Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Climate Public Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Washington County finalizes climate action plan; public health modernization plan to be submitted to OHA
Summary
Public health staff presented the county's first Climate Action Plan (finalized after broad community engagement) and a statutory Public Health Modernization Plan that will be submitted to the Oregon Health Authority; staff described funding sources, partner engagement and next steps for implementation and tracking via an interdepartmental collaborative.
Washington County public health staff briefed commissioners Dec. 16 on two coordinated planning efforts: a finalized Climate Action Plan and the required Public Health Modernization Plan.
What staff said: Dr. Marie Bowman Davis and Erin Jolley said the Climate Action Plan consolidates existing department climate work under a shared set of goals and actions informed by community engagement. Staff said the county completed more than 50 unique engagement events and reached a broad set of communities, including Latinx, Chinese, Vietnamese, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, Russian/Ukrainian, Arabic‑ and Somali‑speaking communities, and groups representing older adults, youth, people living with disabilities, people experiencing housing instability, and others.
Funding and timeline: Staff said both plans received funding support through the Oregon Health Authority via an intergovernmental agreement (program element 51) and additional support for mitigation actions from the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant. The Public Health Modernization Plan is a statutory submission and, staff said, will be sent to the Oregon Health Authority by Dec. 31 for review.
Implementation and oversight: Staff described a cross‑department collaborative to oversee implementation and tracking. The collaborative will develop a charter, define responsibilities and report progress to the board via memos or future work sessions. For the climate plan, staff described near‑term actions such as energy efficiency improvements, data collection on climate impacts, and support for multimodal transportation and electric vehicle adoption where resources permit.
Board response: Commissioners welcomed the plans and praised the breadth of community engagement. One commissioner asked how the county will monitor implementation and asked that the collaborative define responsibilities and reporting cadence; staff said the collaborative will track actions in a matrix and report periodically to the board.
Next steps: Staff will publish the Climate Action Plan in PDF form to meet grant requirements and will move into implementation steps aligned to department roles; staff will share follow‑up memos or a work session update in fall 2026.
