direct pay pickup for homeschooling families and a mandatory district notification to registered homeschooling families about these accommodations. I also request that additional funds be allocated to the contract to accommodate the needs of these changes in the amount of at least $5,000. True equity means meeting children where they children exactly where they are regarding regardless of their medical diagnosis or their educational setting. Thank you.

Thank you. Other folks online with public comment on agenda items? Okay. Let's move to the next item, county manager update.

Thank you so much, chair. Before I just, give a few updates, and the first one is about a safer path to school. I wanted to pass over to assistant county manager, Jennifer Walker.

Yes. Thank you. So you'll notice that some of us are wearing orange. This is National Public Works Week. And so we are celebrating our essential personnel, professionals who maintain and manage the county's infrastructure. And it is also Emergency Medical Services Week as well, which is, in observance of the EMTs, paramedics, and emergency personnel who provide lifesaving care on the front lines, both two very, very important groups that contribute to a very, very productive community that we all want to live in. Congratulations to them.

Yep. And thank you, commissioners, for supporting them with your orange vests and your hard hats. We appreciate that. Alright. We have a some project updates.

Wanna, give a special thanks to public works. They completed a safer path to school project at Pleasant Glade Elementary School. And so near Pleasant Glade Elementary School, they added new sidewalks, crosswalks, ADA ramp, a better bike path, a new stormwater pond to help the rain water runoff. The project was 90% funded by state grants and is now a 100% safer for everybody. We also improved pedestrian safety and access along Martin Way and Meridian Road Northeast, new ramps, sidewalks, and more room for pedestrians.

These are just three of the many community focused projects by Thurston County's public works department, making streets and sidewalks safer for both drivers and pedestrians across

the county.

Next update, the county's affordable housing program assistant, Leah Tanjamin, was honored as a South Sound exceptional woman by Shore Optimist International of Olympia. I think she's here in the audience with us. Nominated by Thurston affordable housing advisory board, Leah works on the front lines in our community, making housing more equitable and available. The award recognizes her for going above and beyond through leadership, compassion, and community impact to address the critical challenge facing our region, housing stability. We hear from our partners that Leah embodies these characteristics.

I wanna thank Leah for her hard work and dedication and her effort and congratulate her on her award. I actually received an email from someone saying, hey. Did you know your staff won this awesome award? And so we always just like to highlight the fact that Thurston County employees not only do good work here, but they're out in the community making a difference. Next announcement is about our wonderful fleet services department. Thurston County Fleet Services has been ranked in the top 100 best fleets for the eighth time. Our yeah.

Our fleet

clap. Yeah.

Came in sixtieth sixtieth out of 100 out of thousands across North, Central, And South America in the National Associations of Fleet Administrators ranking of public and private fleets. Here are a few stats. In 2025, the county's fleet included more than 600 vehicles used in all areas of community work and service, including road operations, construction, law enforcement, and public health. Our fleet traveled, get this, 3,200,000 miles, And fleet staff completed 3,200 repairs, including outfitting vehicles with updated equipment and putting 37 new vehicles on the road for our sheriff's office. That deserves a round of applause.

Working mechanics, technician, support staff, and everyone on the fleet and central service team who makes the county's vehicles safe, efficient, and ready to roll over thousands of miles of county roads. I believe many of them are here. I think they actually closed the shop down. Would you mind standing so we can give you a special recognition? Could you come down and join me? We have the award You just hand me to the photo with the team. Not squishy, but why don't you all come forward in

top 100, like, nationally?

North, South, And Central America is.

Hemispherically? Hemispherically. That's awesome. Yeah, Bruce.

How long

Oh, challenge. We're supposed to take the crisis. And commissioners, as we're settling back in, our, my last item is overview of Thurston County Spirit Week. Thurston County's annual Spirit Week was held May. We had sports day, twin day, band shirt days, Pacific Northwest day, and Thurston County Colors Day.

The short video highlights the spirit we saw throughout the week. Thank you to Brandy for putting the video together for all employees to participate, and we look forward to next year. That's all for today.

That's good. Alright. Thank you. And, yeah, thank you so much for bringing forward, like, when employees win awards and things because we don't you know, historically, we have not heard about all that. So I really enjoy hearing the accomplishments of employees and when they get recognized. So thank you. I think we should definitely keep keep including that in our committee manager's case. Okay. We have consent agenda. It's been modified, but, we have items one through seven with six having been removed.

I moved I'm gonna move another one. Move to approve the consent agenda with the addition of moving consent agenda item three to department items based on public comment.

I'll second that.

A motion and second. It's nondebatable motion, so I will call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?

I mentioned case. Okay. Let's go to item seven, central services, contract to award professional consulting services for Thurston Regional Justice Center and campus.

Afternoon. Kim Burnett, Director of Central Services. I'm actually not going to do this presentation. I'm going to have Rick Thomas do it. He is retiring next week, and this will be his last presentation before the board. I wanna thank him for his service and everything he has done for us in the last ten years. We're gonna miss him terribly. So with that, I will turn it over to Rick.

Alright, Rick.

First of all, thank you for making it hard for me to talk, Kim. Rick Thomas, the capital projects planning manager with Central Services. We're requesting approval to award a professional consulting on call contract to KMB Architects to design the adaptive reuse and tenant improvement build out of the downtown buildings located at Plum Street and Union Avenue campus in Olympia and authorized the central services director to execute the contract not to exceed $3,500,000, including any amendments that do not exceed 10%. Central services solicited requests for qualifications for architectural engineering professional consulting services for planning, design, and construction administration. And on 04/27/2026, we received three responses to the RFQ that was advertised in the Nisqually Valley News, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, and the posting on the Thurston County contracting opportunities website.

An evaluation panel scored the responses based on company qualifications, key personnel, relevant experience, past performance, references, and sustainability. In addition, the top two firms were interviewed, and KMD, the top ranked firm, was selected. The first task order will be issued from the contract will be the design to adaptively convert Buildings 1 And 2 into a courthouse for district and superior courts operations. Future task orders may be issued to provide design services for the remainder of the downtown campus buildings as the county continues to consolidate its government services to this campus. Funding for the services performed under this on call contract will come from the 2022 county bond and state funding.

The project is in the 2025 to 2030 capital improvement plan and is in alignment with the county strategic plan initiative 16 to provide safe, secure, accessible, and functional facilities to effectively house county services and the associated workforce. We'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Questions for you? Ready for a motion.

I move to approve a professional consulting on call services contract with KMB Architects Inc. To design the adaptive reuse and tenant improvement build out of the downtown buildings located on the Plum Street and Union Avenue campus in Olympia for an amount not to exceed 3,500,000 and authorize the director of central services to execute the contract and any amendments that do not exceed 10%. Second.

Motion has been made and second to approve a consulting on call contract with KMB Architects. Discussion on this motion?

Motion, but I just wanna say thank you to Rick for all your years of service and guiding us through this.

You're here.

Well, I'll just say it's been a pleasure being able to serve. Thank you very much.

Rick, I think they have a question.

Sorry, Rick. Sorry, Rick. You're not done yet. I do have a question, but it may be a county manager question or a Rick question. I'm not sure. But we did hear public comments about the item today. This is often a point of confusion from multiple constituents. It's not just one person. So if anyone's able to speak to the legitimacy I think I actually may have asked this question in a recent meeting as well about the CIP and whether or not this needs to be in the CIP. And I've received questions after that meeting from folks who aren't quite sure that the explanation fully answers the question, if that makes sense.

So some folks are that I've heard questions from have said that just because there's language about associated infrastructure, it doesn't mean that it should bypass the whole process of going through the planning commission. Is there, someone who can maybe speak to that a little bit just for clarification for the public that might be listening?

Sure. So for the public, we understand the input that's been received and the perspectives that have been relayed. We have run this through run this through our prosecuting attorney's office. They've verified on multiple occasions that this is good to proceed. We have that documentation and verification that's been provided to the commissioners.

We can, yeah, we can resend that so that if it's helpful, you can get that out to those that are reaching out to you.

Okay. Yeah.

Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Thanks, Rick. Thank you, Rick.

K. Hearing another discussion, I'll call for the vote. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Motion carries. Next up, the item is removed. So we're gonna go to item eight, is information technology renewal of Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.

Good afternoon. Sherry Ild, IT director. I am seeking authorization to renew our three year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement in the amount of $2,014,373.82 plus tax. Thurston County uses Microsoft software as the core support of county business. Current products include Word, Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, Visio, SQL Server, Microsoft Windows Server, and more.

Microsoft requires each customer to to sign an enterprise agreement for the rights to use the software. The current agreement ends on 06/30/2026. Our new three year term will start 07/01/2026 and run through 06/30/2029. Thurston County purchases mice Microsoft products under the state negotiated enterprise agreement for several years. IT has received an updated quote and contract through the Washington State master contract number AR2488, NASBO Cloud Solutions.

This agreement allows us to license Microsoft products at government pricing. The current annual cost is $674,457.94 plus tax per year, and this amount is collected as part of our annual IT rates.

Question for Sherry on item.

Will you please tell Microsoft to make it easier to search Outlook for various emails? Yes. Take care.

It's public comment right there.

Yes.

Anybody else? Is there a motion?

I'm I moved to no. No. Right there. Yeah. I moved to approve the three year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for February plus tax and authorize the director of information technology to execute the agreement and any amendments that do not exceed 10% per year for each year. Motion

and second to approve the three year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Discussion on the motion? Call for the vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion

carries. Next

up is a sheriff's office item, interim contract with the city of Tenaino for law enforcement services.

Thank you so much, chair. We have invited our sheriff who acknowledged he he was going to try to make it. So maybe we'll just give him Okay. Couple minutes. Is there another item that we could go to?

Item three. All kids win.

That was moved to department. Yes. Did that in the

second calendar motion.

You already moved item six. I did it

when I made that motion.

Yeah. Mister chair, item item number three on the consent was part of the motion that commissioner made.

I missed

that. It's okay. There was a lot going on with the celebration and everything else. So doctor Freiheit, we're ready.

Alright. Well, let's go to Jen's side item.

Great. Thank you, doctor Jen Freiheit, the director of public health and social services. And this is a request for the board to move to approve a contract with all kids win for a total of $52,067.25 to support provide support for the weekend food bag bags program. Thurston County receives an annual entitlement of community development block grant or CDBG program funding, and this is through the housing and urban development or HUD to provide a variety of activities that serve low income households and individuals. This funding rotates between the city of Tumwater and the South County jurisdictions of Thurston County, which include the city of Elm, city of Tonino, city of Rainier, and the town of Bucota.

The program year 2025, was a South County year, so funding decisions were made by a committee of the south county jurisdictions mayors and a Thurston County commissioner. The board of county commissioners approved the recommended funding awards at their 06/17/2025 meeting, and the Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention received approval for their 2025 annual action plan, which includes the funding awards by HUD in September 2025. A grant agreement for the CDBG funding was fully executed by Thurston County and HUD in December 2025, and our office is now working with the sub recipient sub recipient to of the year 2025 funding to get their awards under contract. And so they are required to follow all the federal rules that are in that contract. And this is to support approximately 200 k through 12 students attending schools in South South Thurston County.

I'm happy to answer any questions for you.

In California. So we had public comment. We received an email from, constituent, miss Heidi Berantes. It's online. And I I thought she kinda made a compelling argument to just dig a little deeper, and I I wanted to ask if there's any opportunity or need to ensure that, you know, some of those those special needs are met through some of these programs if it or if in fact they already are.

We can certainly look into that. We do ensure that they follow all the rules of the contract, of the federal rules, and we also don't necessarily get in the practice of helping or telling community agencies how to run their programs once they've been approved. But I can certainly look to Tom, if you have anything else to add to that.

Yeah, Tom Webster. We haven't had a chance to reach out to All Kids Win to get into details of how they implement their program, so I can't answer the specific questions. We're certainly willing and happy to kinda have conversations with them to see what's possible in terms of making sure kids get appropriate food and address any health and safety issues that they do have. But I can't speak right now. I don't have knowledge of All Kids Win specific programs in terms of how they serve kids with allergies or other special needs.

Are you comfortable moving forward and having that conversation, or do you think that we should have the conversation before we move it forward?

Certainly comfortable moving forward with this. If you wanted us to make sure we put something in the contract, that would be helpful to have that conversation or get that direction from you. But I think this may be something we can have conversations with them that, depending on your guidance, we include it as a contract requirement

or not.

Commissioner Forner, what I would recommend is that Tom connect with the the group first. As he mentioned, he hasn't talked to them about what their program entails, and and they may already have Yeah. Ways in which they take into consideration food allergies. So my suggestion would be that we bring back at a at a board work session just an update on how that conversation goes. I think the program is a sound program in getting the dollars to the group because there's always a lengthy process.

We gotta get that CDPG funding spent, and we don't necessarily wanna hold that up. And then it allows the county to make the service provider aware of the community comments. And I'm sure that it as, doctor Freiheit said, it would be good to hear from them as the program operators how they plan to respond.

Okay. Is there a motion?

I move to approve a contract with All Kids Win for the total amount of $52,067.25 to provide support for the weekend food bags program and authorize the director of public health and social services to execute the contract and any amendments that do not exceed 10% with the understanding that we'll get some follow-up conversations regarding those special needs requests.

Second.

Motion and second to approve this contract with All Kids Win. Any discussion? Commissioner Miyah.

Thank you, Commissioner Fornier, for bringing this forward. And that was kind of my thought process of did it need to be in the motion. So I appreciate you adding that language onto the motion. And I look forward to kind of that update and seeing you know, I think there were three different points the constituent made in terms of that contract and seeing is there you know, getting information on those three points, that would be very helpful.

Okay. No further discussion. I'll call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. I don't see the sheriff. Do we go forward without

the Yeah. I can give a a brief update. And if he joins, then I can definitely

We're all pretty aware. Yeah. We've discussed it

at length. So I don't know

if was We don't need it.

Need to wait for the sheriff on this.

Sounds good.

Is that him up there?

Yes, it is.

Okay. Very good. Sheriff Sanders, you're up. Right on time. This is the, item nine, interim contract with City of Tenano for law enforcement services. Can you give us kind of an overview?

Just one second here. I'm fixing my audio.

Yep. You're good.

Oh, yeah. Good evening. So this is a a contract with Tenano as a short term solution for the next six to nine months, for police services.

Short term solution to the Tenano dissolving its police department. Right? Yep. Just for context for folks. I haven't been tracking this like we have.

Move to approve the interim contract with the city of Tonight for law enforcement services from 04/06/2026 through 09/30/2026 for a total of $112,365 with the option of a three month extension to 12/31/2026 for an additional $56,182.50 for a total contract amount of $168,547.50.

Second.

Motion and second to approve the interim contract received tonight. No. Any discussion? I'll call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Alright. Thank you, sheriff. Now we're up to public comment related to general manners of matters. I have Casey Taylor signed up.

Hi there. Do I say my name?

Yep. Say your name and kinda where you where you reside in the county, and then you got three minutes to go.

Alright. Casey Taylor, and I live in Grand Mound, Washington.

Perfect.

I know you said to keep this separate from the other thing, and that is my intention.

Okay.

So I just wanted to make sure would I get permission to read what the moratorium is. It does not mention the other hearing. It's just what we're requesting in Thurston County.

Go for it.

Okay. So we formally request that Thurston County commissioners enact an immediate moratorium on the permitting, siting, and development of battery energy storage systems in unincorporated and rural residential areas of South Thurston County. Reasons for the moratorium. A moratorium is necessary to ensure that proper regulations and safeguards are established before permitting battery energy storage systems in Thurston County. The following actions must be taken.

Development of clear safety standards and citing criteria to address the risks associated with best technology. Establishment of minimum 1,000 foot setbacks from residences, businesses, schools, daycares, bus barns, and any locations where children congregate to protect the health and safety of the community. Creation of robust environmental impact assessment frameworks that evaluate potential harm to soil, air, groundwater, and local ecosystems. Detailed emergency response and fire suppression planning to ensure preparedness in case of incidences such as fires or hazardous material releases, commitment to public engagement and transparency, including holding in person hearings and providing adequate notice to the community about proposed facilities, aligning of zoning and land use policies to maintain the integrity of rural residential and agricultural areas and prevent inappropriate industrial development, and requirement for plume modeling study before land issuing land use permits to ensure safe siting and adequate setbacks. This is not opposition to clean energy and is a demand for responsible planning, public safety, environmental protection, and community respect.

Until comprehensive regulations and protections are in place, no best facility should be approved in rural residential communities. We ask our elected officials to stand with the citizens they serve, protect our lives, protect our land, and preserve the future of South Thurston County, respectfully submitted by the citizens of Thurston County. And I already sent this in with also approximately 1,800 petition signatures requesting that you guys consider this and hope that maybe you can put it on the next agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other folks in the boardroom? I see a hand online. Will Mr. So Patti, go ahead. I'd to do boardroom first. Then we'll get to the hand that's up online.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. John Pettit. Today on my way here, I received a phone call from a person who is a wetland specialist. And once again, the CPAP planning department over here is way outside the boundaries. They're choosing not to follow code, and there's a couple reasons why.

Number one, in dealing with the aspect of the environment, critical area ordinance requires a site visit for a person to actually see what's going on on the project envelope. That doesn't happen. The county doesn't even care, but they can dictate what you're gonna have to do from it. Now what they do currently, I've invited you to go with me for a walk in tour, but now we stopped having planners available even to talk to people. But the problem is is this.

GeoData creates a mapping system. The mapping system has a disclaimer. Under no circumstances are you to use that for any type of information or purpose and the county will not be liable for such. CPED, the planners, use it as their basis for making decisions of which the citizens have to abide by or they don't get to have their permitting process. They don't get to have a site visit and you you apply something that is absolutely against county policy as making decisions for people.

CPET is completely out of out of control and they're not following code. They're damaging people. You know, I have a number of experts I work with whether it be in septic systems, building systems, land development, and they all have one thing in common. Thurston County we should have a photograph and note, Thurston County is the worst place to try to do business when it comes to any type of developing or building projects. They don't follow the code and they enforce things that shouldn't exist.

If you want to get to really know more about it, call me up, sit down, meet with have have a special town hall meeting and ask all of the people that are involved in the industry how bad is it. It's the worst and it's known. It is known. You only have to make a call or two and you'll find out. It's only gotten worse and which kind of compounds with the idea, it's almost a case of becoming a racketeering outfist.

And one last issue, CPED has made lots of policies. None of them are actually valid until such time they're approved by the board of county commissioners, and they are not approved by the county commissioners. All these additional policies charging people money. You need to fix it. It's your fault.

I would like I know we have public hearings set for 03:30. I'd like to complete public comments, so I'm gonna go to folks online. I I can someone help me with the name?

Bonnie Helms has her hand up.

Has there Ms.

Helms, you have three minutes. Another reminder, you may not comment on the specific project that's before the board, tomorrow.

Got it. Yeah. Thank you. This is Bonnie Helms. I'm I am a party of record to the appeal, but I understand the board is acting in a quasi judicial role regarding pending appeals.

I'm not commenting on the merits of any specific project, but I am also asking the county as a matter of general policy to consider a temporary moratorium and definitely a pause on the utility scale battery energy storage citing until we can get comprehensive countywide standards that are developed for fire response, environmental review, plume modeling, setbacks, emergency planning, and long term remediation liability. We desperately need a pause to ensure that the counties are making informed, consistent, and legally defensible decisions before we move projects forward. Right now, I think there are two already. So it'd be good to place a pause just to make sure that, you know, we can focus appropriately on what we're supposed to. The Thurston County, you guys have a real opportunity to lead instead of reacting later like other counties who have conflicts or failures or regulatory gaps, and it becomes a lot harder to fix after the fact.

So we shouldn't be building policy at the speed of industry pressure. Communities have to come first along with our first responders and our local governments. And a temporary pause is an anti energy. It's pro accountability. So it's really responsible of you guys to to do this. And if I might make a quick comment on removing the board from the appeal process, I don't really agree with that because it does move the decisions to already overly burdened courts. It makes it more difficult for the community also due to costs and experts that we can obtain. We try to find attorneys and we're we have a lot of difficulty obtaining legal counsel. So you guys are kind of here for us. We aren't made of endless money, especially in this economy right now.

I would be very careful about relinquishing any of the board's role on the appeal process. So please do what's right and and enact that moratorium as soon as possible. Thank you, Boris.

Thank you. Anyone else online to give public comment? Okay. I think we've covered that. So we are gonna recess now and take up the public hearings that are set.

It is 03:37, and we're going to start in the order on the agenda, which first up is Lake Lawrence resolution for the 2027 Lake Management District assessment rules. And let me get my script for that one. So the purpose of this public hearing is to consider and accept public testimony on the proposed resolution for the 2027 Lake Management District assessment rules for Lake Lawrence LMD number 26. This is a hybrid public hearing. Those wishing to testify have joined by Zoom, emailed in comment, or mailed in comment.

If you wish to testify, please visit the Thurston County homepage online and select BOCC meetings, hearings, and work session agendas. The information to join this public hearing remotely is posted there. If you are not providing testimony but would like to follow along, please visit the Thurston County YouTube channel. Doctor Jen Fryheit, the director of public health and social services, will provide information on this topic. Assuming those on Zoom wish to testify, your name will be read aloud. You do not need to sign up in any particular fashion. You have three minutes to testify. Time may not be given to another person. When you are called on, please state your name and address or area of the county in which you reside for the record. Public hearing is now open.

Doctor. Fryheit will present background information, summarize any written comments submitted, and provide any additional information requested by the board. Yes.

Thank you. Jen Freiheit, Director of Public Health and Social Services. For a bit of the history, on November 4, the Board of County Commissioners approved the resolution of intent to form Lake Lawrence Lake Management District number twenty six and scheduled a public hearing to determine public interest and financial feasibility pursuant to RCW 36.62.040 and 36.62.50. On January 20, board closed the public hearing and directed staff to prepare the resolution of findings and determinations. Resolution number 16,604 was subsequently adopted on February 3 authorizing the matter to proceed to a vote of the property owners within the proposed district for the establishment of Lake Lawrence LMD 26.

Ballots were mailed to all affected property owners on February 17 with a return deadline of March 11 at 5PM. Ballots were then counted March 12 at 10:30AM in this room. Following the official count, 90% of the weighted votes cast supported the formation of the Lake Lawrence Lake Management District twenty six. Pursuant to RCW 36.61, Ordinance 16,621 was adopted to formally create Lake Management District number twenty six. In accordance with the resolutions establishing the Lake Management Districts, annual assessment increases may be considered to address inflationary impacts and ongoing lake management initiatives.

Lake Lawrence LMD twenty six is seeking a rate increase of 10% for upland and public properties and 130% for lakefront and canalfront properties. These updated assessments would take effect beginning with the 2027 property tax bills. The action before the board today is the closure of the public hearing and consideration of the resolution approving and adopting the amended role of assessments for Thurston County Lake Management District number 26 with or without amendment based on the public comment or adjustments at the discretion of the board of county commissioners. And approval of this resolution represents the final step in the creation and implementation

of this new district. Thank you.

Chair, I might add just appreciation to the clerk of the board, the Department of Public Health and Social Services, Susan Stewart, both in environmental health, and to Barry Halverson and the folks out at Lake Lawrence. We appreciate the partnership in moving this process forward. They are a little bit long and a little bit cumbersome, but we appreciate all the good coordination and communication.

Great. Thank you.

Questions for Doctor. Fryhide? Okay. We'll go to public testimony. Mr. Halverson, I'm guessing you're up.

I'd like to be the last one to testify, so I'd like entertain any objections. Anybody want to?

Does anyone online, here testify on Lake Lawrence? See no hands. I think it's just you, Barry. Come on up.

Chair, commissioners, I am Barry Halverson, co chair of the Lake Lawrence Lake Management District. I stand before you today to celebrate a historic milestone, the fortieth anniversary of Lake Lawrence Lake Management District, the oldest and longest running district of its kind in Washington State. With the recent vote to renew the LMD for another thirty five years, our community has committed to protecting this resource through 2061. This seventy five year legacy is a testament to the dedication of our citizens and our partners at the county and state levels. We owe a debt of gratitude to the visionaries who started this journey in 1984.

Commissioner Karen Fraser recognized the need for lake management and championed the cause through her time as county commissioner and state senator. We also honor the original steering committee leaders like Tom Fisher, Skip Meredith, Dave Olsen, and John Gray whose hard work formed the backbone of the district in 1986. The LMD has evolved significantly over the last four decades. Two years ago, commissioner Mejia and former commissioner Gary Edwards orchestrated our move to environmental health. This has proven to be a transformational shift.

By empowering residents to take greater ownership of decisions, we have moved toward a model of self reliance. This relieves county staff of administrative burdens while ensuring that those with a greatest stake in the lake's health, the people who live on its shores are the ones guiding its future. The support from the commissioners and the environmental health department has created true partnership. I also want to thank our steering committee and our boots on the ground volunteers, including the 10 dedicated individuals who maintain our county park weekly. This public hearing closes a lengthy process to renew the LMD and starts a thirty five year process to sustain our current level of invasive and noxious weed maintenance and education and to our mission to clean up our lake from repeated harmful algal blooms and increasing HABs, which we are now in a warning status at 45.9 UGL, which is six times the state guideline.

To truly mitigate HABs will require the efforts of all our partners, our cyanobacteria management plan. Our CMP is now complete, we are putting together a plan for what comes next. We can choose the easy and least expensive way with chemicals, like all other lakes have done, or a more difficult and most expensive course of action, which would lead to no chemicals. Our course will be determined by how much support we get from you and the state. There's more to follow shortly. We want to thank you for your continued support in keeping Thurston County Lakes clean, safe, and healthy for generations to come. Thank you all.

Barry, what did you when you were saying six times the guidelines on what? On what

Six times the state guidelines for harmful algal blooms, which is eight UGL. We're right now at 45.9. We are six weeks earlier than last year for starting our toxic algae blooms on our lake, which does not bode well for the future of this summer. That's why we want to get into this program starting January 2027 as soon as

we can do it.

All righty.

Thank you all.

Thanks, Fred.

Any other public Okay. For you? Nope. Not a problem.

Okay. We got a question here. Hold on.

This is not

Oh, regarding public hearing. Wanna start with this

problem. From

Is this about the Lake Lawrence management district? No.

So it's a general problem?

Okay. I I need to we'll we'll call you late at a later point.

Okay.

This is we're in the middle of a public hearing about Lake Lawrence. We're gonna get back to the regular board

meeting. Not

for a few minutes. We have another public hearing to do, and then we'll be back to our board meeting, and we can discuss the issue of reopening public comment.

Okay. You do not do not hear. Do not wanna hear.

Not right now because we're in we're hearing about another issue. So is there a motion to

close the public hearing? Finish this hearing.

I move to close the public hearing.

Second.

Motion is second. Any discussion on that? Call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. I move

to approve the 2027 Lake Management District assessment rolls for Lake Lawrence Lake Management District Number 26.

Second.

Motion to approve the assessment rolls. Any discussion on that motion? Call for the vote. All in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye.

Thank

you, Barry.

We're going to move to the next public hearing, which is the purpose of this public hearing is to consider and accept public testimony on the proposed ordinance amending Thurston County Code chapter two dot o two dot o two five special meetings to update the location of special meeting notices to the Thurston County Atrium. This is a hybrid public hearing. Those wishing to testify have joined by Zoom, emailed in comment, or mailed in comment. If you wish to testify, please visit the Thurston County homepage online, select BOCC meetings, hearings, work session agendas. The information to join this public hearing remotely is posted there.

If you are not providing testimony but would like to follow along, please visit the Thurston County YouTube channel. Amy Davis, clerk of the board, will provide background information on the topic. Assuming anyone on Zoom wishes to testify, your name will be read aloud. You have three minutes to testify. You may not give any of that time to another person. When you are called on, please state your name and address for the record. This public hearing is open. Amy will present background information, summarize any written comments submitted, and provide any additional information requested by the board.

Good afternoon, commissioners. For consideration today is a proposed ordinance updating Thurston County code section two point o two point o two five for special meetings. Upon the county's move to the atrium in 2022, ordinance, sixteen one nine nine was passed and updated the board's official meeting room. There was an oversight at that time, and the location, for special meeting notices was not included to also reflect the move to the atrium. Therefore, per current county code, special meeting notices continue to be posted at Building 1 of the courthouse campus, and Building 1 is now being used for court services, so this update is timely.

Per RCW thirty six thirty two zero nine o, the board is authorized to hold special meetings so long as noticed in accordance with RCW 40 two-thirty-eighty, which states special meeting notices shall be, one, provided to local newspapers and media that have requested to receive such notices two, posted on our website Three, prominently displayed at the entrance of the agency's principal location. And four, posted at the meeting site if not located at the agency's principal location. So this proposed ordinance before you updates county code to reflect these notice requirements and update our principal location to the atrium. We received, no special, no public comment to date, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

To close the public here oh, wait. We're not there yet.

Is there anyone here to give public comment on the special meetings, ordinance change online? Okay. Then we can go ahead and contemplate closing the hearing.

I move to close the public hearing. I'll second.

Motion to second. Close public hearing. I'll call for the vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Names closed. So moved. Motion.

I move to approve an ordinance amending the Thurston County Code chapter two zero two zero two five, special meetings to update the location of special meeting notices to the Thurston County Atrium.

Second.

Mention and second to amend the release to update the location. Discussion on the motion. Say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Alright. So it's 03:50. We're gonna go back into our board meeting. We were just at the tail end of public comment. Sir, you're the last person, I think, to give public comment. You have three minutes.

Oh, oh, two minutes, sir. Thank you very much, sir. I I tried to solve my problem. Several times, I visited the sheriff's officer and the jail, and they'd on and again blocked me. And here, it's a it's so a simple one.

On March 31, I wanna solve this problem. On 03/31/2025, when I was released from jail, I asked to know the name of the jail officer who drew my bundles of clothes and me. He admitted that the amount of cash emission from my wallet had been transferred onto a debit card because I cannot understand how this incident could have happened. I repeatedly sent this email to TCSO records in order to learn the name of the jail officer, and I personally went to the Sheriff's Headquarters twice. I also went to the jail desk three times.

They shouted at me and forced me to leave. I have the right to know that officer and I I are directly connected by this incident. I have the right to know his name. Under ICW 42.56, Washington Public, Records Act citizen have the right to request a government records and information regarding public officials. I must know the following.

One, the name of the sheriff deputy involved in the case. Two, the deputy is batch number. Three, the records related to the incident. However, the sheriff's office continue to refuse my request. I also spoke with Angela Frey. However, Angela gave strange responses on and again. Even though my request was simple, she claimed it was complicated. My request is very simple. I want his name and the batch number. How many days does it take to find out the sheriff's deputy's name and batch number? Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you, sir. If you hand that forward, appreciate it. Okay. That wraps up public comment. We're gonna get to commissioner community reports. Commissioner Klaus.

Thank you, chair. I just have a couple. Let me pull them up real quick. Okay. So I don't have very many this week.

I'm kinda combining them with my committee reports, since I didn't have a whole lot going on, but we did have a board of health meeting, where we highlighted mental health. May 2026 was mental health awareness month. We heard presentations highlighting the importance of early intervention, youth mental health, and crisis response services. And we also received updates from Olympic Health and Recovery Services, how they have become the local 988 crisis hub beginning July 1, which will allow Thurston County residents to connect with local support staff. This is a huge win.

So thank you to commissioner McKeon, commissioner Grant who served on the BHASO. This was an issue that they were discussing when I served on BHASO, and it's just so much better to have it localized versus having 988 crisis calls going to some sort of call center with people who aren't necessarily located in the community. So now we'll have people responding to those or answering those calls who have a better understanding of what's happening on the ground locally and how to connect people in crisis to services that exist here in our community. So that's a big win. We also had an ORCA meeting.

I'm still working on getting a meeting together with staff. I was unable to attend the ORCA meeting due to the budget presentation that we had with the board, which, had to take priority that day. So, I will say, though, that the finance committee meeting for Orca, I was able to chair that. It was earlier in the day, so I was able to do that. And, public comment period for, the budget started on May 8, and, I believe it's now closed.

Yeah. It it should be closed if not soon. So, let's see. The board reviewed the fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget, and we discussed financial planning and budget priorities moving forward. So the finance committee did a good job of reviewing the ORCA budget, and then it was presented to the full ORCA board.

So I I don't think I missed much, that I didn't already know based on being on the finance committee, which was good. But the budget process was pretty smooth, and, I'm really proud of ORCA staff for being such forward thinking a forward thinking team, and helping us so we don't have to deal with a big crisis down the road. Let's see. We also discussed ongoing agency initiatives and operational updates related to ORCA's efforts to support regional air quality programs and services. We, the Regional Housing Council held a special meeting where we dug a bit deeper into the funding decisions for this year, and we heard a really good briefing from our, office of housing and homeless prevention this morning on that.

So I don't have more to update, outside of what was, shared with us by staff this morning, and they did a great job. The last one is, community built for zero meeting where we reviewed March homelessness data, which showed increases across single adult, chronic, and veteran homeless populations. And then I also this is not on my list, but I wanted to share that we had a thirst and climate mitigation collaborative meeting this week. I was elected to be the chair of the collaborative, which I'm very excited about. And we heard an excellent presentation from commissioner Mentzer on forest lands and the most recent updates going on with DNR and BNR, and he gave us a really good snapshot of what's happened up to this point.

And it was perfectly fine tuned for an audience that doesn't have all the context. But I could tell that he was very excited, and, so that was really fun to watch watch you and your element, commissioner. We also had an update at TCMC about the home energy score ordinance and the energized thirsting campaign. So those were really good updates. I'm looking forward to seeing what the team comes up with in terms of implementation for the home energy score ordinance.

As I had hoped and thought, there are local, assessors who are who are getting certified to do the home energy score assessments, and that seems to be going really smoothly. We have a handful of, certified home energy score assessors already, So that's great because we don't implement this until next year. So I have no doubts that the county and our regional partners will work really well together to make that a success, and that's all I've got.

Mister Grant.

Yeah. So I attended the Thurston County Fair Board meeting. Things are going well for the fair. Lots of of things underway. They're getting new vendors and setting all the entertainment. And there's I don't know if you guys know the little mascot is an eagle, and it's, gonna be really fun. So that was a great meeting. Went to the TCS. So Thurston County Sheriff's Office award ceremony. One of the things I wanna say about that was that it was really, incredible. We had a member of the sheriff's office get an award from nationally for his support of army reserves, folks

who

are in the army reserves and actually still a sheriff. And it was really neat to be able to attend and see all of the different kinds of awards that are going on and then to celebrate the number of years of service people were getting awards for. So it was cool. Had a Pac Mountain board meeting, a budget board meeting. So lots of things going on around Pac Mountain's budget. We had a Purple Ribbon Commission. So there's a behavioral health coalition that's been going on, a bunch of behavioral health providers.

We had

a presentation by our crisis the new crisis team and the crisis manager that was really great. Attended the Washington County Insurance Fund Summit in Leavenworth. Go insurance. You know, Happy to take that over for Commissioner Menser and, was able to be in community with folks there. Learned, you know, quite a bit about, health and, self help. And so we there were some some really incredible, there's some great we had a great time. So it was it was good. Transportation policy board meeting, that happened. We had a steady meeting. I was able to attend the Tenano Food Bank grand opening, which was super cool.

I got shoved a mic and asked to speak, and I had no idea. And I was like, I had no idea what to say, but this is a really incredible new community center. They put an addition on there. And Tanaino and the staff and Judy and the folks that are doing the work, and Tanaino, that should be recognized as far as I'm concerned. Jody, sorry. That Jody should be recognized and, you know, if we could put her on, like, some sort of list. I mean, she's like a volunteer, a beyond volunteer. So I'm just really that was really cool. And then had a lot of calls from constituents this week. And then Habitat for Humanity Women's Build happened this weekend.

We broke ground at Mill Crossing in Yelm. Really exciting. There's gonna be 20 new units in Yelm, four cottages, and 16, 16 new houses that are, you know, duplexes. Real, it was really cool. They stood the first wall. It was, it was a great event. And then the we had a jail task force meeting to talk about an RFP that we're giving out for the jail task force. And that's my report.

I attended the NACO Ag and Rural Affairs Committee, where we got a very long presentation on the US Farm Bill. Yeah. And then attended the state auditor's office entrance conference for Thurston County for our upcoming audit. Those are really the most noteworthy ones in addition to all the regular internal meetings.

Thank you.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Attended a webinar on Pathways to Safer Crossings by GoRail, and this is connected to one of the grants, and attended Washington Thriving Town Hall put on by the state, attended the One America Immigrant Rights Update. We had an ecosystem coordination board meeting down in Sokovich. So that one was really insightful to talk about kind of what's going on in terms of theories and different legislative updates. Then attended the National Association of Counties Policy Insider, understanding the federal landscape for counties, and farm bill came up in that one as well.

The affordable housing advisory group had their community advisory team meeting, and so attended that. And, after attending the Boston Elementary School Safety Night and a huge thank you to environmental health, to stream team, public health, and emergency services for being there and, showing the kids a great time, and and they got to learn, you know, a little bit about Thurston County. Attended the Habitat for Humanity, women's build, and I was in the Tomlwater location finishing that up. So it's been great just to see how far it's come along. I attended the heat forum with Commissioner Menser, and then we had our Board of Health meeting.

I've had a couple of sessions on the Public Health Leadership Academy, which is very exciting. And I'm excited to go to DC with them in June and kind of finalize that. Went to beautiful city of Walla Walla for the Washington Association of Counties Board of Directors meeting as well as the legislative steering committee. And so legislative steering committee, a little bit different this year, but we were able to finalize our legislative agenda for next year. And so I'll give a little bit more of an insight on that tomorrow.

But it was a really great discussion on kind of what we're going to prioritize for the next two years. Attended the League of Women Voters annual spring luncheon with Commissioner Menser as well as the historic Olympia celebrates two fifty. And so they had a little celebration celebrating America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. And then at night, had the honor of going to the Tenaino Splash Bash. Attended Nostracaucus meeting and then the SAO entrance conference. That is all, chair.

Last bash. Forgot that one. Well, I missed I was not at the last meeting. I was at a conference, and I don't date these. So this is really two meetings worth. I apologize, but I don't have any way to separate them. A lot of stuff. Attended the Yalm Arbor Day festivities in Yalm where mayor de Pinto and mayor Ryder spoke. Had a meeting with Department of Ecology relating to Summit Lake constituents and the lake levels and new leadership taking over Summit Lake management. And I wanted to meet those new folks at ecology.

The DEI Summit was a two day event. I want to thank Doctor. Kenny Yarborough, our new DEI senior program manager, did a great job as a co moderator. I got a chance to give a land acknowledgment and a county report that seemed well received, so that was good event. Went to a Thurston housing Thurston County Housing Authority open house at Sterling Pines where they opened 24 units in Tumwater of new housing.

Attended the l d twenty two town hall down downtown. All three of our l d twenty two rep legislative state legislators. The heat risk forum downtown, representative Parsley was there, commissioner He was there. Doctor Gordon Weed presented a lot of information that we heard at the board of health. A dispute resolution center, peacemaker event, my quarterly winter recreation advisory committee meeting where I represent Washington State Association of Counties related to snow parks,

Tumwater Thank you for your service.

Yes, sir.

Tumwater Chamber, had a participation from World Cup, homes, and how local businesses can get involved and all the tool kits that are available to them. Homes First Awards ceremony, the presentation Commissioner Klaus referenced about the climate legacy for us and the climate mitigation collaborative, League of Women Voters launching with commissioner Mahia. Volunteered at the Lacey Fun Fair, in the city of Lacey booth. That was pretty fun on Saturday. Tonight, no splash bash was great.

Got to see commissioner Edwards and a whole bunch of other community leaders. Tumwater Education Foundation had their first gala on Friday night. That was a small but but nice event at the airport at the Air Museum. I attended yesterday the South Sound Food Systems Network Meeting at Grub. That I I had met with that group a couple of times when I first got elected, and I was just curious what they were going to what they were still up to because they were specifically having a presentation from the Southwest Olympia Neighborhood Association did a food survey.

So I wanted to hear the results of that presented by the leader of the Swona Neighborhood Association, which is in my district. So that was a great meeting. I'm going try to plug them in with some things going on in public health. Attended a meeting regarding juvenile capacity in the juvenile system. The state is outlining plans and criteria for how they intend to meet the capacity crisis for juvenile justice that was hosted right here in our boardroom.

I got a tour of the Olympia food pantry as with the food bank downtown, which I'd never actually been inside there. And the whole staff turned out on one of their off days to show me around, so that was pretty cool. I went to a ribbon cutting for Westwater Kitchen and Apartments. It's a chamber event. That's the old Red Lion Hotel that's now been turned into apartments and a restaurant. That restaurant looks nice. It looks pretty nice. I did a little walking tour through it. I had a lot meeting. I attended Innovative Justice meeting. I went to the Western Interstate Regional NACO Conference. I attended the Elected Official Social. I attended the Three Cities meeting. I attended the Alliance for Healthy South Sound Council meeting. I had a finance committee meeting.

I gave a presentation that could take your kid to work day. I had an SBCC all day meeting. I attended, of course, the procession of species. State auditor so state auditor's office, I've had three separate meetings related to the two different overlapping state audits that we're dealing with.

Not six months. Rolled back like six months now, Zach.

And I got a building tour of the new Sheriff's Office Building. That was all in the last four weeks, so I've been busy. Wow. That's the end. Lent journey. That's right. No. This is us. You got something.

I was just gonna say I'm prepared to beat everyone in the rodeo this week, so come prepared.

When is that?

It's this Thursday.

It's this Thursday, the crisis thing. I know.

I'm speaking at South

Sound area. Scared, but I would oh, yeah.

And I'm I'm thinking about

the question.

Well, I

was gonna stop on the way through. Yeah. I'm gonna do the the thing in

the morning anyway. Alright. Yeah. I'll be

the both of I'm done. Yeah.

This is alright. We're done.

We're done.

Good night.