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Kittitas County commissioners elect Cory Wright chair, approve Law & Justice grants and ratify Suncadia water-rights termination
Summary
At their Jan. 6 meeting the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners unanimously elected Cory Wright chair and Brett Wachsmith vice-chair for 2026, approved a consent agenda that included multiple Law & Justice Council grant awards, set two public hearings and ratified a resolution related to terminating a Suncadia water-rights purchase agreement.
The Kittitas County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 6 unanimously elected Commissioner Cory Wright to serve as the board’s 2026 chair and named Commissioner Brett Wachsmith as vice-chair, formalizing leadership for the year.
The board approved the meeting agenda and, by a 3-0 vote, carried a consent agenda that included approval of multiple minutes and several Law & Justice Council grant awards funded from the county’s sales-tax reserves. The minutes list the following grant awards: #26-11 Kittitas County Drug Court — $18,000 for training; #26-03 Court Advocates for Children — $10,000 for professional development; #26-04 Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office — $6,500 for speed-tracking devices; #26-06 Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office — $49,000 for Man-Hunt-in-a-Box specialty equipment; and #26-14 Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office — $1,100 for restraint devices. (The minutes also include an item listed as “#2611 Kittitas County Sheriff's Office for Training in the amount of $18,000” that appears to duplicate or repeat grant #26-11 in the record.)
The board approved an agreement between the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office (Coroner Cori McKean) and Brookside Funeral Home and Crematory, naming Jamin Mohler to provide support services beginning Jan. 1, 2026. The end date in the minutes is listed as Feb. 28, 2021, which appears to be a typographical error in the published minutes and is noted here as written.
The board set two public hearings: one to consider declaring surplus county property at 925 S. Industrial Way in Ellensburg on Jan. 20, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., and another to consider an amendment to the Suncadia Development Agreement on Feb. 3, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., both to be held in the Commissioners Auditorium at 205 West 5th Avenue, Ellensburg.
The commissioners also acknowledged an agreement with Streamline Automation Systems to provide the Fire Marshal’s billing platform and approved a resolution ratifying the chair’s signature on the termination of the Trust Water Rights Purchase and Sale Agreement with Suncadia Resort, LLC. The minutes show inconsistent numbering for that resolution (the header reads “RESOLUTION 2026-001” while the text references “Resolution No. 2025-001”); that discrepancy is recorded in the meeting minutes and is noted here for clarification.
There were no administrative matters, no citizen comments on non-agenda items, no executive session, and the meeting adjourned at 10:06 a.m.
