County staff seek bids, grants and contract renewals including Mottman fence, Summit Lake grant and ADU funding amendment

County departments presented consent and departmental items Jan. 13 as the board reviewed the Jan. 20 business meeting agenda.

Central Services sought approval to call for sealed bids for a security fence at the Mottman Complex: Kim Burnett said the project would add approximately 1,000 linear feet of fence, including two automatic gates (one at the main entrance and one on Ferguson Street), and is part of the C341002 ballot-processing renovation in the 2025–2030 Capital Improvement Plan.

Public Health requested board action to accept a Washington State Department of Ecology grant for $112,497 to support a Summit Lake pollution identification and correction project focused on improving on-site sewage system maintenance compliance toward a 90% target. Public Health also sought an $89,891 amendment to a Homes First contract for ADU development (bringing the total to $210,491) to support four accessory dwelling units at 721 O'Farrell Avenue SE for affordable senior rentals; staff said the 2023 award to Homes First was $120,600 and that these funds are under the Office of Housing, Homeless Prevention contract.

IT described supply-chain pressures: IT director Sherry said memory-chip shortages and volatile short quote windows led staff to propose purchasing planned replacements now (four firewalls, ESXi servers, six access-layer switches and about 190 endpoints) to avoid near-term price increases. IT also requested waiving competitive bidding to renew a Microsoft support agreement for $83,146.12 and the Verona security/analytics maintenance agreement for $162,473.87; staff said Verona’s increase reflected an added module previously approved.

Judicial services: Staff explained that taking on municipal court cases from the city of Olympia requires opening a fifth screening station; Maria said Olympia will fully fund two new court security officers and there is no general fund impact.

Next steps: Several items will appear on the Jan. 20 consent agenda for formal board action; staff indicated some items (for example, the Commerce interlocal and camera-software discussion) might require executive-session follow-up before public action due to security or legal concerns.