1 00:00:00,270 --> 00:00:06,490 Morning, welcome to the Snohomish County Council, Health and Community Services Committee. Today is Tuesday, January 27th. 2 00:00:06,490 --> 00:00:12,990 It's 11 a.m. We're meeting the Jackson Boardroom and also remotely. Before we get into the agenda, I'll read a brief public comment script. 3 00:00:14,570 --> 00:00:20,070 We'll be taking public comment beginning in person and then remotely. In Zoom, you'll click the hand icon to raise your hand. 4 00:00:20,170 --> 00:00:24,950 If you're calling by phone, you'll press star 9 to raise your hand. When called to hand, press star 6 to unmute. 5 00:00:24,950 --> 00:00:29,690 Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, and please start your comment with your name and your city of residence. 6 00:00:30,890 --> 00:00:31,810 Now we'll do a roll call. 7 00:00:33,550 --> 00:00:34,570 Committee Chair Mead. 8 00:00:34,830 --> 00:00:34,890 Here. 9 00:00:35,350 --> 00:00:36,170 Vice-Chair Loh. 10 00:00:36,970 --> 00:00:37,410 Present. 11 00:00:38,070 --> 00:00:38,990 Committee Member Nearing. 12 00:00:39,290 --> 00:00:39,370 Here. 13 00:00:39,650 --> 00:00:40,790 Committee Member Dunn. 14 00:00:40,910 --> 00:00:41,110 Here. 15 00:00:41,430 --> 00:00:42,390 Committee Member Peterson. 16 00:00:43,370 --> 00:00:44,810 Chair, there are four members present. 17 00:00:45,290 --> 00:00:45,690 Great. 18 00:00:45,790 --> 00:00:46,030 Thank you. 19 00:00:46,890 --> 00:00:49,030 So with that, we'll go ahead and get into public comment. 20 00:00:49,230 --> 00:00:52,530 We'll open up public comment for anyone that would like to give comment in person. 21 00:00:53,090 --> 00:00:54,450 Go ahead and step up to the podium. 22 00:00:55,070 --> 00:00:56,990 Seeing none, I'll verify we have no hands raised online. 23 00:00:57,470 --> 00:00:58,310 Oh, we do have public comment. 24 00:00:58,890 --> 00:00:59,110 Welcome. 25 00:01:33,130 --> 00:01:35,130 Sir, if you're this poor guy on a scooter, 26 00:01:35,910 --> 00:01:38,110 trying to get past this, the propane tanks, 27 00:01:38,830 --> 00:01:42,810 and oftentimes too, they actually parked their van on the right-of-way 28 00:01:43,250 --> 00:01:44,350 and on the sidewalk. 29 00:01:44,730 --> 00:01:47,070 And this is the Starbucks over here in Mill Creek, 30 00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:49,250 and there's a veterinary clinic here. 31 00:01:49,730 --> 00:01:52,250 And where they set up is actually on the grass 32 00:01:52,910 --> 00:01:57,670 and on the sidewalk in between two trees. At this particular stand, I know there 33 00:01:57,670 --> 00:02:03,670 are other ones in all the jurisdictions. My sister even sent me an article from 34 00:02:03,670 --> 00:02:09,650 Tacoma where they've got this, you've probably seen it, or they have this big 35 00:02:09,650 --> 00:02:14,450 hunk of meat. I don't know if it's frozen on the inside or worms crawling 36 00:02:14,450 --> 00:02:18,200 around or what, but it's kind of disgusting. But anyway, there's a 37 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:23,740 picture that Tacoma News had of like four of these outside of a house next to gas cans, 38 00:02:24,300 --> 00:02:31,380 which I assume are the generators. That's what those gas cans are for. And they cook these 39 00:02:31,380 --> 00:02:36,000 out of a home. They have no health permits. I don't know if I'm on a time limit here, 40 00:02:36,740 --> 00:02:37,140 but... 41 00:02:37,140 --> 00:02:39,500 We've got your family. We don't. Yeah, we do have your time right there. 42 00:02:39,500 --> 00:02:40,280 Okay. Is it two minutes? 43 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:41,400 Yeah, three minutes. 44 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:47,900 Three minutes. Okay. And anyway, I guess today I just want to express I'm not 45 00:02:47,900 --> 00:02:56,840 anti-immigrant. I'm actually pro-legal immigration and my friend has a taco stand which is actually 46 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:03,120 visually in line with this illegal stand. When I say illegal, I mean no health department 47 00:03:03,820 --> 00:03:09,680 certification at all, no hand washing. I mean, the list is too long to go down and I'm sure 48 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:16,940 they'll go over that today. But anyway, so it's fairness. It's a fairness issue and 49 00:03:16,940 --> 00:03:21,260 And my friend Carlos can't be here today because he's opening his taco stand legally. 50 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:26,000 He has the health department all the permits, three departments sync, the whole works. 51 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:31,180 So anyway, I just wanted to say that I think it's really a fairness thing. 52 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:32,380 It's a hazard. 53 00:03:33,300 --> 00:03:35,640 They used to put the tent poles right on the edge. 54 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:36,540 I know I'm over time. 55 00:03:36,860 --> 00:03:44,620 But anyway, I just wanted to let everybody know that I think it's not fair that 56 00:03:44,620 --> 00:03:50,260 this group of people are, you know, skirting all of the legal processes. 57 00:03:50,660 --> 00:03:56,800 They're not paying federal tax, sales tax, any of the county fees, they're not 58 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:01,100 using the health department and anyway that that's just what I wanted to say 59 00:04:01,100 --> 00:04:06,620 today and my friend is here, Carlos's wife and I think she has something to 60 00:04:06,620 --> 00:04:09,240 say as well. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Thanks for joining us. 61 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,040 You have additional comment in person? 62 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,140 Okay, no worries. 63 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:20,240 Welcome. 64 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:22,260 Hello, my name is Rosario. 65 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:23,740 I live in Monroe, Washington. 66 00:04:24,260 --> 00:04:28,060 I'm here in regards to also support my husband and his business. 67 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:32,800 He does have a taco, a food stand over in Linwood, Washington. 68 00:04:33,660 --> 00:04:37,820 And it has been complicated with the street vendors. 69 00:04:38,740 --> 00:04:52,100 Since he is going to be in a year since April, since he's been open, and since the street vendors have been basically on the streets, it has been making it really difficult, really difficult. 70 00:04:52,700 --> 00:04:59,580 And I do have a lot of friends and a few family members that do live in Everett and Landwood. 71 00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:06,880 And that, you know, they like to go around and see how the street vendors are and stuff like that. 72 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:18,060 And that the stuff that they would do is kind of disgusting that they would like, you know, dump their grease, like on the side of the, I would say, like the traps down on the cements. 73 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,740 And of course there's no sanitary, nothing at all. 74 00:05:21,860 --> 00:05:27,020 And of course we do things the right way and it should be the right way. 75 00:05:27,020 --> 00:05:32,740 Of course, we go to the commissary and all that stuff and we try to make everything nice 76 00:05:32,740 --> 00:05:34,580 and healthy so nobody gets sick and all. 77 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:40,720 And to be honest, like I said, it's just been, it's kind of like a competition in a way. 78 00:05:40,940 --> 00:05:45,140 But to be honest, we're doing the things the right way and while the street vendors 79 00:05:45,140 --> 00:05:48,300 are just making it just much more complicated on my husband's business. 80 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:56,760 So we're here to see in which ways that we can support and do all that and make 81 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:02,040 get much more easy for businesses around him. 82 00:06:03,780 --> 00:06:04,280 Thank you. 83 00:06:04,380 --> 00:06:05,240 Thank you for joining us. 84 00:06:05,580 --> 00:06:05,920 Thank you. 85 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,440 You have any other comments in person? 86 00:06:10,620 --> 00:06:12,680 All right, I'll turn to see if we have anyone online. 87 00:06:13,860 --> 00:06:15,000 No hands are raised. 88 00:06:15,460 --> 00:06:15,840 All right, great. 89 00:06:15,980 --> 00:06:17,300 So we will close public comment, 90 00:06:17,940 --> 00:06:20,000 and we will jump into our discussion items. 91 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:21,460 So we have two discussion items today. 92 00:06:22,020 --> 00:06:24,260 We have DEM joining us, but we're going to do that second. 93 00:06:24,260 --> 00:06:27,580 So first we have our Unpermitted Roadside Stand Briefing. 94 00:06:27,900 --> 00:06:34,780 This stemmed from councils getting a lot of emails from constituents talking about what we just heard in public comment 95 00:06:34,780 --> 00:06:39,560 and some other comments around these illegal street vendors. 96 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,420 And some of the council members had conversations with our health department. 97 00:06:42,740 --> 00:06:46,640 I know that I have in conversations with our law enforcement team as well. 98 00:06:46,940 --> 00:06:50,680 And it seems to make sense to kind of get everybody here to be on the same page. 99 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,840 Each council can be asking kind of questions in unison and I'll be here in the same information 100 00:06:55,340 --> 00:06:57,540 and make sure that the public is getting that information as well. 101 00:06:57,740 --> 00:07:00,360 So I appreciate the Health Department for joining us today. 102 00:07:00,460 --> 00:07:04,160 We have Tony Kalinas here who is going to, I think, start us off with a presentation 103 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:05,400 and then stand for questions. 104 00:07:06,300 --> 00:07:06,620 All right. 105 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:08,100 Well, thank you and I'll turn it over to you. 106 00:07:08,420 --> 00:07:08,540 Great. 107 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:09,100 Thank you. 108 00:07:20,540 --> 00:07:21,460 Everything set up here? 109 00:07:23,590 --> 00:07:24,250 Well, good morning. 110 00:07:24,430 --> 00:07:26,530 Thank you again for inviting us here to present on this topic. 111 00:07:27,770 --> 00:07:31,310 Again, I want to point out to the pictures, those are the two stands we're typically 112 00:07:31,310 --> 00:07:32,030 talking of. 113 00:07:32,030 --> 00:07:35,330 their umbrella cart stands and then they're also going to be the 10 by 10 114 00:07:35,330 --> 00:07:40,130 canopies selling the meat on a spit as we go through the discussion today. I'm 115 00:07:47,590 --> 00:07:49,230 unable to advance my slides. 116 00:07:51,870 --> 00:07:53,050 I want 117 00:08:04,930 --> 00:08:06,510 to take the opportunity to just do a 118 00:08:06,510 --> 00:08:10,310 quick run through the food program in the county. Our primary mission is to 119 00:08:10,310 --> 00:08:13,370 safeguard public health and provide consumers food that is safe and not 120 00:08:13,370 --> 00:08:19,390 adulterated and honestly presented. We do 3,600 permits in the county for 121 00:08:19,390 --> 00:08:24,770 routine food. Last year, we had over a thousand complaints. That is for sanitary 122 00:08:24,770 --> 00:08:28,710 conditions as well as foodborne illness. Of those 1,300 were for food 123 00:08:28,710 --> 00:08:32,870 illness. We do 1,200 temporary event permits, and so temporary permits are 124 00:08:32,870 --> 00:08:37,550 you think of festivals, fairs. We had over 400 plan reviews. That's new 125 00:08:37,550 --> 00:08:41,650 businesses opening plan revisions that we deal with. And we lead first with a 126 00:08:41,650 --> 00:08:45,310 health education. That is our primary focus is before you go to 127 00:08:45,310 --> 00:08:47,850 enforcement is trying to educate folks on the rules and the code. 128 00:08:49,070 --> 00:08:54,890 Our regulatory authority, so the FDA oversees all retail food in the state and the country. 129 00:08:55,270 --> 00:09:00,630 They allows states can choose their own food code or adopt the FDA retail food code. 130 00:09:00,730 --> 00:09:05,390 State of Washington has adopted its own code, and so all of our authority comes from the 131 00:09:05,390 --> 00:09:07,230 retail food code adopted of the State of Washington. 132 00:09:08,730 --> 00:09:12,570 The Board of Health, the Snomers County Board of Health can adopt code and change 133 00:09:12,570 --> 00:09:14,190 code that way to make it stricter. 134 00:09:14,190 --> 00:09:18,650 right now our code is adoptions outside of the state code are primarily on fee 135 00:09:18,650 --> 00:09:25,050 schedules but there is that's where our regulatory powers come from. Again what 136 00:09:25,050 --> 00:09:29,190 are we talking about today these uncommitted roadside stands they are 137 00:09:29,190 --> 00:09:32,770 they're they're primarily we have the umbrella carts selling chicken products 138 00:09:32,770 --> 00:09:37,110 and and melons cut fruit and then we'll have these 10 by 10 stands that 139 00:09:37,110 --> 00:09:43,270 set up doing it's taco taco's pastore on the spit I want to these are 140 00:09:43,270 --> 00:09:47,590 not food trucks. There are permitted food trucks that are allowed and are permitted. 141 00:09:48,450 --> 00:09:53,170 These stands as they currently operate are not permitted by us and is highly unlikely we would 142 00:09:53,170 --> 00:09:57,970 ever be able to permit them. Just so everyone knows they're not permitted. We see them operating 143 00:09:59,810 --> 00:10:03,930 and the reasons largely around they just they have no ability for water or wastewater 144 00:10:03,930 --> 00:10:08,990 to acquire or dispose it and they also don't have the ability to separate food or keep 145 00:10:08,990 --> 00:10:09,870 food at proper temperatures. 146 00:10:10,810 --> 00:10:14,310 So that's the primary risk we're seeing out there is lack of sanitation. 147 00:10:14,670 --> 00:10:17,990 There's no hand washing facilities, no employee bathroom access. 148 00:10:18,890 --> 00:10:21,470 The food storage, in fact, in this picture here, you see the temperature. 149 00:10:21,890 --> 00:10:25,130 That is, we're working with law enforcement and we're able to go through and take temperatures 150 00:10:25,130 --> 00:10:26,830 of the meat when we shut one of these stands down. 151 00:10:27,270 --> 00:10:31,450 And we've seen that this is how exactly the temperature, 53 degrees, where you 152 00:10:31,450 --> 00:10:32,830 would grow bacteria. 153 00:10:33,690 --> 00:10:35,650 And there's no separate areas to store the food. 154 00:10:35,770 --> 00:10:37,370 And so the food is cross contaminated. 155 00:10:37,990 --> 00:10:44,730 It all gets packed into a vehicle, sand containers, and I will tell anecdotally a story that as 156 00:10:44,730 --> 00:10:45,570 we – I'll go further. 157 00:10:45,710 --> 00:10:48,430 As we've shut these down, we'll go late into the night shutting them down. 158 00:10:48,690 --> 00:10:52,270 We've shut them down early in the evening and moved on to other locations that seem 159 00:10:52,270 --> 00:10:55,450 the same operation set up again later in the evening. 160 00:10:56,330 --> 00:10:59,950 The food inside has never seen a refrigerator, so we – you know, it sat out for eight 161 00:10:59,950 --> 00:11:04,670 hours in the back of the – that was in August, just for an example of the roadside 162 00:11:04,670 --> 00:11:04,970 stands. 163 00:11:05,110 --> 00:11:06,110 And it's been a massive growth. 164 00:11:06,110 --> 00:11:12,230 Both the proliferation has been, we went from hardly having any of these to, we've closed 165 00:11:12,230 --> 00:11:13,930 over 40 this 2025. 166 00:11:16,410 --> 00:11:23,050 And besides, I want to also mention, besides the health risk, other agencies are running 167 00:11:23,050 --> 00:11:24,190 into waste disposal issues. 168 00:11:24,930 --> 00:11:28,730 Some cities in the county have had issues with these folks dropping their wastewater 169 00:11:29,390 --> 00:11:32,630 down into the storm drains and having to bring factor trucks out to unclog the drains. 170 00:11:33,410 --> 00:11:35,190 It's a big problem in King County as well. 171 00:11:36,470 --> 00:11:39,230 Transportation, as was mentioned earlier, the sidewalks are blocked. 172 00:11:39,630 --> 00:11:40,990 They're impeding travel on the sidewalk. 173 00:11:41,710 --> 00:11:45,510 When these stands first started in the county, they would set up on private property. 174 00:11:46,150 --> 00:11:50,510 And when we discover them, we would reach out to the private property owner and work on trespassing, and it worked. 175 00:11:50,950 --> 00:11:54,190 But other than the right-of-way, as you know, it's difficult to trespass folks in the right-of-way. 176 00:11:54,250 --> 00:11:58,290 So these operations are in the right-of-way right on the sidewalk, blocking the sidewalk. 177 00:11:59,150 --> 00:12:03,830 I receive a lot of complaints about the stands being opened, but one of the reasons I wanted to mention it today is 178 00:12:03,830 --> 00:12:07,470 One of the complaints I do receive is about the danger of the propane tanks. 179 00:12:08,230 --> 00:12:11,910 I had a gentleman call last year to let me know that he actually hit one of the propane tanks, 180 00:12:11,990 --> 00:12:13,030 the vehicle on the side of the road. 181 00:12:13,730 --> 00:12:15,150 So that's why I showed that there. 182 00:12:15,310 --> 00:12:19,710 So it is a transportation only impeding the traffic, but just a safety issue in general. 183 00:12:20,530 --> 00:12:21,670 And then again, economic fairness. 184 00:12:22,530 --> 00:12:26,210 The Unpermitted Roadsight stands to take away business from properly permitted establishments. 185 00:12:27,190 --> 00:12:29,270 You know, who have business licenses, both city and state, 186 00:12:29,270 --> 00:12:33,190 were required, a FAR department approval, and are following labor rules. 187 00:12:36,860 --> 00:12:37,660 So what do we do? 188 00:12:38,380 --> 00:12:42,920 So what we currently are doing is we see a stand in operation or we receive a complaint 189 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,020 for the stand from the public. 190 00:12:44,980 --> 00:12:48,160 Our staff will go out and visit the stand issued a cease and desist letter. 191 00:12:48,780 --> 00:12:52,340 This letter lets operators know they need a permit to continue operation. 192 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:54,100 We wait for them to shut down. 193 00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:57,020 We also provide them information on how to obtain a permit. 194 00:12:57,540 --> 00:12:59,940 We provide that information in both English and Spanish. 195 00:13:00,700 --> 00:13:06,760 And to date, we've had none of these operators have turned in a permit to try and get an application to get a permit. 196 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:15,340 But what we've done as they've moved mostly to after-hours responses, we try and pair up our after-hours response with an event. 197 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:16,500 We're already working at TEMP event. 198 00:13:17,340 --> 00:13:22,080 As the past couple of months, we've been teaming up with law enforcement teams and we go out in the evenings with law enforcement. 199 00:13:23,140 --> 00:13:30,440 We try and get – when our complaints – we try and get to as soon as possible, but we need to coordinate with law enforcement to go out in the evenings and shut the stands down. 200 00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:33,580 But as I said earlier, they tend to open right back up on the next day. 201 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:40,820 In May, to try and get information out, we activated a closure website to where we can post our closures. 202 00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:46,020 So we've been – so the public could know that these – where these stands are, that they're not permitted. 203 00:13:47,380 --> 00:13:54,800 And again, we've worked out, on those notices, we made the decision to only keep them up for 90 days so the list doesn't become stale. 204 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,860 So we are getting out there, so we'll reinspect a lot of the closures up there. 205 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:01,260 We've closed multiple times and we'll keep doing it. 206 00:14:01,260 --> 00:14:05,440 But I didn't want the list to just be a stale list because the stands do move around from intersection. 207 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:07,660 They're not always at the same intersection. 208 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:09,280 They'll move around. 209 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:11,040 They'll move around to different spots in the same night. 210 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:18,300 We're working on partnerships with the county law enforcement and the city law enforcement, 211 00:14:18,900 --> 00:14:23,660 and we're really putting a focus on the supply side, on public outreach, on notifying the 212 00:14:23,660 --> 00:14:27,220 public about the hazards of eating at these stands, and how to identify a permitted establishment. 213 00:14:28,340 --> 00:14:30,440 I want to share on the numbers too, it shows up there. 214 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:37,260 We track all of our complaints, and in 2022 we had 16 complaints for these roadside 215 00:14:37,260 --> 00:14:42,040 stands and it grew all the way to last year we had 203 complaints and we did a 216 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,820 five foodborne illness complaints associated with these stands from last 217 00:14:44,820 --> 00:14:51,080 year and in kind of a metric we use is we ten percent of foodborne illness is 218 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,460 reported so we can multiply every time you see that you report it by times of 219 00:14:54,460 --> 00:14:59,140 five. Again we've had 40 closures of stands since May 220 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:07,420 And then staff time. We started tracking this separately from a regular complaint time in September when we started doing stand-alone time. 221 00:15:08,220 --> 00:15:16,140 Staff was going out separate of other duties, and so we've had 62 hours of after-hours response since September to try and enforce on these stands. 222 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:25,340 These are some links I wanted to share today. The first link is our notification webpage. 223 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,680 It's where we track all the closures. You can go there and see it. 224 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:33,780 We also discuss what a permit looks like so folks know what a permit is and what to look for. 225 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:36,200 Operators are supposed to have their permit on hand. 226 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:43,200 The second link is information we put out just of the risk of eating unpermitted food trucks. 227 00:15:43,940 --> 00:15:48,620 And the third link is a story our comms team worked with King Five On last fall. 228 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:54,300 And again the issue is to get information out that this is a problem and really to look for a permit. 229 00:15:54,500 --> 00:15:55,600 What does a permit look like? 230 00:15:55,600 --> 00:16:00,660 And the last article, this isn't just a Stomach County issue, this really is a 231 00:16:00,660 --> 00:16:05,000 region-wide issue in the Western United States all over. Our neighbors in 232 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:09,820 Tacoma Pierce County have the same problem and they used a tax and police 233 00:16:09,820 --> 00:16:14,660 enforcement team to get into a home that was a kitchen making the food down 234 00:16:14,660 --> 00:16:17,960 there. And those are pictures there of what that kitchen looks like. It is 235 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:23,900 it is incredibly unsanitary. We want to share all that information. So why 236 00:16:23,900 --> 00:16:26,160 Why are we having a hard time with enforcement on these? 237 00:16:26,820 --> 00:16:31,020 So again, we can only enforce the retail food code. 238 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:37,060 Our inspectors are not law enforcement officers at all, and so we run into an issue of identification 239 00:16:37,660 --> 00:16:38,260 of operators. 240 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:44,020 We can't request ID, and in a normal system for us, we would go into civil proceedings, 241 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,560 and so until we can identify who actually owns these stands, that's where we would 242 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:48,540 take civil proceedings to. 243 00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:54,360 Our enforcement we have now is all based around somebody having a permit. 244 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,480 So once you have a permit, there's all sorts of enforcement things you can do, 245 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,780 but if you don't have a permit, there's not a lot of enforcement set up. 246 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:06,120 Again, civil proceedings, which would be our normal course here, take time and resources, 247 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:08,800 and when the stands are opening, up and closing, switching operators, 248 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:11,300 it's not a very effective tool. 249 00:17:12,140 --> 00:17:15,960 And then even for us going out and doing these closures, 250 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:20,200 We're still continuing to do them so we can notify the public, but we really need an 251 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:22,060 actual enforcement staff after closure. 252 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:26,100 Like I said, well, we've closed these down, and we see them open the same night, and that's 253 00:17:26,100 --> 00:17:27,480 working in conjunction with law enforcement. 254 00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:28,100 They open up. 255 00:17:28,700 --> 00:17:31,960 One of the cities that we worked with, they were working – they were trying to close 256 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,460 the establishment down five nights in a row, and it still just popped up every night 257 00:17:36,460 --> 00:17:37,280 for five nights in a row. 258 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,300 And as of late, we're running the safety issues with staff. 259 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:42,980 These stands are not operating during the day. 260 00:17:42,980 --> 00:17:45,700 they pushed in the later hours in the evening and it's not from the operators 261 00:17:45,700 --> 00:17:48,780 we're running more into safety issues from the crowds when we shut them down 262 00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:51,560 so that's why we really want to partner with law enforcement as we're out 263 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:52,100 doing this. 264 00:17:54,500 --> 00:17:58,920 Ideas we have reached out to partners across the state across the 265 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:03,640 country we've met with out-of-state health departments to get ideas some 266 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:07,620 of the ideas we're looking at is license plate tracking all these the 267 00:18:07,620 --> 00:18:10,220 stands have vehicles parked there but the umbrella carts don't the 268 00:18:10,220 --> 00:18:14,940 carts just dropped off and they're left there all day just on that but the 269 00:18:14,940 --> 00:18:18,660 canopies have vehicles. We've done some tracking early on a lot of time it goes 270 00:18:18,660 --> 00:18:23,160 to rental agencies or it goes back to a house and we'll send the cease and desist 271 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,080 letters to them and get no response. It's an idea if we're able to partner more 272 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:28,740 with law enforcement that's an option. 273 00:18:31,340 --> 00:18:33,000 That kitchen picture from Turlima 274 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,460 Pierce is really focusing on the centralized kitchens is putting a 275 00:18:37,460 --> 00:18:39,460 focus on finding out where the centralized food is being 276 00:18:39,460 --> 00:18:41,860 prepared, the homes or warehouses where the food is 277 00:18:41,860 --> 00:18:43,980 prepared at, and really putting an enforcement focus on 278 00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:47,060 those, getting in there, shutting those down. 279 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:51,080 Confiscating food and or the equipment is an idea. 280 00:18:51,940 --> 00:18:53,980 Right now, we do the season assist letter. 281 00:18:54,180 --> 00:18:56,660 There's not an economic penalty associated with that. 282 00:18:56,780 --> 00:18:57,580 It's a season assist letter. 283 00:18:57,800 --> 00:18:58,520 We wait until they close. 284 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:00,600 They turn around, open up a couple hours later. 285 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:03,880 At being able to take the food and or the equipment, 286 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:08,460 We'll put in an economic cost associated with continuing to operate. 287 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:14,100 And one thing we want to do is if we hopefully get a next level enforcement is we do want 288 00:19:14,100 --> 00:19:19,700 to actively enforce this and put a focus on it when we do get that option to spend a 289 00:19:19,700 --> 00:19:23,600 couple weeks and months to really get the message out there once we get that new tool. 290 00:19:23,980 --> 00:19:28,040 And as I said earlier, we really have focused on increased collaboration with our law enforcement 291 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:28,560 partners. 292 00:19:29,540 --> 00:19:32,720 I think the big message I want to share with everybody is in order to be effective 293 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:36,300 for this, it's going to be necessary to adopt some code changes and we're going to have 294 00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:38,160 to work in partnership with other agencies. 295 00:19:42,060 --> 00:19:47,640 Next steps, again, statewide issue, this has been a big issue for almost a year and a 296 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:48,700 half now at the state level. 297 00:19:49,620 --> 00:19:53,560 The Department of Health has convened a work group with all the local health partners 298 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:59,800 along with the state to discuss next steps, share tactics and what works on how to 299 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:01,340 enforce unimpermitted roadside stands. 300 00:20:01,780 --> 00:20:03,300 The work group has had three meetings already. 301 00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:07,600 There are early stages of discussion with State Attorney General to develop just a legal 302 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,460 path for food served and improvement establishments to be discarded. 303 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:13,800 So that's in the early stages right now. 304 00:20:14,950 --> 00:20:16,480 We have the same idea here locally. 305 00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:21,220 We've heard of successes from other agencies around the country having local work groups. 306 00:20:21,820 --> 00:20:25,920 We're proposing to convene a work group of the local cities and county partners 307 00:20:26,410 --> 00:20:29,880 and other agencies to share ideas and tactics to find some enforcement ideas. 308 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:35,020 And then we want to double down our efforts to get more information out on the public campaign 309 00:20:35,020 --> 00:20:39,700 about the risk of eating in unpermanent stands and how to identify whether an establishment 310 00:20:39,700 --> 00:20:40,680 has a permit or not. 311 00:20:41,460 --> 00:20:45,280 And then we are working towards a solution and we're just going to say we're going 312 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:47,380 to need assistance from other agencies to have some success. 313 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:49,420 I'd like to open up for any questions. 314 00:20:51,220 --> 00:20:52,160 Thank you for the presentation. 315 00:20:52,460 --> 00:20:53,000 Thank you for being here. 316 00:20:54,540 --> 00:20:55,160 Is that me? 317 00:20:55,340 --> 00:20:55,780 That's not me. 318 00:20:56,300 --> 00:20:56,480 Okay. 319 00:20:56,780 --> 00:20:57,100 It's fixed. 320 00:20:57,100 --> 00:20:58,820 If you have questions from the Councilmember, we're done. 321 00:20:59,860 --> 00:21:00,940 Thank you, Tony. 322 00:21:01,100 --> 00:21:02,220 I appreciate the presentation. 323 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,820 I appreciate that there's more of a multi-pronged approach. 324 00:21:06,780 --> 00:21:10,900 Trying to educate the public, I think, is really important so that they understand 325 00:21:10,900 --> 00:21:14,240 the potential health risk and the fairness aspect. 326 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:17,660 I know that this is statewide. 327 00:21:18,060 --> 00:21:21,980 I appreciate that we're also trying to correct some misinformation, so you sharing 328 00:21:21,980 --> 00:21:27,160 hearing how much time was put in for overnight response is also really critical. 329 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,300 I would say we've outlined the concerns. 330 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:39,740 I'd say I can't speak for the Board of Health, but as a chair of the Board of Health, we've 331 00:21:39,740 --> 00:21:41,120 had updates on this a few times. 332 00:21:41,620 --> 00:21:45,620 I'd say we stand ready if there's some code changes that need to be done. 333 00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:49,240 So I think it's on our agenda throughout the year. 334 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:55,000 But if there are some code changes, that's something that I know that we're happy to work on. 335 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:00,400 And I know that you've been working in partnership with law enforcement, including the city. 336 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:06,060 So not just our sheriffs, but also connecting directly with city, police, and law enforcement. 337 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:15,920 Do you have an idea of the dedicated resources that you've been able to track for some examples of success, 338 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,700 either in other counties or other states. 339 00:22:19,340 --> 00:22:20,940 Do you have an idea of what it would take 340 00:22:20,940 --> 00:22:24,620 for dedicated emphasis for something like this 341 00:22:24,620 --> 00:22:26,640 to get control of this? 342 00:22:27,260 --> 00:22:29,360 It's going to depend on what path we take. 343 00:22:29,660 --> 00:22:32,260 For example, we're in the early stages of food destruction, 344 00:22:32,580 --> 00:22:35,280 and it depends if we would have to store the food 345 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,040 for a chance of appeal, you'd have to refrigerate that. 346 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,800 So the county would have to find a way to store that food. 347 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:47,340 So it depends on how our rule of the state of Washington ends up looking like as far as cost. 348 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:52,460 If we can dispose of it on site or dispose of a mealy in a dumpster, that would lower the cost dramatically. 349 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:58,800 Other success stories have been around taking the actual and hauling off the equipment, 350 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,920 which would involve getting a truck hauling it off and storing it in suicide locations. 351 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:04,460 And then, yeah, there would be some costs associated. 352 00:23:05,020 --> 00:23:07,320 It's all evening work, so evening response time for sure. 353 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:16,200 Just a quick follow-up on – so the state, we have to wait for the state to decide what 354 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:20,160 you can do with, for instance, the food storage or can localities decide. 355 00:23:20,780 --> 00:23:25,260 We don't care – like if we can pass a code that says if you don't have your permit 356 00:23:25,260 --> 00:23:28,960 readily available and you're not willing to cooperate and show us your idea or whatever 357 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,720 it is, like we can write this code that says then we give our health department 358 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:39,240 enforcement or maybe law enforcement, whatever, the ability to discard the food or do we have 359 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:40,480 to wait for the state to tell us? 360 00:23:40,820 --> 00:23:44,620 I think as far as our authority comes to the state, there would be a question for the 361 00:23:44,620 --> 00:23:48,600 PA's office on whether would it be going too stringent if we were to then allow it? 362 00:23:49,020 --> 00:23:53,140 For instance, when we were doing Blake a couple of years ago, this has nothing to 363 00:23:53,140 --> 00:23:57,380 do with the health department, obviously, but individual jurisdictions were able to 364 00:23:57,380 --> 00:24:01,360 decide what penalties we wanted for what drugs that were used and the state wasn't 365 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:03,780 superseding us until the Blake decision. 366 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,220 So that's what I'm trying to figure out is we don't have 367 00:24:08,220 --> 00:24:11,740 our own abilities to say we actually don't want this 368 00:24:11,740 --> 00:24:14,520 here even if the state thinks it's OK, or if the state wants 369 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:17,920 to require certain steps to be taken, refrigerating the food, 370 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:18,320 et cetera. 371 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,180 If we just said no, and so it's kind of a huge problem. 372 00:24:21,260 --> 00:24:21,940 It's completely unfair. 373 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:22,720 It's unsafe. 374 00:24:23,220 --> 00:24:24,920 If you're not willing to show us your permit, we're 375 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:25,600 going to throw your food away. 376 00:24:26,660 --> 00:24:28,400 It would be something we'd have to look into in the 377 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:34,340 But I think it would be doable, and the question would be, is it from the health department standpoint, 378 00:24:34,780 --> 00:24:40,380 is would it be going against what the code is saying in a more strict way or not? 379 00:24:40,620 --> 00:24:41,440 That's the question, I think. 380 00:24:41,780 --> 00:24:46,600 Right, but I don't want to cut your line of questioning off if you were still doing questions. 381 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,000 I'm on a different line now. 382 00:24:48,500 --> 00:24:50,180 Okay, I'll come back to all of this, I promise. 383 00:24:52,060 --> 00:24:53,080 I was done with my questions. 384 00:24:53,540 --> 00:24:54,120 All right, never mind. 385 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:54,800 I'm going to keep going. 386 00:24:54,980 --> 00:24:55,880 Do you have questions? 387 00:24:56,540 --> 00:24:56,900 Okay. 388 00:24:56,900 --> 00:25:03,060 Okay. So we, as a county, you're saying we have to figure out if it's against our code 389 00:25:03,060 --> 00:25:07,620 or not. I brought this up three months ago. It might have been more than that with the 390 00:25:07,620 --> 00:25:10,700 health department because I sit on the board of health as well. And you're saying that 391 00:25:10,700 --> 00:25:17,420 we've closed 40, we've had 40 closures since May of 2025. You gave us the numbers of closures 392 00:25:17,420 --> 00:25:23,320 or complaints, 16 in 2022, I think you said, and then over 225. So you've kind of seen 393 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:27,940 this escalation. I know I'm not the only council member that's brought this issue up either. 394 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:33,640 So what I'm confused about is you're saying there could be code changes. We've still got 395 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,500 a lot of work to do and a lot of coordination on this, but it's been months. And it's probably 396 00:25:37,500 --> 00:25:41,660 been, I think I'm being generous, it's probably been a year plus that we've had this issue 397 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,200 multiple years that we've had the issue. But a year or two since we've had council 398 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:52,540 members like getting involved and in complaints and all this, it feels very frustrating 399 00:25:52,540 --> 00:25:56,780 As a community member, I live in Mill Creek, and I know the stand you're talking about, 400 00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:02,440 but also there's a stand on Boff Lever Highway 164th, like in everybody's face, blocking 401 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,080 a very utilized sidewalk. 402 00:26:05,340 --> 00:26:09,400 I even know for sure that I literally have made a complaint, and there are many, many 403 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:10,960 constituents that have made a complaint about that stand. 404 00:26:13,420 --> 00:26:17,060 It's been over a year at least since we've been making these complaints. 405 00:26:17,060 --> 00:26:21,760 What is taking so long for even a code change proposal to come to us? 406 00:26:22,820 --> 00:26:27,320 So, Council Member Mead, if you may, I'm Kim Van Pelt. 407 00:26:27,620 --> 00:26:29,080 I'm the Health Department Director. 408 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,200 I've been with the Health Department since late October. 409 00:26:33,100 --> 00:26:41,160 I do believe that the Health Department recognizes that this is a significant concern for many constituents within the county, 410 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,440 and it is a significant concern for the Health Department. 411 00:26:44,440 --> 00:27:06,200 I just want to be clear that when we talked about confiscation of food or confiscation of equipment, that we had received a prior P.A. advisory letter talking about our authorities, and our authority in this area was confusing, basically, from the P.A.'s response. 412 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:21,020 And so one of the things we looked at is in these discussions at the State Department of Health, they believe they are investigating themselves whether there isn't currently authority to take food. 413 00:27:21,580 --> 00:27:31,860 And so it seems that the most expeditious path forward would be if once they get that clarification, if there's already the authority, there doesn't need to be any other change. 414 00:27:31,860 --> 00:27:37,020 So we're right now trying to get clarity about that issue in particular. 415 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,960 That will help inform some of our future actions. 416 00:27:41,340 --> 00:27:44,440 Is that authority that you're saying our PA gave? 417 00:27:44,780 --> 00:27:46,500 And they're saying, ah, there's ambiguity about if we... 418 00:27:46,500 --> 00:27:47,760 They say there's ambiguity. 419 00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:49,000 Now, do you... 420 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,720 They say county code or the state law... 421 00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:50,860 It's the state. 422 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:52,940 I believe it's the state code. 423 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:56,400 So if I was to pose a question to our PA and said, okay, 424 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,680 let's assume the state doesn't give us authority. 425 00:27:59,540 --> 00:28:01,300 Can we change county code? 426 00:28:01,300 --> 00:28:07,940 I believe we probably could ask again for the PA's clarification on that. 427 00:28:08,460 --> 00:28:18,500 But again, our thinking is that since TOH is already investigating and seems poised to quickly be able to render some sort of 428 00:28:18,500 --> 00:28:28,480 reading of the state law or the state code related to authority to take food, that that's the most expeditious path forward. 429 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:35,980 I hear you you sang the word quickly, but I don't I mean it feels frustrating that I've been working on this for months or a year 430 00:28:35,980 --> 00:28:38,940 And yeah, yeah, and we're now it's like well 431 00:28:38,940 --> 00:28:44,240 Let's wait to see what the state says and I don't trust that the state is going to do this. I think that's 432 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:49,200 So I feel like going to prongs with this asking the prosecutor's office 433 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,480 Let's assume the worst. Yeah state is there something we can do at the local 434 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:58,400 They just say no the state supersedes period whatever the state health authority says is what it is 435 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:01,260 But we haven't even asked a question yet. 436 00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:03,960 And I hear what you're saying. 437 00:29:04,340 --> 00:29:17,480 I think our next step is we are poised to very soon have that convening that Tony talked about of local partners and look at what our next steps are in terms of this issue. 438 00:29:17,980 --> 00:29:20,720 We are not just waiting for the state to take action. 439 00:29:20,900 --> 00:29:25,360 We are looking at a simultaneous track of trying to take action at the local level. 440 00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:26,520 Okay, got it. 441 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:27,880 All right, that's what we're doing. 442 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:29,080 Yeah, thank you. 443 00:29:30,060 --> 00:29:31,660 So question, and this would probably 444 00:29:31,660 --> 00:29:34,380 require a change of state law, but I guess just a question 445 00:29:34,380 --> 00:29:35,900 on potential enforcement mechanisms. 446 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,240 Have we considered treating this in a similar way 447 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:41,660 as we treat a traffic infraction, for example? 448 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:44,000 I'm just thinking, if I have somebody who's just 449 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,080 constantly speeding through school zones 450 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:47,980 and causing a danger for students and whatnot, 451 00:29:48,540 --> 00:29:51,000 if we're politely saying please don't do that anymore, 452 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,800 but we have no way of making that individual feel 453 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:55,380 some pain in the form of having 454 00:29:55,380 --> 00:29:59,240 to pay a fine or having a license removed or what not. 455 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,420 But the enforcement is what allows us to get a hold of that and prohibit that activity 456 00:30:04,420 --> 00:30:08,620 from continuing. So is there a way to treat these in a similar fashion where we do have 457 00:30:08,620 --> 00:30:12,220 the ability, whether it's through state law, to say we need your ID and we're going to 458 00:30:12,220 --> 00:30:16,320 issue a civil infraction and you're going to have to pay a fine and maybe that fine increases 459 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,880 as time goes on. Is that something that's being considered? 460 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,160 That is something that's being considered and that's where it comes to the partnerships. 461 00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:24,760 And since we're not law enforcement, it would have to come from the law enforcement side 462 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,920 to do misdemeanors. But that's why we're excited to get the convening of all 463 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,760 the local cities and county partners together because that is if we go to the misdemeanor 464 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,520 option that would be something we could do with law enforcement. 465 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,860 Can we adopt that as a county or do we need to wait for the state? 466 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,140 That I'm not sure of. 467 00:30:40,260 --> 00:30:42,740 I'm not sure on the PA's process for that at all. 468 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:45,000 Thank you. 469 00:30:45,060 --> 00:30:45,360 That's helpful. 470 00:30:45,820 --> 00:30:50,380 And then just a separate question, but I went on a ride along with law enforcement 471 00:30:50,380 --> 00:30:53,340 and we're taking a look at some of these in person. 472 00:30:53,340 --> 00:30:57,800 And yeah, the pictures tell the whole story. 473 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,720 I mean, this is causing significant issues 474 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:02,760 for the community, both for health concerns 475 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:04,580 and we heard about the issues it's 476 00:31:04,580 --> 00:31:06,540 causing for people who are trying to operate the right way. 477 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:09,900 It seemed to me from my conversations 478 00:31:09,900 --> 00:31:12,560 that there was some sort of coordination behind all this, 479 00:31:12,660 --> 00:31:14,960 like the stands were in some way coordinated. 480 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:15,920 Is that your understanding? 481 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:17,340 Anecdotically, yeah. 482 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,000 When we shut stands down, they're 483 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:21,820 on the phone to somebody else and they're moving location. 484 00:31:21,820 --> 00:31:27,380 that getting moved around. We've heard stories from cities where they've done a good job of 485 00:31:27,380 --> 00:31:30,680 closing with the city and they set right outside city limits knowing exactly where the city limit 486 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,680 line is waiting for the next enforcement. So yeah, I do believe they're coordinated. 487 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:39,260 Is there a thought to, again, this is multiple counties, it sounds like it's 488 00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:42,660 going to show all over the place asking the state if they can convene some sort of a task 489 00:31:42,660 --> 00:31:47,900 force if this is coordinated at a multi-county level? That's what we're hoping we get out of 490 00:31:47,900 --> 00:31:52,720 both the state convening we have currently in place and getting out of the local convening 491 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:58,400 is just some direct, because I think there is some definite partnerships across enforcement 492 00:31:58,400 --> 00:31:59,300 lines here for sure. 493 00:31:59,880 --> 00:31:59,940 Got it. 494 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:00,380 Okay. 495 00:32:00,580 --> 00:32:01,380 We are looking into that. 496 00:32:01,620 --> 00:32:02,560 Thank you. 497 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,040 Other questions? 498 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:04,640 Councilor Dunn? 499 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:12,500 So inspectors do not have law enforcement authority to require or request identification. 500 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:13,000 That's correct. 501 00:32:13,300 --> 00:32:16,160 What are some pros and cons of changing that law? 502 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:19,760 If inspectors were allowed to do that? 503 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:26,680 Well, one of the cons would be you would just change what our inspectors are doing with that education first function. 504 00:32:27,940 --> 00:32:31,500 You know, the pro would be we would be able to enforce quicker. 505 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:36,140 We wouldn't have to search for other, you know, support from other agencies to do the enforcement for us. 506 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:42,120 And are you seeing safety risk for inspectors when they go out? 507 00:32:42,180 --> 00:32:42,920 We are. We are. 508 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:49,200 That's when we started getting agitated crowds and so we started sending either in pairs 509 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:50,540 or with law enforcement. 510 00:32:50,700 --> 00:32:54,580 So law enforcement's our priority to go out with first and if we don't, for me, a 511 00:32:54,580 --> 00:32:55,680 self-compliance will go out in pairs. 512 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:01,340 I appreciate the effort to coordinate with law enforcement, but also recognize that 513 00:33:02,260 --> 00:33:05,720 they're also strained by resources. 514 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:18,660 So a review of kind of understanding the impacts financially and resource-based would be like both the health department and our law enforcement partners. Thank you. 515 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:22,480 Other questions from council members? Anyone online? 516 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:23,760 Yeah, I have a question. 517 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:30,400 Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Today I've been asking for this for a long time, so thank you. 518 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:36,680 do. I do think we should confiscate the food. I do think we should confiscate the equipment. 519 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:43,940 This is clearly coordinated. But my question is, have we worked with the Department of 520 00:33:43,940 --> 00:33:50,740 Revenue at all to maybe go to one of these taco stands, pay through their Venmo? We 521 00:33:50,740 --> 00:33:56,220 know what their Venmo is. And then clearly I don't think they're paying any state, 522 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:01,340 local or federal taxes. So, is there any opportunity to partner with them? 523 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,000 Possibly. Again, when we convene at the state level, we're hoping to give that information. 524 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:10,180 Tomorrow level is local. We just haven't reached out to revenue agencies yet. 525 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,280 We've been working with local law enforcement primarily, but it is an option. 526 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:21,580 And thank you for that. Also, I think you closed down a stand last week, 527 00:34:21,580 --> 00:34:25,100 and it's my understanding I think it was closed down at four o'clock or so. 528 00:34:25,100 --> 00:34:31,620 you guys did a great job. But three hours later it's open in the same location. So I mean we talk 529 00:34:31,620 --> 00:34:37,860 about these closures but they're closures for a few hours. Is that something that you guys have 530 00:34:37,860 --> 00:34:44,120 experienced through this process? Yes, I would say of the 40 closures, most of them are duplicate 531 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:49,740 closures, same location. Yeah, our team went out last Thursday with the Stomach County Sheriff's 532 00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:54,180 office and shut down eight stands and that was the first one and as the 533 00:34:54,180 --> 00:34:56,700 inspectors are going home for the evening they saw that one open again 534 00:34:56,700 --> 00:35:02,320 one o'clock in the morning so yeah we do see that frequently. And then I want to 535 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:06,220 close with this I mean this was first brought to my attention about a year 536 00:35:06,220 --> 00:35:11,500 ago or so from one of my minority business owners who runs a restaurant 537 00:35:11,500 --> 00:35:17,640 who pays the fee to the health district to operate pays rent I think 538 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:23,640 seven eight ten thousand dollars a month in rent and having these set up within half a block of 539 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:31,080 their location. I'm very familiar with Carlos and his location I've eaten there before. I know the 540 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:37,260 struggles that Carlos has had in opening his stand where it's taken like six months of no 541 00:35:37,260 --> 00:35:44,520 income to him and his family in order for them to be licensed properly and have the proper stuff 542 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:49,900 And it just kills me to have a business, a minority business owner who's come to this 543 00:35:49,900 --> 00:35:57,260 country to open a business legally, to have other businesses set up within a half a block 544 00:35:57,940 --> 00:36:02,480 who are basically making it so he's probably not going to be able to provide for his family. 545 00:36:02,700 --> 00:36:10,580 So I really hope we can work together to really get to the bottom of this and like 546 00:36:10,580 --> 00:36:12,740 I said, I'm all for confiscating the food. 547 00:36:12,740 --> 00:36:18,840 I'm all for confiscating the equipment because this is too big of a health crisis in our 548 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:24,220 county, and we cannot afford to have people getting sick and going to our emergency rooms 549 00:36:24,220 --> 00:36:29,360 because we haven't taken proper steps as a county to shut this down. 550 00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:30,820 So that's all my comments. 551 00:36:31,020 --> 00:36:32,580 Thank you for the presentation today. 552 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:33,860 Thank you. 553 00:36:35,240 --> 00:36:37,760 Other questions from Councilmember, Councilmember Dunn? 554 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:41,320 So can you request that that state workgroup includes commerce? 555 00:36:41,860 --> 00:36:46,040 well I'll bring it up at our next meeting for sure great great idea and then is 556 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:52,580 the concern risk so if we were to confiscate food or equipment the county 557 00:36:52,580 --> 00:36:59,980 would be liable for lost profits or the concern is just I'm sorry it's take a 558 00:36:59,980 --> 00:37:05,100 property you know with when we have the permit it's outlined that we can take 559 00:37:05,100 --> 00:37:08,860 property and actually to close down and cease operation but when without a 560 00:37:09,460 --> 00:37:12,080 How do we take the property from somebody on the street? 561 00:37:12,900 --> 00:37:15,740 Because it's essentially a government seizure of property when we do that. 562 00:37:15,820 --> 00:37:17,220 So what's the justification for it? 563 00:37:18,220 --> 00:37:22,180 And the state's looking through health channels if they can find it 564 00:37:22,180 --> 00:37:26,040 and working with the state attorney general to see if that exists in the current code, 565 00:37:26,060 --> 00:37:28,880 that we can use it, or there's something they do at a state level 566 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,720 that we can use to then justify confiscating the food without a permit. 567 00:37:33,860 --> 00:37:44,420 Can we also look at whether or not businesses where property owners can file as a trespass 568 00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:51,900 area so that if you have on record that you're a no trespassing area, then if a food stand 569 00:37:51,900 --> 00:37:59,960 opens up there, then that gives more tools for law enforcement to trespass a business 570 00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:02,460 operating there or one of these food cards operating there? 571 00:38:02,460 --> 00:38:04,140 haven't looked in that, something to look into for sure. 572 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:08,060 Other questions from council members? 573 00:38:09,340 --> 00:38:10,920 Okay, so I have a couple more questions. 574 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:13,400 So you have done the 40 closures 575 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,340 and presumably these closures 576 00:38:15,340 --> 00:38:16,900 have incorporated law enforcement? 577 00:38:17,580 --> 00:38:18,580 Most of them, okay. 578 00:38:18,720 --> 00:38:19,340 Most of them. 579 00:38:19,340 --> 00:38:21,080 So I get that you have limitations 580 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:22,460 if you don't have law enforcement with you 581 00:38:22,460 --> 00:38:24,460 and you can't take stuff, you can't even ask for ID. 582 00:38:24,620 --> 00:38:24,960 Yeah, you get it. 583 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:26,580 But with law enforcement, you can. 584 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,580 So the law enforcement isn't asking for ID. 585 00:38:29,980 --> 00:38:32,620 Law enforcement is showing up to a unpermitted 586 00:38:32,620 --> 00:38:34,180 or you're not even sure if it's permitted yet, 587 00:38:34,780 --> 00:38:36,320 Health Department said, hey, do you have a permit? 588 00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:38,400 They say F-off, you don't know what to do, 589 00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:39,980 you ask law enforcement, law enforcement says, 590 00:38:40,300 --> 00:38:41,800 hey, do you have a permit? They say F-off, 591 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:42,880 and then law enforcement walks away. 592 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:44,260 They have an issue, the same thing. 593 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:45,600 They don't know what justification they have. 594 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:46,420 They have to have a cause. 595 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:49,820 Aren't these guys in right-of-way blocking public right-of-way? 596 00:38:49,900 --> 00:38:51,940 That's illegal. You can't sleep in the right-of-way. 597 00:38:52,020 --> 00:38:53,080 You can have a tent in the right-of-way. 598 00:38:53,380 --> 00:38:56,400 I can't speak for law enforcement, 599 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:58,460 but they are not asking for ID either. 600 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,880 Okay. How do you know if a food truck has a permit or not? 601 00:39:04,500 --> 00:39:06,680 You just go to the food truck operator and you say, 602 00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:07,160 do you have a permit? 603 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:08,280 That's correct. They'll have a permit. 604 00:39:08,460 --> 00:39:08,820 They're supposed to have it. 605 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:10,020 And they say no. And then what do you do? 606 00:39:10,540 --> 00:39:12,660 For us, we look back in our records and know that if a permit 607 00:39:12,660 --> 00:39:14,860 and they don't, they would issue that cease and desist letter. 608 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:15,860 That's how we would do it. 609 00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,320 And then you have a cop next to you with a badge 610 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,440 and then that cop can do nothing different 611 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:23,160 than what you can already do as a health... 612 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,100 Again, except for the law enforcement agencies, 613 00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,640 what they're doing right now, they're not asking for... 614 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:32,620 Okay, but then but why do you even have law enforcement with you or our staff safety just for the safety of the public getting mad? 615 00:39:32,780 --> 00:39:38,280 Because we have been we worked with a couple of cities in the and the county sheriff's office really to go out and get some information about 616 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:43,080 What what the limitations are on enforcement? Yes, right right now. They're they're not and 617 00:39:43,900 --> 00:39:49,380 Everett's working really hard and getting their their ordinance has changed and something there for sure, okay? 618 00:39:50,780 --> 00:39:55,660 That's that's really frustrating and and annoying. It doesn't make much sense to me either 619 00:39:55,660 --> 00:39:59,140 I get that you're not the Sheriff's Department and we should have the Sheriff's Department here as well 620 00:39:59,140 --> 00:40:03,400 I'm going to ask the Sheriff's Department these questions and figure out why they wouldn't be asking those questions. It seems 621 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:10,820 Incredibly reasonable to me that they're doing something legal already just by being in the right of way. You cannot do that 622 00:40:10,820 --> 00:40:14,240 But secondarily they're also operating illegally 623 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:19,520 Without a permit giving unhealthy food. Okay, so why okay? 624 00:40:19,820 --> 00:40:24,540 So I'm gonna ask law enforcement that piece because I don't understand it at all if law enforcement says 625 00:40:24,540 --> 00:40:26,560 Now, yeah, we could actually ask for ID. 626 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:28,880 That seems to solve this problem. 627 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,000 Then you can instead of using whatever dollars you're going to allocate to public awareness, 628 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:34,280 which I don't think will work. 629 00:40:34,380 --> 00:40:38,220 I think that would be useless to tell the public, hey, don't eat unhealthy street food. 630 00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:39,360 They're doing it. 631 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:40,000 They're going to do that. 632 00:40:40,380 --> 00:40:41,860 So don't waste money doing that. 633 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:45,740 Have another permit person go out with another law enforcement officer and do more 634 00:40:45,740 --> 00:40:46,580 than 40 closures. 635 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,460 Ask for IDs when you realize they don't have IDs. 636 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:51,240 What do you do there? 637 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:52,160 What are they? 638 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:57,820 You're able to you can't find someone without a permit you said so we're only punishing like the law-abiding businesses 639 00:40:57,820 --> 00:41:01,760 So I get that so then we're not going to punish the ones that are breaking the law 640 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:08,140 But then we're also we're not gonna we're not gonna find them because they don't have ID and you don't get to ask 641 00:41:08,140 --> 00:41:09,760 Them for ID so you can't even give them a fine 642 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,480 You can't arrest anyone. You're not gonna take any of their stuff 643 00:41:14,180 --> 00:41:16,640 Why wouldn't they just why why would they have a permit? 644 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,200 Why would I ever go to the health department and get a permit ever? 645 00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:25,020 And this is why it's proliferating because we've said, hey, please don't do it, but we're not going to do anything if you do do it. 646 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:29,040 And now it's like goes from 16 complaints to 200 complaints over three years. 647 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,800 So I'll ask law enforcement that piece and I get that you can't fix that. 648 00:41:34,140 --> 00:41:39,440 We will do this again within a month and we will have law enforcement decide to you and we can decide this. 649 00:41:40,020 --> 00:41:42,240 My last line of questioning is just the timeline. 650 00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:47,760 So you said you were going to do the state and you're going to work with local partners trying to figure out what to expect 651 00:41:48,500 --> 00:41:52,800 and get a little bit more aggressive about when we can expect something. I know 652 00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:57,900 we can't figure out the state they got to deal with but our coordination and I 653 00:41:57,900 --> 00:42:01,260 have homework to do that I'm committed to doing figuring out the PA ruling is 654 00:42:01,260 --> 00:42:04,000 it a I don't if we don't have to wait for the state I will propose the code 655 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:09,220 tomorrow to give you authority but if we do okay we'll wait but what about our 656 00:42:09,220 --> 00:42:12,180 coordination that we're doing do you have a timeline on that is it like 657 00:42:12,180 --> 00:42:15,520 this month is it our summer is it coordination we're looking to send the 658 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:16,020 invite out. 659 00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:18,040 That's okay. 660 00:42:21,230 --> 00:42:22,950 Hello, Councilmember Mead. 661 00:42:24,770 --> 00:42:25,830 Hello, Councilmember Mead. 662 00:42:26,010 --> 00:42:28,370 Again, Kim Van Pelt, Director for the Health Department. 663 00:42:28,670 --> 00:42:31,610 We have drafted the invitation and I have the invitation list 664 00:42:31,610 --> 00:42:32,790 for the local convening. 665 00:42:32,970 --> 00:42:35,710 We're expecting to have two, two-hour meetings in the month 666 00:42:35,710 --> 00:42:36,130 of February. 667 00:42:37,270 --> 00:42:40,810 And our, do we have some, like, local permitted businesses 668 00:42:40,810 --> 00:42:42,130 invited to? 669 00:42:42,570 --> 00:42:42,950 Or is this trust? 670 00:42:42,950 --> 00:42:46,270 On the invite list includes some association members 671 00:42:46,270 --> 00:42:51,170 For example, hospitality association, economic alliance, et cetera. 672 00:42:51,510 --> 00:42:52,590 Food truck association specifically. 673 00:42:52,590 --> 00:42:55,150 Food truck association is specifically on there also. 674 00:42:55,510 --> 00:42:56,030 Okay, great. 675 00:42:56,410 --> 00:42:56,530 Yeah. 676 00:42:56,790 --> 00:42:56,970 Okay. 677 00:42:57,470 --> 00:43:03,250 And then you said you're sending that out, and then when is the date that you guys 678 00:43:03,250 --> 00:43:04,290 – is it multiple meetings? 679 00:43:04,610 --> 00:43:07,650 It's two two-hour meetings in the month of February. 680 00:43:08,050 --> 00:43:09,410 So one is middle of February. 681 00:43:09,750 --> 00:43:14,010 I think we – I can't remember the exact date, but two in the month of February. 682 00:43:14,010 --> 00:43:34,230 What we're going to be doing at those meetings is review our existing authority, what's been done by not only the health department, but by localities across Nahomish County, what's happening at the state level, what's happening nationally in terms of best practices. 683 00:43:34,230 --> 00:43:45,950 And then we're going to have a discussion about how – what are the next steps in terms of either enhanced enforcement needed or collaborations needed to be able to address the issue. 684 00:43:46,190 --> 00:43:48,790 And that second conversation will happen in the second meeting. 685 00:43:49,130 --> 00:43:49,410 Correct. 686 00:43:49,490 --> 00:43:56,970 Okay, so if your two meetings are done in February, say the next Health Committee meeting in March, we could do this again. 687 00:43:57,050 --> 00:43:59,690 I have you here, but also have the sheriff, maybe the PA. 688 00:44:00,090 --> 00:44:01,470 I think that would be great timing. 689 00:44:01,730 --> 00:44:01,970 Okay. 690 00:44:01,970 --> 00:44:11,070 Yeah, and we'll I'll plan on scheduling that that terrific. Thank you. Do you have any final burning questions from council members or move on to our next discussion? 691 00:44:12,690 --> 00:44:19,410 Okay, I see none. Thank you both for being here. Thanks for answering all the threads. Thanks for the presentation. We'll see you next month. Thank you. Thank you 692 00:44:20,370 --> 00:44:22,210 All right, our next presentation is 693 00:44:23,350 --> 00:44:28,590 From DEM and we have I think Lucia's here Lucia's here. Hello. Welcome. And you also have a presentation 694 00:44:29,930 --> 00:44:31,930 Yes, I can get the presentation queued up now. 695 00:44:41,330 --> 00:44:42,990 Can you make me a – there we go. 696 00:45:22,580 --> 00:45:27,440 While that is coming up, my name is Lucia Schmidt. I am the director of the Snomish County Department of Emergency Management. 697 00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:37,640 Thanks for having me here this morning. I just wanted to, I think it should be a little slow to catch up. 698 00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:44,960 I wanted to come and just share with you some stories from the historic flooding we experienced last month. 699 00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:53,180 So I'd like to just give an overview of the flooding event, of the coordinated response 700 00:45:53,180 --> 00:45:59,160 across the county, some of the remaining challenges, and the next steps because we are still in 701 00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:04,680 it both in terms of the government side but also more importantly in terms of the 702 00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:05,600 impacted population. 703 00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:16,580 So when I say historic flooding, this map shows the extent of what was underwater at 704 00:46:16,580 --> 00:46:18,620 some point during the event. 705 00:46:19,220 --> 00:46:26,280 So it does include, well, so that's a total of 36,000 acres of the county were underwater. 706 00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:27,960 That's 56 square miles. 707 00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:32,460 And as you can see from the map, there it is, 708 00:46:35,500 --> 00:46:37,080 you know, that does include the river 709 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:38,120 beds themselves. 710 00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:39,720 So it's maybe a slight overestimate. 711 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,880 We weren't able to subtract that out from the total, but it's still an impressive amount. 712 00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:59,280 And then also on this map, you can see the areas that, so the levees, the coordinated 713 00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:01,160 for the structures along the Snohomish River. 714 00:47:01,780 --> 00:47:03,420 And what we saw during this event 715 00:47:03,420 --> 00:47:06,780 was that process worked as designed. 716 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,660 So up on the slide now, you can see the river gauge, 717 00:47:11,420 --> 00:47:14,780 the measurements from the Snohomish River gauge 718 00:47:14,780 --> 00:47:16,780 at Snohomish, and you can really see 719 00:47:16,780 --> 00:47:20,660 how it just flattens out and stays there. 720 00:47:20,780 --> 00:47:22,100 And that is because the levees 721 00:47:22,100 --> 00:47:24,580 were overtopping as designed at that point. 722 00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:26,760 And so that is why, you know, 723 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,860 marshlands, French slew there, received so much water. 724 00:47:31,780 --> 00:47:37,200 But the good news of that is it did divert that water away from more residential areas. 725 00:47:38,940 --> 00:47:43,540 So the other thing that I think is impressive about this gauge is looking at it. 726 00:47:43,780 --> 00:47:49,020 You can see that the Snohomish River spent over 11 days in the action phase. 727 00:47:49,580 --> 00:47:55,320 So this event was not only historic in the, you know, the height of the flood, 728 00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,120 But it also was just a very prolonged event. 729 00:47:58,740 --> 00:48:03,660 You might have seen during the event that the Atmospheric River we received was 7,000 730 00:48:03,660 --> 00:48:04,260 miles long. 731 00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:08,900 So essentially stretched from Washington State to the Philippines. 732 00:48:09,660 --> 00:48:12,040 And then all of that passed through over dumping the water. 733 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:16,540 And then we also had the high atmospheric tides, the king tides at the time. 734 00:48:16,620 --> 00:48:20,500 And those just kind of served as a wall and made it harder for the water to drain 735 00:48:20,500 --> 00:48:24,920 out because the sea level was higher at points during the event. 736 00:48:26,460 --> 00:48:32,880 So just a tremendous amount of water in our systems leading to flooding in all of our 737 00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:34,140 major river basins. 738 00:48:36,740 --> 00:48:40,560 It led to four evacuation orders were put into effect. 739 00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:48,220 So when my slides catch up, you will see that that was E.B. Island, the Tuolco Valley, 740 00:48:48,220 --> 00:48:54,200 parts of downtown Sultan and then the three River Mobile Home Park at one 741 00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,940 point or another during the response were under evacuation orders. That's a 742 00:48:57,940 --> 00:49:01,620 total of 790 residents were under evacuation orders. 743 00:49:08,010 --> 00:49:09,890 In order to meet the 744 00:49:09,890 --> 00:49:14,310 immediate life safety needs we had Swiftwater Rescue teams up and down the 745 00:49:14,310 --> 00:49:20,490 river valleys working around the clock. So as of December 13th, so just in 746 00:49:20,490 --> 00:49:28,530 the first four days of the response, there were 68 people pulled from the water and 19 747 00:49:28,530 --> 00:49:31,230 pets were rescued from water rescues. 748 00:49:31,810 --> 00:49:37,110 One rescue alone was a family of 11 people who were pulled from their house. 749 00:49:38,510 --> 00:49:43,510 And then we did, in Snomish County, receive the one fatality that happened in the state 750 00:49:43,510 --> 00:49:45,090 during that flooding event. 751 00:49:45,090 --> 00:49:48,650 And that was a person who drove on a closed road that was flooded. 752 00:49:49,830 --> 00:49:51,770 And just floodwaters everywhere. 753 00:49:52,010 --> 00:49:53,190 You couldn't see where the road turned. 754 00:49:54,450 --> 00:49:59,950 And so the driver ended up in a ditch where the water was quite deep. 755 00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:11,640 We activated the County Emergency Operations Center from December 9th until the 24th. 756 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:22,280 And so we had about 20 agencies in the EOC representing county departments as well as some of our partner organizations. 757 00:50:22,820 --> 00:50:34,620 We had Fire and the Weather Service there, and as well as some of the local cities participated at the EOC as well. 758 00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:40,680 In that time, a lot of the focus was on pushing information out to the public, and so there 759 00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:49,400 were over 2.4 million views of DEM's Facebook page in that time, and 175,000 views to the 760 00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:50,120 public safety hub. 761 00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:56,060 So there was a lot of interest in the community of what government had to say, what the 762 00:50:56,060 --> 00:50:57,600 government was doing for this response. 763 00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:05,940 Here I want to show you, this is one of the areas that was under evacuation zone. 764 00:51:05,940 --> 00:51:10,300 So we have the Google satellite imagery here, so you can see what it normally looks like. 765 00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:13,940 And I'd just like to play a video, hopefully, I 766 00:51:17,530 --> 00:51:18,230 don't know if it's going to work. 767 00:51:21,430 --> 00:51:24,450 I can share this video with you offline if you would like. 768 00:51:24,690 --> 00:51:28,650 But you can see here the tremendous impact on the valley. 769 00:51:30,250 --> 00:51:32,590 Oh, now it is starting. 770 00:51:39,780 --> 00:51:44,520 Yeah, well, I ended up having to do my hotspot because I wasn't getting internet 771 00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:48,920 at all, but that I think is impacting us now. 772 00:51:52,930 --> 00:51:54,890 I don't know if it's going to be worth doing the videos. 773 00:51:57,590 --> 00:51:58,770 So this is one area. 774 00:51:58,970 --> 00:52:05,010 You can see that there's, you know, 50 mobile homes here, and this was one of the first 775 00:52:05,010 --> 00:52:08,670 places we evacuated and then have 776 00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:14,620 been working with the residents throughout recovery. 777 00:52:19,210 --> 00:52:25,330 I'm going to give up on the videos. 778 00:52:35,110 --> 00:52:41,370 So in response to places like the Three Rivers Mobile Home Park, we did work with the Red 779 00:52:41,370 --> 00:52:47,470 Cross to stand up a shelter at the county fairgrounds and approximately 70 individuals 780 00:52:47,470 --> 00:52:49,190 stayed there at one point. 781 00:52:51,270 --> 00:53:00,550 We also stood up the livestock sheltering at the fair park and received over 500 animals 782 00:53:01,010 --> 00:53:03,690 at the fair park at its highest census. 783 00:53:04,390 --> 00:53:14,070 So 171 horses, over 100 cows, 96 goats, 16 pigs, 140 chickens, three rabbits and two 784 00:53:14,070 --> 00:53:14,410 turkeys. 785 00:53:14,410 --> 00:53:22,010 And I think one of the more impressive statistics is that we actually sent home more animals 786 00:53:22,010 --> 00:53:27,390 than we received, because there was at least one birth at the fairgrounds during the event. 787 00:53:28,710 --> 00:53:32,270 I don't know why I'm no longer sharing, 788 00:53:39,530 --> 00:53:40,610 got booted off of Zoom. 789 00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:46,310 The next area that I 790 00:54:02,310 --> 00:54:05,070 want to talk about is the impressive work that was done by 791 00:54:05,070 --> 00:54:06,230 the public works crews. 792 00:54:06,230 --> 00:54:13,050 So there were 52 emergency road closures, hundreds of unique locations requiring response 793 00:54:13,050 --> 00:54:16,550 from debris removal to shoulder repairs or washouts. 794 00:54:18,870 --> 00:54:25,130 They inspected more than 30 scour critical bridges and activated the solid waste voucher 795 00:54:25,130 --> 00:54:29,690 program which you all extended through March which has been a tremendous help because 796 00:54:29,690 --> 00:54:33,050 there are places that were still underwater when it initially expired. 797 00:54:35,010 --> 00:54:40,270 This photo here is from an effort that they did along the Mountain Loop Highway due to 798 00:54:40,270 --> 00:54:42,950 some washouts, some active landslides there. 799 00:54:43,190 --> 00:54:48,610 We couldn't open the primary road out, so they had to go out and open portions of the 800 00:54:48,610 --> 00:54:52,550 Mountain Loop Highway so that families that were stuck behind the washout could make 801 00:54:52,550 --> 00:54:57,930 it out or stay put for the winter, essentially. 802 00:55:00,420 --> 00:55:06,700 These are, you know, per public works, the locations that still require repairs. 803 00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:14,380 The total estimated damage is 3.6. 804 00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:17,760 I recommend talking to public works directly. 805 00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:20,520 Only some of that is federal highway eligible. 806 00:55:20,980 --> 00:55:22,980 Some of it would be FEMA reimbursement. 807 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:25,820 I don't know the fine details of that. 808 00:55:25,820 --> 00:55:32,380 but about $2.4 million of those damages are what we're submitting in the FEMA declaration 809 00:55:32,380 --> 00:55:32,780 request. 810 00:55:37,100 --> 00:55:43,840 So for the FEMA declaration, you know, that is split into two declarations. 811 00:55:44,060 --> 00:55:47,660 There's the individual assistance package, which we've already sent up. 812 00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:55,080 And that's the assistance that would go directly to the individuals who are impacted based 813 00:55:55,080 --> 00:56:01,440 off of the data collected from us, from Wattcombe, from Skagit, from King, and Lewis, and Pierce 814 00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:10,060 counties. The state says it is the strongest IA package they have sent to FEMA that any of 815 00:56:10,060 --> 00:56:19,280 them can remember. So we are hopeful we will receive good news from FEMA, but it is entirely 816 00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:27,900 presidential progative. So there is no way to accurately estimate. On the public damage side, 817 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:34,540 traditionally that has been a little bit more cut and dry. And there is the statewide threshold, 818 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:40,680 which was just published in October, is $14.9 million worth of damage for the state. 819 00:56:41,460 --> 00:56:46,200 We don't – the state is still gathering information. They are out in the community now, 820 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:52,420 joint with FEMA, kind of investigating some of the sites of bigger impact. But just anecdotally, 821 00:56:52,860 --> 00:57:00,800 I think it's easy that the state will be over $120 million worth of damage. So that is bigger 822 00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:08,940 than $14.9 million. It's also bigger than the anecdotal four times the declaration threshold, 823 00:57:09,140 --> 00:57:15,440 which is what the administration has signaled. And it's higher than the $81 million, which 824 00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:20,780 is a formula based off of total taxable resources, which is something that they've signaled they 825 00:57:20,780 --> 00:57:21,860 ultimately want to go to. 826 00:57:22,500 --> 00:57:30,800 So by all numbers, we have a very strong case for public declaration. 827 00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:42,620 The concern here is that a lot of those impacts are in public utilities, are in road repair, 828 00:57:42,620 --> 00:57:51,740 And the current administration has signaled that they feel the federal government is more appropriate in the initial response phase and less so in the long-term recovery phase. 829 00:57:52,080 --> 00:58:02,760 So as you can see in that second chart here, it's really the first two rows in that second chart of debris management and protective measures, 830 00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:11,160 which is where the current federal administration likes to believe the federal rule should be and not in those more expensive buckets. 831 00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:26,520 Here is another, we'll just call it an aerial view because we're not going to try on the video of the Snomish Basin. 832 00:58:26,740 --> 00:58:31,740 So you can see this road here is Highway 9. Oops, it accidentally thinks I tried to start it. 833 00:58:35,460 --> 00:58:39,400 And so this is the framing shot and then I'll wait for the slides to catch up. 834 00:58:52,440 --> 00:58:52,740 There we go. 835 00:58:53,520 --> 00:59:02,220 So, you can see that the area around Highway 9 along the Snomish River is completely under 836 00:59:02,220 --> 00:59:02,520 water. 837 00:59:03,080 --> 00:59:11,620 This image does not capture what's going on south of the river, but I can send those 838 00:59:11,620 --> 00:59:12,340 videos separately. 839 00:59:12,920 --> 00:59:14,600 Oh, it thinks it's going to try and play it. 840 00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:15,700 Pause. 841 00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:17,580 Hopefully it doesn't kick me out again. 842 00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:32,580 So community recovery. 843 00:59:32,580 --> 00:59:38,960 Some of the work that we've been doing in the community to try to help them recover, we 844 00:59:40,960 --> 00:59:46,260 while we were still in the thick of the response, we held a couple of events out in the community 845 00:59:46,260 --> 00:59:52,840 to help them report their damage to us and get some initial supports to community members, 846 00:59:53,100 --> 00:59:57,380 as well as just guidance on what to do if you've lost documents in the flooding, 847 00:59:57,740 --> 00:59:59,820 How, you know, help. 848 01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:02,780 On submitting insurance claims and following up insurance. 849 01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:07,240 Just want to note that we are at time for committee, but I don't know if you just have a couple 850 01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:11,480 of minutes left if you want to wrap up. I know we have the slides accessible too. 851 01:00:11,940 --> 01:00:17,400 Yes, I have a couple of slides left. I can go quick. So the impact survey that we completed, 852 01:00:17,820 --> 01:00:24,220 we had 184 people submitted surveys, household submitted surveys with over $5 million dollars 853 01:00:24,220 --> 01:00:25,680 worth and structural losses. 854 01:00:27,410 --> 01:00:35,200 We held three disaster assistance centers at the Sky Valley VOA where we assisted 65 households. 855 01:00:36,060 --> 01:00:41,280 We had representatives from state government there, representatives from county government, 856 01:00:41,740 --> 01:00:46,880 as well as representatives from a number of nonprofits that were able to provide immediate 857 01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:50,160 assistance to our impacted residents. 858 01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:51,300 Some 859 01:00:55,620 --> 01:01:03,920 of the outstanding remaining impacts, so looking at the economic impact on our agricultural 860 01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:11,600 community in particular, they really got a brunt of the impacts, just nature of where 861 01:01:11,600 --> 01:01:12,480 farms are located. 862 01:01:13,220 --> 01:01:21,100 So there was tremendous loss of hay, of feed, of fences, farm equipment, greenhouses, 863 01:01:21,100 --> 01:01:27,900 nurses, nurseries lost a lot of their plants in their bulbs, hearing anecdotally from some 864 01:01:27,900 --> 01:01:32,900 farmers like if you look at the blueberry crop, you know, even the plants that survive 865 01:01:32,900 --> 01:01:37,440 and they won't all survive, they're looking at like 40% bud loss. 866 01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:42,560 So that's 40% lower crop this coming year, even if the plants survive. 867 01:01:42,980 --> 01:01:46,840 And there are some crops like strawberries that we just don't know if they're going 868 01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:48,960 to survive until we get farther out. 869 01:01:50,820 --> 01:01:54,180 Greenhouses and hoop houses are another tremendous loss. 870 01:01:55,020 --> 01:01:59,940 And a lot of these – so there was a USDA declaration. 871 01:02:00,380 --> 01:02:05,680 A lot of these costs aren't eligible, and the USDA assistance comes in slowly. 872 01:02:06,020 --> 01:02:10,060 So our agricultural community is going to be hurting this coming season. 873 01:02:12,420 --> 01:02:20,700 Similarly, the impact in our tourism areas, up and down Highway 2, around the Mountain 874 01:02:20,700 --> 01:02:28,500 Loop Highway, so for Highway 2, that period when kids are out on winter break around Christmas, 875 01:02:28,740 --> 01:02:30,120 that is their busiest time of year. 876 01:02:30,460 --> 01:02:34,640 And so they lost that entire season this year. 877 01:02:34,640 --> 01:02:39,900 And then what we see here, I think this is Forest Road, I want to say 22. 878 01:02:40,320 --> 01:02:44,120 You can see the guy in the yellow hat standing in the ditch there for scale. 879 01:02:45,560 --> 01:02:47,300 But that is not a county road. 880 01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:52,360 That is not a road that the county has any part in maintaining, but that is a road 881 01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:58,000 that connects the county to the forest and then all of those backpackers, all of those 882 01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:00,300 hikers that will come in in the summer. 883 01:03:00,900 --> 01:03:07,120 And so it is we are working closely with the Forest Service to ensure that they can do the repairs they can. 884 01:03:07,420 --> 01:03:14,700 And then, yeah, again, if you talk to public work, she can talk about the coordination on the portions of the forest roads that we do maintain as a county. 885 01:03:22,680 --> 01:03:25,780 And then my next last slide is simply talking about the remaining needs. 886 01:03:30,380 --> 01:03:35,260 And the big things that we are hearing from the community in terms of, oh, good grief. 887 01:03:35,260 --> 01:03:36,200 Okay. 888 01:03:37,140 --> 01:03:39,620 Is assistance transporting the debris? 889 01:03:40,340 --> 01:03:46,780 So we have the solid waste vouchers, but those require you to transport it either to a dropbox or to the transfer station directly. 890 01:03:47,560 --> 01:03:53,280 So we're working now with some nonprofits to see if it is possible for us to assist with the transport, 891 01:03:53,480 --> 01:03:58,120 have trucks go around with volunteers who can upload stuff because not everyone has access to a truck. 892 01:03:59,380 --> 01:04:06,240 There were a lot of folks living in RVs in the floodplains that were severely impacted. 893 01:04:08,200 --> 01:04:16,680 And so there's a lot of RVs that are going to be suffering from mold that will not be 894 01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:19,280 healthy homes for people to continue in habit. 895 01:04:19,540 --> 01:04:27,180 So finding ways to connect people with resources to replace those RVs or travel trailers that 896 01:04:27,180 --> 01:04:28,460 are their primary residences. 897 01:04:29,840 --> 01:04:33,860 The uncertainty of federal reimbursement, it had some impacts during the response. 898 01:04:34,220 --> 01:04:35,220 There was a lot of back and forth. 899 01:04:35,420 --> 01:04:41,260 We had to – any resource that we were getting from the state had to be for immediate life 900 01:04:41,260 --> 01:04:47,540 safety rather than instant stabilization, which created some delays that we'll look 901 01:04:47,540 --> 01:04:49,080 at in the after-action review. 902 01:04:49,580 --> 01:04:51,080 Things like getting light, our flights. 903 01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:59,280 There was lots of landslides happening around Darrington, and, you know, we wanted to get 904 01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:03,380 flights up there to confirm that none of those landslides were impacting populations. 905 01:05:04,140 --> 01:05:08,980 And that was just an ongoing conversation of, is this life safety or is this incident 906 01:05:08,980 --> 01:05:12,920 stabilization just based off of where we were concerned the land was sliding? 907 01:05:14,360 --> 01:05:20,960 Things like that, I think if we had more confidence that federal reimbursement would 908 01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:25,000 would have come in, then those conversations would have gone more smoothly, it would have 909 01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:25,340 been less. 910 01:05:28,160 --> 01:05:32,240 We would have been able to make those calls without feeling immediate impacts 911 01:05:32,240 --> 01:05:38,660 on budgets, because both the counties budget and the states budget are, as you know, constrained 912 01:05:38,660 --> 01:05:45,400 at the moment. Recovery, roads and trails are the biggest area that is going to require 913 01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:49,400 ongoing investment. This here is the White Horse Trail. This washout is one of the 914 01:05:49,400 --> 01:05:53,480 places where the White Horse Trail does serve as a flood control structure, and I believe 915 01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:54,880 it washed out in a number of places. 916 01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:56,880 So the section is closed right now. 917 01:05:57,780 --> 01:06:05,140 It will require some significant engineering to repair that, and so if we don't get the 918 01:06:05,140 --> 01:06:07,200 federal reimbursement, it will likely just stay closed. 919 01:06:08,580 --> 01:06:12,800 And then, like I said, we are conducting an after-action review like we do every time 920 01:06:12,800 --> 01:06:18,820 there's an incident to find out what we can do better in the future and to look 921 01:06:18,820 --> 01:06:20,760 at what we did well, and build on it. 922 01:06:23,840 --> 01:06:24,360 That's all I've got. 923 01:06:24,680 --> 01:06:25,020 All right. 924 01:06:25,280 --> 01:06:26,340 Well, thank you for the presentation. 925 01:06:26,500 --> 01:06:27,240 Sorry for rushing. 926 01:06:27,440 --> 01:06:29,440 You're trying to squeeze two presentations in one day, 927 01:06:29,540 --> 01:06:30,360 and I will not do that again. 928 01:06:30,760 --> 01:06:32,700 Do we have any burning questions from council members? 929 01:06:32,780 --> 01:06:33,260 Council member Dunn? 930 01:06:33,560 --> 01:06:35,100 I just want to give a quick shout out 931 01:06:35,100 --> 01:06:35,780 to the 932 01:06:38,820 --> 01:06:43,400 animal boarding at the fairgrounds 933 01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:45,760 and appreciated all the updates to council 934 01:06:45,760 --> 01:06:47,300 during the 935 01:06:50,500 --> 01:06:50,820 patients. 936 01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:54,060 And so just really appreciated all the current updates. 937 01:06:54,440 --> 01:06:54,560 So thanks. 938 01:06:55,420 --> 01:06:55,940 Council member Neary? 939 01:06:55,940 --> 01:06:57,360 Yeah, just piggybacking on that. 940 01:06:57,600 --> 01:06:58,500 Thank you to... 941 01:07:01,730 --> 01:07:02,070 I agree. 942 01:07:02,330 --> 01:07:05,570 It was heartening to hear all the community members who stepped up and were willing to 943 01:07:05,570 --> 01:07:09,310 lead donation efforts and do what they could to help, so I appreciate all that. 944 01:07:13,450 --> 01:07:18,270 There looks like there might be future volunteer or needs for volunteers for debris cleanup 945 01:07:18,270 --> 01:07:18,770 and all that. 946 01:07:18,990 --> 01:07:23,410 I am going to an event this weekend with some high school football team that's trying 947 01:07:23,410 --> 01:07:26,430 to do some help clean up Instant Home-ish, and so I know that, and they've reached 948 01:07:26,430 --> 01:07:29,370 out to me specifically to say, where can we send all this energy? 949 01:07:29,530 --> 01:07:31,150 There's a lot of students that want to help. 950 01:07:31,150 --> 01:07:38,770 So where would you recommend it? Is there a contact form on the DM website that volunteers can sign up or something? 951 01:07:39,150 --> 01:07:45,610 Yeah. So right now most of the ongoing recovering needs is being coordinated through the Salvation Army. 952 01:07:45,850 --> 01:07:49,210 They have a disaster case management contract through the state. 953 01:07:50,890 --> 01:08:00,790 So I think the best bet for having conversations with their local community, finding out if there are people who need help clearing the debris off their lawns, 954 01:08:00,790 --> 01:08:09,530 I think keeping it local is best for the kind of county-wide cleanup we're hoping to 955 01:08:09,530 --> 01:08:13,790 partner with the Washington Conservation Corps there so we know that they've gone through 956 01:08:13,790 --> 01:08:14,840 training on safety. 957 01:08:16,130 --> 01:08:17,950 That's more like official and coordinated. 958 01:08:18,570 --> 01:08:18,710 Yeah. 959 01:08:18,950 --> 01:08:19,210 Got it. 960 01:08:19,550 --> 01:08:19,810 All right. 961 01:08:20,130 --> 01:08:20,250 Thank you. 962 01:08:20,890 --> 01:08:21,630 Any final questions? 963 01:08:21,890 --> 01:08:22,270 Anyone online? 964 01:08:23,470 --> 01:08:23,930 Okay. 965 01:08:24,470 --> 01:08:25,250 Seeing none, thank you. 966 01:08:25,390 --> 01:08:26,230 Thank you for the presentation. 967 01:08:26,790 --> 01:08:27,010 All right. 968 01:08:27,090 --> 01:08:29,310 And with that council we'll be adjourned for the day. 969 01:08:29,310 --> 01:08:29,390 Okay. 970 01:08:29,710 --> 01:08:30,010 Okay.