Washington County government relations team outlines priorities as busy short session unfolds

Government relations managers for Washington County presented a legislative update at the Board of Commissioners work session on Feb. 4, 2025, identifying several bills the county is tracking and immediate next steps for hearings and coordination with legislators.

The county’s government relations managers said the session is moving quickly and that staff are prioritizing courthouse-planning funding, behavioral health funding-formula fixes, jail-based medication funding, and multiple workforce bills tied to behavioral health and community mental health staffing.

The update matters because the short session already contains thousands of introduced measures, several of which could affect county budgets, eligibility for state matching dollars, and the operations of local mental-health and corrections services. County staff said several items could require county follow-up hearings or amendments and that staff will return to the board on Feb. 25 (the deadline for introducing bills) and again in March for a county day at the Capitol.

Pablo Nevis Valenzuela, a Washington County government relations manager, summarized priority bills. He said, "The first bill we want to call your attention to is HB 3180. This bill ... would appropriate $1,250,000 in matching state funds to Washington County for our courthouse replacement planning project." He added the bill is assigned to the House Judiciary Committee and has bipartisan sponsors from the Washington County caucus; staff said they are working to schedule a hearing as soon as possible.

Valenzuela also called out HB 3009, which would allow the use of funds from the jail-based medication-for-opioid-use-disorder grant program in facilities like community correction centers; staff said that bill is scheduled for a public hearing tomorrow around 5 p.m. Staff said SB 236 was introduced as a committee omnibus to revise elements of last session’s HB 4002, including recriminalization and deflection-program components, and that some language in HB 3009 is duplicated there to improve the chance that at least one vehicle advances.

Zakharcan (government relations manager) and Carly Silva Gabrielsson (government relations manager) described other behavioral-health items the county is tracking. Zakharcan said Senate Bill 610 is the county’s bill on behavioral health resource network funding-formula reform; staff described three main aims: (1) a new funding formula for the 2026–29 cycle, (2) a future formula-creation process that uses the Administrative Procedures Act, and (3) a new advisory body with behavioral-health, public-health, Oregon Health Authority and impacted-community membership; SB 610 is scheduled for a public hearing on Feb. 26.

Staff called attention to workforce and professionalization bills. Gabrielsson described HB 3129, which targets pipeline development to expand higher-education and community-college training for behavioral-health careers, and a $25 million ask in a bill staff referred to as a workforce/professionalization measure (spoken in the session as a $25,000,000 ask to retain clinicians in community mental health). Staff also cited HB 2202 (named in the briefing as a bill to reduce administrative burden for community mental health programs) and a 2056 cost-study item that staff said found an estimated $64,800,000 gap over the biennium to fully fund aid-and-assistance civil-commitment services statewide.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions during and after the briefing. Commissioner Trese asked about licensure bills that would make it easier to get clinicians into practice; staff said many of those bills were filed that week and are likely to be heard later in March, with committees currently prioritizing issues such as pharmacy benefit managers. Commissioner Willie asked whether transient lodging tax (TLT) revenue was being considered for public safety; staff said they would follow up by email with a verified answer. Commissioner Farr asked about a civ il-commitment bill (referred to during the session as a concept originating with NAMI, assigned in the House Judiciary Committee as HB 2467); staff said it had been assigned but was not yet scheduled for a public hearing and agreed to follow up.

Staff outlined next steps: a return briefing on Feb. 25 (the bill-introduction deadline), a tentative county day at the Capitol in March to meet with the county’s legislative delegation, and a March 18 return to the board ahead of the March 21 deadline to schedule work sessions in the first chamber. Staff emphasized they are monitoring hundreds of placeholder bills and are prioritizing items that create potential unfunded mandates or direct budget impacts.

Ending

County staff committed to email follow-ups on specific bills and to return with a board briefing on Feb. 25 and additional updates in March. Commissioners urged staff to continue prioritizing items that threaten local funding or require county match dollars and to coordinate with the Association of Oregon Counties when bills overlap with statewide county interests.