The Okanogan County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on December 5, 2005, with Chairman Mary Lou Peterson, Commissioner Andrew Lampe, and Brenda Crowell, Clerk of the Board present. Commissioner Don Hover is attending a week long meeting in Chelan regarding Salmon Recovery Plan.

Update - Planning
Greg Wilder provided the status of various planning projects.

Discussion - Application Fees for Open Space Agriculture-Assessor
Scott Furman commented that he would like to increase the application fees for Farm and Agriculture special land use classifications. He explained the criteria necessary to put land into a special land use classification. Currently, the application fee is $100 to put land in Open Space Agriculture use. Scott suggested that the application should be $200 because of the amount of work necessary to process the application. It is estimated that there is 1 million acres of taxable farm land agricultural land. The money collected for these applications goes into general fund. Commissioner Lampe asked how much is collected in the year for the application. Scott approximated 20 applications per year. He noted that landowners save a substantial amount of money from putting their land in a special classification, which reduces the amount of tax they would have to pay. If property is in Open Space Agriculture, and is sold there is not need for a new application to be submitted but the property would be re-evaluated to see if it still meets the requirements.

The process is so labor intensive that there is a concern that people will not want to process the application because of the amount of time it takes the department to complete the process.

Scott would like the change to be made this year. Commissioner Lampe said noted that the $250 fee would offset the loss in revenue for the county as well as benefits the landowner. Commissioner Peterson said she is concerned because of the hardships people are experiencing, and doesn’t want them to have to pay additional money, but because of the amount of money they would save in taxes she would be willing to accept a motion to change the fee. Andy agreed that the amount should be changed. A resolution will be made up for next week.

Discussion -Temporary Clerical Help-Prosecutor
Karl Sloan discussed the need for additional help in the prosecutors’ office to tidy up the year-end work. It would cost approximately $2380.00 for 19 days to hire Ginny Griffin. The money would come from 2005 budget. A 1099 would need to be issued for her to be contracted for those services. Karl explained that there are funds available to cover the cost in the ending balance. Commissioner Lampe would like the contract to state what is to be accomplished and for what. Commissioner Peterson agreed that a contract would be best way to get the temporary help. Commissioner Peterson also suggested checking with Judy Erbele before writing the contract. Karl will provide the contract this week for the consent agenda on Dec. 12^th.