Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Good morning, Housing Authority Board of Directors and over to you Director Willey. Thank

you, Kevin. Welcome everybody to the Housing Authority Board of Directors 05/05/2026. Could we have a roll call please?

Certainly, Mr. Vice Chair. The Washington County Housing Authority Board of Directors is now meeting this regular session 05/05/2026. Director Fye?

Good morning, present.

Director Trease?

Here.

Director Schneider? Here. Director Savara?

Here.

Director Willey? Here. And I'll announce Director Harrington is excused and Director Willey will serve as chair.

Thank you very much, Kevin. So at this point in time, we're going to move into the public communication, two minute opportunity. Do we have anyone signed up for that?

Thank you, Director O'Reilly. I did not see anyone sign up in advance of the meeting. Is there any member in the auditorium who should provide public comment to the housing authority for up to two minutes on any housing topic? I'm not seeing anyone raise their hands. Is there anyone in Zoom that wish to provide

We move on to the consent agenda, which is in one item, approval of minutes for 04/07/2026. Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor raise your hands. There you go. You're with us there? Yes. Motion is approved unanimously. We are now item D1, the public hearing has been canceled. We have received a letter of resignation from Housing Authority Board of Director Roper. And so I will entertain a motion to accept her letter of resignation.

I move to approve the or to accept the letter of resignation.

Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye or raise your hand. Thank you. Those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Now we are into E1 presentation. So presentation to the Housing Authority Board of Directors on the Rental Assistance Division Voucher Payments Standard Revision. Thank you very much for coming up staff. Go ahead, Director Mollie.

Good morning, Housing Authority Board of Directors. For the record, my name is Mollie Rogers and I'm the Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Washington County.

Today, I am joined by Liz Morris,

the Rental Assistance Division Manager, and we're here to share information with you about a future change to our voucher payment standard schedule to align with market conditions. So just a little bit of a primer for you all. The voucher payment standard schedule is also known as a household shopping money, if you will. And it really does it really sets the standard for all federal rental assistance programs. It determines the amount of subsidy the housing authority will pay for an average unit by bedroom size.

So to be clear, this is not a cap on the amount of rent a landlord can charge. While we want to align with median or average rents as much as possible, a landlord can charge more than the maximum that we will pay out. The difference in that case gets passed on to the tenant and then they have the choice whether to pay that amount or move to a more affordable home, hence why it's called housing choice voucher. It may be a little bit surprising to hear, but we have seen some softening in the rental market in this region. The U.

S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, publishes an annual fair market rent analysis for the region. And the region has now seen a two year decline in average rents in every bedroom size. While we thought one year could be a blip, we are now seeing it as a trend. And that trend is prompting us to be here today.

So we it is our fiduciary responsibility to proactively adjust the payment standards accordingly but with enough time so that affected households can make informed choices. And this comes at a time when many housing authorities across the country face a shortfall status or are in shortfall. While we in Washington County are not in shortfall, a slightly reduced payment standard schedule will reduce the likelihood of us facing that situation. Additionally, it serves as a means to actually serving more low income households in our community overall, including the emergency housing voucher families whose assistance is set to sunset at the end of this calendar year. Next slide, please.

This presentation is meant to be informative and discussion oriented, starting off with some background on the rental housing market conditions trending in our region. We'll then provide programmatic context for the twenty twenty six changes to the voucher payment standard and then, of course, share with you the revised and reduced payment standards. We'll also describe the many months that we went through of decision making process that got us here, which included frankly hundreds of scenarios that we considered to really balance the needs of everyone involved in this decision. We will wrap up with our implementation plan describing it's a twenty four month rollout, two full years with the new, voucher payment standard across HUD funded programs. Next slide.

A review of the rental housing market conditions is based on data and projections from multifamily Northwest and HUD in the last five years. So we really looked at that trend line. Next slide. So this graph shows the five years of HUD's fair market rents, isolating it to one, two and three bedrooms. HUD publishes fair market rents each federal fiscal year based on the whole the whole Portland Metropolitan Statistical Area.

So it is not specific to Washington County. HUD then requires each housing authority to maintain a voucher payment standard proportional to these published fair market rents. And generally, we see housing authorities across the board, how it allows us to go between 90% up to 110% of fair market rents. In the past five years, I'm just going to say FMR at this point, if that's all right. The published FMR saw the continued incline.

We saw a big uptick out of the COVID era market changes and then we did start seeing some cooling in 2025 to the point where HUD decreased the FMRs in 2025 by 1.4% to 2.5%. And then we see then an additional decline by 3% to 4.5% in 2026. Next

slide.

This trend is also reflected in what we saw in the multifamily Northwest data. That's a landlord association with the largest number of landlords so that they represent the largest number of units captured in the data. So we wanted to also use it as a reference point to see if the trend line was actually similar to what we're in local conditions here in Washington County. Again, we do see that rents over the past few years have essentially flattened or slightly reduced in this area with actual rents below the rents in the survey are actually below the FMR. So this they also CoStar also forecast that rents will continue to be flat this year and only minor increases annually for the next five years.

We then compared the local survey of rents, the multifamily rents to the FMRs, which you can see off to the side of the chart for those same bedroom sizes. If you look at just the three bedrooms, you can see that the multifamily Northwest average rent for three bedroom is 2,148, but the FMR for three bedroom for the Portland MSA is 2,619. So it's above. So in short, our local data is showing that our surveyed rents are even lower than the fair market rents on average, giving us some reassurance that reducing the payment standards won't affect housing options in this market. Now I'm going to turn it over to Liz Morris, our Rental Assistance Division Manager, about more about how we got to this place.

Thank you, Molly. Good morning, directors. As we dive into the purpose of the voucher payment standard revision, we should connect on what the payment standards are and our requirements with them. As HUD regulations require that public housing authorities review and update these payment standards on an annual basis. Payment standards are the maximum subsidy as Molly described that the housing authority can pay for a participant on HUD voucher program like the housing choice voucher program formerly known as Section eight.

The PHA's payment standards must generally be between that 90 to 110% of the published fair market rents. The Housing Authority of Washington County has not changed the voucher payment standard since 2024. In 2025, we reviewed the payment standards and absorbed that decrease that HUD published in the fair market rents. We were expecting fair market rents to level out in 2026. However, HUD decreased the published fair market rents again and our current payment standards that were set in 2024 now reflect 105% to 107% of the 2026 fair market rents.

Due to the high cost of subsidy per unit that the housing authority is paying, the gap continues to grow, putting us at risk of shortfall, which I'll explain more in the next slide. Due to the funding gaps, we have not issued any new vouchers off our housing choice voucher waitlist in five years, which not only does not allow us to serve more people in the community, but it also limits our administrative cost reimbursement from HUD. Reducing the payment standards is a tough choice that the Housing Authority of Washington County had decided to embark on to help ensure that we can serve not only our current participants on our programs, but more in the community that have been waiting for the support. The reduction in the payment standards does not does require a two year notice to take effect for tenants in their current units. As we talk a little bit about shortfall, as Molly mentioned, we are currently not in shortfall.

But I want to explain that the federal funding does not always match what market realities are. Housing authorities can be projected to enter shortfall when the cost exceeds the federal funding and reserves will be completely depleted within that year. Due to high local subsidies per unit cost combined with our high area cost to rent, stagnant federal appropriations and lagging inflation, Hawk has continued to be in shortfall risk. We have been on the verge or slightly in shortfall since 2024. Hawk, like many housing authorities, utilizes requirements by HUD or best standard practices to navigate funding constraints, which lends to why we have not issued new vouchers off of our waitlist.

Managing the payment standards is a vital practice for reducing shortfall risk, managing program capacity and ensuring that we are able to continue assistance. Reductions to the payment standards is a key form of managing shortfall. Our strategy and goal for proactive shortfall management will sustain programs in current context, including avoiding the termination of existing vouchered households, continuing assistance for those families impacted by the emergency housing voucher early sunset and to continue support of affordable housing development with project based vouchers. Why why the changes needed now is with these indicators that we have shared, including two consecutive years of fair market rents reductions, our current published payment standards exceeds the fair markets at the 105% to 107%. And the continued high housing assistance payment cost per unit stall our new vouchers in that shortfall risk.

We have concluded to adopt the new payment standard with reduction to help us meet our goals. Now the payment standard that we've talked about, I'm going to share the schedule with you all. This chart shows the new schedule with some other key factors to reference. Looking from left to right, we can see that based on the bedroom size where the current 2026 fair market rents stand, the new 2026 voucher payment standards and what percentage they fall within the fair market rent for 2026. How they also compare to the area's average rents.

Note the average rents, does not include the larger bedroom sizes. It is standard for PHAs to have payment standards across different percentages as you can see the 95% to 97% for the adopted payment standard. The schedule shown, was chosen based on an impact analysis and adjustment adjusted to rounded easy to remember numbers. We also wanted to ensure the sufficient supply available units within the subsidized programs while managing our fiscal stewardship. The 2026 payment standards will be effective 07/01/2026 for anyone entering into our programs or moving with a voucher a move with a continued assistance vouchers.

New issuances currently occur with our Veterans Affairs supportive housing and other special purpose voucher programs. For households that are currently leased in their units, this will come into effect 07/01/2028 or later whenever their next recertification is scheduled after that date. As you can imagine, this process took a long time to decide as Molly, explained that we did take a long time to, go through our process of analytical review. The housing programs, data and executive staff use data tools to assess the current trajectory of our funds if no change occurred or the projected funding gaps for households served by our programs. We also conducted full review of how potential path forward would affect our households.

The decision to reduce the payment standards and the schedules in which we landed upon were not taken lightly And over the last several months with several data and disparate impact analysis, we have come to the conclusion of the final schedule. With clear path forward that we needed to reduce the payment standards, we wanted past. The We are the progress in sorry, I apologize for that. Sunsetting the program three years earlier than designed and so we want to be able to absorb those households. Find pathways and pull to serve households that have been on that waitlist for over five years, establish a modest cushion for our reserves of 0.5% to 1% to mitigate through the shortfall risks and reduce impacts for the extremely rent burdened households.

So the voucher payment standard levels that we did land upon helped us reach these key objectives. On average, the whole payment standards land around 96% of fair market rents. Once fully implemented, we forecast off of today's information that we could see an annual reduction of $1,100,000 in subsidy cost. The per unit cost on subsidy average will reduce by $47.51 We'll be able to absorb all 77 emergency housing vouchers and we anticipate that we'll be able to issue about 50 new people off of our waitlist. Forecasted to maintain also around a 0.7% of our reserves and meet a 90 or sorry, 89% utilization of our program capacity.

As we are working with people, we perform those impact analysis to identify households that would be most impacted and to check for those disparate impacts. The households that may be the most impacted are families that are already in units with contract rents at or above the payment standards. These families on average will see a 10% increase to their total tenant payment if they remain in their current units past 2028. We will continue to monitor outcomes through the implementation process to understand impacts to any future adjustments needed for yearly review and forecasting. We did find we want to provide proactive support for those households that are experiencing extreme rent and burden.

We are finding that seven out of our 3,400 current participants are at risk of the extreme rent burden, which is defined at paying more than 50% of a household's gross income towards their rent. Hawk is planning one on one engagement and outreach to these families, connecting them to available resources and applying for our hardship policies where necessary. And we are exploring options to help the families move into more affordable units. With the payment standards decision made, we do have to implement this and with our rollout, our timeline, with the earliest change that will impact our newly admitted households and those with a voucher that are moving with continued assistance will be able to shop with the new for their rentals with the new payment standards, effective 07/01/2026. Currently leased household members will receive a two year notice, which is required by HUD.

We are giving them a notification in 2026 and once again in 2027 before transitioning into the decreased payment standards at their next recertification following 07/01/2028. The next step is informing all of our participants on our program and we've been meeting with our staff members, housing advisory committee and now you, all of the housing authority board of directors to inform this change. And we'll be sending out notices mid month. Thank you so much for your time as we explain this update to our voucher payment standard levels and our journey toward decision.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Directors, any questions, comments? Yes. Have

one observation comment that I guess I just as I'm reflecting on the timing of how deliberate and slow this change is, it occurs to me that if and when rents start to increase, a change to correct that will be equally slow. Correct?

Pardon?

Oh, yes. So if reducing the payment standard is the two years, but when if there is an increase in the payment standard, so if we decided to increase it after this point, we could do that effective with just actually a thirty day notice.

Okay. So my worry is not founded?

Correct. We we just analyze any published

I appreciate that because that would be a very slow time frame to react to market changing market conditions and be a concern to me. So I'm I'm glad to hear that's not the case. Thank you. I don't have any other questions.

Thank

you for your presentation. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of households that are on So

little

bit

Thank you.

Is it a So nice surprise? Yes.

Yes, it was.

I thought your

head shake. Yes.

It have been a lot higher and we're hoping to mitigate it going forward too.

Right. Thank you. And the fact that we're giving them a two year runway on this is helpful, certainly less impactful. So, Director Trease.

Thank you for this information. I appreciate the flexibility in relationship to being aware of market trends into the future. And seven is still seven. So and I just want to say that I recognize that. But I also appreciate the work that's being done. So thank you very much.

Okay. You. Okay. I don't have any other questions or comments. Director Savara, did you have anything?

I just appreciate the presentation. And yes, I really appreciate, Commissioner Snyder, your comments just about the deliberate nature that you all went through this and also how we can react faster if the tides change. I was just thinking about that trend, and I'm still a little floored that rents are decreasing. I feel like I got stuck there in the presentation. So I'll have to really sit with that a little bit.

I think that's a really that's good news in a lot of ways for so many folks just in the terms of like being able to afford life. I know there's so many other things that are more expensive now, but it's an interesting trend to note that we're seeing some decreases on rent. So our efforts around development are maybe having an impact and really making sure that we're having more opportunities for building units and creating more opportunities for housing. So appreciate you.

Well, just one other thing just popped in my head. One of the costs of living in these facilities oftentimes is homeowners association dues. And what I'm being told earlier this year was that homeowner association dues are going up at such a significant rate they are pricing out condo rents. So if you have to pay this plus you have to pay the HOA and the HOA is going up 10% to 15% per year, pretty soon you can't afford it and then it's not because of these payments but it's because just the HOA costs significantly going up. So I'm paying attention to that with a couple of different HOA associations and we'll make those comments.

I hope they are paying attention to the trending of rents going down. So thank you very much for your presentation. I don't have anything else. And we can move on to the presentation to the Housing Authority Board of Directors on Housing Authority Washington County budget primary primer for fiscal years twenty six-twenty seven.

Good morning, Housing Authority Board of Directors. For the record, I'm Ryan Bonsbach, the Deputy CFO of the Housing Authority Washington County and Department of Housing Services. This morning, I'm joined by Steve Netter, our department's Senior Budget and Financial Analyst. We will be coming back to your Board on June 2 next month with our proposed 'twenty six-'twenty seven budget for the housing authority, and we're here this morning to provide a brief budget primer in advance of that presentation following up on a commitment we made at this time last year. So this morning, we'll describe the roles of the Housing Advisory Committee and your Board in the budgeting process, speak to the major programs we administer, the funding sources used to accomplish that work, and next steps in the process to adopt next year's budget.

The Housing Advisory Committee, or HAC, reviews quarterly financials throughout the year and provides input and oversight into the housing authority's budgeting process. We seek their recommendation prior to coming back to your Board with our proposed budget. The HAC members are made up of a diverse set of community members representing the full range of the housing field. So everything everyone from residents and participants of our program, housing service providers, architects and developers, lenders. So it's a really astute group for the work that we do and they provide invaluable insight and questions throughout the budgeting process.

This body is charged with approving our annual operating and capital budgets, ensuring our financial decisions align with our mission and long term priorities as well as the needs of the community. Your Board also supports transparent operations and financial stability through adoption of housing authority policies. You recently approved a bad debt expense and write off policy. We'll be coming back to you with a budget adjustment policy so that we can also adjust our budgets throughout the year as circumstances change and stay more closely aligned with where Washington County is when they're processed. This year we made a really concerted effort to develop the budgets for both the Department of Housing Services and the Housing Authority of Washington County, those two separate entities, to develop their budgets in tandem.

They go through a different adoption process. They have different governing bodies. But as a combined department, we share a cost allocation plan. And as you'll see in the next slide, the interconnected nature of our work really requires that we develop these budgets together so that we are aware of any changes that we were to make in one of the entities would have an impact on the other. So we also made a commitment last year to have a standard and combined budget process for both entities under our organization.

So this slide really illustrates the interconnected nature of our work. On the left hand side, you see the Department of Housing Services and its major program areas. Today, we're talking about the housing authority specifically. So that's the right side with its major programs and total budget resources. But what we did want to show is just some of the inflows and outflows of funds between the two entities.

So all of our employees, of which part of the organization they're in, are Department of Housing Services employees. And so on a monthly basis, we are reimbursing funds from the housing authority to the Department of Housing Services for personnel costs. And conversely, we have rent assistance funded by the support of housing services revenue and the federal continuum of care grants that are being issued by the housing authority. And those funds are flowing from Department of Housing Services and out to the community through the housing authority of Washington County. So this just really speaks to the interconnected nature of our work and why it's important that we are budgeting concurrently.

We break our work down to present budgets to your Board in these three major program areas for the housing authority. So federal vouchers, so this is the rent assistance that we provide from federal voucher programs, primarily the Housing Choice Voucher Program, public housing, so the public housing that we maintain for affordable rent for low income families, and then the real estate development and housing operations. So this is how you will often see when we present budgets. These are the major breakdowns of how we will speak to our work. And so at this point, I will pass it to Steve to speak more to our revenues and funding sources.

Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, directors. Here you'll see definitions of the programs across the Department of Housing Services and the Housing Authority. Today, I'll focus on the Housing Authority programs and their funding sources. First up, we have the got to move slides, sorry about that. First, we have federal vouchers.

These are funded through federal funds that go directly to paying for tenant rents through the Housing Choice Voucher program and a few other programs for specific populations. We also received some federal funds for administrative costs to manage this program. We don't receive any tenant rents or funds from other sources when it comes to federal vouchers. In public housing, funds come from three sources: tenant rents operating subsidies for low dollar maintenance and for staff costs to run these programs and capital subsidies that we use for capital costs that we incur on these properties. For real estate development and housing operations, we received developer fees for affordable housing projects.

We collect management fees from the work that we do as affordable housing developers and investors. And we also collect some tenant rents along with other fees as a role as a developer or investor. Speaking of funding, this chart provides a parade of revenue sources that we'll be proposing with our budget when we come back next month, which highlights that the bulk of our revenue comes from federal funds to the tune of approximately three quarters of our funding. Also, as Ryan had talked about earlier, we do leverage funding across Department of Housing Services and the Housing Authority. And you can see in our proposed budget, we will include fund transfers from the Metro Affordable Housing Bond and Metro Supportive Housing Services funding that comes in through DHS.

And we'll also be leveraging the proceeds from single family homes that we're selling in the Housing Authority. These transfers and sales proceeds will equate to approximately 20% of the housing authority's funding for the next fiscal year, which positions us well with the diversification of funds that goes beyond our reliance on federal funding. Lastly, here's a quick look at the next steps in our budgeting process. At the end of this month, we'll present our proposed HOC budget to the Housing Advisory Committee for approval. We'll come back to this body, as we mentioned, on June 2 to present this budget for your review and ask for your approval to adopt the budget for the next fiscal year.

After that, we'll look forward to the adoption of the Department of Housing Services budget on around the estimated date of June 16. And finally upon the adoption of these budgets and the beginning to execute our programs against the budgets, we'll continue to report out quarterly to our advisory committee to provide transparency, engagement and seek their advice as we move forward. That's our presentation for today. Thank you for your time. Open up to any questions.

Great. Thank you very much. That was some good slide information in there. Directors, do you have any comments or questions? Okay.

To me, one of the most revealing was Slide 10 where you had a graph just a couple back, the pie chart, just the source of funds, where they all come from, how much. That was pretty revealing to me and I appreciate certainly you adding that. And then the program definitions. This is for me at least I will say that this is a fairly complex program where there's money going in and money going out and you can see that in some of your graphs. So the explanation and the definitions of these two programs was also very helpful.

So thank you. You did a good job on this presentation. We look forward to getting that budget. What did you say? May 28, we're going to have the housing authority budget presentation and then we'll see the DHS budget coming behind that.

Yes. So I think June 2 will be our presentation to this body. And so those materials should be available the week prior. And then I think we're slated for the DHS budget on June 16 for adoption.

Right. And again, I appreciate that. Certainly, '28, we are finally getting through county budget, clean water services budgets, whole bunch of stuff like that. So you waiting until the end would be timely. So we'll have time to actually pay attention to it. So thank you for this presentation and I think we're done with that. Thank you. You bet. So we are to the point where we have public communication, five minute opportunities. Kevin, do we have anyone signed up?

We do. Director Willie Auwala, please come forward for up to five minutes.

Whoever's got the sign right in front of you, Molly, would you put that sign down because the signs are not to block the view from behind them? Thank you.

Hello. How are you all doing?

Good. Good. Go ahead for five minutes.

Okay. The Section eight Washington County Housing Authority is a move to work PHA. The family self sufficiency goals helps all Section eight HCV holders, not only just able-bodied participants. I sent a PowerPoint titled to all commissioners, quoted Family Self Sufficiency Program needs more funding and waitlists open. A summary of the positive benefits for all disabled Section eight participants in the PHA, Washington County, Oregon. Did you receive that?

Yes.

You did? Okay.

Is not a time for two way dialogue, but yes.

Oh, okay. Sorry about that.

That's alright.

I would like to ask all commissioners to review this and ask questions to the Section eight officials of when and why waitlists are not open and what will they do as our officials to promote the FSS program to HUD. So some of the possible benefits of having the FSS receive, more funding, new funding, and also opening the waitlist is case management. They would be offered a FSS coordinator. They would be given community resources, service referrals, higher education, and goal coaching. They might be offered home ownership classes, escrow savings accounts and information on home ownership Section eight program.

Individual plans for goals, debt reduction, disability savings accounts which are very important for a participant to be able to save money and get off of the program eventually. Financial education, improving credit scores and banking and insurance information that could be renters insurance or home insurance. And it also would give coordinators direct communication with participants that are disabled to promote ADA accommodation and rentals and permanent housing. Individual living with caregivers and other health support systems are also very important. The possible solutions that could result from this are better communication to HCB participants about the FSS program and that it is voluntary.

This is a voluntary program in Washington County. We could hire more FSS coordinators like Peter and Cheyenne that are here in the current Section eight office that do an extraordinary job. And they could also have coordinators with caseloads that have appropriate numbers because right now the numbers are very low, considered to how many people actually hold an HCV voucher in Washington County which is very important. And they would make this extraordinary program easily accessible for disabled participants, widely accessible, and openly communicated about in Washington County. It will open waitlists that have been closed for over fourteen months.

So I want to stress that this program has been closed to new applicants able-bodied and disabled for over fourteen months. That's a very long time and this is a moving to work Section eight program. So how does that actually affect participants? It affects them a lot because they need to have coordinators and they need to have goals in order to meet your expectations. The PHA in Washington County needs to request more funding from HUD for the Family Self Sufficiency Program.

The impact is great and I'll make it fast because I know I'm almost done. It would give significant savings without immediate loss of Section eight housing benefits, financial education and financial independence. It would also give case management and personal coordinators with mentorship and achievable goals. It would give possible graduation, home ownership, higher education diplomas and business ownership opportunities. It would build positive futures for HUD and HCV disabled participants here in Washington County. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Kevin, we have her name on. Yes. Didn't catch it. Okay. Thank you very much.

Anyone else? Anyone else in the auditorium? Dale? And then we'll have one online. Okay.

Thank you. You know the drill, Del.

Yes. Vice Chair, Presidenting Officer, Jerry Willey County Commissioners and Director Samaro, who's online. I was going to make public comment during the hearing about Molly Rogers, Executive Director of Housing Authority Board, and that the recommendation that a person be removed from the authority removed from the Board. But that person resigned, that's Director Roper. And so by the action taken by you as County Commissioners and by Director, appropriate thing occurred.

That person resigned because of lack of participation and not following the rules. So I appreciate that. I also appreciate the two presentations that we just given about housing authority. Very important. I particularly liked your questions, Nafisa, your question, Pam Trees, and also particularly yours, Jason Snyder.

And based upon the workstation today on the report, annual comprehensive financial report and single audit report by John Steyer and Sarah Keene, that ability to have audits, take the audits very seriously to improve the quality of the services provided the county is much appreciated. And I appreciate you, Jason Snyder, particularly the direct questions and knowledge that you have and that you're going to share later as you said about that process. So, I'm in support of the housing authority and what they do. People with low incomes and people that have not the ability to pull themselves by the strap, they just can't do that. They need public assistance, especially from the federal government and from the county and from the city.

So anything you can do to help people that can't help themselves is much appreciated. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Feek. Kevin?

Last one we have online is Megan Hill. Megan, can you hear us?

I can.

Please go ahead for up to five minutes.

Great. Thanks, Kevin. Good morning. My name is Megan Hill, and I serve as the president of Oak Hills Homeowners Association, and I've been actively engaged in the Cornell Road transitional process and project for nearly a year. I wanna start by being very clear.

I support transitional housing. I support recovery focused programs, and I want nothing more than these programs to succeed. Success requires something very specific, alignment between policy, practice, and what is being communicated to the public. At the March 31 Good Neighbor Agreement meeting, I had a direct conversation with housing services staff regarding background checks. I was told that Washington County does not broadly run background checks even in employment contexts and that this has informed the County's approach to housing.

That did not align with my professional experience, so I did my own research. As of this morning, Washington County has 20 open job postings on their website. All but two require a criminal background investigation as specified in the job posting. These include roles like digital forensic investigator, legal specialist, facilities maintenance technician, and even administrative position. So I want to ask one very simple question.

If background checks are considered appropriate for employment, including roles that do not directly involve vulnerable populations, why are they considered inappropriate in housing programs located in residential communities with children? To be clear, this is not about exclusion. This is not about denying housing. This is about informed placement and that distinction matters. I have created a fully developed policy and administrative procedure that demonstrates how this can be done in a legally compliant and operationally feasible way.

That framework includes risk informed background screening, individualized assessment consistent with fair housing guidance, tiered placement aligned with supervision needs, and alternative housing pathways with higher structure when required. This is not theoretical. This should be standard practice across housing systems in Washington County, reentry programs and supportive housing models. I'm happy to share this with all of you. Right now the gap, excuse me, right now the gap is not whether safeguards can exist.

The gap is that policies are not clearly defined, practices are being described inconsistently, and the public is being asked to accept program accept a program without clarity on how it operates. So my question to the housing authority to be very direct. First, my request not my question, my request. First, review your current policies and procedures for background screening and resident placement. Ensure they are clearly documented, consistent with what staff are communicated communicating and aligned with established best practices.

Second, ensure consistency across all systems. If safeguards exist in employment, justice and other County programs, they should be thoughtfully evaluated in housing, not dismissed outright. Third, establish clarity before implementation. Because the program is operational, it is much harder to correct foundational gaps. This is not about slowing progress.

This is about doing it right the first time. Because when programs are designed with clarity, transparency, and appropriate safeguards, they are far more likely to succeed for residents and for the community. I want to be a partner in that success, partnership requires alignment between what is said, what is written, and what is implemented. Right now, that alignment is not there, and that is what needs to be addressed. Thus far, I haven't been taken up on this, but my offer stands. I am available and very willing to help. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Megan. Her testimony will be available online as well? Yes.

Part of

the packet. All right. Thank you very much. Anyone else?

I do not see anyone else raising their hands. One last chance. Anyone else on Zoom wish to provide public comment for up to five minutes. The housing authority on housing related topics. Not seeing any additional hands, Director Willey.

Okay. Thank you. We now move into Board of Directors announcements. Does any of the directors have something they'd like to announce? Director Savara, anything to words of wisdom for us?

Okay. No words of wisdom today, but I appreciate you being a part of the team. And, yeah, just, thanks for indulging me on, being able to be online today. I'm actually going to the Housing Authority of Oregon quarterly meeting. So I'll be enjoying some time with the other housing authorities across the state and always enjoy being a part of this team and collaborating with other housing authorities. So we do some really good work, important work across the state. Appreciate you all.

Yes. Thank you very much always for your participation in a variety of housing and homeless issues around our region. Any other directors? If not entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. All those in favor of adjourning the meeting raise your hands. Those opposed, thank you very much. This meeting is adjourned. We will have reconvened the Board of Directors meeting in about two minutes.

Thank you.

Alrighty, we're going to reconvene here so we can quiet down.

Okay, if we could have everybody bring their conversation down, including Tanya. Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome to the Board of Washington County Board of Commissioners meeting on 05/05/2026. And could we have a roll call please?

Certainly, Vice Chair Willey. Washington County Board of Commissioners is now meeting this regular session for county and all county service districts, 05/05/2026. Commissioner Treese? Here. Commissioner Fai?

Present.

Commissioner Schneider? Here. Vice Chair Willey? Here. I'll announce Chair Harrington is excused and Vice Chair Willey is serving as Chair.

Thank you very much. Everyone who has the ability to please stand and have the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Thank you. This is a part of our meeting where we have public communications for up to two minutes, ten minutes total. Kevin, do we have anyone signed up?

We do Mr. Vice Chair. The two we have signed up is Dale Feek and Vern Bissell. So both of you can come forward.

What happened to Mr. Feek? Is he?

Okay.

This is a quiz. All right. Go right ahead, sir.

Thank you. First, I would like to thank you for your service to the citizens of Washington County. My name is Vern Bissell. I've been a resident of Washington County for, well, since 1974. I have three items. Number one is when I testified on a few months ago about hazards of artificial intelligence. I mentioned that briefly. I want to mention another. I testified a few months ago about the danger of AI replacing meaningful and purposeful work for humans. The purposeful creator, God, has created mankind in his image, so purpose and fulfillment of purpose are fundamental to who we are.

Now comes another example added to the one I gave a couple of months ago. In October 25, a report by the American Psychological Association found that many teens are turning to AI chatbots for friendship and emotional support. Since we're made in the image of God, we are inherently relational. AI chatbots friendships will most certainly stunt emotional and relationship growth, which normal human relationships provide for human development. And so I just I want to make the point, you folks are in a very important position of influence and serving well.

But I appreciate that please understand that AI is not the latest thing since sliced bread and shouldn't be treated that way. It has to be dealt with, with very great caution. Thank you. Number two, related to election integrity. I knew the morning after the November twenty twenty election that the system is tragically broken.

In how many ways we still may not know since creativity of people seems to provide new dirty tricks by the year. Before I went to bed on the evening of November twenty twenty election, I knew Trump had won. At all five swing states I looked at, Trump was up by several points over Biden, 600,000 in Pennsylvania, with remaining unaccounted votes, unaccounted votes needing to be around 55% for Biden in those swing states. It was clearly a done deal. I went to bed knowing what the result was.

When I listened to the final result in the morning after with coffee, I was stunned. I knew to the core of my being that America had been cheated. Watching fifty plus hours of affidavit testimony at seven legislative hearings over five states, which I recorded, only reaffirmed what I knew.

I need to be wrapping it up. Only had two minutes.

Oh, okay. There it is. Okay. Thank you. Third point is similar. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And thank you for the written information. We will certainly include that in our packet. Mr. Feek? Mr. Feek, thought maybe you had abandoned us.

I had to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom. You need to know.

Essential services, yes. It is.

Things we have to do around here. Presiding Officer, Vice Chair Willie and County Commissioner, I'm Dale Feek. I already e mailed you a quick e mail this morning. I'm going to make it public for everybody. In a letter to the editor of The Oregonian, I wrote that I personally like the two county commissioners, Nafisa Fai and Pam Trees, who are running to replace Harrington.

I said I would decide which candidate to endorse based upon how well each understands the complexity of the current policies and of setting new ones, while working cooperatively with other commissioners and county's administrative staff. I said that Fai has two more years to serve in the county commission even if she loses because her term doesn't expire until 2028. If Fai wins, Therese will no longer be a commissioner as her term ends this year. If Therese victory means both will continue serving Washington County. After the Ergonian interviewed both Therese and Fai, they decided that Therese has the experience and knowledge to better lead the county as chair.

I agree. At a debate of all three candidates for County Commission chair in Forest Grove, I learned that Jenny Kamprath supports voter integrity, President Trump's assault on voting by mail campaign. Please vote Trees, not Kamprath. And I noticed a lot of people are in the audience today. And I also noticed that Douglas Frank has signed up for five minutes to speak before you during the five minute time.

And I remember when he came before, he's been a national leader on voter integrity supporting Trump's trying to get rid of vote by mail. It's very important that we keep our democracy and have people be able to participate by having vote by mail. If you don't have vote by mail, a lot of people are taken out of the equation of voting. We need everybody to participate. I know there is a big crowd in here. You're going to hear that. And that's the reason a lot of people are here. I'm against the tyrant Trump.

Thank you, Mr. Feek. The last in person we have is Eilah Hoffler and then we have one online, Mr. Vice Chair.

Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for letting us speak to you this morning. Didn't plan on talking to you, but after hearing that, the bear has awoken. I'm so sick of this Trump derangement syndrome in this county. It's absolutely nuts. And there's only one person to vote in as Chair of Commissioner, and that's Jenny Camprith. She's the only level headed common sense person that doesn't have a social agenda to take our taxes and spend and spend and spend, she'll balance the budget and keep us on course. And also, yes, Doctor. Frank was denied speaking. Want to talk about the right to speak?

Last time he was here, you denied my CPO the chance to let him talk. So today, you better hear him. That's what I'm saying. And in '28, you're going to have to have in person voting because it's a federal law and you're going to have a federal election. So you're either going to have to pay for both what do I want to say, mail in voting and in person.

You're going to have to do both. So you might as well get ready right now. Our precincts are ready to tally. We want to meet our people in our precincts, have them show their ID, sign their name, say hi to each other, and vote like we did in the old days. We can have the results of our votes in one day doing it in person. And if you think showing ID is being discriminatory, you're nuts. Everybody can do it. There's no excuse. Vote Jenny.

All right. Thank very much, Eileen.

Thanks. Next, we have online Megan Hill. Megan, can you hear us?

I can.

Please go ahead for up to two minutes.

Hi, commissioners. It's me again. I'm Megan Hill. I serve as the president of Oak Hills Homeowners Association. I'm here today with a repeated request.

I'm asking this board to schedule a work session on the Cornell Road transitional housing project. Over the past year, we have been told to engage through community meetings, good neighbor agreement meetings and public record requests, but those channels are not designed to address governance level questions and those questions remain unresolved. In a recent meeting, I was told that background checks are not broadly used by the county, but today, Washington County has 20 open positions and nearly all require criminal background investigation. So it begs the question, why are safeguards considered appropriate for employment but not for housing programs located in residential neighborhoods? This is not about exclusion.

This is about responsible program design and informed placement. I have created and will gladly share a responsible transitional housing framework, including a placement matrix and a fully drafted administrative policy and procedure. These demonstrate that screening can be done legally, placement can and should be individualized, and housing access can be preserved. This is not theoretical. This is something that can be implemented immediately.

But right now, policies remain unclear, staff messaging is inconsistent, and the key safeguards are not defined. A board level work session is the appropriate form to review these policies, ensure alignment, and provide direction. Work sessions can and should be accessible to constituents. They are a mechanism they are a critical mechanism for transparency, accountability, and informed decision making. I've made this request three times and at this point, I would like to see movement and collaboration because ultimately the role of this board is to represent constituents and with just shy of 1,000 signed petitions in support of background checks and exclusions, There is a clear there is clear and growing public support for this conversation to happen.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Megan.

I don't see anyone else. Vice Chair Willey.

Thank you very much. I think that consumes our ten minutes. So I think we're done with that part of it. Next item is the Consent Agenda. As you can see on the agenda, there are nine items on the Consent Agenda. I want to point your attention to item number nine as it was added late to resend the Board approval for the bid award for Walker Road. We have received a staff report on that I believe and the information is in the packet. So I'm assuming there's no questions on that and would consider a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented with the adjustments.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your hand please. Those opposed? Motion carries unanimously, four to zero. We are on to proclamations, a proclamation in honor of the National Travel and Tourism Week twenty twenty six, specifically requested by Commissioner Snyder. So take it away, please.

Thank you, vice chair Willie. And we also have, I think, in the audience, the executive director of Explore Twalton Valley, the Washington County Visitors Association, Dave Pruhlot. Why don't you come up and join join us at the table? I would like to share that I serve very proudly as a member of the commission on the board of directors for Explore to Walton Valley, and the organization does really important work promoting tourism and travel. And I'm excited to be able to share this proclamation with our community.

So this is a proclamation of the board of commissioners for Washington County proclaiming in honor of National Travel and Tourism Week twenty twenty six, whereas the travel industry is essential to the success of every industry and will continue to be a critical part of Washington County's economy, development, and workforce, and whereas travel is an economic powerhouse for every state and destination across the country with an economic out of $2,900,000,000,000 supporting 15,000,000 American jobs. And whereas travel spending supports vibrant and safe communities in Washington County and across The United States by generating $55,400,000 in state and local tax revenue in 2024 to support essential services such as education, emergency response, public safety, and more. And whereas travel enables success for all industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, defense, health care, and more by driving sales growth, innovation, education, and operations that power our economy, our nation, and Oregon. And whereas America's travel industry cannot be globally competitive without maximizing growth in leisure business and international inbound travelers, increasing travel to and within The United States drives our economy to a more prosperous future and connects America. And whereas one in every 11 US jobs depend on travel, making it a critical driver of America's economy and a force for connection and opportunity.

And whereas travel is an essential industry and explore Tualatin Valley, the official destination organization for Washington County that promotes the region, enhancing its economic vitality, continues to communicate that growing travel leads to economic growth, benefits business, fosters mutual understanding, and connects the nation. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Washington County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim May 2026 as National Travel and Tourism Week in Washington County and calls upon the people of Washington County to join me in recognizing the essential role this industry plays here in the county. And I would request that we approve this proclamation.

Hold on to your motion just for Dave, a if you'd like to thank you very much for being with us today and doing a great job. So do you have any comments that you'd like to make?

Thank you, Vice Chair Willie, and thank you Commissioner Schneider for being our representative on the Explore Twalton Valley Board and good morning commissioners. I'm Dave Perlow, President and CEO of Explore Twalton Valley. We just I just want to thank the county for your ongoing partnership and some of the great things that we have been able to do with your support to elevate Washington County as the closest wine destination to Portland and PDX as a place where business gets done, where leisure and outdoor traveling goes. And just to give you some higher numbers, report dropped this morning from Travel Oregon and for Washington County particularly, direct travel spending in 2025 surpassed $1,000,000,000 supported 94 almost 9,500 direct jobs and brought 9,200,000 person nights into the county with person trips of about 3,300,000. Travel is often complex and is wrapped up not only in leisure travel, but of course supports our industry and it's just the best job I've ever had and I thank you so much for enabling us to be your voice and cheerleader.

Thank you very much, Dave. And it must be pointed out that every one of those nights, those folks paid transient lodging tax which also goes to another level of support for tourism around our county. So important stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you. Commissioners, are we good? Entertain a motion to approve.

Move to approve.

A second. Second.

Thank you. Motion and a second to approve the proclamation for honoring National Travel and Tourism Week in 2026. All those in favor, raise your hand please. Those opposed, motion carries unanimously. Thanks very much again Dave for being with us today. Thank you, Commission. Okay. Going on to the second proclamation. This is the tag team between Clean Water Services and Land Use and Transportation. Steven Roberts, our Director of Land Use and Transportation. Joe Gull, Chief Utility Relations Officer of Clean Water Services. I don't see Steven, so I'll see, his twin brother who will introduce himself in a minute.

Let me start. Good morning, Vice Chair, Willy and Board members. I'm Joe Gahl with Clean Water Services.

And I'm Ed Musson with Operations and Maintenance Superintendent for LUT.

So we do this every year. This year is the first year since, as you know and the public may know, we have separate meetings now between Clean Water Services acting as a board and the county acting as a board. But one thing that is nice is this proclamation, you recognize both organizations for the work that we do three sixty five days of the year. I really appreciate that you include Clean Water Services in this proclamation. The work we do within the district in wastewater and storm water definitely falls within the public works portfolio.

Many cities and counties also provide those services. We're unique as a special district. And I just want to thank you for including clean water services and recognizing our team for the work we do throughout the year as part of this annual process.

Absolutely.

Thank you. Right. And the proclamation states, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vital of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of Washington County and whereas these infrastructure facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works employees at all levels of government and private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting our transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our community and, whereas, it is in the public interest for the community members, civic leaders, and children in Washington County to gain knowledge of and maintain a progressive interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in the respective communities and whereas the efficiency of qualified and dedicated personnel who staff public works departments is materially influenced by people's attitude and understanding of the importance of the work they perform. Now, therefore, be it resolved that on the May 2026, Washington County Board of Commissioners, also acting as the Board of Commissioners for Clean Water Services, does hereby proclaim the week of May 2026 as National Public Works Week in Washington County.

We and we call upon all community members and civic organizations to acquaint themselves with the issues involved in providing our public works and recognize the contributions that public works officials make every day to our health, safety, comfort and quality of life.

Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Joe, thank you very much for joining us and we appreciate certainly the partnership that Clean Water Services and Worsheng County have and, we certainly look to continuing that relationship. So, any questions, comments, commissioners? Entertain a motion to approve.

I move to proclaim May 2026 as National Public Works Week in Washington County.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your hand. Those opposed, motion carries unanimously, four to zero. Thank you very much. Do you want to have pictures or did you bring a team with you? What do got?

You have a busy agenda. We don't need pictures.

Somebody in the crowd says yes.

I want those pictures.

We're happy to do pictures.

Okay. We're coming down here because we're not going to do it up here. We're going to do it down here. So with everybody who wants to be in the picture, come on up.

In front of just the square U table.

And two, three. I'm back to doing everything I do.

All right. We are now back to item F1, Boards and Commissions, appoint members to the Washington County Transit Committee. Did we do the third proclamation?

You did not. One more.

I'm sorry. Okay. Sorry, I blanked. We are going to have a third proclamation to proclaim May 2026 as Building Safety Month in Washington County. How could we forget you? I don't know.

Thank you, Vice Chair Willey and members of the Board. I'm Carol Johnson, Planning and Development Services Manager and I'm joined today by Sarah Dawn, who is a Senior Building Permit Technician with the Building and Safety section of planning and development services. So Sarah is here to read the proclamation for Building Safety Month for the month of May.

Great. Thank you. Go ahead.

Thank you. Whereas our county is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depend on the safety and economic value of the homes, buildings, and infrastructure that serve our community both in everyday life and in times of natural disaster. And whereas our confidence in structural integrity of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, tradespeople, design professionals, laborers and others in the construction industry who work year round to ensure the safety construction of buildings. And whereas Building Safety Month reminds the public about the critical role served by the community's largely unknown guardians of public safety, our local code officials who assure us safe, efficient and livable buildings. And whereas built to last, the theme of Building Safety Month twenty twenty six encourages all to raise awareness that building safety starts at home with building safety professionals and individuals to prepare and advocate for our community and to solve challenges together.

Building Safety Month twenty twenty six encourages appropriate steps everyone can take to ensure the safety of our built environments and recognizes that the implementation of safety codes by local and state agencies saves lives, protects homes and businesses. And whereas each year in observance of Building Safety Month, we are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety and economic investment at home and in the community to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local and state building departments, fire prevention bureaus, and federal agencies in protecting lives and property. Now, therefore, be it resolved that on this May 2026, the Washington County Board of Commissioners does hereby proclaim May 2026 as Building Safety Month in Washington County, and we call upon all residents, businesses and civic organizations to take steps to ensure the places where we live, learn, work and play are safe, sustainable and to recognize that lives have been saved due to the implication of safety codes by local and state agencies.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioners, any comments?

Thank you for your focus on Safety First. That is absolutely fundamental. So I appreciate that and I am in support of this proclamation.

Thank you. Entertain a motion to approve the proclamation.

I move to accept this proclamation. Safety first.

Motion and a second. All those in favor raise your hands. Those opposed, motion carries four to zero and we should have probably stayed down there and had a picture with you too, shouldn't we? Yeah. We get travel allowance though for this for here. I'm lying. We don't either.

Thank you.

Okay. We are now on item F1, Boards and Commissions. We are here to appoint members to the Washington County Transit Committee. And do we have a presentation on that?

We do not have a presentation board and members of the public. The board reviews all applications to, boards and committees in work session. Your board has previously, reviewed this recommendation.

Okay. Thank you very much. I would entertain a motion to approve, these appointed members to the Washington County Transit

I move we appoint the members to the Washington County Transit Committee as proposed.

Second.

Motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your hand. Those opposed? Motion carries unanimously four to zero. We are now on item G1 for action capital improvement plan approval and we have John Steyer heading up to make a presentation on this.

Good morning, Vice Chair and Commissioners. I'm John Steyer, the Chief Financial Officer of Washington County. Today, I'm bringing forward the proposed twenty twenty six, two thousand and thirty one capital improvement plan for your consideration and approval. Before I get started, do want to thank, it's a team to put this together. So we have our lead project person, Theme Grintz from Information Technology and Emma Ross from Land Use and Transportation who does the graphics for this plan as well as our Directors of, Information Technology, Luke Ross Laurel Brown from, Facilities, Fleet and Parks and Steven Roberts from Land Use and Transportation as well as the staff and teams that put these together and review projects each year.

And so it takes a team effort. We presented this plan to you in work session on April 21. The CIP serves to inform your board, the municipal community partners and the residents of Washington County on planned capital projects. The CIP is a five year forecast and incorporates new projects, identifies funding needs and available resources. And this plan reflects a coordinated capital planning across the departments that I just mentioned, IT, Landis and Transportation and Facilities, Fleets and Parks.

So the CIP is an iterative annual process. Each year, we refine the plan, we validate priorities and we adjust for new needs or, risks. It brings clarity and focus to the county's capital investment programs. The plan incorporates capital investments from three major service areas that I mentioned, information technology, land use and transportation and fleets facilities, fleet and parks. This is our fourth iteration of the formal CIP process, and each year, the planning process becomes stronger and more integrated.

I'll just cover each of the main capital areas briefly. So turning first to information technology, which plays a foundational role across the organization. The capital plan for IT is guided by principles of modernization, cloud and AI enabled approaches, life cycle management, data driven decision making and enterprise standards and security. There are no capital projects in the CIP for fiscal year beyond fiscal year twenty twenty seven for the IT department, But their focus has been on two major projects that are listed here on the screen. The enterprise resource planning modernization, which is actually on Page 42 of the actual CIP document.

The enterprise resource planning system serves as the backbone and connects the county's peoples, process and technology. It enables consistent operations, financial accountability and informed decision making across the organization. We have placed replaced our twenty four year old Oracle based enterprise resource planning platform going live in Workday in December 2025 and are now in the post implementation phase, focusing on optimization, stabilization and continuous improvement. This effort is essential in improving workforce experience and enabling efficient, stable operations. The second project there is a phone replacement system that modernizes the county's voice communications infrastructure with scalable cloud ready solutions.

Work is underway and targeted go live is June 2026. On facilities, fleets and parks, they oversee a large and diverse set of assets, over 40 buildings, 2,000,000 square feet of space and 2,500 acres of green space. Many facilities span decades, and maintaining reliability and safety remains a top priority. Key priorities in this CIP for facilities includes rehabilitation needs of congregate care facilities, addressing critical building systems needs that could impact structural integrity, meeting rising community demand for high quality outdoor recreation spaces and conducting studies to define future project scope, cost and sequencing. Highlighted here in the pictures include the Washington County Courthouse and on Page 17 of our document and a storm drain sidewalk repair as well as water intrusion evaluation project on Page 18 are examples of facilities projects.

Also shown is the Center for Addiction and Triage Treatment, the CAT, which opened in 2025 and provides the county's first publicly funded sobering and detox program, greatly expanding treatment options. On land use and transportation, they manage an estimated, an extensive network of 1,300 plus miles of roads, 183 bridges and over 3,000 culverts. The system is critical to our region's safety, economy and mobility. The transportation system capital priorities include improving safety, connectivity and equitable access for all transportation users adding multimodal features to legacy streets maintaining pavement condition and ensuring bridges are structurally seismically resilient supporting transient access, including last mile solutions and addressing connectivity in urban areas under development. Featured in the picture here is the culvert replacement program.

It's an ongoing program, and it provides essential investment to prevent future failures and support environmental and transportation resiliency. And on to the numbers. So from a financial perspective, the CIP reflects a holistic view of the county's highest priority capital needs for the next five years. This summary is on table is on Page eight of our CIP document. And the CIP is an opportunity to capture critical projects across this five year planning horizon.

In our table here, it shows actuals spent through fiscal year twenty twenty five, the projected through the end of the current fiscal year and the proposed budget FY 2027, which we'll be talking about this week with the budget committee, and four additional fiscal year estimates. The plan highlights critical facilities projects that are unfunded in the out years, which helps focus efforts in directing resources as needed. In this plan, there are $575,000,000 in unfunded facilities projects within that five year period that we are working to find solutions. The largest projects include jail expansion design, expansion of our jail and community corrections and then our Walnut Street seismic upgrade, among other projects. The plan is aligned with our organizational values of mission driven service, stewardship, integrity, equity and collaboration.

And the forecast supports our One Washington County vision, ensuring capital investments are transparent, coordinated and sustainable across all departments. So today, I'm here to request your board approve of the twenty six -two thousand and thirty one capital improvement plan. This enables departments to continue project planning, secure funding and execute the county's most essential capital projects.

Great. Thank you very much, John.

Vice Chair Willey, can I just comment on something? John, can you go back one slide? So Board and just for members of the public, the Board has talked significantly over the last several years about funding our existing facilities. The county has conducted its first facility condition index, which is similar to a pavement condition index. So the facility condition index is used as an input to determine what are the critical needs that we have to maintain our existing assets.

And so that is what is driving what is in the blue on your screen as identified as unfunded. So I just want to indicate that staff are putting this forward for knowing those are unfunded needs. And this is still an ongoing challenge that is being grappled with of how do we fund or finance our buildings in addition to operations at the county and determine what is the viable revenues to fund that on an ongoing basis.

Great. Thank you. And I think it needs to be pointed out, probably will by the other commissioners, that this does not include a new courthouse.

It does not include a new courthouse. It does not include a new jail. It does not include new additions of facilities.

Okay. Commissioners. I just want to point out for the viewing audience both here and at home that we spent more than an hour on details with this presentation in a work session in the last couple weeks. I think it's important to point that out. If someone wanted to know a lot more about a particular area, going and reviewing that work session would be a very good way of getting more background information, and I just don't want it to appear like we're sort of glossing over or or doing a very short review of this because that's just not accurate, But it may appear that way to someone looking at this in isolation.

Right. And I think in addition to that, Commissioner, it presents a picture that we are looking out into the future to 3031 on what our needs are going to be, identifying what the shortfall or the unfunded part of it is and so we can begin to address those as we go forward and no more surprises on that at least. Other commissioners? Pam?

Thank you very much. I would like to thank our staff for the work that's been done here for the recognition of what we need to be doing to take care of the buildings that we have. Our CAO compared this to our pavement condition index. And the end result of not taking care of your pavement is that it results in a road that is no longer you can't travel on it and therefore you have to start all over at the very beginning and the costs increase. That's exactly what we're doing here is making sure we're protecting these assets.

We can continue to utilize the access the assets throughout their life. So thank you for the work here. These are hard numbers to look at, but it's reality And we need to be focused here as we move forward over the next ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years. This is a program that has a great long life. So thank you for the work.

Commissioner Fai.

And with that I make the motion to approve the twenty twenty six-two thousand and thirty one capital improvement plan.

Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your hands please. Those opposed, motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much again John for your work on this and the other projects you've got going and keep up the good work. Thank you, sir.

Okay,

we now move into public communications, five minute opportunity. We have a number of folks signed up for this.

So Kevin. Thank you Vice Chair Willey. The first two we have is Mary Hakulpolice and Doctor. Douglas Frank.

These chairs don't move very easily.

These are the handouts These you gave

are the handouts.

10 pages or eight pages.

Nine. Good morning. Yes. Here's what they got.

Okay. Good.

Okay. Good morning, Vice Chair, Willie and Commissioners. I'm Mary Halkiopolis, a resident of Washington County. Doctor. Douglas G.

Frank is a world renowned physicist, chemist, inventor, mathematician and Nobel Prize nominee with 60 peer reviewed scientific publications including cover and feature articles in the world's leading scientific journals. About five years ago his concern for the integrity of our elections compelled him to take a quote six month break from his laboratory to work on bringing about trustworthy elections nationwide. Since then he's been working tirelessly with Secretaries of State, Legislators, Sheriffs and Election Integrity teams around the nation. Over the past couple of years he's visited Oregon several times analyzing and illustrating our state and county data in an effort to educate all of us on the current state of affairs. The charts you have before you are from 2025, that's pages two through whatever.

They were created with data from the Oregon Secretary of State illustrating aspects of our voter rolls ranging over decades. The first chart we'll talk about is page two portrays Oregon's election history from 1960 to 2024. The top blue line illustrates the total voting age population of Oregon 18 years of older and older. It's important to keep in mind that not everyone who is in that age group is legally qualified to vote. The black line indicates the number of registered voters through the years.

Nationwide, it's typical that registered voters make up about 70% of the eligible voting population. The red line shows the number people voting in midterms and general elections. The vertical lines show the general election voter turnout with the midterm dip in between. Please note the big jump in the 20 in 2004 turnout. This jump happened through the country, that's a typo, sorry, as a result of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 when all the states switched over to electronic voting machines.

The chart showed that from 1960 to 2014, the voter rolls were periodically being cleaned, but something changed in 2014. From that point forward, the voter rolls have exploded so that the number of registered voters grew to surpass the eligible population. What happened in 2014? The state took control away from the local clerks and began centrally registering everyone possible through DMV and public agencies. The next chart on page three maintains the same data except changes the top blue line from actual population numbers to population trends which describes the dynamic patterns and rates of change in the population characteristics over time.

In this manner, Doctor. Frank demonstrated that there were 713,000 more people registered than is justified by population growth and he was being conservative in his analysis. Now this year, we learned that 800,000 people needed to be removed from the rolls. Since every county believes it's unique, Doctor. Frank developed the third graph which is on page four in which he plotted the number of registered voters in every county from 1976 forward.

You can see similar activity through all counties. However, it really becomes evident when you look at the next chart on page five. In this chart, we see the normalized statewide voter registration data. Normalization structures the data into a standardized consistent format and scale that allows for more meaningful comparison. We can see that all counties showed the same overall pattern including the big increase starting in 2014.

The next chart, page six, shows the same information but this time for Washington County. We can see the voting age population in blue, the number of registered voters in black, and the voter turnout for each election in red. This time there is an added gray squiggly line beginning in 2014 which shows the monthly registered voters. As we saw with the statewide chart, the next chart, Page seven, changed from raw population numbers to population trends showing the dynamic patterns and rate of change which brings us to our final graph Page eight showing that 92,000 or about 30% more people are registered in Washington County than is justified by population growth. These charts further substantiate that losing local control of our voter rolls and elections has had a tremendous impact on the reliability of our elections which is why we have been advocating for a return to local control.

Doctor. Frank has a lot more to share with you on several topics. If you have questions on these charts, please ask him. Please contact him as he can go into a lot more detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. Doctor. Frank? That was impressive, Mary.

Thank you.

Thank you for that. I spoke to you guys about a year ago, March, and I told you what was about to happen. I showed you your future. I said that there's a growing movement in Oregon where we have does over about two dozen counties now, analogous to your local election integrity team that are actually analyzing their voter rolls, I provided to them, and proving that you have very dirty voter rolls, excessive fraud, except all kinds of issues. And all of the claims I made last year have since been confirmed in court.

So everything I said is is justified and based upon actual data. These are your actual data from your actual secretary of state. It's not me inventing everything. Your election systems are vulnerable to attack through wireless. That's been proven in court here. In fact, in your own court here in in in Tim Sipple case. So yet, despite the fact that your voter rolls are so dirty, you continue to mail ballots to all these ineligible voters wasting millions. I'm not exaggerating. Millions of Washington County dollars and exposing your elections to widespread election fraud. You have dirtier voter rolls today than you did a year ago, negatively affecting the integrity of your current primary election and wasting, once again, millions of your own dollars.

At a publicly well attended meeting last night, at random, I picked three people from the audience. They gave me their address, and we looked them up. Three out of three serious issue. This isn't surprising since 30% of the stuff in your roles doesn't go on there. But anyway, in this these three cases, the first case we found a like case of election fraud right there, right in front of everybody. Second, we showed that there was wasted ballots being mailed and redundant ballots. In other words, three out of three examples that we picked at random from the audience all showed what I've been telling you is real. This is real. It's a little puzzling to me that if we can figure it out that simply, what are your election officials doing here? It's really not their fault though.

I'm not blaming your election officials. The problem is your state system that's being unconstitutionally and illegally imposed upon you. You need to take back local control, and until you do, you will continue to have illegal and fraudulent voting in your county. It is your oath of office. You have sworn an oath to defend the civil rights of your citizens. You need to formally address this. And until you do, you're gonna continue to have fraud, illegal voting, and wasting huge amounts of money in your county. By the way, I offered last year and I'm offering again now. I'm happy. No charge. I will come in. I will work with you. I will teach you what's going on, and I will teach you how to take back local control of your elections. I've been doing this all around the country. Yeah.

I'm a physicist with all these publications and everything, but really they call me the Johnny Appleseed of election integrity these days. Traveling the country, I've been very experienced at this. I've been all over the country working with your sheriffs. In the coming weeks, I'm gonna tell you your future again. In the coming weeks, our your local election team, election integrity team is gonna start actually naming names, giving you addresses, actually putting into the formal record real fraud, real illegal voting, real showing right out of your own roles actual crimes are taking place.

You're going to have to address this. You're not gonna be able to ignore it. And they only have five minutes, so they're only gonna be able to give you a few cases every week. But we're just gonna systematically expose the actual real fraud fraud that's taking place in your county. You're not gonna be able to walk away from it. And if you do, you're you're you're derelict in your duties. So it'll be embarrassing to you, I think, and to your election officials. So I urge you to accept my offer. I'm here to help. I don't charge. I will be glad to help you learn how to do this. And I'm not blaming your clerk. I'm not blaming your local officials. It's the state system that's causing this to happen. And I'll just give you one example.

I was speaking to one of your sheriffs last year, not this one, in another county, and I was explaining to him how the voter rolls were being manipulated. He was quite upset about it. And he says, doctor Frank, I know that the voter roll that the machines are online, but I don't know about the voter rolls. Who's doing the voter rolls? And I stopped him right there. And I said, you know that the machines are online? Usually, I have to argue that or show the the Washington County Tim Simple case proving that your machines are accessible wirelessly. And he goes, oh, yeah. I know they're online. During the twenty twenty four election, I was on the ballot. So I logged into the county system, and I could see the tallies on all the machines. I called the clerk and said, hey. Thanks a lot. Looks like I'm winning the election. I'll be working with you next year. The clerk said, what? How do you know the tallies? You can't know the tallies. The machines are not connected. And he goes, I'm looking at it right now.

He takes a picture with his phone, sends her the picture. She's like, what? That can't be. She runs a few more ballots through the tabulators. Lo and behold, tick tick tick tick tick, he sends another picture. So in other words, I'm not accusing your local clerk of malfeasance. I'm telling you your local clerks don't know. You need to take back local control. I'm here to help.

Thank you very much.

Next two, we have Mr. Vice Chair, Bob Terry and Stephen Hunter.

Well, good morning Chair Willie and commissioners. I hope you've enjoyed Doctor. Frank. He has a tremendous amount of information of proof. I'm sorry, mister Snyder, but it's proof. It is fraud. It is illegal. I will let you now know our sheriff has been giving some of this information. We hope he will enforce it. We hope that they will take it forward where it should go.

So we are going to move forward with it. What we've been telling you, Mr. Snyder, is true. When you take your information that you have and you go sit down with somebody that you're measuring it to, their information is wrong and you insist on saying it's correct. It is not.

We have the absolute proof. We have been telling you now for a year and a half how we've been going out and actually visiting these places, interviewing people. A lot of these people sitting behind me have been part of those people who have done it and there's more beyond them. I don't understand why all four of you, five, are elected officials and yet you wanna ignore the fact that our votes that mister Willie and I put our lives on the line for mean nothing. When you're cheating in our elections, it maybe you got elected, maybe you got elected because of it.

All of us have been in that position. Some of us has lost elections because of it. This is real. I am asking you again today. And I want to apologize to the public that may be viewing this.

We ask today to be able to show those slides and information doctor Frank and Mary Chalko Kalakolakis provided you and you refused to let us do it. And the excuse that I was given was not very substantiated or very strong. This is real for everybody in this county. Doctor Frank talked about 24, a couple of dozen, that's 24 or 36 counties that have now seen it and it's coming. We've been slow at bringing it, trying to bring everybody up to where your county is, but those of us who have been investigating us.

And it's time that it starts coming out. It may not affect those of you. It may affect Nafisa fire. It may may may affect Pam Trees because it may happen before the next election or it may not. It depends on where our federal government is, but I'm telling you it's coming. Beyond that, I I don't know why the board does not wanna open. It is in your procedures to open your screen to things like doctor Frank wanted to present to the public. What are you afraid of? You know, I understand there may be some things you don't want people to show. But Pam Therese and the Feesafia, I've heard both of you on your campaign trail say that you're open to the public.

Our board is so open. Have been stomping these halls here for thirty years. I've created six committees on this county. I chaired two of them for two years and been on many of them before that. It was eighteen years on your budget committee.

I have never seen a board closed as much as this one is. I'm sorry to sit here like this in front of you guys. I know most of you very personally and I'm sorry to have to do it, but it's gotta come out to the public and the public needs to know and they need to become forward. There is cheating and fraud going on in our county and our voting in regard and I love Dale Fees. As as high as much as he comes forward and the hammers on president Trump, it means nothing because the truth has gotta come out and it will.

I am telling you that there are two members of this board who maybe become chair. One of them may remain on afterwards if you win or lose. I'm hoping that you two will get together and have the gumption to stand forward if we don't get in front of you before the end of this year and you will allow us to come before this board and present the information that that doctor Frank is showing because it's real and it's true and it's very definitive. To give you an example, he used my personal address. Five people voting for my address or received or received their ballots at my address.

There are only three of us living there that are eligible to vote. I take this serious, and I hope you will listen to me and work with us in areas where you have not in the past. We're only here for you and the public. Thank you all very much.

You, mister Terry. You're up, sir.

Good morning. At least I think it's still morning. Six minutes. We've got six minutes of morning left. Stephen Hunter, I signed something back there. I guess you have my information. I came here, it was quite interesting. I didn't come to speak on voting or ballots or the system or anything else, but it is quite interesting. I would recommend you folks consider taking back control of your election system. The representatives closest to the people represent best.

Take your system back. If you have a county clerk that does not want to do that, replace that county clerk, get your voter rolls back in the county, you guys can monitor them, you know the people. So I'm mostly from Clackamas County and I'm encouraging the same thing in Clackamas County. So anyway, I applaud these folks. What I actually came to speak about this morning is I live in Wilsonville and as you know there a sliver of Wilsonville that actually is in Washington County.

So you do have represented or you represent folks there. And late last night I was at a city council meeting and it degenerated not into a food fight, but it got pretty ugly. I would recommend you folks go to the website, everything is recorded and archived and watch this meeting. And it all it all started this is something else I noticed and it gets back to the election system. It seems like there are certain elements of our society that keep saying democracy, democracy, democracy.

Look, we live in a republic. And Benjamin Franklin, asked, you know, that famous quote, you know, you know, dear sir, what kind of a, you know, government do we have? And he replied to the this lady, a republic if you can keep it. And right now, we're not keeping it very well. In Wilsonville, you know, there is a ballot measure, for the people to be able to have a voice on urban renewal projects.

There is an element within that council and in the city that do not want the people to vote. So they scream democracy, but then they take away that democracy. No. No. You can have a voice, but not on this.

And this was brought up last night. The hottest contention was about an appointment made to the budget committee in Wilsonville. And apparently the mayor, which seems to be a monarch right now, has decided to take the least qualified individual and appoint this person to the budget committee because he was most aligned with what the mayor and the majority of the council wants to do. This is dangerous. What I am recommending to you, if any of you have any kind of a personal relationship with the mayor of Wilsonville, please sit down with him and counsel him and mentor him about leadership and decorum.

We had two former elected officials of Wilsonville actually make comment and they were embarrassed. They said never have they seen anybody, you know, treated the way this mayor treated your other officials and the public in that meeting. So anyway, I took up too much time already. Thank you, you know, for listening. I I don't have a link. It was a late night last night. But please observe that meeting in Wilsonville. And as you folks know, I've testified before that something stinks in Wilsonville and it's not the sewer rates. So thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Steven. Kevin? Couldn't hear your mic on that, Steven. John Woods. Okay.

He's Kevin. He's Jason.

My name is John Woods. I came here to listen to Doctor. Frank. But I do want to publicly thank you and commend you guys. You I was the one who started the pledge of allegiance for this meeting.

I have been spending a lot of time with veterans. One of your employees, Colette Klein, is probably one of the best veterans administrators in the country. She is amazing. I just wanna publicly commend her. But I wanna publicly commend you for continuing to do the pledge of allegiance.

I have spent a lot of time with veterans, 80, 85, 90 year old veterans on walkers and everything else. You don't know how much that means to them, That flag means to them. How they recall their time in the service. So like I said, I'm very pleased that you guys are con continue to do that pledge of allegiance. You are honoring the veterans.

You are honoring the people who put their lives on the line. You're honoring the people who are at the end of their life, but still love the flag, still love the country. So that's what I, decided to say. Thank you for doing that simple act that means so much. Thank you.

Thank you for starting that too, Joe. Recognize that.

Alright. We'll do one last call. We have one spot left. Is there anyone else that wants to provide public comment? Ma'am, please come forward and state your name for the record and you'll be the final speaker.

Good afternoon. In the nick of time.

You are.

My name is Anne Smoot. I am here with a statement from the League of Women Voters. And so I'm going to read it verbatim. I apologize for reading from a sheet, but that's what they've asked me to do. This is about Oregon's election system being safe and secure.

The expression democracy is not a spectator sport has even greater meaning during election season. One must be proactive and vigilant to make it through without falling prey to media disinformation. A blatant example is the unfounded claim by election deniers and conspiracy theorists that massive fraud exists in our election system. Now the League of Women Voters is known for providing voters with trustworthy, nonpartisan election information. We do our homework, which is why we can state with confidence that our vote by mail system, it is safe, it is secure due to safeguards mandated by state law and the exemplary work of our county clerks and the election workers.

A 2020 analysis by Oregon's legislative fiscal office showed a 0.00006% rate of voter fraud in Oregon elections from 2000 to 2019, a negligible rate by any standard. So here's a few key facts. Number one, voter rolls are continuously updated through data sharing by the Oregon Elections Division, Electronic Registration Information Center, National Change of Address, Oregon Health Authority, and the DMV. The DMV processes have been improved to ensure that noncitizens are not mistakenly registered. Instances of voter fraud in Oregon are minuscule due to careful signature verification, unique bar codes and specially designed paper.

Voting machines used to process ballots are highly secure and they are absolutely not connected to the Internet. Random post election hand counts verify machine counts after every election. Trust in elections is a pillar of our democracy. Know that our vote by mail system is one to be proud of. See sos.oregon.gov for more details about election integrity in Oregon. Thank you for your time. And stepping away from League of Women Voters, just as an Oregon citizen, I wanna thank everybody who's been here to voice their concerns.

This is what it's all about.

Thank you.

Thank Anne. Thank you, Anne. Kevin?

That completes the thirty minutes of public summit for this section. Mr. Reister. Okay.

So we are now into the Board of Commissioners meeting calendar that's upcoming and there are a number of meetings. As you can imagine, this is budget season. Courtney, I'm going to, as soon as I get through this, I'm going to come to you and respond, ask you to respond to our policy on allowing slide presentations and videos in these meetings in the five minute presentation. So that's give you a sixty second alert there, okay? So our commissioner calendar is Monday, 05/11/2026, budget information session for elected officials.

Tuesday, May 12 is Clean Water Services Board of Directors meeting. Clean Water Services Board of Directors work session will be following immediately following the board meeting. Board of County Commissioners work session is at 11:00. Washington County Budget Committee Community Town Hall at 06:00. Busy day.

Thursday, May 14, Washington County Budget Committee meeting at 09:00. Thursday, May 15, Washington County Budget Committee meeting again at 09:00. Tuesday, May 19, Board of Commissioners work session at nine regular board meeting at ten and Wednesday, May 20, Washington County and Service District Budget Committee meetings at nine a. M. As I said, this is budget season and so that is what we're doing right now for the most part.

Courtney, the reason I ask you to comment is because you and I have had the conversation, the accusation has been made that we did not allow it and it's not that we are withholding this data from public scrutiny or public ability to read. All of this information is in the board packet. It will be online and you can read and see everything that you have there. Now, why is it that we did not bring it to mister Terry? You know the rules. Of all people, you know the rules. So let's button it up. Courtney, go ahead.

Thank you, Vice Chair Willey. In your published rules of procedure, Section nine, subsection C, subsection four provides that persons desiring to use presentations must consult with the clerk in advance of the meeting. The clerk, of the Board reserves the right to deny or limit use of presentations unless the presiding officer invites the use of such presentations. And thank you, Vice Chair, Willie, for, confirming that, yes, indeed, all testimony and records received by your Board during the public meeting are retained with the minutes of this meeting and are available either by public records request and even further are published for public viewing.

Thank you. And it was my decision to not allow this so that we continue with the process and the policy that we have been maintaining for a long time. And so thank you very much Board Clerk for, working with them as well and finding out what we would have to do. So with all of that, any other comments from the commissioners? Entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor raise your hands. Those opposed? Motion carries. This board is adjourned. Workstation will convene at 01:10.