Real Briefings
**Leadership Transition** - Appointed Commissioner Janet St. Clair (Island County) as 2025 Chair - Appointed Council Member Kari McVeigh (San Juan County) as 2025 Vice Chair - Thanked outgoing Chair Commissioner Browning (Skagit County) and Vice Chair Council Member Fuller (San Juan County) **Strategic Plan Status Review** - Conducted comprehensive review of three priority areas: Broadband, Behavioral Health Care, and Transportation - **Broadband:** Decision to suspend Regional Broadband Action Team (RBAT) due to completion of initial goals and shift to county-specific BEAD funding approach - **Behavioral Health Care:** Acknowledged significant challenges with funding cuts and staffing shortages; continuing regional needs assessment work - **Transportation:** All tasks on schedule; advocacy document completed and adopted **Operational Decisions** - Broadband work will transition to WSAC-level coordination rather than regional subcommittee - Behavioral health care subcommittee to continue with focus on regional needs assessment - Transportation subcommittee maintaining current schedule and priorities
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## Meeting Overview
On the morning of March 13, 2025, the SWISS Regional Partnership convened for its first quarterly meeting of the year, conducted via Zoom from 10:03 to approximately 11:00 AM. SWISS — the Skagit, Whatcom, Island, Snohomish, and San Juan counties partnership — serves as a regional collaboration focused on shared challenges across northwest Washington.
The meeting brought together elected officials and staff from all five member counties, including newly appointed members getting their first taste of the regional body's work. What made this gathering particularly significant was the transition in leadership and the comprehensive review of SWISS's strategic plan, revealing both accomplishments and challenges in the partnership's ambitious regional agenda.
Under the guidance of outgoing Chair Commissioner Peter Browning of Skagit County, the group navigated through leadership changes and conducted what Travis Dorn from the Washington State Association of Counties described as a "breakneck pace review" of their strategic initiatives. The session would prove to be both celebratory of past achievements and sobering in its assessment of current challenges, particularly around broadband deployment and behavioral health care capacity.
## New Leadership Takes the Helm
The meeting's first order of business was selecting new leadership for 2025, a process that Travis Dorn described with characteristic humor as "mostly just a game of not it first" — sometimes nominations, sometimes "scrambling to say not me first." The Executive Committee's recommendations met no opposition: Commissioner Janet St. Clair of Island County would serve as Chair, with Councilmember Kari McVeigh of San Juan County as Vice-Chair.
Commissioner St. Clair, an experienced hand in regional collaboration who began her third term and eleventh year in office, brought both enthusiasm and pragmatic perspective to the role. "This group c…
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### Meeting Overview
The SWISS Regional Partnership held their quarterly meeting on March 13, 2025, to conduct annual leadership appointments and review their strategic plan progress. SWISS (Skagit, Whatcom, Island, Snohomish, San Juan) is a five-county regional partnership addressing shared challenges across northwestern Washington state.
### Key Terms and Concepts
**SWISS Regional Partnership:** A collaboration between five northwestern Washington counties (Skagit, Whatcom, Island, Snohomish, San Juan) working together on regional challenges like broadband access, behavioral health care, and transportation.
**WASAC:** Washington State Association of Counties, which provides staff support and coordination for SWISS and manages statewide county initiatives.
**BEAD Funding:** Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program providing $1.2 billion federal funding for broadband infrastructure, with additional $1.3 million proviso for technical assistance.
**Regional Broadband Action Team (RBAT):** SWISS subcommittee formed to coordinate broadband planning across the five counties, now on indefinite hold after completing initial objectives.
**BHA-SO:** Behavioral Health Administrative Service Organization (North Sound), a regional entity managing behavioral health services that SWISS coordinates with to avoid duplicating efforts.
**Strategic Plan Dashboard:** Visual tracking system showing completed (green/blue) versus at-risk (red) tasks across SWISS's three priority areas: broadband, behavioral health care, and transportation.
### Key People at This Meeting
| Name | Role / Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Travis | WASAC staff coordinator for SWISS |
| Janet St. Clair | Island County Commissioner, newly appointed SWISS Chair |
| Kari McVeigh | San Juan County Council Member, newly appointed SWISS Vice Chair |
| Peter Browning | Skagit County Commissioner, outgoing Chair |
| Lisa Janicki | Skagit County Commissioner |
| Ron Wiesen | Skagit County Commissioner |
| Satpal Sidhu | Whatcom County Executive |
| Kaylee Galloway | Whatcom County Council Member |
| Justin Paulson | San Juan County Council Member |
| Nate Naering | Snohomish County Council Member |
| Jason Bierman | Senior Policy Advisor, Snohomish County |
### Background Context
SWISS formed in recognition that regional challenges don't respect county boundaries. The partnership adopted a strategic plan in November 2023 focusing on three priority areas where cou…
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