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.
12.02.2024 Mon AM/PM BOCC
Meeting Highlights:
The commissioners hear routine updates from Nick Bates, Fairgrounds Manager, Mike Worden, Count Dispatch Center, Maurice Goodall, Emergency Management, and Tim Meadows, Maintenance Supervisor.
Pete Palmer, Planning Director, and the commissioners talk about preparations for tonight’s hearing about the zone code changes. Comments will be limited to three minutes and attendees will not be allowed to donate their time to others.
The commissioners adopt two new sections to the Okanogan County Code. They then discuss potential changes in the zone code to change violations from misdemeanors to civil infractions. Commissioner Hover and former commissioner Sheilah (Kennedy) Delfeld engage in a dialogue about this topic. Commissioner Branch emphasizes the importance of countering mis- and disinformation.
Commissioners discuss again how they will run the hearing. They won’t answer questions posed by people commenting, and they’ll wait until all the comments are heard before discussing it among themselves. They all feel former Commissioner DeTro ran hearings very well.
Commissioners, Esther Milner, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor, and Shelley Keitzman, Human Resources and Risk Management, discuss creating an in-house group for Public Defenders instead of contracting out. They decide to adopt a Public Defender District modeled after similar districts in Douglas and other counties. They also decide to move forward with updating communications technology in the court rooms.
Meeting recesses at 2:41. Commissioners will meet again at 5:00 PM at the Agriplex for the zone code change hearing.