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Welcome to County Connection, the official podcast of the Washington
State Association of Counties, where we dive into the legislative issues
shaping the future of our communities from budgets to public safety,
infrastructure to elections.
We'll break down what's happening in Olympia and how it impacts counties
from across the evergreen state.
Stay informed, stay engaged and join us as we amplify the voice of
Washington's 39 counties.
Welcome back, everybody, to the first episode of the County Connection
podcast. I'm Paul Jewell, the government relations director with the
Washington State Association of Counties, and I've got a new guest here
in the studio, Kelsey Hulse.
Kelsey is a new member of our policy team.
She's handling land use and GMA stuff for us this year.
She's going to be working on natural resource issues, salmon recovery,
economic development and cannabis.
Thanks for coming by, Kelsey. It's good to see you.
Good to see you, too. Thanks so much for the invite.
Well, why don't you since you're new and we have a lot of new members and
certainly this is a brand new podcast, why don't you introduce yourself a
little bit to the folks who might be listening out there?
Happy to. Thanks so much.
So I'm the founder of Propolis Communications.
I started that company this year, have been doing contract lobbying for a
handful of years now, but prior to that, worked in government relations,
variety of different functions for Puget Sound Energy, did local government
relations there, moved over and did some state lobbying for them and then
finished my time there as their tribal relations manager.
Let's see, prior to that, I worked in communications, marketing, business
development, started with public works engineers, actually.
So I have great affinity for the public sector and the public works world.
So really excited to do that.
Do you speak engineer?
A little bit. A little bit.
A little bit. Yeah, enough to be dangerous, but I'm not fluent.
Sounds good. So the name Propolis Communications, there has to be a
meaning behind that.
So propolis is bee glue.
So it's the substance that bees use in a hive to glue things together,
to stick things together.
So I see my role as finding gaps in communication, gaps in information and
filling it with durable messaging that will withstand the test of time.
So that's a meaningful name.
I like it.
And I like bees.
I had no idea that propolis was the sticky stuff that bees used to, what
did you say, to stick stuff together in their hives?
Interesting.
I wondered what the buzz was all about with those hives, and I guess I
know now. Perfect.
Well, what we're trying to talk to people about in this first episode,
Kelsey, is just kind of giving folks an idea of what to expect this session.
Here we are.
We're on day four.
Yesterday was day three.
We started recording these.
So it's really just the first week.
I don't know about you, but it's been a really busy first week for me already.
There's a ton being introduced in the legislature.
There's a lot of talk about what to expect in different areas.
There's a big budget crisis going on.
There's a big housing crisis going on.
There's all kinds of other things that all of us are kind of looking forward to.
I'm curious to know, you know, kind of in your areas of expertise,
the areas that you're going to be working in with Wasack, what are you expecting?
I think there are two big elements to this year's session that everyone
needs to keep in mind because it will influence everything that happens throughout.
The first of those is certainly the budget crisis that you mentioned.
So that will have an effect on the way that the budget itself plays out,
our biennial budget development process plays out.
But in addition to that, we've heard lots of conversation from legislators
about either not wanting to introduce or see bills that have significant
fiscal impact and or the odds of success of bills that have significant fiscal impact.
So it's going to play out on both the budget side of the house
and the policy side of the house in a variety of different ways.
The other thing that I would flag as a
a theme and something that's just going to permeate the entire session
will be the changing of the guard, changing of leadership
at the executive level and then across state agencies.
We are just at the beginning of that process, which seems strange to say
because we've been talking about it for a really long time.
But we I think now have every member of the legislature seated.
But there was a lot of churn there as the well, no, we don't want in the Senate, right?
Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah.
But as the governor was choosing his new agency directors,
you know, he drew on folks from the legislature who had significant expertise.
So we saw some movement there, continuing to see those management teams be built out
both in the governor's office and elsewhere.
So as that continues, one, it just brings a whole lot of new people
who've never done this or operated exactly in this way before into the conversation.
But also just that churn can add a little bit of extra chaos, confusion,
draws out timelines sometimes because things aren't as neat and tidy as they might otherwise be.
Now, when you when you were talking about the budget crisis
and you said bills with a fiscal impact, what you mean, correct me if I'm wrong,
is if a bill, if your bill, if your idea costs money, it's going to be an uphill battle this year.
Well, and we should be specific if your bill costs the state money.
Oh, now that's always the key, isn't it?
That's an important nuance.
Who's got to pay for it, right?
If the fiscal impact, if the cost falls on private sector, other government types,
like special districts, counties or something.
Counties, for example. For example.
Yeah, let's just use counties as an example.
I mean, why not? Yeah, why not?
Then I think there is more appetite for that and or we'll see things shift in that direction
because there will be a real hesitation to do anything that is going to exacerbate
the problem that they're dealing with at the state level.
Interesting. And now you also mentioned leadership changes being kind of pivotal.
And I think, you know, when we think about leadership changes and the fact that,
you know, we just got a new governor sworn in yesterday,
you know, the Inslee administration was just ushered out of the building,
you know, after 12 years of being in office.
I think it's inarguable, inarguable, excuse me, that that the Inslee administration
left behind a pretty significant housing crisis that really has just continued
to get worse year after year after year.
But what we heard yesterday from the new leadership from Governor Ferguson
in his opening remarks and then in one of his first executive orders was a big emphasis on,
you know, really turning the tide on that, you know,
moving the needle on housing in a couple of different ways.
How do you think that's going to affect the policy areas that you work in?
What we've already started to see is a lot of bills being introduced in the planning land use space.
There's a real appetite to do everything possible to make it easier to build residential homes
and more specifically to build either low or moderate income residential,
I guess I should say residences, not just homes, multifamily, you know, whatever it might look like.
But there will be a real appetite for that and to remove any anything that is seen as a barrier
to that type of development is going to be under scrutiny and under a little bit of fire this year.
So we've seen a lot of emphasis on that in recent years, too, right?
I mean, we've worked in that sector, you and I have both worked in that sector recently,
really within the last four or five years.
Every year there's been an emphasis on that and there's been a lot of money put into that.
What's going to be different now?
I think a big shift in tone is exactly what you just talked about,
the governor and his perspective on what needs to be done.
I think the two different priorities that he highlighted, one being housing and two being making government work faster.
I think the interplay of those two priorities is going to be interesting.
He really emphasized the speed of permitting, didn't he?
He really did.
I think that was a big surprise.
That was a big surprise for me.
Were you surprised by that?
Somewhat, yeah.
Yeah. That's the first time I'd really heard someone at that leadership level really talking about the speed at which government works,
really emphasizing the need and the cost associated with not getting permitting out on time
and how that kind of spilled over into this bigger issue of housing affordability and accessibility.
It seems like there's a lot more emphasis instead of on maybe services and supports for families who can't afford housing.
It seemed like there is a lot more emphasis or maybe there's going to be a lot more emphasis on, you know what, just get it built.
I think the housing first model has been sort of gaining traction over the years.
So it seems to me that there is a feeling that that is maybe a first solution or the beginning of a solution
to a very complex and interwoven set of problems that some folks may be facing.
But I think that's the one that feels like something that legislators can wrap their heads around and really dig in and do something about.
And so I think we're going to see a whole lot of different proposals to attack that from every different angle.
And we've already started to see the beginning of that.
Well, it'll be interesting to see if they can make a difference and really get things moving.
Let's switch gears a little bit because you're handling way more than just land use and GMA stuff for us.
You're also really working in the broad area of natural resources, which includes salmon recovery.
There's been a lot of emphasis on salmon recovery the last couple of years.
Always an interest in Washington state on natural resource issues.
What do you think the big topics of conversation are going to be this year?
I think the whether you call it a trend or a through line or a just sort of principle of Washington state,
but the the protection of salmon is going to continue to be something that we're going to hear a lot about, I think, in particular,
when you've got Orca, for instance, in the news and showing up on sort of the front page, that just draws more attention and more emphasis there.
So we've seen a handful of bills introduced already around creating either different funding or setting aside funding or or allowing different entities
access to funding to help either restore habitat or improve water quality in ways that would be meaningful to salmon specifically.
OK, so what other areas are you working in?
You're also working in economic development and cannabis policy.
Anything new there to talk about?
From an economic development standpoint, we have the bill that ran today around agribusiness, agritourism businesses.
So that was probably the most interesting economic development bill that we've seen so far on the cannabis side of things.
Not a lot that's going to affect counties.
But one interesting change is just moving where and how cannabis is regulated at the state level and moving it over to the Department of Agriculture,
which would be a pretty significant shift as to how likely that is this session.
I'm not I don't feel like I've got clarity there yet, but certainly more to come.
Yeah, I don't think that's the first time we've seen that bill.
I think they may have introduced that before.
It'd be interesting to see if that gets any traction.
OK, well, that's all great information.
Obviously, you know, right now we're just kind of talking about what we think is going to happen.
You know, we're not in control of what bills get dropped and there's always a few surprises out there.
So hold on to your hats, right?
This is going to be a long ride.
And the issues that you're dealing with tend to get really, really busy this time of year.
We're going to ask you to come back a few times, you know, probably throughout the next couple of months and chat with us and give our members an update.
We hope you're willing to join us again.
It's been great seeing you.
Yeah, great. I'd love to.
What before we get before we leave, you know, what what's the one thing you're looking forward to this session?
Thing I'm most interested in.
Yeah, right now there doesn't seem to be alignment between legislative leadership and the governor in terms of the way to attack the budget problem.
Really curious to see how that plays out.
Well, it's going to be a big challenge.
And the governor, of course, is the same party as the majority party in the legislature.
Right. So they are aligned.
I mean, presumably ideologically.
So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.
I think you're right, though. There there's some early indications that they may not be quite on the same page.
So it'll be interesting to see how things go moving forward.
Well, thanks again, Kelsey. It's great to have you.
Welcome to the team. Thank you so much.
We're lucky to have you. We're excited to have you.
And we'll talk to you again soon. OK, sounds great.
All right. Thank you.
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