Cross_cutting

2:54 It's a 15 member body that's empowered to propose, consider, and place amendments on the ballot to revise the Clark County Charter. They can be placed on the general election ballot in 2026, which we'll see some of that this year, 2027 and 2028. No amendments to the charter may be adopted without a majority vote of the people. So just want to be really clear about that, that the proposals that you might see in the packet or that you can hear about will still have to go to the voters to be adopted. The commission doesn't determine what gets adopted, it only determines what's on the ballot for voters to approve or reject. So why are we here today? The purpose of the town hall is to inform the folks who choose to attend about the process and current proposals, answer questions about the commission's work, and receive your feedback about the process and current proposals. But just to be clear, we're not here to advocate for any specific proposal or against any specific proposals. We're not here to really give any commentary on suggestions,

3:54 but we do want to get your feedback. So during the public comment portion of the meeting, please, of course, state your comments, any questions that you might have. We will take that back to the full commission and then it will be considered in that forum. But today we won't be able to opine or give opinions on anything. So the charter commission process. So far, we've gone through a first reading, second reading, committee studying, committee presentations. So initial proposals are presented to the commission by commissioners. They needed five votes to move forward from that stage. That's our first reading. And the second reading, the commissioner would then revise, refine, and present a more detailed proposal. That needs eight votes of the commission to move forward. From there it goes to committee study. Think of it as sort of a working group to continue to refine that particular proposal. So they're analyzing it, revising it,

4:51 seeking feedback from any stakeholders or those who are affected, as well as feedback from the prosecuting attorney's office and the financial services office of the county auditor's department. Then from there, we have a committee presentation. So this is the final form, if you will, of the proposal. The commission debates and then a simple majority of the quorum present moves it forward. That goes to drafting committee. It's finalized into an appropriate format for review, once again, by the prosecuting attorney's office and placement on the ballot. We have some proposals that are now in the drafting committee stage. That's the furthest we've gone at this point. We will also have a final vote that's coming up. And then we'll have eight votes to send the ballot to the voters for their approval or rejection, as it were. There may be a limit to the number of proposal amendments that are on the ballot. We're still kind of in the process of narrowing down what's there. There are quite some number of proposals.

5:50 We're hoping to not have the voters be overwhelmed by how many things we're moving to the ballot, but we've still got some work to narrow things down. And then it gets to placement on the ballot. And this process will repeat for 2027. And there was a possibility of amendments being on the 2027 ballot or the 2028 ballot. So to give a bit of an overview of that timeline, a lot of that idea identification and sharing happened in February. First readings happened in March, second readings in April. And we're into the committee reports now in May and in June. And so our town halls have started. I believe we're the second or third one to go thus far. There'll be one in each district. Our public comment form is open on the website. We also have the printouts that you've seen here today. Proposals have begun to go to drafting. And our final vote of the commission will be July 8th. So throughout the process, we do wanna hear from the public. So we're collecting feedback. You can give public comment at our meetings,

6:49 which are Wednesdays at 5 p.m. at the Public Service Center, which is 1300 Franklin Street here in Vancouver. We're lucky to have the meetings here in District 1, so it's attainable for us District 1 folks. Town halls, such as the one that we're at here today, our online public comment form, and you can also email the commission charterreview@clark.wa.gov. That email goes to all the members of the commission. And of course, you can always email commissioners individually, but if you have a comment that's for the commission, it's better to send it to that one charter review email. You can also subscribe to our email newsletter. That's available on the website. And then that is a bit of a process. So I'm gonna flip to the next slide, which shows our proposed charter amendments, but I wanna pause so that my fellow commissioners can comment if I missed anything.

7:42 - No, that's excellent. I would ask if you make a comment. I'm keeping track for the public record of who makes what comment about what amendments. And if you could also fill out a comment card, that would make sure that I get your names filled correctly, et cetera. So that would be extremely helpful, thank you.