Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yeah, they had to, like, scramble.

All righty. Good morning, Commissioners, and over to Chair Harrington. And, Commissioner, please do you get the door if I do.

Okay. Welcome, everyone, to the public portion of the Washington County Board of County Commissioners Roundtable for Thursday, August 6th, 2026. We have a full agenda of topics today. So, Clerk Moss, could you take the roll, please?

Certainly, Chair Harrington. Commissioner Schneider? Here. Commissioner Pai? Present. Commissioner Treece?

Here.

Vice Chair Welling? Here. Chair Harrington?

Here. All righty. Next on our agenda is the meeting kickoff. We have a new set of rolling agendas. I understand that they've been updated with our August, our correct August and September vacation information. So in August, the next time we'll have all five of us in attendance will be at the August 25th meeting. I believe that's all I had to make sure we highlighted in August. I also want to say I appreciate staff efforts thus far to pencil in expected topics. In the month of September, we will have all five of us in the first meeting, September 1st. We do not have all five of us again until October. so October 11th do we have a quorum October 11th you mean I'm sorry August 11th August 11th August 11th Commissioner Snyder is out Commissioner Willie is out and as I understood it Commissioner Fye you had Well, no, Commissioner Snyder's not out until the 15th. He's here.

It just says that on the 11th. I'm sorry. Thank you for that clarification.

So if I looked at my right page, only Commissioner Fye and Commissioner Willie are out. So we have three of us. And then we have four of us the following week. In October, we have some penciled in things or tentative things. We have all five of us, as far as I know, all of the meetings. Our meeting of October 20th will miss both Ms. Angie and Ms. Ober with the ICMA conference and meetings, but there are other ACAs here. I just wanted to make sure the board was aware of that. Anything else on October? On November, we thus far have two meeting dates, November 3rd and November 10th. All five of us are expected. I also want to share with you verbally that I will be hosting Judge Joe Dubalskis from Sherman County for two days here in Washington County. He is an incoming officer for AOC. He and I have known one another our entire tenures. We were in AOC County College, and we've been trying to set up for a couple of years now. having him spend time learning about both of our agencies. So you will see him at the November 3rd meeting set. On November, under November 5th, I also want to highlight that we have the annual housing forum on November 6th to make sure you note that. And I also made sure staff's got the update that I plan to be at AOC under November 17th as well. Anything else in November?

And just for all commissioners and chair, thank you for announcing your attendance. So as a reminder, that meeting was canceled. So commissioners are able to attend. Because that's been an ongoing conflict.

And if something comes up, we'll pivot to Monday.

We're trying to work in the scheduled days as much as we can. And if something comes up as customary, we'll problem solve that with Chair Harrington.

Staff will know more as they continue their planning work in September and October. So don't worry. It's not like it'll be a three-day surprise. Okay. December, as far as I know, we'll have all five of us for each of the December meetings. December 15th will be the last set of board meetings with this board. And we have some things penciled in already. Anything else on December?

Okay. Can I just mention an item on December? Just, and I know your board recently had discussed the ESPD levy. I just want to flag December 8th is an important milestone in the ESPD levy process, since that is the date of transit on presentation of the levy replacement plan. I just wanted to flag that.

Yeah, so if we did a replacement of it, would we be doing the referral with the ballot title and measure statement that day?

If you look at December 15th.

That's what I am looking at.

Yeah, it's on December 15th. under public hearings. Oh, I didn't go to this. Sorry. It's second page. Yeah. Ballot material. Thank you. Yep.

Yep. Thank you. Okay. Roundtable plan. This is where given conversations with different people, I suggest that we talk about the salary commission process. AND A WORK PLAN RECOMMENDATION AS WELL AS DATA PREP WITH THE BOARD AT THE OCTOBER 1ST MEETING AND THE NOVEMBER AND THEN THE DATA TWO OF TWO NOVEMBER 5TH. AND THEN I ALSO ADDED DECEMBER 3RD IF WE HAVE TO CLOSE OUT ANY INFORMATION. BUT OTHER THAN THAT, I DON'T HAVE ANY CHANGES. I'm still unclear if we have training on any topics further in the year, so you and I should probably connect on that. At one time, we thought about having a training on gifts, but I don't know if that's needed or not or in legal bandwidth these days. I do have a couple of other things. The AOC District 8 is on our calendar. Have we gotten any further specifics from, I believe it's Multnomah County hosting this? I don't see, I see heads shaking that we haven't gotten any further information. It is my hope that they won't be changing the date on us this year like they did last year. I don't know who from the state legislative caucuses or the state ledge group from our three counties they are thinking about inviting. So that may be something for us to look out for. I also wanted to make sure I said to staff Good job in adding more italics placeholders. Keep them coming. They're very helpful. September 10th is our next roundtable where the board will be really focusing on what to get done by the end of the year. So by that date is a really awesome day to try to get those placeholders in.

So, Chair, just on the italics, I just want to underscore, the italics are placeholders and staff do create plans for plans and when put those plans for plans out in public. Staff really want to achieve those goals. And so sometimes there's hesitancy in putting things in italics even and not being able to deliver. I and the ACAs have delivered the message to departments still put it in italics and then we just alert the board and let the board know if there's changing conditions. But I just want you to be aware of that so you can help reinforce that with staff, that it's helpful to see what could be coming or is planning to come as well.

I have one other informational item for the board. Cameron Witten, who is the CEO of Brown Hope, had a meeting with me and he represented that he had worked with the Metro Council and had asked them to convene a regional conversation on racial justice. I asked him what he knew about any council action or communication on this, and he was not aware of any since then. received no further information. I talked to Ms. Angie about this because we as a board had previously decided to participate in a similar regional conversation back in 2021. And rather crassly, I'll say that was a lot of all give and no get from that effort. We do know that any of these convenings can often vector off. And so we might be in a position if the board decided to have a board liaison participate, that it may involve some staff time, which we're pretty tight on right now with all of our projects and efforts. So there is no project proposal from Metro about what it might involve. So my recommendation at this time is that we don't take that under our belt for official board representation and just wait and see how the remainder of this year pans out, particularly as we have a pretty intense level of work going on with changes at the federal administration and trying to prepare for the next state legislative session where the state legislature, I think, will probably, I assume, will be making more of an effort to project the impact that federal administrative changes have had on the state of Oregon budget and their efforts through their budget for the current fiscal year and into their next biennium. So I think we're going to be pretty maxed out all through the remainder of the fiscal year.

Sure, if I may. Yeah. I have also had a conversation with Ms. Matagrall, the COO of Metro, And Cameron is having conversations with several electeds, and so others of you may get reached out to to have a conversation on this topic. At this point, Metro does not have a framework or a plan in place to support this regional discussion that was based on a conversation that I had with her about two weeks ago. I did ask as soon as there is information public if this should be an initiative that Metro is sponsoring to please share that. And I expressed to her the challenges that we just have just with capacity. And so I'm really curious what would be the timing, what would be the format, what would be the cadence and purpose and desired outcomes.

Yeah.

I'll just add that I too had a meeting with Cameron Whitten and let him know that this is very exciting project and I as an individual can participate and that I wasn't able to make a commitment to the board so hence you need to connect with Chair Harrington and County Administrator to get Washington County, but I did volunteer myself. And then I obviously did my bit of a homework on this and reached out to Metro Councilor, Metro President Juan Carlos Gonzalez and Metro in general, and asked them, because there was in the email that we got from Cameron Wynne, there was a month mentioned of start time, which is the month of September. I needed to get my ducks in a row if that's the case. So I reached out to Metro and they said that they did receive the request from Brown Hope. They are interested in convening partners around this topic. An internal team is currently working on a plan and a timeline that will support productive and meaningful conversations and that they will continue coordinating with staff and will share additional details as they become available. Metro also said that they are trying to understand which other jurisdictions have been thinking about this and are approached by Cameron. So they are doing a bit of a due diligence because they want to similarly coordinate and complete together. So that's my update on this particular topic. So there's more to come.

Well, while I appreciate your volunteering yourself to serve as an individual, I think the optics of the situation, particularly with the current election cycle, is it's asking, I think it's too confusing for the public if you would be serving as a commission representative, as a commissioner, or as yourself individually as the fee supply, separate from that. which is another reason why I think we just hold on this and wait and see.

I made that commitment. I intend to follow through.

Well, I think we as a board would ask you once again to make it very clear that this doesn't have anything to do with your role as a county commissioner.

It absolutely does. I'm a county commissioner. I got the invitation as a county commissioner.

hence where I think we have conflict in what you're being asked and not asked to do.

Yeah, I'll certainly, you know, chair, I hear you. And I, I want to be compassionate here and say that I will never speak for the board. That's the worry. I'll never say this is where, and my communication with Carmen and I did it in a writing. So that is pretty clear. that I cannot speak for the board, but I can certainly represent.

So that's all I had for the meeting kickoff portion. Don't know if anybody else had any other updates.

I just appreciated the documents keeping me mentally on the path of where we're going to be in the next quarter.

great great really helps all right then why don't we move on to our next topic which is reflections of the board of county commissioners on the fy 27 proposed budget process so here we are again just like that a blink of an eye another year has passed um so um

To kick this off, and this is really your board's time to have your reflection, but I just want to take a moment to maybe step back and talk about what was reflected in this budget process, but not necessarily seen by the board, just from a central finance team accomplishment, but the really financial staff across Washington County. So significant work in transitioning Workday and going live in January. So we open budget or have budget kickoff beginning of December, and we went live with a new ERP in January. A new chart of accounts updated in the supplemental budget, which your board took action on in December of 2025. Moving our budget software Questica from on-premise version to the cloud version. When we say that to me, it's a whole new software. So don't think just because it's Questica on-premise to cloud that it's just a new version. It is a new system. While simultaneously converting 10 years, 10 years of data into our new chart of accounts. Budget book studio updates were conducted, and that is the software that's used to build the budget summary books. So this is like all the workings behind the scene that the board does not see. And with all of that said, we were able to deliver a budget book. with, from my estimation, very little errors. That's a huge compliment for staff and central finance and also throughout the county. So at this point, I would turn it over to maybe Chair Harrington if you wanna facilitate the conversation. John and I are happy to help. Typically what we talk about is just open it up to you What worked, what did not work? What would you like to see improved or do differently or consider in the future? Were the materials sufficient for you, for your understanding, both from you as a budget committee member, a board of commissioner, that includes not just the budget book, but also the presentations. And then what are hopes and dreams as we go forward?

Thank you. We've done this pretty much every single year. Last year at this time, the result of that is we, I believe it was last year, was the last budget year, was the first two budget cycles ago, I guess now. We, after we had the proposed budget, we had both the community meeting, but we also had A SPECIAL SESSION JUST FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON COUNTY. SO WE WANTED TO DO THAT AGAIN. FOR THIS CYCLE I'LL JUST SAY DATEWISE THINGS GOT A LITTLE CONFUSING BUT IN THE END WE DID DO THAT THE SAME AS WELL. My recollection is I don't think we got as much presentation this year as we even had the year before when we did it the first time. But I think that too is a sign that we had been communicating through both cycles in that way to fellow elected officials that we're continuing to be in a world of hurt. And they understood that and relied upon us to continue to go through the budget officers' proposed budget and make those thoughtful decisions to get to an approved and an adopted budget. I also think it's a sign that the overall budget process for Washington County is truly open and transparent. And I think that's something to be very proud of as well. Another part of our process, and I'm merely saying this so that there are notes taken for the incoming board to say what the general process is from the board and involves the board, that this board has felt our great practices, positive practices, and that is the board guiding budget, guiding principles, and the board budget guiding priorities. Yes. You're right, I inserted the word guiding second time when I didn't need to. And I think that serves us well as the other, I think, foundational thing that is very helpful for us as individuals, but also as a group and to everyone is the really good five-year financial forecast that we get as well as the quantification of the assumptions that we think we're facing for this next proposed budget year. I think all of that has really served us well. And as one of five, I'll just keep going and say I appreciate the processes for the meetings where we allow public comment. I think the Q&A process is really exemplary and helpful. So to sum it up in my view, keep doing the good work. That's not to say my mind's closed on any other ideas, but wow, it's really great. But over to all of you.

I would like to add to that that since I started in 2019, there has been such a sea change in relationship to how we process, from all different aspects, how we present the materials, how we understand the materials, how we interact as a budget committee and as a board with you, with staff. I think when I take myself back to my level of confusion, understanding, and a bit of desperation in the process, it's just, I'm sure I've learned a lot, but at the same time, I know that the process has improved so dramatically that it makes me very proud and makes me confident as we move forward in the budget processes. The other thing I'd like to add is the level of interaction of our community members on the budget committee has really gone up and it's been very, very positive. And I appreciate the fact that I believe that's due in large part to your work and with staff's work with those members to bring them along in the process. And I know we've got budget seats that we need to be thinking about. I've already been trying to recruit a couple different people. And I think I appreciate the work that you do there. And those of us that have been around for those earlier processes, Maybe I was the only one that was so lost in the quagmire of those books, but it's really getting better.

Anyone else? Sure. I would just share with both of you that the outcomes achieved given the challenges was pretty impressive. I expected, I mean, I'll just be honest, I expected a rougher budget here as far as the sort of the materials, not necessarily the process, but just the like. I was ready for it to be pretty messy and it was not, and that was really impressive. I thought the budget process and the materials were on point this year. Probably the best process I've been involved in, just from an efficiency, quality, et cetera perspective. The last thing, just as a reflection on our role as a commission, I think that the principles and priorities work that we do is probably the most value add contribution that we individually make to the budget process every year because it really starts to set or it does set the priorities and the direction for the rest of the entire organization to do its work and so I think we I want to make sure we communicate that to our new board members at some point make sure they understand the importance of that

What year did we start that?

I don't know, because I wasn't here. I'm asking.

No later than 2021. 2021. Yeah. I know I was familiar with it from Metro, but I can't go back. I'm just saying. It was 2022.

The revisions we made last year I thought were really helpful. Yes.

But I'm just reflecting on the fact that it's been a process in work. Yeah. Work in process.

That's my feedback.

Anyone else?

I think you are doing great. The budget process keeps getting better and better. And I think it's worth saying to the board members that are leaving this board that I can definitely say you're leaving Washington County better than you found it. Because we do have a lot of systems established specifically for the budget. I was very pleased with the process of recruiting the community budget members. I know we call them lay members, but I always feel uncomfortable. I won't get on my soapbox on that word, but the community members recruitment process and the level of engagement to make sure that they attend the meetings. We've had in the past years members that couldn't attend. I thought you all staff did a fine job of hand-holding all of us throughout that process. I definitely think I agree. I think our budget process is open and transparent. There's a lot of thoughtful decisions that go into it. And I do like our guiding principles and the priorities. There's a lot of questions out in the community around understanding what our role is when it comes to the budget. And I think it's a clear way to explain our county administrator is the budget officer and that their role and responsibilities present to us by law balanced budget and then the board deliberates you know and approves ultimately approves that money and the assignments of each dollar I think the way to get to that the foundation I think the fundamental mechanism that provides that level of conversation and understanding to the community has been for me the guiding principles and the priorities here's our role know before it even gets to the county administrator as the budget officer this is a level of work that goes into in debates among the five of us the people and then we once we agree on that then we give that to the county administrator they take that so i i'm in favor of that and i think it's been great and it's been You all have been doing good jobs. So my reflection is positive experience. And I don't think I have any changes to make to the current process. I think the world hurts that you're talking about. I think we've been telling that story very well. That's all I have. Good job. Continue doing good work. Yeah. And I hope that helps. Just kudos.

You're welcome. I think I've asked this question before. What would be the process if we wanted to go on a two-year budget cycle? Because I know Hillsborough has done that, and they very much enjoy that from a complexity and, you know, work that you guys have to do on this. Would that be difficult, but in the long-term, beneficial?

So I think that is something strategically we can look at. I think the challenge where we are at is our high level of uncertainty and instability. Proposing a two-year budget, in my experience, because I have worked in a city where we did transition to a two-year, and it was wonderful. But we were in a very financial sustainability stable environment. We're not in that place, so that's the challenge I would foresee, and especially right now with the changing conditions we are seeing at the federal level and not even seeing the full impacts of the federal budget, that it would make me nervous that we would still need to come back and have a in essence, a large supplemental budget. So I think in time, that is absolutely something that could be looked at. But right now, I don't think there would actually be substantial staff time savings, given where we're at.

I'd like to add to that, if I could, because of conversations with Ms. Angie. There is also a difference in revenues and revenue dependencies that cities have versus counties have. A far larger portion of our budget is derived from state revenue sources and grants and federal revenues and grants, even those that come through the state budget. Cities, while they receive distributions of state revenue, we've not seen the wild swings that even we are experiencing today, so this is further explanation as to why we still have the uncertainty over, and I would say for the remainder of this federal current presidential term and to whatever transition there is for the next one. So I don't see a two-year possibility for one, two, three, as many as four years ahead.

And my question you is when you refer to financial stability, you're talking about confidence in revenue opportunities, right?

Confidence and stability in federal and state revenues primarily.

Right. Okay. So I just wanted to clarify what that meant. We're not talking about forecasting for growth or anything like that.

We're talking about a different... No, I would also say... I think asking departments to submit, give us your two-year growth period and FTE requests. I think when you are in, you have a bit more financial stability, you're able to project out a few more, like even making that request to departments and what we may get back and how we balance the budget right now makes my head just kind of explode. So I think, And I say that because I've sent this multiple, every single department in the county, in my estimation, is understaffed. Everyone.

Big statement.

That's a reflection of what... the last five, six, seven years looked like. Exactly.

And that is why we need to continue to look at stopping programs and services because we can't just keep, well, we can't do more with less. Yeah.

Well, that was the reason why I brought that up so we could have that brief conversation on that. And again, the other purpose from my standpoint is I know that we spend a considerable amount of time preparing this budget, so literally a third of staff time is spent annually preparing a budget. Wouldn't it be nice to get back even half of that, considering the two-year budget? I understand the revenue issues and the adjustments we have to make probably on the fly, but With that kind of savings and what you're talking about, we don't have any capacity anymore. I think that should be considered. But I leave that up to you guys. That's your job. John, I always appreciate your availability for when I have questions. And anybody else, I think you provide a lot of access. So I appreciate that a lot. And we have cleaned up the budget presentation, not only uh in meetings but in just the document itself it is an overwhelming document and so i think um well have done a great job of trying to dumb that down even though that's probably not possible make it at least somewhat consumable by people who are not you know engaged in canopy or public work so anyway WITH THAT, I THINK, YEAH, CONGRATULATIONS ON THIS. I DO QUESTION WHEN WE HAVE SPECIAL BUDGET MEETINGS FOR ELECTEDS AND TWO ELECTEDS SHOW UP, MAYBE ONE ONLINE. AGAIN, I QUESTION THE VALUE OF TIME TO DO THAT. AND I THINK WE'VE DONE THAT A COUPLE OF TIMES FOR ME PERSONALLY. I'M NOT GOING TO BE HERE NEXT YEAR. BUT I DON'T THINK THEY'RE VALUABLE. THE PUBLIC ONE. All of our meetings are public, so having a special public one, again, not well attended, consumes a couple hours of our time. I think we do a very good job of making this information very public accessible. So I would see a need to have those meetings, but again, I will be here next year or so.

One thing I forgot to mention that I just want to point out is that I thought the speakers, the presenters this year did a really nice job. Very high quality, very on point with the sort of timely issues that were in the various areas and making sure to speak to those head on without having to be asked questions was appreciated also.

I would just add one asterisk on when, if, and when each staff and board considers a two-year budget, that you also think through not just the effect on staff for those beefier, I'll call them that, supplemental budgets, but also on the board, because we've not been in a position of having When we've had supplementals, we've known about the cuts due to state legislative, state budget impacts, but we haven't had to really, in supplemental budgets, we've not made any decisions with regard to ceasing programs or services. And when you run the risk of that through a two-year budget and the supplemental budgets. So that will require something that we've not ever had to consider. In this role, that is. May still live here.

So anything else that folks want to add on the proposed budget process?

Can we go both directions on this?

I just want to say this is my second round through this process in this seat. And so the first round was jump right in. The second round was a little better view, but we also had a huge transition that talked about. And so getting through that hurdle of converting all the documents into a new card of accounts and getting your system set up, I think next year, be really smooth for the staff to work through the process on the behind the scenes and not have that extra work. So I'm excited about that. I do appreciate the board support and positivity and asking questions and understanding of staff time and also asking the right questions. So that's important for me that if there's something that you need to know in the budget process and you have a question to reach out to us, I think having that dialogue ahead of a meeting is more helpful than having it in the meeting. I just appreciate the great support that you provide to us in the process.

Would your staff say anything different?

I don't think so. Staff is very dedicated. They've worked really hard to get the process through. And, you know, where we can find ways to save time or give them more time and processes, we're trying to do that.

Thank you. So, actually, I want to give kudos to the board. I can't recall if we used it this year, but I know last year when, honestly, staff weren't even sleeping. They were almost working 24 seven. And I recall I sent a note to the board saying we said that staff cannot work between like hours at 10 p.m. and a.m., which is one particular weekend. Yeah, which is like, which is ridiculous to say that, no, you're allowed to work all those other hours. But we had to even put that that bumper on. And I just recall the board being very supportive in that. And that opened up a conversation in candor. also about the workload. And so we are committed to continuing to foster that, I'll call it safe environment. So staff continue to bring that up and they're very dedicated. So while I say that, I also know that us and our positions that we hold, we also need to continue to monitor that because they will continue to work. um too because they're service-minded um so i think this will can be a continuous conversation I would alert, it's great to have a reflection in the rear view mirror. Staff are also thinking ahead because we are going to be having a significant knowledge loss with board members transitioning off this board. And when I say knowledge loss, there is just no matter how, whatever the lived experience one brings to being a commissioner. there is a huge learning curve to the services and funds, the County. And so we are, we are thinking through what kind of, what that onboarding process is and your board is scheduled to talk about onboarding next month during your round table. So that is the looking ahead. Um, and that includes, um, not just the operating budget, but also our capital, um, capital budgets as well, and that need to continue to balance both needs.

I just realized I do use Nudge. So there are multiple books with the budget. And there's the summary book, which is the main document that we use in the budget committee. But I also do draw information from the more detailed document, not so much the third one. And I really appreciate the work that goes into putting quality documents together with accurate information. So thank you. Anything else? Okay, great. Well, thank you very much, board. We got through that in half the time. Yay. all right so with this juncture board you have an option and we also need to check in with ms angie on this we could dive into the state of the county planning and video county topic ideas and just take the time it takes to do that and then regroup after a lunch time for the training or we could convene for lunchtime early is staff available for the state of the county yes great just give us a couple minutes i'd say let's do that okay terrific if others are okay for an hour though i don't have 30 minutes so we'll just keep going we may we may have lunch at 12 30. it may not I'LL JUST DRAW EVERYONE'S ATTENTION TO THE MEMO THAT'S IN THE ROUND TABLE PACKET. NEW SPEAKER YOU'RE ON.

NEW SPEAKER WE ARE ALWAYS AT THE READY FOR YOUR BOARD.

NEW SPEAKER WHAT DID YOU DO? NEW SPEAKER I SAID. NEW SPEAKER HAS THERE BEEN A SLIDE FROM THE THIRD FLOOR? Oh, so he knew. I'm seeing the air quality.

There's the air quality.

So Philip is, I just want to sing Philip's praises. When we are in events like this, he is in emergency management mode. So in his office, you will see the air quality screens on, and he's on the phone with someone having some type of meeting. And for Philip to be at the board meeting without a suit jacket on means also he's in his emergency management. That is how I know which Philip's showing up.

Philip, that's at your service board. And it also, I must say, it's Maria Gomez-Martinez has been with us for a few years now. Today's her last day. So our team is taking her out to lunch. Uh, and I, so you get me and I'm happy to, uh, walk you through it.

You don't get to go do the lunch. Yeah.

Depends on how long your board takes.

When is your hard stop?

Oh, no, I'm joking at any time.

I'm not joking.

Yeah. Yeah. When, when, uh, you know, like, I don't know, 30 minutes. We booked an hour. I don't think it'll take that long, but again, that's up to your board.

We didn't realize we were going to be jeopardizing your participation at a luncheon. For me, it's a problem. So I'll just say that I'm here. Okay. Let's let's be efficient.

There you go.

We'll stop. I will, um, just summarize that, uh, THIS IS THE BOARD STATE, IN MY VIEW, THIS IS THE BOARD STATE OF THE COUNTY EVENT. SO WE FOUND THAT LAST YEAR THE FORMAT SEEMED TO WORK QUITE WELL. SO AS THIS MEMO TALKS ABOUT, THERE WOULD BE A MAIN ADDRESS AS HIGHLIGHTED HERE. THEN THERE WOULD BE THE VIDEO OPPORTUNITY FOR EACH COMMISSIONER. IT WOULD BE ONE TOPIC EVERY or two minutes for each district commissioner. And on the second page, there is the list of suggestions for the four district commissioners to consider. Staff asked, certainly we tried to make sure you had this before today, so we may be able to go through this today. But barring that, if not, staff has asked that district commissioners rank your top three choices and that they would do the math from there. So do you have any preferences?

I've already provided mine in writing. I can pull them back up, I guess.

I have preferences. My preferences are number one, economic development and strategic investment program. Number two, courthouse planning. Tie for number three. BEAVERTON RECOVERY CENTER GRAND OPENING OR THE WOODSPRING AFFORDABLE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE. NEW SPEAKER PLEASE.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE. NEW SPEAKER PLEASE. NEW SPEAKER PLEASE.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE.

NEW SPEAKER PLEASE. NEW SPEAKER PLEASE. How do you say it? Spot? The spot?

Spot microtransmitters. Oh, yeah. Any of them. I didn't have a preference.

Say yours again, Jason. What did you say? You said spot was number two?

That was the last one. I mean, I don't know that I ranked them. Maybe they were ranked in order.

You did rank them. Okay. But you are free to choose.

Yeah. I mean, it's jail. It's really stuff I'm working on. So like the, I mean, we're all working on it, but like the jail and community corrections expansion planning project, the courthouse project, which to me are kind of actually linked together. We may even want to talk about them and think about them that way in, in the presentations. And I think there should be a presentation, even if it's not me. I think that one needs to be covered. The courthouse? The courthouse and the jail and community corrections. I think it could be one topic. And it might be a slightly longer video than the others, but I think it's smart to do that. And then SPOT is a really exciting transit, on-demand transit project pilot that we're running. And they've had phenomenal results.

Yeah, that's the one we were at.

Yeah, we were at the, yep.

Yeah, okay. And I'm sorry, I'm catching up. What did you say, Sam?

My first one was economic development investment program. Second one was the courthouse planning. And I would, Jason, I'd also agree that it could be tied to jail expansion. And it may be two people do that together. You know, that's another thought. And then the third one was a tie between WoodSpring and Beaverton Recoverment.

I will just put a comment about WoodSpring. That's true. But I think we've run that about as hard as we can in the messaging. And I guess we could do it again. But that's appeared in a lot of our i think we need to do something in affordable housing i would spring was in the title there i would agree about the housing comment just wood springs specifically i think it's been used a lot i agree with you just affordable housing yeah the results but we've also

One of the things I liked about WoodSpring is the renovation that's been done was not part of the affordable housing bond and really comes under, while I don't know what, it's for permanent affordable housing and we did that major program on affordable housing preservation and what we heard loud and clear at the completion event that was at, I can't remember the name of the place, off of Murray Boulevard, Holly Tree, now it's coming back to me, that having that number of projects coming in together and financed the way we did was, in my words, like a proof of concept as far as housing authorities across the country, something of that scale had not been done before. And so the way I have viewed the Woodspring revamp is in that theme of affordable housing preservation, right? There was the step of securing it for permanent affordable housing, but then this was the rest of renovation to extend its life.

Got to take care of your stuff.

Yep. So I would think that if there is an affordable housing highlight, that it really spend some judicious time on the preservation because there's still a number of projects this year and into future year that are coming off that 30-year affordability from the Reagan era change that future boards will need to deal with if there are interested OWNERS. ANYWAY. COMMISSIONER FYE AND COMMISSIONER WHEELY.

I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I'M GOING TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS I GUESS WHAT I SENT TO YOU. But let's go with what I said, so that board has some visibility to what I said. Economic development was number one. I also, I don't know if we have, we'll have enough information, but I also put down ESPT, but if this is the renewal one, then we can talk about that. But I thought it was just, I had a clarifying question on that one. And then I read the discussion, but I did put in Whitspring affordable housing because it was about affordable housing. So that was what I submitted. I'll just hold off on any changes. Did you get that, Commissioner Willey? Economic development.

Yeah, I got it.

Thank you.

Three, maybe five. There's a question on if it's going to be a renewal. Maybe she's not that interested. Number nine.

No, I didn't say I'm not interested. I just had a clarification of the materials to speak to. I didn't.

Well, since it's our state of the county, can we, is there an answer to that clarification question?

I mean, I can.

So the local option levy, it would be about the replacement levy.

Not the current one, because there is a current one.

Correct.

Yeah, I wasn't sure because it doesn't say replacement, right? Like I was assuming.

On the housing topic, would it be worth considering talking about the process that we just went through based on community feedback and concerns about safety and the work that our one Washington County teams did to come up with a with a way of moving forward in screening and all that. To me, it represents good work. It may not be cool enough to sort of make the cut, but I thought it was a good example of different departments working well together and frankly, just good governance and good government. So that's why I'm pointing it out, but I'm not married to that at all, just a knife.

I didn't think of it so much as a safety thing, but the complexity of the people in need of affordable housing and given the complexity of state and federal requirements these days, really looking at it holistically and making sure that we had a process that would both meet the requirements of state and federal and make sure that decisions might be more sustainable. But that doesn't detract from the idea. Jerry, what are your thoughts? This is your last one.

Yeah, I think well, there's two things that I think I have FOCUSED ON FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS AND THAT'S TRANSPORTATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. SINCE WE'VE GOT A NUMBER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALREADY, I'D LIKE US TO CONSIDER THAT WE BY THIS TIME WE'LL HAVE PASSED THE VEHICLE REGISTRATION FEE AND THAT IS TRANSPORTATION DOLLARS THAT WE COULD INCORPORATE SOME OF THAT. WHY WE DID THAT.

NEW SPEAKER SO MAYBE IT'S VRF AND MSTIP. NEW SPEAKER YES.

The last one would be Cooperative Library Services, Cooperative Library Services.

Dang it all, I couldn't get him to do the campground. I thought the campground was going to be on his list for sure. He did it last year.

Yeah, but we didn't have anything to show on the campground.

I can understand your choices.

I understand your choices for sure. Terry, I had the same thought process as you did. I did transportation last year, so I thought maybe somebody else should do this.

Well, if it's MST, it'd be 40 years of connecting people. It's been 40 years. Yeah. We can emphasize that, certainly. And, yeah, tie in where our transportation dollars come from and what we've done. Yeah. I just think that's a considerable part of our general plan.

Cool, cool. Would it be too much to put the spot microtransit number six into a holistic transportation as part of things that we continue to innovate?

I think that would be totally fine, too, if that works from a theme perspective.

It works from a theme. The challenge will be the time constraints because we want to give each of the four of you equal time. I don't think.

He told us we got how many minutes? I guess I just want to say, like, I understand the desire to have it be equal time, but I'd much rather have it be good content and cover the right things, even if that means I'm speaking less or more. Like, I just would question whether that's the right goal.

In a 40-minute... So two minutes for four of us.

The CPA figured out my math. There is a little padding in that. There's a little wiggle room to Commissioner Snyder's point.

I'm trying to remember how we did this last year. We did this, and then did you come back and say this is what we think you should do, or did we make the decisions here?

I think we came to it together.

Okay.

It felt pretty nicely into the four of you agreeing. That's my recollection.

The county does a lot. That's the reality. I think we just focus on topics we want to highlight. I thought the process last year was fine. I think it would, optic-wise, would look clunky. One commissioner is speaking more than the rest. Or you could give us all equal time and we can fill the air with more information. Yeah.

We'll definitely do our level best as script. And, you know, and you might recall we had talking points for you.

You did that last year. Yeah. I'm assuming that's the same process. You'll provide the talking points.

Yeah. And it's not going to, it's never going to fit neatly in there. I don't want to be too prescriptive. I think, Commissioner Steiner, you make a good point. We can be flexible.

I'm just going, like, I'm trying to help us maybe move forward with a plan. I would at least start to propose that Commissioner Willey do the spot microtransit and MSDIP and that group thing that was discussed, that I do community corrections, jail facility expansion planning and courthouse planning in one. And then I hadn't got, I didn't have enough time to get to the next one, but I'll look at what I think might make sense. Or you guys can jump in. And I don't know what Commissioner Willie thinks about that or Phillip. I'm fine with that. That's fine.

I wonder, Commissioner Fai, because no one else has picked up a, you know, on the nose public safety topic, if you would be interested in that ESPD topic. Does that sound like something you'd want to do for your segment?

I would gladly take that assignment from you.

You hardly ever assign.

That's probably a timely topic that we need. I think it would be a good opportunity. Okay.

So, Commissioner Treece, that leaves you Beaverton Recovery Center or the affordable housing topic that we or economic development. Oh, right. Right. Thank you.

I THINK GIVEN OUR ANNOUNCEMENT.

NEW SPEAKER I ACTUALLY THINK SO, TOO. I AGREE WITH THAT. NEW SPEAKER WHAT DO YOU THINK?

NEW SPEAKER IT SOUNDS GOOD TO ME. IT SOUNDS GOOD TO YOU, CHAIR AND BOARD.

NEW SPEAKER I THINK WE CAN ALWAYS HAVE A SLIDE OR SEGMENT SOMEWHERE THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE COOPERATIVE LIBRARY 50TH BIRTHDAY, TOO.

I THINK WE PUT A SLIDE UP AND SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE COOPERATIVE.

NEW SPEAKER WE CAN ALSO FLASH UP THE RIBBON CUTTING PHOTO OF THE BEAVERTON RECOVERY CENTER AND HAVE SOMETHING WITH BOTH THE HILLSBORO AND THE BEAVERTON THAT WE CONTINUE TO MAKE BIG INVESTMENTS IN BEHAVIORAL HEALTH.

NEW SPEAKER MAYBE WE HAVE A SLIDE ROLE RUNNING OF A BUNCH OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS LIKE THAT THAT ARE ON BEFORE AND AFTER BUT MAYBE DON'T GET SPECIFICALLY OPEN TO.

NEW SPEAKER IMPEDED IN THE CHAIRS.

NEW SPEAKER OH, YEAH.

NEW SPEAKER THAT'S WHERE IT MAKES SENSE.

NEW SPEAKER EVEN BETTER.

NEW SPEAKER WE MADE THIS EASY FOR YOU.

NEW SPEAKER YOU'VE MADE IT TREMENDOUSLY EASY. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

The really rough part, Commissioner Willing, is making sure that you have the bandwidth to do the transportation videotaping before your departure in September. That's all.

Well, it's already scheduled for the 17th, but I may need to ask for a deferral of that.

These things are already there. Your staff members are...

May the week to the top before you put it on my calendar. There is something new.

On your schedule.

It's personal.

Oh, sorry.

I'll certainly work with you and make a problem. Thank you.

You better hurry if you're going to make your money.

Okay. Thank you, Gordon.

We're all set on that. How about taking our hour-long lunch break and reconvening for the training topic at 1 p.m.? I haven't heard any objectives. So what that means is that is training session closed to the public. So this will bring the public session of our meeting to an end. Thank you.