Thurston County schedules public hearing to reduce Board of Health membership; item likely to remain on consent

Thurston County commissioners were asked Jan. 14 to set a public hearing to amend Thurston County Code Chapter 2.07 to reduce the membership of the Board of Health from 12 to 10 members and to authorize the clerk to set the hearing date and time. The request was presented as a consent-item flag during the board’s agenda-setting meeting.

The clerk said the change would reduce the number of commissioners required to serve on the Board of Health to three and maintain the state-required community representation, including a south-county representative, a north-county representative and required community members such as tribal and health-care representatives. The clerk told the board the proposal had been discussed by the Board of Health and in prior commission work sessions and that the Board of Health had made a recommendation.

Commissioners discussed whether to move the item from consent to a separate agenda item and several said they were comfortable leaving it on consent. One commissioner summarized the proposed composition: three commissioners, one south-county representative, one north-county representative, and the required community members. The board gave informal consent to keep the item on the consent calendar rather than pulling it for separate discussion.

The amendment remains listed as a set-public-hearing action on the Jan. 21 agenda; commissioners will consider formal adoption of a hearing date and any public comment at that meeting.