the way you're feeling may dictate which pair of glasses
you put on.
Yeah, I might be feeling more emo
and I'm wearing really all black
and so I put on the black glasses,
maybe a little more colorful like today.
Got the green dress on, got the green glasses on.
Yeah.
Maybe a little more,
What did you say?
The mood ring of the face.
Mood ring, it's my facial mood ring.
I didn't even know a facial mood ring was a thing.
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.
All right, welcome back everybody to,
I think this is still our second episode
of the County Connection podcast.
I'm back in the studio here at the WSAC office
in Olympia.
My name's Paul Jewell,
I'm the government relations director
for the Washington State Association of Counties.
And today I have a surprise guest,
not one of our normal guests,
but somebody that we're really happy to have
here in the studio.
And that is Jane Wall,
the executive director of the County Road Administration
Board.
Welcome Jane, thanks for coming by.
Yeah, thanks for asking me.
This is exciting.
Yeah, it's great to see you again.
So for those of you who are maybe newer listeners
or newer members of WSAC, you may not remember,
but Jane used to be one of our policy staff members here
at the association.
In fact, you and I started at exactly the same time.
That's right.
I think you were one day before me.
So you always had that.
You always had that little claim.
Kind of like twins who can say that,
I was born 10 minutes before you,
so I'm older, right?
That's right.
I think I am older in this one,
but we're not gonna share that with our listeners.
Well, thanks for stopping by.
I know you had a meeting today
and we're just kind of grabbing you out of that
for a few minutes to have a quick chat.
You are the executive director
of the County Road Administration Board,
and I know a lot of folks know what that is,
but we also have quite a few new members this year.
Why don't you quickly explain
what the County Road Administration Board is
and what you do?
Yeah, great question.
So the County Road Administration Board is a state agency,
and what's really special about us is that WSAC
plays a really key component and part in our agency
in that you appoint our board.
We are made up of six county commissioners
or council members and three county engineers
from small, medium, and large size counties.
And why I say that's unique is that many boards
and commissions that exist in Washington
have a component where an association would appoint
or nominate an individual from their association
to be on that board,
but then ultimately it's the governor,
it's the secretary of transportation or whatnot
that actually are the signing authority,
the appointing authority,
where WSAC is the sole appointing authority to our board.
We were established back in 1965,
first and foremost as a regulatory agency
of county road departments.
We oversee compliance and accountability
of your road departments.
And the reason we came about was to oversee
the distribution of the motor vehicle fuel tax
to ensure that the 18th Amendment protections
that the gas tax enjoys,
that those revenues were being spent in appropriate places
on road purposes.
Over time, we have grown to incorporate
several grant programs.
And that's probably, if you're in the county world,
how you know us most is that CRAB money,
the Rural Arterial Program
and the County Arterial Preservation Program
are our primary grant programs.
We also have a ferry program for our four ferry counties
and then an emergency loan program.
We also provide professional and technical expertise.
We have civil engineers on our staff
and all of those engineers have actually worked
in the county world at one time or another.
And then we provide advocacy and support
of our county road departments,
but our counties overall with policymakers,
the legislature and the executive branch.
Wow, that's a lot.
It's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot for a state agency.
And I love, one of the things that we like most about CRAB,
well, of course we love the grant programs.
We had Axel in here, I think an episode or two ago,
and we went over the RAP program
and the, what's the other one?
RAP and-
The County Arterial Preservation, CAP.
CAP, that's right.
So we went over both of those in some of the details.
He did a great job explaining that.
But obviously the technical assistance,
the fact that we as an association have full authority
to appoint the board I think is really important too.
When you think about a state agency that's pretty unique
compared to other state agencies.
You mentioned 18th Amendment protection.
That's something that we haven't actually talked about here
on the podcast.
And I know what you're referring to,
but let's make sure that everyone else who's listening
knows what you're referring to.
Do you wanna just explain that really quickly?
Absolutely.
So in Washington State, the gas tax
has a constitutional provision wrapped around it
that specifies how and where those dollars can be spent.
Which means the gas tax can only be spent
for what are known as road purposes.
Those are in quotes.
Our Supreme Court has ruled what road purposes are.
And so for example,
that's not in your public health department.
That's not in your public defender's office.
It's primarily in the road department.
And then there are some special uses
around your sheriff's office where they can be spent.
Okay.
And then you also mentioned that as an agency, CRAB,
or the County Road Administration Board,
affectionately known of course as CRAB,
also does some oversight and some technical assistance.
You've got some engineers on staff that work with counties.
But what's the oversight piece that you're talking about?
Yeah, so as I referenced earlier,
the reason we came about was to oversee that distribution
of the motor vehicle fuel tax
to ensure that those dollars were being spent correctly.
Every year counties must report their road log
to the County Road Administration Board,
which is how many miles of road you have.
And that data point goes into a rather complex calculation
on how road revenues are distributed
among the counties fairly and equitably.
In addition to those accounting or performance requirements,
we also ask for other reports
around your six-year road plan,
around your transportation budget.
We wanna make sure you have a part-time
or full-time county engineer or civil engineer on staff,
things of that nature that are listed out in statute
that your county road department needs to be abiding by.
And we're that agency that's ensuring
that that's taking place.
So these are requirements that we're already supposed to
be abiding by, like you said.
They're things that counties are supposed to be doing,
and you're kind of the oversight for that.
That's correct, yes.
Okay, so you, as I mentioned at the beginning
of the podcast, you used to be staff here at WSAC,
and then you joined as the executive director
of the County Road Administration Board,
or they hired you, I guess is probably the right word.
Boy, I can't even remember.
Was that three or four years ago now?
Almost four, so before in June.
So that was kind of a big transition, right?
You went from working for a nonprofit
to working for a state agency.
What are some of the things that surprised you
that you can share with us?
Obviously, there's probably a few stories
that maybe you can't, but what are the things
that maybe surprised you about making that transition?
Yeah, great question.
So I had worked for state government once in the past,
so I was going back, and there are some of the rules
and the bureaucracy that exist within state government
that I could do without, and I miss the association world
in many respects because of that.
Well, we miss you too, Jan.
But we're glad that you're at CRAB too.
Thank you, and I really do miss from the association world
working with the members, and I am lucky enough
in the respect that CRAB is closely associated with WSAC,
and I think that that's a special relationship we share.
And so just about the time of year
when I'm starting to feel really downtrodden
and like we're just not making any sort of gains
or we're just not getting progress,
then I get to go to the Association of County Engineers
annual conference, or I get to go
to the county leaders conference,
and I'm reminded of the work of what we do
and why it's important and it's special.
And so I feel good about being at a state agency
that is representing my county partners and family
and making sure that we're at the table
and your voices are being heard.
Well, and just hanging out with county engineers
from time to time, that's a fun group.
It is, I mean, they're a lot funnier than you'd think.
They're pretty analytical, but.
I don't know if that's true.
I don't know if I can believe you on that one.
We'll have to see.
I've met a lot of county engineers
and some of them are pretty funny.
There's some pretty good dad jokes through our holes.
Oh, oh boy, you should hang out around here every now and again,
even ones that I don't find funny,
and I find most of them funny.
What are you guys working on?
What's important this year?
What do you want our members to know about what CRAB is doing?
So CRAB has come forward with our most ambitious
legislative agenda, and I would argue in decades.
Granted, I haven't been at CRAB for decades,
but I think it's fair to say in that because we are asking
to establish a new grant program at our agency
that would fund what are known as local roads.
Now, you're probably going to ask me, what are local roads?
Well, actually, I'm not because we went into this
in great detail with Axel because the new ones deal
with the arterial roads, which remain thoroughfares.
Local roads actually make up the majority of the other roads
that counties have, and there really isn't a grant program
to help support those.
That is right.
That's right.
And so we undertook a study over the interim.
We hired Burke and Associates, and they
did a real scrubbing of our current grant programs.
We wanted to make sure that they were
meeting the needs of today.
Those programs were created, our grant programs,
in the mid-'80s and early-'90s and haven't changed much.
What we found is those programs really
are meeting the needs of our customers,
and that's a good thing.
But what came out of the report, the big recommendation,
was we have this other glaring hole that's not being addressed,
and that's local roads.
OK.
OK, so that's kind of the main thing
that you're working on legislatively.
Do you have anything else that's out there?
Well, I'll say just going back to the local road component
is we have a big budget request associated with that,
and then we also have two bills, companion bills.
We've got House Bill 1098 that is sitting,
waiting for executive session, and so working
with members of the House to try to get that out of there,
of transportation.
And then just-
What does that bill do?
It will establish the local road program.
OK, so that establishes the grant program itself.
That's correct.
And its companion was dropped just yesterday.
I don't know when this will air, but Senator Leas, Chairman
Leas is the sponsor of that, and it's Senate Bill 5544,
and hoping for a public hearing in the next week.
OK, so that's the companion to 1098.
That's correct, yes.
So if our members who are listening to this now
wanted to jump in and help, they could certainly
email the House Transportation Chair, Representative Fai,
and ask him to move House Bill 1098.
And if they are interested in helping on the Senate side,
look for a hearing that might come up,
put some comments into that hearing,
and after that's done, also ask for that one
to be moved out of the committee and to executive session.
Yeah, and I would pay attention to Axel Swanson's reports,
and he's following these closely,
and he can keep people apprised.
OK, great.
Well, how's everything else?
Things are great.
I live here in Olympia.
I got two kids that are just growing like weeds.
I've got a kindergartner and a third grader,
and they're having a blast this year.
Things are good.
Well, the weather's been amazing.
It's been incredible.
For January.
Yeah, I think we've had almost no rain.
Bluebird over here, for those of you
living in central and eastern Washington,
we have your winter weather right now.
But apparently, the rain is returning.
Oh, it'll return.
It always does here in Olympia.
Well, thanks for stopping by, Jane.
We really appreciate it.
It's great seeing you.
Welcome back to the WSAC office, at least temporarily today.
And I hear that we are in Eric Johnson's former office,
and I may have seen his ghost just pass by.
So that's the second time someone, poor Eric and his ghost,
you know he's still with us, right?
I do know, yes.
Eric, if you're out there, I'm sorry.
I don't know what it is.
It's just he's such a presence.
His presence is still around all of us,
and we wish him the best as well.
Absolutely.
Well, Jane, like I said, thanks for coming by.
Your debut performance on our new podcast here at WSAC.
Hopefully, we'll be able to catch you another time,
and maybe we'll get some updates.
Yeah, I would love it, definitely.
We'll take care till then.
Thanks.
Yeah, thanks.
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