These notes were taken by an Okanogan County Watch volunteer. Every attempt is made to be accurate. Notes are verbatim when possible, and otherwise summarized or paraphrased.
Note takers comments or clarifications are in italics. These notes are not the official county record of the meeting. For officially approved minutes, which are normally published at a later time, CLICK HERE.
The time stamps refer to the times on the AV Capture archive of the meeting on this date at the County livestream archive. To locate items in real time, the clock on the wall in the AV Capture screen can be helpful.
11.21.22 AM - BOCC
Meeting Highlights:
Commissioners Hover and Branch discuss the reintroduction of grizzly bears into the North Cascades. Commissioner Hover wonders if there are enough large game animals for the bears to survive.
Shelley Keitzman, HR and Risk Management, updates the commissioners on the premium hikes for medical and dental insurance beginning in 2023. The county will pay the increases itself.
SK also discusses the changes in the threshold salary for exempt workers. Commissioner Hover would like to reclassify all the exempt employees into hourly employees and gather data on how much overtime they are working. Then they will able to see how increases in the threshold in the future will affect the county’s payroll budget.
Pete Palmer, Planning Director and Naomie Peasley, Fairgrounds Manager give brief updates.
Tim McNamee and Tim Love of the DNR update the commissioners about last summer’s fires. The county had 56 fires that burned only 386 acres.
Commissioners recess at 11:00 because Commissioner Hover has to attend the Canvas Board meeting. He asks Commissioner Branch to attend a virtual meeting with the FBI at 12:00, arranged by the Washington State Association of Counties. The open meeting was cancelled and instead, due to its sensitive nature, only county commission and town council chairs or their designates are to attend.