Call To Order
Roll Call
Committee Chair Barry Buchanan called the meeting to order at 11:20 a.m.
in a hybrid meeting.
7 -
Present:
Elizabeth Boyle, Barry Buchanan, Ben Elenbaas, Kaylee Galloway, Jessica
Rienstra, Jon Scanlon, and Mark Stremler
Announcements
Committee Discussion
1.
Update by the Executive’s Office on Justice Project process, financial outlook, and
timeline for delivery of additional reports
The following people read from a presentation (on file):
·
·
Kayla Schott-Bresler, Executive's Office
Jed Holmes, Executive's Office
They spoke about community engagement, a letter received by the city
mayors (on file), discussions the Administration has had with the Sheriff’s
Office around project priorities and values, goals for and progress with the
Behavioral Care Center (BCC), that the existing $11.25 million State
allocation has been made more flexible to accommodate the BCC, work on
a behavioral health analysis report to help plan for design and operations of
the BCC, that they now have a Jail Capacity Analysis in hand and how it will
be used to help inform specialized housing needs in the jail, that clear
budget feedback is the most critical piece for moving the different
scenarios forward, and work being done on the scenarios for establishing a
ceiling for capital spending.
Councilmembers and the speakers discussed the presentation and the
additional following person spoke:
·
Steve Oliver, County Treasurer
They discussed the allocation amount from the state and that there is also
$3 million of local funding that is contributed by Whatcom County and the
City of Bellingham, that costs for medical services for the jail are being
calculated on the current facility at this point until they get through the
programming exercise, what contractor performed the behavioral health
study, that $225 million is the budget cap that they are testing out right now,
the additional revenue that would be provided if the cities are willing to go
out to 2035, that they are at a point where they need to pick a number (in
regards to the level of capital expenditures) that they think they can
comfortably take on, that the Behavioral Health Analysis touches on how
