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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFFCOC Special Meeting Summary 20260218 FINAL P a g e 1 | 5 http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us Conservation Futures Fund Citizen Oversight Committee (CFFCOC) Special Meeting: Hybrid between Jefferson County Public Health, Pacific Room and Online via Zoom February 18, 2026 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM Final Meeting Summary as approved on 03/31/2026 * Decisions and action items are indicated in bold font. Members Present: Tom Backman, District 3; Carol Bernthal, Vice Chair, District 1; Laurie de Koch, District 3; Rob Harbour, Interest – Working Lands; Cheryl Lowe, Interest – Habitat Values; Joanne Pontrello, District 2 (via Zoom, departed at 4:36 PM ); Ron Rempel, Chair, Interest – Wildlife Conservation Biology; Robert Simmons, Interest – Watersheds; Esther Trueblood, Interest – Small Farms and Forests; Dave Wilkinson, District 1 Members Absent: Tom Ehrlichman, District 2; E. Ryan McMackin, Interest – Wetlands County Staff Present: Tressa Linquist, Clerk; Tami Pokorny, Natural Resources Program Coordinator (via Zoom) I. Call to Order, Roll Call, and Determination of Quorum Vice Chair Carol Bernthal called the meeting to order at 4:01 PM. Roll call was performed. New member Esther Trueblood was welcomed and members introduced themselves. A quorum was present. II. Agenda Today’s agenda was approved unanimously. III. Public Comments IV. Minutes of Previous Meetings Presented for approval were: • October 14, 2025 draft meeting summary, as presented November 18 (approval of this summary was delayed on November 18 by a motion to revise from Tom Ehrlichman) • Memorandum/motion to revise October 14 summary, submitted by Tom Ehrlichman P a g e 2 | 5 • November 18, 2025 draft meeting summary Ron moved to approve the October summary as presented. Tom Backman seconded. It was noted that there was an error in the title listed for Rob Harbour in the October 14 summary (Rob is erroneously noted as Vice Chair). Considering this correction, the motion to approve passed unanimously. *Tressa to make the correction prior to releasing approved version. Joanne moved to accept Tom Ehrlichman’s memo to amend the October 14 summary. Rob seconded. Discussion followed. It was noted that the CFFCOC meeting summaries are sometimes more narrative in form than action-item-oriented and that *the group should define what type of summary they want to have as a record. A transcript of every meeting is also generated and kept on record. The motion was restated and the vote was called: Aye (1), Opposed (5), Abstain (3) (Note: Carol did not vote). The motion failed. Ron moved to accept the November 18 meeting summary as written. Joanne seconded. There was no discussion. The motion passed unanimously. V. Old Business • Certified Parliamentarian’s statement of opinion RE: Election for Chair on 10/14/25 Over the past several months, multiple CFFCOC members expressed concerns to staff that Robert’s Rules of Order and/or the CFFCOC bylaws were not properly followed during officer elections held in October and November 2025. Some of these concerns conflicted with one another. To provide clarity and guidance, the opinion of a certified parliamentarian was sought on the matter. After reviewing relevant meeting materials – including video recordings, meeting summaries, agendas, and program bylaws – the parliamentarian determined that the initial election held on October 14 was valid under both the bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order, and that a second election in November was neither necessary nor valid. The parliamentarian concluded that Ron Rempel is the duly elected Chair as of October 14, 2025, and Carol Bernthal is the duly elected Vice Chair. Ron moved to accept and adopt the parliamentarian’s opinion, as prepared by Kevin Connelly and dated February 11, 2026. Discussion followed. The motion was restated and put to a vote. Eight (8) members voted in favor, and one (1) voted against. Carol did not vote. The motion passed. Joanne Pontrello departed the meeting. Quorum was maintained. With acceptance and adoption of the opinion, Ron Rempel is now committee Chair. Carol turned control of the meeting over to Ron. • Program vision retreat proposal Carol moved to 1) conduct a retreat in Spring of 2026 to identify ways to improve the operation and a long-term vision for the program, reflecting the input and priorities of committee members and Jefferson County support staff, 2) to form a Retreat Planning Sub- P a g e 3 | 5 Committee to prioritize topics for the retreat, 3) for the Retreat Planning Sub-Committee to report its findings to the CFFCOC for discussion and decision at the March 31 meeting, and 4) to request resources be allocated by the county for this purpose and to hire a facilitator. Rob seconded. It was noted that planning and executing this retreat would be a lot of work, and all members need to be committed to the workload. Any planning effort should reflect the goals and policies of the county comprehensive plan, which would need member review. The motion passed unanimously. *Chair Ron Rempel asked for volunteers to the Sub-Committee – Carol, Rob, and Esther volunteered and were so appointed. There is room for one more member. VI. Sub-committee Reports • Storymap Sub-Committee The Storymap Sub-Committee (Rob Harbour, Cheryl Lowe and Tom Backman, with staff assistance) displayed a first draft website. This project is ongoing. • Materials Sub-Committee The Materials Sub-Committee (Carol Bernthal, Dave Wilkinson and Ron Rempel, with staff support) has space for one more member. Since the last meeting, Carol, Ron, and Tressa presented the suggested materials changes to BoCC for approval. The BoCC meeting was very positive. The Sub-Committee met one time to begin brainstorming for focus areas moving forward, but they purposefully didn’t land on any certain path as the input of the whole committee is paramount to that decision. They are gathering data on the history of the program, the evolution of the score sheet questions and scoring over time, and how the goals of the program have shifted over time, as reflected by the application questions and the scoring criteria. They are looking into statistics around deviation in answers – do members answer differently because of different view points, or because they understand the purpose of the question differently? Consensus and group think are not the goal; clarity in the purpose of each question is. They discussed how the program might benefit from being more proactive (having goals/a plan, seeking out certain landscapes or types of projects) vs more reactive (being prepared to properly assess any project, taking what comes in). All great items for the upcoming retreat. *The Sub-Committee can do some work upfront to prepare for the retreat, if needed, but feel they should pick up work after the retreat, if desired by the full committee. Carol will serve as a helpful liaison between the two Sub-Committees. VII. New Business • 2025 Annual and Five-Year Project Reports Tami explained the annual report process. Tressa let the group know there were three mislabeled reports sent out called “Annual” that should be called “O&M only” – QWC additions (2015 and 2016) and Snow Creek. Additionally, The Lower Big Quilcene report is a 5-year update. Tami gave the 5-year update for the Irondale Park project: Parks dept does not have P a g e 4 | 5 the budget to manage the vegetation issues. It was estimated to cost ~$18,000 to manage the Himalayan blackberries, tidy up and replace plantings, and keep up with all of this for three years. A few members agreed to go with Tami to view and assess the Irondale project. Tami invited the committee to submit any additional questions they may have for the sponsors in relation to these reports, and to check out the properties from the road if they are interested. The group expressed that the current report template does not provide much useful information, and that the reports read as if there are absolutely no issues anywhere. That that must not be correct. It would be helpful to learn more details about the current stewardship situation on the lands. What issues ARE they being challenged with? The idea is not to penalize but to understand the quality of stewardship over time. How are sponsors measuring success? Are the objectives being met, as stated in the project applications? Were those stated objectives ecological? It was noted that filling out these reports might be cumbersome for the sponsors. Form should be simple but substantive. Would be nice to have sponsors come in to do presentations like they have in the past. Historically, the CFFCOC has passed a motion to accept the annual reports as submitted, however, this is not required. In light of the discussion and poor quality of information provided, no such motion was proposed. • 2026 cycle launch resolution and amendment The BoCC resolution that launched the 2026 CFF funding cycle and announced the amount of available funding needs to be amended – the amount of available funding was updated after a budget reconciliation was performed. The updated amount available for projects in 2026 is $420,000, with $42,817 of that amount available for O&M requests. Separately, staff has a request for legal clarification out to PAO on the nuances of calculating the portion of the fund that should go to O&M, as there is seemingly conflicting language in the RCW and JCC about how that figure is calculated. *Staff will update the committee on calculating O&M funding when PAO responds. • Call for Agenda Items form and process for submitting future agenda items There is a new form for submitting ideas for agenda items. The blank form will be sent to the CFFCOC well in advance of any meeting. Completed forms will be due 14 days before the meeting date. After incorporation of these submissions, a draft agenda will be sent out ~10 days before the meeting for committee review. Committee members will have two days to submit any reasonable comments on the draft agenda. The goal is to have more input into the meeting agenda and to have the materials sent out at least 7 days in advance of any meeting. VIII. Discussion of Next Meeting Date and Agenda The next meeting will be project site visits, scheduled for March 10, 2026, rain or shine. Please plan to carpool. Each site visit will last ~1 hour. P a g e 5 | 5 Pre-applications are due February 27. Site visit schedule will be determined at that time and agenda for the day will be sent out asap. IX. Announcements X. Public Comments XI. Adjournment Chair Ron Rempel adjourned the meeting at 5:54 PM. Action Items: ❖ Tressa to correct October 14, 2025 draft summary to remove “Vice Chair” from Rob Harbour’s title (completed 02/26/2026) ❖ The Retreat Planning Sub-committee will be Carol, Rob, Esther ❖ The Materials Sub-Committee can do some work upfront to prepare for the retreat, if needed ❖ Staff will update the committee on calculating O&M funding when PAO responds to the inquiry Meeting summary prepared by Tressa Linquist