Commissioners approve updated 2026 advisory-board representation; appointments moved to April 21, HATCH review postponed

The Thurston County Board of County Commissioners on March 31 approved updates to commissioners’ representation on advisory boards and committees and set several appointment items for the April 21 business meeting.

A motion to approve the 2026 assignments passed with the board’s consent. The update includes switching the primary representative for the Washing- Washington County’s Interns Fund board from Commissioner Menser to Commissioner Grant.

Staff notified the board that one additional application for the Housing Authority of Thurston County (HATCH) was received after the packet was published. The clerk requested that the HATCH appointment discussion be postponed so the new applicant can be included in HATCH’s review; the board agreed to postpone and asked staff to send the application to HATCH for consideration.

The board also heard recommendations for two appointments that staff will place on the April 21 meeting agenda: Frank Ordway for the Lewis Mason Thurston Area Agency on Aging, and Candace Bowman for the Treatment Sales Tax (TST) Advisory Committee. Commissioners discussed recruitment and the number of vacancies for TST; one commissioner noted there appear to be four vacancies and encouraged further outreach.

Clerk staff described a consolidated Thurston County advisory boards webpage that lists rosters, bylaws, application links and contact information; commissioners praised the resource and staff for frequently updating the page. One commissioner thanked staff for raising the transgender-visibility flag in observance of Transgender Day of Visibility.

The board did not make final appointments during the work session; staff will return the recommended appointments and any HATCH recommendation to the board at a future business meeting.