Submitted by the League of Women Voters Observer Corps.

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization, encourages informed participation in government. The Observer Corps attends and takes notes at government meetings to promote public understanding of public policy and decisions. The notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the League or its members.

SJC Public Hospital District #1 Regular Board regular meeting, Sept. 25

Linda McCarthy, Director of Mount Baker Planned Parenthood gave the biannual report. She is close to resolving the long-term staffing problem in the Friday Harbor office. Since January 2024, 114 patients have been served, using telemedicine and the Bellingham and Mt. Vernon offices. There is a memorandum of understanding in place to provide STD testing through San Juan County Health Services. Director McCarthy has postponed her retirement to April 1, 2025. She thanked the Commissioners for their continued support.

Superintendent Nathan Butler reported the financials for PHD and EMS are sound. The Peace Health subsidy was paid early this month. Property tax funds are beginning; the bulk will come in November. The state audit will begin next month. They have scheduled an October retreat for 2025 budget formulation. For the EMS Update the August call rate was lower than past years, although winter 2024 rates were higher than past years. A few EMS employees left for more competitive wages. Community Paramedicine continues with EMT Stephanie Zamora in charge after the departure of Ryan Cuddington. Lower occupancy in spring at the Village at the Harbor resulted in lost revenue, but current occupancy has picked up. A staffing shortage over summer required reliance on travelling CNAs, who needed housing. They are looking into a more permanent housing solution.

Evan Perrollaz reported that Village at Home services are growing slowly and steadily; they are providing about 40 hours per week of care services. They are training some personnel at the Village and continue to collaborate with the Community Paramedicine program. There is a fundraiser tentatively scheduled for December 7. The 2025 budget process will give a better idea about a possible Medicaid contract and the ability of the program to provide some Medicaid services. They hope to get answers on the possibilities of Medicaid services by January 2025. The program has to be financially sustainable.

EMS is moving forward with an MOU with EMS providers on Lopez, Orcas and Shaw to have reciprocal coinsurance for residents needing services on other islands. Currently residents of our district have coinsurance for services, and Lopez, Orcas and Shaw have the same benefit. The agreement would honor each island’s coinsurance program, if for example an Orcas resident is on San Juan Island and needs EMS services.

County Council regular meeting of Sept. 30

The Council recognized Sept. 30 as Orange Shirt Day, known in Canada as Truth and Reconciliation Day, to remember the children of first nations and tribes who were forced into residential boarding schools where many died.

County Manager Jessica Hudson briefed the council on the $1 million in emergency relief funding for ferry transportation that the governor’s office approved. The funds are to provide interisland passenger ferry service and barge service when WSF is not running, and to provide scheduled passenger-only service services from the county to and from Anacortes. The Governor’s office will provide an additional $500,000 for extra WSF crew in the area to alleviate crew shortages through June of 2025. The money will come via the state Department of Commerce and be managed by the Department of Health and Human Services. There are still many details to work out.

Hudson reviewed options for providing coroner services starting Jan. 1 when the prosecuting attorney can no longer act as coroner under a new state law. The options are 1) to create and fill a new office or position, 2) to contract with a coroner from a neighboring county 3) to continue discussions with attorney general’s office about retaining the current practice, 4) seek legislative relief to amend the new law 5) seek state funding for the unfunded mandate or 6) seek a court judgment overturning the law or injunction delaying enforcement. Item three is ongoing, and a coalition of affected counties is pushing for a version of number five, asking the state to fund 50% of the cost for the first five years. Option one would likely cost $150-180k per year. Council members asked for the number of cases and the impact of delays due to travel issues. They asked to look into the possibility of contracting locally.

County Council regular meeting of Oct. 1

The Council declared October 2024 as National Disability Employment Month. They got a letter from two advisory committees supporting the resolution in opposition to the state-wide ballot initiative 2117 that if passed would reduce funds for transportation, wildfire prevention, and clean air and water efforts. The council later adopted the resolution. After a public hearing the council approved the sale of its interest in the Orcas Senior Center, which exercised its right to buy county shares.

The Interim Deputy Director of the Depart of Community Development briefed the council on proposed amendments to the land use tables to clarify that changes in code requiring vacation rentals permits and limits on the permits apply to village commercial areas in Eastsound and Lopez village. The department will review if any text amendments are needed. The Council discussed whether to move forward with proposed code changes for Eastsound lighting. The PA recommended holding off on such changes to code while a wider review was ongoing. The council decided to move toward putting in Dark Skies standards countywide as part of the code review process.

The Community Water Taxi program briefed the Council on their activity since the collapse of interisland service in August 2023. They presented their own data on the services provided in the last year+ and from a survey 695 respondents on the impact of ferry problems. They provided over 900 rides in the period, and despite WSF statements that service has stabilized, usage was greatest in the last four months, with July being the heaviest, but August and September still showing high use. Many county residents have shifted medical care to the mainland and avoid interisland travel due to fear of being stranded.

The council approved an RFP inviting social service agencies to apply for $300,000 in available funds to provide housing case management services for county residents. The council approved Home Fund grants of $180k to the Lopez Community Land Trust, $520,000 to Opal, and $700 to the SJI Home Trust for a total of $1.4 million for affordable housing construction.

The Council set a public hearing for Oct. 22 for the Transportation Improvement Plan and reviewed some of the projects that were added or removed. The Advisory committee advised prioritizing projects supporting bicycle paths. The Jackson Beach Barge Landing and a Salmon Recovery project are scheduled together as the barge landing will use mitigation credit provided by the other project.

There will be a public meeting on Tuesday Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. on Lopez to discuss public safety and hunting.