Resolution BOCC Staff Report Amend Drug Fund Resolution

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KITTITAS COUNTY Board of County Commissioners AGENDA STAFF REPORT AGENDA DATE: December 17, 2018 ACTION REQUESTED: Consider approval of a Resolution Amending the Cumulative Reserve Fund for Drug Enforcement Activities. BACKGROUND: The Kittitas County Public Health Department (KCPHD) responded to law enforcement’s request to impose a health order on a property believed to be operating as a clandestine drug lab, which invoked legal requirements under Chapter 64.44 RCW. KCPHD complied with those legal requirements including arranging for a sampling of the property by a Washington State Department of Health certified agency, ACCUMETH. ACCUMETH determined that the drug residue contaminating the property does not surpass the threshold amount requiring decontamination under the law. As a result, KCPHD has rescinded the health order. Although, the financial responsibility for testing the property through a proper sampling and the health order enforcements costs are the financial responsibility of the property owner, KCPHD has been unsuccessful at compelling the owner to pay; she is currently incarcerated in California. The Kittitas County Prosecutor’s Office reviewed the current Resolution for the Cumulative Reserve Fund for Drug Enforcement Activities to see whether KCPHD was authorized to utilize those funds to pay for the sampling and the health order enforcement costs and concluded that the current version does not contemplate KCPHD an authorized entity. While reviewing the resolution it was also discovered that the legal authority cited for the fund is out of date. The amended version proposed here has the updated statutory citations necessary for legal compliance and also contains a provision that would allow KCPHD an opportunity to petition the Board of County Commissioners, on a case by case basis, for permission to access to the fund in the limited circumstances where