WSAC Members attend the 84th Annual National Association of Counties’ Annual Conference

This past week, over 30 Washington State county elected and appointed officials, led by WSAC President Scott Hutsell, joined their peers from throughout the nation to share the challenges, successes, and solutions to bolster America’s communities. WSAC members were part of the more than 3,000 county leaders that learned about an array of issues during over three dozen workshops and meetings that included:

  • Supporting our Nation’s Aging Population at the Local Level
  • Behavioral Health and Justice Innovations
  • Addressing Youth Substance Abuse
  • Public-Private Partnerships as a Catalyst for Urban Innovation
  • Understanding the County Role in the Growing World of Legal Cannabis
  • Disaster Management – Improving Your Role in Incident Management
  • Economic Impact of Outdoor Recreation
  • Federal Policy Outlook
  • Telling Your County’s Story When the Media Won’t
The 2019 WSAC member delegation to the NACo Annual Conference in Clark County, Nevada.

During the conference, WSAC members led or participated on a number of NACO Steering Committees, Task Forces, and Caucus’.  WSAC members submitted several policy positions as well as worked with their peers to develop policy positions on the most pressing federal policies affecting counties that resulted in the approval of the America County Platform (https://www.naco.org/advocacy/american-county-platform).

Eric Johnson speaking at the 2019 NACo Annual Conference in Las Vegas in the panel Understanding the County Role in the Growing World of Legal Cannabis.

Washington State native and the United States Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen spoke to the Western Interstate Board of Directors about the important partnership with counties on the implementation of forest collaboratives, forest health improvements, protecting our nations’ forests from catastrophic wildfires and keeping SRS and PILT Funding coming to counties!

During the meeting, attendees elected the NACo Leadership Team of:

  • NACo President – The Honorable Mary Ann Borgeson, Douglas County, Nebraska
  • NACo First Vice President – The Honorable Gary Moore, Boone County, Kentucky
  • NACo Second Vice President, The Honorable Larry Johnson, DeKalb County, Georgia
  • NACo Immediate Past President, The Honorable Greg Cox, San Diego County, California

Also selected was County Commissioner Joe Briggs (Cascade County, Montana) as the Western Region Representative on the NACo Executive Committee.

For more information about the conference is available here. For more information about NACo visit http://www.naco.org.