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2025-32-Minutes for Meeting January 17,2025 Recorded 1/31/2025DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Friday, January 17, 2025, 8:00 am This meeting will be held virtually. Members of the public may access the meeting using this link: https://bit.ly/3WDZYOx Or call (253) 205-0468 Webinar ID: 879 4809 6174 Passcode: 156736 1. Welcome -Chair 2. Commissioner Updates 3. Updates from NW Policy Advocates -Doug Riggs 4. Review Bill Tracker Report by Department 1 Recorded in Deschutes County CJ2025-32 Steve Dennison, County Clerk Commissioners' Journal 01 /31 /2025 8:04:49 AM 2025-32 Deschutes County encourages persons with disabilities to participate in all programs and activities. This event/location is accessible to people with disabilities. If you need accommodations to make participation possible, please call (541) 617-4747. J0-�Cc)& , I BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 1300 NW Wall Street, Bend, Oregon (541) 388-6571 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 8:00 AM FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2025 A legislative work session was held on Friday, January 17, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. via Zoom Virtual Meeting Platform. Deschutes County Attendance: x Commissioner Anthony DeBone, Chair x Nick Lelack, County Administrator Commissioner Patti Adair, Vice Chair Erik Kropp, Deputy County Administrator x Commissioner Phil Chang x Whitney Hale, Deputy County Administrator x Kristie Bollinger, Property Manager x Tim Brownell, Director Solid Waste x Sara Crosswhite, Director 9-1-1 Steve Dennison, County Clerk x Chris Doty, Director Road Department x David Doyle, Legal Counsel Charles Fadeley, Justice of the Peace Janice Garceau, Director Health Services x Stephen Gunnels, District Attorney x Peter Gutowsky, Director Community Development Geoff Hinds, Director Fair & Expo x Robert Tintle, Chief Financial Officer x Deevy Holcomb, Director Community Justice x Bill Kuhn, Treasurer Scot Langton, Assessor Sean Kirk, Manager Veteran's Services x Tania Mahood, Director Information Technology Kevin Moriarty, Forester Kent van der Kamp, Sheriff x Elizabeth Pape, Internal Auditor Lee Randall, Director Facilities Holly Harris, Director Behavioral Health x Tom Kuhn, Public Health Program Manager x Heather Kaisner, Director Public Health 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 1 OF 6 x Kevin Moriarty, Forester x Jen Patterson, Strategic Initiatives Manager x Angie Powers, Administrative Assistant X Kim Riley, Senior Assistant Legal Counsel Others Present: x Doug Riggs, Director NW Policy Advocates x Corey Barber, Outreach Director NW Policy Advocates x Rachel Vickers, Pahlisch Homes 1. Welcome and Introductions Chair DeBone called the meeting to order at 8:03 a.m. 2. Commissioner Updates Commissioner Chang noted that he sent Jen Patterson an additional bill he wishes to track. Patterson responded that Holly Harris is out today, and they will discuss most of the Behavioral Health (BH) bills next week. 3. Updates from NW Policy Advocates Doug Riggs said the first set of legislative concepts and bills were introduced one week ago today. The Bill Tracker Report provided to the group today is only a small portion of those departments are wishing to track. New members were sworn in this past week, with Commissioner DeBone in attendance to meet with our delegation. The long session is 150 days long, with a target adjournment date of June 28, 2025. An additional NW Policy Advocates staffer, Emma Innes, has come on board to provide coverage. Riggs shared that a Central Oregon legislative caucus will be formed, to include Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties. It will be modeled after the coastal caucus and will be a collaborative approach towards policy making. 2,300 bills have been introduced so far into OLIS, the legislative tracking system, and Riggs expects this number to double. There are 5,000 concepts in total. All House and Senate seats will be fully occupied by Tuesday. Our Central Oregon delegation is well represented on the Ways and Means committee. Legislators will be invited to attend once per month, instead of weekly, for better scheduling predictability and based on legislator feedback. There will be one additional 30-minute meeting per month, with legislators, focused on three to five 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 2 OF 6 bills. Patterson proposed 7:30 a.m. on Fridays, once per month, but Chair DeBone noted this can be discussed at a later meeting. 4. Review Bill Tracker Report by Department Jen Patterson introduced the 12-page Bill Tracker Report. Bills listed under BOCC are topics that one or more commissioners brought up as priorities and may not fall under a specific department, and all are listed as priority 2/no position, pending a review process. There are also some bills listed similarly under CDD. The first three bills listed deal with drinking water, groundwater and water resources. HB 3078 directs Oregon drinking water services of OHA to establish a training program for drinking water system operators. Doug Riggs noted this is the Central Oregon Cities bill for this session, introduced by Representative Levy and co- sponsored by Senator Broadman. After some discussion, HB 3112 was listed as priority 2/watch. SB 775 comes from eastern Oregon, and Riggs said it's not relevant to our basin, so it was listed as priority 2/watch. Nick Lelack focused on the big picture, emphasizing that departments will be leaning on Riggs' guidance on which bills to focus. Peter Gutowsky, Director Community Development Department, added some comments related to HB 775. This bill would have an impact on groundwater monitoring/testing and DEQ's ability to monitor wells in southern Deschutes County. Gutowsky said that HB 2168 is his department's top priority for the BOCC to consider supporting and will provide funding for DEQ and OSU Extension to provide resources for deepening and repairing domestic wells. Chair DeBone was supportive. Commissioner Chang supports the concept behind this bill. However, it places an emphasis on OSU Extension and they are not the lead organization in our area on this matter. Additionally, this bill helps homeowners who are already in crisis, and Commissioner Chang would like other rural homeowners to get assistance on this matter with financial incentives for conservation projects. HB 2178 limits parties who can appeal Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) to residents within 25 miles of the project and physically present during a hearing. It essentially boxes out land use advocacy organizations and other parties with a vested interest in the hearing's outcome. This bill is controversial, and Gutowsky wished to bring attention to it. Gutowsky summarized additional bills on the CDD pages. HB 2400 relaxes land use and allows property owners outside of UGB to site a second dwelling for a relative 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 3 OF 6 of the property owner: Similarly, HB 2422 allows for increased density in rural areas, and would allow eligible property owners to rezone to a lower density. HB 2647 allows cities to bring in lands for light industrial and/or open spaces and will fast track this process. HB 2950 is listed as priority 2/support and ensures Goal 1 citizen involvement is maximized. Inclusive public engagement is important in the land use decision making process. LCDC would be required to create some rule making. HB 3105 is a water bill that would allow water certificates to be reassigned and believes it could be related to Thornburgh Resort. SB 73 is listed as a priority 1 issue and would have a chilling effect on property owners zoned exclusive farm use nearly impossible for them to demonstrate their land is not suitable for agriculture and makes them less able to rezone to rural residential. This bill requires the BOCC's attention. ' HB 3136 would remove the state limitation on the number of real estate professionals who can serve on a city or county planning commission. SB 75 is listed as a priority 1 and is the ADU wildfire hazard fix bill and clarifies how fire hardening and defensible space apply to areas in high fire hazard and wildland- urban interface areas. SB 521 would require cities to develop urban reserves and would only be applicable to the City of Bend and is an unfunded mandate. It relaxes restrictions on urban reserve lands. SB 522 would allow for clustered non -farm dwellings on EFU land. SB 817 nominally increases fees for Notice of Intent to Appeal to LUBA. Riggs added that many of these land use bills will not move through the committees, and he will keep everyone updated. Commissioner Chang added that he doesn't want to lose track of the ADU wildfire fire hazard fix bill SB 75 and wishes to support this bill. DeBone concurred. District Attorney Gunnels introduced bills on his tracker. HB 2142 sets a mandatory minimum for repeat drug dealers. HB 2293 would require holding those arrested for serious misdemeanors and felonies until a judge sees them prior to release. This is important for public safety. HB 2470 is the most important bill to his Office. It would direct OHA to significantly increase the capacity of the Oregon State Hospital by 500 beds. Commissioner Chang generally supports the concept but has questions on the feasibility and cost of this proposal. DA Gunnels highlighted that those with severe mental illness are waiting in jails for a secure Behavioral Health setting. jails are not equipped to treat these individuals. Responding to Commissioner Chang, DA Gunnels also supports additional secure residential treatment beds at a local/regional level. Responding to 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 4 OF 6 Commissioner Chang, Riggs no"'ed the House Committee on Judiciary introduced this bill. HB 2494 would require the Criminal justice Commission (CJC) to study the effects of different sentences on recidivism. SB 773 would require minimum prison sentences for those who assault correction officers while incarcerated. Patterson noted the Sheriff's Office also listed SB 773 as priority 1/support. Robert Tintle, Chief Financial Officer, introduced three bills listed under Finance on page 7, HB 2088, HB 2089 and HB 2096. All are listed as priority 2/oppose unless amended but Legal listed them as priority 3 which Tintle supports. They deal with a fix for the sale of surplus proceeds. No counties agree with these bills as written, and Association of Oregon Counties is also opposed. Riggs echoed these comments and there was genuine disappointment when these bills were read. They didn't capture the input provided by the workgroup at the end of the last session and impose a significant additional cost burden on counties. SB 675 lowers the interest rate for unpaid property taxes to 0.5% per month. Tintle doesn't wish for this to move forward. Unless the County Assessment Function Funding Assistance (CAFFA) funding issue is solved he cannot support, as these fees provide critical funding for assessment and taxation. Responding to Commissioner Chang, Tintle said the current rate is set at 1.33%. Tom Kuhn, Program Manager Public Health, introduced bills for Health Services, which include one funding bill and two policy bills. These are all endorsed by Conference of Local Health Officials (CLHO). The first funding bill HB 2954 is an addiction primary prevention bill and would allocate funds in the biennium to hire staff to prevent drug and alcohol abuse. This will help build infrastructure and is listed as priority 2/support. HB 5025 is the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) budget with public health modernization funding. An additional $25 million is proposed, with a larger share going to local Public Health authorities. Kuhn said this funding is greatly needed, and advocates for priority 2/support. SB 702 is a continuation from HB 3090 and will prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco and inhalant delivery system products. Youth prefer flavored products. Kuhn advocates for priority 2/support. Commissioner DeBone feels at the current time it is more important to focus on fentanyl, marijuana and alcohol than tobacco products. Commissioner Chang proposed priority 1 on the first two bills on this list and wishes to discuss at a future BOCC meeting. Chris Doty, Director Road Department, introduced three placeholder bills listed on page 10. The speed bump bill is a placeholder for a future transportation bill. Riggs noted this is one of the top four priorities for the legislature this session. Two additional bills didn't make the list. HB 3175 lifts the cap on the recording fee to 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 5 OF 6 allow for local rate setting for the public corner preservation fund and important to county surveyors. HB 3209 establishes an abandoned RV fund. He will elaborate on this bill next time. This will provide funding for local authorities to remove abandoned RVs on public lands and rights -of -way. There were no representatives from the Sheriffs Office in attendance. Patterson noted that SB 773 was discussed under the DA's bills. Riggs said that HB 2581 is a bill on emergency planning and preparedness. They will be hosting a CORE3 day at the Capitol. Chair DeBone reported there will be a CORE3 funding bill, we will be advocating for and is promoted by Rep. Levy. Chair DeBone is involved in the State Interoperability Executive Council, related to next generation radios, and there will be a bill proposing for some radio services to transfer from Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) . DeBone added that he will advocate for CORE3 funding. He is involved in the Central Oregon Interoperability Council for radio systems. Tim Brownell, Director Solid Waste, summarized HB 2062 which relates to the development of an extended producer responsibility organization for the management of batteries. The purpose of this program is the proper management of batteries and battery containment materials but does not currently include embedded batteries. He highlighted battery -related fires at facilities and solid waste transport vehicles. Next Meeting: The next virtual legislative update meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 24 at 8:00 a.m. Adjourn: Chair DeBone adjourned the meeting at 9:03 a.m. Respectfully Submitted by: Angie P wer , Administrative Assistant 2025 DESCHUTES COUNTY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2025 PAGE 6 OF 6