BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Can you hear me now?

No.

Testing.

There we are, welcome to the Board of Supervisors and let me assure anyone that's brave enough to be here today that it's one of those kind of days when people seem to be having a good time and acting like three-year-olds but that's okay because they're intellectually Einsteins no laughing All right. So anyway, we're going to call this meeting to order and have roll call.

Ms. Farr? Here. Mr. Lavagnino? Here. Mr Carbajal? Here Ms. Wolf?

Here

Mrs. Gray?

Thank you. And it's truly a beautiful day and soon the wind will be gone. Mr. Counsel, do we have a report from closed session?

Thank you Madam Chair. The three items conference with labor negotiator one case of anticipated litigation deciding to initiate and one case of anticipated litigation and significant exposure to litigation each of these were heard and there were no reportable actions as reported at the outset public employee performance evaluation had been Continue to next week.

Thank you. Approval of the minutes of May 3rd. Is there a second? I will not be voting, I wasn't present. All in favor say aye. Opposed and abstention me. Okay we'll move to the administrative agenda Mr. Allen do we have folks that want to speak on that?

Madam Chair, members of the board. I do not have any requests to speak on the administrative agenda from the public. I just would like to note one request which is item A27. It's from Public Works. The recommendations are regarding the construction of the 2010-2011 countywide preventative maintenance application of scrub scale and microsurfacing and the department has requested that we continue that to a meeting next week on 517.

Okay, thank you Mr. Allen. During Supervisor Farr would like to pull off A15 and 16. And discuss those items. Mr. Allen?

Madam Chair and members of the board, item A-15 is from the auditor controller. The request that the board approve a budget revisions necessary in order to correctly classify fund balance in preparation for the required implementation of governmental accounting standards board statement number 54 as of July 1, 2011. A-16 is from the county executive office to approve budget revision requests.

Supervisor Farr? Thank you, Madam Chair. On A15 I had a question about the CSA32 which was now not going to be considered special revenue fund. I don't know if there's anybody here that can speak to this issue but I'm just trying to figure out what happens to this money now that goes to the Sheriff's Department. It looks like it was transferred in, transferred out, transferred in, transferred out to a number of different accounts so nobody here that can speak to that. Ms. Waller?

Yes, if maybe we could trail this item. I understand from speaking from one of the employees of Auditor and Controller that they anticipate their arrival pretty quickly.

Okay thank you. And then on A16 has to do with the budget revision to the Agricultural Commissioner's Office for $75,000 And it says that they're going to decrease the salary and benefits designation in order to cover this contractual services for cooperative extension. And I remember this item because it was continued from the budget hearing, and we took action on it finally in August. And as I recall, I thought that that money was coming out of contingency or another fund.

And you know if it comes out of this designation at Agricultural Commissioner's Office Then that's $75,000 less that they have to carry over or to keep somebody employed into the next year or whatever. So is there a way that we can double check on the history of that? Because that's not my recollection.

Supervisor Chairwoman, yes, we can check on that to affirm what the direction was and where those are coming from. Let's

trail back. We'll move that one. We won't vote on that one today. We'll bring that back next week. Yes please. OK thank you. Thank you. And let's see, I'm trying to figure out how to do this. I have to leave the room on A23. There's a possibility they'll have a conflict. I'm a one-third partner in the law firm of Wittenberg O'Neill and Gray. And the law firm was hired by the Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation. My partner saw them, so I think it's wise for me not to be here.

So why don't I ask for a motion to approve the administrative agenda list A23? Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second?

Madam Chair, because we're trailing A15 and A16 Maybe we should take those out of the motion

as well? Yes, that's true. And just make note of the modification as modified that those are trailed. Is there a second?

I'll second

it. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? We will now go to A23 and I will leave the room and Supervisor Farr will handle this.

Yes, Mr. Allen, would you read A23 please? Madam

Chair and members of the board, item A23 is from Housing and Community Development. The request is that the board consider recommendations regarding the Santa Barbara County Home Consortium and CDBG Urban-County Partnership Final 2011 Action Plan.

Okay are there any comments from the board on this item? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion to approve. Motion, second? Second all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, thank you. All right Mr. Allen we've completed the administrative agenda there's no request from the public to speak on this.

No request from the public on the administrative agenda today.

Chairwoman, Supervisor, I noted that the Auditor-in-Control has joined us. So possibly you may want to go ahead and ask your questions related to that item.

Thank you. Back to supervisor for that? Yeah, thank you Madam Chair. Yeah back to Item A. Let's give him

a chance to...

Mr. Geis, thank you for being here. I had a question about A15, also A16. But I think A15 which has to do with CSA 32 it seemed like that was the rest of it was really purely administrative and but CSA 32 looks like it wasn't going to qualify as a special revenue fund and the money kind of got moved in and out of various accounts so I'm just wondering whether you could explain that better? And also how does the money how is the money gonna flow now Since it doesn't flow into the same.

So Madam Chair and members of the board so Gatsby 54 does a couple of big things one it creates a whole depth new set of definitions of fund balance. That's one set of issues in a bigger categorization of fund balance that we're working on. This particular issue, it also goes back to some standards that originally existed about what is the real definition of a special revenue fund? And a good example of a real definition of a special revenue fund is the Santa Barbara County Flood Control Districts. So there's dedicated property taxes for the flood control districts that can only be spent on flood control. So those are easy and they easily classify. A couple other examples are we have a unique thing, not a unique thing we do here but we have taken mental health, health and social services out of the general fund and put them into special revenue funds.

They get you know a significant amount of federal and state reimbursements and they get a general fund contribution over but they qualify as a special revenue fund So service area 32 doesn't really have a dedicated source of property taxes. What it was, it was originally put together as a result of a lawsuit prior to Prop 13 that said well we want to try and isolate an account for the cost of sheriff patrol services In the unincorporated area, and so we set up this service area 32 and did this accounting mechanism to keep track of that. But under the new GASB's since that doesn't really have a special revenue source there aren't dedicated property taxes it says you shouldn't use a special revenue fund to do that accounting anymore and it gets rid of this inter front transfer that kind Makes it harder to even understand the county's finances when you're looking at them globally.

So we're going to eliminate that fund. That doesn't mean that the sheriff can't do the cost accounting and keep track of what patrol services are in the unincorporated area, We just won't do that with the special revenue fund accounting mechanism.

Okay so it's like over 27 million dollars so it was collected went into the general fund came back out into the special revenue fund and then was dispersed from there but now it's just going to go in the general fund and stay there?

Well all we did is took General Fund money, did an accounting entry that put it over in the Special Revenue Fund. And then took Sheriff Patrol costs and took the money back out of the fund so there really was no dedicated revenue source for Sheriff Patrol services. We were only trying to do An accounting mechanism because of this potential lawsuit that happened in 1978 between the city and the counties about spending property taxes generated in the cities on sheriff patrol services Unincorporated area, but really working through with County Council. That's all really gone away We believe the legal theory for that after prop 13 And we just never were able to get rid of this funny accounting we were doing

so then is CSA 32 Does it need to stay in existence?

You know, that's really a LAFCO decision and maybe something for your board to consider for future policy. Maybe at some point in time we would want to do an additional benefit assessment or some kind of assessment for extended services for Sheriff Patrol especially as we get into a budgetary situation that you know we're really reducing the cost of the Sheriff's Department in next year's budget. So, you know we're saying that's a different issue whether we would rather use the service area to collect a benefit assessment for special services I mean for extended services so I'd leave it in place for awhile and then when we get back on our feet financially we could look at LAFCO and say should we eliminate it?

Okay thank you that's

very helpful. Thank

you Mr. Guy. Ms. Waller

Chairwoman Supervisor, another reason that you may wish to keep the CSA in existence is at some point in the future it's not uncommon that developers may want to take advantage of it for some sort of enhanced service in their development. So it's a really good vehicle to have there and as a reminder that would take a vote of the people so it's not something that necessarily you or our citizens would have to be concerned with just unilateral but it does leave the vehicle available to those who may wish to utilize

And Madam Chair, I see Dr. Stilwell in Santa Barbara. Is he here to help speak to A16? Dr. Stillwell? Oh great.

I could provide some insight for A16 if it's the board's interest at this time.

I'm interested. Please.

So what I'm seeing, I think I can answer Supervisor Farr's questions because I see that the cover sheet for the budget revision request is not consistent with the actual budget revision. So if you look six pages in to the budget revision request number 1338 up on the top right corner, you could see that it's an actual... It's not a transfer from the designation. It's a transfer within the department, an object level transfer And Supervisor Farr is correct. We did go back and look at the tape from the recording from July, the program's $180,000. The department was able to absorb The cost of that by maintaining vacancies, returning vehicles.

They have an additional $75,000 in savings in their salaries and benefit object level. And this is an object level transfer from salaries and benefits to services and supplies because that's where the charge for this program is funded so it's not a release of designation. It's absorbed within the department's current year appropriation. It just switched from salaries and benefits to service and supplies.

Well Madam Chair, Dr. Stilwell I thought that when this came to the board that it was going to be funded because there wasn't gonna be enough money in the department budget. That the balance of the money was coming I thought from contingency so from outside the department is that not correct?

The discussion with the board at that time did involve the contingency. At that time, the department was able to absorb it and is not requesting or requiring a contingency transfer. So the contingency was the backup plan if the department wasn't able to actually absorb the costs. They are actually able to absorb the cost due to vacancies and reducing expenditures.

But what's the board's motion to take it out of contingency?

Yeah, we did look at the tape and there was a discussion to take it out of contingency and CEO Brown interjected that the department could absorb it. And it seemed like that was what the final board's direction was to have the department absorb it or take it from contingency if unable.

Well... Do you need to

look at the tape?

Yeah, I don't know. I guess Dr. Stilwell, CEO Waller my recollection is that you know the department did as much as they could and that we said that because of the complications of this contract and all that that the rest would come out of contingency. The fact that the department has done such a good job with their budget this year and now has this money available I think is a policy discussion for the board because it seems to me You know, if they were initially relying on the fact that the $75,000 would come from another source outside the department then it's only fair for us to follow through on that. Because especially now with the idea that if you have reserves left over in something like this that they could be carried over into next year that could be of significant help to them as they go into their next year's budget so...

And again, I'm concerned about what action the board took now being turned into something else. Thank you Madam Chair.

I'm not sure where we need to go with this.

Chairwoman, Supervisor, we can certainly review the tape. I think that really though at this point it's a sort of a new decision for you in that you can certainly choose to use the reserves and the reserves will be lessened or you can choose to take it from the department. Any excess dollars that are in the department that are general fund would actually flow through to fund balance so I guess what I'm suggesting is it really comes to the same place when the day is done. But it seems as if

Supervisor Farr's point is the board made a distinctive decision and that was being not followed out. So I think that my suggestion, and the rest of you... My suggestion is Supervisor Farr looks at the tape, sees if she feels there was a hard motion, and then we bring up the act that there was a hard motion made by the Board of Supervisors to take it from contingency and put it in AG And do we vote to change that? Because isn't that where you're headed here?

Yes, Madam Chairman. It's kind of two issues you know one is the financial issue and you know what the department has but the other is I think you know what the board's actual motion and decision was and is that kind of being countermanded? So why don't you sit down

with Mr. Stilwell and the two of you take a look at it see if you come where you come to and then we'll go from there okay done deal thank you thanks for bringing

that up Supervisor Wolfe so um so we can move on these other budget revisions if I can make a motion on this Yes, this is A16 that we move forward and approve all budget revisions except transfer number 0001338. All in favor?

Aye. Do you want to include

A15 as well? Sure. A15 also? And approving item A15. Is that alright with everybody? Okay all in favor again say aye. Mr. Allen have we completed? The administrative agenda. No more

requests

to speak on the

administrative

agenda. No more discussion? Okay, then let's go to I believe it's board member reports. Supervisor Farr

why don't you start. Actually, I just mainly wanted to report on attending the press conference and meeting that happened yesterday at St. Mark's Church in Los Olivos for the Common Ground point-in-time count for the homeless. It was a wonderful presentation. Rob Fredericks from the City of Santa Barbara Housing Group, our own Dr. Wada from Public Health and many others, Sharon Friedrickson from HCD all spoke and then there were a lot of people in the audience asking questions but they gave the details of the homeless count and the collaborative effort that it took you know 500 volunteers from all over the county that went out Over those few days and it was an incredible effort, collaborative effort between county governments, city governments, non-profits in the philanthropic community.

And going forward with that information as far as putting a plan in place to try to house the top 100 most vulnerable on the list is again going to be a collaborative effort from all of those groups. And so I'm looking forward to more discussions between Homeless advisory committees throughout the county, the Bring Our Community Home group and many others as we look to kind of coordinate all of this information in one place so that we can best serve this population. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you. Supervisor Wolf?

Oh thank you Chair. I attended the Partners in Education breakfast in Santa Barbara Supervisor Carbajal was there. It's always a great way to start the day, which is a way to recognize students in our community from all of the high schools and a lot of the work that they've done primarily in vocational education which oftentimes gets overlooked so it was a great morning.

Later that evening I went to Flows To The Ocean family night at the Watershed Resource Center That's located in Arroyo Burro Beach, and it gets quite a bit of visitation from kids. And it was a wonderful art show. Later that evening I went to the Sister Cities Friendship Dinner, our sister city Puerto Vallarta, and they honored Jan Passerly-Olivas who has just been an amazing community volunteer And then many of us attended the UCSB Economic Forecast, which always proves to be an exemplary program. That's going to be rebroadcast on Cox. I don't have the times but at least a portion of it is.

I also attended the Los Robles High School graduation and Salud Carbajal was the keynote speaker. It was quite a... Always one of my favorite events to go to Very moving and Supervisor Carbajal did a wonderful job, and I thank him for his comments. It was very heartfelt and very good. I also went to the Food Bank Feeding Our Future and Ending Our Hunger event And then at the end of that night, I went to the Cumbria Junior High School Foundation dinner.

That was to benefit literacy performing arts and healthy lifestyle and fitness programs. And again, Salute was there we must have been on the same trail. He was the king. That night, he was dressed as the king and he asked me what title I wanted. And I was thinking of the wedding, the royal wedding, and I know that the princess is not called a princess she's the duchess so I said I'd like to be called the Duchess of Goleta. So that's how...

Yes, I was anointed. Then on Saturday was the train day press conference. Very cute, a lot of kids there and they did a great event. And then there was the Mesa annual spring festival which is amazing to see what goes on in the Mesa. I think that community has really come together and they just do an amazing job of bringing the community together. It was lots of fun. I went out of my district and visited the Carpinteria Arts Artist Festival, and was so impressed by what the Carpinteria community has done.

And then went out of my district again up to Up to the Tipton Meeting House at Sedgwick Ranch to see the Thompson Naylor Architect LEED building. And then, at the end of the day on Saturday I went to the National Charity League TikToker presentation where there's an organization in Santa Ynez and one in Santa Barbara The NCL program in Santa Barbara covers all of the high schools in the South Coast and they honored all of the girls. I think there was 21 graduating seniors, and to see and hear what these women, young women have done volunteering almost 5,000 hours of community service along with their mothers it was just awe-inspiring. It was a great way to end the week Just to see what there's so many things that are going on in our community.

So thank you. Wow,

thank you. Supervisor Carbajal?

Thank you. With redistricting coming up the supervisor Wolf is doing a lot of visiting of other districts. I'm sure she's shopping around or something. I too had somewhat of a... You never know what the tea leaves hold. That's right, I too attended the Carpinteria actually the Cumbria Junior High School event it was a wonderful event Supervisor Wolf was there with me as well.

I attended the Los Prietos Boys Camp Los Robles high school graduation And I also attended the Visiting Nurses and Hospice Mother's Day luncheon that they had at the Biltmore. The CERT program in Carpenteria, I had their graduation. And also, I attended the Partners in Education along with Supervisor Wolf and others. And of course, I went to the economic forecast where we got slightly better than usual news but still not The best positive news that we'd like to hear in terms of the economy, but at least it seems that it's getting a little better for everyone.

Supervisor Lovadino.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Let's see I got to spend some time with Chief Dyer and took a ride along with him and visited all of the North County fire stations and the chief actually took me around it was when it was 90 degrees in his car has no air conditioning and so I don't know if he did that on purpose during budget time but yeah I also attended the Elk Student and Citizen of the Year Awards Dinner, and just want to congratulate the Elks. The Santa Maria Elks Lodge does a great job in honoring our youth, and the Citizen of the Year this year was Michael Clayton, local attorney. Attended the National Day of Prayer at Santa Maria Fair Park, and we all got together and prayed for our government leaders which I think we can all, we all know we need that.

Did attend the UCSB Economic Forecast. We also had one at Hancock College. Dan Walters was the guest speaker. And as you said, a little bit of positive but I think I've seen the same economic forecast for the last five years so I'm not really have too much confidence. Also got to tour in the new 50-bed facility inside our Santa Barbara County Jail with Sheriff Brown which will be opening soon and will help alleviate some of the overcrowding.

And over the weekend, I had a chance to go outside my district. And I went down to Simi Valley and toured. I got to do the Reagan Library. And regardless of whatever political persuasion you are, I would recommend it to anybody. I spent about 2 and 1 half hours there, and it was not enough time. Very inspirational. And also next week, I just want to let everybody remember that we have an open house here for the 5th District Office It's on Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m., so all are welcome, all are invited. I will provide cookies. I think that's all I can afford at this point, so thank you.

Thank you very much. First of all, to thank everyone. I'm sorry that I missed last week and I thought y'all did a great job without me but the profound lesson in that was the ability to watch it in real time right in your own home And it feels different when you're not in the room. I mean, kind of the emotion stuff isn't there. You watch and you learn and it just again reminded me of the tremendous change in technology from what the board used to be where You had to actually be in the room to know what was going on, and most of the time you had to spend an hour in the car to get there. So that was interesting, and thank you. And what an experience! What an experience.

I did as your representative to CSAC, I attended the executive board. I represent the suburban counties, that's the middle-sized ones. I went to Sacramento And I listened to one of the governor's assistants tell us for 45 minutes that she really didn't have any answers. So, I kind of was thinking why am I even here? Because you know it was time and money and I'm supposed to be representing but it was basically We don't know. So that was the message and I'm sorry to deliver that one.

One of the things I did learn, and I've talked to Terry Mosnage about this is there is a new AB 1220 which could be devastating to counties. It extends the statute on the housing element to five years instead of one year. So surprisingly, we didn't hear it from our lobbyists on that one but it just seemed kind of popped up for everybody so I know we're looking into it but what we would need is a have a five-year statute of limitations on the housing element instead of one. We struggle with that as it is and this one was My life as I grew up in Santa Maria, which is totally a small town. I can't even tell you how small.

Pretty much revolved around an organization called 4-H and I think I've mentioned that to you before but the executive director for the County of Santa Barbara was this incredibly remarkable woman named Josephine Van Schack And Josephine functioned in what I would call the intellectual part of the city of Santa Barbara, but her chore was to go into the outback like Santa Maria and Lompoc and Orca and even Goleta and try It was a small town then, it was. So it was Josephine's task and she had such a huge impact and I thought it was just on me but I attended her birthday party. She died two months ago so they had a birthday party for this remarkable woman and folks got up and spoke about how Josephine told them, helped them and made them who they were today.

And all of us 4-H kids were together. Now I want you to know that the average age of those kids was 70 years old So us 70-year-old kids were there celebrating the life and times of Josephine Shack. She basically, she worked with Julia Child, she just did all kinds... a remarkable woman. I also got to watch the ride of the Rancho Vistadores 750 horses in 30 carriages? That's a lot of horses! So I stood and watched that it was very interesting and then yesterday We completed the athletic roundtable for the year. It was marvelous, we had 85 young people there Wednesday night the 18th will be doing the final and it's like Supervisor Wolfe was saying it's so good for us and exciting and motivating to see what young people can do I mean, you know when they've got a 4.5 average in there?

One kid had never lost a tennis game in the league. Mr. Gray, how many had he won, 106? Mr. Gray forgot to play him by the way in tennis. But is that amazing? Never lost a tennis match, 160 some tennis matches. And he'll be going on to college and what a remarkable group of folks. So I mean sometimes I totally love being able to give these board reports because we really do have a great job in many ways.

So that concludes the board reports. Thank you all. And now we're gonna go to public comment and I know Dr. Wada wanted to say something. He sent me an email so let's start with Dr. Wada.

Thank you Madam Chair, members of the Board. I am speaking today in recognition of Nurses Week which runs from May 6th to May 12th which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of Modern Nursing. Nurses play a vital role in our public health department and across the county and across the country as medical providers, teachers, educators, facilitators, researchers and leaders Working day in and day out in very challenging environments, in homeless shelters and our medical clinics. Doing prevention activities, home visits and disaster preparedness. Our health care system cannot function without the valuable contribution of nurses and their service to the county is certainly appreciated. And I'd like to pass it on now to Sandra Copley who's our Director of Nursing and Public Health Department.

Thank you.

Thank you Madam Chair and members of the board. My name is Sandra Coakley, I work as the Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Director also in Child Health Disabilities Program. This is National Nurses Week and we had a board resolution that didn't get through so we're doing a public comment on this. This week's theme is Trusted to Care and I'd like to commend the expertise, compassion, dedication and excellence at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department RNs and RN public health nurses These nurses work with our most vulnerable populations. They work in the primary care health care centers throughout the county with very challenging cases. They work in home settings with women, children, infants and teens. They work with the homeless population, investigate communicable diseases, administer immunizations Assure medical services with children with physical limitations and chronic health conditions.

And they are the nurses that have been called upon and will be called upon when a disaster occurs again. Our public health department nurses provide excellent service, and they reduce the incidence and severity of illness in our community. They are the medical safety net. Thank you for honoring the profession of nurses and nurses at Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.

Supervisor Farr. Madam Chair, I just wanted to say that you know my mother is a nurse she got her training during World War II during the cadet nurse program first worked in the Veterans Hospital after World War II taking care of all the The injured vets and then went on to work in various doctor's offices and hospitals in all departments, but particularly on the surgical floor. So I grew up understanding what a difficult job it is and how vitally important it is also. And so I really appreciate the ability to honor all nurses including my mother.

That's wonderful. Thank you Supervisor Faulkner. You know, it is amazing too and this seems trite to say but I mean this sincerely in that people don't just get sick from eight to five. So when you become a nurse it's 24-7 365 days a year. That's just an amazing thing so thank you Dr. Wada for bringing that to us today. Mr. Allen do we have any other public comments?

Yes Madam Chair and members of the board we have about six additional speakers starting with Darrell West to be followed by Gwen Wood

Good morning. We're going to come up as a group, I apologize for they just haven't submitted their request to speak. My name is Daryl West. I'm the agency director for Addis Healthcare of Santa Barbara County and it's interesting that we would be following words so wonderfully spoken about nurses. With your permission I have What I'd like to introduce to all of you, they're called County 293s. So I'd like to paint a picture of two of the very, very frail seniors that we serve and I have our county handbook that outlines what these chores and duties are. May I give it to someone to discuss? Sure, why

don't you just hand it to Mr.

Allen. The green forms actually are, I eliminated the name of the individual. Shows a couple of the clients that Addis Healthcare has served for many, many years and then the green handbook will detail exactly what that means. I thought you might like to take a look at some of the services that we provide. Many of our home care aids have been with the same client for many, many years.

And if you look through there you will notice that and I'm reading also from the County of Santa Barbara budget and this budget that we have actually outlines in very, very specific detail all of the things that our home care aides have done And as you go through here, you will notice and excuse me for being so blunt here. There's a whole section on bowel and bladder care and it goes into detail about cleaning bedpans, about cleaning the individual, about changing diapers. There is another section about feeding those same very frail homebound clients If you have lived in a bed for years and you have some trusted individual come in and change your diaper, and feed you I think you can get a sense of the very close relationship that senior has with that care provider.

And what has been proposed to us is that by the elimination of agency mode, we will have These same home care aides asked to leave our company where they have had sick and vacation and holiday benefits. And receive, many of them, a cut in salary of almost $2 an hour to do the same exact work And the work, as I have given to all of you, you can actually look at their 293s and see what is required. And you can look at... I'm sorry. Thank you for your time.

Mr. Allen who's next?

Our next speaker is Gwen Wood. To be followed by Lisa Landry.

Good morning Madam Chair and members of the Board. In the April 28th edition of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal, it announced the development of Creekside Village in Los Alamos. Creekside when completed will be a 9 building 39 unit income restricted housing development that will give preference to local residents working in agriculture. This project will undoubtedly aid illegal immigrants because as the article states, it will give those working in agriculture preference. Preference over our war vets, disabled and senior citizens. This is an outrage especially given the fact that Santa Barbara County ag growers recently boasted of record profits to the tune of $1 billion this year And therefore, these employers should be paying to house their workers out of their own pockets.

You may ask how do you know some of the ag workers about to be housed in this project might be illegal? My response one can easily make that assumption based on the fact that Santa Barbara County Ag growers don't use E-Verify so there is no way of knowing their immigration status let alone their criminal history Today I handed you a document that shows the number of outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants for areas of our county. At present, the City of Santa Maria has at least 959 outstanding felony warrants and over 8500 outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

I believe the bulk of these outstanding warrants are for those who are in our country illegally because so many of the illegal aliens use multiple aliases and are repeat offenders, and they know they have nothing to lose. But even after being confronted with the escalating crime stats that I just handed you, Santa Barbara County still plans to move full speed to finish this project and give ag workers first preference.

According to the Veterans Affairs and Census Bureau, veterans make up one in four of our homeless across the U.S., and it is not just a major problem amongst middle-aged and elderly veterans either. Younger vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking housing, treatment and jobs. An estimated 200,000 veterans are currently homeless and California leads the nation in the number of homeless veterans.

Creekside Village should be offering housing to US citizens first, including our veterans. And Santa Barbara County should not be in the business of aiding and abetting illegal aliens and using tax dollars to make its residents unwitting accomplices to this crime. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Wood. Mr. Allen?

Our next speaker is Lisa Landry to be followed by Cesar Chavez.

Good morning, Honorable Chair and members of the Board of Supervisors. My name is Lisa Landry. I'm the President and Chief Financial Officer of Valley Compost and Topsoil located outside the town of Buellton. Over our 27 years in business as a family-owned business we alone have recycled over 162 thousand tons of ag waste which is A large contribution to our community and our county indeed. We're the only private composter listed in the county's SRE document, source reduction recycling, the non-disposal facility element and the county's fighting element. All those documents the county uses to identify to the state how the county is meeting AB 939 state recycling goals set at 50% now and moving up to 75% soon. These goals cannot be met without recycling organics and goals if not met by the county And city and each in the state will impose $10,000 a day fines.

With this short speech of our few accomplishments all done without county contracts I'm here to ask today for your help. In the last two weeks I have been notified by the planning and development department that they have recently changed the uniform rules for agricultural. Agriculture to allow composting in ag-preserved zones like the one we have been composting in now for 27 years.

With this change comes a 14 page minor CUP application which I have filled out with me today and a price of $4,520. A heavy price to pay to allow us to continue our recycling efforts and especially in today's poor economy. I'm here today this morning to ask your board to add us The agenda item in the very near future, so I may have my chance to show you our value more thoroughly and ask that you approve a waiver of the heavy price of $4,520. Or at least allow us to pay the fees imposed back in 1983 When we came to the Planning Department looking for a minor CUP, to submit only to be told there were no regulations and to go ahead and continue to compost.

But in 1992 the same planning development department put our facility in violation of the regulations that did not even exist. Even at that time, we could still not even apply for a minor CUP as there were no ordinances to allow or disallow composting. These new regulations just came about in 2009. In 1992, VCT proceeded with permitting our facility with the State of California upon our move to our current Ag Preserve Composting Facility. Since then, we are inspected quarterly from the Environmental Health Department with no problems. It's been a long road. We just want to continue to do what we've been doing for a long time now And we need your help. Your board is my last stop for help, for my small business that does big things. Can I rely on your help?

Will you please put me on your agenda so we can have more time to discuss this issue? Staff tells me you are my only hope. They do not have the authority to make this decision. We consider our business to be green before it was regulated by the state of California. Farmers have been composting on ag land for centuries. We need your help. Thank you.