Clark County Board of Health

0:00 (upbeat music)

0:30 ("Pomp and Circumstance")

1:00 (upbeat music)

1:30 ("Pomp and Circumstance") - This webinar is being recorded and summarized. Good morning and welcome, everyone. Calling to order Clark County Board of Health Wednesday, June 24th, 2026. Let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance. If you'll join me in standing. - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Thank you, then let's move on to the roll call. Rebecca. - Councilor Young. - Here. - Councilor Belcott. - Present. - Councilor Fuentes. - Here.

2:29 - Councilor Marshall. - Here. - Thank you. Are there any amendments to the agenda? - Yes, Chair, I'd like to add under Public Health Advisory Council, a second bullet point for a FACT or Public Health Advisory Council member to bring up a topic of discussion that we had last night at the FACT meeting, which is related to the WCA funding on domestic violence. - Great, thank you. - Thank you. - Any objections to that? Seeing none, we'll add that. Okay, comments from the public. Is there anyone in the room? There's one person in the room. - We do. Chester Castillo-Morales, just press that button. - Thank you. I have a lot of comments, so I'm gonna try to limit to a few of them

3:27 and I would like to see if I can set an appointment with Mr. Fuentes, who is a representative of my district or where I live. But one of them is, I'm an owner of a restaurant, food truck to be specific. And a lot of my friends are other restaurant owners.

3:55 And when it comes time to pay for the licenses, et cetera, et cetera, at times, especially like with COVID and situations where it's tough, we've noticed that the health department or the government won't work with us at times when we're in need of, let's say, making payments. You guys want it all up front and then if something happens, if they were to go out of business in two months, three months, you don't give back the money. And I think it behooves all of us, 'cause we're on the same team. Like one of my business' friends just closed Goldie's and there's others that are finding themselves at that position. And if they close, then you guys don't have any money.

4:54 So I think there should be a consensus or an area to look into how we can do that on whatever. I don't know what to propose, but I'm sure there's, if you want the money up front for the whole year, you can still make it in payments, or let's say if someone's in need or something, you can give them a leeway or something. We've noticed that there isn't. In COVID, there was basically nothing. You had to plead and it didn't matter. It was, what was said to me several times is, well, we need the money and we have the, we need a budget and we have to do this and that. Well, hello, so do we. And if we don't have it, then you guys don't have it. It's gotta, we gotta work as a team. It's not us against you or you against us. So there's gotta be some compassion.

5:52 The second thing is this. You guys want the money. Great. But I myself have taken pictures. I've called Bridget and the past have talked to Gary, who's, who retired, and said, you know, you have businesses that are set up, that are competing against us, but don't pay fees. Don't have licenses. And all I'm told, and the others are also told, well, we do look and we do supervise, we do police it, but nothing's happening. They're not paying, but you guys sure count on us paying. - Thank you, your time is up. And I'm sure if you leave your contact information, Counselor Fuentes will get back to you. - I appreciate you. - Yeah, you bet. - Thank you so much. - Thank you for coming forward. - Yes. - Chair, there's nobody else signed up in the room.

6:51 We do have some callers online. - Okay, great. - Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute yourself. Please do so. State your name for the record and go ahead with your comments. - Good morning, Kimberly Goheen-Elvin. I'd like the public to know and put it on record that we have been being sprayed by chemtrails most every day. The chemtrails that are supposed to, well, so normal jet disbursement goes away after about two or three minutes and stuff. I have recordings of that, of course, but the others stay there all day long, and then they dissipate into that big white fog that we have over our land like we did yesterday.

7:46 So on Monday, there was no chemtrailings in the sky. It was a perfectly blue sky and things. And then yesterday, they sprayed the hell out of us. So, and that's why we had that white haze all over. I'd like people to look up at geoengineeringwatch.org to inform themselves. This, these springs is killing our insects. And we know that. Insects are down about 85%. So we need insects for pollination and the natural cycle of life. I know they seem meaningless to most people and stuff, but they're actually very essential. To prove that, and I've stated it about five years ago on Lars Larson, that to prove that, there's no bug splatter on anybody's windshields. I mean, you'll find very few.

8:42 With that said, many states have banned chemtrails. Florida is one of them, and I'll read something. Florida is drawing a clear line in the sky. No unregulated geoengineering, no atmospheric experimentation, and no exceptions. While their state already bans weather modification, which a lot of this is, the new law takes protection further, ensuring strong enforcement against unauthorized activities. So there are other states that have banned it. Florida is enforcing its sovereignty over its airspace and protecting the residents. So that's what I'm asking this Board of Health to do, to do something about the chemtrails that are killing us. I have no cherry trees anymore. It killed all my cherry trees. And I planted a new one this year and it's dead also.

9:39 So it's specific to some certain trees also. But killing our bugs and stuff, and I have critters that run outside, they're getting all that bad air. And then come to find out, maybe you folks know this, but you take a little pill to clean out all the metals that they're putting into the atmosphere. So the rest of us are dying and getting emphysema and bad lungs and all that. But maybe you guys have an antidote. - Okay, thank you for your comments. - We have another caller. - Okay. - Caller, you've been sent a request to mute yourself. Please do so and state your name for the record and go ahead.

10:38 Caller. - Hello. Please go ahead with your comments. - Hello. My name is Wing Gursich. And I want to talk about the chemtrails because they have been spraying more than just aluminum oxide, strontium and barium. They're putting plastic particles in the air. They're spreading bugs all over our yard. And they're putting plastic particles in the air. And they're spreading bugs all over our yard. They're spreading bugs all over our yard. I've lived here six years and I've never had kissing beetles and ticks in my backyard, but I do now. And our homeowners association wants you out there pulling these weeds that they're also spraying geo-engineered seeds that these weeds grow within a day. And we're supposed to be out there picking this stuff with these bugs eating us. And that is outrageous. And one of the big things that you need to do is fix those two trees that are right across the street

11:35 from your building that are dead. Because when those trees fall down, they're going to kill somebody. It's going to cost the taxpayers money to fix the building if it hits the building. But it can also fall on the handicapped parking spaces with people in their cars. And that is a health hazard and that's got to be done. And nothing is being done about it. And they claim there's bugs in those trees. If there was bugs in those trees, they'd be all over the all the foliage around there. And one of the things too, is that I never hear your health board talk about things that can actually help people. There is a book called "Cured" and it is written by Dr. Glenn Rockfield. And he tells every kind of thing that you can do to save your own life because your doctors certainly don't tell you that. One of the things is about parasite. When we're drinking toilet to tap water and people took those vaccines that are toxic, they put bugs in us.

12:34 And these parasites, one of the things that you can do is certain foods that can help rid yourself of these ugly bugs is raw garlic, carrots, beets, coconut, honey, pumpkin seeds, papaya seeds, cloves, and pomegranate. Now I've never heard this health board ever mention anything that you could do. There's all kinds of dewormers. There's a lady up in Kelso at Barringer Farm and she has a deworming thing. And it's only open on Wednesdays, but it's one of the best places. I've used a lot of her things to get rid of the problems that I've had on my skin and other things. And she has fixed us and she's not a medical doctor like Melnick. So anyway, it's better to go to a holistic doctor than it certainly would be to go to your health board. And one of the things too, is that there should be an ordinance that no mask are worn in any public forum,

13:33 like your chambers or any city council meeting, because we're not in a pandemic right now. And these people coming in with these masks on to stay anonymous, if they're sick, stay home and call in the way I'm doing. And it's kind of amazing to me that these people are allowed to be on TV with masks on, because if they're sick, they're contaminating everybody else. - Okay, thank you. - That concludes comments. - Okay, that concludes public comments. We'll move on to the consent agenda and that is the approval of minutes of May 20th, 2026. Are there any corrections? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve. - So moved. - It's been moved. - I second. - Moved and seconded, thank you. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Motion carries. Okay, Public Health in Action,

14:30 Healthy Communities Prioritizing Places. So please go ahead. - For the record, Dr. Alan Mullen, Public Health Director and Health Officer, I'm delighted to introduce Lauren Hendrickson and Kathleen Lovegren from our Healthy Communities program, who are going to give the Public Health in Action presentation on Prioritizing Places. - Thank you and good morning. We're happy to be here. Can you hear me okay? Okay, you can go to the next slide, please. We are here today with three goals. First, to provide an overview of place-based work in public health and why it matters. Secondly, to update the Board of Health on the impact of place-based work in Fourth Plain neighborhoods of central Vancouver. And then finally, to introduce a new and expanded place-based framework that will help us broaden our work to other neighborhoods in the county.

15:28 Next slide, please. This is our organizational chart, obviously. Kathleen and I work on our Healthy Communities team, which you can see here on the left-hand side of our org chart in orange. It's marked with a star. I work in the life course team under Melissa Martin and Kathleen works on our health assessment and evaluation team under Adeep Ali, who's the interim manager of HAE. Next slide, please. I wanna start by providing some context and a rationale for place-based public health approach. When it comes to our health, the everyday conditions we experience and live in have a greater impact on our overall health and our longevity than anything that happens in a hospital or a doctor's office. What happens in our daily lives has a huge impact on how healthy we are. There's a famous public health phrase you've probably heard, "Your zip code is a better predictor "of your overall health than your genetics."

16:25 The point being that where you live matters in terms of your overall health. And that's because the factors of daily life, known as the social determinants of health in public health speak, vary a lot depending on where we live. Things like whether you have a safe place to live, whether you have access to a quality education, transportation availability, access to parks and sidewalks, how safe your neighborhood is, healthy food access and whether that's affordable, these are the things that have the largest impact on how healthy we are. And our physical environment and neighborhood really determine the level of access a person has to the things that will make them healthy. Many of these factors have been historically influenced by public investment and public policies, as well as systemic issues like racism, inequality, and many more. And across Clark County, there is a wide disparity between the quality of neighborhood conditions.

17:23 So a place-based public health approach is a long-term collaborative strategy that is applied in a small geographic area to address the specific challenges of that community or neighborhood. This is a nationally recognized and utilized model that seeks to address root causes of health disparities and inequality by bringing resources into a particular area and ensuring residents of that place are involved in shaping what their future looks like. Next slide, please. Public health did a thorough review of other place-based models and initiatives across the country before we launched the Fourth Plain Coalition, which I'll talk about in a second. Place-based approaches continue to be a successful strategy for improving community conditions and impacting health and economic opportunities. This is an evidence-based approach based on research and best practices that funders also use because of its impact on community health. I've linked to two very successful models here

18:22 in case you'd like to explore in more detail later. One is the Harlem Children's Zone. The other is a purpose-built communities program in Eastlake, Atlanta. Next slide. This slide shows the history and context of our place-based work in the Fourth Plain neighborhoods of central Vancouver. The top of the timeline shows some milestones and significant activities, and the bottom shows some funding received for public health's place-based work. More than 15 years ago, there was a maternal child health assessment that identified Fourth Plain neighborhoods as areas where significant health disparities were occurring. That assessment led to more public health investments and attention in these neighborhoods. At that same time, the city of Vancouver was looking at the economic disparities and the transportation barriers residents of Fourth Plain were experiencing. In 2015, a Kaiser Permanente grant allowed Clark County Public Health to partner with the city of Vancouver

19:22 to do a bike and pedestrian analysis and to launch some physical activity programs because of our shared interest in these neighborhoods. Based on our research of other national place-based initiatives, we learned that bringing cross-sector partners together and having a non-governmental community-based organization be the lead or the backbone of the coalition are best practices of a place-based approach. As we began this work, the city of Vancouver and Clark County Public Health took on the role of the backbone organization with the goal of passing that on to Fourth Plain Forward, which was then a small business association when they were ready. In 2018, we convened the Fourth Plain Coalition, a group of almost 30 community partner organizations, to come together and align resources to create a coordinated effort for change. Through a lot of community engagement, data analysis, and planning with partners,

20:21 we organized our work together around three priorities, safe streets, affordable housing, and economic opportunity. You can see our coalition strategy and evaluation plan in your packet. They were sent as a separate handout. Coalition partners focused efforts on building capacity and support for Fourth Plain Forward to migrate from a business association to a full-fledged nonprofit that could lead this neighborhood work as the backbone organization. In 2022, Fourth Plain Forward hired its first executive director and is embedded in Fourth Plain neighborhoods leading this work now. Affordable housing was a key issue we worked to address together, and in 2023, the Fourth Plain Commons broke ground, thanks in large part to the city of Vancouver, providing 107 affordable housing units run by the Vancouver Housing Authority. One example of our success was that the coalition helped to ensure that community voices

21:19 were informing Fourth Plain Corridor projects, such as the ground floor space of the Fourth Plain Commons, which includes an event space, a commissary kitchen, meeting rooms, and a coworking space. Another example is engaging residents to determine which intersections should get priority for creating safer crossings when transportation funding became available. Centering community voices in projects like these and others ensures that neighborhood conditions are shaped by those who live there. We have better outcomes when community members help design solutions, and we foster social cohesion, self-determination, and civic engagement at the same time. One way we have integrated community engagement into this effort is through the Fourth Plain Community Advisory Committee. Clark County Public Health, the city of Vancouver, and Habitat for Humanity have co-convened the Fourth Plain Community Advisory Committee since 2020.

22:18 This committee is comprised of people who live in Fourth Plain neighborhoods, and it ensures we have access to resident voices. Their knowledge and lived experience are guiding all the place-based work we do in Fourth Plain. These examples I've mentioned are intended to provide just a snapshot of the place-based outcomes with work in Fourth Plain which continues today. On the funding piece, our place-based work has been funded in a variety of ways. When I started at the county in 2018, we had a Kaiser Permanente Healthy Eating Active Living Grant that supported this work. Funding from private foundations like the Community Foundation have come through to support various projects like transportation improvements, housing, workforce development programs, and more. We received a National Build Health Challenge Grant in 2020 that helped us form the Community Advisory Committee and mobilize work around affordable housing. Funding from that grant went to Fourth Plain Forward,

23:17 to Public Health, and to Habitat for Humanity who were all partners on the grant. And now this work is funded by foundational public health service dollars from the state and comes from categorical life course funds. Next slide, please. Because of our efforts building this cross-sector collaboration, we have collectively brought in more than $10 million for Fourth Plain projects, programs, and improvements, much of that is capital investments. I wanna highlight a few examples of the impact public health's work has had around our three priority areas, safe streets, economic opportunity, and affordable housing. So I'll start here with safe streets with just one example. Because of our work between 2018 and 2020, building the coalition and solidifying partnerships, when COVID hit, we were ready to respond. We partnered with Bike Clark County to do bike giveaways for families who found themselves at home

24:16 and without good access to outdoor recreation. We also piloted a slow streets campaign when residents complained of cars moving too quickly through their neighborhood when kids were home and at play. We partnered with the city to install temporary signs, encouraging drivers to slow down, and we installed a street mural using art designed by a local youth as another mechanism to alter behavior and slow cars. Next slide, please. Another example of our coalition's impact around economic outcomes is Habitat for Humanity's Home Repair Program that helps low-income homeowners afford critical health, safety, and accessibility repairs. After becoming a key partner in our coalition, Habitat focused that program on Fourth Plain neighborhoods, where there was a higher need for no-cost repairs. This program allows people to age in place, avoid homelessness, and continue to build wealth

25:14 in the form of home equity, which is a critical way of generating and passing down generational wealth. During COVID, Fourth Plain Forward partnered with the Community Foundation and the City of Vancouver to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency relief funding for small businesses on the Fourth Plain corridor who would not have been able to stay afloat without those funds. Next slide, please. On the housing front, during COVID, we worked with our coalition partners to address emergency housing needs, including launching a communications campaign to every renter in the Fourth Plain focus area. The area has 70% renters, so there are many. The campaign highlighted resources around housing assistance, the eviction moratorium, and resources available to help them through the Clark County Lawyers Program. We also provided direct rental relief funding for Fourth Plain families. Those projects were made possible

26:13 through that national Build Health Challenge grant. And lastly, just cutting across all three priority areas, I wanted to highlight our work, building capacity, and offering technical assistance to culturally specific community-based organizations who are serving individuals and families in Fourth Plain neighborhoods. Public Health has helped local community-based organizations or CBOs secure grant funding for their programs. We've helped them design evaluation tools, facilitated strategic planning sessions, and much more. These partnerships have also improved Public Health's ability to ensure communities of color and other communities that have been historically underrepresented are included in decisions, program designs, project plans, and that our work is meeting their needs. Peace Health Southwest funding helped Public Health strengthen our ability

27:12 to center their voices and communities in this work, and we continue to find ways to partner and uplift their work in Fourth Plain and beyond. This approach, building CBO's capacity to serve their own communities, matters because often communities' experience of government is of government doing projects to them, implementing projects that affect them, but that they had no say in or weren't consulted about. Working closely with our CBO partners helps to correct that pattern and ensures that we are working alongside the community, partnering with them to provide services, policies, and programs that meet their real and stated needs. Next slide, please. We have always been cognizant of the fact that there are other neighborhoods in Clark County that are experiencing health disparities. We maintain our commitment to Fourth Plain neighborhoods, but we wanted to do a county-wide assessment

28:10 to help identify other communities that need increased investment from Public Health and other partners. Prioritizing places is a new strategy to expand our place-based work across the county based on a data collection project led by Kathleen through our health assessment and evaluation team. So I'm gonna pass it to Kathleen to tell you a little bit more about this project. - Hi, I'm Kathleen Lovegren. I'm an epidemiologist on our health assessment and evaluation team at Public Health. I support non-infectious disease-related epidemiology data and assessment work, including supporting Lauren and the place-based work, as well as the rest of our life course team at Public Health. As an epidemiologist, I routinely map many indicators of health and wellbeing at a sub-county level, meaning like census tract or zip code, in order to assess the health of our population.

29:08 These include things like life expectancy and mental health-related outcomes, measures of social determinants of health, like access to transportation, renter cost burden, or lack of health insurance. And we also look at demographics such as youth or older populations and communities of color. Many of these data and maps that I have mentioned are available for the public to view on our Clark County Public Health Community Data webpage. But when we were thinking about expanding this place-based work beyond the Fourth Plain area, we chose to map three indicators by census tract in Clark County in order to identify potential areas for future place-based work. And these are the percentage of the population that does not have a high school diploma or GED, the percentage of the population that's living

30:08 at 200% of the poverty level or below, and for reference, the federal poverty level in 2026 for an individual was just under $16,000 a year, and for a family of four, it was $32,000 a year, so 200% would be double that, so $32,000 for an individual or $66,000 a year for a family of four. And then the third indicator we chose to prioritize was the percentage of the population that identifies as a person of color. We chose to look at these indicators because we wanted to focus on root causes of poor health and inequities. Poverty and low educational attainment are two social determinants of health that are powerful drivers of poor health outcomes. As Lauren said earlier, these conditions can play

31:06 a bigger role in a person's health than their genetics or their access to healthcare services. We also wanted to prioritize communities that have historically been marginalized or disinvested in, such as communities of color, and we want to acknowledge the centuries of racism that is a key driver of health inequities that still exist today. So when we mapped these three indicators by census tract in Clark County, six neighborhoods, in addition to the Fourth Plain area, popped out as potential areas where we could be doing future place-based work. Next slide. So these areas are Fruit Valley, Hazel Dell, Battlegrounds, Orchards, Cascade Park, and Washougal. These areas are shown as stars on the map on this slide. In reality, the place-based work occurring

32:05 in these neighborhoods would be focused in specific census tracts within these areas. So for example, in Hazel Dell, work would be focused in three census tracts east of I-5 and Highway 99. In Cascade Park, work would be focused in neighborhoods north of McGillivray Boulevard and south of Mill Plain. In Washougal, work would be focused in two census tracts in and around the downtown area of Washougal. And then in Battleground, work would be focused in three census tracts around Battleground High School. You should have a handout that provides an overview of this project and has this map, as well as the data for each of our prioritized areas by census tract for your reference. And this includes all of the data we pulled for poverty, education, and communities of color for each of these prioritized areas.

33:06 And now I'll pass back to Lauren. - So we're excited to embark on this new phase of our place-based work. We do not have the resources to do the intensive work that we'd like to do in each of these neighborhoods right now. We're in the process of beginning some work in a few of these communities. For example, we are partnering closely with the city on the development of their Fruit Valley Action Plan, which will guide their investment and development in that neighborhood over the next decade or more. We're helping to engage the community to inform the priorities that will go into that plan, convene a committee that will help to draft it, and then in the fall, we'll be sorting through what we've heard from all the engagement we've done in putting together the plan. Public Health will definitely have a role in implementing the health-related priorities that come out of that work. We're also starting to convene partners in Washougal to address youth mental health,

34:05 which is a focus of our Community Health Improvement Plan and was an emerging priority when we have done some foundational work with partners in Washougal. There's a lot of concern around programming and supportive activities for youth in Washougal, so our work there is focused on those issues, and that's very much aligned with our chip, as I mentioned. So we're excited to come back and share more with you, and more work is underway, but this is a new strategy that we're just starting to employ, so thanks for your time and attention. - Okay, thank you very much. Are there questions or comments from the Council? - Go ahead, go ahead. - Go ahead, Councilor. - Good morning, Councilor. Thank you, Lauren and Kathleen, for this very thorough presentation. Lauren, you were the first community partner I met when I started working at Fort Wayne Forward. - I remember. (laughs) - On my very first day. - Yeah. - So it's been a pleasure knowing you, and thank you for continuing to do the work.

35:02 I just wanna compliment you and your team for identifying other areas of priority around Clark County. The Fort Wayne corridor and the five surrounding neighborhoods historically have been the most under-resourced, low-income, underserved communities in all of Clark County, but that's not the case, right? And it hasn't been the case for quite some time. I'm very familiar with Food Valley, so I'm glad you're doing work there and identifying census tracts in Battleground and in Washougal and other parts of the county to focus and prioritize and identify how we can better support our community members. So I don't have any questions. I think that you've answered everything, but I just wanted to thank you and acknowledge the work that you're doing and continue to do the work and figure out how we can continue to support the work in the future. - Thank you. Councilor Young. - Chair, thank you. So thank you for this presentation. To be honest with you, until I saw the documents

36:01 online on this, I didn't realize that we had played as significant of a role as we have on Fourth Plain. I have been involved with, I had been involved with the city from the time that this really began to take place. I'm sure there was significant planning that took place before that that I wasn't a part of, but I watched this process unfold, and quite frankly, I believe it's making a difference. I really do. One of the thoughts that I have consistently had around this, though, are concerns, I would say, and they may not be valid concerns, but I think it owes, it makes sense to make sure we're keeping track of it. My, you know, I lived in kind of central, a little bit east to Vancouver when I first moved here in 20, or 2001.

36:58 In 2003, I moved and bought a house in downtown Vancouver 'cause it was the cheapest place in the city to get housing. That's not the case anymore. You know, there was significant investments that the city, I don't know if the county made at that time, and things have changed, but I, you know, it is no longer an affordable place to stay, and my gut tells me that, you know, the people that lived there that were there for affordability purposes aren't still there. You know, they got priced out. It's not that they benefited from it. So my question, or my, you know, my concern with this is downtown was nothing like we're doing now, right? I mean, there's a concerted effort now to look at these issues and make sure we're doing our best

37:55 to help the people that need the help the most. Downtown was just a blanket investment without much thought into that, so that is a big change, but like when we look at Fourth Plain, you know, any time you invest in a community, the prices, the values of properties will go up, and so what are we doing to make sure that the folks that are living there now are the ones that are benefiting from that, you know, and making sure displacement, making sure that they're not being moved to another area of town where it's cheap still or cheaper because they've now been priced out of their area. So are we following this like from a real strong data, you know, data capturing to make sure who is benefiting from this most, and looking at ways that we can continue to focus to make sure that we are very intentional

38:55 in everything that we do to ensure that the communities that need the help most receive that, and that some of the mistakes from the past are not repeated? - Yeah, it's a great question, and it's been top of mind for us during this whole initiative. It's really, really hard to do community development without displacement, but that, and I think it's almost impossible to prevent that happening entirely. However, we have been really grounded in that goal. I would direct you to check out the city of Vancouver's Reside Vancouver report that is an anti-displacement development strategy, and there are really important kind of policy recommendations and programs that we've worked to implement from everything from making home ownership more affordable to preserving the affordability of housing to mixed use or low-income housing projects like the commons that we've prioritized.

39:54 So there are really good strategies in there that we're continuing to try to implement to prevent displacement, but it, yeah, it is a really big top of mind thing, and it's hard to collect the data too around is what you're seeing, maybe you can speak to this some, but is what you're seeing the same data set as what you saw 10 years ago? Is change actually happening, or are people, are you looking at different things, so. - Yeah, and I would say, I am very familiar with their anti-displacement strategy. I just don't know to what level it's being implemented. It's kind of a silent thing, it's not, I don't know that there's anywhere that you can go to see all the efforts that they have done specifically in Fourth Plain area. And the other thing too is how we can organize co-ops and help folks that live in apartments be able to purchase their building so that they can benefit from the increase

40:53 in value that comes. I don't think enough intentional work has been done on that, and I'd love to see that take place, create a vehicle where people can figure out how to do this. But thank you, I appreciate your work on this. - Thanks for that question, that was a very good question. Councilor Belcott, did you have anything you wanted to add? - My comments are similar to Councilor Young's. I had no idea all the work that was involved in this and all the outreach that's involved. This was a great education for me. Lauren, didn't you say, 'cause I was writing notes as you were talking, you mentioned the displacement, it's called the Reside Report on City of Vancouver's website. - Yes, yeah, Reside Vancouver. - Reside Vancouver, okay. I'm just interested in looking at that for further information. But thank you for all the work you've done, this is awesome.

41:53 Thanks so much. - Great, I just wanna thank you as well. And likewise, I was not aware of the role that Public Health had played with Fourth Plain. And I know Public Health often works behind the scenes, not looking for a lot of attention and collects the data and figures out a strategy of action, highly collaborative with the community. And leveraging dollars too, I think this demonstrates all of those very important strategies that Public Health plays. How long has this approach actually been in play? - Well, I think I mentioned we started working pretty intensively in the early 2000s, but it wasn't until 2018 that we formed the coalition, which created a more organized coordinated strategy.

42:51 So I would say 2018 is when things really-- - Yeah, so really relatively new. And how large is your team? 'Cause just looking at the chart here doesn't look like it's very big. - It's me. (laughing) - Really good job. - And I was part-time for most of those years, I was part-time, sorry. - Really good job. And I appreciate identifying the other areas where there are need. That's good for us to be aware of that, even if we don't have the resources to do everything we'd like to do right now. And I know the foundational public health dollars are shrinking, so those are some decisions that lie ahead. And I just was wondering, I'm imagining that you're working with the schools as well. - Yes, Vancouver Public Schools was on our steering committee for the coalition.

43:49 They also have had a hard time resourcing this work, so they can be difficult sometimes. It can be hard to work really closely with them just because they're over-tapped with all of the needs they're trying to meet. But yes, they're a close partner, and we'd love to work more with schools as well. - Great, great. So thanks for bringing this forward. We'll look forward to hearing more about this in the coming months. - Sure. - Thank you. Oh, yes, please, go ahead. - I just wanna add a couple. I wanna piggyback on what Councillor Young mentioned earlier and expressing his concerns about displacement, particularly in areas along the Fourth Plain Corridor. Now, the city of Vancouver is fully committed to ensuring that anti-displatements, it doesn't happen along the corridor, or development without displacement. And I'll give you a really quick couple examples. Falk Road, the city of Vancouver just released a RFP,

44:48 a Request for Proposal for Falk Road, a property on the corner of Falk Road and Fourth Plain Boulevard, three acres that will support workforce housing so that individuals can afford home ownership. The operations center, which is 16 acres, currently for the city of Vancouver, will be transferring out of that current location and into the new location on Patton Parkway. Now, they don't have a solid plan yet, as far as I know, in conversations with elected officials, but what they envision is 16 acres of affordable housing, 16 acres of affordable commercial space. So I believe, and as a city of Vancouver resident and support this 100%, that the city of Vancouver is really making an effort to ensure that affordable housing continues to be built along the corridor. People do not get displaced, because where do they go, right? And now, we don't have influence over this jurisdiction, but we certainly support it.

45:47 We don't have influence in the city of Battleground and those census tracts that you're doing the work in, but we can certainly support and encourage these service stations to continue to support economic development in those areas and encourage affordable housing. So the effort is being made. Now, we'll have to see what that 16 acres of currently on Fourth Plain Boulevard will look like in the future. I'm excited for it, but I think the city's doing an amazing job. - Great, thank you. Okay, more to come. Great work. Thank you. Okay, moving on, Public Health Advisory Council, and Dr. Melnick, I think you'll start that off. - Yes, thank you. So one of the positions on the Public Health Advisory Council is a youth representative.

46:44 It's a representative just from the bylaws, a representative from the Clark County Youth Commission, Clark County Youth, or representative of a local area high school or local area college. And the current member, and the bylaws also state that if you've had two unexplained absences in a year or two consecutive absences that's caused to be removed from the council. Those are the requirements in the bylaws. Well, our current youth representative has missed more than that, significantly more than that, and our chair has reached out to that person and we haven't really gotten a response. So what we're asking the Board of Health today is, 'cause you appoint these positions to the council, to remove that representative so we can recruit

47:43 for another youth representative that will bring to you for approval. - Thoughts from the council? Sounds like a reasonable request and you've done what you can to reach out and see if there's anything you can do to help or support this person. And I think we can thank them for the time that they did serve and appreciate that. I met recently with our youth commission and I know they're very interested and concerned about mental health, so I think reaching out to them, you might be able to find a lively candidate. - That will be part of the recruitment process. You will certainly reach out to the youth commission, which we've done in the past. - Sure, yeah, okay. Is there agreement all around on that? Yes, I guess thumbs up all around. So thank you for bringing that forward. And now I think our next bullet point is a topic from the FAC. Welcome.

48:43 - My name is Emily Estes and I'm the vice chair of the Public Health Advisory Council. Last night, the FAC voted by consensus to bring before the board our concern regarding the loss of a state grant to the YWCA. The grant was from the Department of Commerce and you can and may already have read this information in the Columbian, but the YWCA for over a year trained their staff and established partnerships with local law enforcement and attorneys to identify victims of domestic violence who were most at risk of being killed or seriously injured by their abusers. The program identified and provided wraparound supports to 88 people. The $90,000 grant from Commerce will not be renewed to the YWCA Clark County and will instead go to other counties to build new pilot programs. In the year prior to the grant, there were years prior

49:42 to the grant, there were 13 domestic violence related homicides in the year since the grant, there were three. The Columbian also reported a statement from the Clark County Sheriff's Commander Jason Camp that the high risk team created by the YWCA program helped to provide information that might otherwise not have been provided to law enforcement. That information could help prosecutors in better protecting victims of domestic violence. Concerns about the loss of funding came to FACT last night during community updates and the time sensitivity of this made us want to bring it to the board. It is the position of FACT members unanimously that this issue should be brought to the board's attention as the loss of this program is a public health concern. - Okay, thank you. Comments from the board? - No, but I think this is a topic that we'll continue to have on the FACT over the next couple of months

50:39 and see if we can identify any way that we can support. - Thank you. - Go ahead, counselor. - What does the timeline look like? How long are they funded for at this point? - I don't actually have that information. I know that they learned of their grant loss in March and as far as I know, services continue 'til at least June 1st. I believe they might have had to stop at that point, but I am not privy to that. - I'm getting information back here that it ends at the end of June. - Oh. - So it's a fiscal year. - Okay, thank you. Well, thank you very much for bringing this forward. I think we can think about this in our role as the Board of Health and also in our role as the County Council. And I know we have some dedicated funds for certain grants. I know one is for mental health.

51:38 I don't know if there was a way that this could align with that need. But we'll be, thanks. And we'll try and figure something out. - That's the problem with grants. You know, they come and they go and they're often meant, they're meant to be temporary, but they're often filling a permanent need. So thanks a lot. Okay, directors, update. - For the director's report, I'm just gonna mention some foundational and public health services cuts to the Department of State Department of Health that will affect local health jurisdictions, including ours. So one of them is the State Department of Health had a contract, has had a contract with the Poison Control Center, the Poison Center for after-hour calls.

52:37 So emergency calls, for example, for public health after hours and held a contract for that. And that allowed, that supported local health jurisdictions in terms of calls from our, emergency calls in our, they would take the calls for Clark County Public Health. That, they extended it, the contract through July 31st because of the FIFA World Cup. But starting in August, August 1st, local health jurisdictions, including Clark County Public Health must, will have to contract with the Poison Center, Poison Control directly for these services. Fortunately for us, compared to some other jurisdictions, for the notifiable conditions, you know, communicable disease and things like that, we have after-hours coverage internally

53:37 and providers, for example, reporting communicable disease after hours can report directly to us. So the number of calls we, the Poison Center has taken for us has been pretty small. I believe the last year was about 15 calls, whereas some jurisdictions have everything go to their, to Poison Center, and we're looking at 400 to 500 calls a year. So the bottom line is it'll be a minimal cost for us. For the previous 12-month period, it was about $1,500. And we're seeing a maximum impact of about $5,000 to us in the next year. So that was one cut. But fortunately, it's pretty small. The other cut, the other foundational public health services loss

54:37 is around community health data systems that the State Department of Health manages. And that means that will impact several statewide surveys that we use in terms of community health. They collect population-level data on a variety of topics that inform our work and also inform the work of our community partners. So we're seeing, we need to get more information on the extent of those reductions, but there will be some, it looks like there will be some reductions there, and we'll keep you posted. - Great, thank you for that. And what the impacts of that data collection might be, 'cause I know data informs everything that you do. So it may sound like a dry item, but it's the basis of all of your actions. So I'd like to understand the impacts when you know them. - We'll get you more information. - Great, thank you.

55:36 Okay, anything else? - That's all I've got, thank you. - Okay, any comments from the board? - Sure. - Yes? - I was contacted by somebody who mentioned something that has been happening frequently in our community that I think it's kind of become so frequent it seems like we don't notice it very much. And that would be teen violence, specifically with guns, gun violence. We read in the paper just a day or two ago about another incident that happened here in Vancouver. And I would like to add this as an agenda item for our next Board of Health meeting to have a discussion on this, and maybe staff can do some work on data gathering. Is it a perceived increase, is it not? We're just noticing it more. So we can get kind of trending data on that

56:34 to see if we do have a problem on our hands that we need to look at, seeing how we can solve that. And also to look into what our role is currently, what our role could or should be, what other role players are in this, and give us some advice as to what we can or what we should do to combat this if it does show to be a trending problem, growing problem. - Thank you, go ahead, Dr. Melnick. - We're prepared to provide more information than that. I point out that in people ages one to 19 across the United States, firearms are the number one cause of death in that population, and they impact our community as well as all other communities. So we have a lot of information on that. Some of the data we collect, and we'll be happy to,

57:32 we can put that on for an upcoming Board of Health meeting if that works. - I'd also be interested related to suicide and guns. - Number one cause of suicide as well. - Yes, Councilor Belcott. - I was just wondering if we should include the sheriff's offices. They probably have a lot of that data available as well. - I think that's a good idea. We can reach out to them.

58:04 - Okay, yeah, I think there's agreement on that, and Dr. Melnick seems willing, and so we'll look forward to that on our next month agenda. Thank you. - Thank you. - Okay, nothing else from the Board of Health, and we've completed our agenda, and with that, this meeting without objection is adjourned. Thank you.

58:33 (upbeat music) - Vancouver is the third largest municipal provider of drinking water in the state of.

59:34 270,000 people within our city and a portion of urban unincorporated areas.