WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 Well, it was almost embarrassing. I mean, I felt 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:05.759 bad for these other groups. Yeah, but you weren't 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.400 embarrassed, were you? No. No. No, I was happy 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.179 to see their anguished rage. As we twisted them 00:00:12.179 --> 00:00:14.820 into... And the gnashing of teeth. People were 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:17.519 just like... The wailing. Oh, it was... You couldn't... 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.059 I mean, I was like, turn it up. Oh, yeah. Turn 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:24.370 the volume up. I want to hear it. Welcome to 00:00:24.370 --> 00:00:26.589 County Connection, the official podcast of the 00:00:26.589 --> 00:00:28.890 Washington State Association of Counties, where 00:00:28.890 --> 00:00:31.129 we dive into the legislative issues shaping the 00:00:31.129 --> 00:00:33.549 future of our communities. From budgets to public 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:36.469 safety, infrastructure to elections, we'll break 00:00:36.469 --> 00:00:39.329 down what's happening in Olympia and how it impacts 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:41.950 counties from across the Evergreen State. Stay 00:00:41.950 --> 00:00:44.890 informed, stay engaged, and join us as we amplify 00:00:44.890 --> 00:00:54.039 the voice of Washington's 39 counties. official 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:56.159 podcast of the Washington State Association of 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:58.960 Counties. And like I like to say, the number 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.960 one podcast on county issues in Washington State. 00:01:02.179 --> 00:01:04.680 Have no idea if that's true. Undisputed champion. 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:06.819 But we're claiming it. Undisputed champion. Thank 00:01:06.819 --> 00:01:08.859 you. Thank you. I'm Paul Jewell, the government 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:10.900 relations director of the Washington State Association 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:14.420 of Counties and your host. And in case you didn't 00:01:14.420 --> 00:01:16.739 recognize that voice you heard just a moment 00:01:16.739 --> 00:01:22.989 ago. Sultry tones. I don't know about that. A 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:24.810 soothing cadence. I don't know. I think some 00:01:24.810 --> 00:01:27.310 people might describe it that way. Others might 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:30.730 say nails on a chalkboard. They hear that voice, 00:01:30.810 --> 00:01:33.209 they just tune out. Hopefully you don't do that 00:01:33.209 --> 00:01:35.829 on this podcast. No, tune in. Tune in. Stay tuned. 00:01:36.069 --> 00:01:38.150 Yeah. Broadbanks, how are you? I'm good, Paul. 00:01:38.290 --> 00:01:40.129 How are you? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Happy 00:01:40.129 --> 00:01:42.569 cutoff. Happy cutoff indeed. Yeah. What was that? 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:45.209 Two days ago now? It was. It feels like it was 00:01:45.209 --> 00:01:49.280 only moments ago. And it needed to happen. I 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.060 mean, it was building. It was building and building. 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:54.780 Every session it needs to happen. It does. Yeah, 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:58.599 it does. But it felt good. Yeah. Well, you had 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:00.659 especially good reason to feel good. But before 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:04.959 we get into that, let's kind of dive in. Just 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:08.439 to remind folks, you work on human services issues 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:11.280 for us and law and justice, public safety issues 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:13.879 for us. And you have for the last couple of years. 00:02:13.979 --> 00:02:17.360 Yeah. Great part of the team. Always fun to have 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:20.080 on the podcast. This year you've been working 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.419 on a couple – well, at least one priority, right? 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:25.120 And that's jail medical costs. That's right. 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:26.860 And funding for that. Tell us how that's going. 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.139 Yeah, it's going – well, it's going. I mean, 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.300 you know, it's one of those things where – A 00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:35.479 number of our members brought this issue to us 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:39.479 saying, hey, in our counties, we're trying to 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:43.180 operate our jails. We've got contractors, in 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:46.180 many instances, doing this work to provide jail 00:02:46.180 --> 00:02:48.000 medical costs, and it's just getting really, 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.699 really expensive. And the more we dug into why 00:02:50.699 --> 00:02:52.620 it was getting more and more expensive, it really 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:57.780 was, at its core, a liability issue. It was really 00:02:57.780 --> 00:03:01.349 difficult to try to get. a local community provider, 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:05.370 which is really the ideal choice to provide jail 00:03:05.370 --> 00:03:07.150 medical services because they couldn't get the 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:08.889 liability insurance they need to operate in that 00:03:08.889 --> 00:03:12.409 space. And so many counties are left with contracting 00:03:12.409 --> 00:03:15.669 with a very expensive out -of -state firm to 00:03:15.669 --> 00:03:17.909 do the work. And it's not to say they don't provide 00:03:17.909 --> 00:03:21.050 good care, but it's definitely care at a cost, 00:03:21.169 --> 00:03:23.990 right? Why would an out -of -state firm be able 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:27.710 to come in and provide services to one of our 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:30.689 county's Whereas, I mean, I can see maybe how 00:03:30.689 --> 00:03:33.250 a small local provider couldn't because of the 00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:35.310 liability cost. But aren't there other larger 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:37.229 providers in state that could do something like 00:03:37.229 --> 00:03:39.129 that? There are. And it's a question we've, you 00:03:39.129 --> 00:03:41.409 know, I agree. And, you know, really and honestly, 00:03:41.550 --> 00:03:42.810 as we've been having this conversation, we've 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.750 considered groups like the hospitals, right, 00:03:45.830 --> 00:03:47.590 who we know, you know, I mean, and the liability. 00:03:47.590 --> 00:03:49.889 We had liability conversations with them. And 00:03:49.889 --> 00:03:53.490 I was like, man, is it really riskier to provide? 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.360 medical services in a jail than to provide medical 00:03:56.360 --> 00:03:59.979 services in an active emergency room or an intensive 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:02.680 care unit or any of these other things. So, yeah. 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:07.039 What was their answer? Nothing. Sort of like, 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.039 yeah, I don't know. Maybe we'd have to see the 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:11.240 numbers. And I feel like that's that's I've gotten 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:12.919 that answer more than once. It's sort of like, 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:14.759 well, we need to look at the numbers. Let's and 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:16.500 the state, I think, as we've been talking to 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:18.579 some of our state partners and our agency partners, 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.160 for example, the Office of Insurance Commissioner, 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:22.639 they're sort of like, yeah, we don't have any 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.220 data from the counties in terms of, you know, 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:27.480 kind of what their liability exposure is or what's 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:30.480 driving their liability exposure. So if we're 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:31.680 going to help you with that, we're going to need 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:33.319 to start to see some of that, right? We're going 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:35.139 to have to see what that landscape looks like, 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:36.560 and then we can maybe start to determine where 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:40.240 some of the problems are. So a lot of this, I 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:41.939 think, has been kind of a learning curve to try 00:04:41.939 --> 00:04:45.040 to figure out, okay, what is driving? We think 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.279 we know what's driving the problem, right? We 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.879 have a tort environment in our state that lends 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:53.759 itself to really large payouts, potentially, 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:56.279 which both the state and locals have been suffering 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.939 from for some time. And so there's certainly 00:04:58.939 --> 00:05:01.319 that. piece of it. But, you know, for example, 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:03.439 another quandary that we've had is behavioral 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:06.019 health services seem to be offered pretty easily 00:05:06.019 --> 00:05:10.060 in our jails by providers, many, almost all of 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:12.019 them by local providers in some form or another. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.740 And they don't seem to be running into the same 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:17.459 issue. The same liability issue. The same liability 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:20.139 issue. Yeah. So it's, there's some complexities 00:05:20.139 --> 00:05:22.250 here that I think we're still trying to... kind 00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:23.970 of figure out on the fly as we're trying to have 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:25.550 these conversations with legislators around, 00:05:25.709 --> 00:05:28.430 hey, this is something we do on your behalf. 00:05:29.589 --> 00:05:33.189 It's really hurting us financially because we're 00:05:33.189 --> 00:05:36.569 left to really very few vendors that are willing 00:05:36.569 --> 00:05:39.629 to do this and their costs are very high. So 00:05:39.629 --> 00:05:42.610 this liability issue, the cost of liability potentially 00:05:42.610 --> 00:05:44.889 or even the availability of liability insurance 00:05:44.889 --> 00:05:48.629 for some of the providers and maybe even apathy 00:05:48.629 --> 00:05:51.519 on the... part of other providers who could potentially 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:55.339 be players in this has led to really a competition 00:05:55.339 --> 00:05:59.259 issue. Yeah, I mean, essentially there's basically 00:05:59.259 --> 00:06:04.660 one provider that many counties use under different 00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:07.680 names as they operate in the state. And yeah, 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:10.240 I mean, it's very much a... If you're one provider, 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:11.660 you can kind of – You've got a monopoly, right? 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:12.980 Yeah, I mean you can charge what you've got to 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:14.920 charge. Yeah, and I will say even they – I mean 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:16.879 to your earlier point, it's not that they're 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:19.000 unaware of the liability risk either. They have 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:25.100 been very clear that they are continually reevaluating 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:27.120 whether or not doing business in Washington State 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.910 is good for them despite – I'm sure, making some 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:33.269 good money, but the risk is there, right? And 00:06:33.269 --> 00:06:37.329 I suppose they use that as a springboard for 00:06:37.329 --> 00:06:41.470 higher costs. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, and I 00:06:41.470 --> 00:06:43.350 think the other piece, you know, we talk about 00:06:43.350 --> 00:06:44.930 this in terms of cost a lot, but I really do 00:06:44.930 --> 00:06:46.810 think there's a care component here, too, that 00:06:46.810 --> 00:06:49.329 counties are really interested in in terms of, 00:06:49.350 --> 00:06:52.689 you know, a local entity that's able to coordinate 00:06:52.689 --> 00:06:55.569 care with an individual, you know, before, while 00:06:55.569 --> 00:06:57.329 they're in jail, as they're getting ready to 00:06:57.329 --> 00:06:59.930 be released from jail and post -release. is really 00:06:59.930 --> 00:07:02.370 a much better model in terms of not only providing 00:07:02.370 --> 00:07:04.689 care for that individual, but ensuring that they 00:07:04.689 --> 00:07:07.829 potentially don't get back into scenarios that 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:09.790 might bring them right back into the jail environment, 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:12.050 especially if we're dealing with substance abuse 00:07:12.050 --> 00:07:17.100 issues or something along those lines. And, you 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:19.040 know, a lot of these folks have a lot of co -occurring 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.980 disorders, right, or co -occurring incidents, 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.639 whether they have health issues, mental health 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:26.279 issues, substance abuse issues. There could be 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:28.779 a variety of, right, a mix. And so really some 00:07:28.779 --> 00:07:33.149 of these folks are probably pretty complex. By 00:07:33.149 --> 00:07:36.009 having a local connection for them, both during 00:07:36.009 --> 00:07:38.550 their time while they're in jail, but after they're 00:07:38.550 --> 00:07:42.110 released, to be able to maintain that level of 00:07:42.110 --> 00:07:44.589 care, I think really is important. Again, not 00:07:44.589 --> 00:07:46.170 just for the individual, but for counties to 00:07:46.170 --> 00:07:47.889 not have to hopefully see that individual again 00:07:47.889 --> 00:07:49.529 back in their criminal justice system. Yeah, 00:07:49.529 --> 00:07:51.449 that's kind of that continuity of care piece, 00:07:51.930 --> 00:07:54.110 right? It's also that warm handoff they talk 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:56.569 about. Rather than just, okay, you're incarcerated. 00:07:57.389 --> 00:08:00.129 Okay, you're not. Boom, here's your clothes and 00:08:00.129 --> 00:08:03.009 everything you had when you walked in. And, you 00:08:03.009 --> 00:08:05.230 know, the bus stops that way. That's right. Good 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:08.709 luck. Well, you know, you keep your same provider. 00:08:08.870 --> 00:08:10.689 Here's your contact information for maybe somebody 00:08:10.689 --> 00:08:13.269 who is helping you with your mental health. You're 00:08:13.269 --> 00:08:14.889 somebody who is, you know, working with you on 00:08:14.889 --> 00:08:17.290 your personal physical health. Right. I mean, 00:08:17.329 --> 00:08:18.850 you think about it. Right. I mean, you know, 00:08:18.889 --> 00:08:22.509 prison is a place, you know, it's a place to, 00:08:22.610 --> 00:08:24.709 you know, quote unquote, serve your time. Right. 00:08:25.009 --> 00:08:28.310 Or jail place to do that. But also, I think. 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:31.060 fundamentally as a system, we believe it's also 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:33.200 an opportunity for rehabilitation, right? And 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.860 a big part of that can be your physical rehabilitation 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:39.120 as well, right? And, you know, when you're dealing 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:41.600 with a lot of these other substance abuse or 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:43.659 mental health issues, you know, the ability to 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:48.940 keep that individual healthy and, you know, in 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.379 control as they... reenter society right that 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:54.860 really should be the goal right um and to give 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:56.820 them every opportunity to not find themselves 00:08:56.820 --> 00:08:59.360 in a bad scenario especially if those were majoring 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.379 major contributing factors exactly which the 00:09:02.379 --> 00:09:05.100 vast majority probably are frankly um so yeah 00:09:05.850 --> 00:09:07.830 So we're working on it. We're hopeful to get 00:09:07.830 --> 00:09:10.870 some movement this session to kind of help us 00:09:10.870 --> 00:09:12.850 focus this effort over the interim, I think, 00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:14.889 to try to bring back some proposals. So what's 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:17.370 that going to take the form of, do you think? 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:19.289 Well, I think probably a budget proviso. That's 00:09:19.289 --> 00:09:21.250 what we've been pursuing, policy direction. We're 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:23.529 trying to do something that's cost neutral as 00:09:23.529 --> 00:09:26.769 best we can, recognizing the state's fiscal scenario, 00:09:27.049 --> 00:09:32.360 but trying to direct cities, counties. Office 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:34.620 of Insurance Commissioner, I think we just had 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:36.860 a good conversation with the director of the 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:40.480 health care authority about this at our roundtable 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:43.399 meeting. And he was more than interested in having 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:44.820 the conversation and seeing if they could be 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:46.980 helpful in the role that they play with insurance 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:49.220 providers and others. So, yeah, I think trying 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:50.740 to bring stakeholders together so that we can 00:09:50.740 --> 00:09:53.500 work on something to bring back to the legislature 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:57.299 in the form of whether that's... a proposal for 00:09:57.299 --> 00:10:00.019 sort of a state -backed liability pool or just 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:03.480 something to try to help counties get this really 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:07.919 unwieldy cost under control. So it's interesting 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:11.259 that you mentioned Proviso because we just heard 00:10:11.259 --> 00:10:13.799 we're supposed to be seeing budgets come out 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:17.740 on Sunday. Thursday. Which is weird, right? Yeah, 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:19.480 it's a little weird. Do you remember the last 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:21.519 time they came out on Sunday? I don't. I was 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:23.340 like, maybe I just don't pay attention enough 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:25.559 that they always come out on Sunday. Or maybe 00:10:25.559 --> 00:10:28.179 we block it mentally. Right, right. But I'm like, 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:29.059 I don't think so. Because you know what that 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:31.179 means, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll be working 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:33.299 on Sunday. I know what it means, yeah. But yeah, 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:36.220 I don't think that's... That's not norm. I don't 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:36.879 think that's norm. I don't remember the last 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:38.500 time they did that. Yeah, I've seen them come 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:40.919 out on Saturday. Yes. I've seen that happen, 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:42.820 but I can't remember the last time they came 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:45.500 out on a Sunday. That's the 22nd. Today we're 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:47.039 at the 19th, so it's Thursday. So it's really 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:49.120 only a couple of days away when we'll be able 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.259 to tell if you've made the progress that you 00:10:51.259 --> 00:10:52.980 hope to make because we'll see it in the budget. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.100 We'll see it in there. Yeah. I mean, minimally, 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:57.059 even if it's not, right? I mean, I think we'll 00:10:57.059 --> 00:11:00.990 still try to get that corrected. Yeah. But, yeah, 00:11:01.049 --> 00:11:03.309 I mean, that's that's the goal. And I think the 00:11:03.309 --> 00:11:04.710 other conversation I know you've been working 00:11:04.710 --> 00:11:08.330 a lot on tort reform this session with a number 00:11:08.330 --> 00:11:10.250 of legislators. Obviously, Senator Dhingra seems 00:11:10.250 --> 00:11:12.980 to be kind of out in front on that. This is a 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:15.559 part of that conversation as well. I don't think 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.960 any one piece of this is the single solution. 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.340 Right. But I think it's sort of kind of lack 00:11:21.340 --> 00:11:23.879 of better co -occurring efforts. Right. To try 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:26.639 to to try to find a way to get at this. But it 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.440 is a it's a hard issue. And I don't know that 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:30.659 anything like I said, I don't think any one solution 00:11:30.659 --> 00:11:33.039 is going to fix it. It's going to probably take 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:35.179 a variety of things, both at the state and local 00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:38.320 level to make it work. Yeah. Well, Brad, budget 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:41.159 provisos are not subject to cut off. They are 00:11:41.159 --> 00:12:07.070 the old. Yeah. Sure. some significant occurrence 00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:08.909 at the cutoff within the last couple of days. 00:12:08.929 --> 00:12:11.830 Well, sure. I guess we could, with that friendly 00:12:11.830 --> 00:12:16.970 teaser. Yeah, so in particular, Travis Dutton 00:12:16.970 --> 00:12:20.090 and myself have been working very closely on 00:12:20.090 --> 00:12:23.870 House Bill 2389, which had to do with juvenile 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:26.970 rehabilitation, both in terms of kind of what's 00:12:26.970 --> 00:12:31.730 happening at DCYF, but also the Department of 00:12:31.730 --> 00:12:33.990 Children, Youth, and Families. Perfect. Nicely 00:12:33.990 --> 00:12:37.659 done. Can't break the rules here. Here too far 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:41.659 known as DCYF on the podcast. Yeah. So, yeah, 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.279 working with our partners over there and some 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:45.980 of their concerns that have been raised over 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:48.200 the last couple sessions. But there was also 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:50.860 an effort in this bill to do a lot of big things 00:12:50.860 --> 00:12:55.120 in terms of revising the current youth sentencing 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:00.470 grid, a lot of work around kind of. moving kids, 00:13:00.629 --> 00:13:03.549 moving youth kind of out of the state system 00:13:03.549 --> 00:13:05.590 and into the community system and kind of what 00:13:05.590 --> 00:13:08.309 that looks like, what services are available 00:13:08.309 --> 00:13:10.509 either in probation or outside of probation, 00:13:10.970 --> 00:13:13.289 you know, electronic home monitoring. I mean, 00:13:13.309 --> 00:13:15.009 there was a whole bunch of factors included in 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:17.730 this bill. And we had, I think, a number of concerns, 00:13:17.750 --> 00:13:20.230 both on the policy side and the fiscal side. 00:13:20.830 --> 00:13:23.149 And speaking of one of those being liability, 00:13:23.429 --> 00:13:26.350 right, as we were just chatting about. Feels 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:29.230 like every other discussion. Exactly. It touches 00:13:29.230 --> 00:13:31.929 everything at this point. But yeah, so this bill 00:13:31.929 --> 00:13:35.370 is something we had worked really – we had been 00:13:35.370 --> 00:13:37.909 disappointed that after this bill failed last 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:41.179 session because it's a second go around. that 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:43.820 there was no real stakeholdering process, no 00:13:43.820 --> 00:13:47.799 real engagement in any meaningful way with either 00:13:47.799 --> 00:13:51.220 us at the county level or with many of our partners 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:54.240 in this space. And that includes the prosecuting 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.200 attorneys, the superior court judges, our juvenile 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.279 court administrators, our sheriffs and police 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:00.759 chiefs. I mean, the list kind of goes on and 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:03.720 on. And so there really was a lot of folks saying, 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:05.980 hey, this is just not the way you try to make 00:14:05.980 --> 00:14:09.139 a massive system change in a kind of, you know, 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.559 echo. chamber and not talk to the people who 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:12.919 are actually doing the work let's just dwell 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:14.620 on that point for a minute because i think it's 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:17.399 a really interesting one and we've seen a lot 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:20.179 of bills especially this year which is strange 00:14:20.179 --> 00:14:23.000 given that it's a short session right i mean 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.159 there's always a few ambitious yeah there's a 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:27.259 few ambitious bills out there that are that are 00:14:27.259 --> 00:14:29.039 introduced during a short session but oftentimes 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:32.200 it's because they're either statement bills or 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:35.100 they're just for next year just kind of starting 00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:37.580 to just starting to wet the appetite so to speak 00:14:37.580 --> 00:14:39.899 or maybe raise the temperature on an issue, whatever 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:42.440 analogy you want to use. But they're not really 00:14:42.440 --> 00:14:45.039 there to actually get worked hard and pass because 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:49.179 there's such little time in a session, a 60 -day 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:51.259 session, the second half of the biennium. But 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:53.799 here we have a proposal that we've seen before. 00:14:54.039 --> 00:14:55.860 That's right. Right? And we had a whole year 00:14:55.860 --> 00:14:57.960 between last session and this session, well, 00:14:58.059 --> 00:14:59.940 not a whole year, but, you know, 10 months. Plenty 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:02.059 of time. Nine months, whatever it may be, to 00:15:02.059 --> 00:15:03.799 have some really meaningful discussions about 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.620 this, and there were none. None. And really not 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:09.990 even an hour. But then we have other issues, 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:13.529 Brad. I know. You know, where... They never want 00:15:13.529 --> 00:15:16.370 to stop talking about it. Yeah. I mean, we've 00:15:16.370 --> 00:15:19.470 been talking about it with stakeholders for years. 00:15:19.769 --> 00:15:22.990 And we're slowly making progress on it, et cetera. 00:15:23.070 --> 00:15:25.190 And it takes two, three, four years sometimes 00:15:25.190 --> 00:15:27.809 to get those really big complex bills through. 00:15:27.889 --> 00:15:30.350 But at least there's been a lot of work and the 00:15:30.350 --> 00:15:33.009 bill changes over time. And usually people come 00:15:33.009 --> 00:15:36.450 together on it. Here it feels like there hasn't 00:15:36.450 --> 00:15:38.649 been any acknowledgement of that whatsoever. 00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:41.610 Certainly not of our concerns, which we clearly 00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:43.899 expressed. us last year that's right now this 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:46.539 version of the bill is better but it's a little 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:49.580 bit but still doesn't have our fingerprints on 00:15:49.580 --> 00:15:52.139 not at all and and no like you said nothing and 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:54.320 and i think the part that was most striking to 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.139 me paul about the about all of it was it was 00:15:58.139 --> 00:16:00.139 then made you know pretty quick into session 00:16:00.139 --> 00:16:03.860 we kept being told this is a you know caucus 00:16:03.860 --> 00:16:06.340 priority, right? This is a majority caucus priority. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:09.740 Again, how does that happen? That really is where 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:11.820 I think we started to dig in. With no stakeholders. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:13.600 Exactly. It's like, gosh, if you're going to 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.720 have, you know, if you're going to make this 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.259 one of your top three priorities, how do you 00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:20.220 not talk to anybody? And it's not like, oh, they 00:16:20.220 --> 00:16:21.759 just were blowing off the counties or something. 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:24.559 It was nobody. It was nobody in any meaningful 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:27.519 way. And can I be so bold? And this might sound 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:33.139 bold, but it's your job. To do this work. Yeah. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:35.720 In the interim on these issues. It took us a 00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:37.299 while to even figure out where the bill was, 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.360 who was working it. The idea. I mean, who was 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.320 writing it? Who was writing it? Right. The idea 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.379 that you can just introduce a complete system 00:16:44.379 --> 00:16:46.740 change without having talked to the other stakeholders. 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:50.220 Okay, you do that once, mistake, mea culpa, blah, 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:52.879 blah, blah. You do it twice? Yeah. You don't 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:54.740 care what those stakeholders. I mean, that's 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:57.360 the message to me is either you're lazy. Yeah. 00:16:57.679 --> 00:16:59.700 You don't care. Or you're not interested. Right. 00:16:59.779 --> 00:17:02.500 You're not interested in what the other stakeholders 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:06.900 want. Yeah. Or you just don't want to do your 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:09.859 job for whatever reason. But, I mean, am I wrong? 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:11.500 I don't think so. No, I mean, I think that's 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:13.480 why we were so. It's your job. It's why we were 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.039 so frustrated. You know, I really do think that's 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:20.309 what led us to. And I think there were efforts 00:17:20.309 --> 00:17:22.630 really at that last hour, and there's always 00:17:22.630 --> 00:17:25.349 drama around the 5 o 'clock bill, and what's 00:17:25.349 --> 00:17:26.849 the last bill that's going to get heard, and 00:17:26.849 --> 00:17:28.769 right before cutoff, et cetera. There's always 00:17:28.769 --> 00:17:30.529 drama. I'm pretty sure the Senate was melting 00:17:30.529 --> 00:17:31.589 down on other issues. I'm pretty sure there's 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:33.309 a betting line on what's going to happen. If 00:17:33.309 --> 00:17:34.890 there isn't, there should be. I mean, it's somewhere. 00:17:35.250 --> 00:17:37.109 I mean, so yeah, I mean, there's always that 00:17:37.109 --> 00:17:40.869 drama. But I think on this one. it was particular 00:17:40.869 --> 00:17:43.490 i mean some of the last minute like hey will 00:17:43.490 --> 00:17:46.309 you work you know could you agree to this could 00:17:46.309 --> 00:17:48.690 you gotta cut a deal here and i think our position 00:17:48.690 --> 00:17:53.150 really was if you'd have brought this to us Last 00:17:53.150 --> 00:17:56.289 May, two months ago, last November, maybe the 00:17:56.289 --> 00:17:59.150 start of maybe two weeks ago, frankly. I mean, 00:17:59.150 --> 00:18:01.990 literally, that's at any point. If you just reached 00:18:01.990 --> 00:18:04.089 out to us and said, hey, we've heard you testify 00:18:04.089 --> 00:18:07.250 four times. We've seen the letters and fact sheets 00:18:07.250 --> 00:18:09.210 that you've been sending up here. We know you've 00:18:09.210 --> 00:18:10.750 been having these conversations with individual 00:18:10.750 --> 00:18:13.450 legislators. And by the way, not just you, all 00:18:13.450 --> 00:18:16.589 the partners sending letters and testifying. 00:18:16.609 --> 00:18:18.309 Because it wasn't just us. It wasn't just us. 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:21.559 And so, you know. At some point that didn't dawn 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:23.980 on anybody to say, hey, we probably should pull 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:25.519 these folks into a room and have a conversation, 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:27.359 which I feel like, Paul, and I don't know if 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:29.680 you I feel like that used to be more common. 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:32.720 And honestly, you know, it's certainly what we 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:34.799 do. It's on our checklist. Let's take the tort, 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:37.400 the tort, the liability bill. Right. Listen, 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:39.940 that's a big bill. It did a lot of things. We 00:18:39.940 --> 00:18:42.259 knew it was going to be kind of bumpy right out 00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:44.539 of the gate. I give a lot of credit to Senator 00:18:44.539 --> 00:18:47.089 Dengra for saying. all right i'm going to drop 00:18:47.089 --> 00:18:48.670 this bill and you know what we're going to meet 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:52.470 on saturday a couple saturdays in a row for an 00:18:52.470 --> 00:18:54.069 hour right and we're going to bring a lot of 00:18:54.069 --> 00:18:56.549 people in the room we're just in between a lot 00:18:56.549 --> 00:18:58.230 of other little conversations that were happening 00:18:58.230 --> 00:18:59.990 sure you know among partners and groups yeah 00:18:59.990 --> 00:19:02.210 some here in the wassack building and some sometimes 00:19:02.210 --> 00:19:04.130 up we started talking about it four months ago 00:19:04.130 --> 00:19:06.569 exactly so i mean that to me felt like a much 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:08.849 more traditional kind of even though it was sort 00:19:08.849 --> 00:19:11.910 of a surprise bill in some ways in some ways 00:19:11.910 --> 00:19:14.490 it's it still had and especially in terms of 00:19:14.490 --> 00:19:17.119 what it what it was going to do, right, it still 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.839 had an element of a desire to do some stakeholder, 00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:21.980 right, and to be forthright and just sort of 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:23.799 say, hey, let's work this out. And, you know, 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:25.299 yeah, it's going to be a work in progress and 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:26.940 we'll go there. The other one I would bring up 00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:28.519 this session while we're ranting about this kind 00:19:28.519 --> 00:19:30.700 of thing was this ITA bill that popped up this 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:32.299 century, the Involuntary Treatment Act bill. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:35.519 It essentially was a complete rewrite of our 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.380 Involuntary Treatment Act, you know, system in 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:43.430 Washington state. We had been told in the interim 00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:44.930 that there was going to be some work on a bill 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:46.769 and they wanted to do some nibbling around the 00:19:46.769 --> 00:19:49.710 ITA and, you know, particularly law enforcement's 00:19:49.710 --> 00:19:51.990 response and a couple of little things. And then 00:19:51.990 --> 00:19:55.009 we see this bill that's 100 pages long get dropped, 00:19:55.049 --> 00:19:57.109 you know, late in January. And we're kind of 00:19:57.109 --> 00:19:59.430 going, great. You've got to be out of your mind. 00:19:59.829 --> 00:20:05.230 What is this? You know, but. And then while we 00:20:05.230 --> 00:20:06.769 tried to work to amend it, it managed to come 00:20:06.769 --> 00:20:08.869 out of committee even longer. Like it got 20 00:20:08.869 --> 00:20:11.210 more pages added onto it. And that was one that 00:20:11.210 --> 00:20:13.869 did die under its own weight pretty quickly where 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:15.170 it was sort of like, okay, we weren't ready for 00:20:15.170 --> 00:20:16.769 this in a short session. I think that may have 00:20:16.769 --> 00:20:19.890 been a mix of a teaser bill and a statement bill 00:20:19.890 --> 00:20:22.910 and a kind of shot across the ballot. Hey, we're 00:20:22.910 --> 00:20:24.710 going to be working on this. We'll take a go 00:20:24.710 --> 00:20:26.549 at it in a short session, see what kind of reaction 00:20:26.549 --> 00:20:28.809 we get. Throw out some ideas, see which ones 00:20:28.809 --> 00:20:31.529 stick, which ones attract a lot of controversy. 00:20:31.529 --> 00:20:32.750 Where do we know we're going to have to put some 00:20:32.750 --> 00:20:34.950 effort in? Yeah, then we got some buoys out there, 00:20:34.970 --> 00:20:36.990 right, that we can work with and navigate around 00:20:36.990 --> 00:20:40.410 as we, you know, do stakeholder. That's right. 00:20:40.650 --> 00:20:43.410 Right. That's right. So, you know, again, part 00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:45.069 of the problem. Yeah. So this was a this was 00:20:45.069 --> 00:20:47.529 a frustrating one to see. I think we would like 00:20:47.529 --> 00:20:49.549 to and I think we'll be trying to communicate 00:20:49.549 --> 00:20:52.029 to the legislature in these last few weeks of 00:20:52.029 --> 00:20:54.809 session that, you know, counties, counties see 00:20:54.809 --> 00:20:57.150 the juvenile rehabilitation system and our sentencing 00:20:57.150 --> 00:21:01.059 grid as a shared issue. and something that we 00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:03.799 want to work together with them on, and we would 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:08.400 like to put the first hand out and say, hey, 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:10.619 let's talk during the interim. We are committed 00:21:10.619 --> 00:21:13.420 to doing that. Let's have an open, stakeholder 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:15.339 process, and let's come back with something that 00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:18.009 the entire system can support. instead of trying 00:21:18.009 --> 00:21:20.950 to do this in a singular way. So you kind of 00:21:20.950 --> 00:21:23.890 just gave a spoiler because we didn't really 00:21:23.890 --> 00:21:25.589 talk about what happened with the bill. Oh, sorry. 00:21:25.630 --> 00:21:28.970 Oh, the bill died. The bill died. Yeah, you're 00:21:28.970 --> 00:21:32.269 right. We got carried away in our other pontificating. 00:21:32.269 --> 00:21:37.289 We did. Spoiler alert, 2389 didn't make cutoff. 00:21:37.390 --> 00:21:39.869 It didn't make cutoff. And it was dramatic. So 00:21:39.869 --> 00:21:41.549 let's talk about some of that drama because I 00:21:41.549 --> 00:21:43.470 think that's interesting to the listener. Sure. 00:21:43.670 --> 00:21:45.589 You know, they don't really hear that part of 00:21:45.589 --> 00:21:47.460 the legislative process. And it doesn't happen 00:21:47.460 --> 00:21:49.619 every day. It doesn't. No. And it's always a 00:21:49.619 --> 00:21:51.099 weird part of session, right? Because you never 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:52.980 are quite sure which bills are going to end up 00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:57.039 being those last minute bills that kind of boil 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.119 over at the last second. Well, and at the end, 00:21:59.180 --> 00:22:01.500 right, everything is focused on that clock. That's 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:04.200 right. At 5 p .m. You're watching what they're 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:06.920 sending out. The alarm goes off. And if they 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:09.609 haven't started talking about a bill. Everything 00:22:09.609 --> 00:22:11.430 else is dead. Well, and that's one of the tricks, 00:22:11.529 --> 00:22:13.569 right? That not everybody, everybody assumes 00:22:13.569 --> 00:22:15.829 like they have to have voted on it by five o 00:22:15.829 --> 00:22:18.250 'clock. No, they can just put it out on an order 00:22:18.250 --> 00:22:20.130 of consideration. Right. Meaning they're going 00:22:20.130 --> 00:22:21.950 to, they're going to have a debate on it. Right. 00:22:22.049 --> 00:22:24.289 In theory. And at least read the bill or something. 00:22:24.289 --> 00:22:25.890 And as long as they've read, yeah, like sort 00:22:25.890 --> 00:22:27.930 of read it in. Yeah, read it into the record. 00:22:27.930 --> 00:22:29.730 Then it's eligible. Right. You know, past that 00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:32.009 five o 'clock deadline. And I want to say this 00:22:32.009 --> 00:22:35.049 one came at like 4 .58. And there's always, there's 00:22:35.049 --> 00:22:37.130 always a. Five o 'clock bill, right? There's 00:22:37.130 --> 00:22:39.250 always a go home. They always choose one. Five 00:22:39.250 --> 00:22:41.369 o 'clock bill, and it's never an easy one, right? 00:22:41.509 --> 00:22:43.430 I mean, I've seen a few times where everyone 00:22:43.430 --> 00:22:45.150 actually got along. Right, or they were feel 00:22:45.150 --> 00:22:47.630 -good bills. Yeah, but most of the time, especially 00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:50.829 this part of the session, it's like, you know, 00:22:50.950 --> 00:22:52.990 you want to go home? You want to you want to 00:22:52.990 --> 00:22:54.470 quit and move on to the next part of the session? 00:22:54.589 --> 00:22:56.809 Well, you know, eat your vegetables. Right. Your 00:22:56.809 --> 00:22:58.869 pound of flesh has to come out first. Yeah. And 00:22:58.869 --> 00:23:00.890 it's usually the majority party's priority. That's 00:23:00.890 --> 00:23:02.769 right. And this is one of those. It was one of 00:23:02.769 --> 00:23:06.730 those. So what happened? So, you know, they it 00:23:06.730 --> 00:23:10.950 became pretty clear, I think, as as the clock 00:23:10.950 --> 00:23:15.230 was approaching that there weren't it wasn't 00:23:15.230 --> 00:23:17.170 clear that they're kind of doing old fashioned 00:23:17.170 --> 00:23:21.740 vote counting. Right. It wasn't clear that they 00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:24.220 had the votes, that there were enough members 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:26.240 in the caucus. The Republicans had locked up 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:28.220 on it. Right. So there was no movement on that 00:23:28.220 --> 00:23:30.680 side of the aisle. And so I think within the 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:32.660 D caucus, it just wasn't clear that they had 00:23:32.660 --> 00:23:36.059 the votes to to they couldn't lose more than 00:23:36.059 --> 00:23:39.119 10. Right. Well, I couldn't lose more than nine. 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:41.339 Yeah. Ten was the tripper. Ten was the tripper. 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:44.420 So, you know, they it was unclear. I don't know 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:46.599 how much vote counting they had done going into 00:23:46.599 --> 00:23:49.039 that. That started to happen pretty rapidly. 00:23:50.910 --> 00:23:53.470 You know, our experience, we came up to the Hill 00:23:53.470 --> 00:23:55.430 like we always do and start working. And we started 00:23:55.430 --> 00:23:58.289 getting approached by some of the folks in support 00:23:58.289 --> 00:24:00.769 of that bill, which was novel because it was 00:24:00.769 --> 00:24:03.329 the first time they had chosen to approach us. 00:24:03.430 --> 00:24:05.829 Ironically. All session was literally two hours 00:24:05.829 --> 00:24:08.190 before the deadline. And so, you know, I was 00:24:08.190 --> 00:24:11.190 pretty clear with them that. I wasn't in a position 00:24:11.190 --> 00:24:15.269 to negotiate at that point, right? Plus, the 00:24:15.269 --> 00:24:18.369 amendment deadlines had passed. I mean, there 00:24:18.369 --> 00:24:21.329 was nothing else that could have been done beyond 00:24:21.329 --> 00:24:23.730 what we were seeing at that moment. We only had 00:24:23.730 --> 00:24:27.029 one strategy left at that point. Right. And we 00:24:27.029 --> 00:24:29.650 talk about this all the time. We represent a 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:31.650 membership organization. And if we were going 00:24:31.650 --> 00:24:33.910 to change our position dramatically on a bill 00:24:33.910 --> 00:24:37.069 of that magnitude, that wouldn't be Brad making 00:24:37.069 --> 00:24:38.970 that decision on his own, right? Or Brad and 00:24:38.970 --> 00:24:41.799 Paul. I mean, it would be, you know, unless we 00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:44.140 were close on something, you know, then there's, 00:24:44.140 --> 00:24:46.000 I think, the latitude to kind of do that on behalf 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:48.339 of the members. But we weren't close. Yeah. And, 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:50.319 you know, sometimes we go and we get instructions 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.539 from our members that say, okay, you know, what 00:24:52.539 --> 00:24:55.220 are the sideboards? Exactly. Right. And if we 00:24:55.220 --> 00:24:57.759 get close, can we go this extra mile? Or just 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.980 like, oh, we're other. Can we be neutral? Are 00:24:59.980 --> 00:25:02.819 we kind of neutral but generally positive? You 00:25:02.819 --> 00:25:04.359 know, what's the. But we didn't have that. No, 00:25:04.460 --> 00:25:08.079 we were a solid. No. Yes. And our membership 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:10.960 across the board was very clear about that. And 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:12.680 it's because we hadn't really had any communication 00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:16.680 with the supporters at all. Apart from the fact 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:18.980 we also had significant concerns. Right. But 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:21.099 yeah, compounded definitely by the fact that, 00:25:21.099 --> 00:25:24.299 yeah, we had had no conversations. There had 00:25:24.299 --> 00:25:26.079 been no movement. No one was taking our input. 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:27.980 No one was even asking for our input. Right. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:31.380 And so we just felt completely unheard. Right. 00:25:31.460 --> 00:25:33.980 And that was a frustrating place to be considering 00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:36.339 how much of that. work happens at the county 00:25:36.339 --> 00:25:40.799 level. So yeah, so as the clock ticked and the 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:46.180 five o 'clock hour passed, we waited. We heard 00:25:46.180 --> 00:25:48.019 that at one point that they did have the votes 00:25:48.019 --> 00:25:51.880 and that they were going to run it. It kind of 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:54.200 stayed quiet, though, for a little while. And 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.319 then it turned. We saw people scurrying in and 00:25:56.319 --> 00:25:58.019 out of the doors and doing what they do. Which 00:25:58.019 --> 00:25:59.220 is always a sign that something's going on. Always 00:25:59.220 --> 00:26:01.420 a sign that maybe something's not as clean as 00:26:01.420 --> 00:26:06.000 it looks. And sure enough, I think when the rubber 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.759 hit the road, it turned out they didn't. And 00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:12.400 so it just didn't have quite enough oomph to 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:15.500 get there this session. And this happened last 00:26:15.500 --> 00:26:19.829 year, too, on this bill. And so, yeah. I hope 00:26:19.829 --> 00:26:22.650 everybody's sort of had enough of that, because 00:26:22.650 --> 00:26:26.410 I certainly have, and that we can circle back 00:26:26.410 --> 00:26:30.460 as a system, state, local governments. Figure 00:26:30.460 --> 00:26:32.079 out a different way to do this next session and 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:33.599 hopefully do some stuff during the interim to 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:35.859 make that happen. Well, I mean, I'll say it again. 00:26:35.940 --> 00:26:38.200 Do your job. Right. I mean, if you're the advocates 00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:40.619 behind this bill, get the stakeholders together. 00:26:40.660 --> 00:26:42.279 That's right. That's how you pass a bill. Yeah. 00:26:42.740 --> 00:26:44.480 Excuse me. Figure out what the issues are, what 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:46.900 the concerns are. And if there are ways to address 00:26:46.900 --> 00:26:49.700 those in an effective way that, you know, everyone 00:26:49.700 --> 00:26:52.059 can get something that they need out of whatever 00:26:52.059 --> 00:26:54.180 change you're trying to make. If you have a bill 00:26:54.180 --> 00:26:57.339 and at the amendment deadline, there are 63 amendments 00:26:57.339 --> 00:27:00.630 sitting on it. That's generally not the sign 00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:04.269 of a well -worked bill. I would just proffer 00:27:04.269 --> 00:27:06.109 that. For those of you that might be interested 00:27:06.109 --> 00:27:07.809 in going into this field, if you are running 00:27:07.809 --> 00:27:10.650 a bill and at the last minute 63 amendments get 00:27:10.650 --> 00:27:15.150 dropped on it from both parties. Yeah. You might 00:27:15.150 --> 00:27:17.269 have missed a step in there somewhere. If it's 00:27:17.269 --> 00:27:20.170 from one side only. Right. That can be a tactic. 00:27:20.170 --> 00:27:22.329 It just means they hate the bill. Sure. But that 00:27:22.329 --> 00:27:25.569 was not the case, actually. So, anyways. Well, 00:27:25.650 --> 00:27:28.329 that's a lot of drama at the end. It was. I'm 00:27:28.329 --> 00:27:30.150 glad we were able to stop it for our members 00:27:30.150 --> 00:27:31.990 and really try to be productive going forward. 00:27:31.990 --> 00:27:33.829 I was holding my breath over here. Me too. Me 00:27:33.829 --> 00:27:35.609 too. Couldn't have done it without you. I mean, 00:27:35.630 --> 00:27:37.509 it was a team effort to get that done. And I 00:27:37.509 --> 00:27:40.170 do want to acknowledge our partners at the Prosecutors 00:27:40.170 --> 00:27:42.490 Association, our Superior Court Judges, our Juvenile 00:27:42.490 --> 00:27:44.210 Court Administration. or sheriffs and police 00:27:44.210 --> 00:27:46.269 chiefs. I mean, it really was a group effort 00:27:46.269 --> 00:27:51.009 up there to try to express our concerns and slow 00:27:51.009 --> 00:27:52.630 it down. Yeah, no, I think you're right. It was 00:27:52.630 --> 00:27:55.450 a... There were a lot of folks who were all involved. 00:27:55.630 --> 00:27:57.410 We were coordinating with ourselves. I guess 00:27:57.410 --> 00:28:00.329 I'd say that. Working together. We worked together 00:28:00.329 --> 00:28:03.089 really well. You led the charge, so you deserve 00:28:03.089 --> 00:28:04.789 most of the credit for sure. That's kind, but 00:28:04.789 --> 00:28:09.430 yeah. And you know, there's so many times when 00:28:09.430 --> 00:28:11.450 you work a bill perfectly and you don't get the 00:28:11.450 --> 00:28:12.890 outcome that you're looking for. No, and that 00:28:12.890 --> 00:28:14.730 certainly happens. Probably more often than not. 00:28:14.730 --> 00:28:16.529 More often than not, yeah. Yeah, this is one 00:28:16.529 --> 00:28:18.369 of those rare cases where things actually worked 00:28:18.369 --> 00:28:20.509 out, at least in our view, the right way. I think 00:28:20.509 --> 00:28:21.970 the right way, but I also feel like the stakes 00:28:21.970 --> 00:28:25.380 were really high. And had it not gone this way, 00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:28.680 I think there would have been some significant 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:31.619 problems that would soon start to rear their 00:28:31.619 --> 00:28:34.099 head because of an unworked piece of legislation 00:28:34.099 --> 00:28:37.460 now becoming law. And that's concerning. And 00:28:37.460 --> 00:28:38.799 that's really not how we should be doing stuff 00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:41.059 up here. So not the last time we're going to 00:28:41.059 --> 00:28:42.960 see this, I'm sure. No, I guarantee you it'll 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.319 come back next year. So hopefully we can be a 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:48.240 productive part of guiding that conversation 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.779 or at least engaging in it during the interim. 00:28:53.539 --> 00:28:55.299 I'm tired of just talking. I know, just reliving 00:28:55.299 --> 00:28:58.420 it over here. Sweating again. Well, at the end, 00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:00.559 though, you must feel good about the outcome. 00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:02.759 I know I certainly do. Really satisfied. Yeah, 00:29:02.819 --> 00:29:05.460 I mean, and I think really affirmed both in terms 00:29:05.460 --> 00:29:07.880 of the way our membership hung together on this, 00:29:07.940 --> 00:29:12.420 as well as, you know, myself and Travis and you 00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:14.839 and others that really. The advocates were pulling 00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:16.740 out all the stops. Oh, I mean, just everything. 00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:18.660 They were going behind our back. Oh, man, sending 00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:20.859 up information that just wasn't correct. Yeah, 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:23.579 selling, sending. Saying that they had talked 00:29:23.579 --> 00:29:25.839 to us about it and had worked it out with us 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:27.759 and that wasn't true. There was all kinds of 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:30.700 misinformation going on. This is just rumor, 00:29:30.779 --> 00:29:32.900 but there was a lot of political kind of maneuvering 00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:34.359 going on behind the background. That is what 00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:36.359 we've heard as well. So, yeah. So, you know, 00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:39.160 listen, this is a serious issue and I think you 00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:41.279 should. on a serious issue like that that affects 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:44.819 people's lives, you need to be doing stakeholdering 00:29:44.819 --> 00:29:47.279 that is reflective of that gravity. Couldn't 00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:49.400 agree more. Yeah. Well, Brad, I'm sure there's 00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:51.339 more issues. Oh, there's always plenty. We've 00:29:51.339 --> 00:29:54.000 run out of time. No, it's all right. Happy cutoff 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:56.200 to you. Happy cutoff. Thanks for the work and 00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:58.099 support. Yeah, everything's going to move fast 00:29:58.099 --> 00:29:59.940 from here on out. We are on the home stretch. 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:01.980 Yeah. Like 20 days, 21 days, something like that. 00:30:02.019 --> 00:30:03.940 Something like that. But there's really only, 00:30:03.980 --> 00:30:06.559 I think, about maybe two and a half, three weeks 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:11.680 to go. Floor cutoff, so between now and Friday 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:16.140 the 5th or 6th, I think it's the 6th of March, 00:30:16.660 --> 00:30:19.579 is when the next floor cutoff is. And after that, 00:30:19.579 --> 00:30:22.359 all it is is budgets and concurrence after that. 00:30:22.380 --> 00:30:24.559 February is a short month. Yeah, you only got 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:27.799 the 28 days, right? So we get a few extra days 00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:29.920 there. So things are going to be hot and heavy 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:31.980 here in Olympia. Yeah, it's going to fly. It's 00:30:31.980 --> 00:30:33.380 going to fly, and we're going to have to be on 00:30:33.380 --> 00:30:35.000 our toes, that's for sure. We'll see where we 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:36.500 go. Well, thanks, Brad. No, my pleasure, Paul. 00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:39.119 Yeah, and thanks to our listeners for everything 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:40.759 that you do for your counties every single day. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:42.940 Hopefully you can join us for our next chat. 00:30:43.059 --> 00:30:48.440 And until then, take good care. Thanks for tuning 00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:50.680 in to County Connection. Stay in the loop by 00:30:50.680 --> 00:30:53.019 subscribing to us through your preferred podcasting 00:30:53.019 --> 00:30:55.779 app and following us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and 00:30:55.779 --> 00:30:57.839 Instagram. And don't forget to join The Hub, 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.140 your go -to source for the latest news and updates 00:31:00.140 --> 00:31:02.299 from the Washington State Association of Counties. 00:31:02.750 --> 00:31:05.230 Until next time, stay connected and stay informed.