A trio of legislators from the state’s 41st district discussed myriad issues with Mercer Island’s mayor, city councilmembers and staff during three separate video sessions this month.

The district, which covers Mercer Island and several other Eastside communities, is in the legislative hands of Sen. Lisa Wellman, Rep. Tana Senn and Rep. My-Linh Thai, who are all Democrats.

With the next legislative session on the docket for Jan. 10, one of the issues up for discussion and in line for state funding will be mental health services.

“For the committee that I chair, the Children Youth and Families Committee, without a doubt, the priority issues will be children’s mental health and how we support adolescents,” said Senn, a former Mercer Island City Councilmember.

Mayor Benson Wong brought the city’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) and school-based and community counselors into the discussion. Senn, a former boardmember of the local YFS Foundation, said she holds school counselors near and dear to her heart. Senn added that from her first legislative session henceforth, she worked to expand access to social/emotional learning and funding for counselors, nurses and social workers.

Senn said that during the upcoming session, the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will make a proposal to expand funding for school nurses, and increase support for mental health services and COVID-related services.

Thai, who serves as vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said that the mental health state funding proposal will cover not only students, but focus on the well-being of people in the workforce and on the frontlines.

“The whole conversation about people experiencing trauma during the pandemic — the crisis is real — we wanted to find a way that would match not only providing the services but the people who are highly qualified and how do we build the capacity to speed up the process,” she said.

Wellman, who chairs the Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee, said there will be a significant amount of funding that will impact the child care system. During the pandemic, the state lost about half of its child care centers, she said.

“We know that people can’t return to work if there isn’t child care available, so there’s a lot of continuing disruption going on and I think that will impact our citizenry,” she said.

Another topic that came to the forefront during the legislators’ meetings was the Open Public Meetings Act, which includes all gatherings of governing bodies and public agencies. City councilmember Craig Reynolds feels the act needs to be permanently updated as the pandemic continues.

Thai said the local council — which holds its meetings online — has her support with this issue.

“We are really aware. Not only is it about public safety as far as health is concerned, we have seen the significant increase in public engagement. I think that is certainly another point in conversation as we’re looking at the modernizing of open public meetings,” she said.

In another area of legislative discussion, Wellman believes the 1 percent cap on local government funding should be raised, and she thinks a conversation on this matter may take place during this term. Mayor Wong said that Mercer Island has been advocating for the increase for years.

“I think that there’s more appetite for even looking at it now because of the amount of money that’s coming through the federal government to the state,” said Wellman, noting that’s occurring because of sales taxes.

On the subject of updating police accountability work, Mercer Island Police Department Chief Ed Holmes feels that some of the current legislative bills seem to remove tools that officers have previously used to protect the community. For instance, according to Holmes, the bills need to clarify what level of force officers can use when dealing with people who are in a mental health crisis and need to be transported to a hospital for aid.

Senn met with Holmes and operations commander Mike Seifert in September and said she shared their detailed recommendations with state representatives who are leading the effort for change.

“They were extremely appreciative at the proactive way that we were discussing the changes that were needed,” Senn said.

To view the meetings, visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeJ06MR44sdsy8WyuMl-dcw.