Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO)

Good afternoon. I'd like to call the order of the meeting of the Santa Barbara Local Agency Formation Commission. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

I make a motion to approve.

I'll second. Motion and a second. Any discussion on the minutes? That's a relief. Please call the roll.

Motion passes unanimously

public comment for matters that are not on the agenda Madam Clerk, are there any requests to speak on any non-agenda items?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission There are no requests to speak under general public comment

Thank you, that concludes public comment. Now it's time for the approval of the consent calendar. Madam Clerk would you please read these items into the record?

Consent item number two is from the Chair of the Commission. It is to consider recommendations regarding a salary increase based on the CPI for Executive Officer Mike Prater, Government Code Section 54953 Subdivision C3 of the Brown Act requires a legislative body to orally report a summary of a recommendation for a final action on the salary, salary schedule or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits of a local agency executive as defined in Government Code Section 3511.1 Subdivision D during the open meeting in which the final action is taken During Consent Agenda Item No. 2, the Commission is agendized to consider a 3.6 salary increase for Executive Officer Mike Prater for an annual salary of $1,998.63.

2026. Mr. Prater also receives the following benefits under his current contract. One, retirement and healthcare benefits. Two, a flexible spending account to which he can contribute. Three, disability insurance. Four, term life insurance. Five, an extra cash allowance of $118 per month. Six, a deferred compensation contribution of $350 per month. And seven, a phone and car allowance.

That concludes my announcement on this item.

Thank you. Just for the record, the only change in the contract is the 3.6% increase in the salary benefits are remaining the same. Are there any public comment on the consent calendar?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, there are no requests to speak on this item.

Thank you. I'll move for approval. There's a motion for approval. Is there a second? I second. Motion and a second. Is there any public comment?

Chair Starkey, members of the Commission, there are no requests to speak on this item.

Any comments or questions from the commission? Don't hear any. Thank you. Would you please call the roll?

Motion passes unanimously

Thank you Before we get to the business items on the agenda I'd like to do a little agenda management I'd like to request that the item from the Isle of Vista Community Services District proceed first and that the AI presentation proceed after that in order to accommodate various people. I assume that's okay with folks? Hmm?

I

don't have my phone.

Would you like business item number two to be the AI presentation?

Yes. Would you please call a business item number one?

Chair Stark and members of the Commission, Business Item Number One is to receive a presentation report regarding Isla Vista CSD granted powers of authority and direct staff to take an action if necessary.

Thank you, I would like that at this point my understanding has there been ex parte communications between the district and members of the commission? Is there anybody who's got anything to disclose with respect to them?

Commissioner Kariako, I had a very brief conversation with Mr. Abood.

Yes hello, I had a brief conversation with Sidney yesterday on this item thank you.

Anyone

else? Yes I'll go ahead and add a brief conversation with The CSD, although I'm just kind of curious on ex parte for a business item like this. Can I ask counsel? Just trying to understand doesn't seem like it'd be a typical hearing that expertise appropriate for but maybe I'm just not understanding my form and function here at LAFCO.

Chair and commissioners, ex parte is not required for this item but you're more than willing to make public disclosures if you'd like to.

Perfect so yeah my only discussion has been with the CSD just wondering about any questions and I didn't thank you

Thank you. I had a brief conversation, it wasn't that brief with Mr. Boud and Ms. Castaneda and basically we discussed the order of presentation. I heard a voice. That's it. We discussed generally what they were going to discuss No ex parte. Thank you. Mr. Prater,

what about up north? What about commissioners up north?

Is there anyone in Santa Maria would like to disclose any ex parte conversations?

This is Commissioner Hartman I've had many conversations with Mr. Abboud and people on the CSD about their powers

Thank you. Anyone else? We're ready to roll or not roll as the case may be. Mr. Prater.

OK, let's get underway here. So the commission has requested a report and presentation regarding Isla Vista CSD power and authority staff is prepared or a report that outlines the establishment of the district Particularly under AB 3 and it also, and also the intent of AB 3. The formation of this district modified government code 61250 The powers and authorities are listed in that report.

And staff has prepared a brief couple of slides that shows the comparison table on the left are the powers under 61250 Next column over are the powers that were identified, interpreted in our Municipal Service Review. And then the far right column is the determination that the Commission made when you adopted those service reviews as either an active power or a latent power.

In addition, as I said we conducted Municipal Service Reviews and all of that is discussed in those particular volumes chapters. And lastly, Government Code 61100 is the code for community service districts. And listed within those and listed in your report are all of the powers that all CSDs have the ability to provide provided that they get approval from LAFCO if they haven't already had an established active power.

So with that, that concludes staff's presentation briefly. We will now turn it over to Isla Vista CSD and they are here today to give a presentation to the commission on all of the efforts in the services that they provide along with adoption of their budgets and their materials that demonstrates their funding that they allocate to each of these services. So with that I'll welcome journal manager Jonathan Aboud and his team Commissioner Nielsen.

I'm just trying to understand, you know, I know this is a presentation on kind of just kind of refresh but I'm just kind of curious on what is our purview on a CSD or any other municipality on things that might be in or out of their their purview by our opinion. You know, I'm trying to understand that from a point of view are we somehow you know if they're doing something that's outside of the lane with the powers that we have are we the body that takes action or is that something where somebody might go to court on?

Or is that really just a question for voters on whether they want to reelect their district members? I mean I'm trying to understand What we're doing here today with this, I think it's good for us to get this information out to us so everybody understands. And I think there's people in the public that are concerned about certain things but they try to figure out what our lane is as a body. Are we convening? Or are we decision maker? You know what's how does it all fit?

Mr. Prady you want to answer that or?

I'll do my best Commissioner Nelson through the chair. Essentially Members of the public came forward at a LAFCO hearing and had concerns that the district was operating outside of their authority. So, the commission was interested to hear a presentation from the commission about or from the district about what authorities are you operating? And do they align with the powers that were granted under the statutes?

So we're here to hear that presentation Within that, the commission has to interpret whether or not the functions that they are providing align with the functions that we've identified as active powers for them. If at the conclusion of that presentation you have a formal discussion with public participation and the commission rests that they are meeting all of their functions and powers as an active service We move on with our day.

We'll welcome them to continue their operations. If you decide that they are operating outside of that, then you have to direct me to do something. And that is a number of things that you can direct. Anywhere from continue our municipal service review discussions with the district, you can ask the district to stop and cease further operations that you see are outside of their authority and seek LAFCO Commission's approval to activate that power.

To a whole host of things that you can do As of my preparation for this report, I didn't feel that there was a direct direction that this commission needed to give me. I felt based on our conversations that they were operating within the powers that we have already identified and granted authority to whether or not the district is performing up to a certain standard that the public and their constituents hold them to is beyond the Commission's authority They are an independent district that can operate within the confines of their district.

It is not the commission's role to oversight any of those operations.

That's what I was trying to understand because I know we're the local agency formation I don't know if it's ongoing monitoring, and

so that's

what I'm trying to understand.

Yeah we're primarily here to see based on their presentation did they indicate that they are providing a service that they don't have the authority to do? So as an example are they providing water to somebody? Are they a wholesale retail water for which a CSD can be But obviously this district has not been granted that authority. So if they're providing retail water, that'd be outside of their authority and they need to stop that service and seek approval for that.

But would it be LAFCO be the agency that enforces that or is that more like hey the neighboring water purveyor says hey IVCSD you need to stop doing water? Are we are we the referee Here or that's what I'm trying to get to. We

are the referee if they are providing a service outside of their authorized function.

Okay and then the second part of question, I know other people have questions as well and I am not trying to filibuster this but I just try to understand because then there's all there's other organs you know I just think about county government and even cities sometimes we go outside of our lanes on what our functions in power are Right, that happens on a semi-regular basis. And so is it different with the CSD with maybe a municipality like a city or county?

Or does that potentially maybe LAFCO starts to look at whether a city is operating within their charter. Is that what we're going to start taking?

Right, exactly. So cities and county have different functions that they can operate under that doesn't require LAFCO's approval. Special districts do and they have a principal act that they have to adhere to And that is the measure or the bar which either they have to seek authority or not.

Okay,

so we do not have to follow that function. They operate with the ability to provide all services within their jurisdiction.

Okay, so it's special districts that we have this greater

It's a unique function amongst special districts relationship with LAFCOs and their ability to provide that service The caveat to cities and counties, if you will, is if a service is provided outside of their service boundary whether it's a city or special district then LAFCO has a role to determine whether or not they have properly sought an out-of-agency service agreement or not.

Okay thank you.

Commissioner Nussef said a comment and I've got to comment

that. Actually, a question for staff because I'm glad that Commissioner Nelson brought this up. You know there's another district in Isla Vista you know Isla Vista Parks and Recreation District and so my concern is overlapping services using taxpayer dollars so will we at the end of This, well we need to look at the service review for the Ivey Park and Rec. And compare it with the Isla Vista Community Service District to make sure that we don't have duplications That our taxpayer dollars aren't being spread out among multiple districts. I think that's our role, is to make sure that their role is clearly defined and then they be spoken to if they exceed the district. And I'm not just talking about IV as a community service project, I'm talking about any district that overlaps with another district.

Commissioner Sevis to the chair. Through our municipal service review, we do look at that and whether or not there are overlapping services being provided or serviced by another agency. At the time we wrote the Recreation Parks Open Space Municipal Service Review back in 2024, we did not identify any overlapping services being provided At that time, they hadn't applied for a special event to host the festival.

That seems to be something new that's now being triggered as far as this conversation goes and when we get back to rewriting that service review for second cycle will be looking at those services again but that is something that will be asking I think today I think the commission will be asking the district how is that function being treated, and is it competing with the Isla Vista Rec and Park District? And we'll hope to get an answer for that today.

And then we would be the ultimate deciders as to the district's responsibilities and make sure that in future reviews that there are no duplications.

We'll be looking at those in future reviews and we'll be making recommendations on how to correct or organize the governments so that they don't have duplications. And we'll make those recommendations in those reports.

All right, thank you.

Commissioner Kiriakou, then Commissioner Guyer.

Thank you Chair Stark and I appreciate the line of questioning from Commissioner Nelson. You know when we first discussed whether or not to take up this item and how we would take up this item this is exactly the kind of a question that I posed to the Commission like what's the problem we're trying to solve here because I mean it almost feels to me like we're substituting powers for just kind of wordsmithing. I mean, if we wanted to get really technical the other special district is Isla Vista Recreation and Park District it's not the Isla Vista Festivals District so you could almost make the same argument that they shouldn't be able to throw a festival But I think the staff report very clearly lays out the powers that the IV CSD was granted and they seem to very clearly have this power.

You know, and to kind of get to what Commissioner Nelson was saying, I think one power that we do have vested in us Where we would be the referee or the umpire would be if they wanted to exercise their latent powers. If the Isla Vista Community Services District suddenly decided that they wanted to get into the library business, that's a latent power that they have but they wouldn't just be able to arbitrarily start exercising it. That would throw the county city's relationship for the zones and everything into chaos unless you had an orderly process. LAFCO would then play a role there so this is why when we talked about this in December I suggested that if we were going to have this item rather than it being focused on one specific agency, that it be a broader discussion of what community service districts are allowed to do and what our recreation and park districts allowed to do rather than focusing on one specific agency In response to a public comment that was sort of creating or alluding to a public controversy because it really feels like we're picking on one district that seems to have the power quite literally to do what they're doing.

But we're sitting here and discussing whether or not we need to review it, or do a new municipal service review which would also be an expenditure of public funds. And potentially a waste of public funds so at least in my view. So I you know I continue to be a little bit baffled about why we're here today but it was nice to learn a little bit more about what the CSD can do and what CSD's can do generally

Best case, best case will be less baffled at the conclusion of the presentation than we were at the beginning. Commissioner Geier?

Well I share the same concerns over why this is here. I think that some of these questions certainly should have been asked and answered during the Municipal Service Review. To me it looks I guess I'll say ridiculous for us to be questioning stuff after we just finished their municipal service review and didn't raise any issues with it. For me, when I first got the agenda and stuff, I did call the EO, I did question why it was on an action agenda rather than an information agenda.

And I know this, we've been playing verbal volleyball with this for quite a while, and I expected it was going to be under an information item I do feel having something on an action agenda should have had a lot of work done prior to being placed on an action agenda. A lot of interaction with the district concerns, to my knowledge and I have questioned several times, have we received a formal complaint?

I mean, we're not really the complaint department. Once a district's formed there's a process to go through and I think that the normal process would be to go to the district first and complain. So I'm really uncomfortable with this being on the action agenda and I did inquire with LAFCO Council. We could take it off the action agenda and place it on the information agenda and I think that would be a courteous thing to do for the district

Well, I'm not going to change the agenda. I do have a couple of remarks that I'd like to make and I'd like the EO to confirm or counsel to confirm the accuracy of what I am saying. My understanding is that our commission as a condition of formation was required to identify which powers That IBCSD was exercising, which were active and which were latent. And my understanding is over the course of the first round of municipal service reviews that each of those particular powers specified in their act, the AB3 was identified and a decision was made as to whether they were active or latent as is indicated I think on the EO slide. So that's been discharged our duties under the condition of formation are completed so there at this point I think like pretty much any other community services district except they have a peculiar statute that gives them specific, specific authorities and in one case they're specifically prohibited from interfering with the Ivy Rec and Parks District.

At this point my understanding is that a new round of municipal service reviews are commencing and that starts with the public safety agencies if I have that correct? And in the course of that The IV CSD will be reviewed for their public safety activities and our EO will make whatever recommendations he cares to make with respect to that. Other than that, I'm not aware of any prosecutorial oversight powers that we actually have. If we got information that a district, any district was doing something wrong Depending on whether it would be civil or criminal, we would in the courts of business refer to either the district attorney or the civil grand jury depending on the context and that's what the appropriate action would be. At this point I think we're just here to hear from the district.

I'm not aware at this point in time if there's any action that we would be I don't know if entitled is the right word, but there wouldn't be any action we would necessarily be able to take in that context. I'd just like to hear the information. Did I say that correctly Mr. Prater?

Chair Stark, that is correct.

Thank you. In that case, I would ask the district to come forward and I'd call Mr. Abood, if that is Mr. Abood I recognize Ms. Topliff, I haven't seen you in a while.

Okay, hi everybody. My name is Jonathan Abood. I'm the general manager for the Isla Vista Community Services District. We're happy to be here and provide information as requested. I'd like to start with our agenda of this presentation we want to introduce ourselves you know back to some commissioners who might not know us as well give an overview of all of our service areas and then talk specifically about our application over some of our active powers with the compost collective and the festival i think this might be slightly cut off but I think we'll be okay.

So introduction, you know me. I want to invite our staff to come and introduce themselves as well.

Hello everyone! I'm Jenna Norton the Public Works and Sustainability Director for the IVCSD. I lived in Isla Vista for five years and have worked for the CSD for almost four so been a community member for about nine years.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Sydney Castaneda. I'm the Assistant General Manager with the district. I have been with the district for about five years now previously as a Community Engagement Director and I've lived in this community for about 15 years. Thank you.

Fifteen years in Isla Vista as well. All right, so some quick facts about Isla Vista. This is what we know from the census where I cited my data as best as I could. The information is murky sometimes at best but we know that there's 15,000 people who live in Isla Vista with a density of 28,000 per square mile or half a square mile About 11,000 UCSB students out of that 15,300 youth under 18. 350 seniors and then about 4,000 other adults we don't have strong categorization of them but they're the parents of the youth, the City College students and long-term renters. And then overlapping with some of these numbers are the 200 owner occupied homeowners people who you know own the home that they live in And in the area we have an additional 10,000 UCSB students who frequently come into Isla Vista and utilize our services.

Our mission for the Ivy Community Services District quality of life and public safety and providing a local voice. Our vision and our values again we are a voice for Isla Vista by Isla Vista building the community we deserve and that is what we believe very strongly that we do deserve a lot better than in Isla Vista than we've had in the past And our governing authority framework. So we have government code title six, community services district division three that is the overall general CSD law as mentioned we have a special section it's government code 61250 and we have two measures of the voters have approved with over 80% support measure E which formed the district and measure R which is our utility user tax passed in June 2018 Oh, shoot.

This is a little cut off again so I'll just try to remember what the last bullet points are but this is what the legislative findings are on what community services districts are for and again it's services that promote peace health safety and public welfare and I think it just repeats that at the bottom once again Another part of the legislative findings of what CSDs are for, again it's providing locally adequate levels of public facilities and services.

Potentially a bridge to cityhood we'll see. And another again part of the legislative intent and I bolded the very key line which is to meet the diversity of local conditions circumstances and resources. The legislature could not figure out what happens in every community in California but provided for these districts to meet the local needs And once again, more legislative intent language. And I bolded a key one. Well there's one that's crossed out which is eminent domain. We're the only district in California that does not have eminent domain. We have a couple things that other people don't have but that's when we don't.

But there's a bold N in the first column governance powers to take any and all actions necessary for or incidental to the powers expressed or implied in this division. So the legislature understands that the specific sentences in the powers code doesn't express everything that's needed to do to perform government services. This is what's in Government Code 61-250, it was already shown previously in the slides and these are the shorthand names we have for our powers so the APC Area Planning Commission and the MAC, those we have not been using.

Tenant mediation is a very broad power that's unique to us Parking is another one that's unique to us and it is parking as per the Parking District Law of 1951. Supplemental police protection, that's another unique service for us which is contracting specifically with the county or the University of California to provide police protection services. This is the one in question today, community facilities. So it's to acquire, construct, improve, maintain and operate community facilities including but not limited to and that's a very key line because it broadens the horizon. Community centers, libraries, theaters, museums, cultural facilities and childcare facilities. And so again we're on the operating end of here and that's what we'll talk more about later.

And then sidewalks, lighting gutters and street trees and that is to do that in coordination with the County of Santa Barbara which Jenna does very frequently. Some more on powers. We're the only district with a utility users tax in State of California. We have five elected board members, one appointed by the county and one appointed by UC Santa Barbara. Again we don't have eminent domain and very specifically were not able to supplant the level of services currently provided by the county IVRPD or UCSB or any other service provider so we can supplement but not supplant And then we just have inherent government functions like administration and communication and intergovernmental advocacy, which is I assume what we're here doing today. These are our board members, they're excellent.

I think they're all UCSB alums or current students.

How many vacancies on the board? We

have no vacancies. We have a full-time staff of eight and a part time staff of at least 22. It fluctuates, and then our contractor professionals are accountant Kerry Troop who I think many of you know, and Alishara Winder is our legal firm. Our budget, you know I got to say IVCSC might be the only special district that is very strict on zero-based budgeting. We construct our budget from scratch every year every dollars accounted for and what it does and that's what's in the attachment for you today and we do an extensive community engagement process to also build our budget As you can see, the top line numbers 1.1 million or 1.2 million on salaries and benefits, 700,000 on services and supplies, insurance and capital. The capital is a one-time expense for starting up our parking program.

And the utility user tax is thankfully bringing in $1.5 million currently. UCSB has maintained their commitment of $200,000 a year for seven years. We're on the second tranche of seven years now so they did the first seven years and now we're on the second one. And then we have a variety of grants and other ways to bring in funds.

So just so it's clear, where you say Measure R that's your utility users tax revenues

right? Yes and we will have a slide on Measure R later in the presentation. How does IVCSD think about problems? We're very much an outcome-oriented organization, so we think about the inputs we have which is our staff time, our dollars invested. We look at outputs you know how much trash we might pick up, how much litter we pick up but our actual goal is the outcome of clean streets no trash on the street. So if that is accomplished in a different way than just constantly picking up litter we're all for it.

That's our framework. What do we invest? What does our investment do and are we actually hitting the outcome we want for our community? So you can see some of our outcomes are having a safe, healthy and enjoyable community for all residents especially on weekend nights and days such as Deltopia. We wanna have a civically engaged community that's with civic engagement that's meaningful inclusive and help shape our decisions We'd love to have Isla Vista residents enjoy a sustainable and high quality of life in their housing, parking, transportation and neighborhood beauty.

And that we have a growing level of self-governance sufficient resources to meet our own needs and confidence in the efficient use of existing resources. Isla Vista has so many different local government agencies serving it. So many streams of revenue going different places. And we want to make sure that's all being aligned and deployed in an efficient way to meet the outcomes we believe we deserve.

And some of our big accomplishments in the last, it's nine years. Our birthday is coming up in a couple days, March 7th but we passed Measure R that was required to maintain the existence of the district. We received a second 1.4 million from UCSB thanks to the success of the first one. We got the Ivy Community Center opened in partnership with the County of Santa Barbara We coordinated local COVID-19 response back when that was happening, which in other unincorporated areas may not have had a district like ours to help do that.

We did the first Isla Vista Mobility Plan brought in funding from the state for that and then translated that immediately into $500,000 in Measure A funds for sidewalk improvements. We got an award for our public outreach for the mobility plan We secured, working with the county, local government ability to have sanctioned outdoor festivals. And so that's why we're here today.

Last week we worked with the County Public Works Department to get an amendment to the County Waste Ordinance which hasn't been updated since 1995 and thanks to the research we did led to that improvement. And then we also installed the first health and safety vending machine in California at our community center. It's part of the Community Center Services.

All right, so now I'm gonna go over our different service areas and what they do. We're gonna quickly go through these. So our operations, every district needs operations and our operation area we've secured so far in just five years $500,000 in external grants. So not needing to use taxpayer funds and we've had over 200 Brown Act meetings in our existence. And so again this is like myself and Sidney, our attorney, our accountant and we just keep things going clean. We've had clean audits as well this whole time too. So we've been running a clean ship Next, I'm going to turn it over to Jenna who's going to talk about our Public Works and Sustainability Department.

All right hello so in this section I'm going to be talking about how we exercise our powers surrounding sidewalks lighting gutters trees graffiti abatement and of course parking So through the Isla Vista Beautiful program, we upkeep our community by monitoring graffiti. We pick up trash and glass and we also monitor infrastructure issues in the public right of way.

These before and after photos represent a very small portion of what our team has done. But since 2024, we've removed over 1300 instances of graffiti so you could just imagine the difference if all that graffiti still existed in our community. Next is public art. So, art is extremely valued in our community and we believe that it's key to cultivating community pride and discouraging graffiti.

So, we've installed over eight murals in the past two years and we've also recently revamped our welcome to Isla Vista sign which was huge. So next, through our lighting distribution initiative we provide free outdoor radio light fixtures to tenants and property owners in order to light the public right of way. We also fund public restrooms in order to discourage public urination and divert folks from the cliffs.

So next, and this is huge, is our move in and move out initiatives. These initiatives take a holistic approach to student turnover by combining education, accessible ways to properly donate items or properly dispose of or donate items Heavy duty litter pickup and strong community partnerships, we've curated one of the most comprehensive approaches being used in college towns across the country.

So next, in Isla Vista we have very specific waste challenges as well as waste management services. So in order to work with that, we've created some very custom and engaging outreach material to educate residents on these topics. So next is our tree distribution program. So Isla Vista has much fewer trees than surrounding areas, and through this initiative we distribute free trees to property owners in hopes of bringing the many benefits of trees back into our community.

And then, of course, there's parking. I know it's a little bit weird on the screen but Isla Vista is over 105% capacity when it comes to on-street parking. We are finally launching our Parking Compliance Program in April. We've been working really hard on it and by taking a community centered and education first approach we will be improving public safety and accessibility in our community.

And lastly, I just want to talk on parking alternatives. So we've been working really hard to educate residents about public transportation local resources and also improving mobility infrastructure and through doing all of this our hope is to encourage a car free lifestyle in Isla Vista Thank you

Okay, I'm gonna briefly talk about our community programs and engagement efforts as well as housing and public safety. So the Ivy Community Center is a great example of the district stepping in where a gap existed when the county could not... As owners of the buildings, the Ivy CSD transformed the buildings into the vibrant community hub that they are today. We've hosted over 5700 events creating one of the few shared gathering spaces in Isla Vista.

Another program that we created is the Survivor Resource Hub. It brings together trusted local resources in one place, making it easier for both survivors and allies to access support in a college community where sexual violence occurs at disproportionately high rates. The Ivy CSD community gardens provide green space in one of the most densely populated areas of Santa Barbara County, giving residents a place to grow food, learn sustainable gardening practices and just build community.

And community engagement is a huge part of our work. Through our outreach efforts, residents have a real voice in shaping local decisions. Our outreach of the Ivy Mobility Plan as Jonathan mentioned did win the 2022 CSDA Exceptional Public Outreach and Advocacy Award. And again, another unique effort is our health and safety vending machine. We provide free 24-7 access to life saving supplies like Narcan and other health resources to really help produce overdose risk and support the well being of Isla Vista residents.

We also run the Civic Leadership Initiative which introduces students and residents to local government empowering our next generation of leaders to understand and participate in civic life. Last year we had 19 graduates of this program And for over 20 years, the Isla Vista Community Network has brought together residents, local agencies and campus partners to coordinate efforts and share information focused on issues that directly impact Isla Vista.

In a community where nearly all residents are renters, we offer a housing mediation and legal advice program that provides neutral support for both tenants and landlords to help reduce housing conflicts. And just this fiscal year we've had 73 inquiries and facilitated 11 mediations. And that brings IV services to a similar level as the City of Santa Barbara.

Now I'll talk about public safety efforts. So our safety stations are an important program providing a visible safety presence in Isla Vista on busy nights, offering water, peer-to-peer safety escorts and just overall support with 927 safety escorts provided since 2021. Through IV-SAFE, the district convenes 40 agencies to coordinate public safety planning and preventative strategies. And we continue the work that was first launched by District Attorney Joyce Dudley and now it's led by the IBCSD.

I think we all can agree that Isla Vista's cliffside is beautiful, but it's also very dangerous. Our cliff safety efforts focus on prevention through infrastructure advocacy, education and partnerships designed to reduce the risk of tragic accidents. And I think across all of these programs that you heard about today, the goal is the same creating a safer more connected and more supported Isla Vista. Thank you.

Okay, so let's zoom in on the Community Festival and Compost Collective. This is just restating some things from before but we have express authority, the powers in 61-250, the implied and incidental authority, and then the interrelated powers and how they combine together. We saw this already, we saw this already, and we saw this one already. So the Compost Collective is a very small program that Isla Vista CSD runs. We are not a waste manager, we're not here to replace Marburg or anything that the county does but we're really providing a community gathering space, a way to provide quality compost to make the gardens that we do operate more more abundant and it is just a way for people to come together, hang out, learn about waste and food waste and how to compost.

But we are not a composting agency and no one's relying on us for their compost. The actual advice is to put in your bin and it'll be sorted at the Tahecus landfill. So that's a small one. The Isla Vista Spring Festival, recently announced name Saltopia. It is a public safety initiative and what I said at the Board of Supervisors just a couple days ago is that we're not doing this for the sake of doing it. We're not, we're doing this for public safety. We want to see zero medical calls on that day. We want to see zero arrests and citations. We want to see less people near the bluff's edge. We don't want to see a riot like we saw in 2014 when there was abandoned amplified music that year. So we were doing this to keep our community safe, not to just throw an event.

So now I'll talk about some of our powers and how this festival integrates with them. So there's the community facilities power, which again is a broad authority that says including but not limited to community centers and more. The way we see this is that the spaces that were activating on that day temporarily such as the street is a temporary community and cultural facility. So we don't have much in Isla Vista. So the parks, we have the parks and we have the streets and we are using those that day full collaboration with Ivy Rec and Park District. They're supportive. We thank them for that but these are temporary community facilities for the day of.

Second, our supplemental police protection power. You know the County Board of Supervisors approved a permit on Tuesday for the IVCSD to host an outdoor festival on April 4th and we view that as a contract with the county that we have to throw a safe event Part of that contract is to provide over 70, it says 50, it's 70 now security officers so that we don't need to have law enforcement there. Even though we will have a law enforcement presence within our festival blueprint about four to eight officers, it's not the 300 that are gonna be on Del Paya and Sabo de Tarde. So we're saving the county money by providing supplemental protection services.

Granted you the permit. We did get the permit, unanimous vote thank you to our Board of Supervisors. Next is the sidewalk sliding and gutters powers so by having a organized event we are able to divert waste whether that's litter or human waste away from the public streets and into coordinated areas such as Marburg bathrooms trash cans that we deploy across the community and so we're maintaining our public space and making sure that they're not overcrowded and properly crowd managed. That's how we're using this power.