Clark County Council

0:00 (upbeat music)

0:30 - 2026, is this, get that a little closer. Okay, we're gonna start out with five proclamations. The first one being the Year of the Woman Farmer. I'll read this, and I think there are several of them, but I think it's a really good one. I think it's a really good one. I'll read this, and I think there are several women farmers. If you wanna come up, I'll read this to you, and if you wanna say a few words, that would be great.

1:28 I thought you were gonna hold hands. You don't have to. Okay, you can. Okay, thank you very much for being here. I know this is a very busy time for farmers, maybe especially women farmers, and some people who were involved with this weren't able to be here tonight because they're working. But let me proceed. Whereas, all farmers in our community play a critical role in providing food, supporting local economies, and preserving our agricultural heritage. And whereas, women farmers make up 36% of all agricultural producers in the United States, totaling 1.2 million female farmers.

2:25 58% of all US farms have at least one female producer. And whereas, it is important to recognize the challenges faced by women farmers, including market access, access to equitable resources, and capital, and extreme weather due to climate change. And whereas, the United Nations has declared 2026 to be the International Year of the Woman Farmer to spotlight the essential roles women play across agri-food systems, often in ways that go unrecognized. And whereas, promoting awareness and support for women farmers fosters community resilience, sustainability, and the potential of ecosystem regeneration. And whereas, women farmers contribute significantly

3:23 to soil health and provide nutritious, local, organic food, preserving recognition for their wisdom and contributions. And whereas, healthy soils and healthy people are interconnected and form the foundation of a healthy food system and a thriving local farming economy nourishes our bodies and supports community wellbeing, pointing out the importance of nutrient-rich foods. And whereas, Clark County Agricultural Study emphasized the need to protect our farming resources, and whereas, prioritizing local food production reduces long-distance shipping, resulting in fresher produce that benefits our health, a reduction in greenhouse gas emission, and increases local food security.

4:20 And whereas, we acknowledge the essential role of women in farming and the need for their continued leadership, inspiration of future generations, and the supportive networks they create. And whereas, we honor the legacy of our ancestors whose knowledge and passion guide us in nurturing our community and healing our environment through the strength of women in farming. Now therefore, the Clark County Council does hereby proclaim 2026 Year of the Woman Farmer in Clark County, Washington. The council celebrates our local farmers and supports a strong local agricultural economy and encourages more women in agricultural jobs, dated this 19th day of May, 2026, and signed by the entire council.

5:18 (audience applauding) So this is for you, and if you wanna take turns and say a few words or tell us about your farms or however you would like to proceed. There you go, I'm stepping aside. - Sure. - Hi y'all, I'm Mo McKenna, I'm a woman farmer. My husband and I have a small cut flower farm in Clark County. I also serve as the co-chair of our Agricultural Advisory Commission. And I don't think that I am what people expect a farmer to look like. And so it's exciting for me to be up here representing what farmers do look like and can look like in the future. (audience applauding)

6:17 - Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hello everyone, my name is Monica Zez with the Taber, and I am president of Southwest Washington Victory Food Project. And that's really wild for me to say. When I remember when I was a child and Doritos and Top Ramen were the go-to, and I had no idea where food came from or anything, and I've come a long way. And I'm surrounded by beautiful women and beautiful people in the community helping us bring nutritious food to our community. So what our Victory Food Project does, we have a garden plot over on 68th Street in Hazel Dell at the Sarah's Garden. And we have provided fresh produce to the Mercado, which hands out food boxes, fresh produce food boxes every two weeks

7:15 to people in need, no questions asked. And we also provide food to, sorry, and we provide food, we have provided food to the free fridge program. And we also need volunteers. We need more people wanting to do this work. It's really hard to go up against big industry, and we really need our community to come together, and we need to help each other. That's what we're here for, is to help each other. So I thank you so very much for this proclamation. It's exciting, and thank you to all the women who helped write it. And yeah, I just thank you, bye. (audience applauds) (audience member coughs)

8:07 - My name's Jessica Haberman. This is my daughter, Sylvie. We, along with my husband and the rest of our kids, we raise beef and hay in Ridgefield. And I grew up in Eastern Washington in a farming family, and my parents still raise apples and cherries. And I went off to nursing school to the big city, and I met my husband, and we ended up settling here. But I just could not imagine home for me and home for my children being anything other than a farm. And I'm so thankful that we've been able to build that here. And I just love it. It's just a part of, farming is a part of who I am. It surrounded my whole childhood, and it surrounded my kids' whole childhood.

9:07 And I'm just so thankful for the proclamation because it's not that we're trying to elevate women above men, but we just wanna make sure that they feel like they have a place in this career, and that there's a home for them here, too. So thank you. (audience applauds) - Okay, thank you very much. It's our honor to honor you. Keep up the good work. Okay, our next proclamation. The sheriff is here to receive. And yeah, you can come up.

10:06 So whereas, the maintenance of law and order is the keystone of a free society. And whereas, all men and women of America's law enforcement communities fully know the commitment necessary to keep the peace. And whereas, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy set aside May 15th as National Peace Officer Memorial Day, and the week of May 15th as National Police Week, a time to recognize all law enforcement officers for their continued and dedicated service. And whereas, it is fitting and proper that Clark County declares a day of local recognition of officers who have been slain or disabled in the performance of their sworn duties. Therefore, the Clark County Council

11:06 hereby proclaims Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, as Clark County Peace Officer Memorial Day in Clark County, Washington, and urges citizens to extend gratitude to all members of the Clark County Sheriff's Office and all local police agencies for their service. And it hereby orders flags at all county facilities to be flown at half staff on May 19th, 2026, in grateful recognition of the officers across America who gave their lives or health, so the cause of a free nation shall be unconditionally perpetuated. Signed this 19th day of May by the entire county council. (audience applauds)

12:00 - Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you. I'll do, I don't know, I'm a politician. Go ahead and go short. All right, I'll be quick. Thank you, council, for doing this. This one actually means something. It's been tough. The last five years we've lost two officers here, a Vancouver officer and a Clark County deputy, so we're still feeling the sting of that. So we appreciate this very much, and I will put this in my office and share it with everybody. Oh, you got around on me. All right, thank you. All right, bye-bye. (audience applauds) - Great, thank you very much for your service, and I would like to note that the Sheriff's Office hosted a memorial service this morning. It was very meaningful, and I wanna appreciate everyone who was involved with that. Okay, Older Americans Month.

12:58 Councilor Fuentes and Ellen Rogers and Christina Marneris will be receiving this from the Community Services Director, Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington. There it is, thank you. Welcome, good to see you. Thank you, it's an honor for me to present this proclamation as a member of the Council of Governments for Triple D ASW. Wait, no, Triple A DSW. So thank you for being here. All right, so whereas Clark County includes a growing number of older Americans who contribute their time, wisdom, and experience to our community, and whereas older Americans strengthen Clark County through countless contributions as volunteers, mentors, caregivers, advocates, and leaders, enriching our community with the resilience, insight, and lifelong dedication to service,

13:55 and whereas communities benefit when people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds have the opportunity to participate and live independently, and whereas Clark County recognizes the need to create a community that offers the service and supports older adults may need to make choices about how they age, and whereas Clark County can work to build an even better community for our older residents by continuing to expand our thinking about aging, exploring and combating stereotypes, emphasizing the many positive aspects of aging, inspiring older adults to push past traditional boundaries, and embracing our community's diversity. Whereas the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington promotes independence, choice, wellbeing, and dignity for persons age 60 and over, adults with disabilities and their families through a comprehensive, coordinated system of home and community-based services, and whereas the Clark County Commission on Aging was established in 2012 to provide leadership

14:55 addressing the needs and opportunities of an aging population and promote community engagement on issues important to our neighbors. Now therefore, the Clark County Council proclaims May 2026 as Older Americans Month. In Clark County, Washington, we urge every resident to recognize the contributions of our older citizens, help to create an inclusive society, and join efforts to support older Americans' choices about how they age in their communities, signed this 19th day of May 2026 by the entire council. (audience applauds) - I have a little speech. No, now it's on. Hello, my name is Ellen Rogers and I am the chair of the Clark County Commission on Aging. The Commission on Aging helps provide leadership,

15:53 develop community awareness, and spearhead positive change toward an all-age-friendly, livable community. The commission is excited to support this proclamation to highlight the importance of older Americans as invaluable members of our community, recognize their contributions, and reaffirm our commitment to serving the aging community. The Commission on Aging sincerely thanks the county councilors for presenting this proclamation today. It is because of the councilors' support for the work of organizations like the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington and the Commission on Aging that we can contribute to help build a community that is welcoming to residents of all ages, incomes, and abilities. In partnership with the council, we look forward to continuing our work to foster community-wide awareness,

16:52 dialogue, and insight into the challenges and opportunities for residents as they age and promote an accessible, safe, and livable community. Thank you very much. (audience applauds) - Good evening, I'm Christina Marneras with the Area Agency on Aging, and I would just like to add our appreciation to the council for the proclamation, and more importantly, for your ongoing support of older adults in Clark County. Thank you so much. (audience applauds) - Next, Mental Health Awareness Month, Councilor Young and Kim Schneiderman, Executive Director of NAMI Southwest Washington will be accepting. (audience member coughs) Come on.

17:48 Whereas good mental health is critical to the wellbeing of our families, communities, schools, and businesses, and saves money for our community, and whereas approximately 1/2 of chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14, and 3/4 by age 24, early identification and treatment can improve lifelong outcomes for young people with mental illness, and whereas only 44.4% of people in Washington with a serious form of mental illness receive treatment for his or her mental illness, and people with mental illnesses can recover if given the necessary services and support in their communities, and whereas mental health is an essential component of overall health and wellbeing,

18:47 and through working together to raise public awareness and reduce stigma around seeking mental health treatment, we can improve the lives of individuals and families experiencing mental health challenges, and whereas communities of color, frontline workers, and healthcare workers continue to experience disproportionate impacts of pandemic-related stress with rates of depression among these groups tripling since 2019, and whereas suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, the second leading cause among both youth and young adults, and 90% of people who die by suicide had shown symptoms of a mental health condition, and whereas we stand in solidarity with all people in our state to help end the silence and stigma that for too long has made people feel isolated or alone, and has discouraged them from seeking the help

19:45 and support they need, and above all, we are committed to ensuring that children, youth, and adults experiencing mental health challenges are treated with the compassion, respect, and dignity they deserve. Now therefore, we, the Clark County Council, do hereby proclaim the month of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, signed this fifth day of May, 2026, by all of the county council. (audience applauding) So it's an honor for me to turn over the mic to you, Kim. I have served by her side, I think for five years now, on the board for NAMI, Southwest Washington, and I'll let her talk about it. - Okay. - Thank you. - Thank you so much, thank all of you so much. - You know, as Glenn said, you know, half the mental health challenges start by the age of 14, and another 25% by the age of 24.

20:43 What that means, guys, is we aren't off the hook, okay? Those other illnesses are popping up on a daily basis. What NAMI tries to do for our community is educate, support, raise awareness, and advocate on behalf of people that are dealing with mental health, and their family members, because nobody gets well without support, and we need to reach out to our community and get the support for people from our community. It's very important. This morning, we gave a presentation called Ending the Silence at a high school. We did 1,900 students, 1,900 students, and talked to them about mental health challenges so that they can put names on it,

21:39 they can look in their friends, themselves, their families, and try to address this at an early age. We, on a daily basis, are out there trying to raise awareness in the community. We have free programs that we will come in to places of business and talk to folks on how to address it if somebody comes in that's struggling. We go into the schools, as I said. We go into businesses and talk to businesses about how to address their employees that may be struggling with mental health challenges, or their loved ones, employees' loved ones. We are coming at this from all directions, and our whole community needs to do this, and I am so excited that our council is supporting these ideas. We have a NAMI Walk on May 31st, I'm sorry, May 30th, and you are all invited. Tell everybody about it.

22:36 It's a way to show support for people that are struggling, to show them that we got their backs, that no matter what, we care about them, and we want to support them. So, thank you very much. (audience applauding) - Thank you so much. - Okay, the next proclamation, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Dania Otto, Executive Director of Sakura 39ers, and Minh Pham, Vietnamese Community of Clark County. Do you want to come forward?

23:47 - Yeah, everybody can come up who is part of the community. - There's plenty of room up here. Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming. - Great. - So, this evening, I am blessed to be able to read two proclamations that have special meaning to me. This one has special meaning because my spouse and my children are of Asian heritage. Whereas Asians and Pacific Islander Americans have lived and worked in Clark County since before its founding and are part in the rich cultural heritage of our community, and whereas today, more than 56,000 residents with Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry call Clark County home, and whereas this month

24:46 provides an opportunity to learn more and educate the public about the Asian Pacific role in American and county history, and is a time to celebrate the advancement of civil rights and equal opportunities for all, and whereas the Clark County Council finds that it is fitting and proper to recognize the vital role of the county's Asian American and Pacific Islander residents who enrich and support Clark County as friends, neighbors, business owners, volunteers, community leaders, and more. Now, therefore, the Clark County Council does hereby proclaim May 2026 as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Clark County, Washington, and encourage all residents to learn more about those of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage, and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities dated this 19th day of May 2026

25:45 by the entire Clark County Council. (audience applauding) We need to get a second one. We'll get you a second one.

26:07 - Good evening, everyone. My name is Donya Otto. I am the executive director for Sakura 39ers, a community-based Trukese organization here in Southwest Washington. On behalf of Sakura 39ers, our church, and community leaders here today, our Trukese community in Clark County, I want to extend our deepest gratitude for presenting us with the Trukese Heritage and Unity Proclamation with the AAPI group here. This recognition means far more than words can express. It is a powerful acknowledgement of the ability of our Trukese NPI community, our culture, our history, and contributions our people continue to make here in Vancouver and throughout the Pacific Northwest. We are honored that Clark County has taken the time to celebrate unity, diversity, and cultural heritage.

27:06 Proclamations like this remind us that when communities come together with respect and understanding, we become stronger together. To the county council members, county leaders, organizations, and everyone involved in making this possible, thank you for seeing the value in our traditions, our voices, and our people. Your support encourages future generations to remain proud of their identity while continuing to build their bridges across cultures. The Sakura 39ers and team here are committed to continuing this spirit of unity through service, leadership, fostering our youth, cultural pride, and community involvement. We proudly accept this proclamation not only for ourselves, but for all Trukese families, elders, youth, and supporters who help keep heritage alive every day.

28:04 We will be celebrating this proclamation in July with a track and field day that brings together over 1,200 Trukese community members in the Pacific Northwest. (speaking in foreign language) Thank you very much for this incredible honor. May we continue working together in unity, respect, friendship, for many years to come. Thank you and (speaking in foreign language) (audience applauding) - My name is Minh Pham. I'm the president of the Vietnamese community in Clark County. On behalf of the Vietnamese community of Clark County, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Clark County for issuing this proclamation, recognizing Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2026. This recognition is deeply meaningful to our community.

29:02 It's all the history, resiliency, and contribution of Vietnamese-American and the many other AAPI communities who have helped make Clark County stronger through service, hard work, and cultural diversity. For many Vietnamese family, Clark County becomes a place of opportunity, safety, and belonging. Many of us arrive here as a refugee, seeking a new beginning. Today we're proud to contribute as an educator, healthcare workers, engineer, business owners, student, and community volunteers. We are especially gratitude for the continued support and partnership from the Clark County in helping organizations like ours to provide and use program, cultural education, community engagement activities that strengthen connection across generation and culture.

30:02 This proclamation send an important message to our children, future generation, that their heritage matter, their voice matter, and their contribution of value. Thank you again to Clark County Council and community partners celebrating diversity, inclusion, and unity. We are honored to be part of this welcoming community. (speaks in foreign language) Thank you very much. (audience applauds)

30:48 (clears throat) - Okay, thank you all very much for your participation. May is a big month for proclamations, and we're happy to participate in that. Okay, so if you would join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the invocation that will be provided by Rob Poole of the Countywide Chaplaincy. - 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. Father, we just come to you this evening, and we recognize you and acknowledge you

31:47 as our Father in Heaven, Creator of all things, King of the Universe. We also recognize your steadfast love towards us, your enduring mercy, and your amazing grace. Thank you for being mindful of us, for loving us, inviting us to be your children, even though we don't always do what you want. Help us, Lord, to love and honor you, and to love our neighbor, and to treat one another with dignity and respect. Help us to remember that we are created in your image, and therefore are worthy of love, just as equal justice and fair justice, equal and fair justice. Lord, we ask you to bless us, our community, our friends, our neighbors, especially our first responders, and protect them, Lord, and their families. Give us wisdom this day to make good decisions and to walk on this earth in a manner

32:45 that would bring honor and glory to you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. - Thank you very much for that. Okay, let's move on to the roll call. Michelle. - Councilor Young. - Here. - Councilor Belcock. - Present. - Councilor Fuentes. - Here. - Councilor Little is absent, and Chair Marshall. - Here. - Thank you. - Okay, are there any amendments to the agenda? - Yes, I have one for tonight. If we can remove consent item number six. This is one for Superior Court in a grant-funded position. The grant was already allocated in the 2026 budget, so Council does not need to approve it again. - Thank you. Okay, now it's time for open public comment, and public comment on consent and separate business items. Just a reminder, you have a limit of three minutes,

33:45 and I ask you to be respectful, and try to keep this related to county business. - Judy, is it Mait? Is it Matz? Sorry, the Z looked like E.

34:08 - Hit the button there on the mic, there you go. - Thank you. My name is Judy Matz, M-A-T-Z. That's fine. Let me, you cannot? Okay, how about now? Okay, Judy Matz, I am a 30-year Clark County real estate broker, involved from land, houses, and all different kinds of things that you can do in 30 years. I'm here to speak tonight about the Tri-Mountain Golf Course. I was at the last meeting, and I'm new. I've only been to a few of these, so I didn't know I was supposed to sign up and speak, and so I'm here tonight. I have recently talked to Michelle Schuster, and she said your best is to just come and use your three minutes, which I'm using now. So Clark County, I'm all an advocate for Tri-Mountain. For one thing, selling houses, selling land, and selling development, we need a golf course to stay.

35:07 Currently, there are only six golf courses in Clark County that serve a population of 542,400. Three of those are private. We have only three public, and those public is Tri-Mountain, Camas, and we have the over 55 community of Fairway Village, and that's only a nine-hole course. When I am showing property or even land development, and it's to a lot of people coming here from out of state for many reasons, I deal in the mid to older population luxury custom home. They always ask if there's a golf course close by. They like to live next to it. All of them can't afford Royal Oaks, and they can't afford the other private clubs that are over in Portland. So with that said, the economic advantage is with the revenue coming in from a golf course

36:04 for retail, entertainment, and what's being built in the area is what is going to draw people to a golf course. Example, Ridgefield. The port is building a new park along the waterway, and there's gonna be a little amphitheater for outside music. There's parks, there's all walking trails. There's McCuddy's Marina. You can kayak. You can fish, and the dragon gals are there on a constant basis. You also have the refuge, not the Ridgefield, the refuge, and they just finished their brand new building for public, and it's gorgeous. So we've got Alenay with top entertainment, five restaurants. I think Travis Tritt is there next week. You've got a river being developed that's with retail.

37:04 There are eight wineries in Ridgefield, and we have a golf course. So it's a one-stop shop for development, selling homes, and then you have Kalama. Am I done? - Yes. Please feel free to write or come back another. - Well, Michelle will get another email. The reason I'm saying is I have a buyer for it. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, thanks. You can communicate through Michelle. That'd be great. Thank you. - Jamie Baer. - Good evening. Oh, sorry. My name's Jamie Baer. I am a registered voter of District 3 in Clark County, and I am here tonight as president of AFSCME 307L, the labor union representing librarians and supervisors at Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries.

38:01 My union in solidarity with our union siblings and WPEA 365 continue to have serious concerns regarding the conduct of the FERL Board of Trustees. Public trust in the library board was damaged when trustees chose to rewrite the strategic plan to reflect their personal agendas rather than the interests of the community they were appointed to serve. You now have an opportunity to restore public confidence through your consideration of the Skamenya County trustee appointment. The current candidate has made troubling statements in both his letter of interest and interview that call into question his belief in the value and mission of public libraries themselves. Clark County Council is not obligated to approve this appointment. Other applicants from Skamenya County expressed a genuine interest in serving the public good and upholding the mission of the library system. Your constituents are paying attention to this decision. They are watching to see whether this council will defend intellectual freedom, access to information and public accountability,

39:00 or continue enabling efforts that undermine these principles. Public libraries exist to serve everyone and the people you represent deserve trustees who believe in that mission. As a librarian, I also want to express concern about the county IT department's proposed budget request to purchase Microsoft COVID licenses at an annual cost of over $112,000. The stated rationale for this request is that, quote, "Every department that I have asked "wants to take greater advantage of AI tools," end quote. The proposal further states that purchasing 500 Co-Pilot Pro licenses would allow the county to, quote, "Explore the value of AI," end quote. As stewards of public funds, the Clark County Council has a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent thoughtfully and with clear public benefit. At this time, the proposal does not identify a specific operational need, measurable goals,

39:59 or a clear implementation plan that would justify purchasing 500 AI licenses. As a public librarian, I love emerging technology and understand the potential value. However, as a public employee and a taxpayer, I believe it is irresponsible to commit significant taxpayer funding to a technology initiative without a clearly defined purpose, accountability measures, or a detailed explanation of how county residents' data will be protected. Given the lack of demonstrated need or implementation strategy, I urge the council to defer approval of the AI licensing portion of this budget until the IT department can provide clear justification, goals, and safeguards. Thank you. - Thank you. Marla Koch.

40:50 - Good evening, I'm Marla Koch. You all received a letter from me in the last week or two with my concerns also over the Skamenya County proposed candidate for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Board. And I sent you a copy of his letter of interest. And then I started thinking, who else applied? Was he the only applicant? And there were three other applicants. So I did a request for public records to get their letters of interest. And I made copies for you. So you can look at them before you make the decision. And to contrast, the person they chose said, quote, I am committed to representing the taxpayers in the districts, including the nearly 50% of Skamenya voters who did not support the most recent library levy. He also said there are many ways people seek out literacy, education, and freedom.

41:47 Libraries are one way, but not the only way. Emphasis on one and only. I claim libraries are one of the last free frontiers of knowledge that don't have a paywall or an algorithm driving them. So just a few comments from the other three applicants. The Fort Vancouver Regional Library System and our local libraries are a boon to our community. I served 12 years as president of the Stevenson Friends of the Library. Our community voted for the library lift just recently. Community support for our libraries is strong. Another applicant said, I'm a firm believer in the power of public literacy. I have long admired how our regional system serves diverse community needs. I am particularly interested in helping in any way I can to show the value of libraries

42:46 for the community at a broad level. And this person's a former educator. And the third person who was not selected said access to information, works of art, and social connection are critical to a democratic society committed to nurturing its citizens. This person applied because of her commitment to public access to knowledge. The local library was key in her development. Access to books opened her mind to new ideas and led her to become a physician and later a trainer of physicians where she taught students how to evaluate online sources. So there were three other candidates who are pro library, pro freedom of information, and they chose the one who wasn't. I know it's not standard to veto somebody else's choice, but I think that's the purpose

43:44 of having the option of a veto. So I would like to leave these for you to read at your leisure. Okay, thank you. - Thank you. Matt Tugerson? - Close. - Okay. - It's a Tugerson, not a problem. All right. - Thank you for thanking me. Good evening, counselors. My name is Matt Tugerson, and I'm a Vancouver resident and a representative of Paws AI Vancouver, a nationwide grassroots organization that is working to stop the development of dangerous AI and put public safety first. Today, I'm not here to discuss dangerous AI, but I am here to request that you send the proposal back for business item number two, I believe, extended business item number two, for one primary issue. Tools should follow policy and not the other way around. First, the proposal specifically requested Copilot Pro,

44:43 which is somewhat confusing because the specific offering, that specific offering was discontinued in October of 2025. And from my perspective, that just makes it seem a little bit messy and not particularly well-defined. To clarify further, the IT proposal states that they want to explore the value of AI, but exploration is not a problem statement with an explicit solution. It's a vague desire or a wish to have a new utility available, but over $100,000 a year, I believe the county should have a very well-defined objective with metrics to measure success against. The department also stated that AI will enable more general control over sensitive county data. However, it doesn't specify how unless it's an open admission that county data is being used in other unapproved, unsanctioned AI tools without licensing or consent to do so. The proposal also cites an increase in efficiency,

45:42 but notably AI tools do increase the amount of things an individual does, but studies are emerging that indicates it's not just productivity, but an increase in the baseline of busy work that workers are taking on. To speak plainly, the jury is still out on whether or not AI makes people more efficient. So my ask is pretty concrete. Please send this proposal back, and before it returns, require IT to specify which co-pilot product is actually being purchased. Adopt a county AI use policy with public input, and if the pilot is warranted, structure is a smaller program with a defined success criteria and a sunset clause. Thank you. - Thank you. Win Gursich.

46:32 - My name is Win Gursich, and I came here tonight to talk about fluoride, and I know years ago that the people voted to put fluoride in the water 'cause they were lied to that this toxic, hazardous waste product that increases cancer death rates and lowers IQs was good. Well, now we know it's not, and the Harvard brain damage studies that I put on public record, I got from Paul Conant from Fluoride Action Network, and his son is the one who took this to court, but it was the Biden administration and Rachel Levin that stopped the findings because they know fluoride's poison. In the Bay Area, they use fluorocellulic acid, but up here, we use sodium fluoride, which is the industrial waste product from China. And they had a meeting last night in battleground, and they were honoring the Tourette syndrome.

47:32 Well, between the toxic vaccines and them putting poison in the water, it messes up people's brains. And is this what you want for your kids? You could look up learntherisk.org and find out every ingredients that they put in the vaccines and they're not good. They cross the blood-brain barrier and cause all kinds of problems. But this is one thing, too, that this was, this is an old article, it was from 2013, and they were talking about in California and Australia and different places how they were spraying the vaccine through aerial sprays. You could pass an ordinance to stop chemtrail spraying because Bill Gates paid for a university in Canada to create stuff so they could spray it through the air. So whether you took the shot or not, you're breathing it. And this is something that we can control.

48:30 And I'm very glad that you honored the lady farmers because last night in battleground, battleground is a farmland, and why don't they sell products that the farmers use to the schools? All the schools shouldn't have this toxic garbage that they purchased that's got all kinds of sugars and genetically modified stuff. And I know a person who orders the things for the schools, and she said they order garbage. And if you're honoring farmers, we need to have local people grow the food for our schools. And that would be something really good to do. But most of all, I honestly think that you should have a fire truck building, have one right here, because if we don't have enough fire trucks and we have fires and the population keeps growing, you only get one fire truck every three years, and you have to ship it from back east out here.

49:28 So can you imagine how much that fire truck costs? And if we had one on the West Coast, you'd have revenue where you wouldn't have to tax all of us for this. Anyway, I'm gonna put this on public record and you check it out. - Thank you. Julie Cat. - Good evening. Excuse me. Julie Cat, District Two. I wasn't planning to speak tonight, so I didn't really write anything down. I first wanna thank Chair Marshall for the wonderful State of the County address. I always learn so much from her about what's going on in the county. And so many projects and so many people are having their needs met by what the county is doing.

50:25 We'll miss you, Chair Marshall, next year, and you certainly deserved that standing ovation that you received. Also, thank you for the proclamations. Again, so many people doing wonderful things in our community, and addressing really tough problems and issues. So basically I just wanna second what the librarian and Marla Koch said about the library. A lot of us are following that and making public comment at the library board meetings and are concerned about who's going to end up on the board. And lastly, somebody who couldn't make it asked me to make a comment about AI, which is kind of hilarious, because I know nothing about technology, but she said, "I don't need to be as articulate

51:23 "as a tech executive and university researcher." I said, "No problem there. "I'm really gonna be able to speak." But a lot of people are concerned about this, and I guess my suggestion for what it's worth would be to have a work session about this, and then followed by a council time or council meeting so that people have a chance to review the work session, get the information, and then make public comment about it. Because I know they're concerned about how the data would be used, how would we be secured, asking what guardrails are in place for the AI, and what will be the economic and environmental impact. And whether that'll be worth it. So anyway, that's all I have to say, and thank you for all the work you all do. I really appreciate it.

52:22 - Thank you. Christian Volk. - Good evening, counselors. I am a 10-year Vancouver resident. Three years ago, my partner and I launched a successful preschool in Kitsap County, and now I wanna bring that same investment home to Clark County. The state designates Clark County as a childcare desert with the documented three to one deficit of children to available licensed slots. Local parents are stuck on waiting lists. Local employers are losing workers who can't find care. The need is urgent and economic. The city of Vancouver is actively updating its zoning code to comply with Washington's new childcare siding law. But when I brought a potential property to county planning, I was told the county code explicitly prohibits a childcare center in light industrial zoning and has no immediate plans to change that.

53:22 The result is that families and providers face completely different rules on opposite sides of an invisible line within the same urban growth area. Other GMA planning counties like Kitsap and Pierce are actively starting to align their codes with their state childcare siding goals. Clark County risks falling behind. So my request tonight is specific. Will the council direct staff as part of the pending comprehensive plan update to include a work item aligning Title 40s, industrial zone provisions with the spirit of RCW 3521-996 and commit to a public timeline for that work. Clark County families and employers cannot wait for another planning cycle. Thank you. - Thank you. Did you leave your contact information by the way? - I did, yes. - Great, thank you. Bruce Barnes.

54:17 - Good evening council and chair Marshall. My name is Bruce Barnes for the record. I come here tonight with some concerns. One of them being your 911 system. I made a phone call about three weeks ago to 911. It took over three minutes for them to answer the phone, but they didn't answer my phone. They answered my girlfriend's after she called after I did. I have a homeless group of people that had a fire right down here underneath the trees catching all the trees on fire and throwing more gasoline on the fire. And I had a loudspeaker because I was in this boarding event yelling at them to stop doing what they were doing and put it out. I left, I don't even know if the fire department ever arrived there to put out the trees in this humongous fire they had going,

55:17 but it's unacceptable to me because if that was somebody, there was some kind of a terror situation where somebody was stabbing them, shooting them, beating them or whatever. That is totally unacceptable in my opinion. Secondly, I'd like to bring your attention to our county schools. Two Sundays ago, I was volunteering for an elder lady that needed her lawn mowed. I got done with her lawn and I came out to get my $800 still BR 800 leaf blower which somebody had stolen out of the back of my pickup truck. Great, you know, no good deed goes unpunished, right? So I went to the school to ask them if they had video of it. They said indeed we do, but you've gotta go to the district office. Then I had to go to the district office and I called 911, made a report. And it took three days for them to get the police officers

56:17 and myself the video, right? The problem is you can't see any license plate, any facial description or anything else. And this is right where all the buses are at at Truman Elementary on 44th Street. So I want you to imagine this. If your child was kidnapped, who did it? If your child was kidnapped, what was the license number of the car? We spent a lot of money on 28 schools in Clark County. And if that is the best camera system they've got, we've got some huge problems here. And every parent in this community should be extremely concerned about it. And so should all of you counselors and the county manager, because I can show you the pictures here on my phone. They are a joke. And still this person has not been apprehended. Although I know what kind of car, it's a very unique car, 2014 Nissan Ultima Sport Edition, which they didn't sell many of them. And I know the person lives in my neighborhood. So I've been doing a grid pattern to find them because our police department doesn't have the time to do it. They're understaffed.

57:15 So I had some other things to talk about, but those are the two highlighted things that I think are the most important. And I wanted to thank the state and the county and the city for actually cleaning up the freeways, but they didn't do it on my behalf for complaining about the filth that's been here for 10 years. They didn't do it on my own. Thank you. - Carmen De Leon. - Yeah, I'm Carmen De Leon. I go by Mello. So I guess I'm gonna talk about all your wonderful proclamations. So you have one for the farms. I hope you make an ordinance saying that China should never be allowed to own a farm in our country. You had a proclamation on aging, but you failed to recognize the fact that the aging and elderly are the number one home. Homeless people becoming homeless, the demographic highest are the aging population. I like the way you left that out. The sheriff got a proclamation.

58:13 Oh, it wasn't for being the lowest per capita sheriff's county in all of Washington state, was it? Now, yeah, there's a shortage there. Oh, and now this one, my favorite, mental health. Wow, who's my mama, A-Will? Who's my mama? My mama's in heaven, she died. Understand that? I hope you do because you guys gave a mental health to them. I've come to you about my mental health and all you've done is abuse me and silence me and threaten me. Wow, you guys seem to forget what you're talking about when you go buying all the boats, boats, because we gave you a proclamation, but yet we're gonna abuse the mentally ill. I'm standing right here in case you wanna silence me again for no reason, okay? And then we have the other nights when we had the Tuesday nights when people can show up.

59:13 We had 75 people begging for fireworks, but one of y'all decided that's not gonna be a tradition carried on by your family, so I guess you don't want fireworks ever again. Sad. And we also had another, the few months before the Tuesday night was filled with people. And a guy came over here and took their thing and wiped his butt with it and put it on the ground. Another guy used the F-bomb five times. No security escorted them out. Yet when I was here begging them to make legislation to tell them to not let mosques be built in this city, she called security on me, he was standing right there looking at me, 'cause I said this. The Quran says slay the unbelievers. That's you and me. If we don't believe in their whatever Quran,

1:00:12 we should be slaying them. And they're okay with that, 'cause I'm not supposed to talk about this, right? Okay, Quran 533. Miami crucified the infidels, and if they criticize Islam, I guess I qualify. Are they gonna crucify me and behead me? I asked them to go do registration, saying that we should not allow mosques to be built in this country, because they are sworn to kill us for not believing in their God. Okay, your time is up. And our dollar says, in God we trust God. Could you just cut the mic? God.

1:00:51 I believe it's Christy Kind. Chris Kind. Okay, it looks like we have a caller online. Caller, you've been sent to request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so. State your name for the record, and go ahead with your comment. - Well, great job, speakers. This is Kimberly Goheen-Elbin. We'll see if this council honors We the People and your request. First, I see nothing about honoring the will of the people that want fireworks here in Clark County. You must address this important issue very soon, as families start their purchases of fireworks for a once-in-a-lifetime display of freedom and liberties for America's 250th anniversary on July 4th. You have in these agendas an XRF analyzer to find hidden toxic lead sources.

1:01:50 Get one for the jail now. Consent number four on jails is taking too long, as it is consuming hard-earned tax dollars. We've needed a new jail or an updated jail for decades, so stop those who are pocketing hard-earned tax dollars and get work done. And I'll add, especially getting rid of the lead pipes that are toxic, running fluoridated water, polluted water to the inmates, and possibly the guards. I say possibly because they might have filters like the judges' chambers and the jury room at the courthouse, they have that. And what I hear, they have filters there, but not for the tax-paying voter general public. It's a health issue at the courthouses and jails. Get filters now. Number eight, you're going to pass an approximate hourly raise of $40 per hour.

1:02:47 Wow, $40 an hour raise added to the current $350 an hour. That's $390 an hour for a managing director and five other raises to the PFM financial advisors. Do we really need that many workers at $390 an hour to spend our hard-earned tax dollars when we the people are struggling financially? Someone please audit this agenda topic. I'm again, calling attention to my son, Cleve Goheen-Rengo's case, as he is held in jail for over 17 months now on an assault one charge, which could give him 10 years in prison. If that wasn't bad enough, lead criminal prosecutor Dan Gasparino filed months later and attempted assault two charge because he wants a jury to find him guilty on something. I'll state now that the prosecutor knows that evidence absolutely shows

1:03:46 my son Cleve did not do any assault, but the prosecutor, in my opinion, is protecting the actual assaulters who choked and kicked Cleve, knocking him out. Cleve did not ever attempt to fight back, nor did he attempt any assault. The truth is in the evidence, and I will be filing a serious complaint to the Washington State Bar Association on Dan Gasparino and on my son's public pretender for inadequate defense. The Clark County judicial system is broken. - Okay, thank you, your time is up. - We have one more caller, Chair. Caller, you've been sent to request to unmute. Please go ahead and do so, state your name for the record, and go ahead with your comment. - Hello, this is Heidi Pozzo. At this point, a number of developers, attorneys, and traffic engineers have agreed that we do have a concurrency problem in the county in two specific areas. There's a long history of moratoria

1:04:45 in the Salmon Creek Fairgrounds area due to lack of infrastructure versus the amount of development. In 2014, concurrency code was updated to reduce the standard and dropped 152 million in projects, also reducing the TIF fees. Some of those projects were needed and were added back in 2019 when the urban holding was lifted. So there's a long history on the concurrency issue, and with the widespread agreement that there is a problem now, I'm asking you not to change the code without a public process. Thank you. - Thank you. That concludes public comment, Chair. - Okay, thank you. Let's move on to the consent agenda. Are there any items people would like to pull? I would like to pull item eight.

1:05:45 I know we had some questions in there, folks from the Treasurer's Office who could answer those. So anything else to be pulled? Okay, seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to support the consent agenda items one, two, three, four, five, six was pulled, and seven. Is there a motion? - Chair. - Yes. - I move to approve consent agenda items number one, two, three, four, five, and seven. - Thank you. - Second. - Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Aye. - And now item eight, request approval of a contract extension for financial advisor services with PFM Financial Advisors LLC. So if you could come forward. I forwarded the concern,

1:06:43 and so if you could just respond to some of the issues that were raised there, clarify for the public. Thank you. - Good evening, Council. Sarah Lowe, Chief Deputy Treasurer in the Clark County Treasurer's Office. I'll let Amira introduce herself as well. - Good evening. My name's Amira Ajami. I'm the Finance and Investment Manager in the Treasurer's Office. - So the Clark County Treasurer's Office manages the PFM contract and holds that on behalf of Clark County. And PFM provides financial advisor services to the county as a whole, included in the scope of those services are financial services related to debt, including interest rates, terms, structuring of debt, any manner of financial services related to

1:07:42 helping us look at revenues, different financing, and they've been a part of our financing team for many years. As you'll see with this contract extension, there's different ways in which we engage with them. Typically, when we're engaging with them, we're engaging with them with a very limited scope or a very specific request. With respect to the fair financing, which came before you a couple of weeks ago, we asked them to participate in helping us craft a debt financing package, and they provided us with information related to a few debt scenarios, and they fulfilled that request exactly as we had hoped. And so when they do that, they charge us an hourly rate. We try not to have them do things that we can do in-house. Otherwise, that's cost prohibitive and really is duplicative in a sense. When we are issuing a bond,

1:08:41 they are part of our bond financing team, and we include those costs within the financing. So it's really an ad hoc. They have a suite of services that they provide, and we are really setting the tone and the scope of services in which we engage with them. So I hope that answers the questions that came forward to you. - Thank you very much. Any other questions? I'll entertain a motion to approve item eight. - So moved. - Been moved. - Second. - Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Okay, thanks for sticking around. - You too. - Okay, separate business, public works, request approval of a resolution authorizing the county manager to execute a lease agreement with Mobile Modular Management Corporation for a new portable office building for noxious weed management.

1:09:39 That gave you plenty of time to come up to the microphone. Thanks, Kevin. - Good evening, Council. For the record, Kevin Tyler, Lands Management Division Manager with Clark County Public Works, and like you described, this is a request to approve a resolution that would authorize the county manager to execute a lease agreement with Mobile Modular to cite an office trailer at 78th Street Operations for the noxious weed management program. The noxious weed management program has added staff in the last three or four years. We've added six additional permanent staff, and we're packed in like sardines in a building out there that's maybe 2,000 square feet, so we have 15 staff in that building, and it's just a little too much. So this is a temporary stopgap measure to get people some room to have some additional desk space

1:10:39 and computer space. A lot of these are field staff, so they're in in the morning, in in the afternoon, and it gets really crowded during the times when they're in. So yeah, I think that's it. I'm here to answer any questions that you may have. We're using baseline budget to pay for this, and it's not an additional ask at this time. - That's good to note that. Any questions from Council? Go ahead. - So this is replacing a smaller one, correct? The smaller one is being removed? - It's not, it's to add space for staff to move a few people out of the office that they currently use. And we've used this model with road operations and mosquito control also has a similar office trailer at the site. - Okay. - Any other questions? And if not, I'll entertain a motion to approve separate business item one.

1:11:37 - So moved. - Thank you for your motion. Is there a second? - Second. - Okay, moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Motion carries. Thank you very much. - Thank you, good evening. - Okay, information technology. Request pre-approval of the budget increase related to Microsoft Enterprise Agreement renewal in 2026 and delegate the county manager to sign the agreement. - Okay. - Welcome, Mike. - Thank you. Good evening, council. For the record, my name is Mike Sprinkle. I'm the IT director here at Clark County. As you so eloquently said, this is a staff report to ask for pre-approval on budget to purchase some Microsoft licenses,

1:12:34 specifically to upgrade our current license tier from what's called a G3 license to a G5 license. And then also to buy 500 co-pilot licenses. So the upgraded tier will give us access to a number of security features from Microsoft that we don't currently have today, as well as allow us to look at upgrading our phone system. And that is a cost avoidance of about $150,000 a year of our current phone system, which will be renewed this year, but my plan was to renew for one year, give us time to implement a new phone system. Doesn't require us to change any of the desk phones. It's just the backend system. The co-pilot licenses allow us to consolidate some of the platform use.

1:13:34 When I say platform, I mean there's lots of different AI generative platforms that get used around the world. Many of them are used here at Clark County. This would allow us to start to shrink that and provide both more control and security on our data, as well as perform platform-specific trainings and work with departments to gain efficiencies. So I am available to answer any questions, and I also planned on providing some information based on some of the feedback that people have given. So whichever you'd like me to do first. - Well, let's first see if there's questions from the council. - Chair. - Yes, please go ahead. - Yeah, just a couple of questions really quick. So the E5 will allow employees to access Power BI. Do they currently not have access to Power BI? - It's an add-on license.

1:14:31 So we have a few Power BI licenses. I know the county managers had a desire to have a dashboarding project, and with our current license structure, we'd have to buy additional licenses. Basically, I can create a dashboard, but you can't view it unless you have the additional license. This would eliminate that need of that additional license and just give all county employees the ability to either use Power BI to build dashboards or to be able to view the information in the dashboard. - Thank you, it's an excellent tool. So thank you for that information. And then that very first bullet point under E5 licenses, it says expand the available security tools offered by Microsoft to help protect the county and our data. Can you talk a little bit more about that? - Yeah, so there's a host of, I wish I could bring up the slide. It's actually a little bit crazy.

1:15:28 The number of additional features that are given with the E5 license provides us a lot more control over and ability to view kind of what's going on behind the scenes. It's certainly not particularly interesting to the general employee, they won't see anything, but it provides us with more control in IT kind of behind the scenes to see what's going on in our environment, control what's going on in the environment, and protect our environment, so. - Thank you, and then you'll get into a cool pilot in just a moment, so I'll wait for that, thank you. - Okay, other questions? Okay, go ahead. - Sorry, I have to put my glasses back on. - That's fine. - I can't see you if I have 'em on, and I can't see what's in front of me if I don't. - Bye, FOCOs. - Yeah, a good way to make yourself really dizzy when you first start with those.

1:16:28 So, I reviewed all of the feedback that was presented to me from the council that has come in from the public, and my assessment of that, it kind of fell into four general categories, so I'd like to kinda address each of those categories. First is around data loss, there's quite a bit of concern about the loss of county data. Copilot actually provides us with quite a bit more security than your traditional consumer grade AI, so think of like a chat GPT. So, what Copilot will do for us is it keeps both the prompts that people ask, and any data that they use within our Microsoft tenant, which does two things. One is if someone were to use sensitive data in a prompt, no one outside of the county can see that data.

1:17:27 So, I would only be able to see the data that I'm currently authorized to see at the county. So, if it was public health data, I don't have access to public health data, I can't see it, even if they put it in there. Whereas, there are some news reports out there of people taking HIPAA data, putting it into chat GPT, and now everyone in the world has access to that data. Microsoft also won't use any of the data that's in our tenant to build and educate their large language model. So again, it's sort of an effort to protect our data, keep it in house, and not allow that to be exposed externally. So, in today's world, with people being able to put our data in external AI platforms, I don't have that control, and so I'm looking for it.

1:18:26 The second one that I saw was around the loss of jobs. And I don't see, obviously this is strictly my opinion on this question around job loss. I am looking as an effort to save staff time. If there are repetitive tasks that an employee is doing, there are ways to use AI to do that task for them, so they do not have to do that task. So, I would argue that a lot of departments have either come to you with a need for additional staffing, or they certainly feel like they have that need. And so, I would like to use this platform as a way to hopefully streamline some processes

1:19:23 for those departments, and potentially end up not having them need another staff member, or at the very least, get to the backlog of tasks that they wish they could get to, but they don't have the time for. There's a question, there was quite a bit of concern around the environmental component of AI data centers. Please understand that this request is not to build an AI data center or a data center here in Clark County. However, I will say I do completely appreciate the concern around both the water usage and the electricity usage of a data center. I would say that although I wish we had the power to make a difference there, I do feel that it's at the state or federal level to build in the regulations around that.

1:20:22 There are a number of more environmentally friendly options. I think that it's probably, corporations are most likely to take the easiest path and the least costly path, and so unless we, as a state or as a federal government, say here's the regulation, you need to use more environmentally friendly ways, I don't see corporations changing their behavior on that front, but I don't also see that we have a great ability to make a change there. Lastly is sort of the use of AI in general. So there's a number of concerns about should we use AI at all? And I want to say that making a decision about to use AI

1:21:19 or not is a very tricky conversation. Every internet browser that you're using has AI built in. Most software packages that corporations or local governments use has AI built in. It is everywhere, so making a decision to say we won't use AI is one that will be almost impossible to avoid because our systems have it in there. I wanted to state that the use of AI at the county is not something that's new. We currently have, in the last month, employees have used 65 different AI platforms. And so part of this is to kind of cull that back and say we'd like to have more control over that where we don't have that today.

1:22:17 We have 750 employees in the last month who used co-pilot. There's a version of co-pilot that comes with Microsoft Office. It's called co-pilot chat, and it has some limitations to it. Of course, Microsoft wants to drive you to their paid version, so they're going to limit your ability to use AI in that sense. But this is not a new product to the county. It's not a new product to county employees. We do have 28 licenses of the paid version today. The vast majority of those are being used by the IT department today. And so that kind of brings me to how do we move forward with AI? We have a policy that's written. It's been going through the different guilds and unions

1:23:15 here at the county for them to provide feedback. I expect that that will be in front of you in the short term. We have provided AI guidelines to all county employees. I plan on providing those again when we send out the policy so that people kind of have a refresher on that front. I think it's important for employees to look for inaccuracies. That was another concern that was raised quite a bit in the online comments. However, I would argue that you need to look at inaccuracies in anything you do. I can certainly write an email with something that's not accurate. I don't need to use AI to be inaccurate. I can be completely inaccurate all by myself. So that's something that all of us need to do

1:24:14 in our daily lives is to review things that we draft and write and send out or talk about. And then lastly, we're looking at providing some AI training. We're in the midst of building that. Our plan is to kind of roll that out in two phases. One is kind of a remedial level of AI training. Just what is it for? What can it do? I've had some departments say I need you to tell me how I can use it, okay? That's challenging 'cause oftentimes I don't know how a department's business processes work. So we want to kind of step back and say, here's some ways that you can take advantage of it today. And many departments and many of our staff are already doing that, but certainly we would need to give more guidelines and more structure to how to use it and how to look for those inaccuracies and how to look for bias.

1:25:13 And most importantly, to protect our data. So those are the kind of the four areas that I saw that needed to be addressed. And I'm still here for questions. - Thank you very much. That was very thorough. Will that training be available to the council? - Yes. - Good. Okay, any other questions from council? - I have just some comments. I just personally, Mike, I really like the cost savings with the multi-year contract 'cause the licenses are a standard thing and I put some contracts together for that in the past myself. So that's good news, always saving money somewhere. And I was actually very surprised that the county hadn't utilized AI sooner 'cause I know that the federal government is actively using different variations and it has different layers of security depending on who's using it and for what, for that matter.

1:26:12 So I know that when that initially rolled out my other job, there were concerns with people being replaced. But there's just no, I mean, it just doesn't work that way. If anything, it just makes you more effective at your job, which I think everybody would, you know, appreciates that and would want that. Other than that, I don't have any other questions or comments. - Speaking of costs, I did want to address that I realize there's a couple complications about bringing this mid-year, A, it's mid-year. And unfortunately, our enterprise agreement with Microsoft does end at the end of this month. I wish that it ended at a spot where we could put this in the normal budget process. Additionally, I didn't get, although we've been talking with Microsoft for several months, I didn't get the first proposal, financial proposal from them

1:27:09 about these licenses until, I should probably double check, the 14th of April. So really, we had only a few weeks before we hit the deadline for submitting things for this particular hearing. There was several back and forths between myself and Microsoft to negotiate the price, try to get a better deal. Also met with the county manager, the budget director, the finance team before we finally sort of landed on what the recommendation would be. So I wish I could have delivered this sooner, but unfortunately, that just didn't pan out the way I had hoped. So here we are. - Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead. - Got a couple for you. One is, I would appreciate if you could give us a real world example of how this is currently being used

1:28:07 and just illustrating the efficiency increase that happens. - So I had a relatively new IT manager who was struggling a bit with the organization of That Person's Day. He was getting behind on some emails. We used Copilot to say, go through my emails and find all of my action items. Summarize that for me. Additionally, I've used it. This was a couple months ago. I came into a meeting late and I used Copilot to summarize what I had missed because the meeting was being recorded. So I was able to just say, tell me what things have already been talked about 'cause I missed part of the meeting. I do wanna say that,

1:29:05 'cause specifically since I brought up email, if you search your email, it would just search your email or email you have access to. So it won't go out and search Kathleen's email and find things in her email unless Kathleen gave you access to her email and then it would. But it does provide that level of security so I just didn't want anyone to be concerned that if I'm reviewing emails, I'm getting everyone's emails. I have enough on my plate, I don't need everyone's emails. - Great, I think we all share that email problem. Thank you for sharing that. A couple more quick questions. One would be, I mean this is, we're looking at a pilot project somewhat here and there's been a lot of questions about 500 and can you go into a little bit of explanation behind what that looks like

1:30:05 and how much this is a pilot project versus maybe conversion of what you've spoken already and then if it is a pilot project, what kind of metrics are we looking to be able to try to measure the effectiveness of it? - So my original thought was that this is a good number to cover managers and above at the county. Managers and above are drafting emails, drafting memos, building PowerPoint presentations, those types of things where AI can be pretty useful to sort of speed up that process to some degree. So that was kind of where the 500 number came from and that also gives us some leverage

1:31:02 to give those licenses out to other people as well. So I don't know that I would necessarily call it a pilot. We've been using AI as an organization now for a bit. This is really more about our ability to say, we'd really like you to use this tool instead of those tools. And the good news is at the end of the first year in an EA with Microsoft, there's a true up window. So basically right before you would get the next invoice, so May of 2027, we could say, eh, this co-pilot thing isn't really working for us and we could drop the licenses. So we do have that option. I don't see that necessarily happening, but I guess it's a nice safety net

1:31:58 so that if we decided this isn't the direction we wanna go, we want a different piece of AI software or no AI software or whatever the decision was, we could make that choice and we're not sort of locked in to that for all three years if we needed to. So it was kind of the best of both worlds of let's get people using it, let's help secure ourselves from ourselves 'cause obviously from a cyber security perspective, humans are the weak point. And we can step into that and if we end up saying, hey, this is really great, then we can expand the use of it if that was something that we felt was justified. I think in terms of measuring benefits, we haven't really outlined that today,

1:32:54 but I am happy to do that as we roll that out to say to work with those people that we are giving the license to to say, hey, I'd like to be able to go back before the council and say, here's some real life examples of where people save time and money and made their day easier or whatever the outcome is of that experience for them. And we'll also be able to see who's using it. So if someone's not using it and they choose that that's not something they wanna use, we can shift that license to somebody who is raising their hand. I have an email today from an employee who would like to buy one of these licenses. I've asked them to hold off because we're in the midst of this contract negotiation with Microsoft, so it's a daily request basically. - Thank you, and then my last question is,

1:33:54 we've received a lot of emails about this, but there are a couple of them that specifically commented on retention requirements and public disclosure requests, so can you address that? - Yeah, so it's, I think the easiest way to describe this is it is sort of a new world. I don't think from a retention perspective, we've really seen much go through the courts to better define that. The Secretary of State's office, it's mostly a, it falls into the, you keep it as long as it's deemed useful to the organization. There's a host of different opinions that I'm seeing floating around from a IT leadership perspective in the state of Washington. Some people keep it, some people keep it 24 hours and then dispose of it. The way we have it set up right now

1:34:53 is to keep 24 hours and dispose of it. So we look at it as transitory, mostly because whatever's coming out of there should be viewed as a draft. You should review it. You should then put it in the location that is sort of the final resting place of that record. So our assessment is that it is not a record until I have given it out to you and it's treated no differently than a Google search. So that is also, from the Secretary of State's office, is viewed as effectively transitory data. - Thank you, that's a good explanation. I hadn't thought about that yet. I mean, we don't have to retain our Google searches and disclose them because it's just a part of developing your eventual project or whatever you're working on. Thank you, appreciate it. - Okay, other questions? - Yes, Chair, thank you. Just a really quick question.

1:35:53 Thank you for addressing some of the concerns of folks who reached out to us. As Councilor Young mentioned, we received quite a few emails over the last couple of days regarding this issue. You also mentioned that we have been using AI for some time now, that this isn't anything new. I guess my question to you is, have there been any issues with data theft or risks? - The best I can tell you at this point is not that I'm aware of. So there's limited control over knowing what's going on with that. And again, that's part of this discussion is let's get more control over what is happening with our data. And so not that I've heard of, I can't answer that as a definitely no. We just have not been made aware of it. - Thank you. - Okay, very good discussion.

1:36:52 And so you're asking for pre-approval because our agreement expires the end of May. And will this be a general fund? - It's a mixture. It's coming out of what we refer to as the sort of TER&R fund. It's also the 1592 fund. So 1592 is about 62% funded by general funds. It's also funded by all the other funds around the county. It's split up by PCs that are in departments. So if a department has 10 PCs, they get sort of 10 shares of the cost of what's in 1592. So it will be sort of a mixture. - Okay, and I note that this won't have a budget impact for 2026, but it will have in 27, 28, and 29. So it'll be a future budget that we'd be looking at.

1:37:52 - Yep, that is true. - Great, any other questions? - Chair, just one last thing too that maybe you could clarify. There were comments about us spending $500,000 for AI. That's not accurate, but if you could explain that the differentiation between what is AI and what is the functionality that we currently have today and such. - Yeah, so effectively, if we did nothing and we just renewed the licenses that we have today, we're looking at a $90,000 increase in our license cost. So that's just right off, if we did nothing different than we're doing today. The AI component of this, the copilot licenses, is a little over 112,000. That includes tax. And then the G3 to G5 upgrade, that license,

1:38:51 which has nothing to do at all with the AI component, that's about a $350,000 annual increase to us. Does that answer your question? Yep, go ahead. - Great, any other questions? Thank you very much. In responding, I know I sent you a whole lot of emails today that I'd received, so very good. - And I appreciate it. - Yeah. Okay, so with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve separate business item number two. - So moved. - Second. - Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Motion carries, thank you very much, Mike. - Thank you very much. - Okay, then moving on, county manager report. - I just want to remind council that Monday is Memorial Day. The county is closed in recognition of Memorial Day,

1:39:50 and there's no council meetings next week. - Great, thank you very much. Okay, and I guess then without objection, we've completed our agenda, and the meeting is adjourned.