BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Regular meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors of May 8th. Mr. Allen, would you call the roll please?

Mr. Lavagnino? Here. Mr Carbajal who's in Santa Barbara? Here. Ms. Wolfe? Here Ms. Gray? Here Ms. Farr?

Here Would you all

Mr. Lavagnino? Aye. Mr Carbajal? Aye. Ms. Will? Aye. Ms. Graham? Aye, Ms. Farr? Aye

5-0. Thank you and then we will go to public comment if anybody here to speak on public comment.

Madam Chair members of the board we have one request to speak from Mr. John Pratt. Mr. Pratt

Good morning

Hi, good morning. It's an honor for me to be here to address the Board of Supervisors. I've been a resident of this county for eight of the last 14 years. I'm also the commander over in Lompoc of American Legion Post 125 and I come to you this morning to speak on behalf of veterans of all parts of this county. We don't normally do a lot of talking And most of the veterans that I know, my dad included who was a World War II veteran passed away. We just have done our duty and we like to get along but I must be an advocate here today and I must make you aware of situation that came to my attention last week.

And I also spoke well I spoke with Supervisor Gray last night at the candidates forum in Lompoc and the other two candidates I have heard in the rumor mill that, and you know how rumors go, that in the South County the Veterans Service representative is retiring soon. And we lost the Veterans Service Organization office a year or so ago in Lompoc. And now we're down to one person that works here in this building actually does a very fine job.

However, I want to make you aware and In the future, I'll give you some facts and figures that I have. That we're concerned as a veterans organization that the service of our veterans in Santa Barbara is going to decline. Here's why it's important. In one fiscal recent fiscal year claims that were submitted within this county and the county has veteran service officers as delegated or approved by the state to happen and they have in many other states, by the way.

We have a $4 million impact to this county for people that put in claims and they are now receiving compensation in terms of their own personal medical disabilities and or fee waivers for their dependents for the state schools. That's four million dollars that comes into this county I will tell you that I wouldn't be here today if I weren't receiving veterans compensation myself, because it's just very expensive to live here. And I love this area and it is one of the greatest places to live. Now what I would like you to think about and address in the future, and we can speak offline later, is the fact that we may be down to one service rep within the whole county. That's going to impact The homeless vets and any other vet, if a person has a claim and they're living down in Santa Barbara do they have to make an appointment at Santa Maria?

I know somebody that recently tried to make an appointment with the service rep here and they were told I'll see you on July 1st. That's a pretty long wait. So, I'm just trying to ring the bell here of warning. I know that this is a beautiful, wonderful place to live. I know that Santa Barbara as a whole very much supports veterans so I want you to be aware of what's going on and what might potentially going on. And let's work together. Thank you very much.

Madam Chair we have one additional request to speak from Dr. Robert Johns in Santa Maria. Pardon me, Santa Barbara.

Okay, I don't think the mic is on. Should I just say something? Would Supervisor Carbajal turn on the podium light there where he's sitting in Santa Barbara? Thank you.

Nice little play there, threw me off my game. Okay now good morning Supervisor Carbajal. Sorry. Local 721 who still have not received justice from this county, local 721 Carver Hall and the Board of Supervisors have given a 3.5 budget Cut in this county, the latest report is they're doing well. Doing very well as far as general fund and taxes. You need to begin to meet with local 721.

And Carvajal your wife still works for the county and that was discussed last week not your wife but other conflict of interest. It is election time and please don't run your election during the Knicks heat game because you're disturbing me. Now, this thing about Levy, Carbajal and Rick Caruso. Now this assessment committee that's a Carbajal-run committee. There has been no change and we all have to keep our ears to the ground Carboha, I have a minute and 22 seconds.

Carboha here runs that assessment committee So you can you know they come up with a decision well a little bit too confused And so they're trying to throw our through off throw us off our game There will be a backdoor attempt To run around the inn there will be a back door attempt to run around in by carbohol and Rick Caruso to get that TOT. That's still there, it's still there keep it in mind I got 45 seconds and like to say Carver Hall I want to see those environmentalists at the next meeting of the Caruso bamboozle now they go to Gaviota why don't they go to Caruso's property snakes I got 27 seconds Snakes, rats, everything is out there. 22 seconds and we need those environmentalists to do an impact report on the Caruso Carbohal Bamboozle Project.

Thank you board members, thank you.

All right and then Supervisor Gray, you had something for public comment. Yeah thank

you Chair Farr. We have a problem on 246 that I've talked to Ms. Waller about. Caltrans because of safety decided to build around roundabout at Parisma Road But what they did is they took a city size roundabout and put it on a high speed road. So what's happening now is people are like shooting over the top, going around the side, skid marks. They've even went so far this is in the middle of a field to put sidewalks and Disability ramps. I mean, they just took some city roundabout and stuck it on a high-speed 65 mile an hour road.

So, I talked to Miss Waller about it on Friday, I think it was, and gave her the pictures. And so, I like that we...I don't know what to do. I mean, I'm...we're all really, really concerned. Doreen have you driven it yet? I don't know if you've driven it.

I think once while it was just being finished construction but you do have to slow way,

way down.

Have you spoken with Caltrans as far as the monitoring that they're doing?

Over and over again and Caltrans we started years ago to fight this thing because it wasn't appropriate And we went as high, I and the Lompoc citizens went as high as Lieutenant Governor and couldn't get Caltrans stopped on this because in their wisdom they think that this is the solution. And it may be the solution but it certainly isn't working for the Lompoc Chairwoman, Supervisor yes as you noted you shared pictures with me on Friday that indicate that there are several individuals that are overrunning

the roundabout and not being able to traverse it. So my office is working with our Public Works folks to prepare a letter to Caltrans ensuring that they're aware of this situation and requesting that they do monitor it and take appropriate corrective actions, and I would anticipate that letter to go out this week.

Thank you well and we'll I think we need to continue to monitor this

Thank you. Thank you. All right, and that is the end of public comment and then we'll move on to our administrative agenda. Are there any items that we need to pull?

Madam Chair, members of the board. I just have one quick correction on item 813. This is from Public Works The request that the board consider recommendations regarding the storm damage repair and Paradise Road

public comment, I know a lot of times there's some kind of wacky public comment but that comes with the territory. And in there, there's always a kernel of truth of some kind and I think it's...I'm not blaming the board. I'm certainly not blaming CSD but I would hope that there would be more participation in the decision-making process and hopefully get maybe more smaller grants out there, seed money, encourage new projects going forward so I'll just rest on that and the written comments that I've already submitted. Thank you.

Dr. Robert Johns, inside of Barbara on the same item, A7.

Yes, I am Dr. Robert L. Johns, Ph.D., clinical psychologist. I also can add to that sports psychologist, educational psychologist and some other aspects of that which I don't want to discuss here but I'm a graduate of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 1973 Now for the first time these funds, these HUD funds have been delegated properly. I've heard a lot of back talking but for the first time we have a proper committee and these funds have been delegated properly. I said that twice to reemphasize I don't need time to make my point as you all know So what do we have here?

What we have is a continuation of federal funds that will not be used in mixed for issues that don't concern people dipping into these federal funds trying to get some money. And as I noticed the testimony last week, I saw supervisors attempting to change the grant and trying to lobby for their favorite charities. I would like for some of this to go behind the scenes so that the public do not have to witness this type So some of this should have been left behind the scenes.

And I'd like to see that left behind the scenes. The supervisors know how to conduct a behind-the-scenes meeting, but I guess and I have about 56 seconds here, but I guess when it comes to this HUD money, this free money almost They must have a lot of favorite charities. Or should I say non-profit? I have to remind you, this is not cref money. This is federal dollars.

So I'd like to see some of this played out behind the scenes. Thank you. I end with 28 seconds. Maybe you can give them to someone else.

All right and so now we'll go to A11.

We have a request to speak on A11 from Beverly Taylor. This item is from general services and probation and the request is that the board consider recommendations regarding the establishment of the probation vocational print shop program in the transfer of space and reprographic division assets from general services to the probation department. Good morning, Chief Taylor. Thank

you for being here.

Chair Farr and Supervisors. My name is Beverly Taylor, Chief Probation Officer and I'm excited for the probation department to have the opportunity to add one more vocational program for the youth at the Los Prados Boys Camp and Academy. Yesterday we had an open house and ribbon-cutting event Celebrating the transition from general services to probation. The students from the Los Prados Business Center, which is what we're calling the new reprographics area and youth from our culinary program who were there were amazed and grateful for the support and faith shown to them by the county family.

And during my debrief with them they recognized that the Los Prados Business Center was birthed by an idea from Supervisor Wolf They also recognized firsthand how working together we can accomplish great things. So I would like to formally thank Supervisor Wolf, General Services Director Bob Nisbet and our past chief Patricia Stewart whose energy made this program a reality and also on behalf of the young men they had a token of their appreciation that they wanted me to give to the Board of Supervisors Just a notepad with their address and phone number and email address so we're ready to take jobs. So

thank you. This is just really, really wonderful. Supervisor Lavagnino?

Thank you Madam Chair and congratulations Supervisor Wolff. I read this and I know we had talked about it but just going through all the details of it, actually taking something that was costing us money. We turn it around turning into a vocational training for some kids that really need it. I think since I'm sitting in Supervisor Carbajal's chair I can actually call this a win-win.

So I do. Congratulations. I think this is just a great, great idea and congratulations also to Chief Taylor and Chief Stewart. Great job.

Yes, I totally agree. Supervisor Wolf. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, you know ideas are cheap but it's really the people on the ground who have made this a reality And I just want to thank our probation staff, Bev Taylor, Chief Stewart, all the folks from the camp and Bob Nesbitt and his staff. This is an amazing feat that happened in less than a year. And to see the faces of those kids working down there, it's truly remarkable. And it really is a testament to this county family and how they can get things done. So I just want to thank all of you for pulling this together.

All right, so I'll go ahead then and entertain a motion on the balance of the administrative agenda.

Madam Chair, can I pull A19 really quickly just

to...

Okay.

Yeah you want to speak to those first? Go

ahead. A18 and 19.

Madam Chair, members of the board item 18 and A19 are from Supervisor Levin. You know those are appointments one of Bob Engel to the Santa Maria Cemetery District Board and the other of Gail Pratt to the Commission for Women.

Thank you very much. I think Mr. Engel is here, I think he's going to be receiving a proclamation here in a minute but just wanted to commend him for stepping up. I know he's got a full plate handles of business here in town, a community leader but he has decided to serve on one of our probably toughest committees and that's sitting on the Cemetery Board District. I don't think he knew that when I asked him to do it but I appreciate that and also Gail Pratt I've had an opening on the Commission for Women for a long time, and I've been searching for the right person. Can't think of a better person than Gail. She's a leader in the community. She is involved in many, many charitable organizations.

Gail, thank you very much for being here, and Godspeed to both of you.

Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve. I mean, we have so many wonderful boards and commissions that really help us do the work of County government, but obviously we couldn't have them if we didn't have people like yourselves willing to step up and volunteer your time. So thank you very much. All right. We'll go ahead then and have a motion to approve the balance of the administrative calendar. So move motion in a second Mr Allen,

Mr. Carbajal Aye. Ms. Wolff?

Aye.

Ms. Gray? Aye. Ms Farber?

Aye, thank you and now we will go back to our wonderful resolutions that are going to be presented today. The first one is from Supervisor

Gray.

Thank you very much

and you know resolutions are resolutions and you read the words and you know what's being said but this resolution that I'm going to be presenting today is to a group of Amazing people that came up with the idea that Santa Maria has talent. And they're going to talk about this a bit more than I am, but I got to go watch this and what happened was You could feel the warmth in the audience because they had found a venue to perform.

And you know, any of us that have taken our kids to dancing from the time they were like two years old and watched that happen or they've learned to sing sometimes there's just not a venue for I mean maybe we're not going to get on The Voice or Dancing with the Stars But it, I'm just, it actually felt like it in the Santa Maria has talent thing. So I thought okay the least we can do is recognize the Santa Maria Rotary group that you guys are the breakfast group right? Dinner dinner don't say that sorry but some others have talent too So you guys are the dinner group. And it's just a lot of work, a lot of work to organize three days, three nights and people with talent and microphones and lights and all these different excited folks. So I'm sorry if I talk too much but I wanted you to know what a job they did.

So Mr. Allen, if you'll be the fellow that will read this, I'm going to go down there and shake these people's hands. Let me introduce them. Yes, yes. Vicki Connors. And Diane Bailey and Georgia Shore. And come on up.

Madam Chair and members of the Board, this is item A-1. It's a resolution recognizing the Santa Maria Has Talent Community Talent Show and Fundraiser. Whereas 2012 marked the third annual Santa Maria Has Talent, a local talent show and fundraiser which provides a forum for talented people in the Santa Maria community to share their talents and win awards and recognition. The event is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Maria South.

Whereas some 50 men, women and children of all ages from across the Santa Maria Valley compete for the grand prize of $1,000. The talented participants sing, dance and play musical instruments as they audition for one of the final 20 spots. A surprising number even write their own material competing for the best original song award. And whereas all winners are selected by a panel of experts, besides the category for overall winner, first runner up, second runner up and best original song. Winners are selected in the categories of Best Instrumentalist, Adult and Youth, Outstanding Achievement in Singing, Adult Teen and Child, Outstanding Achievement in Dance, Adult and Youth and the audience votes for their favorite for the Santa Maria Favorites Award which is a people's choice award.

I would like Thank you. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes the Santa Maria Has Talent Community Talent Show and Fundraiser, all the community members without whose participation the show would not be possible, and The Rotary Club of Santa Maria South for their annual sponsorship of the wonderful event passed and adopted today by the board.

Well, we are honored and so pleased to accept this recognition. I'm Diane Bailey. I am a member of Santa Maria Rotary South. I am the founding director of Santa Maria Has Talent and as a founding director because our new director for 2013 is Georgia Shore who is right here. In 2010 we came up with the idea that A talent show would be a good fundraiser and we really thought surely this community would have a lot of talent but we didn't know.

So, we just took it on faith that anybody that wanted to be in could be in and so they just showed up and I thought well we'll see what happens. I didn't know if they could really sing. I didn't know if they could really do anything. Well low and behold we have amazing talent The first person that sang during rehearsals, I thought oh we have a show. I mean we have wonderful talent here and not just at PCPA. I mean these are just from the community. These are grandfathers and grandkids in all ages and all kinds and then on top of it we found that the people who came we purposefully even though it was a fundraiser we kept the tickets very inexpensive they're five dollars apiece Except for the finals and their $10 because we wanted whole families to come.

And that's exactly what happened a huge cross section of the community came together, laughed, clapped and had a wonderful time. And it just turned out to be far, far more than we ever expected of a talent show. And it is really a show. I mean, as she was, uh, as, Supervisor Joni Gray said, we have lights and costumes and glitter and glamour and all of that sort of thing. And it's a lot of fun. And it's been a great privilege for me to be a part of this. And thank you so much for this resolution.

Thank you.

All right. Our next resolution will be presented by Supervisor Lavagnino.

Thank you Madam Chair. I've got a resolution proclaiming this week as Compost Awareness Week, and I think I got this one because I'm pretty good at spreading the ball around. But we're going to applaud the efforts of Ingle & Gray here in Santa Maria as well as Valley Compost in Buelton. We're here to try to educate the public today on how to reduce materials going into our landfill and also decrease our dependence on chemical fertilizers.

Madam Chair and members of the Board, this is a resolution proclaiming May 6th through 12th 2012 as Compost Awareness Week. Whereas the composting councils of Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States have declared the first week of May to be the annual international composting awareness week. And whereas, organic materials suitable for composting represent up to 70% of materials that could be landfilled each year and composting is an effective form of waste reduction, reuse and recycling. And home composting and mulching is a way households can reduce the volume of waste generated at home by taking individual responsibility for keeping waste reduction costs down.

And whereas compost improves the soil structure, reduces erosion and runoff, supplies soil with a variety of macro and micronutrients, enables compost-emitted soils to use less water. And using sustainable soil enriching compost helps prevent erosion of valuable topsoil without depleting valuable wildlife habitats. And whereas community sustainability is enhanced by composting green waste, biosolids and other organic materials and promoting the use of renewable resources in landscaping, horticulture and agriculture.

And whereas composting programs would benefit from increased awareness of the benefits of adding organic materials to the soil thereby increasing the demand for compost and mulch products And returning organic resources to the soil is a method of decreasing the dependence on chemical fertilizers, decreasing erosion, reducing water consumption and non-point pollution. Whereas the County of Santa Barbara has initiated green waste collection programs with its franchise haulers to aid in the efforts of environmental sustainability. In England Gray Inc., Regional Composting Facility, Santa Maria and Valley Compost and Topsoil Inc. Buelton have been successfully composting organic materials for sustainable agricultural practices. Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors proclaims the week of May 6th through 12, 2012 as Compost Awareness Week in Santa Barbara County.

Passed and adopted today.

Chair Fellow Supervisors, I'd like to thank you very much for recognizing Compost Awareness Week as Market Development Chair for the United States Composting Council. We really strive to get the word out across the country about compost and the many benefits and just have you recognize this year in and year out is I just so much appreciate it because the value of compost we're With our regional composting facility in Santa Maria, we're now over a hundred thousand yards of compost produced on an annual basis taking all the beneficial waste. Today we're hauling tomato residue from the new greenhouses and composting that.

We're taking biosolids from Laguna Sanitation who's on your agenda today So we're taking all these beneficial organic feedstocks and making great, great compost. And people are enjoying it with healthy gardens, healthy lawns, great parks, great overpasses. You'll see at Winchester Canyon we're delivering a couple of thousand yards. It's being stockpiled there for Caltrans to put in the landscaping down there so thank you very much appreciate it.

And thank you Mr. Engel for these beautiful symbols of spring and of the work that you do, and as somebody who's enjoyed putting in a vegetable garden every year for decades, Supervisor Lavagnino, you're not the only one that spread some compost around so... Okay we'll go on now to A3 also from Supervisor Lavagnino

Thank you again, Madam Chair. If I could have Frank Campo please come up? Today's resolution will be claiming the month of May as Military Appreciation Month in Santa Barbara County. I know all of us here on the board have a great appreciation for the work that our veterans have done. My eyes have been opened by working on this Stand Down project and I apologize to anybody who is trying to park in the parking lot we have our pods unit out there that is slowly stacking up with stuff that we're going to be handing out to our veterans But today we're going to be talking about increasing employment opportunities for our veterans. And Frank is the Employment Rep for the Employment Development Department with the State of California.

Madam Chair and members of the Board, Item A3 is a resolution proclaiming May 2012 as Military Appreciation Month in Santa Barbara County. Whereas the people of our community have great appreciation and admiration for the many local men and women who serve their country in the armed forces to protect and preserve the freedoms enjoyed by our community and all Americans.

And whereas in war, international conflicts and peacekeeping missions men and women have been wounded, taken prisoners and died in the line of duty. And whereas veterans possess a wide variety of valuable job qualifications and skills including experience, maturity, leadership and loyalty that make them ideal candidates for employment. And whereas Veteran Workforce Specialists, Veteran Employment Support Specialists and other Employment Development Department staff are committed to ensuring that Veterans receive the services and programs to which they are entitled and to promoting their employer interest in hiring Veterans.

Now therefore be it resolved and ordered that the Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County proclaims May 2012 as Military Appreciation Month in Santa Barbara County, and urges all local employers, organized labor, veteran organizations, and other government leaders to support this worthy campaign to increase employment opportunities for the men and women who have faithfully served our nation in the military. Passed and adopted today.

Madam Chair and Board, I'd like to thank you for this proclamation. And following Mr. Ingle when he gave out those beautiful flowers, I'm thinking well, I have nothing to bring to the board. But then when Steve was talking about the pods, the pods was kind of my suggestion. We would get all these donations for our stand down which is October 13th and we're thinking where are we going to house them at? So I got with Dave Cross and I said Dave maybe there's a local company here in town that has a storage unit that can let us store them Well, that comes to the pod situation. So I guess I'm responsible for the pods in the parking lot so I did bring something.

But as Supervisor Lavaniego said my name is Frank Campo and I am the local Veterans Employment Representative for Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. I travel to Santa Barbara City, Santa Maria and San Luis. I have a tough job trying to get our veterans employed. We have some help from the President on November 21st. He passed some additional tax credits to allow employers to hire veterans, so if you're an employer and you want a good candidate, a good employee, hire a veteran.

I'd also like to talk about...I talked about the stand-down October 13th here in Santa Maria. It's a wonderful thing. First time Santa Maria has had one for the past 10 years we've had a stand down at San Luis Obispo I think the one we're having here in Santa Maria is going to be ten times a lot better because we have a lot more support for the one here. So, I encourage everyone to show up for that date May 24th. I left some flyers on the back table back there but also I've been involved with the Veterans Treatment Court here in Santa Maria with Judge Flores trying to assist our veterans with some judicial problems plus getting them employed.

My job mainly is to get veterans employed, but if I can't my job is to refer them to outside agencies that can assist. And one of those agencies was already spoke on was the County Veteran Service Officer. I see probably 300 veterans a month. I refer probably half of those to Rhonda and if the rumors are true that we're going to cut the Santa Barbara office Then I implore you to give her some additional help because as my colleague from law folks says, Ron is backed up almost two months seeing veterans. And when the average claim is almost a year and half two years to get a claim done that just compounds the situation so thank you

Thank you Mr. Campo, and actually before you leave the podium I had a question for you. I read a very interesting article about how returning veterans were being connected with family farmers particularly farmers that were older and were thinking about getting out of farming And I also heard that the Carpenters had a project called Helmets to Hard Hats. So is that something that you've been, those couple areas have you been working on and connecting our veterans too?

I'm familiar with Helmets to Hard Hats. California, the construction boom really hasn't been what it is. Most of those are in areas that have building growth. I am aware of it also the farm situation, the farmers. That was started I believe down in San Diego where a farmer took veterans on and it was more of a rehabilitation because of their TBI and PTSD situations.

Okay, thank

you. We can do it here though too?

Yes I think it would be a good thing. Thank you. All right and then I guess we do have one more resolution to present from Supervisor Gray.

Thank You Madam Chair my resolution now is to the Wampoag Elks and we have Terry Hetzel. Terry come on up. Terry is the Youth Activity Chairman And Janet Gurley and Terry Gurley. Terry is the leading knight, and what these folks do is if you just stand right by the podium I'll be down in a moment. What they do is recognize the youth and their their scholarship.

We went to one last in Santa Maria last Wednesday night and it was amazing to see what these young people are doing and I want to thank the Elks for recognizing these folks so Mr. Allen if you'll read this

Madam Chair and members of the Board, this is a resolution proclaiming May 6th through May 12, 2012 as Elks National Youth Week in Santa Barbara County. Whereas, National Youth Week has been designated to honor America's junior citizens for their services to our community, state and nation. And whereas, the benevolent and protective order of Elks, Lompoc Lodge No. 2274 will sponsor observance during that week in tribute to the youth of this community. The Board who in the years ahead will assume the responsibility for the advancement of our free society are deserving of our support. And whereas, we should in all ways possible demonstrate our understanding of their hopes and dreams, our partnership with our youth and our willingness to prepare them for the responsibility of citizenship.

Now therefore be it ordered and resolved that the Board of Supervisors proclaims May 6th through 12th 2012 as Elks National Youth Week in Santa Barbara County pass and adopt it today.

Good morning Madam Chair and Supervisors. My name is Terri Hetzel and I'm the Youth Activities Chairman for our local Elks Lodge in Lompoc, number 2274. This week is Elk's National Youth Week in which all our lodges across the United States recognize The kids in their community and focus on their achievements. Last night we did kick off the week with our student of the month, student of the year banquet dinner.

These were 32 students that were awarded monetary awards up to about $2,000 for both their scholastic and academic achievements in our community. Wednesday and Thursday, we'll be recognizing two of our elementary schools for their top reader programs. These are children that have read books on a list that's provided by each school geared towards their grade anywhere from kindergarten up to sixth, seventh grade. And these children take a computerized test to make sure they understand what they've read and they have to score over 85%.

So, in the past years we've had an ice cream party for about over 100 children for each school. So I am anticipating that we'll have between 80 and 100 again these next two days. It's a lot of fun with the ice cream and they really enjoy it. Our Drug Awareness Chairman Janet also comes with me and we distribute a lot of the drug awareness coloring book and book markers and just try to encourage them to stay in school and do better.

On Thursday we'll be having an in-house spaghetti dinner. This is to raise money for our Flower Festival Queen Candidate. As you know, our Flower Festival is held at the end of June. And on Friday I have a large event that I do at the Boys and Girls Club on Ocean Avenue. We serve about 300 hot dogs Punch and about 10 pounds of popcorn, which is a lot of roughage.

So I'm excited to say that our featured guest will be the Vandenberg Air Force Base Fire Department. They'll be bringing their smokehouse and the smokehouse is a trailer it's two stories and inside is designed just like a home. The children watch a short video and then they funnel through the home starting in the living room going through the kitchen all the way upstairs to feel what a hot door feels like And as this is happening, the house is starting to fill with a fake smoke so that they understand what it feels like. And we have a lot of interesting reactions and it's just a good practice for them to understand what to do and how to get out and what to do after they get out by calling 911.

Saturday night I will also host a kids' night in our lodge. It's for any child associated with the Elks And basically it's a dinner and a movie. They mostly have opted for pizza, which is good because my cooking skills are not that great. So it's just a fun night. The parents can come in and relax. Their children are safe. And we just try to promote safety within our lodge as well.

Throughout the year, we host several large events, a soccer shoot, hoop shoot. Our dictionary program, which we distribute between eight and 900 dictionaries per year to all the third graders in the Lompoc Valley, in the private school, and those, all the schools. Anyone that has a third grade. And these are dictionaries that they keep for their lifetime of education.

And so we're just happy that we're part of the community and you know, that you support us as well. So our lodge is dedicated to serving the youth and in the future of our community as well. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Quite a list of accomplishments. All right, and so with that we have completed our administrative agenda I think we'll go right into our departmental agenda and have our first item and then we'll take a short break.

Madam Chair members the board Item number one is from the County Executive Office it's a hearing to consider recommendations regarding an ordinance adopting at 2% retirement cost of living increase for employees hired on or after June 25 2012. CEO Weller?

Thank you, Chairwoman. I have with me today our Director of Personnel, Jerry Mooth and our Labor Relations Guru, I would say, Bob McLeod, and they'll describe this information to you. So Jerry please?

Madam Chair, members of the Board Before you today is the second of three items that are necessary in order to implement a new reduced retirement tier for non-safety employees hired on or after June 25th of this year. Today you're being asked to first of all consider a change to the ordinance that would reduce the retiree cost-of-living adjustment from 3% to 2%, and then secondly, to set a hearing for next Tuesday May 15th at which time you'll be asked to take the final steps necessary to implement this new tier.