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No one was injured during this podcast.

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Just so that yet.

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Yet.

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Welcome to County Connection, the official podcast of the Washington

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State Association of Counties, where we dive into the legislative issues

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shaping the future of our communities from budgets to public safety,

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infrastructure to elections.

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We'll break down what's happening in Olympia and how it impacts counties

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from across the evergreen state.

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Stay informed, stay engaged and join us as we amplify the voice of

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Washington's 39 counties.

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Welcome back, everybody, to the first episode of the County Connection

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podcast. I'm Paul Jewell, the government relations director with the

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Washington State Association of Counties, and I've got a new guest here

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in the studio, Kelsey Hulse.

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Kelsey is a new member of our policy team.

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She's handling land use and GMA stuff for us this year.

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She's going to be working on natural resource issues, salmon recovery,

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economic development and cannabis.

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Thanks for coming by, Kelsey. It's good to see you.

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Good to see you, too. Thanks so much for the invite.

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Well, why don't you since you're new and we have a lot of new members and

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certainly this is a brand new podcast, why don't you introduce yourself a

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little bit to the folks who might be listening out there?

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Happy to. Thanks so much.

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So I'm the founder of Propolis Communications.

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I started that company this year, have been doing contract lobbying for a

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handful of years now, but prior to that, worked in government relations,

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variety of different functions for Puget Sound Energy, did local government

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relations there, moved over and did some state lobbying for them and then

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finished my time there as their tribal relations manager.

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Let's see, prior to that, I worked in communications, marketing, business

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development, started with public works engineers, actually.

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So I have great affinity for the public sector and the public works world.

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So really excited to do that.

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Do you speak engineer?

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A little bit. A little bit.

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A little bit. Yeah, enough to be dangerous, but I'm not fluent.

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Sounds good. So the name Propolis Communications, there has to be a

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meaning behind that.

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So propolis is bee glue.

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So it's the substance that bees use in a hive to glue things together,

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to stick things together.

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So I see my role as finding gaps in communication, gaps in information and

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filling it with durable messaging that will withstand the test of time.

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So that's a meaningful name.

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I like it.

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And I like bees.

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I had no idea that propolis was the sticky stuff that bees used to, what

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did you say, to stick stuff together in their hives?

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Interesting.

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I wondered what the buzz was all about with those hives, and I guess I

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know now. Perfect.

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Well, what we're trying to talk to people about in this first episode,

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Kelsey, is just kind of giving folks an idea of what to expect this session.

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Here we are.

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We're on day four.

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Yesterday was day three.

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We started recording these.

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So it's really just the first week.

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I don't know about you, but it's been a really busy first week for me already.

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There's a ton being introduced in the legislature.

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There's a lot of talk about what to expect in different areas.

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There's a big budget crisis going on.

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There's a big housing crisis going on.

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There's all kinds of other things that all of us are kind of looking forward to.

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I'm curious to know, you know, kind of in your areas of expertise,

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the areas that you're going to be working in with Wasack, what are you expecting?

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I think there are two big elements to this year's session that everyone

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needs to keep in mind because it will influence everything that happens throughout.

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The first of those is certainly the budget crisis that you mentioned.

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So that will have an effect on the way that the budget itself plays out,

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our biennial budget development process plays out.

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But in addition to that, we've heard lots of conversation from legislators

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about either not wanting to introduce or see bills that have significant

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fiscal impact and or the odds of success of bills that have significant fiscal impact.

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So it's going to play out on both the budget side of the house

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and the policy side of the house in a variety of different ways.

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The other thing that I would flag as a

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a theme and something that's just going to permeate the entire session

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will be the changing of the guard, changing of leadership

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at the executive level and then across state agencies.

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We are just at the beginning of that process, which seems strange to say

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because we've been talking about it for a really long time.

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But we I think now have every member of the legislature seated.

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But there was a lot of churn there as the well, no, we don't want in the Senate, right?

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Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah.

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But as the governor was choosing his new agency directors,

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you know, he drew on folks from the legislature who had significant expertise.

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So we saw some movement there, continuing to see those management teams be built out

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both in the governor's office and elsewhere.

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So as that continues, one, it just brings a whole lot of new people

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who've never done this or operated exactly in this way before into the conversation.

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But also just that churn can add a little bit of extra chaos, confusion,

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draws out timelines sometimes because things aren't as neat and tidy as they might otherwise be.

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Now, when you when you were talking about the budget crisis

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and you said bills with a fiscal impact, what you mean, correct me if I'm wrong,

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is if a bill, if your bill, if your idea costs money, it's going to be an uphill battle this year.

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Well, and we should be specific if your bill costs the state money.

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Oh, now that's always the key, isn't it?

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That's an important nuance.

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Who's got to pay for it, right?

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If the fiscal impact, if the cost falls on private sector, other government types,

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like special districts, counties or something.

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Counties, for example. For example.

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Yeah, let's just use counties as an example.

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I mean, why not? Yeah, why not?

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Then I think there is more appetite for that and or we'll see things shift in that direction

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because there will be a real hesitation to do anything that is going to exacerbate

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the problem that they're dealing with at the state level.

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Interesting. And now you also mentioned leadership changes being kind of pivotal.

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And I think, you know, when we think about leadership changes and the fact that,

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you know, we just got a new governor sworn in yesterday,

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you know, the Inslee administration was just ushered out of the building,

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you know, after 12 years of being in office.

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I think it's inarguable, inarguable, excuse me, that that the Inslee administration

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left behind a pretty significant housing crisis that really has just continued

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to get worse year after year after year.

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But what we heard yesterday from the new leadership from Governor Ferguson

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in his opening remarks and then in one of his first executive orders was a big emphasis on,

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you know, really turning the tide on that, you know,

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moving the needle on housing in a couple of different ways.

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How do you think that's going to affect the policy areas that you work in?

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What we've already started to see is a lot of bills being introduced in the planning land use space.

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There's a real appetite to do everything possible to make it easier to build residential homes

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and more specifically to build either low or moderate income residential,

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I guess I should say residences, not just homes, multifamily, you know, whatever it might look like.

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But there will be a real appetite for that and to remove any anything that is seen as a barrier

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to that type of development is going to be under scrutiny and under a little bit of fire this year.

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So we've seen a lot of emphasis on that in recent years, too, right?

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I mean, we've worked in that sector, you and I have both worked in that sector recently,

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really within the last four or five years.

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Every year there's been an emphasis on that and there's been a lot of money put into that.

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What's going to be different now?

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I think a big shift in tone is exactly what you just talked about,

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the governor and his perspective on what needs to be done.

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I think the two different priorities that he highlighted, one being housing and two being making government work faster.

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I think the interplay of those two priorities is going to be interesting.

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He really emphasized the speed of permitting, didn't he?

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He really did.

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I think that was a big surprise.

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That was a big surprise for me.

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Were you surprised by that?

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Somewhat, yeah.

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Yeah. That's the first time I'd really heard someone at that leadership level really talking about the speed at which government works,

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really emphasizing the need and the cost associated with not getting permitting out on time

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and how that kind of spilled over into this bigger issue of housing affordability and accessibility.

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It seems like there's a lot more emphasis instead of on maybe services and supports for families who can't afford housing.

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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.

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I think the housing first model has been sort of gaining traction over the years.

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So it seems to me that there is a feeling that that is maybe a first solution or the beginning of a solution

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to a very complex and interwoven set of problems that some folks may be facing.

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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.

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And so I think we're going to see a whole lot of different proposals to attack that from every different angle.

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And we've already started to see the beginning of that.

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Well, it'll be interesting to see if they can make a difference and really get things moving.

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Let's switch gears a little bit because you're handling way more than just land use and GMA stuff for us.

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You're also really working in the broad area of natural resources, which includes salmon recovery.

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There's been a lot of emphasis on salmon recovery the last couple of years.

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Always an interest in Washington state on natural resource issues.

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What do you think the big topics of conversation are going to be this year?

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I think the whether you call it a trend or a through line or a just sort of principle of Washington state,

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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,

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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.

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So we've seen a handful of bills introduced already around creating either different funding or setting aside funding or or allowing different entities

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access to funding to help either restore habitat or improve water quality in ways that would be meaningful to salmon specifically.

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OK, so what other areas are you working in?

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You're also working in economic development and cannabis policy.

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Anything new there to talk about?

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From an economic development standpoint, we have the bill that ran today around agribusiness, agritourism businesses.

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So that was probably the most interesting economic development bill that we've seen so far on the cannabis side of things.

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Not a lot that's going to affect counties.

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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,

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which would be a pretty significant shift as to how likely that is this session.

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I'm not I don't feel like I've got clarity there yet, but certainly more to come.

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Yeah, I don't think that's the first time we've seen that bill.

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I think they may have introduced that before.

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It'd be interesting to see if that gets any traction.

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OK, well, that's all great information.

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Obviously, you know, right now we're just kind of talking about what we think is going to happen.

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You know, we're not in control of what bills get dropped and there's always a few surprises out there.

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So hold on to your hats, right?

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This is going to be a long ride.

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And the issues that you're dealing with tend to get really, really busy this time of year.

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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.

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We hope you're willing to join us again.

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It's been great seeing you.

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Yeah, great. I'd love to.

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What before we get before we leave, you know, what what's the one thing you're looking forward to this session?

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Thing I'm most interested in.

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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.

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Really curious to see how that plays out.

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Well, it's going to be a big challenge.

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And the governor, of course, is the same party as the majority party in the legislature.

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Right. So they are aligned.

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I mean, presumably ideologically.

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So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

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I think you're right, though. There there's some early indications that they may not be quite on the same page.

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So it'll be interesting to see how things go moving forward.

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Well, thanks again, Kelsey. It's great to have you.

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Welcome to the team. Thank you so much.

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We're lucky to have you. We're excited to have you.

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And we'll talk to you again soon. OK, sounds great.

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All right. Thank you.

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Thanks for tuning in to County Connection.

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