BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Yeah. Good morning everybody. If I could have everybody take their seats. Welcome to this regular meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Unfortunately, Supervisor Gray is out ill today so I will have the honor of chairing today's meeting of May 3rd 2011. Mr. Allen would you call the roll please?

Mr. Lavagnino? Here! Mr. Carbajal? Here! Ms. Wolfe?

Here.

Ms. Spahr?

Thank you. Mr. Marshall do you have a report from closed session?

Yes thank you Madam Chair. Your board held all of the closed sessions with no items to report. The item public employee performance evaluation those three matters were continued to a future date.

All right, next we have the approval of the minutes of our April 19th 2011 meeting. We have any changes or comments on those? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion for approval. I have a motion to have a second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Before we go to our administrative agenda, we're going to go ahead and start with resolutions. I know that Supervisor Gray has sometimes done them in the afternoon but because we're anticipating a shorter meeting today, we are going to be doing them now And the first one we have is from Supervisor Wolf to adopt a resolution proclaiming the month of May 2011 as National Foster Care Month. Madam Chair? Yes.

Just an order of procedure, you want us to make a motion to approve them so that we could...

Why don't we go ahead... Mr. Allen do we need to do that first?

Madam Chair, that would be appropriate for the board to go ahead and approve items A1 through A5.

A1 through A5, okay. So moved. Okay, a motion? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right, Supervisor Wolk.

Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to present this resolution which proclaims the month of May as National Foster Care Month in Santa Barbara County and I see Delfino Nera is in the audience and I'd like to call him up. Delfino is a Deputy Director of the Department of Social Services and Kathy Gallagher as our director And oh, you've got some other folks from the department or foster parents. Foster parents? Wow!

Thank you. This is an opportunity for this board to recognize the issue of foster children in our community and to also really pay tribute to those folks in our community who are the foster parents. You do so much for the children who at no fault of their own need some care. They need some love, they need some assistance and I'm happily surprised that you're here so that we can recognize you as representative of what our foster parents do in our community. So with that Mr. Allen if you could read this resolution.

Madam Chair members of the board item A1 is a resolution recognizing May 2011 to be National Foster Care Month Whereas every child deserves a home where they are loved and nurtured in a safe environment, and every child deserves to belong to a family. And whereas foster kinship and adoptive families who open their homes and hearts and support children whose families are in crisis play a vital role in helping children and families heal and reconnect.

And whereas foster parenting is a critical resource that enables children We're moved from their homes through no fault of their own to live in a nurturing safe and least restrictive environment that will create a lifelong connection for each child. And whereas resources to support foster parents and recruit more foster homes are diminishing due to the current economic climate, and services continue to be significantly underfunded to meet present needs. And whereas, young people in foster care need the guidance, stability and love that are so essential for becoming successful adults from the significant people in their lives while they are in care. Whereas, the ongoing efforts of foster parents, relative caregivers, mentors, advocates, social workers and volunteers help many children face life's challenges without feeling all alone.

Thanks to these heroes, many formerly abused or neglected children and teens will either safely reunite with their parents be cared for by relatives or be adopted by families. Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara recognizes May 2011 as National Foster Care Month in recognition of our county's foster children and foster parents and all county employees involved in the juvenile independency system Who care for the children and families that watch over them. Passed and adopted today.

Madam Chair, members of the board. We want to thank you for this special recognition today and we didn't, we usually list out all the statistics about foster care but there's so many acts of kindness that this group of folks do that we couldn't count them. We can't have a list to keep track of that but I want to thank them and appreciate all the efforts that they do their active parts in not only caring for our children but helping us improve as a department in serving our children and I want to make a brief announcement May 7th, this Saturday at 6.30 p.m., at First Baptist Church 949 in Veronica Springs Road in Santa Barbara we'll be having an event to recognize a foster parent. It's a night under the stars. We're showing a movie and having popcorn and things for the kids that are there so you're welcome and all the foster parents that are watching today are welcome and I really want to just thank these folks for all the special work that they do.

Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board. My name is Lillian Pipersburg. I've had the honor of being a foster parent for approximately 25 years. After retiring from the County Probation Department my husband and I are currently running one of the emergency shelters for children coming into the foster system. And it is with great honor and pride that myself accept this resolution on behalf of the foster parents that are present today and all foster parents throughout the county of Santa Barbara It's a wonderful opportunity to embrace children, to mentor families and to assist in the growth and development of our children in this community.

We've had the opportunity to work with family members, children themselves see our children age out become grandparents like for example Christina here who also runs one of the emergency shelters she's had maybe two or three generations of children come through her home And they come back and bless her with the honor of meeting their children and their children's children. So thank you very much for this resolution, and for recognizing us for our efforts.

Thank you very much.

We may be designating May as National Foster Care Month, but of course every month is foster care month. Thank you. Item A2 is being withdrawn and will be continued to another date. So item A3, which is to honor our Santa Barbara County Employees of the Month from the Agricultural Commissioner's Office. I've asked Supervisor Carbajal if he would help present these resolutions.

So, Supervisor Carbajal? We have receiving Tom Donlan, Mary Ann Rahala and Debra Troop. Are they here? Are they in North County? No, they're

here.

All right.

All

is Be Kind to Animals Week with this year's theme Give an animal a second chance at happiness, adopt a pet at your local animal shelter. And whereas, Santa Barbara County Animal Services takes in approximately 10,000 lost or unwanted animals annually. And whereas, animal licensing and microchipping are your pet's ticket home and the revenue helps Animal Services operate three open door shelters.

And whereas, Animal Services has a small and dedicated staff complemented by over 300 volunteers donating an estimated 1,000 hours per week who are committed and honored for their service and commitment. Whereas, Animal Services volunteers conduct regular offsite adoption events improving placement of animals. And whereas the Animal Shelter Assistance Program, ASAP, Bunnies Urgently Needing Shelter, BUNS, Canine Placement and Assistant League, Canine Pals, Companion Animal Placement Assistance, CAPA, and the Santa Barbara County Animal Care Foundation are all non-profit organizations formed to assist county animal services with thousands of stray and abandoned animals received each year.

And whereas, Canine Pals, CAPA, BUNS, ASAP and the Animal Care Foundation and other county volunteers have provided services, medical care, capital project funding, education and community outreach all for the benefit of the county's animal population and their human friends. And whereas, volunteers countywide save more lives by fostering underage injured or sick animals. Now therefore be it ordered and resolved The Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County does hereby observe the week of May 1 through 7, 2011 as Be Kind to Animals Week in recognition of the contributions of all the volunteers committed to the animals of Santa Barbara County. Passed and adopted today.

Madam Chair, members of the Board. I just wanted to take a moment to say that we couldn't let the national Be Kind to Animals Week go by without highlighting the services of the volunteers. As you're aware, we have 30 staff at our three shelters and we estimate we have over 350 active volunteers so we clearly couldn't get our work done without the work of the volunteers and we wanted to take this opportunity To highlight that work. I also wanted to introduce Stacy Silva, she's our coordinator of community outreach. She is a staff person but works very closely with all of our volunteers and all of our groups are represented here.

Most of our volunteers do also work jobs so many of them were not able to come and be here this morning with us but we are very proud to have 350 active volunteers that help us meet our mission in animal services thank you. Thank you

Well, Madam Chair isn't here so supervise. Sorry you are chair. Well first of all clock or no clock I won't take more than three minutes but I want to thank you all for recognizing all the hard work that our volunteers are doing as Jan mentioned most of them have day jobs so they cannot be here But be assured that all of them appreciate your recognition. And we also want to thank you for being so supportive of animal issues. The ordinance that you passed a year and a half ago is working, at least we see the difference in the Santa Barbara shelter.

So thank you for all your support. Thank you.

Madam Chair, members of the board. I wanted to also acknowledge today all the volunteers with all the non-profits that are not affiliated with our county shelters because without them we and we are probably the largest number of animal activists in the county couldn't do our job so there's DOG, there's VIVA, they're the Humane Societies, they're the manifold number of small rescue groups that keep popping up that I'm not even aware of half the time The commitment in this county to animal welfare is really extraordinary and I'm very proud to be a part of that community. I'm also very proud to work with Animal Services, with Jan Glick and Stacey Silva and the other staff who work so hard and work so hard to collaborate with us and we are not the easiest people sometimes to collaborate with.

So thank you to all of them and to you for your recognition. Thank you.

Anybody else like to speak? Well, thank you all for the work that you do every week for us in the shelters and all those 350 volunteers that help. Right well let's go and move on then to the rest of our administrative agenda are there any items that members of the board would like to pull?

Madam Chair I'd like to pull A29 and A30 please.

Supervisor Carbajal, do you have anything you want to pull? Supervisor Wolf. All right and before we take those I think Mr. Allen you have some corrections and changes you want to. Read it for

us. Madam Chair, members of the Board I had a couple of notes regarding the administrative agenda this morning. First off as noted earlier item A2 from Supervisor Farr that resolution will be withdrawn and we'll come back to the board at a later date. Additionally items A11, 12 and 13 from General Services these are all related to janitorial services contracts There's a request that item be continued to your meeting next week on the 10th.

And also, Item A22 is from the Public Works Board of Directors of Flood Control and Water Conservation District. This is regarding the Lower Mission Creek Flood Control and Restoration Project and there's a request that item be continued one week till your meeting on the 10 as well.

Thank you. All right, Supervisor Lavagnino?

Thank You Madam Chair If I could have Dianne Devonett and Francis Michael Dawson please stand. These are a couple of the folks responsible for the ambiance of our county buildings. They keep my office beautiful, we're reappointing them to the Arts Commission and I don't know if it's county wide or just at least in my office but right now the theme is our county parks And as you walk down that long hallway, it's just a really beautiful thing. So I just wanted to recognize you two and thank you for your work. Thank you.

Mr. Allen, do we have any requests from the public to speak on

this? Madam Chair and members of the board, we have a request from two individuals. One is our own Michael Harris from the Emergency Operations Office and he would like to speak on A32 if I could read that into the record. Item A32 is from the CEO's office. The request that the board set a hearing for the 10th of May to consider recommendations regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission update and report from Pacific Gas & Electric on the Diablo nuclear power plant.

Thank you, Mr. Harris?

Madam Chair, members of the board, direct you and the public's attention to A32 as you know next week we have asked Pacific Gas and Electric to provide a brief report and overview to your board Under item A of that agenda item, it's to receive a report from county staff regarding our interaction with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. One of the things we're asking your board today under this item and we can report next week on this is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC Region 4 is making a senior manager available to the board for presentation and discussion.

They will be in San Luis Obispo if you want to take a look at your calendars and long range calendars during week of June 13th that's budget hearing week On the week of the 13th, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are budget hearings. They're available the 16th which is Thursday. They have a big agenda up in San Luis Obispo on the 15th and they would like to hold over that management representative on the 16th and have asked your board if you'd like to hear from the NRC on June 16th which is Thursday

All right, comments from the board.

Glad to be the bearer of good news.

Do we want to have a representative of the NRC during budget week on Thursday come? Supervisor Carpenter.

I think this issue is so important. We need to have somebody here as soon as possible to give us sort of the lay of the land and if that's the window they're giving us, the only window they seem to be giving us, so be it. I think we should but if they can give us other windows certainly It would be great, but I wouldn't want to give them an excuse not to give us the information and show up and come before us. So what could it take? An hour?

Absolutely. I think it'd be worth it.

Okay. Other comments from the board, Mr. President? No, I just want to second what Supervisor Carbajal said. And I think we need to get them down here so they can answer questions and have an opportunity to hear from them I would say learn something and also for the community. Supervisor Levin, you

know?

It's fine with me.

Okay so CEO Waller would that be calendared then as a special meeting of the board on that Thursday?

I think we could just notice that with our typical noticing But I mean, as a special meeting and do a time certain possibly whatever would work well for you and for the NRC. Possibly nine o'clock?

Yes ma'am.

Does that

sound

like we're

getting

agreement on that then?

Thank you. And we have been and will continue to keep our federal legislative representatives informed as it develops as well.

Okay. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you for being here Mr. Allen.

Madam Chair, members of the board we have two requests to speak from Jeff Bard. Item A7 and item A32. Item A32 has previously been read into the record. Item a seven is a resolution from Supervisor Gray it's to proclaim the week of May 1 through May 7 2011 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Week in Santa Barbara County. Mr. Bard?

Go ahead Mr. Bard.

Good morning madam chair and members of the board My name is Jeff Bard. I am an old school labor democrat and also an environmental health advocate following the inspiration of William Wempissinger, the machinist to form bridges between labor in the community. As such, I founded the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Solidarity Project and participated in NRC event in SLO and learned a great deal about the alleged risk from shoreline fault, which is actually not any worse than the old Hossbury Fault and doesn't really present any new particular challenges that have not already been addressed.

So regarding the Fukushima Daiichi disaster—and it was a disaster, not an accident—it's important to bear in mind that the power plants did survive the earthquakes pretty much intact. It was actually the tsunami that knocked out the power. Also, please bear in mind there's a natural human tendency to politicize this issue. And in this county we're going to see more of that politicization coming down from SLO and I'll be a good sport and engage in dialogue and respectful debate, unlike many others who are really quite fanatical. And I've endured just an absolutely unbelievable bevy of personal attacks because I dared to point out that nuclear power is an essential part of our nation's nuclear portfolio given the fact of global warming.

I'll move on to the other topic, which is also consistent with my work as an environmental health advocate. And I'd like to thank Supervisor Gray for reminding us of the atrocious incidence of childhood cancer. There's no reason children should have to be subjected to carcinogenic hazards. And it is cigarette, secondhand cigarette smoke is a huge carcinogenic hazard and I would dare say much more of a threat to our children and our seniors and our working adults than nuclear radiation.

San Luis Obispo, and I've criticized a lot of their policies but I have to admit SLO has really been a leader in the field of tobacco control and smoking cessation promotion. They were one of the very earliest cities in the nation to have an aggressive anti-smoking campaign, and as we speak there is a very forthright campaign to go countywide on tobacco free San Luis Obispo. And regrettably we're actually not ahead of SLO in that regard so let's take a chance to, as we mourn the children who are suffering from sarcomas and lymphomas To about that this is going to stop and it going for we're going to protect our children and if there's anyone on the board or in the constituency who struggling. Let's support smoking cessation and let's support everyone particularly to keep secondhand cigarette smoke away from other people and for God's sake away from our children thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. Barrett supervisor will.

Thank you very much and thank you Mr. Bard for your comments and it brings to mind the whole issue of childhood health and cancers, and I had an opportunity to read And I'm glad Dr. Watt is here because I just want him to confirm what I'm about to say about our smoking, the amount of smokers that we have in our county. one if not the lowest rates in the state, and I want to say 9%.

And that's just off the top of my head. Can you just come to a microphone and let us know if I'm right on that? Because I was impressed by that, if I'm recalling that correctly. Dr. Wada?

That is correct. We do have one of the lowest rates of smoking in the state, and I believe 9% is the correct figure.

Thank you. That's wonderful. Mr. Allen, do we have anybody else that wants to speak to the administrative

agenda? Madam Chair and members of the board, we have a late request from Mr. John Thorndyke to speak on item

A8.

Item 8 is from the County Executive Office to consider the adoption of an ordinance establishing a processing fee for assessment appeal applications.

Good morning, Chair and Board. Good to see you all looking healthy. I like the looks of the place. Everything looks good. However, I got a caution here on A7. It says adopt a resolution proclaiming this the week of May 1. Wait a minute. Correction, A8. Consider the adoption Second reading, it's getting close of an ordinance amending Article 4 of Chapter 32 of the County Code by establishing and implementing a $65 per parcel non-refundable. And I've got two of the worst parcels left in the county. They're the most nonconforming, and I don't want to have to pay that much money for them.

And I do qualify under the $30 million qualification here. I am under it. Thank you very much.

Mr. Thorndyke, you understand that's a fee only if you're going to appeal the

assessment? Oh, I don't want to appeal anything like that. Well

then you won't be charged the fee.

Oh thank you.

You're welcome. All right. Mr Allen, anybody else to speak to the administrative agenda?

Mr. Thordak was our final speaker.

Okay, thank you. All right any additional comments on the administrative agenda? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Second. All right we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries all right let's move ahead to board member reports. Supervisor Wolf would you like to start us off?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Since we didn't have a meeting last week, sometimes the list gets a little bit longer. So just a couple of things that I did want to highlight. I attended the Ecotopia event at the Canary Hotel which was an interesting partnership between our lodging industry and CEC and other environmental groups, what they're promoting is Santa Barbara as a destination for folks who are interested in sustainability. And so it was an interesting event and I applaud both those organizations and others.

I also attended the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum exhibit opening and this one was the Spills Broad Reach which featured selections from Paul Lynch's documentary, Short Birth of a Movement. And there is also this evening another opening speaker on another exhibit that is being presented at the Maritime Museum. It's a terrific museum I'm so proud of the work that they've done and their innovation there.

Actually, I was a judge at Santa Barbara City College Lancaster Public Speaking Award. It was really interesting. The students who were selected as the finalists had to Quote-unquote, play the devil's advocate. And their speeches were very well done and it was an interesting experience and I was glad to see some of these kids. We are blessed in this community to have some incredible students and it was certainly apparent that evening. I also attended the CEC Solarize Santa Barbara conference which I'm sure many of you have read A program that CEC is promoting for homeowners to participate and become or to access solar panels for their homes.

I attended the City-County Joint Affordable Housing Task Force, which is always interesting to hear what other folks in our community in the South Coast, the different municipalities are doing as it relates to affordable housing. I also attended a retirement board meeting and at that meeting, and as many of you know, I'm a new member on that board. And I find it very interesting and compelling. And there's a report that has just come out from the Retirement Board and I've asked that that report come to this board as an administrative item so we can all share in Very interesting. Dr. Wada, Michelle Mikowicz were there and as always they put on a great presentation, educational information. Scott McCann and other folks from the health department do a terrific job in educating our community so I want to thank them for that.

Thank you Supervisor Wolf. Supervisor Carbajal?

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a rather busy week for me as well but I'm going to focus on three items. One, I had the pleasure to attend the graduation of the Spanish CERT program in Carpinteria that's greatly funded by the Orfale Foundation known as Listos and it was really interesting to see a segment of the community primary language is Spanish to be able to see them learn about emergency preparedness in their neighborhoods and how they can not only be part of the solution during a disaster for their own families but their neighborhoods in the community.

I also attended the Police Officers Activity League event, and that again just it's great to see our public safety folks go out of their comfort zone to raise funds and create a community campaign to help our youth in our community in various capacities. And the third item that I'd like the public to be aware of is that my office has been working with the State Superintendent of Instruction, Tom Torlakson's office on a visit that he's making to our area today and tomorrow. Tomorrow morning he will be having a number of events some with business and industry individuals. He will be attending the Partners in Education breakfasts and he will also be having an interaction with a number of educators Later on in the evening.

So I just, I think it's somewhat historic in that he's the number one education czar if that's a good enough word for California's education system and he will be here trying to learn and impart some of the things that are going on at the state level to improve our education system.

Thank you Supervisor Carbajal. Supervisor Lavagnino?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Busy time of the year I guess. We just finished up with Santa Maria Strawberry Festival in Santa Maria that's always a great event and everybody ends up with red stained fingers at the end of that. I had a great time. I was invited to be the guest speaker for our local California Women for Agriculture. Got to discuss some issues that affect them at the county and also receive feedback from them.

Saturday night was the 20-year anniversary party for COLAB, Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business. I don't see Andy here but a full house. It was the first time it was held at the Chumash in the Somalo room. It's usually under a big tent outside and I actually strap on my cowboy boots once a year and head over there but we had over 800 people. Raised a lot of money.

I think it was over about $100,000 at their auction so very successful event there the next night I went to the Santa Barbara County Action Network SB cans looking forward dinner with Supervisor far Some friends of mine's the Brunello's were honored Joey Studley was our guest speaker she did an outstanding job And something I want to highlight and I think it's interesting because Joanie's not here today but kind of Tooting Joni's horn a little bit is that Joni has taken on this sports roundtable.

And what it does is, all the high schools in northern Santa Barbara County, it starts from what's actually the central part as well. It starts with San Ynez and comes up into Lompoc and all the ones in Santa Maria. We get together every Monday at noon. They provide free pizza to the kids. The coaches bring different kids from their teams. And we pick an athlete of the week It's highlighted every week on the news, and it's something that Joni has really jump-started again.

And she deserves some kudos there. One other thing I want to highlight is Scott McGulpin. This is good news, Scott. Scott McAulpin received an award from the United Way for the job that he did as our county's campaign manager for the United Way. He was given the award of Outstanding Campaign Manager for over 250 employees and raised over $216,000 for the United Way so I want to recognize Scott as well for that.

And I also have one last thing is, I'm having an open house. You're all invited. Everybody's invited to the office there in Santa Maria. We've made a few changes there and I just want everybody to be able to... It's May 12th from 4-6pm we're going to provide refreshments Our CEO will be happy to know that that will be out of my own pocket. And I just invite everybody from the community that wants to come and see the office, have a chance to meet me.

It's 511 East Lakeside Parkway in the Veterinary Government Center there. So May 12th from 4 to 6 p.m..

Wonderful, thank you. Just a couple things here like Supervisor Wolf said when we don't meet for a couple of weeks it is a busy time and there are a lot of events going on but I did attend a meet-and-greet of the new San Andres Valley Hotel Association some of you may remember that The formation of the Tourist Business Improvement District did come to the board last year, and I'm happy to say that they are up and running and doing very well in providing grants to the community for various activities. So I did do that. I was at the SPCAN event with Supervisor Lavagnino, attended an event on that at Sedgwick Ranch which is part of the UC Reserve System in the San Ynez Valley that Women's Environmental Watch put on Where we had a demonstration of the organic farming that's going on, Tom Shepard does some row crops and now a very large orchard.

And they have also just built a LEED Platinum meeting there, meeting room there. So, we got to learn all about that. There was a fundraiser in Vandenberg Village by the Vandenberg Village Rotary for the library which exceeded everybody's expectations so that was fun also on Saturday and then I was the guest speaker at the People Helping People annual dinner to honor their many volunteers and the wonderful work they do there.

Back, actually right after we met the last time at the board I did participate in the monthly activities that are going on in Solvang for their heritage trail designation. And this month was for the various cultural institutions in Solvang including the Solvang Vets Hall, the Solvange Library and the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. And at that time Tracy Farhad who's the head of the Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau asked me if I would pass these out to the other members of the board And they are the official Solvang, California Centennial pins. So we'll pass these out to the board. Wear them proudly. Come to Solvange. We have the Amgen Tour coming in a couple of weeks on the 20th so that's going to really bring a lot of different people to the Valley.