BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Yeah. ♪ ♪ ¶. Music ¶. ♪ I'd like to call our Board of Supervisors meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, if you could do roll call please?

Ms. Farr, Mr. Adam, Mr Lavagnino, Ms. Wolfe, Mr Carbajal.

those of you in the room, we just lowered the heat. If you're a little warm as we are, bear with us. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes of February 5th? Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor? Aye Passage unanimously. We'll move on to public comment. Mr. Allen, how many speakers do we have? And if you could call them up.

Chairman Carbajal, members of the board, we have three requests to speak today. We'll start in Santa Maria with Andy Caldwell. Then we'll come back to Santa Barbara for David Daniel Diaz and Paul Dudier will be our final speaker.

Chairman Carbajal, members of the board, I'm Andy Caldwell representing COLAB. There are two sectors of our economy right now that are literally begging for permission to grow. Both of them have been in the county a long time, one of them well over 100 years and one of them at least 30-40 years and of course the two industries are oil, onshore oil and wineries.

In the days of declining revenue, flatlined property taxes, relatively high unemployment compared to the rest of the nation. You have to ask yourself each and every time you get together what are you doing to improve the economy? What direction have you given staff? To what degree have you lobbied the state for streamlining regulations? Right now the State of California is considering streamlining CEQA.

Have you weighed in, have you even discussed this as a board and spoke to your lobbyist? CEQA is the job killer. In essence all that it required us to do was identify impacts to the environment and mitigate the same. Most of us have no problem with that but as you know in Santa Barbara County fungus on a rock was considered a resource to be protected. Right now we're shipping a lot of the line up to half of the line out of the county, to be processed, bottled, shipped and sold elsewhere.

And Supervisor Carbajal, your own Blue Ribbon Commission a number of years ago said that onshore oil should be explored and encouraged. And we're not talking about fracking, we're just talking about an industry that has had an exemplary record for 100 years. And I think on every single agenda item, you need to ask yourself what did we do to streamline the permit process? What did we do to enhance investment in our region and job creation in our region. Because right now this county is still out of balance. The state of California is still out of balance. And until decision makers like you make substantive changes nothing is going to change. Thank you.

Our next speaker is David Daniel Diaz to be followed by Paul Didier.

Good morning, good morning Santa Barbara County. This little complaint paper was something I forgot to give last week with the subject regarding Chihuahua or Hammonds Meadow and the desecration of the cemetery site so I'll leave this for Michael and in this hand here Apparently what happened late last year on the Vista bus, which is also being funded partially by the Association of Governments.

I was on the bus with another woman who was a legal counselor down in Ventura and the bus was heading down south and it got off at Main Street and how it swirls down like a roller coaster ride. The bus at 65 miles an hour went off the off ramp and in between the off ramp and the freeway up into the embankment there The CHP in this report did conclude the driver was at fault because he did admit only having one hour of sleep. In having communication with Saeed, the gentleman who oversees that Vista bus program and also the owner I guess of Roadrunner Bus, he was very protective and refused to allow Well, he didn't want to take into consideration on eliminating this driver from this particular route or whatever. And so he's still driving and as a result this lawyer whenever she sees this gentleman who almost killed us driving she is usually late for work And that's not cool, that we have this distrust of public going on with the VistaBus.

Maybe you can look into it and see how we can alleviate and rebuild the trust of the customers that do take the VistaBus? Thank you very much.

Our final speaker is Paul Devier.

I saw him earlier.

Good morning, Supervisors. I know I am not Paul Didier. My name is Narit Gessler and I do represent United Way of Santa Barbara County. Paul, sorry he is very much under the weather and needed to leave but I'm here today to give you a final update on the charitable giving campaign something that I think we're all very proud of. This year we had over 110 volunteers for this including department representatives our steering committee our chair Kathy Fisher and our co-chair Herman Parker County employees contributed more than 400 hours of time during Day of Caring. This is one of the largest groups to come out to spend time working on projects for our community, so we're really excited about that.

This was the largest turnout that the county has had in several years and was one of the top three largest groups for Day of Caring So again, thank you. I also wanted to point out that over the past five years County employees have donated over 200 hours of their time to our Fun in the Sun program which works with low-income children over the summer and due to that Fun in the Sun did win a national award this year which is something we can all very much be proud of The campaign itself totaled more than $205,000 this year. We had 702 employee participants at 20% participation and the average gift went up this year which is a 3% increase over 2011 so what does that mean for our community? Just a little update on some of the programs we are running.

Our Financial Empowerment Partnership, right now we're filing free taxes with the help of other local community partners. Last year we were able to file over 2,300 families' taxes in our county and that resulted in $4.3 million dollars in refunds so that's just one thing that county employees are helping to support and another including Power Reading. This program is running throughout our entire county right now It comprises of a program called Reading Plus and Lexia. Over 43 schools are now using it, and over 4,500 local children are able to benefit from this program. So with that I just want to say a big thank you to the Board of Supervisors, Chandra Waller, and to all of the volunteers that we've had throughout the year for really making all of this possible for our community.

So thank you very much.

Thank you. I believe that's our

last speaker. We will now move on to our resolutions. If there's a motion to approve A1 through A3? Motion has been made and seconded, all those in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. We'll move on now to our resolutions and then come back to our administrative calendar. I have the distinct pleasure and honor to present the first one. If we could have Elizabeth Lane come forward from the Santa Barbara Ventura Dental Care Foundation, and co-chair of the Santa Barbara County Oral Health Executive Committee.

We could have Georgine Lowe, coordinator for Santa Barbara County Education Child Development Health Linkages and co-chair of the lot acronyms here OHEC. Sandra Copley, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. MCAH and CHDP and OHEC member. Whole lot of acronyms. I may not even say them to not confuse the public. Mary Ellen Reese, Santa Barbara Children's Oral Health.

Jerry Waite, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. And this resolution is proclaiming the month of February 2013 as National Children's Oral Health Awareness Month in Santa Barbara County. Do we have one other person? Yeah, Dr. Nguyen. Dr. Nguyen! I'm sorry. Dr. Nguyen, my name wasn't on here and I wrote it down because I saw you and I totally forgot so welcome Dr.

All these individuals that I have called forward are professionals that work in this field and are making such great contributions in making sure that our children and our adults who have dental needs, that their oral health needs are being addressed. And I know from experience from a meeting that Supervisor Wolf and Kind of about three years ago now. We had identified that this was one of the most significant needs in our community, dental care especially for those who don't have insurance so really appreciate all the great work you do day in and day out to make our communities healthier. Mr.

Allen if you could read the resolution please?

Chairman Carbajal, members of the board. This is a resolution proclaiming February 2013 as National Children's Oral Health Awareness Month. Whereas according to the Children Now policy brief California's children their oral health is among the worst in the nation and whereas Untreated dental problems in children can lead to poor academic performance and behavior problems due to unrelenting pain, as well as issues with chewing and or speaking, lower self-esteem, and expensive intervention. And whereas in fiscal year 2010-'11 39% of Head Start children in Santa Barbara County had untreated dental disease compared to 21% in the United States for the same population.

And whereas the Lompoc and Goleta Isla Vista areas have the highest rate of childhood dental disease in Santa Barbara County. And whereas, in fiscal year 2011-12, 60 dentists and 20 hygienists and registered dental assistants provided volunteer services including dental screening, fluoride varnish applications, and dental treatments to 4,000 children in Santa Barbara County. And whereas, in fiscal year 2011- 12, through six preventative oral health outreach efforts the Public Health Department's WIC program educated approximately 6,000 families The Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Field Nursing Program educated over 1,200 families. And the Child Health and Disability Program educated over 1,000 children.

Now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Santa Barbara County does hereby observe the month of February 2013 as National Children's Oral Health Awareness Month to facilitate increased awareness education prevention and treatment of childhood oral health diseases throughout the county passed and adopted today by the board.

Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all the volunteers, individuals and organizations of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Dental Society, the Santa Barbara-Ventura County's Dental Care Foundations The Santa Barbara Public Health Department, Santa Barbara County Office of Education and Direct Relief International and Rotarians. All the countless volunteers, dentists, specialists, hygienist, dental assistants, educators, dieticians, nutritionists who work tirelessly to eliminate dental disease, which is a preventable disease and improve the oral health of residents of Santa Barbara. We thank you for this recognition and we thank you for Going above and beyond what we had expected of you, especially you Supervisor Carbajal and you Supervisor Janet Wolf for bringing people together in the same effort to improve the overall health of residents of Santa Barbara.

We promise to continue our effort and thank you for sharing our goal. Appreciate it.

Thank you for all your good work. Next we have the second resolution, A2 and this is one that I'm co-sponsoring with Supervisor Wolf. Supervisor Wolf if you could take the lead on this?

Thank you Mr. Carbajal, this is indeed a very special honor for me to present this resolution along with Supervisor Carbajal on the celebration of Alpha Resource Center's 60th year, 60th anniversary. Alpha Resource Center is a jewel In my district. And I've, you know many years ago, maybe not too many was a board member of Alpha and got to see and watch and hear and listen to every wonderful thing that Alpha does for members of our community.

Families, children, adults, and I had a special opportunity to go there recently meet with their advocacy team. And after listening to this amazing group of people, I came away with I was so impressed by their approach to the meeting with me and I think that some of the things we talked about, we will start to implement. One of those has to do with issues related to MTD bus stop and I'm hoping that we can get that worked on very soon.

One of the reasons that Supervisor Carbajal is sponsoring this resolution with me is that when I went and talked to the folks at Alpha, I was very much impressed by the comments that they had to say about Supervisor Carbajal who had also met with them. And in some ways, I'm almost reluctant to say this but Supervisor Carbajal took on kind of a superstar role amongst the advocates and they were so happy that you were there to meet with him.

Just so pleased that you are all here today to meet us, to see where we do our work. And I've encouraged all of you to watch us on TV if you can't make it down here. But this is really a time to celebrate the existence of Alpha's existence for the past 60 years and we wish them continued success. in our community. So what I'd like to do right now is call up the following folks who were part of this advocacy team and there may be others in the audience that I don't name, and if I don't name you please come on up.

Michelle Olinor, Paul Erickson, Scott Clarkson, and Dennis Subica. And if there's others please come forward And Supervisor Carbajal and I will come down, and we will present you with a resolution. And then if someone would like to say a few words that would be terrific. Thank you.

Chairman Carbaugh, members of the board. This is item A2. It's a resolution honoring the Alpha Resource Center of Santa Barbara upon its 60th diamond anniversary. Whereas the Alpha Resource Center of Santa Barbara has served children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families in the County of Santa Barbara for 60 years. And whereas Alpha has supported families in raising their children with special needs to reach their full potential.

And whereas Alpha has promoted the inclusion and full participation of individuals with developmental disabilities. And whereas, Alpha has increased the acceptance of the many gifts and talents of individuals with developmental disabilities. And whereas, Alpha is committed to building a community that values the contribution of all people. Now therefore be it resolved that this Board of Supervisors congratulates the Alpha Resource Center of Santa Barbara as it celebrates its diamond anniversary throughout the year and thanks Alpha for its unique work in our community passed and adopted today.

Thanks. Thank you, Janet Wolfe and thank you, Carla Hall. And thank you to all the supervisors. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Well, I want to thank you for inviting me here to come and we're going to keep out there as long as we can. And we got a good Board of Directors Kim Olsen and she does a good job of helping us when we need her help. That's all I have to say. Thanks Janet and Celia were really touched by this award. Thank you.

Before we go on to the next one, Kim and the advocacy team thank you for allowing me to visit with you all. As Supervisor Wolf said it was a real treat. I really appreciated learning more about the Alpha Center and all that you guys do out there. It's just an extraordinary place and thank you for letting me learn a little bit about it and spend half not half the day but a little bit part of the day with you so thank you All right, and so we're going to move on.

Yes, Supervisor

Wolk? And you know I mentioned MTD but I forgot to mention our Public Works Department who is also working on that bus pathway too and they're here today so that would have been terrible not to have mentioned you. So thank you both very much

Thank you, thank you Supervisor Wolf. We'll move on to this next resolution and this resolution Supervisor Farr and I are both co-sponsoring this. She's asked me to go up by myself because she's a little bit under the weather and wants to make sure she doesn't give any germs to anyone so for me it's a real honor to present this and we could have Joyce Ellen Lipman come forward?

And Joyce is the Director of the Area Agency on Aging. Supervisor Farr and I serve on the Aging and Long-Term Care Network, and so for us it's a real honor to present Proclaim 2013 as the Year of Elder Abuse Prevention. And we have a few more folks that came up that I didn't mention but I'm sure Joyce will mention their name in a few. And Supervisor Farr do you have anything else to add?

Thank you Chair Carbajal. Yes, I just want to thank Joyce Allen for the work that she does every day of the year for our aging population and you know I think it's unfortunate but necessary that we do have to recognize elder abuse It's something that is going on all the time, unfortunately. Something that we see may be increasing for a variety of reasons including because of the economic difficulty that so many families are experiencing but also because of the increase of scamming of all types and unfortunately our senior citizens are very often the target of that. So, it's something that we talk about frequently at the Adult and Aging Network that Supervisor Carbajal and I are a part of. And I really think it's important that we do recognize how important it is to keep after the prevention all the time.

And again thank you for the work that all of you do in this area. Supervisor Carbajal?

Thank you. I included this in our report 821 today from our advocacy trip to Washington, but we got some really good guidance from the folks we met with. In terms of the type of input that they would like to see from us in terms of the Older Americans Act, which is related and they're in the process of reauthorizing it. And they wanted to get some feedback from us as to what form that should look like. So we'll be discussing that later. Mr. Allen if you could read the resolution?

Chairman Carbajal, members of the board. This is a resolution proclaiming February Elder Abuse Prevention Month in Santa Barbara County. Whereas elder abuse is termed the crime of the 21st century and the Administration on Aging has declared 2013 the year of elder abuse prevention in an effort to encourage local organizations To protect seniors and raise awareness about elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. And whereas the Elder Abuse Prevention Council of Santa Barbara County was developed over 25 years ago to coordinate local education, training, outreach and awareness of elder abuse and represents a coalition of county departments including social services, public health and the district attorney.

The area agency on aging and other stakeholders. And whereas, the recent developmental and implementation of the Financial Abuse Specialist Team and the Elder Death Review Team are two examples of enhanced coordination and collaboration between service providers that provides valuable information and sharing or resources focusing on seniors. And whereas, the State Welfare Institutions Code describes abuse of an elder as either of the following. Physical abuse, neglect, financial abuse, abandonment, isolation, abduction, self-abuse or other treatments with resulting physical harm or pain or mental suffering. Or the deprivation by the care custodian of goods or services that are necessary to avoid physical harm or mental suffering.

And whereas the County of Santa Barbara Department of Social Services reported 1,699 reports of elder abuse in 2011-12. A 2% increase from the prior fiscal year with less than 5% determined to be unfounded and a long term care ombudsman of Santa Barbara County who investigates elder abuse reports in long term care facilities confirmed 152 cases of elder abuse from July through December 2012.

And now therefore be it hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors proclaims February as Elder Abuse Prevention Month in Santa Barbara County, and encourages all residents to participate in elder abuse awareness education and prevention training programs throughout the year. Pass and adopt today.

Good morning and thank you very kindly for the proclamation. In some regards, it is a shame that we need to take time to recognize the incidents of elder abuse in our community and in our nation but it is fact of life. Fortunately here in Santa Barbara County for nearly the last thirty years there's been a great cooperative collaborative effort as we've developed training sessions publications And many other materials to have a widespread community awareness campaign. This year, which has been proclaimed by the Administration on Aging as Year of Elder Abuse Prevention, we're going to step that up even further notch and this proclamation is our first step in that regard.

I'd like to particularly call to your attention a packet of information that we prepared that includes Some of the publications we've developed locally to inform and communicate with our community about the need to address elder abuse. I also want to call to your attention the many county departments that are involved in Our efforts locally, and of course there are other components of our community that are actively involved in probably our main activity which is the Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Prevention Council. I've been saying that for 30 years so I can roll that.

And this group is made up of non-profit organizations, for profit organizations and county and city governments all working together for the last nearly 30 years to address elder abuse. Finally, I'd like to invite you all to the May 30th. This is our annual training conference that'll be held at Santa Barbara City College. We'll have some excellent speakers looking at some of the issues involved in elder abuse and I'd close by just letting you know that elder abuse is considered the crime of the 21st century and elder abuse is a crime. Thank you.

Thank you. Morning Chair Carbajal, members of the board and Supervisor Farr. Thank you for sponsoring this resolution. Elder abuse is one of these scourges on our society. Elders and seniors should not be treated in any disrespectful and abusive manner that we see both financially as well as physically and sexually at times. We have Adult Protective Services in our department. And it has been chronically underfunded over the years, as you know. Hopefully that will change. There's a growing awareness of elder abuse in our society. The people on the front lines are adult protective services workers do a wonderful job coordinating with the community and sensitively intervening in these families. And we have Delphine Onera, our deputy director over social services and the adult program And one of our social workers as well here that I'd like to introduce.

Good morning, Supervisor Carbajal and members of the board. Thank you. I'm a social worker. My name is Olga Sermeno. I am here to represent my co-workers and to thank you for this and give you some phone numbers so that you can call us whenever you suspect elder or dependent adult abuse because we also investigate dependent adult abuse. Our phone number here in Santa Barbara is 681-4550. In Santa Maria, it's 346-8303. In Norfolk, it's 737-6020 and I just want to say that we are here to help and anybody that suspects any abuse call us and we will do our best to do what we need to do protect our elderly. Thank you

Thank you. That is it for our resolutions and we will now go to the administrative calendar, and we will be dealing with one item first but just to get on the record my colleagues if we could go down from one side to the other in terms of what items you'd like to pull?

Chair Carbajal I would like to pull A7, A9 and A10.

And I believe A15 will be discussed anyway, but I'd like to just make sure that that's on our radar screen.

Supervisor

Wolf?

Thank you Mr. Chair. I'd like to pull item A5 and along with supervisor 5 also I wanted to pull item A7, A9, A10.

Mr. Allen? Just 15. Thank you.

A15. Great,

how many

speakers

do we have Mr. Allen? Chairman Craubach and members of the board we request to speak from the public on item A15 and we have four speakers on that item and one speaker on item a22

Great, thank you very much. I think we're going to start out with having our wonderful docents come forward. A22, if you could read that item? Peggy?

Are our docents? Members of the board, Item A22.

Hold on one second. I'm looking out to see if our docents are here. Here we go. Go ahead, Mr. Allen.

Item 822 is sponsored by Supervisor Carvajal. The request is that the board consider recommendations regarding the acceptance of a gift from the Courthouse Docent Council for the restoration of the Santa Barbara Courthouse Lamp.

Thank you very much Mr. Allen, dear colleagues public today we are the Board of Supervisors is accepting this wonderful gift from our extraordinary volunteers who make it all happen at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The docents are a volunteer group and they not only provide education and tours of the public But they help raise money for all the restoration of the courthouse projects that we're involved with.

Please. All right, thank you. Salute Carvajal and the board. All of us are here today too. We are extremely happy to provide education to our community and visitors at the courthouse. Our main focus is on education, conservation, and restoration of our beautiful asset of the courthouse in Santa Barbara. I also want to thank our general services. We have Chris here with us today who was instrumental in making it possible for our last project of the restoration of a beautiful lamp that's been hanging or had been hanging on the garden side of the Arch of Triumph facing the Sunken Garden. And without his help, we really would not have been able to get this accomplished. And for the first time in decades it's now operating and you can see the light shining out into the courtyard for the first time in decades.

So thank you Chris and also I'd like to thank the rest of the council Thank you. We will now go back to

The public?

Mr. Allen?

Chairman Carbajal and members of the board, our next item is Item A-15. This is from Public Works. The request that the Board consider recommendations regarding a resolution in support of the Orkut Old Town Gateway Transportation Art Project. And we have four speakers. If we could start off with Steve Labarde followed by Eduardo Coronado.

Good morning, Chairman Carborel and Supervisors. Thank you for having me here today. First of all with this project in Old Town Orchid I'd like to thank Supervisor Lavinino and Supervisor Peter Adam for all of their help and I'd like to also thank Public Works Brett Stewart and Scott McLaughlin for everything they've done to help with this. I know Scott's a former...he's a Marine. The Commandant has said that there is no such thing This is a privately funded project sponsored by the Old Town American Legion. This project has the support of over 1,000 local veterans. Transportation art is considered a benefit to the people of California and will become property of the state.

This project is located at the entrance into Old Town Orchid and right directly across the street from Long Rap to Vandenberg Air Force Base. The project consists of a 30-foot concrete circle with a star in the center, each point of the star points to one of the columns. There's five columns representing each branch of the United States military with their respective emblems at the top of each column.

On July 11th, our civic group was denied a gateway monument encroachment permit because as you can see this was our original model for the project and because the United States flag is in the center they said that we could not build this project because the United States flag is considered political speech. In late August of 2011, after corresponding with the Director of Caltrans, the project was resubmitted as Transportation Art.

And then in September 2011, Caltrans told me that the project fits the Transportation Art program as long as there is no American flag in the project. I was required to get permission by Caltrans from each branch of the military to use their emblems. So, I went through that whole process. I got all of the approval letters and then in April 2012, I submitted the letters to Caltrans and everybody that sent me the letter specifically said cannot be altered in any manner so these emblems were not to be changed at all.

So then in mid-January of this year, I was ready to order the emblems and I went to Caltrans and I told them I wanted to get the emblems ordered so we could do some fundraising. And Caltrans said hey wait a second, we want to see pictures of these emblems first. So I got ahold of Foundry and I had the Foundry give them pictures of the emblems. For instance, this was the Army one. And the Army emblem has got the symbol is E Pluribus Unum which is the same, I'm sorry, the motto, which is the same motto on the presidential seal, the vice-presidential seal, the seal of United States of America, the U.S. Congress, the US Senate and the Supreme Court. Mr. LaBarbera if you could wrap up please?

So Caltrans told me that I had to remove all of that text everything off of there including the mottos So that's, so let's see. Okay I'll conclude with that and open it for any questions.

Supervisor Avalito? Thank you Mr. Chair. Steve, I know you've been working on this for quite a while If I saw this on 60 Minutes or 48 Hours or something, I wouldn't believe it. This belongs...I remember John Stossel used to have a show he'd come on and say give me a break. The fact that we can't have the United States flag is a travesty and I think I'd rather see the project continue to try to move forward with the flag cave in on that issue, and I know it's an issue we're going to have to continue to push.

And I know now you're at a standstill with the...

Well currently the flag is right on the outside of the project because I forced another encroachment permit on Caltrans that said the American flag is allowed in the sidewalk in the state right away so this project is located between two sidewalks And so the flag is there right now. They had to let me put the flag up. So, the flag is going to be like five feet off to the side right now but they will not allow it in the center of the project at this time.

So and you're saying that it's gonna take a change in state law to allow some of these changes that you're requesting right now?

Correct. I testified for the California Senate before on this issue up there, and Senator Tony Strickland was introducing a bill at that time. That bill didn't make it through all of the committees but there's another senator up there, Michael Rubio, he said that this should be approved at the local level and he wanted help with legislation to that effect so I've submitted a letter to him to see if I can work with him to get that law passed So that we can recognize veterans in the Caltrans has gateway monument programs and they have a transportation art program throughout the whole state of California. So this project really affects the whole state of California and what we're allowed to do.

And I know that's why they're a little worried about some of the things that they're talking about but Obviously taking out the United States name on an emblem isn't going to cause a bunch of heartache anywhere. I'm wondering if at SBCAG we should, I'd love to have somebody from Caltrans come and explain this to me so maybe it's something I'd be willing to put on the SBCAG agenda and allow Caltrans a chance to come in and explain their position because I don't really see any defense where this would work. So right now the project is at a standstill because of the fact that they want you to remove

us. Well, I have a letter into the Director of Caltrans right now and I finished the letter by saying I hope we can come to agreement that the United States Military Emblems are the property of the United States of America that the emblems or any part of their elements cannot be altered in any manner.

OK, well just as part of this and I know we're moving forward to support this with a resolution today, I'd like part of that language to state that have the project in its completed, in it's present...I don't support I don't support the project with taking out the text, or taking out the United States text

off of it. I consider it a violation of federal copyright law anyway. CalPERS has no business removing that.

Great, I think we got the message on the importance of this project and perhaps the silliness of some of the approaches of our state officials. Mr. Adam?

I'm just thinking out loud here, and I don't know if we can do this or not because it might be not noticed for this action. But I wonder if we can send a copy of the resolution with cover letter to Caltrans demanding that they drop this ill-advised requirement that the flag in the text from the logos be removed from the display?

Mr. Marshall, that's a pretty straightforward request. Is that something we could do?

I think within the context of the notification, I think you could include that in part of a moving motion. I would

second that. Great. Motion's been made and seconded. Further discussion? Not having any, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. We'll be sending out a letter. Thank

you very much. And thank you

for your good work on

this.

Can we copy CSAC and NACO and our legislative lobbyists and maybe all the other counties and the governor? Sure. Our legislative

delegation as well. We'll do that.

Okay,

thank you very much. Thank you for your good work on that. Thank you Mr. Leward and Mr. Lavagnino I agree with you but...

Our next speaker is Eduardo Corrado to be followed by Reid Brewer.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the time and I promise you Mr Chair that I will not go one second over My name is Edgardo Coronado. I am a resident of the beautiful piece of God's land called Orchid, California in an unincorporated area in the County of Santa Barbara. I'm here on behalf of the request of my good friend and brother-in-arms Mr. Steve Labarde and all those veterans who stand strongly in their support obviously which you have unanimously today given us. And we appreciate our time and place when the county and the states throughout the nation are unwilling to say what they actually feel on any one issue.

I stand here not to represent the Department of the Army. I am only an army veteran with 26 years of military connection to it. I here ask you a couple questions as you're going to question the Caltrans, which is an agency subordinate to the great state of California, which the county Senator Barbara and his beautiful seal stands right behind you, which all of you represent. is to ask the State of California and Caltrans to include the Office of the Governor, which he at times is called upon by the Department of Defense, specifically the Department of the Army, to deploy thousands of service members as we have in the last 10 years.

My question to Caltrans would be that Director, under what constitutional law, what congressional decree have you enacted a decision to change the words United States of America? I think that is our country. Last time I checked, the United States Army, for instance First Continental Army under the first president of the United States of America. And I think some people have forgotten because they don't teach it in schools anymore. George Washington and the First Continental Congress enacted this seal then it was a seal award. This is not an emblem. It's not a logo. It is not a sticker. It is sealed representative our nation's unity around the world. Perhaps they have forgotten that in Sacramento And here at the local level, we support wholeheartedly any effort that would say to that flag it is not a political symbol.

For those of us who have personally wrapped that flag around bodies of the fallen and I have done that. It is the most painful and honorable thing anyone can do, men and women alike. So as you stand here today, sit forgive me, and think and ponder these questions I would ask them to say what congressman or what Congress did you have this pass that the rest of the state of California failed to actually know that this give you now the authority to change?

It is not an emblem, it's not a local. It is the seal of the United States Army that have served this country since 1775. Maybe that is what they had to be reminded. I thank you very much for your time and your support of a little place called Orchard, California and all the veterans here and far that have served this nation. And as the seal of the United States Army says to this, this we will defend. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much Supervisor Adam.

Just with respect to Mr. Coronado's comment there, I want to amend my letter to reflect the word seal instead of the word logo please.

I don't

think we

need to amend our motion that's I think it's noted we'll address that in the letter

Great. Our next speaker is Reid Brewer to be followed by Dennis Hartman who's our final speaker on this.

Good morning, my name is Reid Brewer I'm the president of Vietnam Veterans of America 982, we're located in Guadalupe California. We have 350 members in our chapter and every one of our members was anonymous. We voted on this. We're behind this 100%. There's members in our chapter here and other veterans groups. I do not know any other veterans groups or veteran organization that is opposed to this.

This is needed to be done. We should do it. It's a good thing. I hand-delivered this to the State Council, Vietnam Veterans of America in Fresno. They're behind it. It appeared they will bring it up at our next meeting in three months. There's 5,000 members strong in California, Vietnam Veterans of America in California. This is something that needs to be done. The issue of changing the emblem...I just found out it hit me kind of hard right now.

I'm a Marine And changing any emblem or flag is wrong. This is as wrong as wrong it can be. What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong, we need to stand up and do things the right way. This is something that our nation needs to do as a general, this is what we need to do right here, we need to let Caltrans in our state People up there know that this needs to stand as it is, and this is needed for our veterans. This monument here, it's all five service branches, all your veterans. It's needed.