Councilman Nehring's March Newsletter

Dear North County Neighbors,

My focus over the past couple of months and as we move into March has been the opioid epidemic and our work on the County Council to address it. In this month’s newsletter I will give some updates on the heroin injection site ban, my chronic nuisance properties ordinance, and the North County Law Enforcement-Embedded Social Worker Team.

On November 20, the Snohomish County Council upheld the temporary ban on heroin injection sites, often called Safe Injection Sites. Since then, multiple cities in our county have taken similar votes to prohibit these dangerous and illegal sites in their communities. I am proud of the work of many elected officials across the county on this issue. We have the opportunity to permanently ban heroin injection sites in Snohomish County on March 14th. At the public hearing on my ordinance (Ordinance 18-014), the Council will take public testimony and eventually vote on the permanent ban. I encourage you to attend the public hearing or share your voice with the Council by emailing contact.council@snoco.org and let the Council know that heroin injection sites are not welcome in Snohomish County. You can read more about the temporary ban in this article from MyNorthwest here.

Another exciting public hearing on the horizon is my ordinance regarding chronic nuisance properties (Ordinance 18-013). The chronic nuisance ordinance gives law enforcement and prosecutors more tools for identifying and helping to remedy nuisance properties that play host to chronic criminal and drug activities. These nuisance properties negatively affect the quality of life and safety of our neighborhoods and I am happy that this ordinance is moving forward. The public hearing on my nuisance properties ordinance is planned for March 28th. You can read more about the nuisance properties ordinance from the Everett Herald here and you can watch on Kiro 7 here.

I have written before about the Law Enforcement-Embedded Social Worker (LEESW) program. This is a program that teams up law enforcement and social workers to go into homeless encampments and other problem areas to clean them up and get people the help they need. This team utilizes the “carrot and stick” adage by offering housing and treatment services to drug addicted individuals backed up by enforcement by the police if they choose not to leave. Snohomish County has officially teamed up with the Cities of Marysville and Arlington on a North County LEESW team and they will begin hitting the streets in March. I am thrilled to see this team get to work and the results that are sure to follow.

There are many exciting developments at the County Council every month and I appreciate your support. These newsletters are intended to keep you informed about what I am working on and give you the chance to share your thoughts with me.

I will be sending out newsletters on a monthly basis to keep you informed about what I am working on and how I am representing the residents of North Snohomish County on the County Council. Please feel free to reach out to me at 425-388-3494 or Nate.Nehring@snoco.org.

Sincerely,

Nate Nehring
Councilman, District 1

Snohomish County Council 3000 Rockefeller Ave., M/S 609 Everett, Washington 98201   8th floor, Robert J. Drewel Building  Phone: 425-388-3494 E-Mail: Nate.Nehring@snoco.org   Russell Wiita, Legislative Aide