Thurston County budget staff outlined preliminary requests for Public Health & Social Services and Emergency Services as part of the 2026–27 biennial budget, including multiple staff reclassifications, grant placeholders and operational requests for Medic 1.

At the reconvened hearing, staff identified Dr. Jen Fryhite as director of Public Health & Social Services and summarized department responsibilities that include community health, disease control, environmental health, social services and vital records. The presenter listed several preliminarily approved personnel requests: reclassifying a population health manager to senior program manager, upgrading fiscal and accounting assistants, adding procurement/contract specialists, elevating the opioid and overdose response program manager, and reclassifying a CHN supervisor to a CHN manager. Staff also included an opioid settlement fund placeholder and a proposed transfer to support methadone services; the transcript did not specify dollar amounts or precise program schedules.

The presenter identified Ben Miller Todd as the Emergency Services director and described preliminarily approved emergency-management grant placeholders for fiscal year 2025 and 2026, including homeland security and regional incident-management team support. For Medic 1, staff listed requests for basic life support special projects, advanced life support contract support, a PPE storage unit, increased operations costs and a proposed Advanced Life Support project manager position in 2027, along with quality-improvement and special-operations support over the biennium.

County staff clarified that Medic 1 is supported by its own funding stream separate from the general fund. No members of the public signed up to speak on Public Health, Social Services or Emergency Services during the session. The Board recessed and scheduled further budget items for later in the afternoon, including public‑works rate and fee adjustments and revenue items to support the biennial budget.