Kittitas County moves to amend planning consultant contract to add $790,000 clean-energy siting grant work

County staff asked the Kittitas County study session on Feb. 9 to amend an existing on-call planning consultant agreement so the consultant can carry out tasks under a Washington state clean-energy siting and permitting grant.

For the record, S1 identified himself as 'CBS director, Chad Bailock.' A staff member explained that the county hired its on-call planning consultant, 'Kim and Horn,' in May 2024 and that the firm has been working on the county's periodic update and various state grant efforts. The staff member told the board that the county recently received approval from Washington Commerce for a climate-energy siting and permitting grant to fund a programmatic environmental impact statement covering the county to identify suitable siting areas, permitting pathways and mitigation requirements for clean-energy uses and clean-energy manufacturing.

"Back in May 2024, we hired our on call planning consultant, Kim and Horn," the staff member said, describing the consultant's ongoing role. The staff member said the grant "is, the total of the grant is for 790,000." According to staff, the grant-funded work will include a programmatic EIS intended to streamline future permitting for companies seeking to locate clean-energy manufacturing here and to define mitigation requirements.

Staff said a kickoff meeting is planned for February but that the contract sent from the state contained the county's incorrect statewide PIN; staff expect a corrected contract to be returned. The staff member asked the board to approve a resolution amending the consultant's PSA to add the grant tasks under the consultant's scope.

Board members asked for clarification on budget details and community engagement. The staff member described an exhibit with a detailed breakout of tasks and noted roughly $250,000 would be applied to staff costs; the transcript of the breakout is garbled in the record and the detailed task-level amounts were not clearly captured in the provided segments.

"This will be totally good," the staff member said when asked whether community-engagement efforts would overlap other outreach; the staff member stated the engagement will be separate from other efforts.

S1 said, "I would like to move to the current resolution number 2026-26," and a second was indicated. The motion appears to have been moved and seconded; the transcript does not include a recorded vote, tally or explicit statement of approval within the provided segments.

Staff framed the action as part of a broader state funding effort: the staff member said the state released about $14,000,000 in related funding opportunities and that the county moved quickly to apply.

Next steps noted in the discussion were correcting the state contract and scheduling the kickoff; staff will return with the amended contract once the state resends the corrected paperwork. The transcript contains no further details on timeline, a formal vote, or contract execution in the recorded segments.