Clark County Council

0:00 Good evening and welcome calling to order the Clark County Council Tuesday, August 18th, 2026. If you'll join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for the invocation that will be provided by Alex Carr from New Heights Church. 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. Good evening. I invite you to join me in this prayer.

0:59 Father God, we humble ourselves before you as we gather this evening. We thank you for your countless blessings and gracious sacrifice of your son, Jesus. Lord, you know each and every heart in this room. I ask for your help in aligning our hearts with your will for our community. I ask for your wisdom and guidance over the hearts and minds of those entrusted to serve and lead Clark County. I thank you for the institution of government you've given us. I pray that we would seek enacting statutes for our community that honors you and advances love for our neighbor. I thank you for growing in these city council members a heart to serve our community and seek what is best for them. I ask that your Holy Spirit would govern and direct the hearts and minds of these leaders and help them navigate the challenges that face our county today. We thank you for this opportunity to serve others and I ask for your strength to be over us as we seek to align our actions in accordance with your goodness.

1:51 We pray these things in your son's mighty name, amen. >> Thank you very much. Let's move on to the roll call. Michelle? >> Councillor Young? >> Here. >> Councillor Belcock? >> Present. >> Councillor Fuentes? >> Here. >> Councillor Little? >> Here. >> And Chair Marshall? >> Here. >> Thank you. Are there any amendments to the agenda? >> None tonight. >> Okay. Thank you. Then we'll open public comment, and this is open public comment, and you can also comment on the consent and separate business items. And just a reminder, please keep your comments civil and related to county business and refrain from making any statements that are disruptive to conducting county business. Carmen De Leon?

2:50 >> Yeah. I'm Carmen De Leon, also known as Mellow. So I'm just going to read this to you because I like it. It says without God, nothing in life makes sense. Spain's coach, confession of faith, and that's the people who just won the World Cup FIFA, thanking God. This one is just about a mother of a cheerleader, and my son suffered, too, staying awake five days, which caused problems, and this girl -- and I say I'm lucky for the problems I got because this woman lost her daughter. And these energy drinks can give them heart attacks with zero warnings. So I mean, like, cigarettes have warnings, energy drinks need big warnings, and I see people all day just chugging them on down, and I'm just waiting for these 25-year-olds to have heart attacks. Something needs to be -- alcohol has a warning, you have to be a certain age.

3:49 This should be like alcohol, 21 and over. I mean, it's no joke. So anyways, according to these things here, changing subjects, if you don't remember, the Tower of Babel was made to confuse their language. Let's confuse them to make them weaker. And that's what I see in all this translation business. You know, you can get translation services free on your phone, so why are you paying for it? Why are you giving more money to disable people? Like I said repeatedly, the first thing my dad did when he came to this country was learn the language. He expected nothing in return. He said, "I want to be respected. I want to work. I'm going to speak English." In one year, he taught himself. What's with everybody else who has free internet? We shouldn't be paying a dime for translations. Okay, do I have time? What's the next one? Oh, yeah. So garbage. I'd like to see an end by date because certain countries have -- when it comes to waste,

4:47 they burn it all up and they have even run out of garbage. They're buying, importing garbage to burn and using the heat to whatever energy. So why can't we do that? We have mountains of garbage bigger than actual mountains on the East Coast. I heard that some of the biggest mountains on the East Coast are trash mountains. So I would love to see all that burnt to the ground and have an end by date. An end by date would mean the end of garbage and where we would actually have to import it, where we're actually recycling things, which glass is so important to recycle because it doesn't diminish. It keeps its size and strength. You can keep using it indefinitely, whereas other things, they keep getting smaller and smaller. You can only recycle paper so much. So I'm saying recycling and burning things and I don't know what methods these people are going to pitch to you, but certain countries, yeah, it was expensive to buy the machines, but generations later, it was worth it because they're having to buy garbage, not just create it.

5:46 They're making something with it. You know, that's what art is, making something beautiful out of nothing. So maybe we can aspire to be like that. Anyways, that's it. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak? Theresa Hardy? Good evening. I'm sorry, I'm going to be a little disjointed, but we're just beginning to kind of put the pieces together. The multifamily residential outdoor recreation area standards before 2022, July 5th, 2022, April 4th was in management then and there seemed to be some -- some developments were being approved allowing them to combine landscaping and recreation and some weren't.

6:45 And the interpretation was that those two codes were separate, 20% landscaping and recreation. So the DE brought it to the council on July 5th, the day after July 4th, and they wanted an interim ordinance. And that ordinance was passed, there was 100 signatures, it was raised to try and stop that. And because that was an interim ordinance, then it went back to what it was. But then DE, we think it was DE pushed it through under the biannual and it was then Brian Ng who was a planning commissioner and he said that there were unintended consequences, density implications, it was not a minor amendment and it should be considered under policy. But planning commission went ahead and approved it to move forward.

7:43 And then it sort of fell between the cracks and then it seemed to come back under -- after you pass the middle housing option under the multifamily housing options, but you haven't totally passed that yet. And then they were having meetings with Elizabeth Decker looking at what this language should be and those were done with the tech forum. And at that time the tech forum was DEB developers and realtors. If you were a member of the public, you could join those meetings but you weren't allowed to say anything and you had to send in your comment. And now we are -- it looks as if it's going forward in the hearing on the 20th and it has totally changed. It is no longer multifamily residential outdoor recreation areas.

8:40 It is now special use and standards. It's multifamily residential amenity area standards. The landscaping seems to have dropped. The recreation part is changed. All of the standards that were expected under the multifamily recreation standards have been diminished. So it needs to be looked at. It shouldn't go forward like it is. >> It's timely. So please come back or send us some information. Thank you. >> That seems to be all the people that we have signed up in the room. We do have one caller with their hand raised online. >> Great. >> Caller, you've been sent a request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so. Write your name for the record and go ahead with your comment. >> Good evening. This is Kimberly.

9:37 I appreciate Melo speaking about God and I'd like to say that part of our problem is taking God out of not only our schools and that's designed to have children rely -- actually grow up and rely on the government. Which is wrong. But also you took God out of our judicial court system. And I have a definite problem as you well know with my son Cleve being victimized by our very own Clark County judicial law and justice system here. I'm going to speak a little bit about your interpreters that you're going to be paying a lot of money for. At the cost increases result from multiple factors that include in-person assignments. An increase of 8% in caseload and complexity of caseloads. An increase in assignment complexities such as transcriptions of body camera footage.

10:37 These people are going to transcribe a camera footage. It's on the rise and becoming a factor in an increase in service cost. Additionally, with fewer defense attorneys available for hearings, cases are taking longer to resolve. And defense counsels may have to be prioritized over the interpreter chase to allow. So what I've seen when I fit into court cases is there are a lot of illegal immigrants here. I don't care what the mandate states that they need interpreters. The fact is we need to just ship them back home. I don't know what else to say but they're getting a better trial and more funding and responsibilities being taken than my own son. I have a big problem with that.

11:32 I'd like to also mention that I've received a letter from the ACLU of Washington State reprimanding our law and justice system stating that they're holding people incarcerated with no attorney. And that is my son's case. He's not only spent two years in jail but now come to find out is going on his third week of no attorney, no public defender. That's criminal and the fact is when you do love God, we're patient. We might suffer but we give all glory to God and this will come to light. We are going to take care of Clark County's law and justice system here. I have a real big issue with number six on your agenda that you're going to pass. All of these are going to pass but the neuropathology consultations for infant deaths and with traumatic

12:29 brain injury, where does an infant get traumatic brain injury that we have to get thousands of dollars to pay people to come in? Okay, thank you. Sure. That concludes public comment. Okay. Then let's move on to the consent agenda. Would anyone like to pull one through eight? Not hearing any, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda items one through eight. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Then let's move right on to separate business item number one. David Zimmerman and Mary Ann Clear. Please come forward.

13:28 You can sit right up here. Welcome. Hello, good evening, Council members. I think it was working. Can you hear me now? Okay, perfect. Almost felt like that was commercial. Good evening, Council members. My name is Mary Ann Clear. I'm a district court administrator, and I am here to talk with you. Item number one was to speak about our request for additional funding for the interpreters. That is a mandated service that we are providing, and we had been looking at our projections. This is David Zimmerman.

14:26 He is our finance manager, and we've been looking at our projections. I've been at district court for about a month and a half now, going over our budget, spending quite a bit of time with it, and wanted to make sure that we have enough money to provide interpreters throughout the rest of the year because it is a mandated service, and this is something that district court does for our criminal justice system. We do it not just for district court, but for superior court and several of our other partners, and you can see there is an increase in services. We did move with district court back in February over to an additional building. We have interpreters who appear virtually. They also appear in person.

15:21 Interpreters aren't just with verbal, but we do have American Sign Language, and it is an important service that we provide for individuals. Our request is for $328,400 to finish out the rest of the year. >> Great. Thank you. Was there anything you wanted to add? There you go. >> This is David Zimmerman, accounting services manager at district court. We've built this projection on seeing a 30% increase in service cost on a monthly basis, on a monthly average, and this is our projection for the end of 2026. >> Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from the council? >> I have a comment. >> Yes, please. >> Why the significant increase?

16:19 Is it labor costs? >> We're operating out of two physical locations now, and it's mainly the in-person assignments. Interpreters are not -- it's not really possible for them to toggle between the two locations, so we've got district court assignments and then superior court assignments. Superior court makes out about 32% of our case load, and juvenile court, which is in one location before, when we were at the courthouse, when district court was at the courthouse, interpreters could toggle between assignments. Now we need in-person interpreters at one location and the other location. That has contributed to a lot of the cost increase. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions? I have a question.

17:17 Was this partially grant funded in the past? >> No. This is something that because of ongoing increases in services with -- in terms of growing case loads between case filings, and this has been something, I believe, last year was an additional request that was made as well. This isn't something that's been grant funded typically. It's just an increase. >> Okay. And then I did have a question. I saw that we also provide this service for Battleground and Camas Washougal, and do they contribute to the cost of this service? >> Yes, they do. And additionally, because we have an agreement with the Administrative Office of Courts, and we meet specifications with a language access plan, and we have staff interpreters,

18:14 and we have some meetings, we meet their requirements in order to receive reimbursement for some of the services that we are providing. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. If there's no further questions or comments, I'll enter -- oh, yes, please, go ahead, counselor. >> I have a question, and I think I asked this the last time I had you guys in front of us for a similar ask, but I'm going to ask again, because things have changed, but with the technology that we have nowadays with, you know, instant translation that is able to happen using AI, are we, like, waiting for the state to approve that, or where are we at in terms of, you know, being able to use technology to address this issue? >> That's an excellent question, counselor.

19:08 We did -- and I guess it also goes to the question of there is some of this grant funded. We do have a small grant for these things that are called pocket talks, but they're not something that we can use for court. So say if someone's in trial, we can't use this for, say, a five-day trial in superior court. And it's something that we can use, say, if we know what language somebody is using, but it's also not something that we can use with American Sign Language. And this is an important obligation that we have, because it is a mandated service that is in our statutes, and so it is important for us to do. So I don't know if that specifically addresses what you are looking for with respect to AI.

20:07 >> Well, when you say we can't, you know, is it because the technology is not there, or is the technology is there and we're just not legally able to use it? I am not specifically familiar with AI technology that would meet our statutory requirements. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, if there's no other questions or concern, I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second? Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Thank you. Motion carries. Thanks very much. >> Yes, thank you. >> Okay, I think you're sticking around for the next item, too.

21:02 So yeah, so this is the electronic monitoring, so please go ahead. >> Thank you. And I wanted to thank you when Diane Rathburn was present in front of you on August 4th with a grant application request. I wanted to thank you, council members, for the permission to proceed with the application. The application was submitted, and we are optimistically waiting to hear back. I spoke with Diane this morning, and we are hoping that within about a month and a half we may hear back on the funding request that we're hoping that we will be funded for this. On the possibility that we will not be funded, I believe, council member Fuentes, you had

21:55 asked what would happen if we are not funded. Mr. Zimmerman had projected that we will run out of funding in October of this year. And while the programs would still exist, the programs would not be affordable for many individuals in our county. And that would mean that people would remain in our facility, the Clark County Jail. And so there are several programs in our electronic monitoring programs. They are required, so when someone is sentenced on a DUI, there is a requirement for them

22:48 to be able to be on electronic monitoring. And some of this funding goes towards that. And if some individuals are able to be out on electronic monitoring and transdermal, then that becomes a question of fairness, if some people are able to do that because they can afford it and other people have to sit in the Clark County Jail because they are unable to afford that. So this program actually allows all of those people to be monitored, to be home, to be working, and to be adequately monitored. This also funds the electronic monitoring with victim notification technology program, which is the GPS program that we are familiar with, as well as SCRAM and the urinalysis

23:45 testing for those who are pretrial when that is ordered by the court as a pretrial condition of release. >> Okay, thank you. Are there questions from the Council? >> Chair, I do have a really quick question. Thanks for remembering the conversation. You mentioned that if, well, first of all, when do we anticipate to hear about whether or not the grant was approved? >> In round one, we heard within two months. And it's been a couple of weeks. So we're hoping that within about a month and a half, we would be able to hear. >> So that'll probably, it'll take us up to October, right? >> Yes. And should we be successful, then we would no longer need the funding. >> Okay. We're going to be successful, right? I think, yeah. >> Yes. >> Pretty sure you guys submitted an amazing grant.

24:40 You mentioned that there are folks who can't afford to pay for the monitoring services if we don't get approved for the grant. What does it cost for those who could afford it? What's the daily cost? >> It depends on actually which condition and which program they're ordered. So it could be $15 a day, it could be $21 a day, it depends on what is ordered. So whether that's Scram or GPS monitoring, it depends on the program. >> So a lot cheaper than incarcerating somebody for almost $210 a day. >> Yeah, $216 a day is our current rate. >> Oh, $216. Okay, I was looking at the top one here. Oh, that was 2025, so inflation, $216, great, thank you. >> Other questions? Yes, Councillor Young. >> Yes, thank you, Chair. Similar to my last question, I think the last time this came in front of us, we had a short

25:39 discussion about how we are determining whether people can afford this on their own without. If I remember correctly, I think you were maybe in process of developing a way to make sure people can afford it too. Can you comment on that? >> Did you hear that question? Because I think he was asking about how do we determine whether or not someone can afford it, whether or not there's a financial need. That need, I believe, is based on whether or not someone is determined to be indigent, being indigent by the court. And one of the things that we wrote into our grant application is that we would be working with all of our partners. We've been focusing on, in the last month and a half, since I have been here as the

26:38 district court administrator, on being really collaborative with our partners and trying to figure out how can we look at our programs and best use our resources that are available. Been working with Vancouver Police Department, who they're working with one of the programs, which is the EMVNT, or the electronic monitoring, the GPS program. They did write a letter of support for the grant application, and wanting to look at -- she's offered to do some training or refresher training for the courts, and I know has already worked with the prosecuting attorney's office in terms of how the programs work. Really looking at how can we best use the resources and not overuse the resources, but use them the way they are intended and preserve our cost and the life of the program.

27:38 That all sounds great. I was wondering about that. So it's the courts that decide whether or not someone is indigent, and do they base that on some data? There is a form that is completed at the beginning of the hearing. Okay. Is it just self-declare? If people are just self-declaring that they can't afford this? I will say, yes, there are specific questions that are asked, and it's based on the answers provided. Okay. And then I was -- you know, I noticed that there's been a sharp increase, and, you know, how do you account for that increase? And I think this started as a grant-funded program, not too long -- when did it start that we were just picking up the cost of this? Because I think there was a time when we didn't. That's correct.

28:37 We had various grants for various components of this program, some of them from the Administrative Office of the Courts, others by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. Both of those grant-funded components have expired now, and the last one is expiring this October for the electronic monitoring for DOI, and that is provided by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. And hence, we projected out until the end of the year there is not going to be any more funding for that component of the program. The other component of the program was GPS victim notification, and a lot of that was recommendations from the PA's office to -- for that part of monitoring. I can see where that would be really very important. Chair? Yes, go ahead.

29:35 April 4th, for the record, Deputy County Manager. And I think that the program is only, like, three years old, and we were one of the first in the state to do it, and so I think the rapid increase is just recognizing -- I mean, our courts -- we all believe in it, the court systems, VPD, public defense, and pretrial district court. That was my recollection, too, so I just wanted some confirmation. You know, I appreciate that you're looking internally to see if there's ways to prioritize or how the system is working, and I would just request when you begin to figure that out or if you have recommendations, if you could share that with the Law and Justice Council or even, you know, kick it around with the Law and Justice Council to try to figure out how we can make this most efficient. I see it as part of the justice part of law and justice, so critically important.

30:33 Any other comments or questions from the council? Just one really quick question, Chair. The grant that we've applied for that hopefully we get approved for -- how long is the grant for? A year, two, three? It would fund us through June 30th of 2028. So a couple years. No. A year and a half. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Great. Well, fingers crossed on that. If there's no other questions or comments, I'll entertain a motion to approve. I move to approve separate business item number two. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Let's move on to item three. Public works. Sterling and others.

31:26 Thanks for being here. Please go ahead. Good evening, Council Chair and Councillors. For the record, my name is Tyler Bennett. I am the fleet manager here for Clark County. Here today I have Sterling Kessler, the fleet program coordinator for acquisitions and disposals who's going to present our request today. Hi. Good evening, Council Chair and Councillors. I'm Sterling Kessler, the fleet program coordinator for Clark County Public Works. Tonight we are requesting that we get approval to preorder the replacement vehicles for the 2027 model year. Public services reviews and analyzes assets managed within our ER and our program to ensure

32:25 compliance with the fleet utilization and replacement policy and determine when replacement is necessary. The attached list to this staff report identifies the vehicles and equipment that we are planning to replace in 2027. This request comes through due to the fact that order windows for original equipment manufacturers open up at different times of the year and do not necessarily line up with our budget year starting January 1st. This has created problems in the past, procuring replacement equipment, causing the equipment that has been identified to be replaced to be in service longer, driving up maintenance assets, creating additional administrative burdens, tracking replacements that pass through

33:22 the next years. Fleet services is requesting approval to place the orders for these vehicles and equipment. Three of these assets will occur after January 1st in 2027. >> Okay thank you. Are there any questions from council? I don't hear any questions or comments. If not I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> It's been moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded and all those in favor say aye. >> Aye. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Okay moving on to and this is public works also Amanda, professional consulting services

34:19 related to regional solid waste system steering committee. Welcome. >> Good evening council. I'm Joelle Losher, I'm the division manager for Clark County Public Works. Today we're requesting council approval for a professional consulting services agreement with HDR engineering to provide consulting, facilitation and technical support to the regional solid waste system steering committee in evaluating regional governance, public ownership options and operational changes to the regional solid waste system. So we came and did a work session in June to talk about the cost benefit analysis and what resulted in that study that we did was that we really needed to move forward in evaluating the governance structure for what a regional ownership would look like and then factor into cost would follow that.

35:16 This work is going to -- this work was modeled after the discovery clean water alliance formation and so when we did the RFP for this consultant contract we borrowed the RFP from that discovery clean water alliance work and so we really modeled this off of the success of that alliance formation and we're going to look forward to moving into the discussions with the cities on how they envision the system. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Any questions or comments? What would be the timeline? So this contract is for three years. Right now we really have to discuss with the cities what availability they have. We've discussed maybe a compressed timeline where we just meet more frequently and get something -- an MOU and an interlocal agreement started right away or we might have to extend it out a year.

36:14 It just depends on what everyone's 2027 looks like. So we did the contract initially with the consultant for three years but we're open to any number of options in terms of the timeline. We need to commit to some decision by December 31, 2029 that was committed to via interlocal agreements with all of the cities that we did during the solid waste management plan that we did last year. Okay. Questions? Sure. Just a really quick question. So other jurisdictions have had similar presentations of another council to discuss the potential future partnership of acquiring waste management, is that correct? The transfer stations are owned currently by Waste Connections of Washington. Waste Connections. Thank you. But they are. They've been in conversations. Yep. Okay. Thank you. We were just at battleground last night, in fact.

37:13 Okay. Thank you. How are those conversations been going? Do you have any interest? I think there's a varying level of interest. I think everyone's excited about evaluating the options. I would say there's a spectrum on interest in terms of, you know, just wanting to make sure that the rates are going to remain stable and that there's going to be some. I think the most exciting thing is just the opportunity to competitively bid for pricing. And so I think everyone's said that there's an interest in that regard and just any opportunity to, you know, have lower rates for residents. And then, you know, better system outcomes, better opportunities to manage the system so that we can have more control over the types of materials that are going through it. Great. Well, Discovery Clean Water is a good example to model after. Go ahead. Yeah.

38:07 Just curious, how does the regional governance structure work in other counties? And how is the liability risk shared amongst the different jurisdictions? Washington has so many different examples. When we did our regional system study, we had J.R. Miller and Associates perform that study for us. We did a presentation in 2023 on that. There was pretty much four different models that were referenced in that study. We went over each of them, but the model that the Discovery Clean Water Alliance uses is we're not sure that we're going to be exactly able to do that, which is a joint municipal utility services configuration. I think what we're looking at is doing something within our local cooperation act, which is what other counties do in Washington. I think typically the county either owns or they have -- it's either privately owned.

39:07 And then if they own, sometimes they contract out those services. In terms of a regional structure, there's really nothing, I don't think, that can compare. Maybe metro over across the river is probably more similar. And when we did the regional system study, in terms of what the other cities kind of envisioned, there wasn't anything that we could model that was an exact replica in Washington. We had some examples in California, but really we leaned on the Discovery Clean Water Alliance as that's the vision that all of the cities and the county at the time really thought was what we wanted to do. >> Okay, thanks. So the liability is shared amongst the jurisdictions and do they get insurance jointly or how does that work? >> You know, it's a good question. There's so many different responses in the sense of if it's a complete separate entity,

40:06 the liability would fall to the entity. They'd have their own separate insurance, they'd have their own attorneys. So it's really going to -- we're going to have to really lean on our legal services to decide like what that structure looks like. >> But our attorney is leaning forward to make a comment. Please go ahead, Amber. >> Thank you, Chair. Good evening, Council. Amber Smith, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney. So with respect to these types of things and with most of our agreements that we have with the county, when we're dealing with interlocals or kind of joint collaborative work, we often have language in there about mutual indemnification. Washington State has proportional liability for a lot of things. So depending on the actors and whether or not we have sole negligence language, there's a lot of opportunities contractually that we can do for liabilities to help reduce and also offset those, maybe not necessarily eliminate, but make sure that there's language in there

41:04 that is proportional based on the parties. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other comments or questions from Council? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> It's a move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Moved and seconded for separate business item number four. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council. >> Thanks a lot. Then moving on to the treasurer's office, Mira and Sarah, who are coming forward. And Michelle is coming forward also. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> A whole gang, the whole gang is here, that's great, we're glad to see you. >> Good evening, Council, Sarah Lowe, Chief Deputy Treasurer in the Clark County Treasurer's Office.

42:00 I am here tonight with some colleagues on the table here. >> Michelle. >> Why don't they introduce themselves. >> Thank you. >> Michelle Schuster, Director of Internal Services. >> And I'm Mira Ajami, I'm the Finance and Investment Manager in the Clark County Treasurer's Office. >> Thanks. And there's also a couple of folks online. It looks like our financial advisor, PFM, is online. Is Maggie online, just wanting to check and confirm. I can't see everyone. Yes. Okay, wonderful. >> Here. Thank you. >> Wonderful. So if there are any questions that come up for PFM, they are online. And then we have a couple of folks in the audience, Mark Gasway, and then our bond counsel is actually in person this evening. So, Mark Grineau from Foster Garvey, so Mark Gasway will also be coming up here to replace me for the slides. So thank you, Council.

42:56 We are here this evening to ask for your approval of a resolution delegating the Treasurer's Office authority to issue $44 million in bonds to execute several projects at the fairgrounds. We do have a short presentation for you this evening that just kind of explains the projects that will be funded with those bonds, the financing plan, and what exactly is in the resolution. The resolution that was posted originally has been amended, and so that is up for adoption this evening. There are some just minor modifications to add the word fairgrounds to the resolution so that it syncs up with our original agreement with the public facilities district. So with that, I am going to turn it over to my colleagues in the Treasurer's Office in internal services so they can go over the presentation for you this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you.

43:55 You can go to the next slide. Thank you. Okay. Can you hear me? There we go. Okay. In this presentation, we will review, one, the fairgrounds projects. There was some updated final cost to the second phase that Michelle is going to cover for those future projects. We will also provide an overview of the resolution and the key details of the financing. We will also go over the updated debt service projections with updated rates and including those updated costs as well for those future projects, and then the Auditor's Office will cover the exhibit hall fund forecast. We will also go over the debt issuance timeline and then also just next steps in the financing proposal. >> The slide before you is the updated master plan project financing.

44:53 And so when we had brought this to you before, we did not have the construction costs for the 2030 to 2032 portion on there. And so since then, we have fleshed out those estimated costs and added them in, and we also added the bond issuance cost, which you'll see at the bottom, which now gets us our new total of the 44 million. Previously, what you had seen was just over the 31 million, which included the phase one bonding, the 2026 to 2029, plus the A and E for sort of the phase two 2029 bonds. But now we're coming back with it all wrapped together as one to get it into the bond resolution. >> Okay, and then just an overview of the resolution. As Sarah mentioned, we are requesting council approval to delegate authority to the Treasurer's

45:47 Office to issue bonds up to 44 million to finance those projects that Michelle covered. This also allows us to do financing up to a maximum term of 30 years. Typically, our debt policy -- our standard term is 20 years, unless there is compelling factors. One of the main advantages of doing a 30 year is really maximizing that sales tax credit that we received from the state. That will allow us to collect that sales tax credit through 2058. And also just to state debt is required to be outstanding on a public facility district in order to receive that sales tax credit. And the county only has one PFD, and that is at the fairgrounds. Other items in the resolution also include the interest rate parameters. On a tax exempt basis, it may not exceed 6%, and on a taxable basis it may not exceed 7%.

46:46 It also states that all bonds must be issued before December 31, 2029. And then just part of the process, the county will receive a credit rating through Moody's on this issuance, and most likely, again, when we go out for issuance in 2029. The next couple of slides are updated debt service payments that PFM provided. This is as of last week, August 13th, with rates updated. It includes the 26 and the 2029 debt issuances, and I'll just state for the 2029 interest rates, it is increased by 1%. This would put annual debt service payments starting in 2026 at about $1.9 million, and then increasing another $830,000 in 2029 to about $2.7 million annually. The next slide shows what that would look like at a 20 year term.

47:43 While you can see the interest rate costs, we would save an interest rate cost, the interest rate is lower. Our annual debt service payment is much higher. That's about $2.3 million starting in 2026, and then bumping up about another $1 million starting in 2029. I'll also just state, too, that the county does have the option to refinance at a future date if rates lower. I know right now interest rates are a bit volatile, and I think we just had the highest 30-year Treasury yields. The 30-year Treasury is the highest it's been, I think, since 2007. So we are closely watching that and monitoring that and working with our financial advisor. Next slide. I'll hand it over to Mark. Excuse me, Mark Goswe, Clark County finance director.

48:38 I just want to just briefly explain the financial analysis that we did to determine whether we could afford to do the repayment on this debt. So what you have before you here is an example of what we call the 1026 fund or the debt reserve fund. There are several funds associated with the fairgrounds, and this one is primarily focused on paying off the outstanding bonds. And you can see the revenues coming in. The revenues from the PFD sales tax credit would be put into this fund, along with the revenue sources from the hotel/motel tax. And then they would primarily be focused on paying off the existing bonds, as well as those new bonds that would be issued under this debt issuance. We also have some maintenance and operation expenses that we run through this fund as well.

49:35 We recently had council approve a fund balance policy for this fund. Under the current terms that we're discussing, the 30-year bond, you can see that as we go out six years, we do spend down that fund balance a little, actually quite a bit. But we still maintain our minimum fund balance and some extra at this point. And then if you go to the next slide. The next slide is an example of what the difference would be between a 30-year issuance and a 20-year issuance. With the most recent rates that we have, this slide actually has been updated, but the outcome, the difference at the end of the life of the bonds is still the same.

50:32 There's about a $34 million increase by issuing the 30-year bonds because we're able to qualify for that sales tax credit for an additional 10 years. And so, although the amount that would accumulate is lower than what this slide indicates, that difference is still there. And so, the recommendation right now is to maximize the ability for the county to collect that sales tax credit. - And then this slide just goes over the proposed timeline and key dates. We are hoping to receive council approval tonight for consideration on the resolution. August through October, we will be working with Department of Commerce on a PFD feasibility review. The Washington State Department of Commerce does require an independent feasibility review for all public facility districts.

51:32 These reviews ensure objective analysis of a project's costs and expected revenues. They are required before issuing any new debt, so we would have this fully completed before we went out for the bonds. During that same August through October timeframe, we're also going to be working on drafting the preliminary official statement. And then October, applying for the credit ratings with Moody's. And then hopefully, well, receive the rating and finalize the official statement sometime between October and November with the final bond sale sometime in November and closing everything by the end of the year. So as far as next steps, as I mentioned, we are hoping to receive council approval on the resolution. Facilities and FSMG will continue to work on the A&E, the projects that are included in this proposal. Our office will continue working with PFM, our financial advisor, and Foster Garvey,

52:30 our bond council, who will assist throughout the process. We'll also help facilitate in our local agreement for a feasibility review with the PFD and the Department of Commerce. Of course, we'll keep council informed throughout the process, both of the feasibility study in that final report, but also with the bond closing for the 2026 and again in 2029. And a final step also, just making sure all the budget packages will be submitted this fall in alignment with these proposals. With that, I'll ask if there's any questions. >> Great. Thank you. I just want to thank you all. We all received individual one on several of you briefings, so that was very helpful. Any questions or comments from the council? >> I have a comment. Is Larry online? There was something that he said in particular during my one-on-one that I thought would

53:28 be helpful for the public to know, and I cannot recall. Do you remember what it was? Sarah? >> Oh, could you please come up, or you could stand right there. >> I just thought it was a helpful comment. >> Good evening, council. Yes, I do actually remember that, and I think it's in one of the slides, but -- and we did try to add it, just that debt was required to receive the sales tax credit. We did think that was an important point, and so we did add it to the slides. It is actually a requirement to continue receiving that sales tax credit and to continue receiving it for the maximum amount of time of 30 years, and that's why we wrote the resolution as we did. >> Thanks, Sarah, for the clarification. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you. And just to follow up, you mentioned that we only have the one PFD, and that's the fair grounds. Is there any chance to get another PFD? Oh, there's a nod in the audience. >> This is our bond council.

54:26 Mark Greeno with the Foster Garvey Law Firm in Seattle. Counties are allowed to create as many PFDs as they like. >> Okay. >> But the sales tax credit window has closed, so if you create a new PFD, you would not be eligible to receive that state sales tax credit. You could put before the voters a sales tax up to .2% on the ballot, and so that's what we're seeing happening around the state now. >> Okay. That was kind of good news, bad news really quickly there, so thank you for clarifying that. Any other comments or concerns? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> I so move. >> Been moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. Okay. Motion carries.

55:20 Moving on to our final item under this category, internal services. Michelle, you're still here, and Ryan Berg is maybe online or? >> He may be. Okay. Please go ahead. This is a fair master plan, engineering and design services. >> Before we get started, if we could clarify for the record that you're passing the amendment. >> Amended resolution. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. >> And then I did have a question about that. We should say the resolution number probably as well, or that's understood. >> We can. >> But it's -- is it corrected or is it amended? >> It's as amended. >> Would we need to pass the amendment? >> I would say it's passed the resolution as amended. >> As amended. >> Yes. And the amendment, you can see the change on your screen right now. >> Right.

56:20 >> But for the public. The amendment is really just correcting the language from event center to the fairgrounds to be consistent with other documents related to the fairgrounds. So let's take that vote again. Is that what you're looking for? So the motion would be approval of the amended resolution and I'm just going to say it, 2026-08-10. >> I so move. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye. >> Aye. >> Okay. Thanks. All right. Then back to item six here, internal services. >> Thank you. Again, Michelle Schuster, Director of Internal Services. Before you tonight, now that you've approved the bond resolution moving forward is a staff

57:14 report to ask for the Architectural and Engineering Design Services for the fairgrounds projects on the master plan to be moved to this bond. Currently, we have two approvals in the 2026 annual budget for $1.7 million to start the A&E in a lot of these projects. But that was to be funded directly out of money coming from fund 1026, which is now where the bond debt will be paid from. And so we're wanting to move these projects now and the other projects and have them funded against the bond in fund 3020, which is our bonded projects fund where these projects will now reside. And so this is for approval of amendments 4 to 14, which covers all of the different projects you saw in the previous slides, and moving the expense for those into the bonded funds to be paid out of that.

58:13 And because they hadn't been approved in the original contract, we had gotten permission from the council for the county managers to sign amendments. But since we didn't have the funding set aside yet, we were bringing these back to you to get the approval to make sure that you're all right with these amendments now going off the new bonded funding. And total cost for these is $4,676,001 plus other reimbursable expenses that are outlined in the original contract for a total not to exceed $4,914,000. So just about 10% of the overall project budget. So any questions? >> Okay, thank you. Are there any questions from council? No questions? I'll entertain a motion then to approve. >> Move separate business item number six.

59:12 >> Thank you. Moved and seconded, thank you. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Young. Then that concludes that section. Let's move on. County manager report, do you have anything to report tonight? >> I don't have anything tonight, thank you. >> Okay, well there, we've completed our meeting in one hour, I would just note that. And without objection, this meeting is adjourned.